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Blog reader Deb was the quickest with her keyboard this time around, so she wins the three books I discussed in this morning's blog entry.
Since Deb is such a faithful reader of the blog, I could have sworn that she'd won something before. But when I checked back, she had not. So congratulations to Deb! You'll have to let us know how those pretzel recipes turn out.
For the rest of you, I have a wonderful recipe sent in earlier this week by blog reader Amanda. This recipe has a twist on an old favorite, pasta salad. Called Supreme Pizza Pasta Salad, it is loaded with tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, pepperoni, mozzerella cheese and more.
Check it out, and have a great weekend! The blog will be alive with guest bloggers all next week, so be sure to keep checking in.

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I'm about six hours away from vacation, and I've just about finished all the work I needed to do before I leave. Needless to say, I'm in a giddy mood. As a result, I decided to dedicate this blog entry to a few odd new products and some of the weirdest cookbooks I've received of late.

We'll start out with Kraft's new brainchild, Macaroni & Cheese crackers. The box you see here came shipped in a much larger box that, when opened, made crunching noises. I swear it's true.

We tried the crackers and found them to be rather good, actually. They are a bit like noodle-shaped Cheez-Its with a powdery cheese coating on the outside. Within a half hour, they had been polished off by two of my co-workers. On the other hand, it was about 4 p.m. in the afternoon, which is generally munchie-time in the Features Department.

Next up: Those crazy kids over at McCormick are at it again. This time, they've developed new black pepper blends that are infused with the flavors of Worchestershire or Smokehouse, depending on which you choose.

McCormick recommends the Smokehouse flavoring for burgers and the Worchestershire blend for steak. They even include a marinade recipe on the back of the Worchestershire blend: 3 Tbsp. each of oil, water and red wine vinegar, mixed with 2 tsp. each of the pepper and minced onions and 1/2 tsp. of salt. Sounds pretty good!

Not to be left out, the folks at KFC have developed a new flavor called Smoky Chipotle Crispy Fried Chicken. It is only the third flavor to be introduced at KFC since the restaurant was founded 65 years ago, a spokeswoman said.

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Jenny Boone has got a great scoop over on her Storefront blog about a possible expansion of Awful Arthur's Towers Mall location that will include a brewery.
We're short on details at this point, but be sure to check back for more information as this news unfolds.

What you're seeing here is a family of very good cooks. And some don't even know it yet.
If you read the Front Burner column in today's Extra, you already know that this is the Ferris family.
They are Lebanese members of St. Elias Church on Cove Road in Roanoke, which is putting on its 10th annual Lebanese Festival this weekend.
The Ferris family has been around Roanoke for generations. Yvonne, seated in the center of the photo and wearing lavender, is the matriarch of the family. She's widowed now and doesn't cook as much as she used to, but her daughters told me stories that made my mouth water.
One story was about how Yvonne, 78, used to spend the entire day down in the basement making homemade lavash bread in a gas oven. She told me it took hours and hours to bake the breads golden brown. And as soon as she brought the warm results upstairs, her kids would dig in, slathering it with butter and homemade fig preserves.
If you've never been to the Lebanese Festival before and you consider yourself a lover of good food, I would urge you to go. Everything there, from the stuffed grape leaves to the spinach pies to the batlawa (Lebanese version of baklava, made with rose water syrup) was made lovingly by hand.
The festival takes place Friday (noon to 8 p.m.), Saturday (noon to 10 p.m.) and Sunday (noon to 8 p.m.) at 4730 Cove Road, Roanoke.
The Ferrises shared with me a recipe for their meat pies, which you can find in the column today. But since we've been talking about hamburgers a lot (DON'T FORGET to let me know if you have a favorite hamburger joint in Southwest Virginia!!!), I thought I'd share an interesting twist on the old favorite, in honor of the Ferrises.

Pictured: Top row, from left: Terri Ferris, Maureen McAllister, Yvonne Ferris, Renee Turk and Kristina Ferris. Bottom row, from left: Victoria Ferris, Morgan McAllister, Rachel Turk and Andrea Ferris.

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I'm usually not much of a breakfast eater, so when I woke up hungry as the dickens this morning with my tummy growling like thunder, I knew something was up.

That something? Probably the fact that I gorged myself on awesome food all weekend long and my stomach is thinking it's time for another dose already.

But that's what a combination holiday/birthday weekend should be all about in a foodie's universe, right? I had a huge, honkin' homemade cheeseburger with all the fixins, a chili dog and so many wonderful side dishes prepared by my friends, including Stacy's broccoli salad with raisins, craisins, sunflower seeds and bacon bits, Kenn's homemade pesto potato salad, Kathy's fruit salad (loaded, of course, with watermelon, her No. 1 pregnancy craving so far) and my own carrot-raisin salad, which I made with crushed pineapple this time around.

For dessert, it was Fresh Market carrot cake and a homemade strawberry pie that I made with frozen strawberries left over from my trip to Dansby's strawberry farm in April. Those berries were so sweet that all I added was 3/4 cup of sugar, a dash of cinnamon and about a half cup of flour to create a nice, thick juice.

And only in a food geek's world would several packages of fresh beef wrapped in freezer paper be such an exciting gift. Those came from my sister and brother-in-law, who bought a whole side of beef from Ohio and sent me a sirloin, a roast, some stew meat and a couple packages of hamburger.

The sirloin is going to go well with the bottle of Malbec my dad gave me.

But enough about MY weekend! I know everyone else out there kicked off cookout season the right way, despite last week's story about the rising price of food and fuel this summer. One of those folks was blog reader Patrick, who sent the yummy picture (above) of a friend's pizza dip.
Patrick discovered the dip this weekend at a party and was not only thoughtful enough to take a picture, but he also got the recipe, which I will share below.

I'm also going to share a recipe that came in my regular newsletter from Ladles & Linens, the downtown Roanoke kitchen shop. This is for a crunchy coleslaw with dried cranberries and almonds.

Enjoy, and tell us: What was the best thing you made or ate this past weekend?

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Check out the birthday card my boss made by hand and had all the co-workers sign. Isn't it a hoot? Since my head has been superimposed over Gordon Ramsay's head, I have very large arms and, as Seinfeld would say, "man hands."
I love it.

If you're looking for a place to eat dinner tonight, consider heading out to Three Lil' Pigs in Daleville. They're celebrating their fifth anniversary by offering free food to every fifth table. Here's a little more info. Test your luck!

Also this weekend: Festival in the Park in Elmwood Park in Roanoke. Head out there for a variety of food and other activities. And if you're from out of town, be sure to swing by the farmer's market in downtown Roanoke and check out all the local products.

Finally, please don't forget to chime in on the hamburger discussion we started yesterday. In case you missed it, the Texas Tavern has been named in a new book, "Hamburger America" by George Motz.

Do you agree with the TT's inclusion? If not, where would you go to find the best hamburger in Southwest Virginia?

I'm taking Monday off. Thanks to all the soldiers and their families who have sacrificed for us. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

We ran an interesting Associated Press article in yesterday's Business section about how the rising cost of food and fuel will affect the average summer barbecue this season.

I know it caught my eye, because like many other Americans, we plan to have a few friends over for a cookout this holiday weekend.

From the article: Food inflation is the highest in almost two decades, driven by record prices for oil and gas, mounting global demand for staples such as wheat and corn, and rising costs for proteins such as chicken.

I don't know about you guys, but I've noticed the difference in my grocery bill every time I go shopping. Just about everything on my list is more expensive, and it seems to be most noticeable in the produce department. But maybe that's just where I'm paying closest attention.

How does it all really break down? Well, that was the most interesting part of the CNN version of the same story, in my opinion. While they say the overall cost of the cookout has gone up about 6 percent from last year, they provided some exact figures for all the individual components.

See below the jump:

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