The Hungry Beast is reporting that Teresa Giudice, the infamous "Real Housewife of New Jersey" who flipped a table full of food at her own party, will reveal what foods actually stay atop her table in an upcoming cookbook, Skinny Italian: Eat It and Enjoy It, Live La Bella Vita and Look Great Too!  Fans of the show (I admit I'm one) will be intrigued to see the recipes, as it looks like the only appliance used in her marble palace, a.k.a. the kitchen, is the microwave.

Call me a masochist. My annual physical is always scheduled for Christmas week and I remind my doctor that most of the year I'm pretty restrained but come Thanksgiving through Christmas, I do allow myself to eat what I want. The result this time? Five extra pounds. Ugh. So, I'm going to rein it back in, except for Christmas day, follow our healthy holiday eating guide, and make these low cal, low fat comfort food recipes. What about you? Are you like most Americans, and packing a few over the holidays or do you watch what you eat even during the holidays?

I'm off to see an ailing auntie tomorrow and am bringing her cheesecake-marbled brownies, as well as a cookbook or two from our Best Cookbooks of 2009 story and a bottle of Benziger cabernet sauvignon from our best wines to give or get piece. On Sunday, my boys and I are going to make a buche de noel for their class parties and their teachers will be getting bittersweet chocolate and walnut fudge from our edible Christmas gift story. What about you? Got any great last-minute gift ideas?

Last night Gordon Ramsay hosted Cookalong Live on Fox, in which celebrities and viewers at home made a three-course dinner together in under one hour; at the end Ramsay announced a casting call for his next big project, MasterChef. This is a very popular series in England and Australia, and as a judge on a MasterChef show years ago with chef Gary Rhodes, I've seen what an amazing opportunity it is for home cooks to show off their chops. (I've also been a judge on several episodes of Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen - pictured - and yes, there is a softer side of the chef, for those who feel intimidated.) If you've watched Hell's Kitchen or Top Chef and fantasized about being a professional chef, this could be your moment to rise and shine. You can send in audition tapes or go to one of the open casting calls around the country to be held in January. Go to 3 Ball Productions or Fox Casting for more information.

Yesterday a neighbor dropped off a Christmas present--a fruitcake. At first I thought I was the recipient of a regift, but actually she had just baked Elizabeth Falkner's A Fruitcake to Love. Dubious, we unwrapped the brick-sized package and lo and behold, it was warm, moist, and chock-full of dates, figs, and walnuts. It was, dare I say, delicious. While I won't become a charter member of The Society of the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake, I wouldn't want to throw this version in the 15th Annual Great Fruitcake Toss in Manitou Springs, Colorado come January. (We couldn't cause we already ate our fruitcake...) If you're like me, and need to be converted to be a believer, try one of these 21 delicious fruitcake recipes. If there's no love lost over these dried fruit bombes, head over to Manitou Springs on January 9th for some heavy lifting. Which camp do you fall into: Fruitcake Lover or Fruitcake Hater?

Tonight marks the first night of Hanukkah and I'm sad no one has invited me over for dinner as I am already craving latkes, pot roast, and jelly doughnuts. What are you making for Hanukkah? If you need inspiration, check out our Hanukkah recipes and if you're lucky enough to be a guest, bring one of these high-quality affordable Kosher wines.

In a recent study conducted by Dr. Thomas Gould of Temple University and just reported in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, mice who were fed alcohol followed by caffeine did not really sober up but rather continued to make poor choices such as walking into parts of the maze that had loud noise or bright lights: Gould found that "alcohol calmed the caffeine jitters, leaving an animal more relaxed but less able to avoid threats--a combination that the authors speculated could make people more likely to believe they are not drunk or not impaired enough to have problems functioning." Dr. Gould theorizes that "people who have consumed both alcohol and caffeine may feel awake and competent enough to handle potentially harmful situations, such as driving while intoxicated or placing themselves in dangerous social situations.”

Do you have any proven remedies for sobering up? Cold showers? A mouthful of garlic?

Guess what's been brewing on the International Space Station for five months? While orbiting the earth at 17,000 miles per hour, scientists grew barley from seeds. Sapporo then brewed the galactic barley, transforming it into 1,500 Space Barley beers. Does the $20 bottling taste out of this world? BBC News reports that drinkers would never guess the origin of this specious beer. No word yet on when we can expect our first celestial sparkling wine.

Last Monday we published our edible gift guide, replete with homemade barbecue sauce and bittersweet chocolate and walnut fudge. But every day we find more delicious presents, including these from just this weekend:

Chocolate-Covered Pretzels: While there are many versions on the market, Heavenly Pretzels are a breed apart because the pretzel is slightly salty and thin and the quality of the dark and milk chocolate is good, so the counterpoint between the coating and the filling is, well, heavenly; prices range from $4 to $50.

The Real Top Chef: Take the excitement and competition of Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen, and Iron Chef, mix in contestants from 24 countries, add 1,000 spectators, and compress it into less than six hours. What do you have? The Bocuse d'Or, a bi-annual chef's cook-off held in Lyon, France. Andrew Friedman movingly documents the American team's highs and lows in the competition held this year in the just published Knives at Dawn: The American Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d'Or Competition.

Vino in a Can: Sherry-Lehmann is celebrating its 75th anniversary by doing the can-can: Inside a can decorated with the famous Toulouse-Lautrec design are four bottles each of its most popular red and white; $75.

Stand Mixer: The KitchenAid 90th Anniversary, Limited Edition Stand Mixer is the Maybach of cooking tools. This cherry-red version comes with a 9-cup glass bowl and all of the standard accoutrements enabling home cooks to whip up everything from sausage to ice cream.

I've always been fascinated by self-proclaimed pit masters. We're talking way beyond the dad who wears an "I'm Smokin'" apron and grills on weekends. These are people whose lives revolve around charred pieces of meat, whose weapons of choice are a sauce mop and tongs, and who spend their weekends driving to competitive barbecue contests, like Memphis in May. They have crazy nicknames like Sweet Swine O' Mine, Holy Sow, or Serial Grillers. For those who want to get a taste of this hot, smoky lifestyle, tune in tonight for the series premiere of the eight-part BBQ Pitmasters (10 p.m./9 CT) on TLC. The network has provided Epi users an exclusive clip of the show. Let us know what you think of tonight's premiere. Would you ever enter a bbq competition?