OK, so you didn't start making glacé fruits last month, to be tenderly rolled in sugar and wrapped in handmade paper for Mother's Day. And you didn't pre-order the fancy chocolates from the local chocolatier, the coconut truffles that say "I love you mom" in pink-dyed white chocolate. You didn't even remember to go the grocery store to get more butter to make her a batch of oatmeal cookies. Now it's Sunday morning. What to do? Here are a few ideas.

1) Buy her a subscription to Bon Appétit, Gourmet, or Cook's Illustrated Just order online and go to the bookstore to pick up this month's copy and roll it up with a ribbon and a flower. If she's far away, just forward her the confirmation email and an e-card.

2) Take her to the movies and smuggle in several bags of her favorite childhood candy (my mother's partial to Charleston Chews and those jaw-killing Jujubes). Have an illicit movie theater candy picnic.

3) Create an electronic recipe box for her on Epicurious.com - you can compile your favorite recipes and make comments about them. Email her the password.

4) Show up with a shopping bag full of ingredients and suggest you bake a cake together. Eat half the batter raw. Eat the rest while watching cheesy movies on TV.

5) Send her some virtual chocolates at virtualchocolate.com. One caveat: you must follow it up in a few days with some real chocolates. I'm partial to Moonstruck Chocolates these days - check out the friggin cute chocolate ladybugs.

• Frank Bruni ranks his top ten new restaurants outside New York.

• How to cook dinner without waking your baby. Hint: use plastic forks.

• It's OK to pair oysters with red wine now, says Eric Asimov.

• The new breed of bars are more like bistros, with nearly full menus.

• West Coast frozen yogurt stores, led by Pinkberry, descend on Manhattan. Godzilla-style madness ensues.

• The Minimalist cooks with canned tomatoes, with a video on roasted tomato soup.

• Alex Witchel writes about bigos, Polish sauerkraut soup; Elaine Louie discusses a one pot recipe for homemade meatball sausage cooked with tomato sauce.

• Charlie Trotter will open a restaurant on Madison Avenue.

• We all need dried cherries, artisan cheeses and bamboo shopping bags...

Bored at work? High tolerance for grossness? Check out this B3TA (a juvenile, crude and quite hilarious British "arts" site) message board on "the worst thing you've ever cooked or eaten." The board is closed for posting, but there are 20 pages worth of responses. Some are almost certainly made-up, many are obscene, others so British they may be nearly meaningless to American readers (Bovril? Walkers crisps? Fry-ups?). But a lot of them are pretty darn funny.

Outstanding responses include turkey-wrapped sheep brain, roadkill badger, maggots meant for fishing bait and a chunk of cigar.

As for me, I'm going to have to pick the soggy tripe stew I ate in Argentina. Tripe is fine when all the stomach-y flavor is well cooked out, but this tasted of wet dog and gym socks and old burps, with the texture of snot-slicked rubber tubing. You?

Trader Joe's is a newcomer to my neck of the woods, opening in Chapel Hill just a few months ago. I'm a huge fan – whenever I can deal with the crowds I head over there to pick up my growing list of favorites. So far my favorites include their almond butter, Greek yogurt, sweet and spicy walnuts, paper bag pecks of "eco apples," Triple Ginger snaps, dried mango with chili and red pepper hummus.

But I have also had some real losers. The frozen hamburgers I had a few weeks ago were as hard as hockey pucks, with a weird, almost gamy smell. An apricot flan tart tasted of sticky cardboard, like an office meeting Danish left to dry for a week on the boardroom table. I was thinking of picking up some dessert for tonight, but I don't want to risk another disaster.

There have been plenty of Trader Joe's "favorites" lists in the past, but seeing how their stock changes so ridiculously fast, I'd love to start another one. So tell me, please, what's your favorite thing at TJ's? What to avoid?

Super Bowl Sunday is just over a week away. Almost everyone tunes in to the main event, whether they're watching the actual football game or just the commercials, making it the most-watched few hours of television all year. The Super Bowl is also one of the biggest snacking days of the year, and while pizza, hot wings and chili all popular choices, nothing flies off the supermarket shelves faster than chips, salsas and dips. You're probably better off using those store bought chips if you're going to be entertaining a crowd, but homemade dips can be even tastier and not much more difficult to make than store-bought. Here are eight great ideas for your Super Bowl munchies from around the blogs, but we'll be counting down a Dip a Day until the big game here, too:

• The Quick and Easy Artichoke dip from Simply recipes has four ingredients, is served hot and is ready in under 15 minutes.
• Mango Salsa has a fresh, Southwestern flavor from mango, corn, red onions and chilies.
• Similar to the salsa above, this Black Bean Salsa has corn, onions and peppers mixed in with black beans, for a heartier dip.
• Roasted Strawberry and Tomato Salsa is another fruity, but savory, dip. It features deep flavors from the roasted berries and heat from chipotle peppers.
• Susan's Artichoke Hearts and Roasted Red Pepper Dip is almost like a variation on hummus, made with tahini and blended until smooth, though it includes no beans.
• Spinach Parmesan Dip is always a hit at parties. Serve it with crackers or blue corn tortilla chips.
• French Onion Dip (pictured) is made from packet mixes all too often. Even though it's easy to use the pre-mixed spices, those versions won't compare with this homemade one.
• Too Many Chefs' Spicy Peanut Sauce is a great choice for dipping crudites, providing something a little different from standard ranch-type dips. It can also double as a dip for chicken wings.

The newest issue of Cooking Light, which is their 20th anniversary issue, has the magazine's choices for the top 20 cities in the US, based on 15 criteria that they feel embody their "Eat Smart, Be Fit, and Live Well" philosophy. They looked at fitness, health and exercise data from the Centers for Disease Control, the number of parks and recreation areas (and how often they're used) from the Trust for Public Land, restaurant ratings from the Zagat Survey and James Beard Foundation, and the USDA's farmers markets listings. Everything was evened out on a per capita basis and the cities with the most of everything made the top cut.

One of the top ten cities will be featured each month in the magazine this year, so readers will have access to information about all the things that got the city their ranking.

1. Seattle, WA
2. Portland, Ore.
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Minneapolis, MN
5. San Francisco, CA
6. Boston, MA
7. Denver, CO
8. Milwaukee, WI
9. Philadelphia, PA
10. Tucson, AZ

As you might expect, I have a lot of cookbooks, old and new, sweet and savory, healthy and decadent. The division between those last two types of cookbook always seems more important around the beginning of the New Year, since many hope to add new and improved eating habits to their list of things to accomplish during the year. The difficulty with cookbooks is that all to often "healthy" books are unfairly labeled as not being worth it, with bland or boring recipes that can't compare to the ones found in the more "decadent" cookbooks.

While it is true that the more fattening, higher calorie recipes usually taste good (assuming that you're using a good cookbook in the first place), so can the healthier ones. And this year, there were plenty of health-conscious cookbooks released to add to your collection, whether you are looking for something healthy or just for some that that tastes good.

Comfort Food Makeovers and Fast Food Fix both remake recipes into lighter versions without sacrificing flavor. The Biggest Loser Cookbook is based on recipes that worked for contestants on the hit show, and The South Beach Diet Parties and Holidays has a good selection for entertaining. Perfect Light Desserts has lots of lightened sweets recipes

Other health-conscious books include What to Eat to help you shop more effectively and choose nutritious foods, The Healthy Lunchbox has a selection of kid-friendly, easy to make lunches that are better than most school-provided alternatives. California Squisine is another fun, kid-friendly book to encourage kids to eat right (without knowing they're doing it). Diabetes Meal Planning Made Easy is a great resource for those who really need to manage their food intake to deal with diabetes.

The New Year is always full of possibilities. There are meals to be eaten, recipes to try and, of course, a slew of new food trends that will shape the way we eat and what food issues will be at the forefront of the news. Of all the trends that seemed to be pushing towards the forefront in recent months, these are some of those that look like they're about to have a breakout year.

Single Origin Chocolates - Dark chocolate was the hot item last year, but more companies, including Hershey's, are introducing and promoting single origin chocolates with cocoa beans from one country - or even one plantation - for their unique flavor profiles.

Healthy Soft Drinks - Jones Soda has eliminated high fructose corn syrup from their recipes. Enviga has been fairly successful so far, thanks to the large amount of publicity that it has received, and Diet Coke Plus will be coming to stores in a few months. Look for other soda companies to follow suit.

Healthy Food Labels - Hannaford supermarket introduced a labeling scheme of their own to direct shoppers to healthier foods and the traffic light system was a success in the UK. Don't be surprised to see more obvious messages about what is and is not good for you.

If you know someone who loves to bake, chances are good that you frequently enjoy the fruits - or cookies, cakes breads, etc - of their labors in the kitchen. While they do enjoy what they're doing, why not use the holidays as an excuse to pay them back with something that every baker either wants or needs? This list has eight of our top ideas for the baker in your life and, even though some of them are on the expensive side, keep in mind that you'll probably have a chance to enjoy anything that the create with these tools, too.

Topping the list of great gifts is a stand mixer. They're great for mixing up just about anything you could want to bake, from cookie dough to bread dough. The standard is the KitchenAid 4 1/2 quart mixer, which is a great choice for the casual baker, but if you're really serious, you might prefer to get a more powerful machine, like the 7-qt Viking mixer.

Rounding out their year of travel and restaurant reviews, Gayot has put out their list of the top restaurants of 2006. Interestingly enough, the way they attempt to give credibility to their list is by putting down bloggers and people who, in their opinion, are too young inexperienced to know a good restaurant when they see one. But to be a really top restaurant, it should be able to appeal to all types of people, not just those who are old with potentially outdated ideas of what high quality cuisine should be. That being said, their list actually has quite a few good picks on it and certainly seems to be in touch with current dining trends. In fact, it pretty much looks like they just picked out some of the hottest spots in the country to make up their list. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Some highlights from their list include the following, but click here to read the whole thing.

• CHICAGO
  - Alinea, TRU
• HEALDSBURG, CA
  - Cyrus
• LAS VEGAS
  - Picasso, Restaurant Guy Savoy
• LOS ANGELES
  - Mélisse, Patina
• NEW YORK
  - Alain Ducasse, Daniel
• SAN FRANCISCO
  - Gary Danko, Michael Mina
• WASHINGTON, D.C.
  - CityZen, Michel Richard
• YOUNTVILLE, CA
  - The French Laundry

This is the first post in what will be a short series of great Thanksgiving dinner ideas from around the food blogs. Here's we're looking at what is possibly the most important part, or is at least the central part, of Thanksgiving dinner: the turkey and the stuffing/dressing. All of these recipes are from previous holiday celebrations because, as we all know, Thanksgiving comes but once a year and as much as we love the food and our families, the extra calories and the time-consuming preparation are something we can't do with all that often.

• Mom's Roast Turkey, complete with turkey stuffing from Simply Recipes. How could you go wrong with something that Mom made?
• Here's a plan for Thanksgiving for One, which involves a tiny guinea hen instead of an actual turkey, from the Amateur Gourmet.
• Beer Can Smoked Turkey, from Cooking for Engineers, sounds like a good option if you're looking for something a touch less traditional.
• 101 Cookbook's Sage, Walnut and Dried Fig Stuffing is inventive and is baked alongside the bird, not in it.
• If you're a cornbread fan, try the Mushroom, Bacon and Cornbread Stuffing from Something in Season.
• Gluten Free Girl has a recipe for gluten free stuffing, which is perfect for wheat-sensitive dinner guests.
• Four Directions Dressing from Tigers & Strawberries has a bit of just about every stuffing recipe you can think of.
• If you want to learn how to make deep fried turkey, check out the guide from the National Turkey Federation. They offer suggestions for adding additional flavorings, too.

As a bonus, here are some vegetarian "turkey" or turkey-substitute ideas to try out, all of which are nice options to keep non-turkey eaters from feeling limited to side dishes when dinner is being served. Speaking of side dishes, that's what's coming up next in this series.

How can you compare a restaurant like Alinea, where some of the dishes test our conceptions of the term "food" to a restaurant like Zuni Cafe, which makes wonderful contemporary bistro fare? You really can't, but Gourmet magazine tried to do just that when they put together their list of America's top 50 restaurants for 2006. The two types of food at Alinea and Zuni are almost at the opposites of the dining spectrum, so the reviewers at Gourmet compared the innovation, execution and satisfaction that arose from dining at both of them, as well as every other restaurant on the list below. Since they are subjective assessments, it is safe to say that the order of this list might not be precisely accurate, at least not for your personal tastes, but it is still a list of excellent restaurants, all of which are worth eating at if you have the chance.

1. Alinea – Chicago, IL
2. Chez Panisse – Berkeley, CA
3. The French Laundry/Per Se – Yountville, CA; New York, NY
4. Spago – Beverly Hills, CA
5. Joël Robuchon at the Mansion – Las Vegas, NV
6. La Rêve – San Antonio, TX
7. Masa – New York, NY
8. Alan Wong's Restaurant – Honolulu, HI
9. Daniel – New York, NY
10. Le Bernardin – New York, NY

Generally, to keep foods fresh longer, we wrap them up and place them in the refrigerator. Sometimes, we don't give much thought to how things should actually be stored or whether we're doing it properly. As a result, you are more likely to get food poisoning at home than when eating out at a restaurant where health codes are strictly enforced. Some of the biggest food safety violations have to do with the refrigerator, the catch-all of food storage. Here are a few tips to keep you, and your family, a little safer.

• The refrigerator should be kept at, or below, 40°F. Keep in mind that the temperature can rise when the door is opened frequently and if the fridge is overcrowded and air cannot circulate.
• Store raw meat that you won't be eating right away in the freezer, not the refrigerator. Defrost it in the fridge.
• Milk is good for about 10 days past its "sell-by" date, although if it is left out to warm up, it can go bad before that time. It is better to keep it in the main part of the refrigerator than on the door.
• Fruits and vegetables can be stored at the same temperature they are stored in the store, though cut produce should be refrigerated and eaten within a few days.
• Hard cheeses can be stored, wrapped, for several weeks. If mold develops, the affected area and about 1/2-inch around it should be removed; the rest is safe to eat. Do not eat soft cheeses or dairy products, including cream cheese and yogurt, that have molded.
• Fresh eggs will last at least 3 or 4 weeks in the fridge, but hard-cooked eggs will only last one week. You can always check your eggs for freshness if in doubt. Eggs blend better with other ingredients in recipes for baked goods and get more volume when beaten if they are held at room temperature for 20 or 30 minutes before using.

Ostensibly collected with reader input, MSN has put forth a list of 10 foods that make America great. This list is a step up from last year's, which included a wide variety of regional foods, but not necessarily ones that were "great" outside of their region. Shoofly pie, for example, might actually be considered to be declining in popularity, rather than standing up as an American icon.

This list left off foods like barbecue and pizza, which were deemed to be too broad, but included both regional and national favorites that are more recognizable than previous selections. Maple syrup and Philly cheesesteak are excellent choices, but what about Frito pie? Is that really a dish that makes America great? And isn't a Mission burrito a little specific? It's hard to narrow down the list of great foods to only a handful, but certainly there are things that should be added to the list, like apple pie. Any other suggestions?

1. Lobster Rolls
2. Maple Syrup
3. Philly Cheesesteak
4. Gumbo
5. Shrimp and grits
6. Frito pie
7. Wisconsin bratwursts
8. Hawaiian plate lunch
9. Banana splits
10. San Francisco's Mission Burrito

While the vegan lifestyle might not be entirely appealing to everyone, that doesn't make vegan food blogs any less appealing. In fact, the novelty of veganism to someone unfamiliar with it is precisely what makes a food blog about it worth reading - it gives the reader a taste of a different way of eating.

Some blogs just talk about food, but others go into great detail with recipes and general issues they encounter. I'm not talking about politics here (even though I won't deny it that it can come up from time to time), but about issues with food and eating that anyone can relate to. For example, Jennifer, of Vegan Lunchbox, is in a position that many parents find easy to relate to, as she prepares different (and hopefully both appealing and reasonably healthy) meals for her son's school lunches. Some bloggers mention struggling with weight loss and some just want to bake more cookies.

These are all great reads with great photography and, if you're interested, offer up some recipes that are worth trying - whether you're a vegan or not.

1. Vegan lunchbox: As I mentioned above, this chronicles the daily lunchboxes - as healthy, balanced, tasty and creative - as Jennifer can come up with for her son. She's also working on a cookbook and shares some good recipes.
2. Vegan Feast Kitchen: This site is a particular favorite of mine, since Bryanna Clark Grogan is a very talented chef who has shared many, many recipes over the years in her newsletter and in her cookbooks. Does vegan cooking sound easy enough to make "talented" sound like an understatement? Think again. She recently devised a vegan angel food cake.