It’s less than two weeks before Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 11), which means some of us need to start thinking about the best way to treat one of the special women in our lives.

As an adult, it’s fairly easy to send a card or flowers, call mom or take her out to a nice lunch or dinner. But as a child, it’s a little bit harder to plan a wonderful day for Mom without a little help from Dad or another adult.

And sometimes Dad might be a little short on ideas.

For that reason, I was delighted to receive an e-mail lately from the Fruit and Veggie Guru that included simple recipes for delicious breakfast treats that kids can prepare for their mother on Mother’s Day.

It makes me wish I had made breakfast in bed for my mother at least once.

I’m going to attach a recipe for strawberry breakfast pizzas. I’d love to hear from anyone out there who has a special food-related memory from Mother’s Day, whether you were on the giving or the receiving end!

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Olivia Byrd at Rockfish in Grandin Village sent out an e-mail today announcing that, beginning tomorrow, they will serve breakfast on Wednesday through Saturday mornings. This is in addition to their highly successful lunch and dinner service and the tasty Sunday brunch menu.

The hours for breakfast are 7:30 to 10:30 a.m., and the menu will include fresh muffins, biscuits, egg dishes and espresso beverages. So if you live in the Grandin area and you’ve grown tired of microwaveable 7-Eleven fare, check out Rockfish.

This would be a good time for me to also mention that Rockfish recently opened a wine shop beside the restaurant that is open Wednesday through Saturday until 6 p.m. I want to say that the shop sells more than just wine, but I haven’t had a chance to pop in yet.

In other food news, Roanoke’s unofficial start to the summer season happens the weekend of May 3 when the Community School’s 27th Annual Strawberry Festival and the 28th annual Virginia State Championship Chili Cook-off invade downtown.

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Ahhhhhh! Stop! We have three winners!
Terri Naff wins “BBQ Bash: The Be-All, End-All Party Guide, from Barefoot to Black Tie” by Karen Adler and Judith Fertig.
Kenn gets “Burgers: 52 Easy Recipes for Year-Round Cooking” by Sally Sampson.
And Melanie will receive “BBQ Joints: Stories and Secret Recipes from the Barbecue Belt” by David Gelin with a foreward by John T. Edge.
Thanks to everyone else who commented! Even if you didn’t win, I feel as if I did — I was able to hear from a bunch of folks who read my blog every day but rarely make comments. It’s so nice to hear from you guys.
Thanks for reading my blog. I hope our winners enjoy their books (e-mail your address to lindsey.nair@roanoke.com to receive them) and I certainly hope the rest of you will keep coming back.
I’ll have another Cookbook Giveaway very soon.
Enjoy this beautiful grilling weather!

I got an e-mail this morning from the folks at Riverside Nursery in Salem, who are fully stocked for the summer gardening season.

Apparently, owner Bruce Feldberg noticed the rising popularity if heirloom and specialty tomato varieties in gardening magazines and on food shows and local plates. As a result, he has not 10 or 20 varieties for sale at his store, but 90!!

Feldberg also has 40 different kinds of peppers, so head over and check those out, too.

So far, my vegetable garden consist of two cherry tomato seedlings in paper cups that I got from a co-worker. I’d also like to get a few Better Boy plants, but my plot isn’t quite ready for anything yet. I’ve also purchased some seeds for rainbow chard, yellow squash and zucchini.

I guess I’ve got some work to do!

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from blog reader Whitney, who has been craving a favorite treat from her childhood.

Here’s what Whitney had to say:

Today I attended a wake and there on the dessert table were Peanut Butter Fingers…the exact same ones that the Salem schools used to serve every Friday on pizza day. Not only were they delicious but they took me way back (it’s been many years since high school). I would love to have that recipe to make for my kids but I’m not having much luck searching online and the container they were in didn’t have a name on it. Do you happen to have the recipe or could you point me in the right direction to possibly find it…and maybe the pizza recipe too?

Well, I wrote Whitney back and asked her for a little more information about the dessert and her time in Salem schools. She said the fingers “looked like they were fixed in a sheet pan…they were flat and cut into small squares.” The bottom of these dessert bars were peanut butter, chewy and made with oatmeal. The top was chocolatey, like icing.

“I didn’t enjoy school lunches much but I LOVED these. I was in Salem schools from 1980 to 1993 (which doesn’t seem real to me somehow),” Whitney said.

I found a similar recipe online, which I will attach below. But it calls for chocolate chips on top so it may not be the same. While I call Salem schools in an effort to track down this recipe, I thought I’d check with all of my wonderful readers to see if any of you remember a treat like these. Better yet, maybe one of you has the recipe! If you do, please be sure to let us know!

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The photo of the week was submitted by blog reader Kat (a.k.a. The Boss).

She rubbed this salmon with a mixture of French salts, then grilled it slowly on a cedar plank.
The side dishes are roasted garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach that came from a Franklin County farm. Kat says it only cost 99 cents per pound.

“We first heated the pan and used pork fat as our oil,” she wrote. “Then I browned some garlic in that and tossed the spinach in. After seasoning with some salt, the finishing touch was juice from half a lemon. The tartness made everything taste bright and fresh.”

Do you have a beautiful food picture? If so, submit it to my Flickr group or e-mail me at Lindsey.nair@Roanoke.com. Have a great weekend!

Feast your eyes on this beautiful rare, grilled tuna.

This photo was submitted by blog reader Sean for my new feature, the Friday photo of the week!

Since I started soliciting your food photos, I’ve received nearly 20 tantalizing pics. They range from Rich’s bacon-wrapped wild turkey breast to Nona’s famous banana pudding to Carrie’s colorful beef cacciatore.

Because I can’t feature them all on the blog, I’ve decided to start a group on the photo sharing Web site Flickr.

If you want to see all the photos, all you have to do is go here.

If you’d like to join in the fun and add your own photos to the group, all you have to do is create a Flickr account and follow the directions from there. If you need any help, please feel free to let me know!

Those of you who would rather not mess with creating a new account but still want to send food photos are welcome to e-mail them directly to me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com.

Of course, if you can also submit your recipe to the blog, that would make this feature even better!

You are all correct, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in London is called “Fifteen.”
Unfortunately for the rest of you, Mary Moore was quickest with her keyboard. She wins Oliver’s latest cookbook, “Jamie’s Italy.” Congratulations Mary, and I’m so sorry the rest of you did not win. I hope you aren’t too disappointed. I’ll do another cookbook giveaway next week! Keep reading!
Mary, to claim your book, please send your name and address to my e-mail at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com.
Have a great weekend!

We all know a food blog just isn’t a food blog without delicious pictures of food. We also know that at some point every week, each of us sits down to such a beautiful meal or snack that it would be a pity to not capture the exquisiteness on film for all to see. That’s why I’m launching a new feature on the Fridge Magnet blog called the Photo of the Week.
I urge you to submit your food photos to me by e-mail at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com. Submit as many as you like; I will pick one each week to feature on the blog. Then the rest of us can drool all over our keyboards.
The inaugural Photo of the Week was sent in by regular reader Amy Hanek. Amy prepared these chocolate heart cakes topped with ganache and drizzled with chocolate. I dare you to tell me you don’t want one right now.

I do like to talk about chain restaurants sometimes. But for the most part, I’m more interested in local establishments.
I receive tons of e-mails and press releases from the corporate guys, and I usually give them a polite scan before hitting “delete.” Today, though, a Carrabba’s spokeswoman sent me an e-mail that grabbed my attention.
That could be because the sender, Amelia Turner, opened by saying she grew up in Southwest Virginia. She had also checked out my column and my blog, which I think is nice. But it also has to do with the fact that Carrabba’s is sponsoring a contest, starting today, with a grand prize that includes a free trip to Las Vegas.
All you have to do is log on to the Carrabba’s Web site and write a love letter to your favorite food. Sounds bizarre, I know, but once you check out the site, you’ll see a few examples there. The contest starts today and runs through the end of March.
If I had to write a love letter to my favorite food, it would probably begin, “Dear Macaroni and Cheese, you are so creamy and delicious. But I love how you can sometimes be all crunchy on the outside…”
If y’all enter, good luck. If you win, I want a postcard from the Sin City.

I just got an e-mail from my sister, who wanted to know why I have been “getting a little slack” with my blog so far this week.
Isn’t it fitting that my big sister — who used to throw things at me in the bathroom when we were teenagers — is lighting a fire under my butt about the blog?
Well, I’ve been out of town for two days on one of the best assignments I’ve had in ages. It’s a travel piece about a hotel near Charlottesville called Keswick Hall. I could go on and on about the food I had at Keswick, but I think I’ll save that for when the story is about to run. That’s slated for the Sunday before Valentine’s Day.
Meanwhile, on to something a little more pedestrian, but just as charming: a letter from a reader about Kar’s Sweet ‘n’ Salty snack mix.
If you’re thinking about navigating away from this page now because the letter doesn’t sound very interesting, you’d be wrong. Oh, so wrong.
Read on.

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I’ve decided to award this week’s free cookbook to frequent blog reader Henry.
Henry offered up several fine ideas for jazzing up dishes with products that most cooks keep on hand on a regular basis.
For that, he gets a copy of “Mealtime Magic” by Joey Green.
Henry’s comment was:

Boullion.

You can jazz up gravy with a shot of Cream of Chicken soup. Of course, these are casserole standbys.

I especially like the suggestion that boullion cubes can be substituted for salt in various recipes. I can see myself adding boullion to all kinds of steamed veggies to add flavor without fat.

Henry, shoot me an e-mail at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com to claim your book. Don’t forget to include your address!

This morning, I received an e-mail from a reader named Jeanne who wondered if I have any ideas for flavoring a pot of white beans without using ham hocks, bacon, or other fattening products.
I admit that while I’m a big fan of the smoky flavor of pork in just about any legume (blame Grandma and those Southern roots), it can be hard to justify if you’re watching your health.
According to Saveur, the founder of heirloom bean company Rancho Gordo, Steve Sando, says “Beans shouldn’t need to be cooked with a ham hock to taste good.”
True, but they need to be cooked with something, don’t they? Who wants to eat a plain old salted bean?
Here are a couple of suggestions for Jeanne:

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