The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

What's Cookin': OMG! Too many forks! Which one do I pick up first? It's the entertaining time of year and I'm sure at some point you are going to go to a dinner party at someone's house, a banquet hall or a restaurant. What will you do when you're faced by a complicated placesetting? Which utensil is for which purpose-- how will you manage without looking foolish? When you sit down, take a good look at your place setting, so that you know what you are dealing with. As you pull your chair up to your spot, your forks should be on your left. If they aren't, your chair is in the wrong spot, scoot over a bit. Are there multiple forks, knives, spoons, glasses? One thing at a time. First, if there are any utensils laying above your place setting, those are for dessert, so just leave them for now. Glasses are a bit trickier because if you are at someone's home, they may not have all the proper glassware and might be making do with what they've got (that's what I do). Generally, the water glass is the largest, the red wine is the medium-sized one and the white wine glass is the smallest. Your glasses are above your knives. Your forks are on your left. Your knives are on your right (and sometimes there are spoons on the right as well). There may be a small knife laying on your bread and butter plate-- this is your butter knife. Your napkin is either under your cutlery, in the middle of your setting or in one of your glasses. Remove it before doing anything else and place on your lap. While we are on the topic of napkins-- they are for gently dabbing at your lips after a bite of food or catching little drips that may have otherwise fallen on your lap. They are NOT for wiping great big smudges of dark red lipstick all over. If you can't keep your lipstick on your lips and OFF the napkin, then consider NOT wiping your lips. It's not very nice for your poor host to have to throw out their lovely napkins after the party just because you couldn't control your lipstick! 23 Independent & Free Press, Thursday, December 15, 2011 Lori Gysel & Gerry Kentner Similarly, try to avoid putting dirty cutlery directly on the tablecloth. If there are no knife rests, then leave them on the plate or turn the fork over so only the tines are resting on the table and rest the knife on top of the fork. Your bread and butter plate is on your left. As for cutlery, consider each course as it arrives and start from the outside of your placesetting and work your way towards the centre. Theoretically, you send back the used cutlery with each course. But for all these things, if you are uncertain as to the procedure, just sit back and wait for your host/hostess to start, then copy their actions. This will tell you what utensil to use, how to handle a particular food item, which glass to choose and more-- so just slow down, relax and watch! Have fun and keep cooking! Email questions and comments to Lori and Gerry at whatscooking@theifp.ca Banana Pecan Pancakes Makes 2 large pancakes Ingredients · 1 cup pancake mix (add water only kind) · 3/4 cup cold water · 1 banana, sliced · 1/4 cup chopped pecans · 2 tbsp vegetable oil · maple syrup for topping Method 1. Mix pancake mix and water together, just until combined. 2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in frying pan over medium heat. 3. When oil is hot, pour in half of the batter and spread out to 6-8". 4. Immediately place half of the banana slices on top of the batter and sprinkle with half of the pecans. 5. Flip when bottom is cooked and then cook for 3-4 more minutes. Remove and repeat process. 6. Serve banana and pecan side up with maple syrup!