Tis the season for reflection on the past year, so we asked our contributors to tell us what their favorite bite or meal was of 2011. The one thing we all love is food and there's nothing better than sharing great food with the ones you love. Wishing you many delicious bites in 2012!
It is white truffle season, so naturally, anything with finely sliced white truffles would be memorable, but this year I made Cacio e Pepe – a delicate Roman pasta recipe made with egg tagliolini, butter (or olive oil), Cacio de Roma (a mild goat cheese) grated Romano, and lots of freshly grated black pepper. Combined with white truffles it becomes the ultimate sophisticated melt-in-your-mouth comfort food… and the aroma! Heaven! – Nancy Ellison
The favorite thing I ate in 2011 was, without a doubt, a nectarine I had just bitten into when Obama came on TV and told us that Bin Laden was dead. And while I admit that even a bowl of gravel would've tasted delicious upon hearing that the world was rid of this scum bag, I also remember thinking that now there was at least one more nectarine for someone else to enjoy which leads me to believe that it was an outstanding piece of fruit in its own right. – Alan Zweibel
If I see that any of my 600 Facebook friends, (of whom I really only know 14), are in New York, I tell them, “Don’t miss the cheeseburger at Prune!” – Fredde Duke
Oscar night approaches and something is missing. My kids. The nest is empty, and 364 days a year I’m fine with that. But not on Oscar night. Let me tell you why. Growing up, kids are like natural hostages. Until they get their driver’s license, they’re pretty much always there. And the night of the Academy Awards was no different. On that night in March (now February) my children, the two cats and I would gather in front of our living room or sometimes bedroom TV and take it all in. This was before we all had wide screens that now make the event seem like a private Oscar party. It was just a modest little TV. We’d sit in rapt attention and watch what to me was the most exciting part. Everyone’s magical entrance. The Red Carpet.
As each stunning actress made her way through the gauntlet of tedious interviews, I would ooh and aah at how beautiful she was. That’s when my kids would turn to me, me sitting there in my dirty sweats, my unkempt hair tied above in a twisted knot, no makeup, and assure me that I was even prettier!!! I’m not kidding. No matter who the actress was or how young and beautiful, my kids would yell, in unison, that I was MUCH prettier. “You’re MUCH prettier than her, mom!!” Don’t get me wrong, I know they were humoring me, I’m not delusional, but I bought it. And, I looked forward to it every year.
It’s amazing that some can go through an entire detective novel or TV series without eating. I’m not talking about readers or Netflix viewers; I’m referring to the characters, for whom the ratio of meals to angst seems to be inversely proportional. The band of agents in Criminal Minds has stopped to eat, by my count, just twice in seven seasons. The Bones team, however, logs almost as many hours in the diner as in the lab. The biggest mystery of the show is why Booth doesn’t weigh 350 pounds.
I was ecstatic to be reminded of an old tradition by Martha Stewart in her magazine this month. 
The Oscars are less than a week a way, and most people have already weighed in on their top choice for the year. So now it’s time to match your top choice with the perfect Oscar Entrée.