A micro microwave fits dorm or office

If your new dorm room is the size of a shoe box, the iWave Cube might be just the microwave for you.

The diminutive oven is about the size of a large shoe box, weighs just 12 pounds and even has a carrying handle on top. It costs about $150 and is just right for popcorn, burritos, mugs of soup or coffee, and other small items.

Convenient preset buttons include sandwich, popcorn, soup, coffee and "gel packs," presumably for soothing all those studying-induced muscle aches and pains.

You won't be doing any serious cooking in the iWave Cube, but it is just right for parking under your desk.

In September, the company will replace the current 600-watt model with a more powerful 800-watt version. The overall size of the oven will not change. Learn more at www.icubedllc.net.

Nothing fishy here: Cookbooks that dub themselves "essential" usually aren't.

But Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore's "Fish Without a Doubt" (houghton Mifflin, $35) is a splendid exception. That's because the authors have managed to produce a cookbook that not only lives up to its title, but is written for the way real people cook.

The book's "Basics" section alone is worth the price. It offers cooking techniques, flavor pairings, how to battle the fishy smell in your kitchen, and a brilliant photo-heavy section prepping each item for cooking (such as cleaning soft-shell crabs).

The rest of the book, which recently was named the first of Gourmet magazine's monthly Cook Book Club selections, is organized by cooking techniques and uses, such as with pasta and rice or in chowders.

Each recipe also suggests substitutes, making it easy for home cooks to deal with seasonal changes in availability. The recipe for grilled salmon, for example, suggests swordfish, mahi mahi and dorade as possible substitutes.

Sweet almond treat: It's hard not to love chocolate-covered almonds that have lots of flavor but little guilt.

And until now, it's been even harder to find such a treat. But Diamond Foods' recently launched Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds delivers.

These treats are a success because the almonds are coated with a blend of cocoa powder and sucralose, the sweetener in Splenda. The result is a suprisingly rich, sweet and chocolately almond with no added fat or sugar.

Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds are available online and at major retailers in 2-, 11- and 38-ounce packages. Prices range from $1.89 to $9.88.