Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Nothing is more delicious than Oreda's Onion Tater Tots. I love regular tots, but they just don't compare. It'll change your life.

I came across this recipe on tastespotting a while ago. I haven't made it, but it looks like it would make a better (or at least more authentic looking) butterbeer!

http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/2009/07/butterbeer_recipe.html

Any fruit when it's in season and perfectly ripe is a beautiful thing. But in particular I love avocados, peaches, and grapefruit

Aww, Pismo Beach :). My mom grew up there and my grandfather still lives in Shell Beach. All of the suggestions so far are great, and I would put in another vote for F. McLintocks. It is a reliably great steak house.

Congrats on the graduation!

I was in Merida in December and took a class with Chef David Sterling (Los Dos Cooking School) that I would highly recommend. One of the dishes we made was panuchos. If you want to take it to the next level make homemade black bean refritos and strain them until they are very smooth and thin before filling the tortillas (and of course making your own tortillas helps too).

Just made this for my roommate and I. I made it a little bigger with 6 pieces of chicken, about 1.5 times the broth and double the veggies (we're big on having leftovers for lunch) and threw in a red bell pepper that was about to die in my fridge. It was delicious and my work-lunch buddies were extremely jealous of the leftovers :) I can't wait for the next installment!!

My most recent big disaster was just this past week when I tried to make a banana cream pie (which I have successfully done many times before). I had to try twice before I had a crust that I could actually roll out, the first one I was too careful not too add too much water and over-work it, and so on the second try I over compensated and it turned out super tough. Then the first batch of custard never set up. At least my roommate enjoyed the "banana pie soup" I gave her for breakfast, and it only took 24 hours to get a semi-edible finished product.