Tracy Porter is a tabletop hero.

Plugged by Horchow as "Not your grandmother's dinnerware," Tracy Porter's stunning pieces come in interesting shapes and eclectic patterns, drawing on nature, gothic architecture, retro prints, and her own whimsy.

The collection at right, the new Tracy Porter "Auguste Coq" Dinnerware collection, lends your table an intelligent sense of fantasy. In the gallery below, see the exotic kaleidescope "Katsina" collection, the French paisley and peacock "Artesian" teapot set, and more.

Tracy Porter has an extensive line of lifestyle products, including purses, lighting, jewelry and more. Check it out here on her website, which is dedicated to the idea of "enchanted living." I can totally get behind that.



Purchase everything here at Horchow.

I have a love/hate relationship with the city in which I live -- Los Angeles. You can't beat the balmy weather (did I mention that I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt all day today?), but you also can't beat traffic, no matter how carefully you listen to the traffic report, time your driving with "rush hour" or opt for surface streets.

But in the end, I love Los Angeles, which is why I love these dinner plates from notNeutral. The dishwasher-safe porcelain plates are 12" in diameter, feature the downtown core printed on a black background, highlight key buildings in red, and indicate rivers and public spaces. While I favor Los Angeles, the plates also come printed with Shanghai, Cairo, Berlin (part of Collection 1) and New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Dubai (part of Collection 2).

Each plate is $50.

These unusual ceramic plates have a couple of different uses and are so visually interesting that it's almost a surprise that they're not in any high-end restaurants, especially one where they deal with less traditional foods and presentations. The Dish It Up dishes come in three sizes that can be fit together along their "cut" edge. They could be used for portion control, if you're looking for a practical purpose to justify buying them and more artistic platings are not your goal. One other interesting feature of the dishes is that they can be stored vertically, resting on their straight edge, which minimizes the amount of cabinet space they take up. They are sold in sets that include one each of the small, medium and large sizes.

As the holidays approach, we'll certainly be doing our fair share of entertaining, whether it's a casual get together of friends on a Saturday afternoon watching football, a simple cocktail party, or a full-blown sit down dinner. In any case, you're going to need the right stuff to set your table (and I don't mean a tablescape) -- linens, plates, cups, and flatware.

We'll cover your indoor tailgating another day, but if you are throwing a luxurious sit-down dinner party, Neiman Marcus has some fabulous ideas for setting your table. They've gotten together with four top designers who have picked things to set tables in their particular style. There's master of knits and resort-wear St. John, Valentino, Jay Strongwater, and my personal favorite, Nanette Lepore, who sets the table with rich crumpled linens and Baroque-inspired dinnerware.

The worst thing about cooking is, without question, the cleanup. Once you have cooked and eaten your fill, the last thing that you want to do is do the dishes. The process seems daunting when you don't have a dishwasher, and somewhat less so if you do have one, but it's called a "chore" because it is one.

Chip, at Cook Think Blog, put together a brief guide to loading a dishwasher properly, with tips that can really help you make the most out of each wash. Before you laugh, keep in mind that having a system makes doing the dishes go much, much faster than it ordinarily would. You'll spend five minutes loading because you know where everything goes, versus 20 minutes trying to figure out how to cram everything in. Here are a few to start with:

• The used ends of forks and spoons should be pointing up, maximizing exposure to the water, while knife blades should point down.
• Plates should not be loaded by size, again to maximize exposure to water.
• Bowls should go on the top rack, not the bottom.

This, another of those quirky little online stores I love so much, is run by twin brothers Antony and Richard Joseph. While specialising in toughened-glass kitchen ware the design duo offer a whole range of products via the Joseph Joseph website.

There are mugs and a specially designed hanging rack, pastry boards and funky clocks, chopping boards and dish drainers. All 'designer' but all reasonably priced. Pictured here is one of three different glass serving dishes. It costs just £12. Optical patterns are printed on both sides of the glass giving a stunning visual effect.

Saveur magazine just released its "100 list" for 2006. 100 what? Since any explicit label would be too restricting, the annual list is simply described as Saveur's "favorite restaurants, food, drink, people, places and things", which certainly covers a lot of ground.

Making the eighth list this year are restaurants from India to Mexico City, as well as a variety of restaurants and chefs from Las Vegas, including Daniel Bouloud, Bouchon, Alex and Joel Robuchon. Favorite foods included Costco birthday cakes, Crispy Buffalo Wontons from Ruby Tuesdays (a US chain) and Rich Man's Purses at Gundel Restaurant, Budapest, in addition to duck eggs, spicy Thai kettle chips and Japanese freshwater crabs, while favorite drinks included California dessert wines, Hendrick's Gin from Scotland and cointreau.