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My friend and I baked and ate a whole batch of root beer flavored cookies in 3rd grade. I haven't been able to even smell root beer since then without having the urge to hurl.

grew up and went to college in pittsburgh - we went to the primanti's in the strip and the one in oakland MANY times. I alway got the capicolla and cheese, although once in a while if we went early i would get and egg and cheese. the sandwiches are the ultimate drinking/drunk food.

gefilte from Russ and Daughters. Chopped liver from Russ and Daughters or Zabars

when my daughter was 3, she was eating chicken for dinner and asked me "What's the difference between food chicken and animal chicken?" I paused and said "they're the same thing." Fortunately, the carnivore genes were strong and she's still a happy meat eater

Laurie Colwin - her column in Gourmet was the first thing I turned to every month.

Regarding eggs... I try to buy brown eggs. Maybe I am misinformed, but I think white eggs all come from the same breed of chicken. Since most eggs sold in the store are white, I choose brown eggs as a biodiversity issue - brown eggs come from a different breed. If the white egg-producing leghorn breed were ever stricken with a virus, etc, we would need those brown egg girls!

I think this may be one example where the little guys are damaging the big guys - Starbucks showed us that people will pay a lot of money for a cup of coffee and a scone. I live in Brooklyn - we have tons of Starbucks, but more often than not I take my lap top to one of the non-chain coffee places. They have taken the Starbucks concept, but personalized it in various ways - the food is better and the wi fi is always free! Plus, the decor is generally better. Starbucks hasn't changed the look of its stores since I started going there 15 years ago. The look is outdated and makes me feel all 90's again and not in a good way.

I have had the cuisinart griddler for 2 years and use it at least twice a week. It makes great panini - flat, crisp, great grill marks. Easy to use and clean. I've used it so much that I wore out the bottom grill plate and had to order another one. We also use the griddle a lot for pancakes - you can make 4 decent sized pancakes at once. I do use the grill part in the winter and in the summer if it's raining or I don't feel like heating up the grill for 2 burgers or whatever.

I work in food and have always struggled with having to eat for a living, enjoy food and still be healthy. Several chefs I knew had luck with weight watchers. I did that about 3 years ago - lost 60 lbs in just over 6 months and have kept it. For me it was all about learning portion control and that if I want to have more food volume-wise, I should make more vegetables, whole grains, , you know the drill. After that initial 6 months, I went off the weight watchers plan but it taught me how to manage my eating habits better.

Here are a few of my stand-bys:

I like the greek yogurt also - there is another brand available now at Fairway, I forget the name but they offer little ones with peach, blueberry, honey and vanilla that are non fat. Most non fat dairy products are lousy, but I like these. I sprinkle with granola (i usually make my own from an old Moosewood recipe so I know it's relatively low fat) and that's breakfast most days.

The coach farm low fat goat cheese rocks. I have this on a whole grain english muffin with some fruit for beakfast on the days I don't do the yogurt thing.

Last on the breakfast roster is whole grain farina (AKA cream of wheat) - they have this at Fairway and the PS food coop. More fiber than regular farina, but cooks just as quickly. I stir in bananas and a little honey. Sometimes I make it with skim milk instead of water if I feel like I should be getting more calcium.

My lunch stand-bys (I work from home, so I can cook for myself) are as follows:

Corn torillas filled with sauteed veggies - whatever I have - salsa and beans OR 1 egg and 1 egg white scrambled together - salsa and low fat sour cream. I throw in a little sauce from a can of chipotles when I am cooking the eggs or veggies.

I make a big pot of vegetarian chili and eat that for several days for lunch. if I feel like I need meat, I will make chili with bison.

Or I bake a sweet potato and have it with salt, pepper and plain nonfat greek yogurt

My favorite easy dessert like snack when I am watching my weight is cozy shack chocolate pudding. It's pretty lowfat but the ingredients are relatively "natural" compared to other grocery store pudding things.