Baked

Labor Day holiday gatherings can be especially festive because they're often that last chance for an all-out al fresco bash combined with a nostalgic goodbye to summer. For cookouts on the beach, picnics in the pines or homey family gatherings in the back yard, this 30-minute transportable casserole of mildly spicy island flavors works deliciously.After you've prepared and baked the bean casserole at home, simply cover with foil while it's still hot and then wrap a thick towel around it to hold the warmth.

Now that warm weather has arrived for good, my husband and I have opened our sun porch (which is shut during the winter months) and have spent the last several weeks relaxing and eating there. Opening our sun porch is always a signal to me that it is time to change to a more casual style of entertaining.This past weekend, for example, we invited friends from Paris, who were visiting their son at college, for wine and hors d'oeuvres on our porch. I baked Cumin Pepper Crisps, a new recipe in my files, for the occasion.

When I get home a little later than expected, I still want a home-cooked meal, even though time is short. That's when I love having a made-ahead meal stashed away in my freezer. When I follow a few simple techniques, my family thinks these from-the-freezer dinners taste just like freshly made.* To freeze a baked casserole, cool it completely, then wrap it in moisture- and vaporproof material, such as freezer paper or heavy aluminum foil, or seal it with a tight-fitting lid. The tight wrapping will prevent freezer burn.

Frozen piecrusts have become kitchen staples. We know this even if we don't necessarily agree with the idea - but we all acknowledge the convenience of these products, and the fact that a delicious homemade filling can provide ample compensation. We tasted five frozen crusts baked with pumpkin-pie filling. After the tasting, our six judges lamented that none stacked up to homemade. Yet, despite the grumbling, three of the five crusts earned above-average scores. We sought the qualities we look for in a homemade crust: flaky texture, buttery flavor, nicely browned hue, pretty edging.

Golden Arm RestaurantGolden Arm Restaurant, 6354 York Road, (410) 377-4019.fTC From the outside, the Golden Arm on York Road, a short distance above Northern Parkway, looks like most other strip shopping center restaurants. Nondescript. On the inside, however, it's entirely different. Not haute cuisine, granted, but comfortable, flavorful food served in large quantities. The atmosphere, too, is comfortable -- warm and clubby and enhanced by a friendly staff. The pan-fried catfish, one of the night's specials, was sweet and perfectly cooked in a light breading.

Thompson's Sea Girt House, 5919 York RoadThis popular establishment has been part of Baltimore's restaurant scene for more than 100 years. There are many traditional dishes on the menu, as well as touches of Spanish fare, which reflect the change in ownership several years ago. I found the Onion Soup a la Anciana unusual and quite good with its light base and sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Some of the other offerings were not as flavorful. The $13.95 four-course dinner special, offered weeknights, seems to draw many diners.

Legend has it that every time her husband brings one of Maria Springer's freshly-baked plum cakes into the office, the building tilts from the stampede to get a taste.Perhaps it's her soft-spoken European accent, her cache of family recipes, even her training in chemistry that's responsible for Maria Springer's reputation as a formidable cook. She's especially known for her desserts, those fruit and nut-studded, liquor-enhanced, delicately flaked, filled-with-whipped-cream and dusted-with-powdered-sugar creations that one associates with the coffee houses of Vienna.

Imagine having to choose the best chocolate chip cookie among 100 plates of the delectable favorites -- all baked fresh by eager youngsters hoping to be the grand champion at the Carroll County 4-H/FFA Fair.Better yet, imagine having to choose the grand champion in dozens of categories of baked goods after nibbling on countless breads, muffins, cookies, pies and cakes. There are 21 categories of breads, rolls and muffins; 14 of cookies; 13 of cakes; three of pies; and 11 of decorated cakes.

Ann Schwarez of Woodstock requested "a McKenzie king cake like that from New Orleans." The cake, she wrote, "is iced with confectioners' sugar and has a cinnamon yeast bread texture. It is also decorated with gold, green and purple."Connie Burrill of Forestburg, S.D., responded with what she believed to be the recipe requested. She wrote: "It is called Mardi Gras King Cake. ... I obtained [it] from a calendar from New Orleans which carried this information: 'The French settlers introduced this cake which is baked in Louisiana bakeries from the Twelfth Night, Jan. 6, up to Ash Wednesday.

If pizza and pizzerias had trends, the latest would be the coal-fired oven. (I say if they had trends, because somehow pizza is one food above such things.) These ovens, which burn anthracite coal, produce such a hot fire that a pie can be fully baked in less than five minutes. Coal-fired pizzas should have thin crusts and thin toppings so that they cook all the way through before they burn. (Expect a bit of char here and there, which coal-fire aficionados feel is part of the pizza's charm.