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Caitlin Saniga here again, trying to squeeze in a bit more fun before queen bee Lindsey Nair returns!

I’ve had citrus on the brain lately. Other fruits seem hard to come by this time of year, but many grocery stores in the area are well stocked with oranges, lemons, limes and the like. I added an odd citrus variety — the ugli fruit — to my cart during a recent shopping trip but chickened out before I reached the checkout. And just a couple of weeks ago I dug my claws into the thick pith of a gigantic pomelo and enjoyed my first-ever taste of the sweet-tart fruit.

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Hi, my name is Darla Mehrkens. I am a recent graduate of the Culinary Institute at Virginia Western, the catering chef for Carilion Clinic and a member of the American Culinary Federation. I feel fortunate and proud to be all of those things, but being a member of the ACF is one of the most rewarding opportunities. We are a nonprofit organization composed of area chefs and culinarians with a local focus on childhood hunger. If you’re interested in helping us provide nutritious meals and snacks to hungry kids in Roanoke schools, you can attend the Chocolate Sunday Festival at Hotel Roanoke on March 10.

The recipe I am sharing with you today is one of my favorites. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, this is the perfect starter for a romantic meal. This dish serves four, but you can cut it in half, add a few more scallops and turn it into a main dish for two. I hope you enjoy every bite!

Photo by Darla Mehrkins

Fresh Corn Chowder with a Seared Scallop,
Roasted Jalapeno, and Parsley Puree
Topped with a Dressed Mesclun Salad
and Applewood-smoked Bacon

Puree
4 fresh jalapenos
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsps. fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup packed parsley leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Place jalapenos under broiler, turning every few minutes until charred on all sides.
Remove jalapeno and place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for 10 minutes. Remove jalapeno from bowl and gently scrape skin off with edge of a paring knife. Remove stem and seeds and place to the side. In a  high-speed blender (I prefer using a Vitamix.) add olive oil, fresh lime juice, minced garlic, jalapenos and parsley, and blend on high until mixture is smooth and bright green. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Click “Read more” to see the rest of this recipe.
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Pairing wine and chocolate is all about trying new things and having fun. Photo by Bayla Sussman

Hi there. I am Bayla Sussman, aka “Baylee the Chocolate Lady,” owner of Baylee’s Best Chocolates on Virginia 419 in Roanoke County. For the last few years, I’ve been your friendly hometown chocolatier. About 30 years ago, I started baking and working with chocolate after I was injured while working as an actor. I was pretty limited for a couple of years, but I could bake, and people really liked what I baked. The great thing about making and selling chocolates is the smiles. No matter how bad somebody’s day has been before coming in, people tend to leave the store in a good mood. We like to make people happy.

At this time of year, customers often ask me to pair chocolates with wines for Valentine’s Day. Chocolate-dipped strawberries with sparking wine immediately come to mind, but there are so many other possibilities:

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Impossible pie has a sweet egg custard-type filling with crispy coconut bits on top. To dress it up a bit more, try adding orange or lime zest to the mix. Photo by Caitlin Saniga

That’s me!

Hello, folks! I’m Caitlin Saniga, a copy editor and online editor at The Roanoke Times and a blogger at So Hungry I Could Blog, and Lindsey Nair has asked me to keep an eye on Fridge Magnet while she’s away. What an honor!

I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce myself than to share one of my favorite recipes of late.

I bookmarked impossible pie a couple of years ago while I was flipping through a food magazine but only just had a chance to try it about a month ago, when I was craving something sweet but didn’t have too big a selection of ingredients in my pantry.

The name threw me off at first, but after trying the recipe for myself, I decided it’s the easiest pie I’ve ever made!

All you do is mix the ingredients together and pour them into a pie pan. While it bakes, the flour forms a crust at the bottom, and the coconut rises to the top, making way for a sweet egg custard in the middle. The result only seems like an impossibility!

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The practice of mise en place comes in handy in home brewing. It’s best to have all ingredients and equipment ready before you start a batch. Photo courtesy Michael Quonce

Michael Quonce, marketing manager at Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, has been brewing beer out of his home, which he’s dubbed West Grandin Bread and Brewing Company, with brew partner Jeremy Hardison for more than six years. As our featured guest blogger today, he has agreed to share some of what he knows about home brewing:

It’s time to brew your first beer: There is nothing like the smell of steeping grain in the morning, the anticipation of a brew day and the satisfaction of pouring each beer to realize you just brewed your own and … it’s absolutely fantastic!

If you are a craft beer fan, have been wanting to try it for a while but keep pushing it back, or were fortunate to receive a brewing kit over the holidays, here are a few pointers to get you in the right direction and ensure that your first batch competes with any commercially available beer on the market. Trust me. Take the leap. It’s easy!

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Creamy Dilled Scrambled Eggs. Photo by Mary Rapoport of Roanoke.

Hello, I’m Mary Rapoport, Consumer Affairs Director for the Virginia Egg Council. I agreed to be Lindsey’s guest blogger for the day.

About a decade ago, I did a survey at a large food festival. I passed out forms and folks checked off the No. 1 way they liked their eggs cooked.  I listed the basics: hard boiled, soft boiled, fried, scrambled, poached, and omelets. Although there was a smattering of all choices selected, the standout favorite was scrambled.

I was surprised and frankly a bit disappointed since I think of scrambled eggs as being … well, ordinary. So several years later, I did it again, and the results were pretty much identical.  After thinking about it awhile, I figured it’s probably the easiest way to cook an egg — no worrying if the shell will peel easily with hard boiled eggs; and who has all those clipping-off-the-top gadgets you use to eat soft boiled eggs; no hysteria about breaking yolks when flipping the fried eggs; and poached eggs and omelets are basically a mystery to the novice cook. So scrambled it is.

The neat thing about scrambled eggs is you just plop the beaten eggs in a hot skillet with a bit of spray or a pat of butter, move them around and you have something warm to eat in no time – even perfect for a quick, no-fuss dinner. And with non-stick skillets, the clean up is a breeze. It actually makes sense that they are the No. 1 favorite for most folks because they are pretty foolproof and can be made in a hurry.

A few years ago, the world of scrambled eggs changed for me when I was visiting my son in California. Sitting in an outdoor café, I ordered the scrambled egg special and loved it so much that I begged to be let into the kitchen to watch the cook prepare it. They called it Creamy Dilled Scrambled Eggs and it was served on toast. You ate it by picking up the toast with this creamy, almost custard-like, highly-flavored, yummy business on top. I don’t know if it was the weather, the palm trees, the Bloody Mary I had with it, or the dish itself, but I love it to this day – it has become my favorite way to fix eggs.

I will share this recipe below on this blog post. What’s your favorite way to have your eggs cooked?

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Hi all, Lindsey is out today and tomorrow, so this is her editor, Kathy Lu, filling in as needed.

I’d like to share photos from inside the renovated Roanoke City Market Building that retail reporter Amanda Codispoti has posted on her blog. It’s a dramatic change from before, from the pristine white paint to the fact that it looks like there are stalls in the middle of the building’s first floor.

According to Amanda, “The Roanoke Times has already reported that five restaurants have signed leases to operate in the Market Building. They are All Sports Cafe, Euro Bakery, Hong Kong Restaurant, New York Subs and Habana Cafe. Deyerle says more leases are being negotiated and will be announced soon.”

Are you looking forward to the opening on Labor Day weekend?

Hello, folks. This is Nona from The Happy Wag again and I thank you all for your comments about potato salad yesterday.

Courtesy of Food Network

I decide to stick with a summer-cookout-picnic theme for today’s blog entry

So sitting alongside the potato salad at most picnic tables is pasta salad.  Because really, what is summer without some kind of noodle salad?

What I love about pasta salad is the creativity. It comes in all shapes and colors, can include almost anything and everything, and it hardly ever fails to please.

My favorite pasta salad is made with orzo (tiny pasta that looks like rice) cubes of mozzarella cheese(I prefer smoked), sundried tomatoes or roasted red peppers (maybe both), and a little fresh basil. Toss it all together with an Italian-style vinaigrette and you have a caprese-style delicious salad.

And without dairy dressing, it keeps well all day at a cookout without worrying about spoiling.

For a richer tasting pasta salad, I boil the noodles in chicken broth.

I am planning to try this recipe for a BLT pasta salad (pictured above) that I found on the Food Network website.  I also want to try this curried chicken pasta salad recipe from The Pioneer Woman because it looks AH-mazing, but with mayo, sour cream and heavy cream, it’s certainly not going to help me look any better in summer clothes.

What is your favorite type of pasta salad?

Hello! Guest blogger Nona from The Happy Wag here. And I have a confession.

This is my ugly truth: I never liked potato salad when I was a kid.

I know. Summertime blasphemy!

It was probably because my mother’s version was really more like mashed potatoes with mustard and chives.  I don’t like mashed potatoes (blasphemy again, I know); I prefer baked or crispy fried potatoes.

My lack of love for tater salad always made me a one-off at most summer cookouts.

As I got older and more adept at cooking, I figured out a way to make potato salad that I really liked, and it is now a year-round favorite at my house.

This is a recipe for baked potato salad that I made up from the inspiration of a few other similar recipes.  That’s a nice way to say I shamelessly stole parts of it from a variety of sources, including a Nashville restaurant and a few celebrity chefs on Food Network.

Below is my recipe for baked potato salad. Tell us how you like your potato salad.

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Hello everyone! This is Rebecca Holland (RT staffer and Shoptimist blogger) stepping in for Lindsey. I know it’s only Thursday, but I thought we could have some fun and start the weekend early.

The Wine Trail of Botetourt County Summer Concert Series is in full swing, and I’ve got 2 free tickets to give away for a lucky reader. The concert, featuring Solrevolt, is happening June 18 at 6 p.m. at Virginia Mountain Vineyards. Entry includes a souvenir wine glass and tasting.

So how can you get your hands on these tickets (valued at $10 a piece)? Leave a comment below telling me about your favorite local winery — which it is and why you’re so fond of it – by Friday at 4 p.m. A winner will be chosen at random and notified Friday afternoon.

To read more info about the Wine Trail of Botetourt County, click here.

File photo | The Botetourt View

Hi, Kathy here filling for Lindsey and I’ve got some breaking food news!

The Botetourt View has gotten word that Daniel Knight of  Blue Collar Joe’s in Daleville has been invited to a Food Network Challenge involving, of course, donuts.

Knight will be one of four contestants on the show, which will air sometime in 2011. He’ll be heading to Denver to film the episode next month. And the toughest part, Knight said, won’t be the cooking.

Read the whole story here.

Speaking of donuts, what’s your favorite flavor — in general or from Blue Collar Joe’s? I’m partial to anything chocolate, but not a fan of the jelly-filled kinds.

Good morning, this is Dana from over at The Back Cover, filling in for Lindsey today.

I’m more of a wannabe cook than a real one. I have tons of cookbooks, and I’m always eager to buy more.  I went to the Green Valley Book Fair last weekend and had to force myself away from the cookbook section. Otherwise, I would have ended up with a book on how to make beautiful cakes with fondant, a book about how to cook with wine, a book on baking and several other scrumptious looking books, that would be put on a shelf and never used.

The problem isn’t that I don’t want to cook. If I had the time, I’d make a gourmet feast for every meal. And yes, time is a factor, but the biggest reason I don’t cook is that I have a 4-year-old daughter.

Many of you are nodding your heads knowing exactly what that means.  I could probably end this post right here. But for those of you who don’t understand let me explain.

My almost perfect daughter is extremely picky when it comes to eating. It’s very frustrating to fix a nice dinner and have to throw away most of it. Some would say, let her eat what she wants, she’ll grow out of this phase, but I just can’t consciously let her eat butter noodles, frozen pizza, and/or Pop Tarts for every meal. Okay, so she does eat Pop Tarts for breakfast every morning, and Monday when she was sick I made her butter noodles, but that’s where I draw the line.

It’s not like I make her liver for dinner. I’d understand if she turned her nose up at that, but I make things that I loved as a kid. Come on, who doesn’t like au gratin potatoes?

I took her to Red Robin for lunch. She ordered spaghetti, which in most families is a staple if you have kids. She said she couldn’t swallow it because of the green stuff. The green stuff as she called it was the basil and oregano. Sigh.

The one rule I have is that if I make dinner and she chooses not to eat it, I won’t make her something different. If I did who knows how many meals I’d have to make a night—she’s been known to ask for something and then once she has it in front of her decide she doesn’t like it anymore.

Every night turns into a battle. She doesn’t care too much for sweets, so I can’t bribe her to eat a healthy dinner with a not so healthy dessert. And I feel guilty if I let her leave the table without eating anything. So we end up bargaining over bites.

I have learned some tricks though. One is patience. If I introduce a vegetable a little at a time, she’ll gradually do better with each meal she sees the vegetable on her plate. I did this with broccoli and she now loves raw broccoli and ranch. A little too much ranch, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Another trick is to give her a night where she gets to decide what we’re having for dinner. I do this as a reward for eating, not all, but most of what’s on her already small portioned plate. It’s a compromise, but it works.

What are your tricks? Do you have any no fail kid friendly healthy recipes? I’d love all the help I can get.

Hi, this is features editor Kathy Lu, filling in for Lindsey while she’s away.

I thought of this post while I was on a business trip to St. Petersburg, Fla., last week.

When a group of us were trying to decide where to dine one night, I realized that though this one restaurant many in the group wanted to try had gotten rave reviews, I was totally turned off by its looks. It was a very nice restaurant inside and the menu looked great, but it had almost no outdoor seating and was housed in a corner of what looked like a bank building.

And on that beautiful Floridian night, I wanted to eat al fresco.

So the group split up, and a small contingent ended up at The Garden. We were attracted by the cozy outdoor patio shaded by a large banyan tree and — bonus! — a jazz trio that was starting to set up.

In truth, while the dinner was fine and affordable, it played second fiddle to the setting (I can’t remember the name of the fish of the day that I had, but I learned that the jazz trombonist was Buster Cooper!). Also, it turns out, the restaurant is the oldest in St. Petersburg.

We found it not by getting on our smartphones and using UrbanSpoon nor by following the recommendations in our program guide. We were simply walking by the place and were drawn in by its mojo.

It made me realize that a restaurant’s presence can be just as important as its food — at least for this traveler who prefers to let her eyes lead her stomach.

Hello, Fridge Magnet faithful, this is Nona Nelson, the pet blogger, filling in for Lindsey, the food blogger, while she takes a much-needed break from a frantic work schedule.

As Lindsey promised last week, there will indeed be a few cookbook giveaways this week, because if there is one thing I love almost as much as cooking, it’s cookbooks.  And sharing. I love sharing cookbooks with other people that love cooking.

Today’s cookbook offering honors the noble swine, the animal that graciously gives us the second most wonderful food on earth, bacon. (In my emotional little world, chocolate will always be number one.)

But this cookbook is not not filled with recipes using bacon, because we all know that almost every recipe is improved when bacon is entered in the ingredient list.

This book honors the OTHER pork meat: Ham.

“Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter”  by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarborough includes more than 100 recipes from around the world that puts an interesting spin on the star of many holiday dinner tables and cold meat sandwiches.

This volume covers four types of ham: fresh, dry-cured in the old-school way, modern dry-cured and, finally, wet-cured.

Something for every lover of all things hammy.

To be eligible, post a comment with your favorite way to serve ham.  The winner will be chosen from a random drawing of all the tasty pork recipes submitted.

Hello, Fridge Magnet faithfuls.  This is Nona, the Happy Wag pet blogger, standing in for Lindsey today while she is buried in deadlines and digging herself out of the stuff that piles up when you spend a whole day in training, as she did yesterday.

This guest blog is a way of handing her a shovel of friendship.

Even though it’s not even lunch time yet, I am very much looking forward to dinner, because it’s clean-out-the-fridge night at my house.

At least once a week my husband and I go through and get all the leftovers out of the refrigerator and feast on them. It’s amazing how odd combinations of food can work together and how a few scraps of this and that can combine into new, delicious dishes.

And there is nothing more frugal than using leftovers and not wasting food — and thus money.

My favorite recyclable ingredient has to be bananas.  My husband and I are not fans of spotty, brown bananas but we love us some nana puddin’ and banana nut bread, and that is what this sad bunch will transform into tonight or tomorrow morning.

Here is my all-time favorite, OMG-this-is-too-good-for-words banana nut bread recipe,  shamelessly lifted from hottie Tyler Florence of the Food Network.  Click here for his version but you can see my slightly modified recipe by clicking the “read more” thingy below.

I will post my version of this recipe on the PlateUp recipe database tomorrow when I have a photo of the finished loaf of yummy goodness to add.

I will need action photography to get that shot because my husband will likely score the first slice before it’s even cooled.

What’s your favorite way to transform your leftovers or almost-unusable food into something fresh and tasty?

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By Heather Brush, filling in for Lindsey

Last night I opened a bag of summer to add to my homemade pasta sauce. Chopped homegrown yellow tomatoes from my garden, frozen at the peak of ripeness (read: when I had had my fill of fresh tomatoes and couldn’t give them away)  saved for a cold winter’s day. The sauce also had chopped frozen homegrown green bell pepper, sauteed in olive oil with garlic and onion. (Chopping frozen pepper strips is decidedly satisfying and easy.) The sauce was delicious and all the more better for my self adoration in having produced the produce. And it led me to yearning for spring.

The seed catalogs have been arriving in abundance and I’ve found myself plotting the where, what, and how much of my gardening plans. Tomato and pepper plants are a must. Herbs are a given. But what else? If you have found yourself with the same thoughts in mind, there are a couple of events you might wish to attend.

 Floyd, Naturally!
A presentation by Gloria Gerritz on germination, seeds, time frames, sowing, hardening off and potential problems when seed planting.
When: 7 to 8:30 p.m., Monday, January 18
Where: Jessie Peterman Library, 321 W. Main St., Floyd
Contact: 382-6965

Grower’s Academy
Lecture series focusing on low-input, small scale farming.
When: 6 to 9 p.m., Tuesday, January 19
Where: Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, Roanoke Higher Education Building, 108 North Jefferson St., Roanoke
Cost: $215
Contact: 767-6114

Now, excuse me while I enjoy some leftover pasta and chunky sauce. Happy planning for home grown cooking!

By Heather Brush, filling in for Lindsey.

Snow is forecast for the weekend and folks will be making stops on the way home from work for needed items. Me? I need a snow shovel and cat food. But the rush I’m talking about is the run on milk and bread I see every time the hint of snow is in the air. You know how it is…everyone runs out for these items and the stores get mobbed. (Good for them!)

Growing up in New York on Long Island, I don’t recall there being any items in particular that people would make a snow run for. I also lived in Vermont for a number of years and while we didn’t rush to the grocery with every snow prediction (We’d have been there every day for months) when a “big one” was forecast, folks would make sure they had Ritz crackers and peanut butter. It’s weird how different items are habits in different areas. 

I do like to have hot chocolate with marshmallows on hand for my kids, coming in out of the snow, and I hold a tradition of making chocolate chip cookies with the first snow fall of the year. But I won’t go into the throngs of bread and milk buyers to have them tomorrow. Call me a Scrooge.

Talking with friends and joking over the habits of people, we admitted to the greater likelihood that a before-snowfall-beer-run would be in order, or a visit to the wine aisle. Of course parents of young ones need diapers and formula; parents of teens need pizza rolls and soda, but in reality, is there any item from the grocery store you just can’t live without for a couple of days?

Let me know! I’ll stay out of your way this evening.

By Heather Brush, filling in for Lindsey

I am in good company when I say I’ve done some holiday baking this season, and probably also in good company when I admit that I have no patience for waiting. Waiting for butter to soften at room temperature? No patience at all. Waiting for cookies to cool? Well I have burned my tongue many a time. I’ve been curious though; why does the butter have to soften to room temperature? Can I substitute margarine? Since I’m filling in for Lindsey for a few days, I thought I’d do some research on the subject. I found a lot of buttery information!

The folks at TheJoyofBaking.com made it pretty clear:

“When room temperature butter is used in your recipe this means your butter should be between 65 degrees F (18 degrees C) and 70 degrees F (21 degrees C). This temperature allows the maximum amount of air to be beaten into your batter. This creaming or beating of your butter or butter and sugar creates air bubbles that your leavener (baking powder or baking soda) will enlarge during baking. Most experts recommend 4 to 5 minutes of creaming the butter for maximum aeration.”
So what about when I am making a pie crust, and I’m have to slice in cold butter then cut it into the flour with two knives? They have a reason for that too:

“Cold butter is used in some baking (pie crusts). With this method the butter is not absorbed as much by the starch in the flour and layers result when baked creating flakiness.” 
Mm, yes, flaky pie crust! Fluffy cookies full of air bubbles!

Does it make a difference if you use lightly salted butter or unsalted butter? Apparently you are supposed to adjust the amount of salt you add to the recipe depending on which you choose. Really? I’m more of a dash of salt person than a measure out a ¼ teaspoon of salt person. Maybe I should use half a dash?

Margarine versus butter? Well, watch what you are using. Spreads shouldn’t be used in baking because their fat content can vary. Margarine makes cookies spread out during baking a bit more than butter will (flat crispy cookies). Make sure your margarine contains at least 80% fat to use it in baking. Why do you need the fat? According to baking911.com, “It structures formation by coating and shortening gluten strands in baked goods. It retards the development of gluten strands, thus contributing to tenderization.” Basically, it affects the texture of your baked goods.

Want to know more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/Butter.html#ixzz0ZxX8VTUC

Hi, this is Kathy again. Lindsey will be back tomorrow.

I thought I’d take a moment and post this recipe I used over the weekend for an in-house bake sale we’re having today at the paper.

The bake sale is a fundraiser for the annual Roanoke Times Good Neighbors Fund, which supports the Roanoke Area Ministries’ Emergency Financial Assistance Program. You can read our story profiling people who’ve been helped by the fund or contribute to it here.

I chose to make Chocolate Zucchini Muffins out of the “The Only Bake Sale Cookbook You’ll Ever Need.” It wasn’t hard, but I did turn the batter into 24 cupcakes instead of 12 large (they would’ve been REALLY large) muffins. The muffins are light, with a nice cinnamony zing. But it’s not super-chocolatey, as a warning to those chocoholics out there.

I’m also not one to follow a recipe to the T, which has burned me in the past but I just can’t seem to do everything a recipe says to do (or just to do). So you’ll see my comments in here, but know that the cupcakes still turned out OK.

Hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Makes 12 large muffins (or 24 cupcakes)

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (I skipped the sifting)
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten (I think I didn’t see the beaten part, so I added them unbeaten)
2 cups shredded zucchini (about 4 medium zucchini — my 3 medium zucchini turned out 4 cups of shredded, so you might want to stick with 2 or 3)
1/2 cup milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I prefer the mini version)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease the cups of a 12-cup muffin pan or line with baking cups. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.

2. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating lightly after each addition.

3. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with the zucchini and milk, making two additions of each. Fold in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Remove from the pans immediately and cook on a wire rack (I don’t have a wire rack, so they just cooled on a countertop).

Hi, this is Kathy, Lindsey’s editor. Lindsey is taking a day off today, so I’m filling in for her a bit.

Just wanted to alert you to a story about Robert Cooper, a senior in Pulaski County High School’s culinary arts program. He is one of six students statewide who has been chosen to work in the kitchen of Guy Fieri, who hosts three programs on the Food Network. Cooper will spend more than eight hours behind the scenes building on the lessons he’s picked up in class. It’ll be interesting to hear what he learns.

The story ran in today’s New River Valley Current. Read it here.

“I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes, a big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer, well good God almighty which way do I steer…”

Hey folks, this is Nona, your pets blogger, filling in for Lindsey, who added an extra day to her three-day weekend. I am quoting Jimmy Buffett, the poet laureate of beach bums, for two reasons. First, to me nothing says long holiday weekend like cooking cheeseburgers on the grill and second, I HAVE TICKETS to Jimmy Buffett’s Labor Day weekend show in Manassas! Holla!

So I plan to take a holiday from being a good calorie-watcher and indulge in at least one cheeseburger while I am in paradise, and I may take a little sip of a margarita, too.

This got me thinking about what makes a diet-busting worthy cheeseburger and a hurts-so-good margarita.

I am a purist when it comes to burgers. I don’t like to load them down with a lot of stuff before they are cooked. Salt and pepper and a charcoal grill are all that is needed to make a tasty burger. Gas is OK, but charcoal adds so much flavor that it’s pretty hard to beat.

I also think if you are going to enjoy a burger, you have to be willing to ignore the fat grams and use beef that is no more than 80 percent lean. If I have to use extra lean beef or buffalo, I brush the burgers with a little olive oil before grilling so they aren’t too dry.

Now when it comes to toppings, I love muenster, cheddar or pepper jack cheese (all three work well together too), lettuce, homegrown tomatoes or none at all, pickles and barbecue sauce (Don’s Best or Camp Sauce are good choices.) I also love sauteed mushrooms and bacon.

As for margaritas, I actually skip the blender and make mine on the rocks. I use four or five ounces of Daly’s sour mix, an ounce of fresh lime juice, an two ounces of really good gold tequila, and an ounce of amaretto, which adds a new layer of flavor to the ‘rita. Shake it all up and pour over ice into a heavily salted glass.

If I were going to add the booze to the blender, I found this recipe (after the jump) for a frozen concoction, a mango margarita, that sounds heavenly.

Tell me how you would blend the perfect margaritas or top the tastiest cheeseburger in your own version of paradise.

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Hey readers. Lindsey is taking some much-deserved time off for the next couple of days and so I am minding the store today here at the Fridge Magnet. Hope you all had a great weekend full of delicious food.

I suspect almost everyone fired up the grill this weekend. Our deck is the home of two grills, one gas and one charcoal. The charcoal grill has become our default cook top on the weekends when we have the time to build the fire and soak some wood chips for that extra smokey flavor.

I just hate to waste anything, especially the great flavor that charcoal cooking adds to food. Since the coals burn bright and long, we try to make the most of the fire by throwing on all the food we can. Yesterday we grilled redskin potatoes, filet mignon and pineapple rings for dinner and dessert.

We also cooked chicken breasts (seasoned with curry powder and cumin) and pork loin chops (soaked in Mojo sauce) that we will use for dinner throughout the week.

The idea to grill potatoes came from a Food Network show with Bobby Flay. We used redskins this weekend, but this method works well with Yukon golds and fingerlings. By grilling the taters, we can get them very crispy with only adding a miniscule amount of fat.

I slice the potatoes into quarter-inch slices, then par boil them for a few minutes. Then I lay them out on a grill pan with holes that allows the flames to kiss the spuds. We got this one at Bed, Bath and Beyond but I think you can find them anywhere that sells grills and supplies.

I spray the pan with fat-free cooking oil, then I lightly spray the potatoes and add a little seasoned salt and pepper. The spuds get flipped after four or five minutes, the grilled side gets salted, and then they just finish cooking. If you don’t like using cooking spray, you can also just brush on a little olive oil. They are unbelievably crisp and delicious.

My husband and I really like grilled pineapple, too. We brush on a little maple syrup to help get a nice carmelization on the pineapple. This is great served with ice cream or just by itself. And we get more than one dessert out of this, too.

What did you toss on your grill this weekend?

Amanda's nonna making Easter bread.

Please enjoy this guest blog entry by my good friend and co-worker, Amanda Codispoti. Amanda has strong Italian roots and a talented cook for a grandmother. This is the story of her grandmother’s special Easter bread. Happy Easter.

Every Easter, my nonna (that’s Italian for grandmother) shows up with an abundance of food. There are rice balls, chicken cutlets, cookies and more. But the real treasure is her Easter bread.

She’s made this sweet yeast bread for at least as long as my father can remember. It’s a recipe that she brought with her to America from Italy more than 54 years ago, and one that my father estimates is a couple of hundred years old.

The centerpiece of her Easter bread is a basket with hardboiled eggs in it. Nonna boils the eggs first, and then weaves strips of dough for the basket and handle. She places the eggs on the basket, laying a strip of dough over them to keep them in place. She also makes dough in the shape of birds. And in another version, she flattens a ball of dough, puts chopped walnuts and pineapple perserves in the center, and then rolls it up.

I’ll list the ingredients below, but having baked with Nonna before, I would consider these measurements to be just a recommendation. Nonna still consults with her notebook of recipes, but after decades of baking, it seems that she mostly relies on the feel of the dough and her intuition. In fact, many of her recipes don’t indicate how much flour is needed.

Read on to see Nonna Codispoti’s bread recipe and a picture of her with the beautiful finished breads.

Read more »

It’s Nona again. And I have a confession to make.

Darn it, folks, my weight loss journey has hit a major stumbling block. And that stumbling block is a little place called Blue Collar Joe’s.

The doughnut shop in Daleville has been open since October, but so far I have been able to resist it’s siren call. Oh, I’ve heard the tales. The Botetourt Bog, a triple chocolate doughnut topped with Oreo cookie crumbs, the North Meets South, glazed with Vermont maple syrup and bits of salty Virginia bacon. But so far, I have faithfully avoided temptation.

Until Sunday that is, when my hubby channeled his inner-Homer Simpson and made a doughnut run.

My attitude toward pastry may never be the same.

These doughnuts are quite simply exquisite. Little works of art with a hole in the middle. All the doughnuts are cake-style, but I doubt Krispy Kreme yeast addicts will be disappointed. The doughnuts are wonderfully moist with gourmet toppings. 

I sampled the German chocolate cake doughnut frosted with chocolate, caramel, nuts and toasted coconut. I ate it very slowly, savoring every single bite. I also tasted my husband’s blueberry cheesecake doughnut, and if I didn’t love him so much I probably would have taken it from him.

Our daughter had the caramel apple pie doughnut, made with apple cider and glazed with honey, graham crackers and caramel. Big thumbs up as she made yummy noises while she devoured it.

There are plenty more flavors and toppings to pick from according to the little menu hubby brought home. Cinnamon Toast. Pina Colada. Nutty Buddy. Peanut Butter Cup. Blueberry Pancake Breakfast.

This is the kind of place I will bring out-of-town visitors, because you want guests to sample the best your area has to offer. It may very well have replaced Long’s Bakery, a little joint in my old neighborhood on Indianapolis’ south side, as my favorite doughnut shop of all time.

If it sounds like I am raving here, well, I am. Maybe it’s all the months of healthy eating, scrupulously avoiding tasty tidbits like doughnuts, that made having these little treats feel so special.  

What’s really great is that BCJ will probably help my weight loss in the long run. I will never again be tempted to munch on some ordinary breakfast pastry. Boxed doughnuts will never again look even mildly appealing.

If you have been, post a comment and let me know what you thought.

Guest blog entry by Heather Froeschl

My name is Heather Froeschl and I have a strange snack habit.

When I allow myself to get a bag of Doritos, with every chip I check to see which side is the cheesiest, and that is the side I apply to my tongue. Every chip, every time; there is no stopping the habit. It is something I do without thinking, I imagine much like lighting up a cigarette would be for those who smoke. Reaching into the bag, the chip is flipped from side to side, inspected for that glowing orange dust. I noticed this while driving around with my kids, looking at houses that were for sale. I noticed that this was probably as bad as talking on a cellphone while navigating the roads. I noticed that this was just plain weird behavior.

I started thinking about other snack habits I may have and what is weirder is that this really is the only one. True, I do flip Pringles over to the wrong side apparently, and savor the salty convex side instead of the concave, which naturally fits on the tongue better.  But that’s Pringles’ fault, since they ought to put the salt on the side that fits the mouth better. I do hold my pinky finger out while drinking most beverages; I don’t know why, but maybe it’s the bit of English blood in my veins. Other than that I think my eating habits are pretty normal. So why the Doritos thing?

At least I’m not so out there on the cusp of madness as the brother on “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Remember the one where Robert touched his fork to his chin with every bite of food? That was sort of a “jump the shark” episode anyway, but comparitively, savoring the fake cheese dust on tortilla chips is pretty average. Right?

What’s your snack habit? I promise not to laugh.

Blog entry by Heather Froeschl

At the Roanoke Civic Center today, Barack Obama told a story of how he couldn’t get his favorite, sweet potato pie, at a campaign munchie stop in Ohio. He explained that he did get some coconut cream pie and that the owner of the restaurant was a tried and true Republican whose business wasn’t doing all that well. Obama tried the coconut pie and encouraged the owner to try the Democrats for a change.

When he was hungry, going through Ohio, he stopped and asked where the best place to get pie was. How about here in Roanoke? Where’s the best place to get a piece of pie? And do they have Obama’s favorite? Sweet potato pie?

Blog entry by Heather Froeschl today.

Cold germs are already making the rounds in our office, so when Lindsey asked me to pinch hit for her today I immediately thought: Chicken Soup! It’s cooler out today anyway and with winter just around the corner I figured a take on the traditional home remedy might be in order.

I asked around the newsroom to see who actually followed this age old advice and found most of us do. Though we go at it in different ways. Some of us, like me, prefer to just pop open a can of ready made chicken soup, the favorites include: chicken flavored Ramen noodles, Campbell’s Homestyle, and Knorr’s chicken broth. I never feel up to cooking when I’m sick, so give me a convenient way to do it. I’ll never live up to my grandmother’s homemade chicken vegetable soup anyway. The woman used home grown veggies and freshly dressed birds! I’m just not that domestic, try as I might, especially when feeling less than good.

One co-worker let on that he visits his favorite Chinese restaurant and gets some won-ton soup to go. Good idea! One of our dedicated staff does make her own chicken soup though, using her mom’s recipe and only cheating a little by picking up a roasted bird from Kroger. I bow down to her!

It may be a folk tradition but science does admit there may be something to sipping hot soup, in particular, chicken. It is said to be an anti-inflammatory, which is something every cold sufferer can appreciate. The feelings of nurture elicited from a hearty bowl of chicken noodle or fragrant cup of broth are sure to soothe us almost as if dear Mom were near by to take care of us. It’s a pampering gesture to make for yourself.

Some other things to ingest upon feeling a cold coming on, or to take in as you are getting the needed bed rest: ginger tea, hot black tea with honey, hot black currant juice, hot lemonade with honey, and hot ginger drink (recipe to follow). The hotness might be the key& soothing and steamy but there are medicinal qualities to the other ingredients. Look here:

Here’s a nice page that offers other tips: eating.health.com/2008/01/30/cold-fighting-foods/

So does chicken soup really help? However you can take in more fluids and soothe yourself to sleep is sure to be beneficial. And it tastes mm, mm good too!

Recipe for Hot Ginger Drink:

1 or 2 teaspoons of honey and lemon juice

1 cup ginger ale

Heat in microwave and sip until gone (or you feel better).

Hello again. Its Nona again, the food lover-gone-WeightWatcher on a mission to find healthy yet tasty dishes.

One of the best parts of WeightWatchers is that, on the flex plan, no food is really off limits. You just have to account for what you eat, and you quickly learn to get the most food for your daily points ration, it’s best to find lower calorie foods that are higher in fiber and lower in fat.

For a dessert lover like me, that means a small portion of something sinful, or a heartier portion of something less decadent.

With that in mind, I am thinking a nice melon salad would be a great dessert this weekend. Satisfies the sweet tooth and I get a lot of food for relatively few points.

It’s still a little early for most melons in this region, but I did pick up a nice mini-watermelon and a very sweet cantaloupe last week at Kroger. Have you ever observed people as they shop for melons? Some are thumpers, some are bouncers, some are smellers. Seems like everyone has a different idea on how to select the best melon.

I usually go by the “does it feel heavy for its size” guide. That means I pick it up and handle it for a few seconds, kind of bouncing it in my hands. This usually works for me but you do have to pick up several melons until you find one that feels right.

Other ways to judge the worthiness of a melon include looking at the field spot, the point in which the melon rested in the field as it grew. This spot should be yellow on a green-skinned melon. I have observed people sniffing this spot. Their noses must be more sensitive than mine, because I get nothing from that experiment.

I am venturing out at lunch to the Farmer’s Market. If anyone there is selling melons, I will see what they recommend for choosing the freshest and ripest in the bunch.

What tips do you use for spotting the best melons or other fresh produce?

This is Nona again. Lindsey missed out on the goodies today. Another nice promotional package arrived from McCormick. This big box was stuffed with various grill rubs, marinades and a Montreal steak seasoning grinder.

Bounty for the guest bloggers!

I have used the McCormick’s Montreal steak seasoning before and I highly recommend it. Lindsey gave me the smokehouse pepper they sent her last week, and I used it this weekend and loved it. It added a nice smoky flavor without being overpowering.

My hubby and I joined Weight Watchers last night, so I am looking for ways to add more flavor to food as I try to whittle away fat and calories and keep to our daily points goals. Of course, I have to be careful with sauces and marinades that can actually add too many calories to what otherwise would have been a lean, low-cal dish.

I want to try the seafood rub, which contains chili pepper, lemon peel, garlic, tomato and brown sugar. Sounds pretty tasty for some salmon filets that want to get out of my fridge and onto my grill.

I promise we will save some of this spice swag for Lindsey.

So what’s grilling at your house this hot and steamy weekend?

Hey FM readers. This is yet another guest blogger, Nona Nelson from The Happy Wag.

I love to cook almost as much as I love to eat, but I know my family needs to eat healthier. That started this weekend with me making better choices at the supermarket: lots more fruits, veggies, whole grains and fish and less of, well, all the other stuff I usually buy.

Last night I made kabobs with chicken, lean pork, peppers, onions, mushrooms and pineapple wedges. I soaked the meat in a little soy sauce, then assembled the skewers, seasoned with a dash of salt and the delicious smokehouse pepper that Lindsey gave me last week, and brushed them with a tiny amount of olive oil. My hubby grilled them and they were very tasty and moist, and fairly low in fat and calories.

Tonight I plan to serve tilapia filets, and typically I would bake them in the oven with butter, lemon and dill. But tonight I want to grill them, and I am looking for suggestions on ways to add flavor to this mild fish without adding too much fat and calories.

I know I can use olive or grape seed oil instead of the butter for a lighter dish. Anyone have a great combo of seasonings or a recipe for a rub that works well with delicate fish?

Thanks to all of you who commented and/or e-mailed me with suggestions and tips on cooking. And to give myself a little credit, I can boil an egg! (Thanks, Rich!)

Fortunately for me, I have a partner who cooks. And cooks very well! We have unbelievable dinners on the most random nights. An exotic Mediterranean chicken dish on an average, run-of-the-mill Wednesday. Or grilled salmon with a homemade dry spice rub, grilled corn on the cob, salad with strawberries and mangoes on an ordinary Monday. Last night, for instance, we had a Thai dish with tofu, peppers, zucchini (from the market downtown!), rice noodles, cilantro and Thai basil. It had just the right spice and flavor, a tough balance to strike when cooking Thai food. I’ve got leftovers for lunch.

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Speaking of duck, I’m a lame one when it comes to anything food-related. I’m one of Lindsey’s guest bloggers this week while she’s out.

My name is Wendy Maxey and I work as the online entertainment editor of roanoke.com. You might remember me from the “American Idol” blog I ran during the latest season. I think some of you folks even said we were a little “too serious” over on the “Idol” blog. Maybe so, but I doubt I’ll be very serious on this blog as I know very little about food. (I eat instant oatmeal for breakfast everyday.)

This is exactly what Lindsey said to me before she left: “Maybe you can blog about what it’s like to be cooking-disabled.” So, that’s what I’ll do this week. Fortunately for loyal readers, there are other guest bloggers who know a lot more than I do, so don’t worry too much.