Ruth Glick doesn't know it yet, but her family is about to become larger. After reading her cookbook, Fabulous Lo-Carb Cuisine, trying some of the recipes, and talking to her on line, I've decided to ask her to adopt me. I want to eat like this all the time, and I'd like to enjoy her company. She's delightful.

500 Low Carb Recipes is a fitting sequel to How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet And Lost Forty Pounds! Like Dana's first book, 500 Low Carb Recipes is exhaustively researched and answers virtually every question about low carbohydrate cooking that a new low carber could think to ask.

Tonight's meal, featuring Italian Marinated Flank Steak, is a simple meal. It goes together quickly with a minimum amount of fuss, and leftover steak is wonderful to munch on for breakfast or lunch, and it is also a terrific addition to a simple salad to turn it into a main dish meal.

The Asparagus Omelet in tonight's menu fulfills both requirements for me, and it has another plus: any time I have asparagus I feel rich. There's something about asparagus that always spells ""extravagance"" to me.

Certain foods "go together" in my mind; for example, pork and apples are one of my favorite combinations. The Johnny Appleseed Pork Chops in tonight's menu are a luscious change of pace from savory pork chops.

Tonight's meal is both versatile and satisfying on a cool, damp autumn evening. Low carbers can serve their Swedish Burgers on lettuce leaves or just place them on the plate and eat them with a knife and fork, omitting the lettuce leaves. Non-low carbers can have their burgers on buns if they want to.

It's less than two weeks until Thanksgiving, and by now some of the more apprehensive low carbers among us and in full blown panic mode. "How will I make it through the holidays without cheating?" we wail. "How can I give up my mother's famous stuffing, or her pumpkin pie, or her mashed potatoes? She'll hate me! Oh, woe is me! I'm doomed!" And we pause to give ourselves time to gnash our teeth and rend our garments.

CarbSmart Complete Low Carb Thanksgiving Dinner Recipes includes Zesty Roast Turkey, Molded Gazpacho Salad, Cranberry Treat, Company Cauliflower Casserole, Decadent Spinach Casserole, Holiday Spaghetti Squash Casserole, Di's Chocolate Mocha No-Bake Cheesecake.

Next week the infamous "Mideast Feast" is scheduled for the 6th graders of Rapid Run Middle School. They're studying the Mideast, you see, and the teachers and parents provide the feast as an extension of their lessons. I remember my son participating in this when he was in the 6th grade; now it's my daughter's turn.

I was looking back through previous Low Carb Cooking 101 lessons, and I was amazed that I had only shared one pork recipe with you. Autumn and winter aren't the only times I serve pork, for crying out loud. We have pork for dinner at least once every ten days or so, usually pork roast, pork chops, or pork steaks. But I really do like pork most in the fall and winter.

Dealing with Halloween Candy as a Low Carber. These dime-store ghouls won't be exorcised with pork chops or strips of flank steak. They turn up their runny little noses at deviled eggs, glower at the thought of tasty hot dogs and broccoli, and gag at the thought of chicken breasts and spinach. THEY WANT CANDY!!! And there, is a nut shell - well, in a candy wrapper - is what scares ME at Halloween.