Bread Crumbs

Since the last century, visitors to the Anderson House in Wabasha, Minn., have enjoyed the hospitality of four generations of the family operating this inn. Its current operators, Jeanne and John Hall, have collected recipes dating to 1896 and have incorporated them into The Anderson House Cookbook (Pelican, $15.95). Most of the recipes are based on Pennsylvania Dutch cooking heritage and have been updated for the contemporary cook. The section on breads is larger than those of most cookbooks, and one chapter contains 12 recipes devoted to candymaking.

It's a fact. Times are tough and money is so tight that even supper from the local fast-food place makes a hefty dent in the budget. So what's the answer? Eating well on that shrinking dollar means cooking at home. And home cooking is in - just ask career couples, single people (young and old) or young families. They'll agree that dining even in a neighborhood spot is just too expensive to make it a habit. Now we're discovering that cooking is therapeutic and sensually satisfying.

Yo, Chefs! I have a very primitive problem: I have trouble making meatballs. I mix them in a large bowl, with the usual ingredients: meat, sometimes egg, almost always bread crumbs, parsley, salt and pepper. I bake them about half an hour at 350 degrees. The problem comes when I cook them in the sauce. I really like to make sure the meatballs are well done, or I just can't eat them. What I usually do is to put them in the crock pot with one jar of sauce and a can of puree.

There is no better way to prepare fish than in the microwave. It is guaranteed to be moister, have a less fishy taste and to convert fish haters into fish lovers, providing it is prepared properly. That means beware of overcooking. Microwave about 4-6 minutes per pound on High (4 minutes for fillets and 6 minutes for steaks or very thick fish). Fish is done when it is opaque and flakes easily. Thick filets should be placed near the outside of the dish; overlap very thin sections or place near the center.

Is your belly built Simpson-tough? Try a few of these recipes created by local chefs who are also fans of the cartoon. Or - if you dare - sample recipes created by the characters themselves. First, Vesuvio chef Louis Mosca combines Homer's fave food groups: doughnuts and beer. Then - Mmmmmm! - breaded pork chops the way only Marge would make 'em, from Greg Salisbury of Rx restaurant. Finally, a simple, healthful salad that a local fan says Lisa would love. HOMER'S BEER-BATTERED DOUGHNUT HOLES 3 1/2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup sugar 4 eggs 1 cup beer Vegetable oil for deep frying 1 cup sugar or confectioner's sugar In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, spices and half-cup sugar until blended.

From the authors of Fish on the Grill (Contemporary Books), a popular cookbook of two summers ago, comes this season's logical sequel: Shellfish on the Grill (Contemporary Books, $7.95). For this sea adventure, food writers Phyllis Magida and Barbara Grunes again have joined in preparing a straightforward, sensible and easy-to-follow guide to preparing everything from barnacles (a growing West Coast trend) to squid. Magida and Grunes have included recipes for the imitation crab and lobster products that are becoming increasingly available in supermarkets.

These days, our cooking is often relegated to the microwave or convenience- style food. And, it seems, we are raising a second generation of convenience-food cooks and getting farther away from teaching our children basic cooking techniques. Every meal does not have to be made from scratch, but once in a while it would be fun to take the extra time and prepare some simple food with the children. With many working families, the thought of cooking from scratch is overwhelming.

The things one does when charity and self-interest combine are undoubtedly often weird, but I'm still kind of surprised at myself for entering the meat loaf contest. Not that there's anything wrong with my meat loaf, which happens to be my mother's meat loaf and is pretty terrific, but it's not exactly the dish I'd choose for culinary competition. Actually, it was clear from the start that the people who thought up this little tourney had their tongues firmly in their cheeks. The bake-off was to be held at a restaurant called the Dew Drop Inn; the "celebrity judge" was to be none other than Meat Loaf (the rock-and-roller)

Turns out you're never too old to call your mother about a recipe. And regret it. We begin when I decide to cook a nice meal for Daughter Francesca, because we're about to start book tour. We eat french fries for dinner every book tour, and it's worth writing an entire book for an excuse to eat french fries. But if I eat french fries without being on a book tour, I start signing things. Occupational hazard. To stay on point, I decide to make eggplant parm, which I haven't made in years.

If cooking were just a matter of throwing food into the fire and waiting for it to get hot, there would be little to discuss. But the art of cooking is not just about heat. More often it's a question of protecting ingredients from the very flame that's meant to benefit them. One of the simplest ways to safeguard an ingredient is to cloak it in some protective coating before it hits the heat. Food coating can be as ephemeral as a film of marinade or as sturdy as the extra-crisp armor sported by fast-food fried chicken.