When you walk into MIX the first thing you notice is how open and empty it all seems. A cavernous white space brightly lit by huge windows on all sides, so stark and minimalist you might wonder if they are even open for business quite yet.

There’s a woman on television that takes a few store bought ingredients, combines them with stuff in her pantry or fridge and calls them homemade. I hear her eponymous show is a big success, even earning her an eponymous magazine.

The vast majority of us go through life, bouncing from like to like, activity to activity, never really finding our passion. We never alight on that one thing that lights the fire in our bellies, consumes our every waking thought, drives us toward excellence.

The menu said, “handmade pappardelle,” and that was all it took to send me back to a fond childhood memory. Decades ago, my great-grandmother used to let us help her make pappardelle noodles on occasion. Pappardelle are just long ribbons, and couldn’t be much simpler.

The recent spate of icy winter storms in Birmingham triggered the same food mania we have all gotten used to over the years. Every grocery store in the metro area had its shelves stripped of every last trace of milk, eggs and bread.

Shaun Chavis has been holding out on us, Birmingham. With a degree in Culinary Arts and a Masters in Gastronomy from Boston University, Shaun is a woman who wears many hats: Foods Editor at Oxmoor House, facilitator of the Birmingham Foodie Book Club (foodiebookclub.wordpress.com), creator of the Birmingham’s Best Home Cooks blog (birminghamcooks.wordpress.com).

Chad Adams will be one of the first people to tell you that last summer’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico hurt the seafood business. Ironically, his business is more than 250 miles away from Mobile. Chad and his wife Allison own Crestline Seafood Company in Mountain Brook.

During the holidays I experienced another example of a strange phenomenon that occurs in a select few restaurants. My wife sent me to Momma Goldberg’s Deli to get stocking stuffer gift cards for our kids who attend Auburn. “Momma G’s,” as my kid’s and their friends call it, has been jam packed at their Auburn campus location for decades now, and just recently opened two locations in the Birmingham area.

Another year has come and gone, and though 2010 was particularly full of onerous occasions, that’s no reason not to go out and party your little butts off come New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s Eve” Sos band What do you give the person who adores food? This can be quite a daunting task, but rest assured there is always something out there to delight a foodie friend.