Cinnamon cooks One Good Meal, for Gaper's Block. "It's my firm belief that everyone can cook at least one good meal without having to spend hours watching the cooking channel, or taking classes, or even reading cookbooks. If you can put together a home-cooked meal, you're guaranteed to impress someone. Even if that someone is just your mom who was happy you called her to ask about tomatoes. "

The Mayor's Mouth a live cooking performance thing "is an investigation of the mayors of Chicago and what they ate". Dishes include David Orr's Chicken with Mushrooms and Prince Richie's 5 Hour (5 Term) Beef Stew.

A Timeless Recipe for Success Why In-N-Out is outpacing the rest of the fast food market. "Chicago-based Technomic, which tracks restaurant sales, estimates In-N-Out's 2002 revenue at $285 million, up nearly 10 percent over 2001's. That outpaced the 6.9 percent surge in new In-N-Out outlets. Numbers like those looked downright heroic during a horrible year for fast food: McDonald's (MCD ) U.S. sales were flat in '02, while No. 2 Burger King's sales dived 3.4 percent."

My award for silliest food council website flash intro goes to - The California Beef Council!

Steak Raises Stakes for Kerry in Philly This just wouldn't be a Food Blog without mentioning the fact that Kerry just ruined his political career because he didn't know how to order or eat a cheese steak. If he wasn't briefed on the Chez Whiz thing, he should get himself some new handlers.

Marmite, it's a british thing. "Marmite is good for you. It's vegetarian and contains five forms of vitamin B (niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, folic acid and vitamin B12), which are good for glycosis (part of respiration) and producing proteins and blood cells." I admit to liking the stuff. via follow me here

The eat well guide "Helping consumers buy meat without the use of antibiotics". Click on the map or choose your location and meat type and production method and get a list of places to buy better meat. via sautewednesday, who has a recent post with good links to hog 'issues'.

FoodNews has a Virtual Fruit Salad, an Interactive Salad Bar, and a Point-and-Click Produce Aisle to compare pesticides in conventional vs. organic.

This one is simple, but pretty. Some chicken thighs were pan browned, then seasoned with raz el hanout, then some water was added to the pan, and it simmered for about 20 minutes. The thumb-sized purple potatoes that I got at the farmer's market were sliced and fried in the chicken grease, in a separate pan. The couscous is from a box. When the chicken was done, the pan drippings were skimmed of some of the grease, pulsed with a stick blender and drizzled over the plating.

I like chicken thighs for this sort of dish, juciy and flavorful and besides the package of 12 of them was $5. You could do this fancier by boning the thighs, but just slicing them up with the skin on makes a nice presentation.

Excellent article on Formulating Vegetarian Foods. Learn what tempeh, seitan and quorn are, and what ingredients are sometimes needed to complete a 'meat analog". Some of these these 'meat simulations' sound much worse than the real thing.

"Quorn is the processed cellular mass obtained from the filamentous fungus, Fusarium venenatum, mixed with a binder, usually egg white or whey protein. It has a meat-like bite, mild flavor and a fibrous structure that resembles chicken muscle tissue."

A large portion of my meals are vegetarian, but not because of any environmental or spiritual reasons. The variety of greens, funghi, and veggies one can get these days is pretty amazing, and they really do deserve to be eaten as the main focus of a meal, not just as a boiled afterthought plopped next to a slab of meat. I made a veggie spread the other night and had it with some Pilsbury biscuits (sorry no photo of this one - it was too hot, and I was too hungry).

I had some heirloom squash, tomatoes, okra, peppers (green and ancho) and herbs (basil and chives) from the farmer's market. I sauteed some cut mushrooms in some butter and a little soyu, chopped up everything else. When the mushrooms were almost brown I put in the okra, then the squash, then the tomatoes and peppers, in that order, since thats the order that they cook. When the peppers were barely sweated, I took half of the cooked ingredients and pureed them in a processor. Then everything went into a bowl with the chopped herbs. The idea here was to have a base of the mixture of flavors as a paste, binding the individual chopped veggies. This would have been good as a dip too. Next time I'll make sure I have some spinach as an extra binder. It might improve the grey color of the spread as well.

Want an alternative to The Restaurant reality show? Much more interesting, and much more appealing to real foodies is Into the Fire, on Food Network. Instead of focusing on whiny waiters, this show concentrates on the creative, and production processes found in the most cutting edge kitchens.

The latest episode Trio - Food as Art, features the inspiring creativity of 28-year-old executive chef Grant Ascahtz. It takes you into the kitchen of Evanston's Trio to see the how an avant garde 11 course meal is conceptualized and produced.

It's not completely without TV drama however, as the staff puts an 'extern' through an initiation by sending him running down the street to Davis Street Fish Market for a left-handed saute pan.

For awhile I was the number one search result in Google for "Rocco's on 22nd". All I did was link to a NYT article about the Restaurant, which is now in the pay-for-archive. For an honest review and some great links about the place (including Mama's meatbal recipe) see this article in the Gothamist - Between a Rocco and a Hard Place. There I also found out that Rocco has a blog. Sort of.

Some food blogs that need to be added to the list:

Cook Simple

Cooking with Amy "This blog is a way for me to share my musings on the subject of cuisine and also lets you know what's up with me. "

bingbing's hunger

101 cookbooks Heidi cooks recipes from her huge cookbook collection. Nice photography too.

Not technically a blog, Becoming a Chef is Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page's site which looks like it will be updated with recipes and NY restaurant reviews.

FoodBoy Eats Again a nice blog with some nice photography. A notable post was on Oryoki, the practice of Zen formal eating.

'Peddlers' sow anger in farmers market purists "
Aside from consumer demand for fresh produce, the allure of outdoor shopping and the agrarian appeal of supporting local farms, the explosion of farmers markets also has been driven by urban economics, officials say. Municipal officials often see the picturesque, pungent-smelling markets as a way to add zest and color to a neighborhood or retail district. The quality of what is offered can wind up an afterthought."

"Free Range," "Cage Free," "Organic": What's the Story? "
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not rate the taste of products, it does oversee all domestic egg production. Although eggs can now carry the USDA Organic label, the agency doesn't regulate any other claims made on egg packages. The organic label, as defined by the new official standards, means that neither the hens nor their feed can be subjected to antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, or herbicides."

This article from health.com - The New Eggs does a little better job in straightening out egg-buying confusion.

Endangered Species: Slow Food NYT registration required.

How to build a peltier beer cooler. This guy went through some serious electrical engineering to keep his beer cold on hot days.

My second attempt at baking are these pumpkin muffins, from a recipe found on this extensive muffin recipe list.

2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
6 T butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cups Flour
2 T baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400. Beat the eggs, milk, brown sugar, butter and pumpkin. In another bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt and spices. From the recipe: "Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and stir just enough to moisten and combine. The less you stir the muffins, the lighter and more tender they are. Lumps are okay! Pour the batter into greased muffin pans about 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean." Makes 18 muffins.

I added some crushed up (maybe a tablespoon) cardamom to the melted butter, and strained it out before mixing it in. The cardamom taste didn't show up at all. Maybe next time I'll let it steep a bit more, or ground it up and add it to the mix.

These muffins were good, but they certainly aren't the big fluffy towering raised muffins you see at the cafes.

I've tried a few attempts at baking lately. My first try is an easy one - coconut macaroons based on the recipe from Cooking for Losers called Orgasm-Inducing Coconut Macaroons. I don't know if they quite deserve the name but they turned out pretty good. The recipe just calls for a big bag of Baker's Angel Flake Coconut and 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk and some vanilla. I saw Barefoot Contessa making these and she used some egg whites in hers. Alton uses no condensed milk and only egg whites. I comprimised and folded in a couple egg whites. They took about 25 minutes at 325F.