On Wednesday, Charlie Papazian had a great post on Examiner.com providing advice on "surviving beer festivals." He would be one to know: He's the founder of the Great American Beer Festival.

Late September and early October are traditionally beer fest months, not least in part because of the granddaddy of them all, Oktoberfest. Some of Charlie's advice is self-explanatory, like rule #1: "Know your limits." But my favorite rule is #6: "Dump the beer."

Part of the fun of a beer festival is trying something new. Much of the time brewers are even trying to push products on us we might otherwise not try at all. Yet still people feel obligated to suck down suds they don't like. Part of knowing your limits is knowing when you're tossing back a brew just because it's in your cup. Don't do it! A "taster glass" is meant for just that: a taste. If you don't want the rest, dump it out. But be a respectful patron too and don't waste the breweries product for their sake and for the sake of your fellow fest-goers who might have a different opinion than you. If you're not sure you're going to enjoy something, make sure you only get a taste and consider going back for seconds later.

Check out the rest of the rules here and tell us if you have any beer festival plans for the fall in the comments. You can find me at the NY Brewfest next Friday.

If you're in the market for some new knives, especially if you're new to the professional knife world, OnlyKnives has some great advice for you. Seriously, check it out. The article talks about how many knives you actually need, knives in different price ranges, what to really look for in knives, and even a little (tiny) bit of kitchen knife history.

My favorite piece of advice is that you don't actually need to go with the biggest knife set available. You can get along wonderfully with a smaller set, if you don't have any yet. Actually, you can get along wonderfully with only a few knives. I work in a professional kitchen, and I end up using the same few knives for everything (not counting specialty knives like the oyster knife and such).

If you want to get your collection started, this is a good place to start. If you want to replace a few knives, this may be a good reference source. Either way, it's some good advice and interesting reading.

Unless you travel frequently for business, travel season doesn't usually start until late spring, with spring break, or summer, when many people try to get away from it all for a week. The hardest part about being on vacation is eating right, especially because we tend to tell ourselves that it is ok to indulge - a vacation is from your diet, as well as from your job, right? Indulgence is fine, but even on vacation it's not a great idea for every meal. Forbes Traveler offers up some advice on how to travel and stay thin that will come in handy if you want to stay in shape for swimsuit season

Their basic advice to chose lighter salads and sandwiches, especially in airports or other places where they is a lot of fast food and to avoid fried foods, is good for almost any situation. On the plane, avoid the snack packs, which are usually packed with calories and not much in the way of worthwhile munchies. You can always bring your own snacks.

Once you've landed, order sauces on the side and choose from the "light" menu if you is offered, especially when you're eating at the hotel. Save the splurges for when you get to try some of the local cuisine.

Even experienced cooks can use and extra hand around the holidays, and unless you have a personal chef already standing by to coach you through your problems, you might need to call in some help. Literally. Several organizations set up hotlines for food advice, so whether you need help with your turkey of help with dessert, you'll have someone to turn to.

• Butterball- 1-800-BUTTERBALL; Nov. 1 to Dec. 31; 8am-8pm - This is the place for all turkey-related questions, staffed with specialists who have completed 'Butterball University.'
• Crisco - 1-877-367-7438; Through Dec. 31; 8am-8pm - They have advice for any and all pie-related questions, such as how to get a more tender crust or prevent the crust from shrinking away from the sides of the pan.
• Ocean Spray - 1-800-662-3263; Year-round; Mon.-Fri., 9am-4pm - Limited to cranberry questions, but great for last-minute tips or questions about specific products.
• USDA - 1-888-674-6854; Year-round; 10am-4pm - If food safety is a worry, whether you need advice on food sensitivities or just have a question about food-borne illnesses, call this line.

It's not often that you see Dr. Joyce Brother's answer a question pertaining to food, but this seems like an issue that could be a problem for many foodies. No, it's not a 9 1/2 Weeks sort of thing. The question is about what to do when an adventurous eater is interested in someone who is not only picky and unadventurous ("the culinary tastes of a 6-year-old) in their eating habits, but is also entirely uninterested in changing.

Dr. Joyce said that the foodie is better off finding someone who can share her interest in food, since cooking and meals are not only important to her, but are a huge part of everyday life. It can be difficult to choose restaurants and menus when dining with friends if one or two people only ever want a cheeseburger and fries - imagine how much more frustrating that would be in a relationship when the issue comes up three times a day. Even if she could put aside her interests from time to time, it would only cause friction in the relationship as time went on.

It's sound advice. But the temptation must be there to try and convince the unwilling eater to expand his or her horizons. Has anyone succeeded in converting the PB&J devotee to something a little more exciting?

As though we don’t have enough dieting fads thrown at us from all directions, there is a new one which suggests that the color of your walls could be making you fat. According to dietician Lisa Dorfman, blues and greens will make you less hungry than warmer colors, like reds. Lighting is also important to dieters, as those who eat in dim light are more likely to binge.

Excuse me while I take a brief break to paint my kitchen. But what of the non-paintable surfaces? Does laminate make you feel full, or should you use a tile floor?

This is the most ridiculous dieting idea that we have seen yet. Changing the color scheme of your house in an attempt to alter your diet is like deciding to buy air freshener for you car after it's been in an accident: it doesn't really hurt anything, but it doesn't directly address the problem in the way that eating less food (or getting the car repaired) would. Putting aside the issue of actual color choice, there is one thing about painting your walls that will keep you out of the kitchen for a while: very few people actually enjoy the smell of wet paint and you certainly won't want to be eating in a freshly painted kitchen. Just try not to head for the nearest fast food place while you wait for your cool, calming kitchen to dry.

Popular British chef Jamie Oliver is starting a new series, but he won’t be seen on your TV. Jamie will be doing podcasts that deal with advice and cooking how-tos. Every topic tackled during the podcast will be in response to a query from a real cook who needs help in their kitchen. To get your question to Jamie, all you have to do is dial the dedicated phone line that takes podcast messages: 44 (0)207 043 8223. There is a 30 second time limit for messages and, as it is a standard London number, standard rates apply from wherever in the world you are calling. The best and funniest questions will make it on the air when the podcast launches later this year.

Cargill, Inc., the US's second largest meat processor, has done some research on consumer knowledge of beef. As it turns out, people don't know a lot about it. To remedy the problem, as well as hoping to boost sales, the company has launched a program to educate meat buyers on meat, including the differences between things like chuck roast and tri-tip and how to cook them properly. The target age group is people between 25 and 45 who may not have grown up in a family that cooked a lot in the home, so they have limited experience with meats.

BeefQuiz.com is a site launched by the company to help consumers learn about meat. As an incentive, people who do well will get a coupon for up to $1.50 off Sterling Silver beef, a Cargill brand. There is also a beef buying guide on their website, though you can check out our list of the leanest beef cuts if that is more your style. Consumer-friendly labeling is another one of their strategies, adding cooking tips and recipes right onto the packaging.

From a consumer standpoint, the campaign will help people to eat better. If you have no idea what a skirt steak is but know that you can make hamburgers from ground beef, you might never get around to trying the skirt steak. Knowledge gives consumers more options and, in this case, might help eliminate a beef with beef.

I often get asked whether substitutions can be made in a recipe. Baking is really a sort of science experiment, much more so than actual cooking, so while substitutions will work sometimes it is often best to simply follow the recipe, if at all possible. I never thought to devote an entire post to the subject, instead answering inquiries on a one-on-one basis, but Rose Levy Beranbaum finally said what I, and other bakers, have been thinking for a long time:

Can you substitute ingredients? Yes. Should you? Usually, no.

There are many parts of recipe for breads, cookies and cakes that cannot change without fundamentally altering the final product. For example, if a recipe calls for baking powder you cannot substitute yeast. They may both be leaveners, but they are completely dissimilar. You could try to substitute whole wheat flour for all purpose, but the outcomes will not be identical because the properties of each type of flour are different. Flavorings and add-ins, like chocolate chips, blueberries, nuts or vanilla extract, can be substituted for other, similar ingredients, but the mainstays of a recipe should not be changed if you are expecting to reproduce the outcome of the original recipe. Rose suggests changing one ingredient at a time, if you really want to experiment, and watching the results. You might not get edible cookies, but you will gain a better understanding of how your ingredients work should you want to make changes in the future. Websites like FoodSubs.com can help, but if you want chocolate cake right now, try to stick with the recipe for the best results.

Not only does Betty Crocker's New Dinners for Two contain a wealth of retro recipes, it also offers some rather unusual advice. Specifically, I am referring to the "Sunset Years Guide", a list of dietary tips found at the back of the book. It starts off well enough, advising people to keep protein as part of their diet, but it then begins to fly in the face of what is now the typical medical advice to people in their "sunset years". In addition to recommending that one avoid high fiber foods, the book suggests that "eating creamed foods, custards, cheeses and ice cream" are good ways to keep calcium intake high. It also selects liver and egg yolks as being excellent sources of nutrients, along with green leafy vegetables and citrus. In fairness, the "guide" concludes by making the recommendation that high fat foods should be substituted for lower fat ones, although it seems as though that might prove difficult with all the egg yolks and ice cream someone in their "sunset years" should be eating.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

While I enjoy many, many varieties of homemade muffins, from light and moist to heavy and healthy, I have always found the bakery-like muffin difficult to recreate at home. Who doesn't love the fluffy interior, crispy ledge and high, domed top of muffins from a coffee shop or bakery? With the help of The Best Recipe, I compiled a few tips to picking a recipe and recreating these at home:

• Choose a muffin recipe that uses yogurt or buttermilk as a liquid, which will make a thicker batter and support the muffin in a high rise.
• A thick batter will allow you to heap the batter into muffin tins without it spreading all over the pan. This will ensure a high rise and create a small shelf around the base of the muffin.
• Even when using an acidic ingredient like yogurt or buttermilk, a muffin leavened mostly with baking powder will achieve a higher rise than one with baking soda alone.
• Using butter instead of oil and creaming it with the sugar will create a fluffier texture, not to mention that butter will give the muffins a more delicate (and delicious) flavor than oil.

Here is a fuller account of making bakery-style muffins, as well as a recipe for the Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins pictured above. Or, you can check out Elise's Blueberry Muffin variation of the same recipe.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Dessert is unquestionably the bane of many people’s day. Many desserts are fattening, calorific and simply unhealthy. Portion sizes are huge and it is difficult to limit yourself to only a part of what you are served – especially if it all tastes so good. Lower fat desserts, baked goods in particular, have an equally bad reputation, as many people believe them to be rubbery, dry, dense and flavorless.

There are many desserts that are lower in fat or in calories that still taste great, though it is true that some baked goods will be changed for the worse without butter or sugar, so don’t just leave them out when you’re cooking. Sarah, the author of Baking 911 has tons of tips and well-tested recipes for low fat baking and desserts. Diet-Blog also has a few suggestions for easy and delicious desserts.

Don’t automatically assume that you can never eat crème brûlée again if you want to have a healthier lifestyle. You can still indulge sometimes, but make healthier choices with your everyday treats. Sorbets and gelato are good alternatives to ice cream. Try having low fat milk in your hot chocolate and top it with a marshmallow, not whipped cream.

If you had the baked brie appetizer and a deep dish pizza for dinner, you should probably skip dessert. But being healthy doesn’t mean that it dessert is never an option, nor does it mean that you can’t enjoy great flavors and delicious food.