Quinoa

With the economy in crisis, eating well may seem like a luxury. But when we looked back over the hundreds of recipes we published in our You & Taste section this year, we took heart: Among them were many stars that could be made without breaking the bank. We've chosen eight to share with you once more, including an easy orange-glazed pork; a simple panzanella that will use up all your garden vegetables and stale bread; a celebratory but simple chocolate souffle; and Maryland fried chicken unexpectedly flavored with Old Bay seasoning.

Staff meals, restaurants on January vacation the problem with asking restaurants to cut down on salt. An article in the Atlantic says that attempts by the Food and Drug Administration to coerce restaurants to cut down on salt are misguided at best. Restaurant meals account for a small amount of daily salt intake, says the article's author, an interventional cardiologist and professional chef. It's a good, provocative read. Bryan Voltaggio expains why one particular tattoo keeps getting him dirty looks from the Transportation Safety Authority ( Eater DC )

In his senior year of high school, Jared Rhine took his first full time job at a restaurant - the family-run Italian restaurant Rillo's in Carlisle, Pa. He started as a busboy, did food preparation and washed dishes before eventually moving to the back of the house as a cook. "I loved it so much; I've never looked back. " Now, the Butchers Hill resident, 31, is going into his sixth month as executive chef at Mount Vernon's City Cafe. Rhine has been busy preparing some new items on his menu for Baltimore Restaurant week (Friday through Aug. 5)

He's an office worker who runs at least 30 miles a week and has already logged marathons in 38 states. She's an artist who spends much of her day on her feet preparing for shows -- with breaks to walk the dog. They're slim and healthy 50- somethings. But, to their utter annoyance, they both have high cholesterol. Kelly Kietzke and Diane Getty of South Baltimore know they can't overcome their genes. They could re-evaluate their diets. But what to strip? What to add? Their meals already seemed pretty healthful.

FOOTBALL SEASON IS IN full swing and with it comes the need for a tortilla chip that satisfies even if the game we're watching doesn't. Blue-corn chips allow us to feel a little virtuous, because a study by researchers in Mexico and Venezuela published last year found that tortillas made with blue corn are higher in protein, lower in starch and have a lower glycemic index than those made with white or yellow corn. And in the right light, blue-corn chips can even look Ravens purple. Current and former members of The Sun's Taste staff conducted a blind sampling of four kinds of blue-corn chips, both unadorned and with a mild salsa.

Fresh Fields, the fast-growing, Rockville-based chain of natural-foods supermarkets, is negotiating to open a store on the Mount Washington Mill property in northern Baltimore.The retailer, which has attracted widespread attention for selling organically grown produce and hormone-free meat in 25,000-square-foot stores, is interested in leasing and rehabilitating the mill's forge building off Smith Avenue, said Sam Himmelrich, who leads the mill's owners.No deal has been signed. But Fresh Fields wants to open a Baltimore-area store by the middle of 1995, said President Mark Ordan.

A reader called to tell me that the Boomerang Pub (1110 S. Charles St.) has just started serving lunch. She raved for so long about the chili that I called chef Scott Heckendorn to see what made it so special.It is, he says, a "Texas-style chili," with chunks of lamb, veal and beef - "something like Michael Rork's chili." Heckendorn used to be the maitre d' at Hampton's in Harbor Court when Rork was the chef there. "I always had a culinary degree," he says. "And I got tired working the front of the house."

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is reprinted here. This week, Mary Gallagher, dietetic intern, weighs in nutrition guidelines. The MyPlate icon, seen on http://www.choosemyplate.gov , has replaced the USDA Food Pyramid as the premier guide to more healthful eating. The MyPlate message is designed around the five food groups people should eat every day: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy.

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is reprinted here. This week, Deb Schulze weighs in on fiber. With all the discussions about the health benefits of fiber, people wonder how much they need. Here are the daily recommendations from a leading research group, the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies: • For ages 50 and younger: Men should eat 38 grams and women 25 grams.

SALARY: $13,300 AGE: 43 YEARS ON JOB: 2 1/2 How she got started: : Carla Lucente grew up in the restaurant business, helping her parents run their Italian restaurant. After high school she went to work as a loan officer for six years and then worked for her family's home construction business. At the age of 36 she quit work and began culinary school at the Baltimore International College. After graduating, she opened her own catering business and worked part-time at Trader Joe's in Annapolis.