Cookbook

With the unmistakable aromas of curry, ginger and other spices lingering in the air, Andrea Ulrich followed the lamb stew recipe word-for-word, careful not to miss a step. But she skipped a critical part of the cooking process: tasting the finished product. "It smells good," the 16-year-old junior at Eastern Technical High in Essex said as she stirred the mix of spices, some of which she has never used. "But I can't even try it because I'm allergic to cinnamon." About two dozen juniors from the school's culinary program finished their work yesterday as the official testers of recipes destined to be included in a 250-page cookbook that is to be distributed in the United States and internationally.

thejoykitchen .com This Web site, created by the authors and editors of The Joy of Cooking, allows members to browse and contribute to recipes, cooking tips, techniques and online discussion forums. There is also a wealth of historical information about the history of the famous cookbook, from its initial publication in 1931 to its 75th-anniversary edition.

Marlin Barnett Hopkins loved his mother's "party spaghetti," which was nothing more than a jar of Prego tossed with shrimp, smoked sausage and ground beef. Janice Letmate used to prepare a shrimp Creole that her children savored. And Steven R. Shores was partial to his sister's homemade Jewish apple cake. Those recipes and dozens more have been collected in a 78-page cookbook that is being released today not by the Baltimore Culinary Institute, but, tellingly, by a part of the city state's attorney office.

Did you hear that the National Organization for Women just published a cookbook?No, really.It's no joke, although NOW -- which used to have buttons saying "Don't Assume I Cook" -- admits it sounds like one.The group even named the book "Don't Assume I Don't Cook."See? Feminists do have a sense of humor.The book is dominated by the kinds of down-to-earth dishes I call real-people food: red beans and rice, Italian sausage lasagna, chocolate cheesecake and appetizer spinach balls. You'll find lots of salads and one-dish dinners, and there are two chapters of desserts.

The fruits of her labor are in jars now. So are the vegetables.And, once again, as she has for the past 42 years, Betsy Hedeman of Relay is taking her canned produce and preserves to the Maryland State Fair in Timonium, which starts Friday. She has been a perennial prize winner in various categories for years, although the coveted first-place blue for bread-and-butter pickles has eluded her."I can't win. I don't know why," the 75-year-old Hedeman says.She's hopeful that will change. She loves her pickle recipe, Catherine Baldwin's Pickles, named after a friend.

If you're like most of us, you could go to your refrigerator right now and they would be in the bin: carrots, celery and parsley. The "forgotten" produce.You almost always have to buy too much for a single recipe, so you store the leftovers. And they seem to keep forever. Now, it's time to think out of the bin.Carrots, with their bright, sweet taste, celery with its salty crunch and pungent parsley are bold enough to star in dishes of their own. You just need a sprinkling of imagination.We asked several cooks and cookbook authors what they do to give these humble vegetables top billing at mealtime.

Duchess and dieting: She wrote the bookOK, so Sarah, the Duchess of York, doesn't cook. She readily admits it. But she still has to eat and feed her two daughters, she says.As a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, the former wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, who has battled her own weight problems, has come out with a cookbook -- her second -- with recipes and advice on how to lead a healthy lifestyle.In "Dieting With the Duchess" (Simon & Schuster, 1999), she offers such easy meal suggestions as a PB&J bagel: Spread 1 small toasted oat bran bagel with 1 1/2 tablespoons strawberry spreadable fruit and 1 tablespoon peanut butter.

Choose the most tender young vegetables for crudites. Pare only if necessary, then cut into sticks of chunks.-- The New Doubleday CookbookPub Date: 8/30/98@

It's a peachy time of year.Crates of plump, juicy peaches are everywhere, from roadside stands to farmers' markets to produce trucks. No wonder.Maryland is having a banner peach season. Area orchards are expected to yield 10.5 million pounds of peaches, almost a million pounds more than last year, according to the state Department of Agriculture."It's because of the warm winter," says Les Dietz, a packing-house supervisor for Baugher's Orchards in Westminster, adding that peaches ripened earlier than usual because of the weather.

WE CLING TO favorite foods. A cherished recipe can be like an old sweater: It feels comfortable long after it has gone out of fashion. And for that reason, we like to keep it around.Marian Burros was reminded of this when she poked fun at the dated dishes - including some from her old cookbooks - that were served at a deja vu dinner party in Bethesda. I was at that 1985 party, and I recall eating sweet-and-sour hot-dogs speared with toothpicks, Swedish meatballs, something jiggling in tomato aspic and various sauce-choked entrees.

Michael James Cortezi, a World War II veteran and retired member of the Baltimore sheriff's department who had been assigned to the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, died Thursday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Lifespring Hampton Meadows, a Towson assisted-living facility. He was 86. Mr. Cortezi was born in Baltimore and raised on West 23rd Street. He attended Polytechnic Institute and later earned his General Educational Development certificate. Mr. Cortezi enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 and served with an anti-aircraft battery in the Pacific.

It's time for The Baltimore Sun's annual holiday cookie contest. Send your best recipes to Kate Shatzkin, Food Editor, The Baltimore Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21278; fax them to 410-783-2519; or e-mail them to food@baltsun.com with "cookie contest" in the subject line. The deadline is Nov. 5. We will select the best to be published in early December. This year, we're offering an extra incentive - cookbook prizes for those whose recipes are chosen.

She was an immigrant, uncertain of her English, marooned all day in a New York apartment while her husband was at work. So, by paging through an old Italian cookbook and by tapping an "intuitive understanding" of Italian food, she taught herself to cook. That is how Marcella Hazan, 84, describes the beginnings of her highly successful career as the cookbook author who became known as the queen of Italian cooking in America. When I read this account in Amarcord, Hazan's recently published memoir, I was taken aback.

It's time for The Baltimore Sun's annual holiday cookie contest. Send your best recipes to Kate Shatzkin, Food Editor, The Baltimore Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21278; fax them to 410-783-2519; or e-mail them to food@baltsun.com with "cookie contest" in the subject line. Include your address and phone number. The deadline is Nov. 5. We will publish the best in early December. This year, we're offering cookbook prizes for those whose recipes are chosen.

cookie contest It's time for The Baltimore Sun's annual holiday cookie contest. Send your best recipes to Kate Shatzkin, Food Editor, The Baltimore Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore 21278; fax them to 410-783-2519; or e-mail them to food@baltsun.com with "cookie contest" in the subject line. The deadline is Nov. 5. We will select the best to be published in early December. This year, we're offering an extra incentive - cookbook prizes for those whose recipes are chosen.

If I were going to the Outer Banks this year, as our family often does some week in summer, I'd be as busy poring over my pantry and cookbooks right now as I would be figuring out how many bathing suits to take. Which spices would be best with fresh seafood? How many packets of yeast would I need to slip into the luggage to try a new recipe for cinnamon rolls? And I'd be dreaming of meals out, too: Wouldn't the barbecue at the Duck Deli taste comforting after our six-plus-hour drive from Baltimore?

Every once in a while, you cook a dish that captures the essence of the season. That happened to me recently when I made tarragon chicken breasts with leeks. The leeks turned an appetizing pale-green color. The chicken turned out plump and white. And the pan sauce, made with chicken stock and flavored with a shot of lemon juice and tarragon, was soft and delicate. This dish looked and tasted like spring. I was so taken with the dish that a few days later I picked up The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper, the cookbook from which the recipe had come, and telephoned its author.

First came the Beatles. Then the Mini Coopers. The latest British invasion? The chefs. Here's "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver pitching his new 446-page cooking instructional, Cook With Jamie, showing up on the Today show and debuting a new show on the Food Network, Jamie at Home. Here's Nigella Lawson, who has a new Food Network show, Nigella Express, as well as a new quick-meals cookbook with the same name. And here's Sam Stern, the British teen cooking sensation, encouraging America's youth to put down the Wii and pick up the spatula in his new cookbook, Real Food, Real Fast.

Howard Community College is accepting student registration for the winter and spring 2008 credit sessions. The four-week winter credit session begins Wednesday and ends Jan. 25. Late registration is available through Friday. The spring credit semester begins Jan. 26 for weekend classes and Jan. 28 for weekday classes. Although the college is closed for winter break through Tuesday, phone and Web site registration are available for newly admitted and previously enrolled credit students using their college ID and password.

tastingmenu.com/allaboutapples If you're intrigued by the cooking of the Pacific Northwest and autumn has you in the mood for apples, you'll want to download this free online cookbook from the chef of Lampreia, a noted Seattle restaurant. The dishes feature many of the apple varieties grown in Washington.