"What's For Dinner? #2"

Are you eating out more, or less, than last year? At first the slowdown in the economy didn't seem to have much of an impact on Berkeley real estate OR Berkeley restaurants. Dining trends pointed toward French bistros and regional Indian with the openings of Liaison, LaRue Bistro & Brasserie, Zaika and Khana Peena, all earlier this year. After September 11 many people seemed paralyzed about making big decisions about moving and buying and selling houses, yet they still had to eat. The day of that memorable lightning and thunder storm in late September, I had a productive afternoon in my kitchen: we ate potato and leek soup, turkey meatloaf glazed with a tomato sauce, and a cake of fresh figs. Then the power went out in our neighborhood and we lingered by candlelight, taking the time to savor our meal and enjoy a long, meandering conversation rather than rushing off to get something done.

It is a good time to patronzie your favorite restaurant or try out somewhere new. It is also a good time to eat well at home. Since I love to cook and to feed people, I'm often asked where I get my ideas. We are blessed to live in a community where good ingredients abound. Berkeley has Farmer's Markets twice a week, and wonderful speciality food stores on Hopkins Street, Solano Avenue, North Shattuck, 4th Street and in Rockridge at Market Hall, not to mention The Berkeley Bowl. I love to plan my menu at the market. It's a little like living in the country where your neighbor presents you with a flat of pears and you spend the next few days making pear chutney, pear cobbler, pear everything. I've read that people have taken comfort in these recent hard times with home-cooked meals. Cheese sales are up. Dieting is temporarily out of fashion.

Do you know there are wonderful cookbooks at reduced prices at many of our great independent bookstores? I can hardly go into Pegasus or Half Price Books on Solano without finding something I want to add to my collection. Some of my current favorites are anything by Michele Anna Jordan, who lives in Sonoma County and knows all the wonderful producers up there. Also Georgeanne Brennan and Patricia Wells. Theirs are not complicated or time-consuming recipes -- just good simple food that will warm your heart and your hearth.