Salad

I last ate at Peter's Inn in 1993. It was still calling itself a biker's bar, although maybe with a wink, and I described the food as "home-cooked with a little pizazz." A couple of years later, Bud Tiffany and his wife, Karin, who was working in the kitchen at the time, bought the place from owner Peter Denzer. They've made a few changes, to say the least, although not so much in the bar itself. The place still has its biker-bar charm, but it's a very cleaned-up version. (Is there such a thing as biker-bar chic?

Stone Mill Gourmet 2 Go Green Spring Station, 10751 Falls Road, Lutherville -- 410-821-1310 Hours --10 a.m-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday The do-it-yourself craze, so popular in home repairs, has spilled over to carryout food. A prime example of this is Gourmet 2 Go, the new addition to the Stone Mill Bakery operation in Green Spring Station. This stylish dispensary is adjacent to the Stone Mill Cafe, stretching out in a space that once housed the Brooklandville post office.

When Ilan Hall, winner of Bravo's Top Chef 2, was challenged to come up with an amuse bouche in half an hour, he made a deviled egg. But not just any deviled egg. Instead of the standard mayonnaise and mustard, its center held a mixture of fig paste, egg yolks, chili-lime corn nuts and pear nectar, topped with fried salami. That's inspiration for those less-than-top-chefs among us who soon will be staring at lots of lovingly decorated Easter eggs - and wondering how to consume them. Fortunately, plenty of recipes make use of humdrum hard-boiled eggs.

Capitol City Brewing Company Light Street Pavilion, 301 S. Light St., Baltimore -- 410-539-7468 Hours --11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily Restaurant's estimate --5-6 minutes Ready in --8 minutes The Capitol Cobb salad, $11.55, cost the same as the salad from Southern Accents and tasted better. It had longer strips of soft chicken and more blue cheese. Both the bacon and egg came crumbled, and slices of avocado rounded out this solid salad. Know of a good carryout place? Write to sam.sessa@baltsun.

* Item: Whole Foods Salad Dressings* What you get: 10 ounces* Cost: About $2.40* Preparation time: Pour straight from bottle* Review: Armed with recipes from the Whole Foods Web site, I made a trip to Fresh Fields in Mount Washington to find these salad dressings. It was worth the effort. I have found few products as versatile as these -- all of which taste as if you whisked them up yourself. The Roasted Garlic Ranch tasted great over a salad that included portobello mushrooms, olives and mozzarella.

Capri Pizza and Sub Express -- don't let the name fool you. Yes, the restaurant makes pizza, but if you ask anyone who has eaten the food, it's more than a pizza place.Nestled in the Southgate Market Place shopping center on Hospital Drive in Glen Burnie since 1990, owners Karen and Joe Misuraca specialize in New York-style Italian food. Joe, a native of Sicily, moved to New York years ago, married and relocated to Glen Burnie in 1990.On most days, there's a line of customers at the register waiting to place or pick up an order.

Briny Chesapeake oysters have been a culinary draw at Maryland restaurants for ages. One would think they'd be the highlight of a meal at O'Brien's Oyster Bar and Grill in Annapolis, considering its name.On a recent weeknight, we put that theory to a test. We sat down for a meal at O'Brien's and ordered oysters three ways.The first to arrive were icy-cold raw oysters on the half-shell. They were exactly what we hoped for -- fresh, plump and beautiful. But the baked oysters Rockefeller were hindered by a dense cap of spinach, and the fried oysters were overcooked.

If you like rice and salad and tend toward vegetarian meals, try the rice-salad recipe given below. This week's second recipe is for matzo meal rolls.Susan Marie of Forest Hill wrote that she wanted a rice salad that was once printed on an Uncle Ben's rice box. The dish had several different vegetables in it.Her answer came from Doris Wachter of Baltimore, who noted that the recipe -- called pebble salad -- was from a contest sponsored by Uncle Ben's rice.Barbara Waddell of Catonsville requested a recipe for matzo meal rolls.

Turn any oil-based salad dressing into a creamy-style dressing by whirling it in a blender until it has slightly thickened.-- Food Lover's TiptionaryPub Date: 9/06/98

Tell Marc Cassel you don't like beets, and you'll end up eating your words. That's what happened to the staff at Dallas' Green Room restaurant, where he is executive chef."

The third-graders at a Catonsville elementary school recently took a break from the usual cafeteria fare of corn dogs and pizza to sample organic, field-grown salad greens mixed with black olives, apple cider vinegar and oil, Maryland strawberries and honey. And they became chefs for a day, mixing their own salads and making their own dressing. Their experience last week was a culmination of a three-morning seminar, called "Days of Taste," which teaches children about what's produced on Maryland farms, tells them about non-processed foods and encourages them to grow a little more adventurous at mealtime.

Someday, some unlucky family member is going to have to drive me to the emergency room, where my rapid-onset stomach pains and vicious headache will cause medical professionals to perform many tests to no avail. Appendicitis? Meningitis? Encephalitis? Writhing, delirious with fever, I will manage nonetheless to mutter an incongruous phrase that will prove instrumental in the diagnosis of my condition. Maybe it will be: "Harry and David currant jelly." But it could just as well be: "pickled beets," "minced clams" or "cranberry muffin mix."

237-239 W. Read St., 410-462-6200. Open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. The 200 block of W. Read St. is one of Baltimore's quaint treasures. Its small shops give it the feel of a village tucked underneath the roar of the city. Zachi Cafe & Gourmet Market is a relatively new resident, moving in last November. It has a few tables and chairs, but when I was there, most of the people sitting were simply pausing as they picked up takeout orders. The fare is Middle Eastern; it's boldly spiced and much of it is wrapped in pita.

I last ate at Peter's Inn in 1993. It was still calling itself a biker's bar, although maybe with a wink, and I described the food as "home-cooked with a little pizazz." A couple of years later, Bud Tiffany and his wife, Karin, who was working in the kitchen at the time, bought the place from owner Peter Denzer. They've made a few changes, to say the least, although not so much in the bar itself. The place still has its biker-bar charm, but it's a very cleaned-up version. (Is there such a thing as biker-bar chic?

Hamilton Tavern is the noisiest restaurant I've ever eaten in. OK, maybe not noisier than RA Sushi with its loud rock and roll, but for a restaurant where no music is playing, it was the noisiest. Blame the handsome decor: the hardwood floors, the pressed-tin ceilings, the bare benches and tables, the interesting farm implements that are an integral part of the split-level dining room. (You open the front door with a wooden scythe handle.) No TVs, thank goodness, to add to the chaos. It's a great room with a built-in patina, only it's loud.

Should you decide to forgo the bread in this shrimp-salad sandwich, you'll be just as satisfied with this recipe as a main-course salad. I know this because I've become addicted to the salad since I first happened on the combination of sweet shrimp, spicy sausage and soft bitter greens about two months ago. The sandwich idea came about recently, after my friend began to reminiscence about France's Provence region and our first introduction to the delicious...

It was a salad that got started by mistake. I was in the garden, weeding between the shallots, when the blade from the weeding tool accidentally nicked a shallot. It was an inadvertent harvest. This happens more often than I care to admit. I will be puttering around and I uproot something or step on some promising crop. It is a part of gardening, and I have learned to salvage dishes from these unwitting moves. The other day, for instance, the suddenly harvested shallot became part of the dressing for a salad.

Can you identify whether this is a weed or flower? (Photo sent through HGIC's Web site.) It looks like that invasive Canadian thistle. I'm afraid to wait any longer because that stuff takes over gardens! This plant is about to have a single large bloom. Happy news. You have a perennial poppy. It will probably be red or orange, though there are a few other colors, such as pink or white. Because of arthritis, I need to garden differently. Got any ideas? Can I grow vegetables in pots? Are tomato plants too big for pots?

When we returned after being away on vacation for several weeks, some good friends suggested that we all catch up by having a pizza supper together. The hosts offered to pick up several varieties of pies from a local pizzeria (one that specializes in inventive creations) and to make a couple of sorbets for dessert. I volunteered to be in charge of the salad. At first I was going to toss together my mainstay "insalata" of mixed greens coated with a red-wine dressing, but in the back of my mind was the memory of an unusual recipe for a salad of arugula and baby spinach dressed in sherry vinaigrette garnished with thinly sliced cantaloupe and prosciutto.

Stone Mill Gourmet 2 Go Green Spring Station, 10751 Falls Road, Lutherville -- 410-821-1310 Hours --10 a.m-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday The do-it-yourself craze, so popular in home repairs, has spilled over to carryout food. A prime example of this is Gourmet 2 Go, the new addition to the Stone Mill Bakery operation in Green Spring Station. This stylish dispensary is adjacent to the Stone Mill Cafe, stretching out in a space that once housed the Brooklandville post office.