Oven

Parchment paper or vegetable cooking spray, for the baking sheet ½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter or nondairy margarine, at room  temperature 2 cups sugar 6 large eggs, at room temperature 1 teaspoon kosher-for-Passover  vanilla 2½ cups matzoh cake meal ¾ cup potato starch 4 cups (two 12-ounce bags) semisweet chocolate chips 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray it. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Dear Polly: To keep from losing your house key, attach it to an outside strap of your purse with clear nylon fishing line about 12 inches long. When the key is not being used, slip it into an ouside purse pocket or inside the purse. Not only will it be easy to find your key without fumbling, but if you drop the key while trying to put it in the lock, it won't be lost - it's on the end of your line. - Wanda Dear Polly: When putting things in a cardboard box, make some handles by cutting a U shape into each side.

In the market for a new microwave oven? The latest models are smaller and sleeker than their predecessors, and they do a lot more, too. Touchpads preset to the right cooking times and temperatures let you bake potatoes and cook frozen pizza at the touch of a finger. Many brands allow you to put something in the microwave, then program cooking to start hours later. But deciding which oven is right for you depends on form (where you're putting it) and function (what you need it for)

What we like about it: These large, soft pretzels, generously sprinkled with salt, and warm from the oven, hit the spot. Customers can drop by almost anytime - 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. - and see the pretzels hand-twisted and put in the oven in the small retail shop. Regular pretzels are 55 cents each, or $5.50 for a dozen. They're also available in four flavors - butter, garlic, cheese and cinnamon sugar. Flavored pretzels are 75 cents each. Owner Jim Stewart has been making pretzels since he was 14. He bought the business in 1993.

Who says you have to fry "frying chickens," or broil "broilers"? Or that only a "roaster" can be roasted? Who are these people telling us what to do? Don't be a chicken, defy the label - "fry" that "fryer" in the oven . . . bake that "broiler"! Actually, the chicken producers would probably like nothing better than to dump the old terminology that still gets printed out on supermarket stickers and replace it with . . . what? "Frying, broiling, baking, microwaving, barbecuing, saucing cut-up, young chicken parts also suitable for stir-fry, oven-fry, casserole, pressure-cooker or baking in foil packets.

Sharp Electronics Corp. calls it "a revolution in microwave-oven cooking" and "an appliance for the future. " Sounds like a microwave that heats everything in five seconds or less, doesn't it? No, it's not that. Maybe it's a microwave that can cook two things at the same time: say, bacon and eggs together. No, it's not that either. The revolution Sharp has in mind in introducing its new model R-390AK is a microwave used to actually cook things, as opposed to just defrosting them or heating them up. Of course, microwaves could always be used for cooking - there are entire cookbooks explaining how to do it. But most of us have staunchly refused to cook in a microwave.

Steam vent, 13th and Callowhill streets. (212-degrees) Coke oven, Fairless Works, Bucks County. (180) Next to the brick oven, Tacconelli's Pizza, Port Richmond. (150) Kitchen at Sang Kee Duck House, 9th and Vine streets. (125) Phillies vs. Yankees at the Vet. Stadium heat index can be 16 degrees higher than the airport. (115) Bird house at the zoo. Why do you think they call them tropical? (110) Franklin Mills Mall (70) Broad Street Subway. SEPTA bigs like it meat-locker cold.

DARK CHOCOLATE, CLOVE AND CINNAMON BROWNIES 9 ounces (2 sticks plus 1 ounce) butter, plus extra for greasing 10 ounces chocolate (70 to 80 percent cocoa) 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2/3 cup light brown sugar 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk, beaten 1 cup pecans, crushed 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon sea salt 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus extra to serve 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus extra to serve Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

YOUR CHEATIN' HEART Don't kid yourself that you're doing your spouse a favor by having an affair. The thesis that extramarital loving can revive intra-marital loving doesn't hold water, psychologist Judith F. Slater writes in Lear's magazine. "While (an affair) may begin as an attempt to solve a problem, it can easily become the overwhelming problem. " A PRESSURE SITUATION Sorry, but moderate exercise alone does not appear to lower blood pressure enough for it to be a reasonable alternative to antihypertension medicines, says a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

After one of my cooking classes, a student appeared at my side with a problem. She was looking for an accompaniment for Cornish hens or roasted chicken that would help cope with the winter doldrums. I often serve my family Baked Wild Rice, a simple preparation that's perfect with fowl. I gave her the recipe and suggested that she serve a first course of butternut- squash soup, and, for dessert, pears baked with honey and lemon. BAKED WILD RICE 1 1/4 cups wild rice 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 3/4 cup finely chopped onion 3/4 cup finely chopped celery 1 1/4 cups long grain converted white rice 3 cups chicken stock 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup seedless red grapes, halved lengthwise 1 cup seedless green grapes, halved lengthwise 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds (see note)