Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

My vote is for the Italian market down the street from me. They make a meatball grinder and a sausage and pepper one that will bring you to tears.

I substitute shelled edamame for lima beans in succotash. The shelled ones are also great in a rice salad with roasted onions and bacon!

I'm stuck here at school tonight for the parents' open house. The junior class is having a buffet as a fund raiser, so I'll probably go to that. It's usually catered by a local Italian restaurant, so the food will be not too bad. I'm not sure what dinner will be tomorrow (Friday), because BF and I have been invited to a private party at a local rock club. I know there will be beverages, but I don't know if there'll be food. Dinner might be sausage, peppers and onions on a roll from a street vendor near Fenway!

I'll second the Cooking Light recommendations. You don't even need to buy the magazine. Their website is pretty comprehensive. The key is actually sticking to the intended number of serving sizes the recipe is supposed to yield. :)

I also agree with everyone else who has pointed out that you'll need exercise in addition to portion control/calorie counting. A good way to get a realistic picture of how many calories you are consuming right now versus how much you should be consuming is to keep a food and activity journal. There is a good one online at CalorieCount through about.com. I dabbled with it this summer and had a magical revelation about why I wasn't really losing weight anymore! Sometimes you just need your intake and outtake spelled out for you.

Good luck!

@czken - Yup, that's the one I use too. I like the results that recipes gives me.

To reiterate: Combine the ingredients until just combined and let the dropped dumplings simmer under cover and undisturbed!

I see chicken and dumplings in my future...

Every now and then I get an urge for a Double Whopper with Cheese (hold the lettuce and onion) from Burger King. The last time I had one was in April though, before I left for a flight to Italy out of New York. In New York, they make them post the calories for the meals. The number of calories in a Double Whopper was...upsetting.

Alcohol is a social lubricant. If the folks coming over like to drink, then the alcohol will most likely add to the enjoyment of the festivities. I don't know that it makes the meal itself better, but if people are having a good time then they're going to think the meal is good regardless. I tend to cook as much ahead of time as possible if a group is coming over, drinking or not. If I'm going to throw down with my friends, I'd rather not be in a position later where I'm going to have to wield a knife or pay attention to gas burner flames while intoxicated. I've witnessed two hideous knife injuries made by people to their hands when they were too drunk to be cooking. While they made for good stories later, it's not worth the risks IMHO. YMMV.

Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale. It kind of reminds me of sherry.

I think being fiercely proud of one's heritage (food or otherwise) is great. Part of the problem with the Internet is that there are a lot of people, like the example mentioned up thread, who try something once and then post their version of some classic recipe without necessarily making the caveat in the recipe text somewhere that they recognize that the dish isn't authentic because of x, y or z. They aren't thinking about authenticity; they're just thinking "Hey, that tasted good!" Then they press "publish" and don't think about it again. That can upset purists. On the other hand, there's plenty of regional recipes that traveled from one culture to another that became adapted over time into the local cuisine. Nanbanzuke comes to mind. I'm sure after the locals were exposed to whatever version of escabeche eventually led to nanbanzuke, the folks making it were not trying to hack on an "authentic cuisine" - more likely they were thinking "Dinner!" And it tasted good and they kept making it and eventually it became it's own thing. The internet just makes the spread of people's adaptations happen more quickly now, for better or for worse.

I actually have corn tortillas on hand for enchiladas since I know I'm going to have leftovers from tonight's roast chicken that I'll want to transmogrify later this week!

Thank you!

Do you know if mac and cheese was served in his family as the main or as a side? I had an experience years ago where I made a mac and cheese for a guy I was seeing at the time (because he professed it was a favorite) and served it with steak. I thought it should have been a home run. Turns out he thought it was weird because his mom always served the mac and cheese as the main with just a salad! Oh well. Live and learn!