Dig in
Globe food writers serve up a steaming pot of kitchen wisdom.

Tell the Globe...

Halloween candy

Attention: Pie bakers

Oysters on the halfshell

Bacon -- in everything!

Your favorite chocolate dessert?

Do you make food for your dog?

Almost apple picking season

Smooth or chunky?

Make or buy blueberry pie?

New England's cheeses

More for brides

Crisp, golden falafel

What's the best dog in town?

Did you eat MREs during combat?

Who made your wedding cake?

Seasons
There is poetry to fried green tomatoes. They suggest the sleepy old South and the romance of another era on the farm.

Cooking
There's no need to cook pasta sauces when using fresh, locally grown tomatoes.

Cheers

To the Cook

Nov. 7, 2007

Chocolate-chip sour cream cake

Mango-red pepper salsa

Tortilla chips

Roasted chicken parts

Yogurt and cucumber sauce

Chocolate pudding

Crudit�s platter with spicy miso dip

Oct. 31, 2007

Spicy chicken stew

Pumpkin gingerbread

Celeriac, parsnip, and potato gratin

Oct. 24, 2007

Al biryani

Baked French toast

Fried green tomatoes

Alfajores

Potato, apple, and camembert timbales

Oct. 17, 2007

Earl Grey brownies

Pasta with bell peppers and ham

Baked beans

Big blue slaw

Oven-roasted mussels with garlic butter

Pears poached in red wine

Oct. 10, 2007

Arepas

Almond-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon

Thin crust pizza

Chicken nuggets

Pad Thai

Beef chow fun

Cauliflower with tuna, raisins, and capers

Carrot pate

Orange-scented cranberry and pecan scones

Oct. 3, 2007

Honey wheat-germ whole-wheat bread

Tofu and spicy pork sauce with crispy fried rice

Caramelized sweet potatoes

Black bean soup with cumin and tomatoes

Brown and white rice with black beans

Share your favorite recipes

The woeful grocer

The challenge: making a meal from the dusty shelves of a modest market. The result: radishes with butter and salt, flatbread, roast chicken, yogurt and cucumber sauce, and chocolate pudding. (Boston Globe)

Plonkapalooza
Four wine experts take part in the tasting of 50 bottles that cost $12 or less and come up with a few real deals.

The complete list tasted by the professionals

Our wine-tasting experts offer their favorites

These are picks from the young sommeliers

Some sommeliers' wines are older than they are

ARCHIVES: PLONK OF THE MONTH: Racy Muscadet

More $12-and-under wines

What is plonk?

Kids cook up a tasty project
A five-week after-school program called the Dinner Party Project held at the Bridge School was designed to teach kids about cooking, nutrition, meal planning, food safety, and etiquette.

From left: Sam Huang, Ben Jacobson, and Alex Leopold

RECIPE: Cobb salad with green goddess dressing

Nathan Benjamin, Sr.,right, and his wife Patti, left, grade apples at the apple sorter

Brewers hoping hard cider can make a commercial comeback
Hard cider makers say, what's generally available does not even approach the variety of hard ciders that are being brewed.

Great tastes from a tiny kitchen
Food blogger Deb Perelman's website, smittenkitchen.com, is packed with creatively cropped, shallow-depth-of-field, food-porn money-shot photographs.

RECIPE: Chocolate-chip sour cream cake

MORE SITE INSPECTION: amateurgourmet.com

Cookingwithalicia.com

Kitchen—Notebook.blogspot.com

Postings from Paris: davidlebovitz.com

Fit Kidz teaches the ABCs of healthy eating
Maccus Vilain, a member of a physical fitness and health regimen for overweight children, is learning how to cook, something for which he's showing a remarkable aptitude.

This walk-in fridge is where it all begins
Craigie Street Bistrot is a walk-down, cozy cave of a restaurant surrounded by steam pipes in the basement of a Harvard Square apartment house.