No, that's MY pan One of the perils of potlucks -- besides wiener casserole -- is having someone mistakenly go home with your pan. Not a chance if your pan is from the Cake Pan Lady, who will engrave your name along with one of dozens of selected designs. Mary Alice Mraz engraves each pan herself in her Lakeville home. The 9- by 9-inch is $31 and a 9- by 13-inch is $33; the lidded Nordic Ware baking pans come in red, green, blue, black and silver. Check out her website, www.thecakepanlady.com, or call 952-892-7267.
Cookies in the mail You've seen the winning cookie recipes in today's Taste section. Doable, really. But if you like the security of starting with a mix, Betty Crocker has variations for its cookie mixes and even pudding flavors. There also are tips for shipping your sweets. Crunchy or chewy cookies hold up better than soft ones. Don't send anything with melt-able ingredients to warm climates. Wrap your sealed box with bubble wrap, then in a slightly larger box. And it never hurts to write, "Fragile, handle with care." For more tips and recipes, go to www.bettycrocker.com and click on "Baking," then "Seasonal recipes."
Food, on stage The reincarnated Ruby's Cabaret, now Ruby's @ The Lab, hosts "The Cooking Show con Karimi y Comrades Holiday Party for the People." Catchy. The live cooking performance features local revolutionary chef Mero Cocinero Karimi (the alter ego of Robert Karimi) as an Iranian-Guatemalan activist, artist and poet. Think Borat with a whisk. Karimi actually cooks onstage and offers samples for the audience, along with political discussion and tasty comedy. The show gained positive reviews on the road. See it now through Dec. 13 at the Lab Theater, 700 N. 1st St., Minneapolis. Tickets at www.thelabtheater.org or 612-333-7977.
Curried congrats "660 Curries: The Gateway to Indian Cooking" by the Twin Cities' Raghavan Iyer has been named one of the 10 best cookbooks of 2008. National Public Radio's Kitchen Window contributor T. Susan Chang calls it "the best 3-pound paperback of the year." "Don't be fooled by the title," she adds. "These are no more the orange, gluey curries you might have encountered in the '70s than Google is a card catalog." Iyer was profiled in the Taste section in April.
KIM ODE
