TABLE TALK, October 22

Rocky Mountain News

Published October 21, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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Photo by BHG.com

Spooks on a Stick

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When is a cookie not a cookie?

When it's a Halloween treat. BHG.com's 100 Days of Holidays has plenty of recipes, including this beguiling one for Spooks on a Stick.

Melt vanilla- and chocolate-flavored candy coating, adding food-color paste to the vanilla coating, if desired. Insert a wooden skewer into one end of any kind of creme sandwich cookie. If the cookie begins to open too much, add some melted candy coating to the inside of the cookie sandwich, press together around the skewer and chill in the refrigerator until firm. Dip each cookie into the melted coating. Transfer to a wax paper- lined cookie sheet; decorate while the coating is still soft. Chill 10 to 15 minutes or until coating is set.

Breakfast boom

The recent annual Report on Eating Patterns in America details how habits are changing. According to the report from market researchers at the NPD Group: breakfast bars and yogurt are a hit breakfast; more of us are stopping at restaurants for breakfast; we're losing interest in losing weight and are snacking more in the morning, less at night; and probiotics are the hot, new food attribute. Finally, Coloradans have been grilling year-round for decades, but for everybody else, winter is becoming a new grilling season.

A new sort of sweet

Denver-based Oogave natural sodas are the first to be sweetened with 100 percent organic agave nectar. Even better, they taste great. Flavors include root beer, a zesty ginger ale, cola and the smooth, memorable watermelon cream and mandarin-Key lime. Oogave was created by Stephen Anson, who closed his popular, health- oriented Wholly Tomato eatery in Denver to focus on the sodas. They'll soon be available at local natural-foods markets; for now you can sample them at restaurants including Watercourse Foods, the Mercury Cafe, City O' City and Sunflower Organic Dining. oogavesoda.com

Do the bunny hop

Annie's Homegrown Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks are ready for those Halloween bags, instead of those Easter baskets. The Annie's Halloween fruit-snack variety pack includes 50 Berry Patch pouches for $6.99, available at Whole Foods Markets. They're made with real fruit juices and no scary ingredients.

Serve some superfoods tonight

Nutritionist Dr. Jonny Bowden, author of The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth, recently offered his list of favorite healthy foods and seasonings that are easy to find but don't always find their way into our shopping carts: beets, cabbage, Swiss chard, cinnamon, pomegranate juice, dried plums (prunes), pumpkin seeds, sardines, turmeric, frozen blueberries and canned pumpkin.

Green grazing

Here's a chance to go organic for a good cause. Citron Bistro hosts a tasting of organic foods, wines and beers from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday. Proceeds from the $30 admission will benefit Children's Hospital. Chef Andy Martinez and crew are at 3535 S. Yosemite St. For details, call 303-771-5800 or go to citronbistro.com.

Nobody doesn't like . . .

Popular Food Network star Sandra Lee will make two area appearances Oct. 29 as part of her Semi-Homemade Sweet & Simple Bake Sale Tour, to benefit Share Our Strength. Lee has three new books: Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Money Saving Meals, Semi-Homemade Desserts 2 and Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Fast-Fix Family Favorites, (Meredith Books, $19.95 each).

* Noon to 2 p.m., Peppercorn, 1235 Pearl St., Boulder

* 7:30 to 9 p.m., Tattered Cover Book Store, 9315 Dorchester St., Highlands Ranch

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