Vanilla

In the Ravens' 35-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday, the team piled up 385 yards of total offense, Ray Rice became only the second running back in Pittsburgh's last 51 games to rush for 100 yards, and the unit scored 35 points, which was the most the club has posted against the Steelers. But the Ravens didn't unleash a new, unheard-of offense against Pittsburgh. In fact, Rice called the offense's strategy "vanilla. " "I'm not saying that to downplay our opponent, but we didn't do a lot of trick stuff," he said Wednesday.

From: Central Coast, Calif. Price: $15 Serve with: Salmon, poultry This well-made chardonnay is widely distributed, fairly priced and avoids all the pitfalls California chardonnay so often falls into. It's crisp, clean and has good, bracing acidity - a sign of its cool-climate origins. There's a touch of vanilla from the oak, but it isn't over the top. It offers bold, assertive fruit with hints of pear, baked apple, lemon and spices. Chardonnay is far from my favorite white varietal, but sometimes you come cross one that hits just the right note.

Said it before, say it again: It's a great country, and one of its beauties is freedom of expression, freer now than ever before, and another is a general amiability that you find everywhere, the helpfulness of strangers, the pleasure of small talk. Of course it's spring and the air is brisk, and this makes for public happiness. And I've just come from Nashville and Seattle, two mightily congenial cities. The young and restless stroll the downtown honky-tonks and a sweet breeze blows, laden with flowers, and it is darned near idyllic.

Ann Montgomery of Millersville was looking for the recipe for a dessert her mother used to make in the 1950s for what she called cottage pudding. She described it as basically a single-layer yellow cake that was served warm with a slightly sweet vanilla sauce poured over it. Cheryl Robbins of Joppa thought she had the very recipe Montgomery was looking for. It comes from the first cookbook she acquired, "The Fanny Farmer Cookbook," which she received as a wedding gift in 1966.

Forget waffle cones and parfait glasses. Ice cream gets served these days atop hunks of pork belly. Amid pools of gazpacho. Alongside chicken Parm. The frozen confection has gone over to the dinner side of the menu, with savory tastes like tomato-fennel and ranch. Even when the ice cream is for dessert, the flavors sometimes sound like supper: olive oil, beet, basil, pink peppercorn, cucumber, corn, red cabbage. For traditional ice-cream lovers content with good old vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, just the thought of these out-there frosty treats is enough to bring on brain freeze.

Priced vanilla at the supermarket lately? One 4-ounce jar of extract, $9.15 to $17.99. One bean, $11.69. Some brands are selling vanilla in a puny 1-ounce size to reduce the sticker shock (down to $3.89). And everybody agrees prices are headed higher. What's going on? Just four years ago, prices were falling, after the breakup of the cartel that had controlled Madagascar's vanilla production. The trouble started April 3, 2000, when Cyclone Hudah, a Category 4 storm with 140-mph winds, plowed through Madagascar's vanilla-growing region.

Bakers, rejoice. Vanilla prices are plummeting after five years of increases that saw the cost of an 8-ounce bottle of extract rise higher than a pound of prime beef tenderloin. Some retailers have cut prices nearly in half; others are likely to do so in coming weeks. Wholesale prices dropped in February, when an abundant vanilla crop started coming to market. King Arthur Flour's spring catalog exhorts bakers to "stock up while you can" on cheaper vanilla. Other retailers have been slower to cut prices.

Alongside the kitchen telephone was a piece of paper headed by the phrase "Emergency Numbers." In that pre-911 era of 30 years ago, my family dutifully listed the Northern District police, the Fire Department and their favorite ice cream makers.After all, what could be a bigger emergency on a warm summer evening that an unsatisfied hankering for a dish of Horn & Horn's coffee ice cream?This was a time when Baltimore actually had real and vigorous ice cream competition. The stuff was all local, made in neighborhoods, and generally not sold any farther west than the Enchanted Forest or farther east than Middle River.

We all entertain for different reasons, and a few days ago my husband and I hosted a small dinner for a very special purpose. Our guest of honor was one of my spouse's college students whose help we desperately needed. As the proud new owners of a flat-screen high-definition television (my spouse's belated Christmas gift), we found ourselves totally in the dark about how this slick, space-age set functioned. Even after a visit from the cable guy and several hours spent poring over the manufacturer's manual, we still couldn't get all the buttons to work.

Make no mistake, Anne Arundel has one tough County Council.A while back, when school officials came begging for more money after underestimating the cost of renovating media centers, council members didn't budge. They blamed the school administrators for not being able to add, and refused to give them another penny.Then last Monday, the council voted unanimously to charge inmates at the county jail $4 each time they seek medical treatment at the detention center's infirmary. Charging those poor jerks when they go to the doctor is supposed to raise $50,000 during the next year.

If there's one thing, one delicious decadent thing that Baltimore has done right for over 175 years, it's the Berger Cookie. A vanilla cookie coated in thick, delicious fudge, it's one of the richest and most satisfying treats that ever came out Baltimore, hands down. Bar none. And if there one way in this world to improve upon such a paramount dessert treat, I guess it would have to be converting it into a milkshake full of booze. Federal Hill's Abbey Burger Bistro has such a thing, appropriately enough dubbed the Berger Shake.

My friend posted a link to this recipe for a skillet cookie the other day, and I could not stop thinking about it. I'd never even heard of such a thing, but today I just had to try it. The blog Sophistimom posted this originally, and I love the post. She recommends using high-quality ingredients because: "You wouldn't want to use crappy flour, or crappy margarine or fake vanilla. That would lessen the flavor, lessen the experience, and still make you fat. " Ha! And point taken.

This is neither a typical nor an average sauvignon blanc. Matanzas Creek has a style all its own, and it certainly ranks in the top 1 percent of sauvignon blancs worldwide. The flavor profile is not the typical mouthful of grass and herbs. Fig is the dominant flavor, seasoned with nuances of citrus, pear, herbs, Asian spices and vanilla. It is much deeper, richer and more complex than most sauvignon blancs. While it's on the expensive side for a sauvignon blanc, it's a bargain for a great white wine.

Summer arrives at 7:09 p.m on Wednesday. Hilariously, 98 degree weather is due to arrive at the exact same time. June 20 is National Vanilla Milkshake Day. It just is. How about an Abbey Burger Bistro shake made with Gifford's vanilla ice cream, Berger cookies, Stoli vanilla and Godiva liqueur? Or you could take on the six-pound milkshake Chick & Ruth's Delly in Annapolis, part of the restaurants Man Vs. Food Challenge . (There's a one-pound burger, too.) Pictures: Great Maryland milkshakes Or, you could head to a participating Rita's , where regular size Rita's Italian Ices are $2 all day long on June 20. Price does not include sales tax.  

I can't imagine how a cupcake could be the least bit healthy. Especially if it actually tastes good. But television talk show host Dr. Oz seems to think so. He likes this recipe for vanilla cupcakes with a raspberry filling and rich chocoloate topping. He borrowed it from Vincent Buzzetta, The Cake Artist INC. The cupcakes are made with coconut palm sugar, a sweetener that doesn't cause the same blood sugar spikes as regular sugar, Dr. Oz says on his website.  Coconut palm is the same amount of calories, but  itprovides a slow energy release - which can curb your appetite and help you lose weight.

Frank & Nic's West End Grille is offering something different for Valentine's Day - a beer dinner. Featuring Sam Adams brews, the four-course dinner will be served at 8 p.m. on Feb. 14. The menu begins with a carrot, ginger and crab soup followed by a scotch egg. The main course is veal scallopini with a Boston Lager demi-glace, and the dessert course is hard-cider baked apples with vanilla paired ice cream. A Samuel Adams representative will be on hand to guide the dinner and for beer chats.

"Plain as vanilla?" Not any longer. What was once synonymous with boring is suddenly soaring.The seemingly conflicting trends toward lighter, healthier foods on the one hand, and the return to homey, comfort foods on the other, have harmonized to make this once invisible flavoring a shining star in its own right.Not only have manufacturers of low-fat goods discovered that the addition of vanilla can help compensate for the loss of fat, but commercial food makers in general are finding that consumers welcome the nostalgic simplicity of vanilla at a time when multiple combinations like raspberry-kiwi-pineapple abound.

BEMANEVIKA, MADAGASCAR -- The house that vanilla almost built soars above all the others in this remote village of one-story wood huts and dirt lanes. Jamaro Bernad, a 57-year-old grower, began erecting his four-story concrete dream home two years ago, when the price of vanilla shot to record highs amid cyclone damage and price speculation. But he finished only the top two floors before the price plunged by 90 percent, a welcome change for American consumers but a dread occurrence here.

A New York company that makes vanilla rugelach sold in Maryland stores is recalling the product because it contains undeclared eggs, which may cause a life-threatening illness if consumed by anyone with an allergy or severe sensitivity to eggs. Bloch's Best Inc., doing business as Laromme of Monsey, N.Y., is pulling its Laromme brand vanilla rugelach because the 14-oz. round containers do not list eggs among the ingredients. The product was distributed in stores in Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey, according to the release posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.

This blend of malbec, syrah and the little-known red wine grape bonarda has yielded a smooth, ready-to-drink but complex and full-bodied wine with a lot of character. It offers rich blackberry fruit with notes of herbs, Asian spices, vanilla and a touch of pine. It's a great value in this price range. From: Mendoza, Argentina Price: $11 Serve with: Grilled meat, pasta in red sauce