• Fuel Coffee owner Dani Cone, author of the forthcoming book "Tall Skinny Bitter," spills the beans on the five things never to say to your barista. Note to latte lovers: Avoid "Happy Friday!!!"

• The owner of the Dahlia Lounge, Tom Douglas, gets a nod from the James Beard Foundation.

• Forget your economic woes with yummy, comforting bread pudding.

• Old Seattle lives on with German fare at Bernard's on Seneca.

With the Fourth Annual Seattle Cheese Festival taking place this weekend, the focus is, naturally, on cheese. Eighteen year old Kelsey Kozak takes cheese-making seriously. The Times offers up some accompanying recipes: Caprese Chopped Salad, Fondue with Beecher's Flagship Cheeses, and Five-Cheese Macaroni.

Nancy Leson lists places to get a true roasting chicken.

As people prepare for outdoor entertaining, wine expert Paul Gregutt makes Washington wine selections that can be mixed and matched. Also in wine, an answer to the question of whether the disappointment in $20-50 merlots is real.

Brrr...Baby, it's cold outside. The Seattle Times Food & Wine section says to stay inside and heat up the kitchen.

• From three cookbooks, one each about hot chocolate, potpies, and coffee cakes: Recipe: Ancient Aztec Cacahuatl, Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake, Italian Picnic Potpie, Extremely Flaky Sour Cream Crust, "Keep Your Heart Pumping" Hot Chocolate, and Turkish-Style Mocha.
• It seems the haute new trends for 2007 in the supermarket are all about service, local, and ethnic.
• The Taste of the Town is Italian, with a special nod to Enza Sorrentino who opened Sorrentino Trattoria and Pizzeria with her son.

There are a few articles in the Seattle Times' Food & Wine section this week -- restaurant Carmelita seems to be related to every other restaurant, experts offer tips on how to live a Champagne dining lifestyle on a beer budget, the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia holds a Wine Festival -- but the real highlight of this week is pumpkins.

They're not talking about those hulking orange orbs that we use to carve Jack O'Lanterns. They are gushing over the much smaller Sugar Pumpkins, which are the star in a whole host of pumpkin recipes, from pie to soup: Flaky Pie Dough, Maple Pecan Pumpkin Pie, Maple Pecan Topping, Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Curried Pumpkin-Peanut Soup. And to kick it all off? A cocktail of course -- the Pumpkin French 75.

I love hosting dinner parties, but know that it can be a highly stressful affair. Chefs offer a few tips to make it successful, including how to handle fussy guests, and offer recipes that keep the stress level low, i.e. that are relatively uncomplicated and can be prepared in advance: Herbed Lemon Orzo, Creamy Roasted Parsnip Soup with Chevre & Walnut Crostini, Spiced Chicken with Pears and Port, and Chocolate Espresso Martinis.

Pickiness isn't just the guests at your dinner party. The Times looks at pickiness in general.

As if the heavy stews and braises of autumn weren't enough, it's football season, which brings along with it lots of diet-killing "stadium foods." The Diet Detective offers tips on how to handle a giant plate of nachos.

These days, just about every organization has a fundraising event centered around food, but it all started with the Pancake Breakfast. The Seattle Times offers four recipes: Swedish Pancakes, Dutch Pancakes, Buttermilk Pancakes, and Blueberry Pancakes.

Two books are under review this week. A recipe for Slow-roasted Martini Shortribs comes from Kathy Casey's Northwest Table, and a quick review of Barbara Fairchild's behemoth The Bon Appetit Cookbook.

At the farmers' markets, broccoli rabe (rapini) is coming into season, and you can make a Rapini Frittata with Mozzarella.

You probably don't think much about what you use to peel your vegetables, but the Seattle Times puts vegetable peelers to the test, taking into account the lumps and bumps of different vegetabless surfaces. The recipes are for fruits and vegetables that will put your peeler to use: Fall Galette, Winter Mash, Seedy Potatoes, and Roasted Carrots with Citrus.

We've already mentioned that resaurants are pulling spinach from their menus, but the Times also answers some questions from readers about E.coli and other leafy greens.

With Rosh Hashana starting at sundown on Friday, the staff digs into their archives and offers a recipe for a honey confection caled Teyglakh.

In drinks, the Wine Adviser could rattle off names of Washington Wineries for Merlot, but the one that sets the standard is Abeja Winery. Fremont Oktoberfest kicks off this weekend, offering over 70 microbrews on tap.

Think walking the fair grounds for five hours is enough to burn off that funnel cake? Maybe. If a funnel cake is the only thing you eat. See just how many calories all those deliciously deep-fried fair foods have, and how many calories you're really burning by strolling from food stand to food stand.

Gravenstein apples are at their peak at the farmers' markets, and Pork Cutlets with Apple Dijon Sauce are a good way to use them.

If you've got a glut from your garden, start preserving, or share with your neighbors.

Autumn brings on the new releases from boutique wineries around Washington. And if you went away for summer vacation and want to bring some wine back, here are a few good tips for shipping wine.

We're a little late this week with the roundup of the nation's newspaper food and dining sections, but better late then never, especially when the Seattle Times is featuring huckleberries. The recipes this week are: Apple Huckleberry Pie with Spiced Crust, Pan-Seared Chicken Breast with Huckleberries, Blue Cheese & Port Sauce, Huckleberry Compote, Kirsten's Favorite Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Huckleberries, and Huckleberry'cello (like limoncello, but with huckleberries). While you're in the kitchen, make a Focaccia with Grapes and Gorgonzola, and take note of tips for making a good home-style paella.

Out and about, there's the Puyallup Fair, events at the Pike's Place Market, and if you ever find yourself in Portland, Oregon, Walking Tour of Portland offers one called Epicurean Excursions. It's a good way to get a feel for the city. The article also offers resources for other types of foodie tours of Portland, as well as in other cities.

In wine, the real winemaker might not be on the label, and the Wine Adviser wants Chardonnay's fruit to stand on its own.

On the way to the beach, restaurant critic Nancy Leson makes a pit stop at Ranch House BBQ, notes that Bambino's East Coast Pizzeria will be another addition to the Seattle-as-pizzatown sweepstakes, and praises the fancy cocktails at Stix Billiards & Brewhouse.

They may be hurting in Genoa, Italy, but Seattle gardens and markets are bursting with basil. Recipes are for: Recipe: Fillet of Beef with Pesto, Recipe: Tomato and Pesto Farrotto, Recipe: Pesto Sauce, Recipe: Garden Vegetable Soup with Pesto, and Recipe: Tomato Soup with Pesto.

Since it's still hot outside, throw together a "fool" for dessert: Recipe: Berry Ginger Fool and Recipe: Bittersweet Chocolate Fool with Mocha Affogato.

Borrowing from Europe, dining at a communal table is gaining popularity with restaurateurs, but how do the customers feel?

From college campuses to groups of friends, dining "clubs" are sprouting up to build new friendships, nurture old friendships, and simply find good places to eat.

Do the words "real life" on a cookbook really mean the recipes are manageable in real life? Real Life Entertaining: Easy Recipes and Unconventional Wisdom by Jennifer Rubell has 25 menus that definitely do-able, with recipes like: Tex-Mex Breakfast Mess, Salsa, Chicken with Garlic Cloves and Rosemary, Mashed Potatoes with Figs and ParmesanWarm Mustardy Potatoes, Grilled Skirt Steak with Orange-Mint Chimichurri, and Watercress and Goat Cheese Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette.

At the farmers' market, blackberries are ripe for the picking and making a Blackberry-Basil Tart. Also, pick up fresh fruit to make Sangria. When looking for watermelons, it's ready when it thumps a B-flat.

We've already started our Sarah G. vs Sarah G., Seattle vs Pittsburgh super food war. The Seattle Times can't miss out with its volley across the bow of the S.S. Seahawk.

• Make a meal out of your Super Bowl food with recipes for Seattle seafood chowder; hot smoked salmon dip; apple-glazed ham (Washington apples I hope!); sandwiches made with apple chutney to use up that yummy ham; and a Northwest Waldorf salad (which is pitiful, honestly, couldn't it have included hazelnuts instead of walnuts? what's Northwest about a Waldorf salad? it's from New York City for goodness' sake).
• Nancy Leson gives some recommendations for takeout (if you're too excited to cook), like Ezell's Famous Chicken, Sushiland, and Salumi Artisan Cured Meats.
• Skip the Budweiser and try some microbrews - and learn how to pronounce "hefeweizen" - it's HAY-fe-VITE-tzen, for the record.

Seattle is playing second city today with its exploration of fads and favorites already discovered by its competition in New York and St. Louis and... everywhere. But at least they have luscious photos. (And alliteration. Food is fun!)

• Ever had a sample at Costco? Providence Cicero explores the hairnetted hawkers and discovers that "savvy sellers are enticing buyers by going straight to their taste buds."
• Make macaroni and cheese. Try it blue, cajun, or "trashy," with pickled jalapenos (making this for my hubby now...)
• Turnips: if you try 'em, maybe you'll like 'em.
• This week, Nicole Tsong and Pamela Sitt sip the Champs-Elysees cocktail at the Place Pigalle in Pike Place Market. It's made with brandy, yellow chartreuse, bitters, lemon juice and simple syrup.

Do you do mac-n-cheese? If you're reading any mainstream food media this month, chances are, you do. Today's Seattle Times Food & Wine section has a cover feature on macaroni & cheese. They must have been reading The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which did a cute "blue" variety of the dish earlier this month. Or the New York Times, where "Crusty Macaroni & Cheese" has been a top-five most-emailed story for a solid week. (They also did creamy, it wasn't nearly so popular.) Everybody's doing it.

But I think it all (obviously) started here. Sarah Gim did her macaroni & cheese liveblogging on Christmas Day. And in early January, mainstream media goes mad for mac-n-cheese. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Today's Seattle Times Food & Wine section is almost poetic in its choice of themes. Bulgogi, Barbapapa, kumquats, cookbooks, Yaksik, Japchae... it could be a foodie rap.

•  Every chef should add some of these traditional Korean-American dishes to their repertoire. Especially recommended: Bulgogi (Korean barbecue, yum), Yaksik (sweet rice with nuts and jujubes), Japchae (clear noodles stir-fried with vegetables) and Tteokguk (sliced rice pasta soup).
• Try the Barbapapa from Seattle's Sambar, "almost like two drinks for one price." It's a martini-like concoction of Hangar One Kaffir Lime vodka, Cointreau, lime juice and... rhubarb sorbet. Phew. I was just wondering what to do with that rhubarb sorbet...