All the chocolate, none of the fat

Ice cream. In the summer, nothing better, nothing sweeter than the cool, creamy treat sliding around your mouth and down your parched throat. Yet, at 250 calories per serving, a lot of slides down to the thighs as well. Stonyfield Farms' Dark Chocolate frozen nonfat yogurt provides all the smooth, cold mouth feel of a fine ice cream at less than half the calories. Now that's a real treat!

Subpar Subway sandwich

It's been a while since I dropped in for a Subway footlong, but I did so in Cool tonight. The Chicken Cesar sandwich looked intriguing. The sauce was good. But why, oh why, do they use FORMED chicken? Isn't just brining the white meat torture enough? 

But I was astute enough to skip the tomatoes. It should be a crime to serve pink, force-ripened tomatoes when the real vegetable is in season.

A place to try out when I get to Charlottesville

La Michoacana Deli, 1138 High Street, 10-9 mon-thur, 11-11 fri-sat, 11-9 sun 

Owner: Jose Gaono

Also, Aqui es Mexico, nearby

A hand for the Handi-Vac

OK, I'm not the biggest fan of name-brand products that clutter up the grocery aisles, but Reynolds has scored big for the serious cook with their Handi-Vac. I just opened up a package of tortillas (I love Mexican food, so I buy the 500-count packages ... OK, I guess they are really just 60-count, but that's a stack of tortillas ... but then I freeze them, 18 to two dozen to a quart size bag) from the freezer that I put in over a month ago, and they taste just like the ones I used from the never-frozen bag. A winner! And you can rinse them out and use them again, at least for dry goods, to cut down on the trash. My sister-in-law once gave me a vacuum sealer, but it was so clunky that I avoided taking it out to use it and eventually sold it off in a garage sale. But this gadget is so small and easy to use I can keep it in the drawer with the bags. 

Everything everything

I love everything bagels, but I don't eat them very often because they are so calorie-intense. But I found a taste, if not mouthfeel, substitute: Safeway's Signature Everything Flatbread. These little crispy crackers are not too salty, and have all the seeds that make the everything bagel so irresistible: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic, onion and caraway seeds. Best of all, four of them only have 20g total carbs and 120 calories (vs. 70g carbohydrates and 340 calories in a bagel).

South Lake Tahoe

The California fires of the past several days have not been kind to my stomach. Symptoms have ranged from not much of an appetite, to nausea, to craving chocolate. But a hike to Cascade Falls for a friend's wedding revived my hunger, and we had a massive meal afterwards at Thai Orchid, a couple of blocks off the Y. The food there was quite varied and inviting, colorful and delicious. We washed it down with a Mt. Tallac Amber Ale draft beer, which was closer to a bock than an ale.

Introduction

Hi,

I'm just a girl who can't say no... to good food. Not just gourmet dinners, but anything that tantalizes the tastebuds and tempts the palate. I like to cook in a healthy style, but use a little butter now and then. And I truly believe cheese is milk's leap into immortality. I love Mexican food, barbecue, sushi and international surprises. As soon as I get a little extra time in my way-too-crowded schedule (we're hiking to the top of Cascade Falls this morning for a wedding), I hope to link to some of my reviews I've done on www.sacbee.com and post some new stuff on my cookbook Web site.

Hope you enjoy the ride!