Photo by Molly Little | SXC.

Here’s our first baking tip of the 2011 “baking season”: cookies.

With a lot of holiday baking to do, it’s tempting to put two cookie sheets into the oven at once. But unless you have a convection oven, you need to place just one sheet dead center for even baking.

Rotate. If you’ve got to bake two at a time, you’ll need to rotate the sheets halfway through. Not only switch racks, but also turn the baking sheets front-to-back.

Cool. The sheets need to be cool before you add more dough. Otherwise, the dough will start to melt when it hits the hot metal. We have two large cookie sheets and rotate them.

Finally, if you need to buy cookie sheets, spend for the best, commercial-weight ones. You’ll have them for a lifetime. Even if they’re double the cost, they’ll pay you back by not warping over time.

The best cookie sheets tend to be stainless steel rather than nonstick, but use parchment paper and cleaning is easy.

And buy the largest size that will fit into your oven. It’s better to have extra space on the sheet than not enough.

For great baking tips, check out The Baking Answer Book, a wonderful compilation of tips by Lauren Chattman.
  

The bento comprises a box-shaped container with compartments. The boxes range from beautiful lacquer to plastic lunchbox to disposable take-out containers. They can be one level, as in the photo, or stacked. The defining feature is the variety of foods.

Bento is more than restaurant fare: Japanese homemakers prepare them for family members’ lunches, as well as for their own. The goal is to provide an attractive variety of foods.

So today’s tip is: Think bento, with American ingredients, for lunch or dinner.

A restaurant bento box. Photo by
Blue Lotus | Wikimedia.

You can whip up your bento from scratch, and/or use up leftovers. It’s easy to incorporate healthy foods. You can serve the foods on one plate, or put each item on a small plate or other dish.

Consider an assortment of small-portion foods including:

 
By the way, the word “bento” originates from a slang term in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279 C.E.) meaning “convenient” or “convenience.”

To us, it means “tasty variety.”

Check out some of our favorite international foods.
  

There isn’t much quality difference between high-priced and lesser-priced vodka. Mid-priced Smirnoff has won the gold medal in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition blind tasting.

If you’re more interested in value than status, take a look at Wódka vodka.

Wódka, the brand name, is the Polish word for vodka. The generic-looking brand accepts a lower profit margin to deliver an “egalitarian” product. A 750ml bottle costs just $10.00 to $12.00. Think of it as affordable premium vodka.

We liked drinking it straight. In a mixed drink, no one will know the difference.

This rye-based vodka is triple-distilled by Polmos Bialystock Distillery in Poland. Don’t be fooled by vodkas that tout that they are distilled 10, 20 or 100 times. After the third distillation, the human palate can’t discern a difference.

In 2010, Wódka won both a gold medal and a Best Buy award from the Beverage Tasting Institute, scoring 90 points—the most inexpensive vodka with a 90+ rating.

What if your friends, impressed by status vodka brands such as Chopin, Grey Goose and Ketel One, question why you purchased Wódka?

Tell them it not only tastes good, it’s on trend. According to Mintel International Group, a research firm, one-quarter of all spirits drinkers reported moving to lower-cost brands in 2010.

Learn more at WeLoveWodka.com.

Check out the history of vodka.

Find vodka cocktail recipes in our Cocktails & Spirits Section.

*The U.S. Government Standard of Identity for vodka: “Vodka” is neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color.