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PF Chang's is pretty good, and reasonably close, for next time. I might also venture a tiny bit further and try JerNe, Teatro, and Vinalia (we ate there Friday and it was very good and the entrees were under $20)

Is ostrich very easy to find there? ie, as common as beef or chicken in the US? It is still more of a specialty item here. I am really enjoying your food blog with the wonderful pictures! You seem to be a fantastic chef!!!

I prefer round, because it seems that the heat gets distributed more evenly (if you are using it on the stove, which seems to be my main way of cooking with it) JennyUptown, I am not sure if you have Marshall's or TJ Maxx near you, but they often have Le Creuset overstock at great prices. I got a 7 qt. round oven for $90 a few months ago. You just have to keep looking. Good luck! I absolutely LOVE mine. Beef burgundy, Coq au vin, osso bucco - welcome to the world of stews!

I just finished "Home Cooking" by Laurie Colwin and found it to be, well, there is no other word but delightful. I have to get my hands on More Home Cooking. I just started "It Must have been Something I ate". "Near a Thousand Tables" is next. Ongoing, I am perusing "More Cooking in the Wine Country" and am still on "Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating" - it's a treasure trove.

I also use one for mincing herbs and garlic. It comes in handy, especially if you have to mince a larger quantity of garlic. I think it was $13 at kitchens etc, so i don't feel like I *have* to use it that often.

Barilla again. I love their Spicy Pepper sauce.

yeast based spread. savoury and gross looking. Thinly spread on buttered toast, it ain't bad.

Betsy-Tacy books.....I loved those as a kid. I'm going to have to go back and re-read them, if not only for the food references, then for how much fun they were to read.... I also loved the baked goods references in Peter Rabbit, the muffins that Peter's mother sends them off with.

I've seen some threads with mention of food in literature (Proust's madeleines, for example) and I was wondering if we could make a list of books that involve food to a greater (or lesser, but still significant) degree. I'll start with an obvious one- Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel.

It's been below 0 degrees F for much of the last week here, so I've had a lot of time to think about it. I've cooked mac and cheese, and did grilled cheese sandwiches two nights. I did black bean enchiladas with green salsa and....cheese. Tonight, I am doing a soup with rice noodles, bok choy, mushrooms and tofu.

Apartment kitchens, especially in cities, leave much to be desired. (well, unless you can afford a large place or are unusually lucky) I am not sure why kitchens seem like so much of an afterthought in apartments - no counter space (and I mean none, the last two places I have lived have had ZERO), crappy stoves, and no cabinets. Huh? Even if you do not cook much, I mean, what do they expect you to do with a stove if there is not counter space? How can you chop vegetables? And if there is no cabinet space, where can you put your food? IN reading the your post, Jenny, I agree that the kitchen can make a difference. I;ve learned to live with it and keep cooking, but Man! I could really use some counter space. And some cabinets. At least I have a gas stove now.

grilled cheese, because there are lots of ways you an modify it......add bacon, add tomatoes, roasted red peppers, sauteed mushrooms, ham, all kinds of cheese... I never thought I had a fall back meal, but I discovered that I did on Sunday night. We had just returned from New York, hungover as all hell, and I was hungry and wanted to make something easy, yet filling, hearty, and comforting. It's not very exciting, or gourmet. It's.....ground beef with Barilla pasta sauce and piles of linguine. With heaps of parmigiano-reggiano cheese. Barilla makes some great sauce. my favorite is the hot pepper, although they were out of that Sunday. So I went with the marinara instead. still good, with chunky tomatoes.

My husband is on a business trip this week, so I am only feeding myself, which is fun, because i can eat all the stuff he doesn't like (polenta, tofu) Last night, I did a pressed sandwich using some crusty bakery bread. I spread each side with some basil pesto, topped it with slices in fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers and grilled in butter with my cast iron skillet pressing it down. (I recently discovered Plugra butter, which they carry at the Trader Joe's....really really good butter!) I also had a salad of mixed greens, cracked black pepper, and balsamic vinaigrette, which was a perfect companion to the buttery, cheesy, grilled sandwich: peppery, tangy, and slightly bitter. Dessert was a baked apple, stuffed with dried currants, walnuts, coconut, flavored with lemon zest, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and basted in a mixture of apple cider and and vanilla.

I have Bird by Bird, too. Why does it make you depressed? Because instead of reading it, I should just be writing! LOL!!! I love the style of writing in the book. It is so irreverant and funny. If you like that one, you should also read Making a Literary Life, by Carolyn See. Very similar.

I have Bird by Bird, too. Why does it make you depressed? I just received my newest order from newbookscheap.com last night! The Professional Chef from the CIA and More Cooking in the Wine Country by Joanne Weir. I got the Wine Country book out from the library some time ago and liked it enough that I wanted a copy for myself! Next up is to finish The Man Who Ate everything, then move on to It Must Have Been Something I ate. I also want to read Cook's Tour and Kitchen Confidential, as i have never read them, but have been meaning to for some time, and On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. I also want to get to Laurie Colwin's books. Non food related, I am about to start Bringing Down the House, about the MIT students in Las Vegas casinos, and my perennial reading of Lord of the Rings. You have to read that trilogy a few times to absorb it all. I'd also like to read Tracy Chevalier's new book.

I use Epicurious, too. Also, Food and Wine, from the magazine of the same name has some good, really reliable recipes. I like their Quick Recipe of the Day feature on the front page. I find it a lot less overwhelming than Epicurious.

Want to join my family? I described what sounds like that exact dish in another forum. Beefaroni, goulash, and isn't this dish also called American Chop Suey? Who EVEN knew where THAT name came from. Liked it then. Like it now. Not ashamed to admit it!

these are more personal. figs, goat cheese, prosciutto onion, garlic, butter potatoes, vinegar, mayonnaise brie, raspberry, rosemary tomatoes, mushrooms, parmigiano-reggiano Oh, and an Irish thing would be potatoes, guinness, and a large proportion of guilt.

Ok, then, I'll try to add my 2 cents: Happy Food thoughts: Cereal. I have always loved it and we used to have tons of boxes in our cabinet. I would eat 2 bowls each morning, usually with my nose in a book (there were often books draped over the back of chairs, used as placeholders). My dad (who did the shopping and cooking when I was a kid) had to keep the cereal supply stocked. Some of my favorites - as a younger kid, obviously some of the sugary crap like Lucky Charms, Cookie Crunch (who thought that would be a good breakfast for kids?), Count Chockula, and Captain Crunch. As i got older, my tastes got a little less sweet - some rice-wheat flake cereal called Team that I don't think they make anymore, and Almond Delight, also they do not make that anymore. My dad also kept some of the lame-o adult cereals in the cupboard that I would only eat as a last resort: Special K (like eating air, it had and still has, NO TASTE), Wheaties, and Cheerios. To this day, I avoid those like a plague. Another favorite cereal was Life, Cinnamon and Regular. Oh, and flavored Quaker Oatmeal. Where does this love of breakfast stem from? Not sure, but both my older brother and my mom both worked nights, so I would usually see them first thing in the morning? I associate cereal with seeing my family? I don't know, that could be a reach. Wow, I think I could write a thesis of the psychology of cereal. Who's blog is this anyway? Other foods I loved as a kid: Kraft Mac and Cheese. Oh, this was great. Still love it on occasion, but my taste buds have matured to Annie's. I could eat a whole box. Sometimes I would put hot dog in it. My brother liked his with spam. Steak and Cheese subs. There was a deli not far from where we lived that made fantastic ones. With an orange soda, I was all set. Also, my dad used to make this 1950s concoction that I think most of you would shudder at, but I loved it. Beefaroni consisted of Mueller's elbow macaroni with Campbell's tomato soup and sauteed ground beef. A generous shake of Kraft parmesan cheese from the can, et voila! a meal. Gosh, this sounds like a recipe from Semi Homemade Cooking. Get me on the phone with Sandra Lee! Also, my grandfather was quite a baker and made the most fantastic chocolate chip cookies, chunky, rich, and chewy and the densest richest chocolate cakes. he also made mean iced tea that used Schweppes ginger ale in the mix. Those are my fondest memories with him. He was the kindest man, and very quiet. I enjoyed sitting with him, and he would listen to the radio and just smoke his pipe, and I could read my books for hours. He also kept a green bowl of M&Ms on his bookshelf. It was ALWAYS filled with M&Ms, and sometimes they took on a little bit of the flavor of his pipe tobacco. When he died, I took the bowl and it sits on my mantle above the fireplace. I fill it with M&Ms occasionally, but not too often. For the longest time after he passed, it smelled like the sweet pipe tobacco and chocolate. Ok- sorry I'll stop now!

great topic..... my dad actually did most of the cooking when I was a kid. He is only a slightly better cook than my mom, who is pretty much a disaster in the kitchen, with the exception of home made mac and cheese. Anyhoo.... He used to make this awful thing called "heartburn meat". I am not sure if this is unique to my family, but, it is basically beef stew meat marinated in white vinegar, and some tomato-y base - maybe puree or sauce? Not sure.... Anyway, it was true to its name. I blame it completely for the early onset of acid reflux disease in my stomach.

Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating CIA Cooking at Home The Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman - who I have never read before but now have great respect for his writing ability. Now that It Must Have Been Something.... is in paperback, I'm itching to get that, too.

Yes, the China Moon book is now on my list of must-haves - the library will insist I return their copy in less than three weeks! my sister gave this cookbook some time ago and I never have really looked at it. So...it's good?

Check out Eating Well magazine - they have some very sensible, tasty recipes (and they don't use all the fat free low fat products in place of the real ones, one of my pet peeves) their website, www.eatingwell.com, also has (some) recipes if you want to check it out first. If I am trying to cut back, I will replace one of my meals with a soup or salad - as some have said before, they are filling and low calorie. And i try to vary the salads, do a plain romaine and veg one day, spinach with almonds and cranberries the next, there's lots you can do.

Sorry for the delay - here are two weeks' worth of Globe Food Sections A Sumptuous Meal on a Shoestring Budget Local chef designs a hearty meal for guests with a budget of $40. Pho that Goes with the Flow Review of Pho Lemon in Cambridge. Crab Cakes meet chowder in Fine Setting Review of the Gatehouse Restaurant in Providence. With Planning and Staples, Dinner Need not be a Chore Cooking tips for the harried chef. A Whole New World of Frozen Food Ethnic food options in the freezer case. "Buy local" bill Aims to help Orchards, Farms New legislation may require state institutions to buy local foods from farmers. Sumptuous surrealism at the Hartwell House Review of the Hartwell House in Lexington.

Best of BitesSeptember 24, 2003 Challah tasting from area bakeries Bowled over by Comfort fare Review of DeVille Restaurant The last word on luxe is Lydia's Review of Lydia Shire's restaurant, Excelsior Ming's new dynasty Article about Ming Tsai's new show on PBS called "Simply Ming" How the apple crumbles Where you can pick apples