If you’ve bookmarked Whining & Dining, you need to update your bookmark to www.whiningdining.com. You can still access W&D from the CA home page, but the old bookmark with the whine-dine address will soon stop working.

I’ve finally got a prototype for the new Food Community page I’ve been planning to launch for months–yay! This is where you’ll find the cookbook reviews we’ve been talking about, plus other regular and rotating features. Those of you who expressed an interest in reviewing cookbooks might be hearing from me soon. I don’t have a definite publish date for the new page, but I’m hoping for October.

I know you’ve all seen community pages in the other sections of the paper. What our new page will have in common is that the copy will be submitted by readers–”citizen journalists” is the catch-phrase. Here are a few of the features that will run every week:

Cookbook reviews, which will be written (following a template) by community reviewers. We’ll pick new reviewers each year.
Lost and Found: I saw this one in another paper and loved it. Can’t find a product you need? Drop me a line and we’ll post the “lost” items. Then other readers will let me know if they know where you can find it, and we’ll print it. Food items, of course. Let me know what you’re looking for.
Mini-profiles: Each week we’ll feature a chef or home cook in a “10-questions” kind of format. We’ll have a form available online or in the office for folks to complete, and we’ll make it fun. Start nominating folks!
Tip of the week: A cooking tip, a helpful Web site–something that I hope will be new to you. I promise we won’t print the same tired old junk.

Rotating features will include pictures and short stories about cooking groups, kids in the kitchen, original recipes, plus other things we’ll come up with. It’s a work in progress–and it’s YOUR page, so share your ideas here. If you’d rather, you can email me directly at biggs@commercialappeal.com.

This will be fun!

My friend and co-worker Beth just sent me an email telling me that a Tab exploded in her car and asking about safe ways to get groceries home in this dreadful heat. She asked if I used a cooler for transport and the answer is:

Yes–and for the first time ever.

Well, I use coolers when I go out of town and bring food back, of course, but I’ve never been one to worry too much about food staying in the heat for just a short while. But hey, we also still stuff our turkey at Thanksgiving.

Anyway, it is WAY too hot right now to leave food in the car for even a short while. I filled a soft-side cooler (like one of those silver things you see in the frozen food section at Sam’s or Costco) with a couple of cool packs before I went shopping for Bob’s birthday party on Friday. Everything that was frozen or refrigerated went in, and it all stayed cool as I made several stops. (The more you put in it, the cooler everything stays.) Really folks, be careful!

Here are a few tips from fightbac.org:

-When shopping, select refrigerated and frozen items last.
-At the grocery store, pack cold foods together in paper bags. Paper bags keep foods colder than plastic bags.
-Make the grocery store your last stop before going home.
-If you have a long distance to travel from the grocery store, take a cooler and ice packs in your car to transport perishable products. If a cooler is not practical, place perishable foods near the air conditioning vents.

Thanks to Simone Wilson for her kind words in this week’s Memphis Flyer. She nailed it!

The closer it gets to leaving town, the sadder I get… I was tearing up at the post office the other day. Blame it on Elvis… hearing “Here Comes Santa Claus” made standing in that long line a real Memphis experience.

Though we’re hitting the road early tomorrow morning, there’s much discussion about where to have our last supper. Likely, it’s going to be Soul Fish Cafe… on my best-of list this year, which runs in Friday’s Memphis Playbook.

Here’s wishing everyone out there in cyberspace — except those nasty spammers — a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Kwanza, Hannakah and Peace on Earth!!!

OK, not exactly. This just in for Consumer Reports:

Medicine isn’t the only remedy that can provide relief for a cold this season. Research has found that chicken soup seems to reduce congestion, so Consumer Reports screened 26 varieties to determine which were the better brands to test. The Original SoupMan’s refrigerated chicken vegetable soup was the only variety to garner an excellent rating. It had a stew-like consistency and flavorful taste which was described as “lick the bowl” delicious. But opting for excellent quality will cost consumers around $3 per cup.

Consumer Reports began its testing with a blind tasting that ruled out a number of varieties due to obvious flaws such as a tinny taste or bitter herbs. The eight contenders that remained included SoupMan’s Chicken Vegetable soup and Lipton’s Soup Secrets and varieties from Bear Creek Country Kitchens, Campbell’s, Cugino’s, Healthy Choice, Rienzi and Trader Joe’s. Consumer Reports tried dry mixes, canned, pouches and refrigerated varieties.
Aside from flavor and price, Consumer Reports checked for calories, fat and sodium content. Most of the soups are low in fat, but high in sodium. Trader Joe’s chicken soup claimed to have 160mg of sodium per cup, but CR tests showed that it actually contained 664mg. All other labels were correct.

When I’m feeling terrible, I drag myself to the nearest pho place… If I’m too sick to leave the house, I’ll submit to Lipton with extra noodles… What makes you feel better? (Besides that hot toddy…)

Marcie Cohen Ferris, author of “Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South”, will appear at 2 Sunday at the Memphis Jewish Community Center, 6560 Poplar.

This book includes a chapter on Jewish Food Traditions in Memphis — with discussion on Kosher BBQ with recipes.

Larry Lackey, chef/owner of Cayenne Moon, died of a massive heart attack Monday. He was 55.

His Creole-inspired menu included classics such as crawfish fritters, seafood gumbo, crab cakes and Gulf shrimp. His bread pudding was among the restaurants’ most requested recipes, but as his partner in life and business said those recipes were closely held secrets.

Lackey grew up near Tupelo, Miss., a self-taught cook who was in the kitchen by the time he was 11.

“He had an absolute passion for what he did,” said Polly Hagedorn, who had been with Lackey for 17 years. “We had a small staff, which made it more like family.”

Customers were loyal at this restaurant on Front Street, which recently celebrated its fourth anniversary. Hagedorn said the chef especially appreciated feedback from visitors from Louisiana.

“They would tell him his cooking reminded them of their mama’s cooking,” said Hagedorn.

Unfortunately, the restaurant’s last meal will be served Saturday, when Cayenne Moon had a private party and some dinner reservations booked. And Hagedorn has no idea what her future holds.

“The restaurant business is difficult at best. We never made a ton of money, but the feeling of being part of a big family made it worth it,” she said.

A memorial service will be Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Unitarian Church on the River. To contact Hagedorn, call 901-522-1475.

… of the non-edible nature? I suggest you check out an adorable advice column that’s just started on our CA Website… Mizz Honeybee. No dull Dear Abby, she. Miz B tells it like she sees it, even if it means pulling out the occasional stinger. Fun stuff. (If you can find it, for some reason it’s buried deep in the Lifestyle page… scroll down on the link above and send her a query…)

And while I’m serving up plugs for my pals, got to brag on my buddy Jess Walter, who is a finalist for a National Book Award for his brilliant book “The Zero”… I keep trying to talk Jess into swinging down Memphis way for a book signing. Might treat him to some wasabi marinated duck! (OK, you’ll have to read the book on post-9/11 America to get that reference…)

Please feel free to offer a public pat on the back to someone who inspires you.

There’s a new book out called “How I Learned to Cook” featuring stories from storied chefs such as Rick Bayless, Mario Batali, Marcella Hazen, Anthony Bourdain and many more. What a brilliant idea for a book.

Of course, you don’t have to be famous to tell that story. I’ll get the party started… my grandmother was always in the kitchen and I remember hanging out with her. I learned by watching, and practicing as often as I could. I made my first family dinner when I was 9.

Still, I later learned what I had been doing wrong when I took a course at the Culinary Institute of Amercia in Napa Valley. Oh, so you start stock with cold water. And you don’t throw everything into the wok at once. And it’s really not that hard to make your own corn tortillas. I would still rather wing it than follow a recipe, though.

What about you? Did someone teach you to cook? Did you learn by reading or watching cooks on TV?

I’m a guest blogger on a Spokane-based site, reminiscing about places I miss in the old stomping grounds.

I love the title of that blog — taste everything once — a fine goal to which every foodie should aspire.

Last weekend, I got a special thrill introducing a friend of Claire’s to that concept. K had never before tried Indian food, but was game and turned into a fan after a trip through the buffet at India Palace… oh, those lamb meatballs!

Later, I put him to the acid test: sushi. He tried a tempura shrimp roll and an eel roll, and said he liked them. Maybe he was being polite, but at least he tried it. Unlike little Miss C.

Do you remember your very first time with some exotic food? What’s too weird to be off-limits?