Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm the GM of a small bistro and wine shop - we do charge no-shows for things like winemaker dinners or for NYE parties, Valentines Day, and things like that - anything that requires a pre-payment, or a credit card to hold a reservation. If they give us 24 hours notice, we don't charge them, and obviously...if it's less than 24 hours and it's a genuine emergency, we don't charge them for the meal they're missing. We do it on these occasions because our chef is making food that isn't normally on the menu and will otherwise be wasted if the people he's cooking for don't show up. There isn't a way for us to recoup those losses.

the no-knead bread from Mark Bittman's NYT column....

I have a marvelous basil plant....gives me plenty of basil for the summer and well into the fall - and then I move it to my mother's greenhouse and I'm able to keep it alive for most of the winter there. I am never at a loss for basil. I do the same with my rosemary. I let nature take its course with my other herbs - mint, cilantro, parsley, thyme, tarragon, chives, summer savory, oregano, sage....but if I could plant ANYTHING - it would be tomatoes. I eat them all the time, but I live in a condo and just have a limited space (all my herbs are in containers). My sister-in-law grows them, and shares her harvest with me. All kinds - heirloom, beefsteak...it's wonderful.

My boyfriend makes a cookie that he calls "Sin."- It's a basic Toll-House chocolate chip recipe, but he adds cocoa powder, then chocolate, cinnamon, peanut butter, and white chocolate chips, and dried cherries. They're truly sinful. :-)