It's Labor Day weekend, which means one thing in my book: It's fair time. Lots of local, county, state, and regional fairs are held this weekend, and in honor of my annual visit to the Great New York State Fair, I'm writing all about how to make your own fair food at home. This way, if you're not in proximity to a fair this weekend, you can still enjoy the best part of any fair--the food. By the way, two items you might want to stock up on before you commence your culinary quest are wooden sticks and vegetable oil. Pretty much every one of these recipes calls for at least one, if not both. Ah, fair food, it's either fried or shoved on a stick, and often both. Yum!

Friday Dinner:

Sausage and pepper sandwiches. You'll need 2 hoagie or hot dog rolls, 2 sausage links (about 6-8 inches long), 1 green and 1 red pepper cut into strips, 1 medium onion halved and cut into strips, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp vegetable oil. In a pan or on the grill, brown sausage links on medium/hight heat until they're no longer pink in the middle (you can cut one open to check). Remove sausage from pan or grill. In a pan on medium heat, add all the remaining ingredients, stirring occasionally, so that peppers and onions get wilted and soft. Put sausage links into rolls, then top with the peppers and onions. Sprinkle with Pecorino Romano cheese for taste.

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Lunchbox Treats To Please And Freeze: Kids look forward to what’s in the lunchbox and so do their parents, who are brown-bagging it more often to save money. In either case, a little sweet after lunch is always a nice thing. Packing dessert is easy if you make a batch of cookies big enough to last for a week or two and tuck them in the freezer individually wrapped, just the way you would pack them in a lunchbox. Leave a two-day supply of treats in the cookie jar (otherwise they’ll all disappear), and freeze the rest to pull out each morning.Classic lunchbox cookies and bars should hold up without crumbling.

These oatmeal cookies are sweet with raisins and crunchy with walnuts. Toast the nuts before adding them to the batter to keep them from getting too soft during baking. Chocolate PB bars take advantage of the legendary combination of peanut butter and chocolate, this time swirled together over a peanut butter-oatmeal crust. Rich chocolate cookies studded with white-chocolate chips make a decadent midday treat. If only the rest of lunch was as much fun to make.

Chocolate White-Chip Cookies: 1 1/2     cups flour
1/2     teaspoon baking soda
1/2     teaspoon salt
1/2     cup (1 stick) butter, cut up
12     ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3     eggs
1/2     cup brown sugar
1     teaspoon vanilla extract
12     ounces (2 cups) white chocolate chips

1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt to blend them.

3. In a large saucepan, melt the butter and semisweet chocolate over very low heat; set aside to cool.

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Recipes Of Whoopie: After years of cupcake fever, there's a new contender for the title of hot new dessert: The whoopie pie – two discs of soft chocolate cake filled with all sorts of exotica, from marshmallow fluff to pumpkin is making a huge comeback. Claudia Egger, owner of Toronto's Frangipane Pâtisserie, came up with a unique salted-caramel-cream-filled version for a fundraiser I co-ordinated in support of a new play called When My Name Was Anna, opening in February and based on the Michael Ondaatje novel Divisadero. Eggers created pies that one might eat in California and France, where the book is set. Besides the all-American whoopie pies, she also suggested a fruit tart and a vanilla-laced cheesecake, both of which are ideal for using up late-summer fruit like blueberries and pluots (a cross between plums and apricots). Whoopie pies with salted caramel cream.

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With the Cardiff media momentarily distracted by the potential arrival of a big American sports bar in the centre of Cardiff and the moral outrage that followed, another American import, Ruby Tuesday, may have slipped under the radar slightly.

At first glance, Hooters, Ruby Tuesday and its neighbour TGI Friday, have much in common – making a living out of ribs, wings, burgers and beer. However, members of staff were quick to point out that Ruby Tuesday is most definitely a family restaurant and the only thing on display there are their big, American-sized portions.The portions are indeed huge – everything from the half rack of Ribs to the Double Chocolate Cake seemed super-sized. Even the "mini" combo burgers seemed larger than their name belied, though somehow lacked the intense meaty flavour and seasoning of their big brothers.

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Basically, ice cream comes in two styles: Custard (or French custard-style) and Philadelphia (also called "American"). Philadelphia-style ice cream contains no egg yolks and does not require cooking.Yield: about 1 quart 

2 1/4 cups heavy cream
    * 6 tablespoons unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder
    * 1 cup sugar
    * Pinch of salt
    * 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
    * 1 cup whole milk
    * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    * Ice cream machine

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This Independence Day, Gelato Italiano provides you the prefect reason to celebrate and titillate your taste buds with some delicious mouth-watering flavours of Gelato.Celebrate India’s freedom with three delicious flavours from Gelato Italiano - Orange Blossom; Berry Delight; and Peach and Apricot.

This year for Independence Day get freedom from the dull and ordinary flavours and try some fresh, delicious and natural flavours of Gelato Italiano.These are available at a special price of Rs. 20/- between August 12th and 15th, 2010 across Gelato Italiano kiosks around the city.

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The famous Manhattan restaurant has created not one, but two amazing desserts, each featuring 24 carat edible Swiss gold. The £630 Grand Opulence Sundae sounds cheap in comparison to the  record-breaking £15,730 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate, which requires customers to give at least two weeks notice before they are able to actually sit down and tuck in.

'We produced the Grand Opulence to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2005,' said Joe Calderone, 48, a spokesperson for Serendipity. 'We wanted something to match out golden anniversary, so based our sundae around that precious metal.

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These pills will no doubt make anyone happy. No, they aren't the purple and yellow kind. These are so delicious that they are made out of chocolate!

A chocolate pill can cure anything in this whole wide world, don't you think? No matter what your reason for feeling down and out is, these pills will surely elevate your mood.

It means, come on, it's chocolate, the magical substance. One thinks, these yummy pills will definitely put Prozac out of business. There are 30 delicious chocolate pills in a blister pack. One strip of these chocolate pills costs $7.50.

In last week’s post, I mentioned how silken tofu creates a deliciously ‘creamy’ texture, making it perfect as a base for everything from salad dressings and pasta sauces to soy yogurt and even… chocolate cream pie. Yes, you heard correctly – chocolate cream pie for vegans… Does life get any better?

This decadent dessert is deliciously velvety and delightfully rich, yet it contains zero animal products and therefore, absolutely no cholesterol. If you don’t have the time, the patience, or the confidence to make a pie crust from scratch, take a look at your local health food store and you may well find that they sell a pre-made vegan pie crust.