Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

"Although I live here, I rarely find really great restaurants." Poor arwenb! You've obviously been running with a crowd of un-serious eaters. This city is full of great places!

I'll also recommend 112 and Fujiya for some of my favorites around here. I also love Modern Cafe in Northeast, which is also by the 331 Club (fun, small, neighborhood bar), Northeast Social (great, eclectic menu), and the new Anchor Fish & Chips, a sustainable chip shop run by true blue Irish folks.

Our go-to birthday spot is Pancho Villa on Eat Street (Nicollet and 26th). They have two-for-one margaritas, tasty and inexpensive food, and really nice staff. I'm not sure of your age, but if wearing a giant sombrero while drinking giant margaritas isn't you're thing, then this isn't the place for you.

More casual, but great places include: Brasa, Bulldog NE, and Pizza Luce.

Check out heavytable.com for more about food in the Twin Cities. It's one of my favorite blogs. And Minnesota Monthly just released (or will soon release) their annual Restaurant Issue. Their food editor, Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, really knows her stuff and has never steered me wrong.

Yeah, who am I kidding! Here's a chance for me to relax and take dbc's advice and not risk making bad soup. Couch, here I come. Soup, you can wait until the weekend.

This is meant to be! I've had a delicata sitting on my counter for a week! I was skeptical of recipes stating you can eat the skin, but now that I know Shauna approves, this thing is going in the oven tonight.

I made this last night and I have a few complaints. 3/4 cups of dark brown sugar is way too much for that amount of bacon. I used less than 1/2 cup and most of it ended up as caramel on my silpat. The candied bacon turned out great, but baking it again along with all the apples made it tough. Also, not peeling the apples resulted in strings of skin throughout the dish.

A fun idea, but next time I'm going to have candied bacon on the side of the apple crisp.

yes, those Slice tips really helped my pizza grilling experience. grill, flip, place toppings, then grill some more. It's a lot of fun.

I love the Chef Shack! They've really changed the street food scene here in the Twin Cities and made it possible for chefs and small businesses to thrive on wheels. They'll also be at the new Uptown Market on Sept. 20. (shameless plug since i'm organizing it)

Is it lame that I'm totally starstruck to be commenting after THE brendan??

it's been a lot of fun watching Delancey go from a polariod of a storefront on Orangette into a real restaurant. i'm telling anyone i know who's going to Seattle to check it out! my vacation to Seattle was a year too early.

I saw this movie at a sneak preview almost a month ago and I loved it! The theatre full of foodies was literally gasping and cooing the whole time. I was excited throughout the whole movie (and besides Up, it takes a lot for me to even laugh at movies these days). Powell's book was a fun read and I like Amy Adams, but both pale in comparison to Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Child. She is not making fun of Julia at all. She perfectly excudes the excitement and attitude that radiated from the woman herself. And I think Nora knew that most viewers wanted more of Julia, so Amy Adams' scenes are brief.

The food is lovely! Ed's head looks great on the big screen! Go see the movie at your local independently-owned theatre if possible!

this is adorable!!

i really like Tres Leches or ice cream cake (even DQ will do!)

My plans are to watch my boyfriend star as Jesus in his family's church's Holy Saturday "Stations of the Cross" tableau, then Sunday lunch consisting of Matzo Ball soup (a small nod to Passover, made by my Lutheran stepmom), Honey-Baked Ham, then cheesecake (my choice since my birthday is 4/10).

We are an American family.

I'm with you on the overload of condiments in the fridge. And this post reminded me I have fish sauce in the back of my cupboard from a long time ago. Do you think it's gone rancid? Should I have kept it in the fridge?