To do real wok cooking as done in a Chinese take-out place, you would need gas burners at least as powerful as 60,000 BTU's, if not 120,000 BTU's. No gas rangetop (cooktop) has anything close to that. Most gas cooktops have at maximum between 15,000 - 18,000 BTU's. Most people doing wok cooking on those are generally steaming their food rather than stir frying it. I have a Kalamazoo outdoors grill with a 60,000 BTU side burner. I use that for my wok cooking. I used to have an Elan gas cooktop with an 18,500 BTU maximum burner. I could wok cook in fairly small quantities successfully, but anything larger I would end up steaming the food. I have a 36" Thermador induction cooktop with 5 burners and it has the largest burner available (13" diameter) and the most powerful (4,600 watts, which is equivalent to about 45,000-50,000 BTU's). I use a 14" diameter perfectly flat pan to approximate wok cooking quite successfully, as one can't cook on induction with anything but a perfectly flat pan or saucepot, as the cookware has to be in constant contact with the burner surface to be heated by the magnetic waves. Nothing beats induction for low level simmering and melting chocolate, etc. And nothing beats induction for high speed boiling. Some of the outstanding characteristics of the 36" Thermador induction cooktop are as follows: Sensor Dome: Retractable sensor measures the heat of the pot and keeps the temperature consistent. Cooksmart: 9 pre-programmed cooking modes. Anti-Overflow System: Exclusive feature prevents spills by automatically shutting off and sounding alarm when liquids are detected on surface. Safer Operation: 2-Step Digital Control Panel indicates when elements are hot or very hot. As only the pot gets hot with induction cooking, it is very rare that any part of the cooktop gets hot, except from the reflected heat directly under the pan. Panel Lock-out: Child safety lock-out for protection. Six Timers: Auto Shut Off Timer available for all the separate burner elements enables user to set desired cooking times before shut-off. A Separate kitchen timer is also available for general timing and shut-off. Blue Light Illumination: Touch control panel with blue light illumination offers 17 power settings. Industry Exclusive Triple Zone: On the largest 13" burner it can also accommodate multiple size pans with 3 diameter sizes. Speed heating: Induction cooktops heat 50% faster than traditional gas cooktops. Since induction heating can change temperature immediately since only the pan gets hot, you can be ultra-precise with no lag time in heating. Gas, on the other hand, heats the grates besides the pan and isn't anywhere near as immediate in adjusting temperature. Plus, there is no cooktop as easy to clean as an induction cooktop. Since the cooktop doesn't get hot, there is no burn-on of any spills. A simple wipe down of any accidents takes care of everything pronto. To prevent scratching of the cooktop I like using Silicone pads, such as Merle's SilPat octagonal pad. Others use paper towels or cloth. The inductions magnetic waves only heat the pan, hence there is no danger of burning the SilPat or towel. Also, there is no "greener" way of cooking than induction, as between 85-90% of all electricity is used to heat the pan. With gas less than 50% of the gas is used to heat the pan, the rest is used to heat the kitchen and the grates. The kitchen stays cool with induction cooking. To chefs in the know, particularly in Europe and and at the Culinary Institutes, induction is the professional way to go. Gas is considered old-school--and not in a good way. Greg

The latter. From rolling boil cook for two minutes then drain, shock in ice water, drain, stir in just enough olive oil to coat, put in fridge until needed. Supposedly can be held for up to six hours, but I've never gone that long. It can cook more quickly than expected after that, so start checking after a minute or two. Another method which I've never tried is a cold soak. Soak the pasta in cold water anywhere from 1.5 to 4 hours, pull it out and cook as needed. Supposedly this pasta only takes a minute to cook. Are you anticipating cooking individual servings as the guests arrive? That's the only reason I'd see for using either of these methods. Either way you have to boil the pasta, so unless you want to feed them the moment they walk in the door what does it matter if the pasta takes one minute to cook or twelve? If it's a sit-down dinner I'd just have a big pot of water waiting at barely a simmer so that you can bring it to a boil quickly when needed.

Well, I like my beef well done -- good, intense flavor! I always feel like I have to explain to waiters when ordering steak that I honestly do prefer it that way, LOL! I don't think "commercial" has anything to do with it. The bacteria reside initially on the exterior of the meat (saw this in a USDA pamphlet, but now I can't find it for citation -- sorry). Grinding the meat will mix in the bacteria, regardless of whether the grinder is a big commercial interest or you using your own food processor. That's why cooking the interior to 160 degrees is critical -- to make sure whatever gets on the inside is killed.

Let's see, what can be made ahead and frozen? Chicken pot pie, or even better since you're at the ocean, Lobster Pot Pie, I saw Ina Garten make one and couldn't figure out why I'd never thought of it. She used puff pastry dough, making it fast, instead of homemade dough. Cabbage rolls do well made ahead and frozen, then baked with the sauce when needed, or just cooked all day in a crockpot. Macaroni and cheese is easy and fast to put together and nearly everyone likes it. A "taco bar" has been discussed here many times, and it's something that people can put together as they like, you can use ground meat, marinated chicken, pulled pork or beef, or all or any combination, and some tortilla chips along with the toppings could yield nachos and taco salad for those who like that. LindaC's idea of meatloaf is a good one, and a couple of roasted chickens can yield hot chicken sandwiches, that above mentioned pot pie, chicken tetrazzini, chicken salad sandwiches, chicken enchiladas. You can't go wrong with a couple of roasted chickens. Your leftover roast can yield a shepherd's pie too, my girls loved it, along with Spanish Rice made with ground beef to make it a full meal. As well as dinners, how about breakfast? Lots of breakfast casseroles are quick and easy, and I make Woodie's Creme Brulee French Toast the night before and just bake it in the morning. The smell alone got my kids out of bed! Biscuits and gravy are pretty fast, if you bake biscuits the night before for supper and then heat them in the morning. BreaKfast burritos are easy to make ahead and freeze, as are "McMuffins", which then only need thawing and heating. Oatmeal cooks overnight with fruit in the crockpot really well too. I'm sure you have cookies, brownies, desserts covered. LOL Cookies and brownies freeze well, but the dough can also be made ahead and refrigerated for a day or two, and baked off as needed. Oh, and I have a cinnamon roll recipe that calls for making the dough the night before, letting it rise in the refrigerator and baking them the next day for hot, fresh cinnamon rolls, if you're interested in that. Annie