Q: I'm making pozole this weekend and want to use dried corn (not canned). I'm confused because many sites describe treating the corn with lye (nixtamalization), while other sites imply that some dried corn has already been treated. I purchased the dry corn shown here: maiz morado para pozole (purple corn for pozole).

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While there's a lot to love about a dramatic light fixture hanging over the dining room table — I'm still smitten with these copper pendants — I always go back to a simple, classic drum shade pendant. The natural fabric and unfussy shape gives off the loveliest diffused light — great for creating ambience and mood throughout dinner. Here are five classic picks:

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Polpo is the Italian word for octopus, and it's also the name of a restaurant located in London's Soho district that serves rustic, simple Venetian bar food.  I have never been (to POLPO or to Venice), but after looking through this cookbook from POLPO's owner Russell Norman, I want to hop a plane right now and visit both.  Given that we're still under the shadow of tax season here in my household, I will have to content myself with cooking from this gorgeous book, which believe me, will be no hardship.  

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To capture the entire sense of a place between the covers of one cookbook is no small task. Yet, here is a photo of bobbing fishing boats that feels so close that I can practically smell the salt water. And a woman making fresh couscous that I want to scoop with my hands, and a basket of silvery fresh-caught anchovies for dinner, and spirals of yellow pasta, and...and...and. Sicily is one of those cookbooks that transports and inspires. If Sicily holds a special place in your traveler's heart, this is a book you will cherish. If visiting Sicily is dream of yours, this book might just transform your "some day" into "right now." 

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I am an immediate fan of any book that can simultaneously make me laugh and make me thirsty. Illustrated with pictures of seals sunning themselves with mint juleps in hand (in flipper?) and cats making snide remarks about your state of tipsiness, this book is bound to travel from my home bar to my coffee table and back again many times over.

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Bitters are an essential bar ingredient, but did you know they were originally a staple of the medicine cabinet? Even today bitters may be just the thing if you need to settle your stomach after indulging in a big meal. 

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Item: 64 oz Wide Mouth Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel Growler
Price: $49.99
Overall Impression: This is a fantastic product for keeping beer and other beverages cold — and hotter foods hot — for hours. Works like a charm.

Love. Love. Love. I love this growler. I love it for keeping my beer carbonated and chilled all the way to the party. I love it for keeping my big batch of soup hot for the potluck. I even love it for keeping my milk cozy at it turns into yogurt. I just love it. Times a million.

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While we aren't big drinkers at my house, I've always been smitten with bar carts. I can't justify having a drink-prep-dedicated cart at home, but I could definitely make room for one with a day job. It could be used as extra storage, a console table, or a server most of the time and occasionally stocked as a bar cart when entertaining. Here's a collection of carts that are versatile enough to be a stand-in for extra storage or kitchen prep space by day, but wheeled out as a bar cart when entertaining. More

The great minds behind Modernist Cuisine are expanding into kitchenware for the first time ever. They've released a trademarked baking steel (not stone, mind you) they say will forever change the way you make pizzas.

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Well, not really. But even if that wasn't the original design intention, it pretty much does just that. Have you ever seen a home bar that was quite so cool? It's a bar! No, it's a sculpture! No, it's a work of art! Gah. It's awesome. We rest our case.

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