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I haven't been in years (due to living far far away), but Green Mango near Yonge and Bloor was my first taste of Thai, and I've been in love ever since!

I've had good luck with Alton Brown's baked brown rice recipe-I think you can get it on the food network website.

I would be a professional meal planner. I don't know if "Fixing Dinner" is on the air outside of Canada, but Sandy Richard goes to homes, finds out their challenges with cooking at home, learns their food preferences and cooking abilities, and then develops recipes and a plan so they can cook at home more often. She teaches them a few recipes to get rolling, and then leaves them for a few weeks to try the plan. I'd take that gig-it's like problem solving and cooking all in one-appeals to my analytical brain that likes to cook and help people!

Just a tip-sometimes during back-to-school sales, places like Superstore have a kitchen "starter kit" with all the utensils, measuring cups/spoons etc. for a good price. I also have tons of hand-me-downs from grandparents/aunts etc. Garage sales might be fruitful for supplies too.

As sad as this is, buy some labels so you can identify your food-this is to avoid arguments, believe me. Set some kitchen ground rules too e.g., expectations for when dishes are done, so you don't have to move someone else's dirty dishes out of the sink 15 times in a week (a friend of mine had so many arguments with his roommates about this that they each bought a rubbermaid container to put their dirty dishes in until they felt like cleaning them, so they could avoid this problem-ewwww!) and when you'll be cooking/cleaning. I ran into trouble when I had a half hour before a night class and my roommate was using the oven, stove, counter etc. I guess these are more "getting along with your roomates tips" than kitchen tips... I've had some wacky roommates-can you tell?

Best of luck with school! If you're so organized you're already thinking about cooking, you'll do just fine!!

My best food experience in DR has been at Majestic Elegance, but that said, I agree wtih Lorenzo and SEAtoNYC- it's hard to find what serious eaters would describe as good food at an all inclusive resort. After attending 3 different all-inclusives, I'm pretty much done with them. Part of the reason I travel is to try different cuisines, and you won't find that on the resort, quite frankly.

Authentic mexican-not tex-mex, not Taco Bell type mexican, real mexican-like tamales

all the stuff I love from summer and miss during the winter: peaches, berries, cherries, tomatos, green beans (maybe even in "extreme bean" form!!) cucumbers (my nana's recipe if I could emulate it)... sooo many more the longer I think about it...

Clown sandwiches!-My mom would take bread, spread peanut butter on it, and then set out a bunch of toppings (e.g., raisins, Cheerios, carrot, etc.) so we could make clown faces on it. It was always a special day when we came home from school for lunch and the little bowls of toppings were set out for clown sandwiches!

"mexican lasagna" looks similar to lasagna, but includes tortillas instead of pasta, and mexican flavours in thes sauce

hi bareneed-I'm also in London Ontario! Small world!

I aim for between 6 and 6:30, but sometimes 7 is when we actually sit down. One of my friends tells me that I should go to the early bird special with the seniors, because we eat so early! Her family eats at 8 at the earliest, but I go to bed by 10 at the latest, so that won't work! I guess from reading all the posts, to each his/her own!

dark chocolate and peanut butter would be my vote too!!