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We had a four rib roast for 6 adults and 2 kids last Christmas Eve and there were plenty of leftovers for steak and eggs the next morning! I think the formula is about 1 rib for every 2 people, so you might need a roast with 6 or 7 ribs.

This recipe is super simple and requires only patience rather than a lot of attention. It's basically smothered cabbage--i.e. cooked for more than an hour until super tender-- which makes the vegetable very sweet actually. After a good while, you add in arborio rice and stock to make soup or risotto depending on how much liquid evaporates/what you're in the mood for. This week I made an Indian style smothered cabbage that was braised in a puree of tomato, ginger, garlic and hot pepper. Sweet and delicious. You can also oven braise cabbage in wedges of eighths ">(Molly Stevens' recipe) with wedges of onion, carrot, and thyme plus chicken stock. Again the long slow cooking makes the cabbage sweet and then you brown it a bit under the broiler. Simple and delicious!

Pot pie or shepherd's pie?

Cookware, recipes, equipment...it's all good as far as I'm concerned and certainly interrelated.

What I find most hilarious is that the French manufacturers are of late trying to change the nomenclature from "Dutch" oven to "French" oven at Williams-Sonoma, Amazon, and the like. I love my round 5.5 quart Le Creuset that is big enough for making beef burgundy and the like to feed 6. Recently I've been eyeing a deal at Sur La Table for a 6 quart oval that comes with two 1 cup mini cocottes. I love my round Le Creuset but had a bit of a hassle trying to brown lamb shanks the first time I ever cooked. An oval one with those little spikes on the lid for self-basting is worth the $200, right? Right??? Good, that's what I thought!

I try to leaf through cookbooks that I haven't used in a couple years or so hoping that I'll discover a recipe with an ingredient or technique that was unknown to me in the past. That way the book won't seem a total waste. That being said I've given away cookbooks by Rocco DeSpirito and Jacques Torres because the recipes are too fussy for the mediocre result. I bought Mastering the Art more than a year ago and still haven't made anything from it (gasp!) besides the choucroute that I first found on the FN website and the watercress soup. I use Julia & Jacque Cooking at Home constantly though so I know it's me and not Mme. Child! (I repent for my apostasy!)

This list is fairly comprehensive, so I'll plug the highlights in the U Street area where I've lived for the past 8 years. All are moderately priced in my opinion:
1) Sonoma is an excellent wine bar with outdoor seating, perfect on a warm DC evening
2) Etete is another excellent option for Ethiopian
3) Marvin's has excellent Belgian with a mix of soul food(!)
4) Busboys is a moderately priced popular hangout for all ages, races, and sexual orientation
5) Eatonville is U Street's answer to Georgia Brown's for southern fare
6) Coppi's for excellent pizza and Italian fare
7) Ben's Chili Bowl also has a recently opened restaurant (though I've not yet tried it) next door to the iconic hot dog joint
8) And my favorite to impress first timers is Tabaq Bistro for mediterranean small plates and excellent downtown views from their rooftop space. Perfect for dining at sunset.

This is so funny! This is almost exactly how I make my chicken soup usually. I was taught by my partner's mother whose secret ingredient was nutmeg. I don't remember what herb she preferred, but her son loves dill so that's how I always make it!

homemade bread! I've got my hamburger buns down, thanks to Rose Levey Berenbaum, but I'm sitll not a confident loaf maker. 2010 is my year though!

@eatup is totally right. I've made a braised Moroccan chicken dish out of Molly Stevens's All About Braising that uses preserved lemon. She even has a recipe for how to make them yourself. They're also really good in salads too, used almost as a garnish.

This discussion has made my jaw drop at some of the audacious and even funny responses to such a simple question. I'm in general agreement with @ChefR0bert on all points, and personally I'm in the sharp knife camp when it comes to chopping onions. But then I'm also not supersentitive to the gases that they emit, as neither are many of those who posted disparaging comments, I suspect! Just know that the stronger the gases, the fresher your onion. I've noticed onions from the farmers market are much stronger than those from the grocery store!

I'm intrigued by the idea of cutting the onion in half and bagging it, essentially allowing it to dry out somewhat in the fridge. These seems like a recipe for making other foods in the fridge perhaps take on an onion-y-ness that might not be welcome. You might just buy onions past their prime maybe?

However, I'm also a big fan of the chopper, but I never use mine for onions. I most often use mine to chop nuts or baby carrots. Believe me, hazelnuts and other foods that roll around are much easier to chop with a chopper than a knife. My boyfriend, who is also super sensitive to onions and will tear up even when he's across the room from freshly chopped onions--though he's "man" enough (huh?) to chop them anyway--always made fun of my chopper. Then I replaced it with a slap chop (yes) which he once had to use to chop baby carrots and he had to retract all of his derisive comments because he found it so easy. How sweet it was!

There are some recipes that call for pulverized wet onion. Sometimes when I'm making meatloaf I will gladly use my food processor to chop up everything: garlic, cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, and yes, onion. The extra moisture from wet onions only adds moisture to the final dish. And I saw Tyler Florence make bolognese with a couple New York restaurant chefs and they pulverized the mire poix in the processor into a pulp which blended into the meat sauce almost invisibly. The onion gases will be contained until right before they go in the pan so I'd recommend a food processor, I especially like my kitchenaid with its three work bowls.

And finally, I can't help inquiring about your relationship to a small degree. You know your boyfriend and your relationship far better than any of us reading between the lines, but I can't help wondering why you'd want to give a gift so your beau can have onions when he's already decided that chopping onions isn't worth it to him. No solution is foolproof and if he's supersensitive like my partner, he might feel coerced, especially because you say you want to get him something so he can have onions when you're not around to chop them and to tease him. It seems he's already made the decision for himself ("no thank you") and you're trying to circumvent his own choice with what you think is better for him. The easiest solution in that case is for him to buy pre-chopped onion at the store. Sandra Lee recommends it all the time!

I was responsible for the gravy, and thanks to the gravy separator I toted 400 miles to my partner's cousin's house (just in case!) I made a delicious gravy from scratch using the drippings, a roux, and some additional cornstarch. I was channeling my mother (who was at my cousin's house and also on gravy duty no doubt!) and was quite pleased with my results. Mine only differed from mom's in that I deglazed with a pinot grigio, which Mom would never do. My chocolate pecan pie was pretty damned good too, the recipe for which couldn't be easier!

My new favorite this fall is jonagold for pies. Made a perfect tarte tatin this year: soft, cooked, and held its shape, though with tarte tatin, the apples are more cooked than they are baked. I have to say that in an informal crisp test I performed (I make dinner at a shelter twice a month) golden delicous outperformed granny smith by a mile. The grannies turned to mush while the goldens were sweet and held their shape. I'd think it would be hard to do an apple pie test without any apple pie seasoning though. Who's to say that plain apples in the presence of cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. would still perform the same?

Here are some more ideas from a similar thread. Also this Indian style dish is vegan and very good.