Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Tried to post this earlier tin the week when the system was being uncooperative:

Here's an idea you might want to try - "cupboard roulette":
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/dining/07appe.html?hpw

Parsnip and carrot fritters with ginger and red onion and a bulgar pilaf with steamed broccoli, onion, garlic, chilli and turmeric.

Meat loaf, Mashed potatoes and green beans. Also some fruit salad for desert. Bye summer.

Sometimes you just need to give yourself a break and not overthink it. Stress or need for rest can put you in a funk.

A few days of super simple meals or soup and some rest usually sparks me back up again. But I'm usually glad for the break and lazy cooking for those few days too.

Alternate idea- take a favorite food, a treat or indulgence and make a favorite meal.

Pumpkin leek soup, recipe from this web site last week, very tasty! Roasted garlic butter and toasted bread on the side. Yummy!

sorry to be a hater here, but what is the big deal about bentos or bento-style, specifically for the original poster? aside from the people who go crazy with the sculpting like Anna the Red [http://www.annathered.com/] I don't see how this is so crazy different from packing leftovers or doing multiple courses in multiple containers, unless you are just used to eating sandwiches or hot dogs for lunch. to me, bentos are just like any other meal except packed up. to address listener's original caveats about portion control, grocery and kitchen appliances, and dorm cooking, none of that is specific to bentos and you could do just as well looking up dorm-room-cooking (grab items from the salad bars and steam them with your microwave for instance, or better yet, get a rice cooker! you don't have to cook rice in it and it can make all kinds of food [http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/445483/]). I just don't understand how it is seen as something so different when it's just a plain old box lunch.

i watch... I mostly like the factoids about the foods typical of that city. Gives me some additional insight on the culinary perspective there...

I've become quite fond of Aaron on this show, which is the only reason I watch now and then. There are some funny bits, like the episode where they were trying to identify flavored papers and took awhile to notice the hints printed on the paper. The sausage contest was good, too. Mostly the contest comes down to who can eat either too much or unpalatable food the fastest, or who can run fastest, which aren't exactly skill sets that prove much.

It's typical of the new food network philosophy, though. Turn every prime time program into a gladiatorial contest, (or into a viewing of other people eating) rather than into a show about cooking.

I kind of get it. Seems like the idea is for them to delve into some representative food component of the city--and then 'hold their own' in their treatment of that food component up against the native pair.
I mostly think it's pretty stupid, though.

To be honest, though, I was giggling quite a bit watching it the other night. Aaron is pretty fun on camera.

Lemonfair....when and if you come to the other side please keep in mind that there are many other fellow SE lovers there that I've been able to connect with and it's been so fabulous. People like Perky and Pavlov and Chiffy and Chisai and so many more. Putting names with faces and making new (great) friends has been the best thing about FB. Think about it!!!!!

(Believe me, I resisted too)

These are all such great suggestions, I find it difficult to add anything! But I'll try. I like Beth Hensperger's "The Bread Bible," which in addition to many regular yeast breads includes some quick breads, muffins, etc. Admittedly there is some overlap here with Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from My Home to Yours," but I love them both.

It looks like tools and ingredients are pretty well covered, but what about a pretty cake stand or some other serving dishes? There's nothing like delivering a beautiful cake or tart to the table on a footed cake stand!

if she gets into bread-the perfect book is "beard on bread" by james beard.

you're a lucky mom!

(also, a digital scale, as mentioned above, is vital!)

Great links, everybody. Time to get out the garnishing books.