Shake Shack Shackburger. Photo: Robyn Lee, Flickr.

A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

Set your DVR for the fall Food Network lineup.

A British hospital patient posts pics of his daily meals and asks readers to identify each dish.

A Hamburger Today creates a comprehensive style guide -- required reading for all burger enthusiasts.

Ace of Cakes gets the Easy-Bake-Oven treatment from Girl Gourmet.

U.S. restaurants make Guardian's Top 50 Places to Eat in the World.

Can't get enough ramen? Check out this hand-pulled noodle-making video.

Julia Child goes underappreciated in Paris.

Ah, poolish. It's thought that poolish actually originated in Poland and migrated through Austria to France. Poolish is the preferment of choice among French bakers for the symbol of French bread, the baguette.

Poolish is a mixture of 100 percent flour and 100 percent water, with maybe about .1 percent yeast. That means that there will be the same amount of water and flour mixed together, and just a very small amount of yeast is part of the mix. Poolish should be a wetter mixture, not unlike a thick pancake batter. You'll know that this preferment is ready to use when the surface is covered in tiny bubbles and it looks like it has expanded and then flattened out. If the poolish has fallen at all, then it is overdeveloped and probably not good.

A poolish should be left in a cool spot overnight, but not refrigerated unless you'll need more than 12 to 16 hours. If you're making it in the afternoon for the next afternoons use, then I'd go ahead and refrigerate it. Just be sure to allow it to come back to room temperature before you use it.

Poolish, being a more hydrated mixture, lends itself particularly well to the development of lactic acid. If you taste a mature poolish, you should be able to taste yogurt or milk. The moister environment is more attractive to bacteria that produce the lactic acid.

At a Super Bowl Party filled with Velveeta-laden spreads and greasy potato chips, crostini can be a welcome alternative. This recipe is one of my favorites: it pairs creamy goat cheese, tart red peppers and a toasty baguette for a refreshing break from the norm.

I have heard many, many trick for keeping fresh bread fresh. By fresh bread, I mean the baguette or boule or sourdough loaf that you can buy at a good bakery. These loaves should have a crisp crust, a moist and soft interior and a flavor that is unrivaled by anything that comes packed in plastic at the supermarket. The fresh breads tend to go stale in a day if not properly stored. One bakery recommended to me that I store the bread in a paper bag and reheat it in the oven for a few minutes to refresh the crispness of the crust. This has been a fairly reliable method, but if you eat a lot of bread, you'll go through a lot of paper bags.

Recently, I came across these reusable bread bags that are designed to do the same job and keep bread fresh. The bags are made of cotton and can be used in one of three ways, making them more versatile than a plain paper bag. They can be unfolded to support tall loaves, folded down to form a basket for rolls or muffins and the can also be sealed with the magnets hidden inside the lip of the bag, which keeps in heat if you are serving and generally keeps the bread fresher. The bags come in black, white/sand and red.

We're still getting prepped for Sandwich Day on September 21st and it's never too early to pick up some inspiring tips from fellow food bloggers. Ivonne, from Creampuffs in Venice, put together this gorgeous panini that reminds us that sandwiches don't have to be savory - they can be sweet, too. Her Nutella Supreme Panini have nutella, peanut butter, strawberries and sliced almonds on buttered and toasted baguettes. The bread is grilled in the panini maker before the filling is added (so you could simply toast bread to make this sandwich at home), so the soft fillings don't run out of the sandwich before you have a chance to get it into your mouth.

This sandwich is a great, tasty way to use up leftover steak and it's very simple to make, mostly because I rely on prepared barbecue sauce. All you need to do is chop up some onion and mushrooms (white or portobello) into small pieces and saute in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper until they are tender. I use a few tablespoons of onion and about 1 cup of the mushrooms, sometimes a bit more, per sandwich, but the amount is completely flexible. Vary the amounts depending on the size of your rolls. While the mushrooms are cooking, shred up some leftover beef and add it to the mushrooms once they're tender. Stir in enough of your favorite barbecue sauce to moisten everything, cook until the mixture is heated through, and serve on a fresh roll or baguette. This sandwich can also be made with all mushrooms for a vegetarian alternative.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]