Whenever I get recommendations for restaurants from readers, I always try to follow up with a visit.

I was awfully disappointed to hear that Hershey’s has started replacing cocoa butter with vegetable oil in some of their candies. Shame on you Hershey’s! Sure, you’ve changed the labeling to reflect the change, but most people aren’t going to notice that you’ve replaced the words “milk chocolate” with Hershey’s “candy.”

I love this time of year. Warm days, cool evenings.

I’ve never had a rice cooker, but know I need one.

Now they’ve really done it. And ’scuse me please if you’re a member of PETA or a member of whatever pro-vegetarian group that recently sponsored an anti-hot dog ad, but shame on you. Shame shame.

The makers of French’s mustard are sponsoring a contest, Do You Have the Skinny on Mustard?” And, what they want to know is how you use mustard to reduce your caloric intake. For instance, do you use mustard in dip instead of sour cream?

THE SEARCH FOR GOOD German food just doesn’t seem to end.

I had an e-mail conversation with my friend, “Wild Bill.” The topic of the morning was letting a restaurant owner know when the meal was less than perfect. He had breakfast at a local diner recently. The pork chop and biscuits were both excellent, but the scrambled eggs were dry and the gravy for the biscuits was a little burned. When he walked up to the counter to pay, the fellow at the register asked if his meal was OK, and Wild Bill told him about the eggs and gravy. “He had no reaction other than to nod his head that he heard what I said,” Wild Bill said.

“Wild Bill” e-mailed me recently asking about good places for breakfast.

I was quite surprised when I received a number of e-mails asking about my trip to St. Maarten.

So Budweiser’s been purchased by a Belgium company. Miller beer has been owned a South African enterprise for a while.

I remember the first shrimp boil I ever attended. What’s it with all that food thrown out on the newspaper, I thought. Can’t they at least afford paper plates?

Here are my thoughts on the Times Free Press holiday recipe contest. They’re three good reasons to send your recipe in.

First it was tomatoes. Now it’s cilantro. What next? Onions? Basil? Let’s see, what else goes into salsa?

Just because Independence Day picnics are over doesn’t mean the picnic season is finished. In fact, it will go well into the fall.