Sauce

My version of seafood cooked in a tomato-vodka sauce is quick, easy and festive. Any type of seafood can be used, but crab is particularly good in the sauce. Jumbo lump crab - large pieces of unbroken meat - is best, but backfin crab meat, which includes broken pieces, can be used. Both are usually sold in cans in the refrigerated section of the seafood department. Along with this colorful pasta dish, serve a crisp radicchio-and-romaine salad and your favorite bottled dressing. A crisp chianti would go well with the high-acid tomato sauce.

I am growing Roma tomatoes in my home garden and plan to use them in soups, stews and chili this winter. The meat is firm with a small amount of water compared to a regular tomato. I freeze regular tomatoes (after blanching and removing the skin) for future use and I plan on freezing the Romas. What is the best technique? I love Romas, also called plum tomatoes. I usually freeze a bunch of them every year. They're fabulous in sauces, soups and stews. Frankly, they're better for cooking than globe tomatoes because they're "meatier" and don't exude so much liquid.

Think "whisk" and the familiar balloon-shaped utensil surely comes to mind -- the bigger, the better for whipping cream and meringues to impressive heights. But for this Sunday's Easter brunches and dinners, cooks are just as likely to pull out the smaller "sauce whisk," essential for marrying the disparate elements of gravies, beurre blancs and other fragile accompaniments. The sauce whisk takes more forms: tightly wound coil, skinny balloon, flat wire. Which performs best? I tested four of these whisks on sauces that would be at home on the Easter table -- a curried mint sauce and a velvety hollandaise.

You might need some celestial navigation to guide you to a Howard County restaurant called Starry Nights.Hidden in the West Friendship Shopping Center, this small, bistro-like restaurant is trying to succeed where its predecessor, Country Road, failed. Even owner John Mitsos admits the location, which is not visible from the road, is "quirky."Mitsos bought Country Road last December, kept the bar-food fare the same for a few months and introduced a new name and menu in March. His concept is upscale food in a relaxed setting, or as his ads tout, "casual fine dining."

IT IS RAINING figs in my back yard. It happens every August. The two fig trees planted in a strip of sorry soil next to our backyard parking pad start producing purple figs at a furious pace.Because some of the branches hang over our parked cars, part of my morning ritual becomes removing fallen figs from car windshields, hoods and rooftops. This summer, with the drought and state prohibition on washing cars at home, speedy removal of the figs has become especially important.Lifting a freshly fallen fig from a hood is a simple matter.

Everyone wants to prepare delicious food today -- but in simple dishes that can be made with a few ingredients.Evidence of this trend surfaced several years ago when cookbooks that highlighted recipes with modest ingredient lists started to appear. One such book that caught my eye was Rozanne Gold's "Recipes 1-2-3" (Viking, 1996), a collection of dishes with only three ingredients. I was so fascinated by this concept that I began walking down grocery aisles challenging myself to devise inventions with a trio of ingredients.

It didn't take long for Steve Kurzweil and his chef, Bruce Studler, to realize that dishes like duck with glazed cherries and spiced pecans weren't going to fly at their new restaurant in Reisterstown.Last November, a year and a half after they bought the Forest Inn at auction and opened it as Reisters Desire, they changed the name to Reisters Country Inn and changed the menu from New American to casual American. In the process they lowered prices. All of this worked very well with the restaurant's knotty pine and Tiffany lamp interior.

When the first Paolo's opened here a decade ago (another one followed in Towson), Baltimore had never seen anything quite like it. Cal-Ital had arrived: chic, fresh Italian food that included great salads and inventive pizzas and pastas. Paolo's contemporary setting had as much pizazz as the food, and Baltimore loved it. The only downside was the noise level at this always busy, stylish bistro.Over the years Paolo's Harborplace got a little worn around the edges, as restaurants do when they age, so the parent company, Capital Restaurant Concepts, closed it last year for a complete makeover and expansion.

Set in a residential neighborhood a few blocks from the State House, Northwoods restaurant offers quaint and homey fine dining.But the real lure is a four-course dinner special for $26.95, available every night except Saturday, that includes any appetizer, salad, main dish and dessert from the menu. They also usually have several specials that can be substituted for entrees on the menu.On a Friday night, my two dinner companions and I went and found the place moderately crowded. It was dimly lighted with a rather hip-looking bar framed by crates of wine bottles.

Item: Create a Meal! Oven Roasted chicken flavorsWhat you get: 4 servingsCost: About $3Preparation time: 20 to 25 minutesReview: Barbecue Chicken and Chicken and Stuffing are among the latest additions to Green Giant's Create a Meal! line of meal starters. While nobody would mistake these casseroles as made from scratch, the frozen bags of vegetables and sauce (you add 1 pound of uncooked chicken strips) are convenient. The Barbecue flavor offers chicken, potatoes, lots of carrots, green beans and corn in a mild sauce.

When veteran restaurateur and chef Robert Kinkead decided to open a seafood restaurant in Annapolis where Phillips was, the news created quite a stir. After all, his Washington establishment, Kinkead's, has been one of D.C.'s best-known eating places for decades. Here was someone with a known record coming in, taking over a dead space and planning to offer fresh, classic American seafood dishes, everything local when possible. It would be less expensive than his original restaurant, but the quality would be the same.

Among the attractions at the Shoppes at Shipley's Grant are a Starbucks, a Cold Stone Creamery and a Coal Fire pizza restaurant. Coal Fire is not a part of a chain - at least not yet - but I think most visitors would assume it is. It has the rosy suburban looks, streamlined menu and commitment to quality ingredients that customers have come to expect from fast-casual chains. Coal Fire is a project of the folks behind Nottingham's tavern, and they have obviously worked hard to develop this concept.

The bonus for driving out to Ceazar Restaurant in Elkridge is a trip to its adjoining parent store, Ceazar (formerly Sizar) International Market. It's a great place to buy crates of dates, sacks of basmati rice and honey-soaked pastries. It's fun to browse here, too, because it's the kind of place that reunites Americans with roots in the Mediterranean and Middle East with the cherished grocery products from the old country - "Ah, Kurukavechi Turkish Coffee, at last I've found you." Ceazar Restaurant, which opened this year, is every bit worth seeking out. It's just a few minutes off of Interstate 95, and we had little trouble finding its business park address.

First impressions can be misleading. Especially if your preconceived notions are misleading. My preconceived notions of the new Frank & Nic's near Oriole Park at Camden Yards had to do with the talk I had with one of the owners, Frank Zafonte. Somehow Frank & Nic's sounded like a swanky lounge when he described it, with booths and granite-topped bars and a burgundy-and-gold color scheme. Zafonte mentioned the black-and-white photos of Baltimore, but he didn't mention the huge flat-screen TV that hangs over the main dining room.

City dwellers who are used to urban coffeehouses and wine bars, normally found in renovated storefronts and converted townhouses, will have a hard time relating to Bliss, the new coffee and wine bar in Riverside. (It's not in nearby Bel Air, in spite of what the Web site says.) When I say new, I mean really new. Bliss is one of the first tenants in the new Riverside shopping center. Everything about it is shiny new, from the walls of windows to the casual, contemporary furnishings to the industrial chic exposed pipes to the flat-screen TV. (Not something you expect in either a coffeehouse or wine bar.)

ilovepasta.org If you just can't get enough pasta, this site from the National Pasta Association will satisfy your cravings with dozens of global recipes, cooking tips and sauce pairings. A bonus: directions for kids' pasta crafts.

Fix, Freeze, Feast By Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik You've Got It Made By Diane Phillips Harvard Common Press / 2008 / $14.95 The latest book from Diane Phillips, who calls herself "the Diva of Do-Ahead," has a range of recipes that can go into the refrigerator for a day or two, or the freezer for longer. That's a helpful option if you'd rather not wait for your made-ahead dish to thaw, or if you're running out of room in the freezer. Among the 150 recipes is a good selection of appetizers and "small bites," such as Smoked Salmon-Dill Puffs and Prosciutto Palmiers, that can be prepared ahead for a dinner party.

Fresh fish, roasted on a bed of herbs to woo an important date. A simple chocolate mousse made silky with tofu instead of cream. A grilled-cheese sandwich dressed up with Boursin, portobello mushrooms and clarified butter. As we looked back on the hundreds of recipes we've published in the Taste section in 2007, we found ourselves drawn to the ones that used simple techniques to elevate the classics. These recipes offer a great blend of comfort and surprise. We've picked 10 of our favorite recipes from this year to share with you one more time.

Just when I thought I knew everything about barbecuing ribs, a different treatment rocked my world. The cooking technique violated several premises of my once rock-solid rules of ribs. First of all, it called for cooking the ribs without any rub or sauce. Much of my time on this planet has been devoted to making rubs and mop sauces for ribs. Yet this rack went on the fire carrying only salt and pepper. Secondly, the ribs were wrapped in aluminum foil as they cooked. Again this was against my nature.

I am growing Roma tomatoes in my home garden and plan to use them in soups, stews and chili this winter. The meat is firm with a small amount of water compared to a regular tomato. I freeze regular tomatoes (after blanching and removing the skin) for future use and I plan on freezing the Romas. What is the best technique? I love Romas, also called plum tomatoes. I usually freeze a bunch of them every year. They're fabulous in sauces, soups and stews. Frankly, they're better for cooking than globe tomatoes because they're "meatier" and don't exude so much liquid.