www.roanoke.com

All signs point to yes.

Chico's Big Lick Pizza, which has been around Roanoke in various forms for a couple of decades, won't be making pies for much longer. They're having a big farewell party tomorrow for the pizza joint, which has been counting down the days with a sign posted at their stall.

But the future of that particular stall may include pizza. According to the Roanoke City Council agenda for Monday, the council will hold a public hearing on the takeover of that stall by C. Roger Lamm III, doing business as Big Lick Pizza Co.  Roger Lamm is the owner of Tavern on the Market.

If Tavern keeps the pizza boat afloat, can we expect it to taste the same as Chico's pie? Will it be better or worse?

Do you all think this is a good move for the citizens of Roanoke?

www.cbef.com

I think it was Mark Bittman of the New York Times who recently said that canned broth was OUT and homemade broth is IN. Lots of people probably read that and thought, "That's easy for you to say, Bittman. You don't have three kids, two jobs and zero time for cooking."

Well, maybe he does have three kids, I don't know. But I do know that the thought of making your own broth can seem daunting to those who have not folded it in to their normal cooking routine. It can be done, though. I've been doing it with chicken broth for a couple of years now. I simply roast a chicken, then when the carcass is almost picked clean, I toss it in a pot of water with some onion, carrot, celery, a little bay, salt and pepper. It simmers quietly on its own for a few hours while I do other things, then voila! I strain, package and freeze it.

But beef broth, I'll admit, is not so easy. You need some good beef bones, preferrably with a little meat still clinging to them and some good marrow inside. And I just never end up having leftover beef bones because I never find myself buying a bone-in roast or anything like that. When I called up a local grocery store meat department, I was told that hardly any bone-in beef cuts even come in to them anymore. What they get in is all boneless. They do get in "soup bones," however, which they then cut up and package as such.

You can buy those soup bones to make your own beef broth. Add in the onion, carrot, celery (even the green tops you may not normally use) and herbs of your liking. Gently simmer for several hours and then strain it all off. One butcher I talked with said he just uses bone-in short ribs for broth. He eats the meat that falls off, then puts the broth in the refrigerator overnight and skims off the fat on top before proceeding to either use the broth or freeze it.

For a nice, detailed explanation of how to make beef broth, check out this recipe on Simply Recipes. She recommends actually roasting the bones before making broth to impart more flavor. Do you have any additional tips on broth making?

From time to time, I receive calls and e-mails from readers who are looking for my advice on recipes, cooking techniques, restaurants and the like. I received two such e-mails this week, and I've decided to share the requests with the rest of my blog peeps to see if you can add anything helpful.

First e-mail from Jeff:

I need your faithful blog reader's help. My family is having a family reunion on August 1st and we are looking for a place to accommodate 50 (maybe a few more) people for a sit down dinner that evening... We checked on The Homeplace, but it's $18 for each adult and $9 per child, and not everyone in the family can afford that. Does anyone know of a place that serves an informal family style dinner that would be a little less expensive?

That's a tough one. The place has to be able to accommodate a large number of people, but the price must be affordable. I suggested The Roanoker Restaurant for starters. Debbie says they are willing to go with a caterer, too. In these tough economic times, let's band together and see if we can think of a good spot for Debbie and her family.

Oh, and if you were as unimpressed as I was by the Top Chef finale last night, head over to That TV Blog and whine with me. Or feel free to leave your comments here.

Some of my friends may look at my wardrobe and think, "You can say that again." But they would be caught misinterpreting me, because I'm really talking about the fact that I CAN'T TASTE ANYTHING!

Ahh, what wretched thing have I done to deserve this? I am now on day three of having no sense of taste due to a Category 5 head and chest cold that put me on the couch for two days straight. Was it the head cheese blog? Dear Lord, forgive me.

Every hot mug of tea I drink, every heavy squeeze of Rooster sauce I give my every meal is done in the hopes that some temporary clearing will occur, and the cloud will be lifted long enough for me to detect the cumin or the beef in my chili, the blueberry honey on my toast, the sunshine in that naval orange. By God, I would settle even for a hint of chickenness in my chicken soup.

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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.

Hey blog readers, this is Nona Nelson of The Happy Wag and a few other blogs here at roanoke.com, filling in for Lindsey who is under the weather with a nasty little virus. In case you hadn't heard, you can get stacked for free today at IHOP.

Today is a traditional day of celebration. You may call it Mardi Gras. You may call it Fat Tuesday. But at IHOP, it's National Pancake Day.

IHOP stores in Roanoke, Christiansburg, Lynchburg and Danville will be serving one free short stack of pancakes per customer until 10 p.m. and all they ask in return is a voluntary donation to the Children's Miracle Network.

According to the press release from CMN, all money collected at area IHOP restaurants will help children at Virginia Baptist Hospital and Carilion Clinic Children's Hospital.

If you go, post a comment and let us know if the restaurants were busy and if the pancakes were tasty. We want details.

I haven't had a desire to try the stuff before. For most of my life, all I knew about head cheese came from the Little House on the Prairie book series, which described the Ingalls family boiling the pig's head until all the meat fell off, then forming that meat into a "sausage" of sorts bound together with pork broth or gelatin.

Back then, they were pretty good about using every animal part they possibly could. So I figured head cheese was kind of a lowly dish made out of necessity to prevent wasting meat. And every picture I'd ever seen of head cheese left me feeling a bit repulsed. Savory dishes involving gelatin are low on my list of preferred foods. The name alone is a bit repulsive.

But last night, I had some delicious head cheese at the Town House restaurant in Chilhowie. Look for more about this fascinating restaurant in an upcoming Extra story. I was apprehensive when I heard that head cheese was on the menu, but this didn't look like the processed mosaic of pig parts I'd seen before. There was no gelatin, no gristle, no huge chunks of fat, no snouts slipped in.

When it was spooned onto my plate, it looked more like a pile of pulled pork. And the flavor -- Oh! The flavor! This was not a lowly dish in any respect. After tasting it, I became fully aware of how many delicious bits of meat go to waste when the head is discarded.

I'm probably ruined for most head cheese after tasting the Town House version, though. It was truly a wonderful treat and a surprise.

Anybody out there a fan of head cheese?

Tuesday is "Fat Tuesday," the day for gorging on good food and drink before Ash Wednesday ushers in Lent and a 40-day period of deprivation for observing Christians.

As a teenager, I once gave up soda for Lent as an experiment. Didn't make it through. Maybe it was that high fructose corn syrup that hooked me. Ha.

I am always curious about what people choose to give up for Lent and why. Are any of you planning on abandoning a favorite food or a bad habit until Easter? If so, I'd love to hear your plans and your rationale for the item you chose.

www.bevreview.com

If you didn't immediately know what I meant by "HFCS," then you have been blissfully unaware of the fact that high fructose corn syrup is increasingly making the news as a dreaded ingredient to avoid at all costs. Some have accused the sweetener of contributing to the rise in diabetes and obesity in the United States.

The latest I heard was that if HFCS was one of the first five ingredients listed on a food label, you shouldn't buy or eat that food. Do you have any idea how many products in the grocery store would never make it into your basket under that rule? It's in everything from ketchup to breakfast bars to bread.

The Corn Refiners Association is, of course, fighting this negative image tooth and nail. Their Web site claims that some HFCS studies are flawed and includes this argument:

Corn sweeteners, like sugar and honey, are natural and meet the Food and Drug Administration’s policy for use of the term “natural.” Under FDA rules, “natural” means that “nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in the food.”

I guess my personal opinion is that high fructose corn syrup is OK in moderation. Same with fatty foods and alcohol and sugar. But the worst offender in the HFCS world may be sodas, and one company is taking steps, albeit temporarily, to change that. Pepsi just announced that they are going to market a "Pepsi Throwback" and a "Mountain Dew Throwback" made with real sugar instead of HFCS. Serious Eats says they will be available from April 20 to June 13. So get your real sugar while you can! Cuz after that, it's back to high fructose corn syrup.

One other note: I've bought bottled sodas at ethnic markets that I think were probably shipped in from Mexico or South America. And I want to say they are still made with real sugar. Anyone know anything about that?