• The Globe staff picks their favorite things of 2007.
• British director Peter Hewitt looks for tea in Boston.
• The confessions of a Starbucks regular.
• The best place to celebrate New Year's Eve? At home.
• Here are some elegant cocktails to serve on New Year's Eve.
• The best bubbly for New Year's Eve.
• The Taste Kitchen checks out salmon from Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Lascco, and other companies.
• This week's recipes: Sauteed Spinach, Roast Potatoes, Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Port Sauce, and Scones.

• The Boston Globe Magazine turns Japanese, I really think so.
• Making takeout at home.
• An evening with The Bacon Club.
• Football players love pie.
• The Food Snob's Dictionary looks like fun.
• Mmmmmm...Cider Doughnuts.
• Turduken...in a can?
• How about a taste of New Zealand?
• This week's recipes: Almond-Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Bacon, Carrot Pate, Cauliflower with Tuna, Raisins, and Capers, and Orange-Scented Cranberry and Pecan Scones.

• Summer is salad time, including salads with green beans.
• When you order fish in a restaurant, does it come with bones or without?
• An interview with Darra Goldstein, author of Baking Boot Camp: Five Days of Basic Training at the Culinary Institute of America.
• What's the best cottage cheese you can buy at the supermarket?
• You've heard of the Slow Food trend? How about the Slow Sip?
• This week's recipes: Eggplant Gazpacho, Chicken Salad, Poor Man's Caviar, Ham and Cheddar Scones, Pecan Butter Ball Cookies, Angel Food Summer Pudding, and Lemonade.

Starbucks is the latest chain to try to jump on the no-trans fats bandwagon, trying to demonstrate to customers how much they care about health and nutrition. Starting this week, approximately half of the stores in the US, including those in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon, will have zero trans fats on their menus.

The company says that they have been planning the switch for two years now and that their nationally distributed pastries, primarily seasonal items like the Gingerbread loaf cake, are already trans-fat free. The rest of their pastries are baked by regional bakeries, which Starbucks contracts to provide pastries for their stores. These pastries vary from region to region, as do the recipes for them, so not every supplier has yet made a switch, but Starbucks seems to anticipate that it will not be long before they do.

When it comes to afternoon coffee or tea, scones are a classic accompaniment. Rather than the heavy and dry creations that so many American coffee shops like to sell to unsuspecting consumers, a real British scone is a bit more like a (US) biscuit, light and somewhat fluffy. They are not particularly sweet, hence the need for jam and cream to be served with them, but they do have a worryingly addictive buttery flavor that will make you reach for a second or third if they are on the small side. These scones were baked up by UK food blogger Jam Faced. They have currants and a bit of orange zest in them, which really provides flavor boost, and they were served with clotted cream and black cherry jam.

Read on for a recipe if you want to try making these at home.

• Squash has so many uses. I'm talking about the food, not the sport.
• Some great red wines for autumn you can get for under $10.
• Over at TV Squad, I do a "What's on Tonight" post everyday, and I keep seeing some Food Network show called Ace of Cakes. Now I know what it is.
• Scones for lazy weekends. Sounds like the title of a short story.
• A profile of Art Smith, Oprah's personal chef. I had a personal chef once, when I was a kid. I called her "Mom."
• Some ideas for late October dining in the Boston area.
• This week's recipes: Mushroom Quiche with No-Roll Crust, Donut Muffins, and Sweet Potato-Pecan Waffles.

Anyone who has spent a fair amount of time in Berkeley and has eaten more than two meals there knows the Cheese Board. Owned and operated by the workers, in true Berkeley style, it is a fantastic cheese shop and bakery, with a pizza place next door that has lines down the block at lunch and dinner. The Cheese Board is the kind of place that locals go to on a near-daily basis and others take trips out of their way to stop in.

But stopping in isn't an option, particularly if you live nowhere near the SF Bay Area. If you want to try your hand at some of their products at home, The Cheese Board: Collective Works is definitely the book to get. It has recipes for some of their most popular items, including currant scones, bran muffins and lots of their famous breads. The quick pastry items, such as the scones, are much easier and less time-intensive than the bread recipes, but their instructions are comprehensive and you will achieve good results if you put in the time it takes to work through the recipes. Aside from the breads, the book also has a cheese guide and a history of the co-op, which was founded in 1967 and has become a Bay Area institution in the time since then.

Indira, who blogs at Mahanandi, makes many beautiful dishes, but her Strawberry Mango Scones really sparked my interest. Not only are the scones mouthwatering to look at, but the combination of fresh strawberries and mango sounds like it is too good to pass up. If you bake frequently, you know that having too many wet ingredients, like berries and other fruits, can make a dish soggy. Strawberries and mango are both fairly wet fruits and Indira averted any potential problems by pairing dried mango instead of fresh with the berries, adding mango flavor to the scones without compromising their crumbly, soft texture or crisp crust. She served them for dessert, but I can't help think that they would make an outstanding breakfast on a clear, summer morning. You can get her recipe here.

I have had strawberry shortcakes that look like this before and, while the tall cake is pretty, it almost never tastes as good as it looks. Diners spend too much time emphasizing the look of the cake over the flavor.  I much prefer the biscuit style of strawberry shortcakes, like the one pictured here from Di's Kitchen. I love the way a slightly buttery crumbly scone-like cake is paired with juicy strawberries and sweet cream. The flavors and textures come together perfectly as the cake soaks up the strawberry juices and the whole thing becomes a lovely summertime treat. One of the best things about it is that it takes a relatively small amount of time to make, since the biscuit component is done in minutes and can be made ahead. Instead of whipped cream, I prefer to top my strawberry shortcakes with a blend of sweetened mascarpone cream, but if you have good berries, you can't go wrong.

If, by some chance, you don't have good berries, check out these strawberry puddings for some alternative uses.