"Baltimore Sun" news and stories

• Need a reminder as to the best way to cut a butternut squash? Check out this helpful video.
• Now that you've got all that squash cut up, cook it with baby spinach!
• Carving turkey with an electric knife.
• This week's Recipe Finder turns up a Savory Squash Pie.
  
• Rob Kasper talks to Dale DeGroff, the author of the new book The Essential Cocktail.
• The best way to cook up a chipotle bratwurst.
  
• Elizabeth Large offers up the ten best places to celebrate a win or mourn a lost.

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• Before you kids head out on Friday night for trick or treating, making sure they get a healthy, filling dinner.
• Looking for a savory pumpkin recipe? How about Rigatoni with Roasted Pumpkin.
• Restaurants are coping with the economic slowdown by offering smaller plates and less expensive bar menus.
• Rob Kasper issues a missing beer call for a reader who is looking for the Kronenburg 1664.
  
• Michael's Steak and Lobster House evokes the feeling of Baltimore restaurants of yore.
• Lots of local homes have pear trees planted in their yards and now is the time to harvest them.
• This week's recipe finder offers up an applesauce cake recipe, perfect for the cool fall weather.

• For quince lovers out there, the coming of fall means their favorite fruit is finally available in the farmers markets. Make sure to scroll down to the end of the article to check out both sweet and savory ways to prepare quince.
  
• Baltimore finally has an all-vegan bakery, whipping up such things as oatmeal cookies and chocolate cakes. The Chocolate Layer Cake cost $40 and can serve up to 30 people.
• Marcella Hazan takes a few minutes to chat with Rob Kasper about her life, her cooking and the circuitous route she took to become the nation's foremost expert in Italian cooking.
• This week, Elizabeth Large names the Top Ten Best Crabcakes with a Fancy Twist.
• For the Baltimore-area football fan who is also a wine lover, try the 2004 Ravens Run Red.

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• Creme fraiche is a great way to perk up soups, desserts and anything else that could do with a bit of extra creamy zing.
• Nine Baltimore-area cooks stretch and flex their cassoulet muscles at the eighth annual cassoulet cook-off.
• Just in time for harvest, Rob Kasper checks out beers made with apples and narrows the field down to some of his favorites.
• This week's Wine Find is the Dow's Trademark Finest Reserve Porto - a creamy, sweet and balanced dessert wine.
• Elizabeth Large's Top Ten is a round up of restaurants that aren't quite institutions but still reserve that sense of permanence.
• It's time, once again, to send in your favorite cookie recipes for this year's cookie contest. Recipes must be in by Nov. 5th to be considered.

• School has started all across the country and that means just one thing. Bake sale time!
• Want to make dinner for $12 or less? Try this recipe for Red Wine Meatloaf with Brown Sugar Glaze.
• In the Recipe Finder a reader is reunited with a recipe for Molasses Bars that her 91-year-old mother has been craving.
• Want to take a trip through time? Try this shrimp salad sandwich which will remind you of all those lovely lunch counters of yore.
• Just in time for Halloween - Evil Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Elizabeth Large comes up with the definitive list of foods you should not order on a first date.