Canadian Bacon

A grilled cheese sandwich must rank high among the first foods people learn to cook. It requires only bread, butter and cheese, and who doesn't have these few items in the kitchen? It takes so little skill. If you can slice bread and top it with cheese, you're halfway there. The only challenging aspect to the sandwich is flipping it over in the skillet. Make a grilled cheese sandwich, and you're assured of a hot meal. But at some point you may want to get a little more adventurous. Change the cheese.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the theory of Celeste Gebler and Joe Iacia, owners of Luna Bella in Hickory Ridge Village Center. Choosing the name was the most difficult aspect of running the restaurant, according to Gebler. "After several screaming matches, I told Joe that if this is the hardest thing we've ever done, we're home free," she said. One of the names they considered was used by another Italian restaurant in Howard County, Mangia, knocking it out of contention. Also rejected was Ciao, which means both hello and good-bye in Italian.

The blue moon is the second full moon to shine in a single month. This doesn't happen too often - therefore, the expression "once in a blue moon."The Blue Moon Dining House, opened just two months ago in Fells Point, is a rare find worthy of its name. It serves modestly priced breakfast, lunch and dinner and is especially adept at the morning meal. Ethereal biscuits, gooey cinnamon rolls and crisp hash browns are certainly "heavenly bodies."Blue Moon's menu is printed with the command, "Support our space program," the front door bears a poster for the Hubble Space Telescope, and the bathroom is home to a cool glow-in-the-dark moon.

The Village RoostWhere: Cross Keys Inn, Village of Cross KeysHours: Breakfast served 7 a.m.-11 a.m. weekdays, 7 a.m.-noon weekendsCredit cards accepted: Major credit cardsFeatures: Power breakfastNon-smoking section? YesCall: (410) 435-0101Prices: $2-$9.95*** People have been power breakfasting at the Cross Keys Inn's Village Roost for as long as I can remember. The location is convenient -- right off the Jones Falls Expressway -- and you never have to worry about parking. Seats are comfortable, the service is good, the dining rooms are reasonably quiet, and the tables are large enough to spread out your papers for a working breakfast.

Generally, an empty dining room is not a good sign. So when my friends and I showed up at the Crease in Towson, a venerable bar catering to college grads and businesspeople, we were a little worried. At 7 p.m., there was no one in either of the two dining rooms.I wondered if I had been horribly misinformed. Food, I thought, could not possibly be the reason to come to this handsome, time-seasoned, brick and mahogany bar, where the wide-plank floors have been worn down over the years by beer-quaffing crowds.

There's no reason to go hungry at the A-1 Crab Haven. The portions are hefty, the courses numerous, the prices reasonable and the selection, especially of seafood and the namesake crab, extensive.Unfortunately, the food didn't always taste as good as it looked -- or sounded.But that didn't seem to deter the Saturday night crowd that filled the comfortable dining room of this Essex restaurant. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, especially the folks in the adjacent bar who were carrying on -- loudly -- as Duke beat Kentucky in the NCAA basketball tournament.

The scene repeated itself over and over yesterday. A hungry diner would walk up to the Homewood Delicatessen, look through the darkened window with a frown, then finally catch the yellow sign in the window.It was a death notice."Closed. We thank everyone for their support," read the handwritten sign telling customers that the Homewood Deli was out of business."We were just here last week," said a surprised Thelma Gross, who had come to the deli with Doris Carroll, a co-worker at the Board of Education.

Bravo, bread soups. Not one bread crumb goes to waste.For centuries, Italians have turned leftover loaves into scrumptious recycled repasts. Stale bread plumps as it absorbs the luscious flavors from the warm broth. It softens into a glorious texture, filled with the scent of fresh vegetables, legumes and herbs.Not so long ago, it was difficult to find rustic, artisan-style breads, the key ingredient in these soups. But now coarse-textured, hard-crusted beauties are sold in almost every supermarket.

This week's menusEach day of the week offers a menu aimed at a different aspect of meal planning. There's a family meal, a kids' menu aimed at younger tastes, a heat-and-eat meal that recycles leftovers, a budget meal that employs a cost- cutting strategy, a meatless or "less meat" dish for people who may not be strict vegetarians but are trying to cut down on meat, an express meal that requires little or no preparation, and an entertaining menu that's quick.Sunday/FamilyNo...