Takeout

It was while she was serving dinner to her kids in 2008 and their dad was out campaigning for president, that Michelle Obama hatched a modest daydream: a vegetable garden on the White House grounds. She'd recently had a conversation with her children's pediatrician about their eating habits, and the poor health of children he was seeing in his practice. It shook her up — he was treating obesity and diabetes in kids — and she resolved to make better food choices for her family. She never said anything to Barack Obama about a vegetable garden (she told interviewers this week that she didn't want to jinx things with a "what if" question)

Aunt Erma's Bakery Pennsylvania Dutch Market, 11121 York Road, Cockeysville Open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursdays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays (Thanksgiving week: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, closed Thanksgiving, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday). Call 410-316-1506. You can't have a Thanksgiving feast without pie for dessert, and for the pie-challenged cooks, Aunt Erma's Bakery comes to the rescue. Erma Riehl, who told me she was an aunt "some 20 times over," is the proprietor of a bakery in the Pennsylvania Dutch Market in Cockeysville.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Cynthia Powell and Stephen Vajda are unabashed Dumpster divers who get much of their weekly food from garbage cans. The two educated Berkeley, Calif., professionals -- who are not hungry or otherwise in need -- say they are motivated by a growing movement with a mantra that wasting resources, especially food, is shameful. Powell and Vajda estimate that they can save up to $100 a week by dining on day-old bread, vegetables and sometimes chocolate from commercial garbage cans.

International Food Market 7004 Reisterstown Road, 410-358-4757. Open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday You don't have to speak Russian to buy food at the International Food Market, a combination deli and grocery in the Colonial Village shopping center on Reisterstown Road, but it doesn't hurt. Most of the signs and the conversation in the store are in Russian. When I visited, I simply smiled and pointed. There is a huge meat counter, with more kinds of salami than there were states in the former Soviet Union.

Crab Shanty, a family-owned Ellicott City landmark since 1978, is changing its menu, its look, even its name. "The changes had to happen," said William C. King III, who founded the restaurant with his father, William King Jr. "We have to attract a different clientele to stay in business. " Work began earlier this month and is expected to continue through early November. Outdoor seating will be added, the bar area will be made larger, and new colors, chairs and lighting will brighten the inside.

Aberdeen Forshaye Deshawn, 21, of the 100 block of Holloway Road, was charged Monday with being a fugitive from Virginia. Shona L. Murray, 42, of the 4900 block of Villa Point Drive, was charged Monday with failing to appear in court for a case in which she was charged with second-degree assault, violating a protective order and theft less than $100. Aberdeen police report: A theft was reported Tuesday in the 200 block of Angus Drive. Multiple shots were fired Tuesday in the 900 block of Edmund Street.

RECENTLY I did something trendy. I bought supper at a fine restaurant, then carried it home in boxes and reheated it. This was out of character for me. Usually once I enter the door of a high-quality restaurant, I sit down and dine. Or, if I do get takeout food, I go for the straightforward, cheap stuff from joints. Yet there I was, in a white-tablecloth restaurant, Germano's in Little Italy, carrying out boxes of lasagna, cannelloni, manicotti, eggplant Parmigiano, and fusilli with vegetables at a little less than $5 a box. I took them home, tossed them in the microwave for several minutes and served them to my son and wife for a weeknight supper.

Thirty-year-old Keith Howard got more than medical treatment at the Anne Arundel Medical Center emergency room last winter -- he also ran into the woman he'd just attacked. She was being treated in the same room.Appearing before Judge Raymond G. Thieme yesterday, Howard, of the 1600 block of Sunshine Court, admitted to attacking the woman as she waited in a line of cars at the take-out window of a Glen Burnie fast-food restaurant. He pleaded guilty to assault with intent to rob.Police said the incident began about 8 p.m. Feb. 23, when Howard approached a car driven by Buffy Kramer, 19, in the take-out line at the Taco Bell on Ritchie Highway.

Hunt Valley and Timonium must have plenty of folks with things to do and places to go. Because two new eateries -- specializing in food-on-the-go -- have just entered the scene. Outtakes -- Celebrity Caterers opened last week on York Road, just below Shawan Road. Owner Steve Steinberg describes the business as corporate catering and upscale takeout with breakfast, lunch and gourmet dinners to go. Steinberg stresses the gourmet end. "We have chefs here," he notes, "not cooks." Chefs headed up by Donald Spence, whose resume includes stints at Center Club and the Polo Grill.

I'm going to break some new ground today with a hearty recommendation of a carry-out restaurant located in, of all places, a mall. Mazagrill, in the old Annapolis Mall -- which is now know as Westfield Shoppingtown -- was both a surprise and a delight. The small eatery is sandwiched between a Japanese place and a McDonald's in the sprawling mall's food court. Its menu offers a familiar sample of Mediterranean-style skewers and pita dishes, as well as a handful of appetizers. The cook prepared the grilled entrees over an open flame at one end of the kitchen, and the staff had our large order ready promptly.