I’ve been on a Moroccan tear in my cooking lately and coveting one of the traditional Moroccan tagine pots from a source I found on Paula Wolfert’s website, www.paula-wolfert.com.

Tagines, both the Moroccan dish and the vessel it’s cooked in, have become fashionable of late. And frankly, I’ve seen some awkward contemporary renditions of the traditional conical-lidded casserole. Even in Morocco, there’s a distinction between tagines used for cooking and those fancier ones reserved for serving the fragrant stews of chicken or lamb.

Tagines by BTC has the pots in many different styles, some typical of a certain region and all quite reasonably priced. Their glazes are all lead-free. I’ve got my eye on the Ourika cooking tagine, described as “the preferred tagine in the souks of Marrakesh.” I’m wondering about the size, though: it’s 9 inches wide and serves two ($24, plus shipping). Hmm.

Then maybe the wonky, hand-formed Rifi cooking tagine, “our preferred unglazed tagine of Northern Morocco and Spain,” which is a little bigger at 11 inches wide. There’s one even larger from the Middle Atlas mountains called the Mellali tagine. Both are $28 each, plus shipping. The site also has four styles of decorated tagines that are used only as serving dishes.

Last week's slow cooker article garnered a lot of reader response, and my e-mail in-box was flooded with a ton of letters (still wading through all of them, sorry if I haven't responded yet!).

One of the letters was from Mike White in Zimbabwe. He writes about using what he calls a slow cooking "hot box," pictured above. He uses a cardboard box (or the large enameled bowl pictured) in which he places a large pillow. In a separate lidded cooking pot, food is brought to a boil for maybe 10 minutes, depending on what is being prepared. It is then placed on a mat over the pillow (the place mat keeps the pillow from scorching, he says.) A tea towel goes over the lidded pot, which is then topped off by another pillow to retain heat while the contents slowly cook. Mike says the pot will still steam after three or four hours, cooking everything from beans to tough meat stews beautifully.

And he notes the practicality of using the hot box:

When a challenge from Egullet to go cold-turkey on grocery shopping landed in my in-box, I found myself answering the culinary call-to-arms out loud:

"Do you spend $100 a week on groceries?" YES!! "If so, we have a plan to put that $100 back in your pocket quicker than you can say 'stimulus.' " ALL RIGHT!! "Join me in a week without shopping, as we feast on the bounty of our refrigerators, freezers and pantries." I WILL!!

The idea is to forgo your grocery shopping for one week and pocket the savings. Instead, forage in your pantry, freezer and refrigerator to piece together meals from the long-forgotten bounty: the hodgepodge of frozen pork parts, the half-empty box of macaroni, the unopened jar of salsa.

Think of it as the ultimate Top Chef quick-fire challenge with Rice-a-Roni and canned tuna. I’m a bit of a freezer junkie myself. Right now mine is home to several dozen stray cookies (household baking rule: half the batch must be saved for later), homemade pasta sauces (re-warming instructions included should my husband feel the sudden urge for spaghetti), and a growing collection of chicken livers (I suppose for last-minute Tuscan chicken liver crostini, but I’m not really sure).

Full steam ahead for a week of shortbread crostini a la Bolognese!

And be sure to check out Egullet's post regarding "some simple rules” to abide by. Hmmm. Could they be concerned I might eat that frozen brisket from 2002?

--Jenn Garbee

Slow cookers are definitely back. And in a big way. But then who wouldn't like the convenience of a hot meal, ready and waiting after a long day, with just a little early advance preparation?

Just as it takes a few simple tricks to bring out the best in your slow cooker, we have a few simple tips to make sure the meals you make are wonderful -- and safe for consumption. Click below for a list of safety tips, as well as links to additional guidelines and fact sheets.

And let us know if you have additional tips -- or recipes -- to share:

Does the cold, wet, blustery weather have you hankering for comfort foods -- and slow cooker recipes?

Times Test Kitchen Manager Noelle Carter is working on an upcoming story about slow cookers, and has been busy developing recipes for it. (We can say this much: Not all the recipes are for dinner. At least one recipe is for a dessert so good that some have already predicted it will be a front-runner for the Times' top recipes of 2009 -- and it's only February!)

Do you have any favorite slow cooker and crock pot recipes to share with the Daily Dish? Or how about some tips for converting your favorite recipes for crock pot use?

Please let us know -- leave a comment here. We'd like to use them as part of our upcoming feature on slow cookers.

--Rene Lynch

After eating out 102 days in a row, sometimes multiple times in one day, Noah Galuten had just one craving left: A home-cooked meal.

Galuten is the Culver City-based blogger behind www.manbitesworld.com, who gained a following when he endeavored to sample a different nationality’s cuisine every day, for as many consecutive days as he could.

A self-described “hugely passionate food person,” Galuten, 26, figured blogging would help him keep his mind off his unemployment woes.

“It was an incredibly emasculating feeling of trying to find a job and not be able to find anything,” said Galuten, a playwright who was looking for a job, any job, in the arts. “I needed something to get my juices flowing.”

Like any good scheme, the plan was hatched with friends over Mexican food, a cuisine that Galuten

There is a platter heaven, and it's called EBay.

That's where Bocuse d'Or champion Geir Skeie of Norway is selling one of his platters. The starting bid is $15,000.

Each chef at the Bocuse d'Or has to have two platters -- one for beef dishes and one for seafood dishes. U.S. competitor Timothy Hollingsworth's platters were created by restaurant designer Adam Tihany (Per Se, Daniel, Le Cirque); his meat platter had recessed lights. France's Philippe Mille says he worked directly with silversmiths to design his platters.

So what to do with them after the competition? Skeie is selling the platter he used for his beef dishes, four re-configurable silver-plated pentagons designed by Johan Verde. (Skeie says he can engrave his signature for the buyer.)

His fish platter already has been sold to a sponsor. Skeie says: "It will be hanging at a nice place in my hometown, Fitjar."

PHOTO GALLERY: Check out the training that goes into the Bocuse d'Or -- dubbed "the Olympics of the food world."

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Geir Skeie

I've had my eyes on a salt pig –- those earthenware pots that keep salt from clumping and kitchen tidbits from dirtying up your crystals -– ever since I spied a cute little 3-inch one on a friend's counter last year.

I've tried keeping my kosher salt in a ramekin, in a lidded sugar dish, and in the cardboard box it came in … all to no avail. (The ramekin attracted questionable kitchen detritus. The sugar dish lid was always caked in dried dough left by sticky fingers, and pouring straight from the box is just asking for a salt avalanche).

Mom to the rescue.

Not long after Amy Scattergood blogged about her new salt pig in August, my mom asked what I wanted for Christmas. A salt pig! I did a quick online search and sent her a Williams-Sonoma link to the first one I found, a classic white pig with SALT etched across the front. She'd never heard of a salt pig, thought it sounded lovely, and ordered one for everyone in the family. Apparently, salt pigs are available in more than one size. As you can see from the photo, this little piggy put on a few extra holiday pounds.

-- Jenn Garbee

Photo: Jenn Garbee

What would The Times' Food staff like under its tree? A samovar, Ronco Showtime rotisserie, Pasquini Livia 90 espresso machine, clay rice cooker, stationary bike blender kit, a whole pig, and spices.

Photo credit: Pasquini Imports

A songwriter friend of mine once observed that some people can walk around the block and see the whole world while others can go around the world and not see a thing. Food can work the same way. With the current availability of almost anything from almost anywhere, thanks to the Internet, sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the great products we have right here in Southern California.

So this Christmas, why not keep your gift-buying close to home by using this guide put together by the staff of The Times' Food section. Concentrate on shopping locally and you might find parts of the area you’ve never seen before and even meet the producers face to face.

And if all of that just seems like too much, almost all of them are also available over the Internet.

--Russ Parsons

Photo caption: Box of chocolates from Los Angeles-based Valerie Confections.

Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times