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Our guest this week is Padma Lakshmi, host of TV's reality show, "Top Chef." Her famous line is "please pack your knives and go." Padma packed her knives, cooked her way around the world, then came home to write her new book Tangy Tart Hot Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day. Her food, including Two Hens Laughing, is some of the most alluring to come along in some time.

Great smoked fish lured Jane and Michael Stern to Duluth, Minnesota (in the winter, no less) and the Northern Waters Smokehaus. Also in Duluth, the Damiano Center is feeding hundreds of folks every day with perfectly good food that stores, restaurants and farmers throw away. It's the kind of good-news story we love.

Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg stop by to tell us how we can make our own artisan bread in five minutes a day (no kidding). Five-Minute Artisan Bread is from their book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking.

Christopher Kimball of Cook's Illustrated fame is back for another round of Stump the Cook, and David Wallechinsky, author of The New Book of Lists, reveals the one he claims isn't yet complete.

Recipes

Two Hens Laughing

The delicate flavor of Cornish game hens makes this a one-of-a-kind dish that is just right for a special occasion. Get the full recipe

Five-Minute Artisan Bread

Yeast, salt and flour are all you need to make a fresh loaf of home-baked bread. Get the full recipe

Features

Jane & Michael Stern: Northern Waters Smokehaus, Duluth, MN

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Northern Waters Smokehaus is a combination of small restaurant and what owner Eric Goerdt calls a "microsmokery." You can get the daily lunch special to eat in at one of the three or four tables, but it's really all about the fabulous smoked products they make here.

There's bacon, pancetta, and delicious bison pastrami. But it was the fish that caught Michael's fancy so much that he ordered a box to be shipped home. When they went to their small local post office to claim the package the place smelled like smoked fish! The Lake Superior white fish is creamy and fresh tasting, and the Alaska sockeye and king salmon is so moist it flakes perfectly at the mere nudge of a fork.

Northern Waters Smokehaus
394 South Lake Avenue, Suite 106
Duluth, MN
218-724-7307
888-663-7800
www.nwsmokehaus.com

Damiano Center

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Do you know that one-quarter of our food-or about 180 pounds per person per year-ends up in landfills? The Damiano Center in Duluth, Minnesota is turning that stunning statistic on its ear.

Whether you call it food salvaging, food rescue, food recovery or gleaning the folks at Damiano are part of a growing community of individuals who work together from day to day to make sure that perfectly good food ends up on the table and not in a trash heap. They turn what is tossed by stores, restaurants and farmers into good eating for hundreds every day at a cost of 32 cents per meal. For more about the Center and their inspiring story log on to www.damianocenter.org.