• Open-face sandwiches, from Scrambled Egg and Smoked Salmon to Herring with Apple and Cucumber.
• Behind the scenes of the Bueno Queso Social Club.
• Couples like to go to culinary school.
• Kitchen tips and tricks, including ideas for baking blueberry pie and selecting fresh fish.
• What's your favorite Halloween candy?
• What's the hip new coffee place in Boston?
• Roasting a pig: forget the spit and get a box.
• This week's recipes: Pasta with Bell Peppers and Ham, Baked Beans, Big Blue Slaw, and Pears Poached in Red Wine.

I'm very familiar with baked beans, being from Boston and all, and I think they're one of the great foods. They're tasty, healthy, and filling. They're light enough for a quick summer meal yet at the same time hearty enough for a cold winter night (especially if you eat it with some nice crusty bread).

July is National Baked Bean Month, and after the jump, a couple of recipes, including one from me that's very quick and easy but one I think you'll like.

Did you know that states have "official" foods. Yup, and Massachusetts is no exception. The foods include Boston Cream Pie, cranberries, baked beans, chocolate chip cookies, and corn muffins (corn muffins?).

Gridskipper takes that list of foods and tells us what restaurants in Boston serve the best ones. For example, though Boston Cream Pie was invented at the Omni Parker House Hotel (also home of the Parker House Rolls), you can get the best one at The Oak Room at the Copley Plaza Hotel. For beans, head on over to the Blue Ribbon BBQ. They're not traditional baked beans, but they're great (and I can vouch for this place - best BBQ I've ever had. If they were closer to my house I'd probably eat there twice a week).

[thanks to Jade Walker]

Wow, there's a headline I never thought I'd write.

Actor Hugh Grant was arrested in London yesterday for allegedly throwing a plastic tub filled with baked beans at photographer Ian Whittaker. Whittaker says that Grant also kicked him and yelled at him before he threw the beans at him.

A plastic container filled with baked beans? This could have been much worse. He could have thrown cans filled with beans at the photographer, or glass jars filled with tomato sauces or pickles, or maybe even cling peaches...in heavy syrup.

Grant was released on bail and no charges have been filed.

Who doesn't love baked beans? I always have a couple of cans in my cupboard, ready to mix with weiners for a retro protein-packed snack. When I planned for slow cooking day, baked beans was my first thought. Nothing is more quintessentially American or (let's be honest here) easier.

I've tried to make baked beans before, and gotten frustrated with the long cooking time. Not this weekend. I started composing my soul of slow cooking post and got into a zen cooking space. I looked up at least five recipes, and they were all almost exactly the same - all started with two cups of navy beans (or, variously, "Great Northern" or "Michigan Navy" beans, which are almost the same thing), 5-6 cups of water, onion, bacon or salt pork, molasses, ginger, mustard and salt.

There were variations, of course; a little Worchestershire Sauce here, a little ketchup there. I ended up using the recipe for Boston Baked Beans from The Gourmet Slow Cooker, by Lynn Alley. It turned out fabulously, and I have only one piece of advice: cook it for a really, really long time! I cooked mine in an oven, for at least eight hours. It was delicious and so flavorful.

You leave the house in the dark. You come home in the dark. It's winter, and you yearn for a lovingly-cooked meal. Why not have it ready when you get home? Why not fill your house with the rustic aromas of slow cookery?

But I have a job, or, at least a life, I can hear you murmuring to yourself, shaking your head. I don't have a personal chef. I'll just throw a Lean Cuisine in the oven.

No! Stop! Put away that freezer meal. Freezers are for summer, when you eat ice cream and whir up smoothies with fresh fruit and yogurt. Winter is for slow cookers, for Crock-Pots and baking at low, low heat and, oh, the bountiful braise. Monday, January 23, we'll be celebrating all that is slow - all our recipes will cook at low heats for several hours. Nearly all of them can be mixed early in your day and set cooking, and the flavors will combine throughout the afternoon as the dish gets more, and more, and more tender, until it is meltingly delectable, until it sings on your tongue.

Classic slow-cooked meals were invented long before the Crock-Pot trademark was ever registered. Dishes like cassoulet and baked beans and Beef Bourguignonne hearken from centuries ago. Once, everything was cooked slow. We honor our culinary heritage. We long for food that has nothing "fast" about it.

Scott Martin, age 20, was killed by his diet of French fries, white toast and, on occasion, a tin of baked beans or spaghetti. He refused all fruits and vegetables. The young British man was stricken with cirrhosis and autoimmune hepatitis, caused by malnutrition brought on by an unhealthy diet. Both diseases destroyed his liver and his body's ability to stave off infection, ultimately resulting in his death. Scott was told that he needed a liver transplant last year, but was afraid of surgery and unwilling to change his diet. His family reported that Scott did not drink and that his preferred activity was watching Manchester United on television.

To make a gross understatement, this is a very sad story. I feel for the family of this young man. Wouldn't you change your diet if your life depended up on it?