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"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.

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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.

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?