Schnitzel. Photo: c(h)ristine, Flickr

• Brauhaus Schmitz revitalizes Philly's German food with 20 German beers on tap and hearty fare.
• Looking into just what makes one of those well-stained and cherished cookbooks.
• Pizzeria Stella is "economical, accessible and open late" while dishing serious pies, plus Tiffin Etc.'s Indian pizzas.
• A chat with Guy Savoy, "famous French toque and longtime Georges Perrier pal."
• Le Grand pestos are gaining cult status.
• Philly restaurant news.
• Recipes: Bacon-Wrapped Pork Cutlets, Leek "Noodles" With Beurre Noir.

Kielbasa. Photo: Brad.K, Flickr

• Once frequented by steelworkers' wives, one can still time-travel to the 1930s at the South Side's Schwartz Market for everything from kimchi to organic produce.
• Churchview Farm, once an oversized garden, is now a community-supported "farmette" serving 17 families, with 60 on the waiting list for next year.
• Drinking in celebration of the kids heading back to school with a "wheels up" party, and a menu that works for that or a nice Labor Day shindig.
• A contest will help two home cooks and professional food writers create a cookbook full of their online food community's best recipes.
• In the aftermath of the E. coli/cookie-dough issue, food safety becomes a high priority in the White House.
• Recipes: Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Simple Summer Peach Cake

Chard. Photo: La Grande Farmers' Market, Flickr

• Delighting in chard with history, love and recipes.
• Texas State prof James E. McWilliams discusses the flaws of locavore living in his new book, "Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly."
• New York chef Tom Valenti, diabetes and his new book, "You Don't Have to Be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook."
• One more tome to ponder: Martha Stewart's new book, "Cupcakes."
• Food Matters in Austin: the Hot Sauce Festival, new restaurants on the horizon, Hudson's Sausage Co., outdoor movies, wine and food fests, free kids' meals at IHOP, 24-7 food at Twenty Four, June-Ann Rodil's title as Texas's Top Sommelier and Chisholm Trail Longhorn Beef co-op.

Fans of savory pies need no longer fear getting hung up at Heathrow security due to the suspicious scent of smuggled Stargazy pie and Cornish pasties emanating from their person. Angela Boggiano's pastry-centric paen to traditional British fare allows the rest of the globe to tuck into cold Melton Mowbray Pork Pies and hand-held Grimbsy Town Soccer Pies in the comfort of their very own homes.

There's a serviceable nod to the dessert end of the spectrum, but the meat and fish based recipes are the sweet spot.

Takeaway tips: Pastry crust isn't difficult to make, so long as you follow the author's three golden rules:

Quality of pictures: Seductive and instructive

We tested: Melton Mowbray Pork Pies and Eccles Cakes
Recipes were thorough, easy to follow and quite approachable for home cooks and fledgling pie makers. The U.S. edition translates all measurements into non-metric quantities. Our one quibble was a single digit omitted from the Eccles Cakes baking temperature (50F? Really?) but we took our best guess, and both pies turned out as pictured and previously sampled while we were in their native land.

Worth the investment: Yes, for Anglophiles, ex-pats, lovers of lard and the gluten averse -- she includes recipes for wheat-free pastry.

I'm not gonna lie -- I'm rough on my books. There's a school of thought treating the physical manifestation of the written word as a sacred object, and I fully respect that. However I, for one, shove an old copy of "How to Cook a Wolf" into the bottom of my bag with the notion that at some point it'll sustain me on an overextended subway ride. I read "The Devil in the Kitchen" in the bathtub, A.J. Liebling over a lunchtime reuben, and good gosh a-mighty are my cookbooks covered in schmutz.

But hey, it's thematic goo; "Molto Italiano" is spattered in tomato sauce, "Pie" -- seen above -- is all a-smear in lard, "Charleston Receipts" in Otranto Club Punch and "Staff Meals from Chanterelle" slicked with a fine mist of rendered rind bacon. To my mind, these books are being honored, used, proven. Should these books at some point have a subsequent owner, they'll know what's been tested, made and made again.

Still, am I dishonoring the object or the authors when I'm getting the books all mucky? I posed the question to Matthew Lee (whose book "The Lee Bros. Southern Cooking" I've doused in all manner of pickling brine), and he noted that he and his co-author, his brother Ted have debated pre-mucking-up copies of their book to nix the blank canvas factor. The recipes therein are warm of heart and humble of origin, so it's not out of character, but would, say, a gellan-gumming of Grant Achatz's "Alinea" be a crime against the rather expensive and exceptionally lovely object?

Do you keep your cookbooks in pristine condition, or do you just accept page stains as collateral damage?

• Ever delight in Chrismukkah?
• Corey Mintz says Loire Casual Gourmet is young restaurant quickly finding its stride.
• Cookbooks to curl up with and read on Christmas day.
• Are you looking for last-minute, eco-conscious kitchenware?
• Recipes: Gingerbread Cutout Cookies, Coconut-Lime Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, Roast Goose with Cranberry and Apple Stuffing, Boiled Lobster, Roasted Squash, Rosemary, and Garlic Lasagna, Green Beans with Pickled Onion Relish, Arugula Salad with Pears and Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette, Caramelized Onion Soup, Lime Mascarpone Panna Cotta with Raspberries, and Molten Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche

• The entire staff of the Philadelphia Inquirer food section has gone through the stacks of cookbooks they received this year and have featured their absolute favorites. Makes me want to head to the bookstore immediately.
• For the bakers on your list, check out these latest cookbooks.
• In addition to training your brain, your Nintendo DS can now teach you how to make dinner.
• This week's Market Basket has got Baked Ricotta di Bufala from Claudio's, head chef tools for kids and Khaya Cookies from South Africa.
• Rick Nichols attends the local food blogger potluck and offers his take on the experience (my online cooking show and the salad I brought get a mention).
• This week, the Rush Hour Gourmet is serving up Pepper Steak.

How about some good news from the business world for a change? That sound you hear is the collective sigh of immense relief from workers in office towers and business parks country-wide, for it turns out that this year many offices are choosing to forego their annual office holiday party. But wait, it gets better -- for, in many of those offices that are still having parties, the event is not just being scaled down financially but scaled up culturally. Welcome to the phenomenon of the office book party.

An office book party is one in which, in lieu of the usual God-awful wrapped "present" for an agonizing round-robin of anonymous Kris Kringle, everyone brings a wrapped book. This way, rather than leaving with wrapped bottles of hotel hand lotion or regifted chocolates, everyone leaves with a book. For some book parties, there is a theme -- for one such I've seen, it's "your favorite novel," in which you leave your name inside the cover with a note about why this novel is your favorite -- but for most of them, the only rule is to bring a book someone would like to receive as a gift.