Indulging in holiday food favorites doesn't have to mean putting on extra pounds for the New Year. A "slimmed-down" sweetbread offers a way to savor the flavor of the season and maintain your waistline, too.

Some make it with herring, some with lobster; but for Virgin Islanders, it's saltfish gundy that hits the holiday spot.

What would a bountiful Virgin Islands holiday table be without that favorite "comfort food," macaroni and cheese? Well, it might be more healthful -- unless you opt for this Recipe of the Week that keeps all the flavor while cutting back on the fat.

Something as simple as "cocoa tea" can be the makings of holiday giving -- especially if you make it the "real" way with this Recipe of the Week. Package a mug, a cocoa stick and the recipe for a gift that will keep on giving long afterward.

This Recipe of the Week calls for using red kidney beans and adding some greens such as spinach to perk up basic beans and rice for the holidays.

Cranberries are a native North American fruit that may be exotic to those who live in the tropics. This Recipe of the Week is one for adding citrus and spice to make them nice in an uncooked relish that's a tasty accent for the Thanksgiving table.

A savory basic batter is a great vehicle for incorporating favorite seafood and making tasty cakes that cook quickly and taste great. This Recipe of the Week is for crab cakes -- which also can be made with surimi (that's imitation crab).

Plantains are as much loved in Hispanic cultures as potatoes are in European-American cooking. While restaurants on the U.S. mainland are caught up in a craze for garlic mashed potatoes, try this tropical-variation recipe that calls for ripe plantains instead.

Bread pudding starts our with bread, milk, eggs, sugar and spices -- and then goes off in just about any direction you like. For the end of October, this Recipe of the Week is a pumpkin variation with caramel sauce.

Well, it's been a while. But the Tottering Taster is hungering to share impressions from local dining locales again. The Pointe at Villa Olga wins points for ambience, service and food -- including a salad bar without compare and, of course, those mud pies.