I picked the children up from school earlier this week. As we walked in the door, I said, "Guess what!?!?!?! The Super Bowl is this weekend." Now that might seem like a non sequitur to you - but in my house on a Tuesday afternoon, it causes cheers. My family? Football fans? No. Not. AT. ALL.

What foods come to mind when you think about Super Bowl party foods?

Life's Ambrosia says it so passionately. "I just discovered browned butter and I think I’m in love. It’s so nutty and delicious that it’s absence from my recipe repertoire for so long is pure blasphemy." Browned butter is one of those 'basic techniques' that every cook should tackle. I've collected ten recipes -- savory and sweet -- all to tempt BlogHers to give brown butter a try!

While I was growing up, my father took charge of keeping the bird feeders full at all times. "I don't get it," I proclaimed in a fit of pique during high school. "You're just enabling them. Shouldn't those birds all fly south for the winter? What happens if you go out of town and don't refill the feeder? They rely on you and so they'll starve to death."

Today, I'm thrilled to announce the dates and venue for BlogHer Food '10, our second annual food blogging conference!BlogHer Food will take place on October 8th and 9th at the beautiful Palace Hotel in San Francisco, CA.So, to anticipate your immediate questions:

Near my home is an international grocery with foods from across the world, an aisle for Mexico, an aisle each for India, China and Mexico, with half aisles for Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia, western Europe, Africa, the Caribbean. It's a destination store of the best kind, a place where recent immigrants and foodies stumble over one another to stock up on ingredients otherwise difficult if not impossible to find. I love to ask a shopper whose cart is teetering with some foodstuff, knowing I'll hear a story about how much that something reminds her of home.

Some people don't have much of a sweet tooth. They can pass up ice cream, pastries, cakes, brownies or other goodies without making a big deal out of it. If one of these people gets mugged by a girl scout on the way out of the supermarket, and somehow ends up with a box of Thin Mints? She can arrive home 10 minutes later without having to explain why half a sleeve of cookies is already missing.

A couple of weeks ago, I was startled by a cookbook among the books we picked up at the library. I don't generally read new cookbooks, and why on earth were we getting one from the library? It was too polished, too many pictures, too new. The cookbook was Cook's Country Best Lost Suppers-Old-Fashioned, Home Cooked Recipes Too Good to Forget, 2009. I put it aside to flip through while waiting for the dogs to come in.

In our celebration of dark, leafy greens so far, I've tried to sway you toward eating more kale, chard, and spinach. If you're looking for optimum nutritional value and culinary possibilities, I'd consider those to be the three leafy-green superstars.

Love it or hate it, the February calendar never-ever skips over February 14, so there's no avoiding Valentine's Day itself, even if it's easy to forgo the rush of commercialized hearts 'n' roses expectations. Reservations? Hard to come by, and the food, mass-produced and wallet-pricey. Instead, celebrate Valentine's in style, at home, with recipes that won't break the bank or stifle the mood and can easily be called "Sunday Supper" if you really, really just can't bear the idea of celebrating Valentine's. I've collected ten classic shrimp recipes, ones you just might fall for.

It's an insidious plot. Food blogs are mounting a V-like alien invasion of the blogosphere. With soft words, we beguile, "We bring you butter and bacon. Life on blog will be forever better." Bearing dSLRs and 50mm lenses, we tempt. Cupcakes! Caramel! 'Tis no hoax, food bloggers aim to control -- take over! rule forever! -- the entire blog world. New evidence reveals that our nefarious plan is working. Just look -- look!

Sure, I know yogurt is good for you, and you can get it in convenient little single-serving containers, and the taste is not unpleasant, but is anyone else starting to find yogurt just a little bit... annoying?Okay, maybe it's just me. I do eat yogurt, even if it sometimes pisses me off. So I'll make sure to say some good things about it before I put on my crankypants and go all whiny and negative.