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When the weather gets cold and the days shorter, I love to light candles for the dinner table, even if it's just an everyday, mid-week meal. And even (or especially) when it's just me and my plate of pasta. How about you?

Hidden away down a tiny side street in the middle of San Francisco, Bell'occhio is a sweet jewel box of a shop, chock full of odd and eclectic bits this-and-that. There's plenty of unique things here for the kitchen, as well as large spools of red and white butcher's twine and whimsical boxes shaped like fruit, flageolet beans, morels or trout.

“It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are.” — Wendell Berry

When I enjoy someone's cooking I invariably say to them "hey, let's cook together sometime!" I could ask for a recipe and of course that would be fine but there is something far more powerful and enjoyable in being taught by another person. A recipe is a formula but hanging out together in the kitchen is an experience. And there are things that can be learned by watching and doing that just do not fit on a recipe card.

Is the relish tray passé? It seems that they're a nostalgic memory from Grandma's table. But as Joanna pointed out in her post last spring, many of the relish tray elements are popular again, namely the pickle. So why not bring it back? Read on for some ideas on how to revamp the relish tray just in time for its traditional appearance: the Thanksgiving table.

I absolutely adore chutney. It offers sweet, sour and heat in one delicious dollop. Classically served with Indian food as a condiment, chutney can also harmonize with other dishes as I discovered last weekend when I served it on a tomato tart as a first course. Read on for recipe and pictures.

We're deep into Autumn right now. The move from bright to dark has begun, a yearly non-negotiable event that has a profound influence on our lives. The extent that we can shift with it will become the measure of our contentment and happiness. Often we feel a contraction from the loss of sunshine. We think something is being taken away but in fact we are being offered new, and perhaps more subtle, gifts: the harvest and hearth, the request to prepare for the coming winter and with that a focus and purpose and a more keenly felt sense of belonging.

Check out this sweet video that Chronicle Books did for food blogger Chez Pim's new book The Foodie Handbook. While it may be too late in the year to make her nectarine galette, Pim's unusual pastry dough method that skips the bowl is worth a second look. Especially with pie season just around the corner.

Having Thanksgiving at your house this year? If you're like us then you're already starting to feel that curious mix of excitement and stress. Of course the week of Thanksgiving is going to be a mad dash no matter how much you prep and plan in advance. But there are a few things you can do now that will help lessen the pressure on the Big Day.

Like many people, I have been a vegetarian for at least some part of my life. These days I choose to eat meat but on a very limited basis and I'm very particular about the conditions in which the animal was raised. I've written about my ambivalence towards participating in the killing my supper here before and my coming to terms with that it still an open question. But today I want to talk about a related trend that has hit the Bay Area (and, it seems, NYC) hard: butchery as a spectator sport.

We've been celebrating color this month in The Kitchn and it's been a blast! But as the month draws to a close, I find myself ready to turn towards the simplicity of cool white porcelain. The handmade bowls gathered here have a timeless, organic quality. I can just feel my hands circling them and my shoulders relaxing. Perfect for your kitchen altar as well as your morning cornflakes.

About five years ago, filmmaker Douglas Gayeton began recording foodway traditions in the town of Pistoia, Italy for a project he was doing with PBS. While most Pistorians had never heard of Slow Food, Gayeton observed that they were in fact exemplars of the movement's basic principles. So he focused his camera on his friends and neighbors, discovering many stories along the way.

Throughout time and many traditions, the household altar is often placed in the kitchen, the heart of the home and the place from which all activity flows. In some ways, the hearth itself is an altar, centering the household with the offering of food and nourishment, warmth, and a place to gather.

Nikki MClure is a master paper-cut artist, creating pictures with an X-acto knife from a single sheet of paper. Her work often features a word (usually a verb) or short phrase, many of them having to do with the kitchen, gathering or sharing food, and community. This fall she has several new offerings, including a free pumpkin stencil and her famous wall calendar.

It started with an innocent impulse buy several years ago in a cheese shop in San Francisco. A square cardboard box with a lady in an orange sari on the cover and the intriguing promise of unique, triangular tea bags within. Now it's an everyday ritual almost impossible to skip: wake up, boil water, PG tips, milk, back under the covers with a steaming cuppa and 15 minutes of slow sipping and emerging into the day.