These are the business cards from two of Mario Battali's restaurants in NYC. I'd like to tell you that I've eaten there, but I haven't. I just took them from Otto's, his other restuarant. Maybe if they did take out, we'd order from there, of course they'd also have to deliver to the suburbs. Unfortunately, our weekday menus tend to rotate through pizza, Chinese, burgers, pasta, and maybe sushi on Friday nights.

I really have every intention of cooking when I come home from work. I just never manage to actually defrost anything and/or actually walk into the kitchen in the evening. I've been cooking on Sundays and trying to get two or three meals out of it. This Sunday was beef stew, a childhood favorite. It really doesn't take that long to make, and once you brown all the meat, you just have to let the meat simmer for one hour, add the potatoes for a 1/2 hour, then the carrots for the last half. And if you are at my house, you throw in half a bag of frozen peas 5 minutes before you shut the flame. And accompany it all with a good Italian bread.

I may have trouble doing weekday cooking, but I am, however, a collector of recipes. I buy Gourmet and Bon Appetit at the change of seasons and at holidays. I drool over recipes for risottos, chowders, breads, and stuffings - talking a lot of carbs here! Or how about a pine nut torta with marasala poached autumn fruit, or roast chicken stuffed with fennel and garlic, or golden pancakes with pecorino cheese.My all-time favorite autumn dish is roasted vegetables. The recipe is so simple: carrots, fennel, small red potatoes, bulbs of garlic, Vidalia onions, and what ever sturdy vegetable you care to throw in - squash would be great. Like a large baking pan with parchment paper. Cut the vegetables into two inch chunks and place in one layer on the pan, drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt, ground pepper, and sprinkle with fresh rosemary. Put pan in a 450 degree oven for a half hour. Turn the veggies with a spatula after 20 minutes, lowering the heat to 425. The vegetables with caramelize while roasting and the flavors of the vegetables will become very intense. This dish tastes great hot or at room temperature. I like to make it with baby carrot that still have their green tops, then let the carrots cool and serve an aioli dip with it.

And then there are fall desserts: think pie, think brulees, think flan. Last Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin pie and lined the graham cracker crust with a layer of chocolate. I thought it was divine, but my husband the purist didn't like me messing around with his pumpkin pie.

Well, all this talk about food has made me hungry. Our chef, the Chinese food delivery guy should be here any minute. We are having hot and sour soup, shrimp fried rice, and dumplings; very ordinary but the type of plain comfort food that hits the spot on a rainy, cold Tuesday night.

Bon Appetit!