Now in my 20s, and more health-conscious, I reflect with disgust on the cuisine offered to me by the public school system during those most critical years of physical development. In fact, I blame my general bad mood and erratic heart rate on a steady diet of tater tots and Salisbury steak consumed under the auspices of the federal government's Dietary Guidelines for Screwing Over the Next Generation. Thanks to Ronald Reagan, I still believe ketchup counts as a vegetable. But I will credit them with introducing me to what remains one of my favorite, though verboten, desserts: the... More >>>