OK, kids, here is the one-step way to use up all the rest of your bird after you are done with making soup with the frame and eating sandwiches all day Friday. Finally, we can turn our attention away from the bird and look forward to what you are going to put under my menorah this year. I need socks.

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OK, I know I am not in the restaurant critic business anymore. I wish I was. I really loved that job, but traveling as much as I do means that I can't stay current with the local dining scene as much as I need to if I want to regularly keep tabs on Twin Cities restaurants. Last week I was here for a whopping seven days in a row!!! So I went to three new restaurants in search of a good meal. I hit .666, which in the majors would be Hall of Fame stuff. Barrio is the best restaurant of 2008. End of story.

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Tonight on Travel Channel is the Maine episode of Bizarre Foods, marking the television debut of both my son and my dad, and we all get to eat together. Amazing. Plus, a culinary death match with dozens of local Portland chefs, a day of lobstering with Linda Greenlaw, and, of course, plenty of moose and beaver. I love this episode and hope you do, too. For the record, the food at Hugo's, 555, Back Bay Grill, Evangeline, and at Fore Street (if they opened here in our town) would automatically make them top-ten eateries. For anyone looking for a great food vacation, Maine, and the Portland area in particular, is an incredible destination.

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What I keep hearing everywhere from friends and family is that the purse-tightening pigeons have finally come home to roost. It has in our house. Though the front-page warnings of dire personal economic decision-making have been around for awhile now, it has taken several months for the headlines to trickle downward. Cutting back is unanimous.

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On November 19 at Cooks of Crocus Hill, you can sign up to spend a night with David Tanis, the chef at Chez Panisse in Berkley, California. Tanis's new book, A Platter of Figs, just dropped to stores and is getting rave reviews. Although many accomplished cooks are eagerly looking forward to the new books coming soon from Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, and Grant Achatz, anyone interested in cooking everyday fare should grab David's new book.

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