Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

We have many favorites, but off the top of my head: Wild Mushroom Risotto, with a Beet, Endive, and Goat Cheese Salad.

Great burgers are always a godsend,
The possiblities to create one will never end.
Take your favorite ground meat,
add in all you love to eat...
You'll end end up with a burger
You'll indulge in and happily fend for... Ummm

For years I loved the classic Croque Monsieur, but then I expanded my horizons and fell in love with the grand Cubana which adds to the ham (and special bread or rolls - PRESSED) with seasoned cooked pork, quality Swiss Cheese, good ham, sauteed mushrooms (my add) - and that wonderful use of pickles! We love it!

Sorry to be lacking in originality... But a toasted water bagel, smothered with cream cheese, thinly sliced red onions, lots of thin sliced Scottish Smoked Salmon, a sprinkling of fresh dill, a few drained capers and a squirt of fresh lemon juice. Heaven on earth1 Especially accompanied by a Mimosa or a Kir Royale!!!

As a former New Yorker - I adored Smoke (nova) Salmon, with cream cheese, red onions, capers and divine bagels. But now we can have a half-way decent version here in Chicago. So I'm also remembering some "other favorites" : Heavenly potato pancakes/latkes, wonderful whiteifsh salad and mouthwatering (FRESH) blueberry blintzes. Come to thing of it, a visit to old friends (and haunts) in NYC are way overdue...

It's a tie - between the fabulous Pork Belly they serve at Blackbird's in Chicago - and the whole suckling pig roast at my sister-in-law's farm. YUM!

My Mother's "Mystery Mocha Cake" - it's from an ancient newspaper column and it is wickely and yet divinely delicious: Premium dark chocolate blended with ultra rich, dark expresso and laced with chocolate or Irish Creme Liquor. The end result is an utterly delicious concoction that is a cross between a rich chewy brownie moulton cake,, oozing yumminess,

A kind of an antipasto variety platter including rolled slices of cheeses and cold cuts, marinated & grilled veggies, bite sized fresh mozzerella balls, and FEATURING huge pitted imported green olives stuff with a selection of Gorgonzola, Prosciutto & goat cheese, Salami & pickled onion, sun-dried tomato pesto stuffing. Use your imagination - this relatively healthful snack disappears like magic. Be sure to serve it with plenty of fresh French or Italian bread.

Fresh herbs! In the summer, we grow our own. Now we plan to grow them ourselves indoors this winter (or at least try to...!) The fresh herbs in the stores are so expensive! When roasting chicken, we always use fresh garlic and either rosemary or sage (under the skin.)

Maintain our own herb garden - very convenient and saves a ton of money! I also like to roast garlic in oil. It keeps in the fridge for weeks - and then you have both: sweet caramelized garlic and garlic oil. And finally, I always "marinate" chicken in buttermilk for 6 to 24 hours (in fridge) it makes the chicken remarkably tender and juicy and even "plumps" it.!

The "meal" would be quite eclectic - but would definitely include jumbo king crab legs, a variety of very fresh oysters, a steaming bowl of Pho, a platter of buttery roasted asparagus, wild mushroom risotto, a rack of lamb. filet mignon, grilled Alaskan halibut, linguine with clam sauce, a Cobb salad, authentic tacos with guacamole, blueberry pie, lots of chocolate and of course, Champagne and Beaujolais. I'd want my Mom, sister and her hubby, my "love of my life" husband to join the celebration and my Dad would be there in spirit. And I hope I have enough time left to think of all the yummy things I've forgotten here... By the way, could the last meal please be at least a week long?

We were volunteering at a Soup Kitchen and had to cook 24 chickens. The guy delivering the chickens was late and we were feeling frantic (our patrons would be arriving and hungry in just a few hours.) When Bob finally showed up with the birds we were such wrecks that we forgot to take that plastic bag of giblets and organ parts out of the chicken before cooking them (in very hot ovens) - They turned out OK - but it was kind of gross taking all those bags out after the fact!

Unquestionably dark chocolate (though as a child I couldn't get enough of milk chocolate.) My husband's name is Charles (aka Chuck - but I can understand that not being the best name for Chocolates - only okay if your business is seeling ground beef products!)