Deep dark chocolate

Deep dark chocolate
Hershey's new Special Dark baking chips were put to work in chocolate chip cookies. Chicago Tribune testers liked their deep chocolately flavor -- though they did not find them dramatically different from other chips they've tasted. A 12-ounce bag costs about $2.40 at grocers.
Mixes with moxie
Urban Accents' new fruit-and-nut club mixes come in four party-worthy combinations: Moroccan (apricots, dates, almonds and walnuts), Manhattan (walnuts, almonds, cranberries and pineapple), Mesa Rosa (toffee-coated peanuts, almonds and cashews dusted with a chipotle spice blend) and Tsunami (wasabi peas and glazed rice balls). A 32-ounce tub costs $15 and 6-ounce packages are $3.30-$5 at specialty stores.
To order by mail, visit online at urbanaccents.com.
Celebrating cheesecake
Champagne Cuties from Eli's Cheesecake offer a sweet treat: Champagne cheesecake squares are coated in dark chocolate and sprinkled with edible gold dust. A 1-pound, 6-ounce box of 20 Cuties costs $35 by mail from Eli's Cheesecake World: Call (800) 354-2253 or visit online, elicheesecake.com.
Bubbling up on the Web
Perrier: www.perrier.com
Chase the bottles with your cursor. Groove on the smooth tunes. Soak up some eye candy. Peruse the fashion trends.
Feel like you're riding in a limo, partaking of a tasty, calorie-free, naturally carbonated bubbly from Vergeze in the South of France.
It has always been socially acceptable to sip Perrier, especially during the holidays. You can keep your head while all around you, others lose theirs.
And off to the gym in the morning, la-di-da.
Refugee cookbook supports resettlement
"A Taste of Freedom: A Culinary Journey with America's Refugees" sketches the stories of eight women -- all refugees -- who are rebuilding their lives after fleeing death and war in countries as diverse as Laos, Somalia, Kosovo and Columbia.
Each woman shares several of her homeland's authentic recipes, which have been translated and tested for American kitchens by the book's authors.
Dishes range from spicy Somalian tea to a pungent Afghan relish and from Cuban roast pork to Kurdish rice bryani; all are easy to replicate using easy-to-find ingredients.
The book by Michigan writers and photographers Vincent Delgado, Jeremy Herliczek and Becky Shink is designed to raise awareness of refugee issues. Part of the proceeds are earmarked for mid-Michigan refugee resettlement efforts.
Filled with color and sepia-toned photos, the attractive 93-page softcover volume can be purchased online at www.A-Taste-of-Freedom.com for $14.99 plus tax, shipping and handling.
Baking bacon
The easiest route to uniformly cooked and crisp bacon is to bake it. Lay the strips on a rack on a baking sheet or roasting pan and bake it in a 375-degree oven until crisp, about 20 minutes. This is an ideal method for brunch parties, for you can cook a large batch all at once and attend to other breakfast matters while the bacon cooks. To make decorative bacon curls: Wrap each slice of raw bacon around a metal skewer in a barber-pole fashion and lay the skewers on the roasting rack.
Puppy love
If you're looking for a tasty treat for Fido, here's a cookbook to consult. "Throw Me A Bone: 50 Healthy, Canine Taste-Tested Recipes for Snacks, Meals and Treats" (Simon & amp; Schuster, $19.95) is Cooper Gillespie's (a Welsh springer spaniel) musings on how to make good, homemade dog food, written, of course, by his owner Susan Orlean ("The Orchard Thief").
Recipes range from Pawcakes to Breath-Sweetening Biscuits to Poochie's Pasta Primavera, and there's even one for Sushi.
According to the book, the recipes have been approved by dog trainer and nutritional consultant Stacy Alldredge. But if cooking for the dog isn't your thing, you'll still appreciate the cool dog photography in this book. Woof. Woof.