Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Yep, they're so fat, they're so ignorant, they use so much butter, and they're so Southern, and they have money in their pants pockets than anyone here has in their 401k. Envy can be so ugly.

actually unless it makes you feel really really good, putting the bottles in the recycling bin is the worse of the two options because recycling them wastes a bunch of money, energy, and time.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2007/Mungerrecycling.html

For years I went to Martha's Vineyard in August and entertained
using a cookbook I bought at a local bakery--Scottish Bakehouse
Cookbook by Isabella White. I used it until the pages came unglued
and put a rubberband around it. Julia inspired me to just use a
cookbook as a starting point and create your own style. Thanks, Elaine

The French Chef, of course! When we were married 38 years ago, my husband-to-be's next door neighbor gave us a Swing Way can opener and a copy of The French Chef. I have been using both all these years, but the French Chef has many more miles on it. I was 19, had never cooked and knew back then, in a very un-feminist way, that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. It worked! I love this book and always will.

Urban Italian: Simple Recipes and True Stories from a Life in Food, by Andrew Carmellini. I'm a vegetarian, but there are still plenty of recipes for me to try. I repeatedly take it out of the library. Please, someone buy me this book for Christmas!

An autographed copy of Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook. One evening after a school dance, friends descended on my parent’s home and one of them piped up, “Where’s the eggs benedict?” I popped into the kitchen and shortly produced something resembling poached eggs with Hollandaise. (One egg never made it past the side of the stove.) From that first effort, I prepared several other winning recipes like Knockwurst in beer. Fast forward 15 years and dozens of other cookbooks and I am co-author of Passport to New York Restaurants and auction correspondent for Wine Spectator.

The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young. The dishes really tastes like the ones I had growing up.

The James Beard Cookbook ~ my very first cookbook from which I learned that there was more to cooking than my mother's standard operating procedure of putting a hunk of meat under the broiler, plopping frozen vegies into pots of boiling water, and pitching potatoes into the oven to bake.

Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, my mom used hers all the time and now that I'm away from home I use the one she bought for me! just the classics : )

Jackgib: I have to say that I'm very surpised by this. I've been to Pera twice during Restaurant Week and have never encountered the horrible service that you've mentioned. I agree, you have to ask for the Restaurant Week menu, but that happens at most of the places I've gone during NYC Restaurant Week. I think you got a horrible waitress that wasn't representative of the place. I also have to say that the portions were generous both times I went, and I'm not exactly a light eater -- there was no need to purchase any extra food.

The water issue is something that should have been argued about ...there is no reason to pay for a server's mistake. If you had refused to pay the charge for it, they most likely would have taken it off the bill.

I would say that if you want to avoid bad service, avoid Delmonico's at all costs! I wanted to try the historic place during Restaurant Week a few years ago. They were horrible, and the food wasn't good, except for the cheesecake (which was from Junior's).

As a girl I read and reread Joy of Cooking but I also loved to read the more fantastical Bull Cookbook. (Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices) by George Leonard Herter and Berthe E. Herter. In addition to world history and culinary pratter, the book includes recipes on everything from fried snapping turtle and scandinavian fish tongues to dressing a game bird, making jerky and dandelion wine.

The Gourmet Cookbook by Ruth Reichl

With over 1000 recipes, as well as educational pages, it has all of the information you need!

Pie by Ken Haedrich. Just the title alone. Also, probably the only cookbook where the photos made me say "wow, i want to make that" and not "wow, i would never want to spend all of the time to make it look that pretty."