On the Table:Most of us are getting hit with sticker shock in the grocery store. My own personal barometer of food cost has been a box of cereal.

Hot Stuff:Taste a five-course meal made by five local chefs at The Angus Barn's Triangle All Star Guest Chef Dinner on May 24.

Food & Nutrition:My father longs for the Porcupine cake, a nine-layer almond cake that was one of my grandmother's specialties. George Weigl, now 76, never ate a slice of that cake until he came home on leave from the Navy during the Korean War.

Epicurean:Gregory's, for nearly a decade a local favorite for weekday breakfasts and lazy weekend brunches, is back after a three-year absence.

Specialty of the House:A few weeks ago I went to Twisted Fork in Raleigh. The best part was the dessert, Tia Maria Cake. It was amazing. Could you get this recipe? --M.B., Raleigh.

Food & Nutrition:Readers' stellar pies warm our crusty hearts.

At a friend's Easter Sunday pot-luck lunch, there was no grilled chicken, steamed spinach or dairy-free lime sorbet.

Here in the South, we have a long tradition of putting our money where our mouth is. We love good food and know there's no quicker way to open someone's pocketbook for a good cause than to work a great meal or fine wine into the request.

I read recently that you can lose weight by sleeping. Finally, an exercise program I can get behind. No waiting for the treadmill at the gym and no exposure to people who really should have thrown away those track shorts from the '70s.

My husband enjoys making bread, an impulse I have encouraged by buying him any equipment he might need, from a stone for the oven to a peel for removing the loaves to lint-free linen towels.

Are y'all tired? I mean, tonight's the big night, but the work still isn't done. It won't end until the all-important Santa Snack has been prepared, displayed to best advantage and settled near the tree. (Sources tell me that the fat m

During the 20 years I've lived in Raleigh, I've been frustrated at how hard it can be to find North Carolina oysters. Now that it's oyster season, we get great oysters from other places, but where are the best from our own coast? Recently,

Because I have some friends who cannot follow simple directions (the ones that said "no gifts"), my husband and I are in possession of a $100 gift certificate to a wine shop, given for our 25th anniversary.

Songbooks have been filled with tunes bemoaning Mondays. The reason is obvious, with the day's unfortunate position as a weekend-killer.

Lima beans, along with okra and beets, are part of a constellation of vegetables that many view as an evil sign in the food firmament. Bland starch bombs. Deadly slime. Puckery pickles that turn all they touch permanently pink.

It was a fine way for five women to spend the Fourth of July, lolling around a backyard pool and pondering how many calories per hour lolling expends.

I 've been trying to get a monkey off my back for years. A baking monkey. The worst kind. Baking and I have a long, contentious history. There was the Moravian sugar cake that overflowed into the bottom of the oven and caught fire. The Christmas ang