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Fresh pineapple, Canadian bacon, pepperoncini and green peppers on fresh mozzarella with a spicy tomato sauce and a garlicky crust was my birthday cake this year. Happy birthday to me, indeed.

tasting menus are usually proportionate--care has been taken to (hopefully) take you comfortably from course to course, both in timing and in flavor/portion development. as avaryne said, don't starve yourself all day; i find it wise to have a decent breakfast early in the day and keep filled up with liquids throughout till dinnertime. a ten course meal should take you at least 2 hours and maybe more. if there are no wine pairings offered (and i can't imagine such), it's always good to ask for recommendations. and when no one has a clue, you can't go wrong with a dryish sparkler.

while the portions won't be huge, wear comfortable clothes. and about halfway through, take a walk to the ladies/gents room. not to puke, just to stir the blood around a little. by the way, you can always do that to slow things down if a restaurant appears to rushing you through a little faster than you'd wish. not that they ever do that...

Both seemed personable, both seemed knowledgable. In the end, Melissa seems more comfortable in front of the camera, while Jeffrey's bobbing and repetitive gestures felt awkward. As the more camera-friendly person, Melissa will be more pliable in terms of molding her towards opportunites beyond this season.

I really don't believe gender or race had anything to do with the winning OR losing.

Food & Wine usually has just the right combination of recipes, articles, and product info. Gourmet takes itself a little too seriously for me. Bon Appetit can be great, but has a problem with advertisements--count the full pages devoted to such and then look at the total page count. And publishers wonder why we've turned to the web.

I also like Cooking Light, as much for the lifestyle content as recipes, which I confess I have a tendency to "fatten up". I used to adore La Cucina Italia or whatever the title was, but the new publication just isn't it.

Food Arts is great fun, if you can nab a free sub; otherwise, it's pricey. Fine Cooking is also a little spendy for what you get. Cook's Illustrated lost me entirely when the first line of their "Red Wines for the Holidays" article began: "Now, none of us drinks red wine..." Ahem. If that's the case, I can ask the guy next door who sits outside with his Mountain Creeks and a flyswatter.

Made this tonight and we absolutely loved it! Wouldn't change a single thing about it.

as a shower/new baby gift for friends, i often give a Month of Monday Meals. it begins on month two (after the initial thrill--and gifts--are long gone). sunday night i deliver a breakfast foccacia, fruit and coffee ready to be brewed; sub sandwiches, pickles, and chips, and for dinner charlie trotter's lobster mashed potatoes and a salad with dressing on the side. if mom is not nursing, a bottle of chard. the menu changes throughout the month, and if it's a real good friend, i might continue it longer than one month.

in our crowd, birthday dinners are usually held at someone's home. pot lucks or BYOs are almost never part of the plan.

if someone issues an invitation to meet at Restaurant XYZ for any celebration, i assume i'm paying my own tab. i would never presume to be paying for anyone else.

friends that get all het up about you "ruining" their birthday had unreasonable expectations. handling disappointment with grace is a worthwhile skill to cultivate.