Food

If you want crunchy breaded chicken, start with crunchy ingredients.

There was a time when Christmas would have been most unmerry without a boozy glass of eggnog.

Q. I recently was given a springerle rolling pin and recipe. Sounds like fun, but I wonder if it would work with a shortbread recipe. The springerle recipe said to let the cookies sit overnight so they would hold their shapes. Would this work for shortbread?

This spicy Szechuan-inspired dish makes a quick dinner that diners can assemble themselves. Just about any large-leaf lettuce can be used to create cups or folded packets. The filling also is good on tortillas or in pita pockets with shredded lettuce.

Q. Can bananas be frozen?

Farmers have a new opportunity this fall to learn how to reach customers: The computer.

What's up with the Trader Joe's store in the Metropolitan retail center near Uptown?

Have an old cookbook you want to pass on – or can you give an old cookbook a new home? The Tailgate, the farmer's market in South End, will try a new event this Saturday: A cookbook exchange.

Expect to see a lot of fresh faces popping up on Ming Tsai's public television cooking series this fall.

So you want to be a chef – or at least cook a little bit more like one? Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte is adding a couple of new programs to its popular Chef's Choice hands-on cooking classes, including a five-week series that follows the same routine a culinary student might get in kitchen training.