OK readers, I have a challenge for you. Do you dare accept it?

The other night I was watching an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, the one where Rob and Laura accidentally hear their neighbors Jerry and Millie talking about them on Richie's toy intercom. It's one of my favorite episodes, and I've always wondered if the dip that is mentioned in the episode, Avocado and Peanut Butter, was a real dip that someone on the cast or crew had made or if it was completely made up. It sounds like an odd combination, but I've heard of odder recipes.

The only clues I have are that it's a dip (Buddy puts it on crackers) and the ingredients are avocado, peanut butter, and mustard. Don't forget the mustard! It's the vital ingredient, though Buddy seems to like it better without it. Not sure if there are any other ingredients - these are the only three mentioned.

So who wants to make it and report back here on how it tastes? We could start a new trend here: real recipes based on fake TV and movie recipes.

For over ten years now, Wolfgang Puck has been serving the stars at the Governor's Ball - also known as the official "after party" for the Academy Awards, where all the nominees congregate to look glamorous, talk to the press and eat dinner. Not all of the secrets of the Oscar ceremony itself, like what the stage is going to look like, are revealed ahead of time and the menu for the Ball was clearly a bit hush-hush to start. Fortunately, little by little, information leaked out.

The Ball is not going to be a sit-down affair, but an elegant/casual cocktail-type of party, an the overriding theme this year will be "Oscar goes organic." The food, in addition to being organic and/or humanely raised will be small or bite-sized, and will include favorites (and Puck standbys) like sushi, grilled Kobe beef, Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone, Smoked Salmon Oscars with French Farm-Raised Osetra Caviar and Roasted Pumpkin Squash Ravioli with White Truffles. And, of course, there will be plenty of champagne and chocolate Oscar statuettes to go around.

What would a collection of SuperBowl dip recipes be without a little blue cheese, considering that it is held to be the gold standard of hot wing dips - excluding hot wing sauce itself, of course. Blue cheese (or bleu cheese, if you prefer) dip is made with a pungent, creamy cheese that cuts into the spiciness of hot wings by adding a new layer of flavor and a cooling sensation that dulls the heat of the chicken. The strongly flavored cheese, in most of these dips, is often combined with sour cream, mayonnaise or cream cheese, each of which contributes to the overall texture of the dip without bumping up the flavor to the point where it overpowers the hot wing itself.

This particular dip is a pretty standard recipe that you'll probably find in several different places. It calls for sour cream and mayonnaise in addition to the cheese, so "healthy" is not something that could be applied. You can always substitute low fat or nonfat sour cream/mayonnaise; using a good quality blue cheese will make up for any loss of flavor in either of those ingredients.

Professional football players have heavily regulated diets, but regardless of what they're eating when they're off the field, they're clearly working off those pounds when they play. The same cannot be said for the rest of us. During the Super Bowl, it is estimated that 30 million pounds of food, of which 4 million is fat, will be consumed across the country. Chips are the most popular snack, with 11.2 million pounds of potato chips sold for the game. Other snacks put up impressive numbers, as well: 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips, 4.3 million pounds of pretzels, 3.8 million pounds of popcorn and 2.5 million pounds of nuts. And it doesn't look as though they counted calories from beer, sodas and other drinks in these numbers.

To avoid packing on the pounds during the game, there are a few simple things you can do:

• Eat breakfast or lunch before the party, so you won't be as hungry and as likely to binge.
• Try and go for a walk/run in the morning before the game and burn off a few extra calories.
• Try drinking diet soda or water to avoid the hundreds of calories that come from drinks alone.
• When it comes to snacks, make a low fat/low calorie dip to bring to the party, such as salsa, a bean-based dip or a yogurt dip made with nonfat yogurt.
• Limit your chip consumption by sticking to veggies or lower fat crackers for dipping - especially if you're planning on chowing down on pizza or buffalo wings.

One last suggestion? Stand up and cheer for your team when they get a first down and do your own little touchdown dance when they score. Taking the opportunity to burn off a couple of extra calories never hurt.

I adore chipotle peppers. They may be trendy, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they are very tasty. Chipotle peppers are smoked jalapenos and are usually packed in cans in an adobo sauce. The original process was developed to preserve the peppers, but the smoky flavor and lingering heat of the chipotle long ago caused it to become popular in its own right. That heat makes a nice background to the cool, creamy avocado in this guacamole.

You can choose to make it either creamy or chunky, depending on what you want to serve it with. Chunky guacamoles tend to work best with chips and crackers, as both provide ample surface area for scooping. Creamier dips are a better choice for veggies and pretzels, or other snacks that don't make for a good scoop. For a chunky dip, simply mince everything and stir it together to blend. For an ultra-creamy dip, use the food processor to combine everything.

Traveling on SuperBowl Sunday? There are few worse places to be than in an airplane at 35,000-ft when you would much rather be at home, at someone else's home or at the local pub watching the fame with friends, family and lots of food. If you must fly, you might want to think about using JetBlue. The discount airline offers live DIRECTV, so you'll be able to see the game, and you won't even have to miss out on beer and munchies because the airline will be giving out free beer and cocktails to travelers during game-time flights. They will also offer plenty of snacks (no hot wings, unfortunately), such as Doritos Munchies Mix, Terra Blues Potato Chips, Nuts Jumbo Cashew Halves and Nabisco 100 Calorie Pack crackers.

The selection doesn't compare to what you'll find at most SuperBowl parties, but you have to given them credit for trying. After all, they could do a lot worse than free beer, snacks and football!

I think we've said it before, but it never hurts to say it again: Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!

Statistically speaking, "40 percent of all champagne and sparkling wine sales in America occur in the last six weeks of the year." This accounts for champagne given as hostess gifts during the holiday season and any drunk at holiday parties, but there is no doubt that the most popular night of the year to enjoy some bubbly is New Year's Eve. Are you going to be one of the many enjoying some bubbly tonight?

I suspect champagne will make an appearance in my evening, as will a bottle of the lovely Chambers Rosewood Vineyards Rutherglen Muscadelle, a dessert wine. I do wish that I had a bottle of Vodka O2, the sparkling vodka, to try out this evening, but I suppose that there will be plenty of time for that next year.

There's plenty of time before the ball drops tonight in Times Square to figure out what drink - or drinks - you are going to serve while you while away the last moments of 2006. Technically, it's a once in a lifetime event, so it's worth the effort to add something more interesting than a glass of red wine to the evening. Cool Cocktails: The Hottest New Drinks and the Best of the Classics is a book that has both new and exciting drinks, at least one of which is a good choice for a party, and older favorites that you can turn to again and again. The author of the book is Ben Reed, a well known London mixologist, who actually won the title of Cocktail Bartender of the Year a few years ago and stars in a BBC program, Shaker Maker. The recipes are arranged by spirit and there are sections for nonalcoholic cocktails and hangover cures, as well.

As a bonus in addition to the recipes, the book's prose lives up to the "cool" descriptor in the title and is a pleasure to read. We do recommend, however, that you try the drinks (Chocolate Mint Martinis, Brazilian Mules and Orange Daiquiris are just a few) to really appreciate the book, in addition to reading Reed's advice and admiring the outstanding photography.

New Year's Eve is the perfect night for a long cocktail party. While they still take some planning, the combination of good drinks and small, munchable foods (as opposed to a sit-down dinner) is perfect for entertaining. Cocktail Parties, Straight Up! Easy Hors D'oeuvres, Delicious Drinks, and Inspired Ideas for Entertaining with Style is a fun, relatively short book that will help you put parties together in no time. It has plans for 12 "gently themed" parties (so no pressure to theme your own) along with decorating tips, menus and signature cocktails. The recipes are for finger food-types of dishes that can usually be made ahead. Depending on how fancy you want to go with food and drinks, the recipes might not be the book for you if you tend to opt for really cutting edge bites, but they are far from boring. They include Asparagus Parmesan Bites, Curry Coconut Scallops and Wild Mushroom Tartlets. And whether you use the 60 or so recipes or not, the menus and tips are still helpful, especially if you need a hand getting things off the ground.