• Weekend wines: Viognier is superb sips on the beach

    Bonterra

    By Edward Deitch, Vint-ed.com

    It was late on a Sunday afternoon and a bunch of us were sitting around on the beach, soaking up some sun, talking about nothing in particular and enjoying some easy-to-drink wines. We all brought our own bottles. Nothing expensive or profound – a Long Island rose, a prosecco from Italy and, for me, a viognier from California.

    Viognier (pronounced vee-ohn-YAY) is a traditional variety in France’s Rhone Valley, where it is used to make some of the world’s great white wines. It’s also grown in Australia, California, Virginia and elsewhere. In California, I have found, it often results in big, high-alcohol wines that can be unwieldy.

    But that’s not the case with the one I enjoyed the other day, Bonterra’s 2010 Viognier from Mendocino County. This excellent $14 wine is fruity and fresh with alcohol at a reasonable 13.7 percent. Made with organic grapes, it’s one of my two top choices from half a dozen Bonterra wines I tasted recent weeks (click here for my review of the cabernet sauvignon).

    The viognier is bursting with lime, white peach and apricot. There’s also a subtle vanilla note from six months of aging in oak. With its zippy acidity, it was just about perfect for casual sipping on a warm day in the sun and will pair well with lighter foods such as grilled chicken and fish dishes and salads. Wine received as a press sample.

    I’ll be bringing you more great “beach wines” as we head into summer. In the meantime, do you have a favorite? Let us know in the comments below.

    Edward Deitch is a James Beard Award-winning wine critic. Find many more of his wine reviews and commentary on his blog, Vint-ed.com, and follow him on Twitter.

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  • Pick the perfect wine for date night

    Getty Images stock

    By Ray Isle, Food & Wine

    Wining and dining that special someone? Ray Isle, executive wine editor of Food & Wine magazine, shares his tips and picks for the perfect date sips.

    First date
    Choose something you know well, so you've got something to talk about.  For instance, a wine from a winery you've visited before (though not with an old girlfriend or boyfriend), so you've got a story to tell. For instance, I chose this wine because when I was first getting into the wine business, I worked a couple of harvests at the winery.

    Wine: 2010 Clos La Chance Monterey County Chardonnay

    Casual date
    Go for a great value wine, but not something so well known that she (or he) will know you're a total cheapskate-in other words,  skip the Yellowtail.  Why not rosé (from the south of France). It's like taking her (or him) on a trip to Provence.

    Wine: 2011 Jean-Luc Colombo Cape Bleu Rosé

    Hot Date
    For that really hot date, you want something suggestive, but not crass. Choose a wine that's a little racy, but in a fun way.

    Wine: 2009 Alexander Valley Vinyards Temptation Zinfandel

    Special date
    You have to go with Champagne. It's the definition of romance, plus if you're doing something like getting engaged, you ought to drink something fancy.

    Wine: 2004 Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque

    Date-night date
    OK, now you're married, you have kids, but you still have a regular date night. What you want is something nice, not cheap but not crazily expensive, and not overwhelmingly high alcohol, since after all you're going to have to get up early to get the kids to school in the morning. Plus, if could be something meaningful, so much the better-I chose this red wine from Sicily because it's actually where my wife and I went on our honeymoon. 

    Wine: 2010 Valle Dell'Acate Frappato

    Tell us, what are your favorite picks for date wines?

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  • Leaving food uneaten may cost you at some restaurants

    FeaturePics stock

    By Jillian Eugenios

    With so many choices, the buffet table can be an overwhelming place. But those who overfill their plates may have to pay with more than just their pride at some restaurants.

    Kylin Buffet, a Chinese restaurant in the northeast of England, is now charging customers £20 ($32) for food wastage costs if diners leave food on their plates. According to the UK Daily Mail, the policy has upset some customers, including Beverley Clark, 40, who spoke out after being told she’d be fined when her son Sam, 10, and niece Toni, 6, allegedly left two onion rings, a piece of prawn toast and a spring roll on their plates. Clark opted to hide the leftovers in a napkin she placed in her bag so the wait staff would think the family cleaned their plates. She succeeded in hoodwinking them.

    Last year, Gulfnews.com reported about a similar policy at Marmar restaurant in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. "There are many clients who make large orders in order to impress the people around them and boost their social prestige," owner Fahad Al Anezi said. The policy was aimed at reducing food wastage and extravagance, with the fine being calculated according to the quantity of the leftovers.  

    Live Poll

    Should restaurants charge for uneaten buffet food?

    View Results
    • 183828
      Yes, it will prevent people from wasting food.
      35%
    • 183829
      No, customers shouldn't be punished if they don't clean their plates!
      65%

    VoteTotal Votes: 3969

    Paying extra for unfinished food isn’t unheard of stateside. Hayashi Ya Japanese restaurant in New York City charges diners 3 percent for not finishing a meal from the all-you-can-eat buffet. Manager Belson Lin told TODAY.com he doesn’t believe customers get upset by the policy, because they know they’ll be charged, and have the option to order a la carte.

    And, in case you think all this is in bad form, we found that etiquette guru Emily Post would agree that wasting food is a serious no-no. In her June 15, 1952 column, Post was firm: "Leaving food on your plate is not good manners — and never was because it not only shows lack of appreciation for your hostess' food, but also 'wanton' priorities. Wasting a precious commodity could never be an ethical choice."

     

    What do you think? Are these restaurants justified in charging diners fines for leaving food on their plates?

    TODAY.com contributor Jillian Eugenios loves those spring rolls at the buffet, and is convinced she would never be fined for leaving them abandoned and she can't resist eating every last one.

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  • I brew! Weddings bring out the beer-zillas in these grooms

    Courtesy of John King

    Beer made John and Ashley King's wedding even more special.

    By Jim Galligan

    John King had dreamed about the beer he’d homebrew for his wedding since the night he proposed. 

    “I dropped to my knee under a streetlamp in the snow — my wife reminds me we were right next to a dumpster as well — when I popped the question,” he recalled. “We then grabbed a drink, made some phone calls, and started talking about wedding plans and discussed how making beer for the occasion would be pretty cool.”

    Something old, something new, something borrowed, something … brewed? That’s the motto for a growing number of grooms, and even a few brides. Homebrewing is becoming a big deal — the Homebrewers Association estimates there’s more than one million homebrewers and over 1,000 homebrew clubs in America. And if you search the homebrewing forums on Reddit or Homebrew Talk, you’ll find plenty of threads asking for advice about what to brew for a wedding.

    If I was a huge beer geek back when I got married in ’98 (I wasn’t) and I could homebrew to save my life (I can’t), I too would have brewed my own beer for my wedding. My future wife would be fussing over her dress, and I’d be fussing over beer styles. She’d be making up the guest list, and I’d be sorting out the grain bills. She’d be picking out flowers while I was out picking hops. By the time we said our vows, the energy I’d expended on beer would probably match what my bride spent arranging the rest of the wedding.

    Story: What's the most important batch you've ever brewed? 

    And I’d get started right away, just like King did. The day after he proposed, he cooked up a clone of Three Floyd’s Dreadnaught IPA, which he dubbed Ball n’ Chain IPA. It was followed by a blueberry beer named Something Blue-berry Ale and a steady stream of other brews over the next year, some of which turned out great, others that didn’t turn out at all (these just happened to be the styles that his fiancée requested).

    King, who writes for LouisvilleBeer.com, would set aside a portion of every batch he brewed that year, stocking up for the big day. In the end, he amassed enough beer for the rehearsal dinner, for sipping on the Louisville trolley and for the wedding party at the reception. His homebrew was supplemented by local offerings from New Albanian Brewing Company and the Bluegrass Brewing Company, making for a pretty tasty affair.

    Laurel McConnell Photography

    A guest gets a taste of one of eight brews Evan Burck concocted for his wedding.

    But King’s suggestion to visit Dogfish Head’s Brewpub in Rehoboth Beach after the wedding didn’t get such a warm reception. “I seriously asked my wife if we could go there on our honeymoon, but she didn't think it was really that funny,” he lamented.  For the record, he wasn’t kidding.

    Evan Burck, an avid homebrewer from Washington state, never questioned if he’d brew his own beer for his wedding. “Being that brewing was one of the biggest things in my life, and there would be beer at the wedding, it just made sense from the get-go,” Burck said.

    Like King, Burck’s wife left the brewing up to him. “She wanted this to be my thing,” he said. “I brewed eight beers: My Summer Lager, Pale Ale, Munich Dunkel, Double IPA, Coconut Porter, a Brettanomyces raspberry funky Belgian, Saison and a Belgian Dark Strong. I wanted the lineup to cover a wide range of flavors. I don't think I could have done a wider range than that!”

    Burck put in a ton of work to bring his beers to life. “Each brew day was at least five to six hours of work alone, so times that by eight,” he said. “Then all the kegging, bottling, and other efforts that came later.” When I asked him to tally up all the hours he put into brewing and presenting his beers, he responded, “Honestly, I can't even begin to estimate.”

    Laurel McConnell Photography

    Two brews from Evan Burck's wedding beers collection.


    And he painstakingly ensured the brews were dressed up for the occasion.

    “I put together a six-tap jockey box that I covered in hop vines I cut myself,” he said. “Each tap had a framed, printed description of each beer under it. The Saison and Belgian Dark Strong were both bottled, and I used artwork from our wedding invitations to decorate the labels.”

    In the end, Burck brewed 30 gallons of beer that were served in kegs and about 20 large bottles of the Saison and Belgian Strong Dark. That’s a lot of beer for 50 people, but it was all gone in the end, a testament to just how much his guests enjoyed his brews. 

    “I'd say they're the best eight beers I ever brewed,” he said. “I was certain that with eight beers, there would be some disappointments, but it seems that everything I've done since gets compared to the quality I achieved for my wedding beers.” That sounds like homebrewer’s dream wedding to me.

    “If you're a brewer and marriage is in your future, I can't recommend it enough,” Burck said, adding that even those who are married should consider brewing for special occasions.

    Have you or would you brew for special occasions?

    Jim Galligan is co-founder of the Beer and Whiskey Brothers blog, where he and his brother Don cover the ever-evolving world of craft beer and distilled spirits. Follow him on Twitter. 

     

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  • Hugh Acheson: Southern food is the only American cuisine with 'depth'

    Linnea Covington

    By Linnea Covington

    Chef Hugh Acheson was busy last week. On Monday, the "Top Chef" judge won two James Beard Awards — one for his cookbook “A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen,” and the other for Best Chef: Southeast for his restaurant Five and Ten in Athens, Ga. By the end of the week, he was back at his Atlanta eatery Empire State South, a party hotspot for last weekend’s Atlanta Food and Wine Festival (which Time magazine food writer Josh Ozersky calls the only “indispensable” food event). As Southern food makes its way into the limelight, we wanted to get schooled by its newly minted spokesman.

    Your award-winning cookbook is about reinventing Southern food — how are you doing that?
    I think it’s as much about reinventing it through my recipes as about changing the view of Southern food. While Southern food is hip, interesting and gets replicated in New York and other places these days, it’s reviled as being lard-rich, fattening and unhealthy. I think that’s where the misnomer is because Southern food, in its true form, is not putting a pork chop between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

    It’s about having a small amount of fried chicken on the plate and on the table serving succotash, roasted Vidalia onions, summer tomatoes, shaved corn with basil, and hominy grits. That’s sort of the abundance of Southern food. You have to remember, it’s such an agrarian society, and I think real Southern food is based on those things.

    Why does Southern food have such an unhealthy stereotype?
    Food of convenience has gotten perpetrated as real Southern food over the last 50 years as processed foods became more common. You can look at one local cookbook like a Junior League one from the 1960s and one from 1970s. The difference in the cooking was the market. There were so many convenience foods like pre-packaged soups and sauces used in the recipes, where as the early edition of the book had recipes where you cook purely from scratch and there was nothing unhealthy about it.

    This idea that Southerners have a bucket of fried chicken with a salty biscuit for dinner is not true. That’s the American dilemma, not a Southern dilemma. It’s a diet problem across the States that somehow gets sucked into being defined as Southern food but that’s a load of BS.

    Why do you think Southern food is having its moment right now?
    I think Americans are constantly looking back historically to what they can latch on to to be hip in the future. When you look at the history of food and you are talking about finding something that is trend- and hip-worthy, you have to have depth. Southern food is the only one that has that depth. Other regions in the United States — I equate it to veneer and hardwood. It’s not that the cuisine of the Pacific Northwest isn’t vibrant right now and laden with amazing ingredients, but outside the native populations, it just doesn’t have a culinary heritage that runs all that deep.

    When you go to the South, you can read for the rest of your life the history of Southern food, its impact and the effects of slavery on food. There is just this treasury of information that helps bring the hipness out. But, it has to be the properly defined Southern food with a reverence for ingredients that is really, really there. The food that doesn’t have that reverence is just crappy American food, it’s not Southern food.

    Can you give an example of some of the Southern dishes that exemplify your ideal?
    This is what I want to see: beautifully stewed zipper cream peas with a little chicken dashi and some thinly sliced chicken on top with a little Georgian olive oil…

    Also, a Korean influence is becoming apparent and Southern food that is getting noted isn’t being defined. Can I take [these ingredients] … and incorporate it into my dishes? Absolutely — like taking kimchee and adding it to my rice.

    How is the food scene in Atlanta?
    Atlanta is such a storied city, but I think it’s finally found itself out. It doesn’t want to be anything except Atlanta. For years it wanted to be something else. It’s our age of food authenticity, from the Busy Bee Café which is an old meat place, to Bocado for burgers on the West Side, to Umaido, which is an amazing ramen place. People are realizing we don’t have to put on a bunch of pomp, we just want to do good food, and that’s great.

    How do you feel about winning two James Beard awards?
    I think I was most touched about the cookbook because it was a lot of work. And the Best Chefs: Southeast, I tied with Linton Hopkins and people were like, ‘Do you mind you tied?’ and I don’t care in the least. Linton is an awesome guy and the funny thing was that it was so loud in there that I sort of just got up onstage and I was like, ‘Did they really call my name? How am I supposed to get off stage?’

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  • Kids' cereal for your guests? 6 creative wedding bar ideas

    Maddycakes Muse

    Bring out your wedding guests' inner children with a nostalgic cereal bar.

    By Francesca Borgognone, The Daily Meal

    Long gone are the days of just a simple (or not-so-simple) three-tiered wedding cake. While the classic confection is still popular — now often found in creative sizes, shapes, hues, and adorned with many embellishments — different desserts and other culinary concoctions are popping up more and more at weddings around the country.

    Check out some of these ideas for creative, delicious wedding bars.

    Cereal bar 
    This is perfect for kids. Have a nostalgic bar filled with your favorite morning fare. Display in clear canisters for pops of color.

    Maddycakes Muse

    Milk and cookies bar 
    How simple is that? Mix it up with chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and some sandwich cookies. Have them homemade by friends and family or pick some up from a local bakery and pass along to your caterer.  

    Bruschetta bar
    Get your fixings on! With enough toppings to create an endless outcome of bites, guests will enjoy crafting their own crostini.  


    Lucy Dylan Weddings

    Loaded mashed potato bar
    Not everyone likes their tots the same way, so provide the spuds and let guests make it their way with endless fixings like chives, bacon and cheddar.  

    P is for Party

    Popcorn bar
    Fun for while the speeches are being given, have a popcorn cart so that guests can have a viewing snack. Kettle corn, caramel, cheddar, bacon mix it up and supply classic carnival bags, too!

    Amy Atlas

    Health bar
    For the health nut, create a green alternative as a contrast to all the calorie loading that’s going to be happening throughout the night. Make it colorful with fruits and vegetables and have various dipping sauces.

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  • Who hates cilantro? Study aims to find out

    Featurepics.com

    By Cari Nierenberg

    To a very vocal online contingent, cilantro is the very worst.

    On "I Hate Cilantro" websites and Facebook pages they gripe that the herb tastes like soap, mold, or dirt. Cilantro haters not only despise its flavor, they also detest its smell. Stories in publications as serious as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and, yes, even msnbc.com have even covered the sharp divide in taste preferences when it comes to this particular herb.  And when a study of identical twins found an aversion to cilantro stems from a genetic glitch, the herb's bashers finally had a good reason why they found the leaves of the Coriander plant so offensive.

    But who are these people in the anti-cilantro community? No one had a clue -- until now.

    There has been no attempt to quantify which people hate the herb until two nutrition experts from the University of Toronto took a stab at it. They recently published their findings in the journal Flavour. In the study, they surveyed nearly 1,400 young adults ages 20 to 29 in Canada. 

    Volunteers completed a 63-item preference checklist in which they rated each food on a 9-point scale from 1 (dislike extremely) to 9 (like extremely). They could also select "never tried" or "would not try."

    Researchers found an aversion to cilantro ranged from a low of 3 percent to a high of 21 percent among six different ethnic groups.

    Live Poll

    Are you pro or con cilantro?

    View Results
    • 183739
      I love it!
      51%
    • 183740
      I hate it!
      41%
    • 183741
      I'm actually pretty neutral about it.
      8%

    VoteTotal Votes: 13879

    Young Canadians with East Asian roots, which included those of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese descent, had the highest prevalence of people who disliked the herb at 21 percent. Caucasians were second at 17 percent, and people of African descent were third at 14 percent. 

    Among the herb's fans, the group with the fewest number of people who disliked cilantro were those of Middle Eastern background at 3 percent, followed by those of Hispanic and South Asian ancestry at 4 percent and 7 percent respectively.

    Exposure to the herb at an earlier age and with greater frequency in Mexican, Asian, and Indian cooking likely helps shape a positive flavor preference. Another possibility is that genetic differences among the cultural groups might influence someone's taste perception of the herb.  

    Although researchers have yet to evaluate all 63 items on the food-preference checklist, study author Ahmed El-Sohemy, PhD, is sure of one thing: "Cilantro is perhaps the most polarizing with large numbers either loving it or hating it." The paper calls this the "unusual divisive nature of cilantro."

    "People who dislike cilantro extremely describe it very, very differently from those who love it," explains El-Sohemy, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto. The reason? "These individuals live in very different sensory worlds and are not perceiving the same thing," he says.

    As for El-Sohemy's opinion of cilantro, count him among the lovers. "I remember loving the taste as a child," he says. "I distinctly remember my mother's Egyptian cooking, which used cilantro frequently."

    The study is a first step in determining how widespread a dislike for cilantro is, at least in a sample of young Canadians. It's unclear whether older Canadians feel similarly or how much the herb is despised by people in other countries.

    Eventually, the Toronto scientists hope to pinpoint the genetic basis for why cilantro is an herb some people love to hate.

    Chef Ina Garten, aka "Barefoot Contessa," talks about her decision to become a chef after a career at the White House, her favorite fall meal and which pesky ingredient she despises.

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  • Get crafty with a banana peel trucker hat

    Brock Davis

    You too can be a rockstar parent or amuse yourself by crafting a banana peel trucker hat.

    When we spotted this insanely cute banana peel trucker hat making the rounds, we wanted to accessorize it with a mustache and a PBR.

    But the intended purpose of this creation, by Brock Davis, was not to amuse us with hipster-mocking; rather, it was to cheer up Davis’ grumpy kids during breakfast one morning.

    The Minneapolis-based artist and creative director has done a few food-related art pieces, including a broccoli treehouse sculpture and a gummy bear-skin rug. “Usually pieces that reinterpret everyday things,” he told TODAY.com via email. “I do these for my kids and for myself.”

    Below, Davis shares directions for making your own amusing banana trucker hat. Get to peeling and check out some of his other work.  

    "1 or 2 bananas. One to make the hat, one to model the hat. This could also be made using one banana. Carve the shape of the hat using an x-acto knife. Leave one of the banana peel sides longer, to make the rim of the hat. Most bananas come with a little sticker. Use this sticker to serve as the logo on the hat, if you want your hat to have a logo. 

    Simple project, takes about 5 minutes yet the memories will last a lifetime."

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  • Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Day with 'perfect' cookies

    TODAY

    Chocolate chips are so beloved that they have their own day of celebration on May 15th. There’s no wrong way to eat these morsels, whether thrown into ice cream, muffins, pancakes or anything else we can use as an excuse for a chocolatey bite. Of course, nothing beats fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies.

    So pay homage to the chip, which was created by Nestle in 1941, by making these PERFECT chocolate chip cookies, courtesy of Chris Kimball from America’s Test Kitchen. What makes these cookies so great? The secret is the brown butter… and lots of it. Enjoy!

    Chris Kimball's perfect chocolate chip cookies (makes 16 large cookies)

    • 1 3/4 cups (83/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    • 14 tablespoons unsalted butter
    • 3/4 cup packed (51/4 ounces) dark brown sugar
    • 1/2 cup (31/2 ounces) granulated sugar
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 1 large egg plus 1 large yolk
    • 1 1/4 cups (71/2 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
    • 3/4 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and chopped (optional)

    Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

    Melt 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly, until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter and stir until completely melted.

    Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and vanilla to melted butter; whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and egg yolk; whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using rubber spatula, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if using. Give dough final stir to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.

    Working with 3 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

    Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; let cookies cool to room temperature.

    Tips:

    • Avoid using a nonstick skillet to brown the butter; the dark color of the nonstick coating makes it difficult to gauge when the butter is sufficiently browned.
    • Use fresh, moist brown sugar, as hardened brown sugar will make the cookies too dry.
    • This recipe works with light brown sugar, but the cookies will be less full-flavored.

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  • Liquid love: Gail Simmons drinks her culinary obsession

    Veronica Meewes/Topo Chico

    By Veronica Meewes

    We recently caught up with Gail Simmons and wanted to know about her latest culinary obsession. While we were expecting for the “Top Chef” judge to wax poetic about some decadent dessert, we were surprised to hear her excitement about a sparkling mineral water from northern Mexico called Topo Chico.

    “I had never heard of Topo Chico before I tried it and fell in love,” she told TODAY.com. Topo Chico is distributed all throughout Mexico and a majority of the United States, but is much more widely known in the Southwest. Though she hadn’t picked up a bottle while filming “Top Chef” in Texas last summer, Simmons discovered it while in Austin for the Food & Wine Festival recently.  “All of a sudden, it’s all I want to drink!” she raved. 

    So just what is it that makes Topo Chico the champagne of water for Simmons? “It is so delicious and I think that is because it is the right balance of perfectly sized bubbles, a little bit salty and perhaps a little hint of citrus in the after taste,” she explained.  “It is fresh and clean, but NOT at all the ‘fancy’ sparkling water that costs a fortune in restaurants. (And) it’s more refreshing than club soda.”

    Backing her up, Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi also mentioned her love for the drink when she was demonstrating dessert techniques in Austin.  “I’m bringing a case back (to New York),” she affirmed.

    “I am plotting ways to have it shipped to New York City even though that is not so eco-friendly of me,” disclosed Simmons, who clearly isn’t a paid spokesperson for the company (or she’d have enough Topo Chico to bathe in).  “I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I left…”

    Simmons and other fans won’t have to plot too hard, as various purveyors offer nationwide delivery.

    In the comments below, tell us what ingredient, dish or product you are obsessed with right now!

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  • 'Hungry Girl' shares 10 low-calorie barbecue eats

    As summer draws near, barbecue season is right around the corner. Hungry Girl Lisa Lillien shares her picks to help you enjoy cook-outs while cutting down on calories. 

    Nature's Own Sandwich Rounds
    At 16 to 21 grams of whole grain per serving , this is an excellent source of fiber (5g fiber per sandwich round), and is a good alternative to just using a lettuce bun with 5g protein, 100 calories and 1g fat.

    Applegate The Super Natural Turkey and Chicken Hot Dogs 
    Despite what you might think, many chicken or turkey dogs contain as much -- if not more -- fat than regular full-fat beef franks, but these are a safe bet  at 50 to 60 calories, 3 to 3.5g fat each.

    Hebrew National 97% Fat Free Beef Franks
    These are great-tasting, low-calorie hot dogs that work great on the grill and have just 1 gram of fat and 40 calories each! 

    Amy's Texas Veggie Burger 
    All of Amy's burgers are incredible. These particular ones are vegan and have great stats, too! Theya re made with organic veggies and grains and have barbecue flavor. Each patty has 140 calories, 2.5g fat, 4g fiber and 12g protein!

    Jennie-O All Natural Lean White Turkey Burgers with Seasonings
    These lean, white turkey burgers have great stats! Each patty has 160 calories, 5g fat and 30g protein. You get six individually wrapped burgers (1/3 lb. each) in a box – so no freezer burn!

    Simply 7 Single-Serve Sea Salt Lentil Chips and Hummus Chips 
    These chips taste great and are light and crispy. Your get a lot of chips (about 30) in a 1-oz. serving . The hummus chips taste a lot like Bugles (but with fewer calories and half the fat) and are made with chickpea flour.  It’s 110 to 130 calories and 5g fat per single-serving bag -- hooray for portion control!

    Eat Well Enjoy Life Sweet & Spicy Black Bean Hummus 
    It's so delicious! The hard part is sticking to right serving size. This is made with black beans and is a little spicy and sweet. It’s just the most unique hummus I've found in supermarkets – it has a sweet relish on top made from roasted corn, pineapple, and red pepper. Each 2-tbsp. serving has 40 calories and  1.5g fat.

    Farmer's Garden by Vlasic pickles
    These pickles are a great low-calorie topper or snack. They are higher in sodium, but low calorie. In addition to the pickled cucumbers, every jar is hand-packed with carrots, peppers, garlic, herbs and spices. Crunchy and satisfying!

    Hellmann's/Best Foods Spicy Buffalo with Frank's RedHot Flavored Reduced Fat Mayonnaise
    This limited-edition spread came out in late March and will be around for about six months (that's when they keep changing their LTO mayo flavor). It’s pretty mild, with  just a little hint of the hot sauce. It’s fun for burgers this summer at 35 calories and 3.5g fat per tablespoon.

    Beaver Brand Hickory Bacon Mustard
    The flavor if this spread is not overpowering – a perfect balance between the bacon and the mustard. It’s low calorie (10 per teaspoon), fat-free, delicious, and it has bacon (actual flecks of bacon and red pepper)!

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    'Hungry Girl': 10 ways to beat the snack attack under 200 calories
    Don't bust your gut! Lower-calorie versions of grilled favorites
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  • Are celebrity wines worth the price?

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    By Edward Deitch, Vint-ed.com

    There is one overriding reason people will consider buying the new white wine with the big “B” on the label, and it can be summed up by the name above it: Barrymore. Drew Barrymore has gone into the wine business, and her first release is not from California, where so many Hollywood and other celebrities have dabbled in wine, but from Italy.

    While the marketing notes declare that “the discovery of new wines, new regions and new vintages is what keeps wine exciting to novices and enthusiasts alike,” Barrymore has turned to the familiar: She has given us another pinot grigio. And while her motto is “from our family to yours,” don’t be misled. The actress may have put her name and her family crest on the label, but the wine is made by Decordi, a large winery in Lombardy in northern Italy. They have produced a wine that is good, if not great -- a solid “B,” so to speak -- which may nonetheless be good enough for many starstruck Americans lured by the Barrymore name and willing to pay a premium for it (the $20 suggested price is higher than many pinot grigios on the market).

    Barrymore’s 2011 Pinot Grigio delle Venezie has notable minerality, which lingers in the mouth and is its strong point. Some fruit notes, particularly apple and citrus, emerge as the wine warms up a bit, but I would have liked even more fruit. There’s also an ample herbal note. Beyond obvious fish pairings, it would work well with an asparagus risotto. It’s certainly drinkable, but I have enjoyed other pinot grigios more – for less. (In a quick check at one wine store in my Manhattan neighborhood, I found 11 pinot grigios, nine of them under $20.)

    Barrymore is just the latest celebrity to turn to wine. This week, Wine Spectator reported that Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie has bought a vineyard in California’s Santa Ynez Valley and plans to make syrah, cabernet sauvignon and viognier under the Ferguson Crest label.

    If Frances Ford Coppola is the “godfather” of the celebrity wine movement, others who have followed him more recently include Madonna, who, with her father, is involved in Ciccone Vineyard and Winery in northern Michigan; Wayne Gretzky and Dan Aykroyd, who produce wine under their own labels in Canada;  Nancy Pelosi, who owns two vineyards that supply fruit to other wineries in California; Jeff Gordon, who has a passion for fast cars and also for making high-end California wines; and Dave Matthews, who owns Blenheim Vineyards in Charlottesville, Va., and also has a collaborative effort in California with Steve Reeder, the winemaker at Simi Winery in Sonoma.

    Matthews’ California label is called The Dreaming Tree (named after one of his songs), and there are three $15 wines. The other night I bought Dreaming Tree’s 2009 Crush, a North Coast blend of merlot and zinfandel, hoping for something that would rise above the ordinary. But it, too, was just OK. Its dark berry fruit, relatively soft tannins and considerable oak influence could describe dozens of comparably priced California reds competing for shelf space, many of them with similarly catchy names.

    In my research, I found dozens of celebrities who are attaching their names and their money to wine. But I also found very few doing so in the under-$20 category. And that may be just as well. Beyond the boldface names on the labels, it seems to me, celebrity wines, at least on the value end, don’t have a lot to offer. (The Barrymore wine was received as a press sample.)

    Wine drinkers, what do you think? Would you be more willing to buy a wine with a celebrity name? Tell us in the comments.

    Edward Deitch is a James Beard Award-winning wine critic. Find many more of his wine reviews and commentary on his blog, Vint-ed.com, and follow him on Twitter.

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