Readers who’ve been with me for awhile might remember that I shared my 100 things list a few months ago just before the new year. This is a list I started a few years ago and keep updating with new goals and accomplishments. Basically, it’s all the things I want to do in my lifetime. I haven’t reached 100 things on the list yet, but that’s okay because life is a work in progress.

I figured being that the year is about 1/3 over, now would be a good time for an update.

I also shared my New Years’ Resolutions, which are still in progress . . . I think I am close to checking at least one off that list. Yay!

100 Things
(I want to do)

1. Walk down the red carpet at a movie premiere
2. Be a best selling author
3. Publish an adult novel
4. Publish a children’s novel
5. Publish non-fiction Read the rest of this entry…

We love us some potatoes in this house. Whether its some quickly whipped up mashed potatoes, which can be a quick and versatile starch to accompany meals, or baked fries and roasted potatoes, it’s tasty stuff.

In terms of types of potatoes, we are pretty open.

A sampler of types of potatoes:

• Red potatoes are great for boiling, roasting, baking and potato salad. But they are too wet for hash browns.
• Idaho potatoes are a great all-purpose potato that can be used for hash browns, baked potatoes, roasting, fries or mashed potatoes.
• Fingerling potatoes are great for roasting. Read the rest of this entry…

Ready for the chain of thought version of reflections? Here a’goes.

Andrew started off the episode with an f-bomb. Puh-lease . . . so over it.

This season, it’s like instantly into the quick fire, but if you blink, you might just miss the whole thing. Is it just me, or has the quick fire challenge gotten just a wee-bit too quick? What happened to spending a little time watching them choose ingredients and develop their quick-fire dishes? From start to finish, including commercials, judging and winner announcing, the quick fire took 10 minutes. Just 10 minutes. Seriously people. And while we are at it, tacos sure are fun, but high end tacos? Are we running out of ideas? That is the antithesis of fine dining. Really.

On a side note, I want more Tom Colicchio. Darn it. He’s like barely getting any screen time this season! What gives?

Back to Andrew though. He needs to tone it down. Seriously. “You’d have to drag me out with security guards … This is my house.” Um, no. It’s not. You. Aren’t. That. Good.

Meanwhile, I’m a little sad that Eric got let go . . . he was one of my favorites. I liked his good natured personality.

When I saw the cover of Sweet Melissa Baking Book, my mouth watered. The confectioner’s sugar topped dessert looked too good to be true. And when I later read the book (during my breaks at work), I was intrigued. I love author Melissa Murphy’s style. Her brief tidbits with each recipe really make the book for me. And her recipes for delights like chocolate peppermint meringues are the stuff dreams — at least my dreams — are made of.Melissa Murphy owns Sweet Melissa’s Patisserie in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute who has appeared on the Food Network. I had the opportunity to ask Melissa some questions and got some great answers. As my son often says, here ‘a goes!

Why did you decide to write The Sweet Melissa Baking Book?

MM: A literary agent from Regal Literary’s Culinary Cooperative approached me in my Cobble Hill store. I tried to write this book 8 years ago, but I wound up too busy baking for Sweet Melissa’s, and had no time to do the book the way I really wanted, so we decided to wait a while. I am glad I did, I had that much more experience 8 years later when it was finally the right time. Read the rest of this entry…

Advice for New Bloggers is a new regular feature here at Sarah’s Cucina Bella. Inspired by Dine and Dish’s Adopt-A-Blogger event, and written with my adoptee in mind (Hi, Rachel! Click here to check out Fairy Cake Heaven), it appears every Tuesday.

A comment on a previous addition of Advice for New Bloggers sparked this little tidbit. Johanna mentioned that one of the advantages of writing on the internet is that you can pop in and edit the post if you find an error (for instance, if you used the wrong word or missed a misspelling).

She is absolutely right.

Unlike in my day job as a magazine editor, there is no such thing as “final finals” — the last, end-all, be-all proofs before we go to press. The internet is a fluid place where you can edit and reedit and edit again to your heart’s content. It’s a beautiful thing. I do it myself – and on older posts (when I was new to the whole blogging thing) as well.

It’s YOUR Turn!

What’s your best tip for new bloggers?

Submit your best tip between now and April 5, 2008 to sarahDOTcaronATgmailDOTcom and it will appear here on Sarah’s Cucina Bella with a link back to your site.
The entrant with the best tip will receive a copy of Sweet Melissa Baking Book. Check back here tomorrow for a Q&A with author Melissa Murphy.

Enter now!

The first time I made this bacon, we liked it. But it wasn’t an all out, geez we have to do THIS again recipe. So, I didn’t make it again . . . until recently. I had some extra bacon to use up and didn’t want to make a holy mess. The thing is, my pastry brush has gone missing and the basting brush for the grill has seen its day . . . about two years ago. So rather than risk brush bristles on my tasty bacon, I just poured the maple syrup on. Lordy, lordy . . . this stuff is like crack. Bacon crack. The other thing I found was that spraying the broiler pan with a little Pam goes a long way in making this perfect. Will, who could do without bacon usually, begs for seconds of this tasty breakfast treat. It’s that darn good. Read the rest of this entry…

I couldn’t keep myself up to write about Top Chef Chicago last night, but I still wanted to share my thoughts . . .  Here it goes . . .

Thank goodness: Maybe Bravo heard the blogosphere? There was far less gratuitous curses flying about . . . and Andrew was less irritating for that. Less, but not completely. Honestly, I wasn’t born yesterday – the balsamic error might have been an oversight, but it was one he knew before Padma called him out on it. On the other hand, he did look truly appreciative when he was complemented on his glacier by guest judge Wylie Dufresne.

Now . . . the whole mushroom debacle on the Bear team. No one tasted it? Hello, these people are chefs – chefs taste their food before they serve it. It’s crazy not to . . . I could have done without the never ending poop references though. Despite the mushrooms, I really like Nikki. She has potential.
Ultimately though . . . it was those tasteless olive pancake-y things that did Valerie in. Blech. Didn’t even sound good to me.

Advice for New Bloggers is a new regular feature here at Sarah’s Cucina Bella. Inspired by Dine and Dish’s Adopt-A-Blogger event, and written with my adoptee in mind (Hi, Rachel! Click here to check out Fairy Cake Heaven), it appears every Tuesday.

I’ve posted several tips over the last few months. In case you missed any, here they are:

• Define Your Goals
• Be Comment Happy
• Use Spell Check
• Photos Matter
• Quality Over Quantity
• Join In!
• It’s Okay to Take A Break
• Don’t Stress It
• Remember the Edit Function
• Nothing is Too Trivial

Do you know who Fritz Knipschildt is?

No, it’s not a trick question. He is a chocolatier who owns Chocopologie in Norwalk, Conn., and also owner of Knipschildt Chocolatier. Fritz hails from Denmark, who was trained in Denmark, France and Spain.

We didn’t know who he was either until we saw him on Throwdown with Bobby Flay — a chocolate episode. He used these techniques to make his chocolates truly beautiful – like painting the inside of the molds and then doing a layering process to build the shell. I was intrigued by his chocolates so Shawn ordered me some for Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, they arrived a bit damaged but nonetheless were delicious. And I ate every last one myself. Read the rest of this entry…

Alright. I love Top Chef. It’s a fun series and really interesting to see what the cooks come up with. And there are always a few zingers . . . Remember the Marcel drama? It was like a train wreck – uncomfortable, but too hard not to watch.

This season opened with a pizza quick fire. Love pizza. That would have been a fun one to compete in. Some of the pizzas were inspired, others not so much. The Marmite on pizza freaked me out a bit. Yuck. Then there was the head to head cooking competition for the elimination challenge. That was interesting — those were some elementary dishes and some really bombed. Nacho souffle, anyone?

But I am not here to recap the evening. What I really want to do is share a few reflections…I will try to do this every week this season.

• Good riddance, Nimma. When Nimma launched into the diatribe about not being there to have fun, she lost me. And that was pretty early in the show. Hun, goals are great, but you won’t get fanfare if you aren’t personable. At all. So, I wasn’t too sad when she packed her knives.
• Andrew needs to tone down that language. Seriously. I’d like to be able to watch this when it’s repeated on weekends (since chances are I will miss the first showing), but with so many bleeps, it’s just not appropriate for my kids. There is really no need for him to drop f-bomb after f-bomb. (Why is there so much bleeping this season anyway? Have the production people forgotten how to cut things?) And really, Andrew didn’t know what mayonnaise is eggs and oil? Seriously?
• Stephanie’s winning dish really did look good. Mmmm. Those egg rolls? I’d like to bite into a bit of that!
• Psst! Viewers have until March 31 to submit their photo and recipe of an audacious burger. Click here for details.