Same Old Oreo Has New Look

A few fun facts in honor of Oreo cookies in their spiffy new packaging (which seem to us to taste just as good as the old Oreos, although further research is required):

More than 7.5 billion Oreos are consumed each year.

Each Oreo takes 1-1/2 hours to make. (Not, presumably, one at a time.)

Each Oreo contains 90 ridges, and is 29 percent creme filling (the rest is pure, concentrated calories).

Only 16 percent of men pull their Oreos apart before eating them, compared to 41 percent of women - and almost all kids.

Darigold medal

Congrats to Peter Tobin, a Spokane Community College culinary instructor who took first place in the professional division of Darigold’s butter recipe contest.

Tobin’s Crab Ravioli with Lemon Caper Butter Sauce was tasty enough to earn the grand prize of an Alaskan cruise. We’ll try to print the recipe in a future edition of IN Food, as space allows.

Sniffing them out

The Ocean Park (Wash.) Area Chamber of Commerce is again sponsoring a recipe contest in connection with the Northwest Annual Garlic Festival on June 15-16.

Send original, unpublished recipes (using plenty of garlic, of course) along with your name, address and telephone number to: Garlic Recipe Contest, c/o Roger and Phyllis Knight, P.O. Box 1008, Ocean Park, WA 98640. Entry deadline is Feb. 29; prizes are awarded to the top three finishers.

Curd class

Basic cheese making will be taught by experts from Washington State University, Oregon State University, the University of Idaho and the dairy and food processing industries in the annual Cheese Making Short Course on March 4-7 at WSU’s Pullman campus.

The course covers cottage, Cheddar, mozzarella and reduced-fat cheeses, along with other cultured products such as buttermilk and sour cream.

Fee is $450, or $475 after Feb. 19. For information or registration, call (509) 335-4014 or fax (509) 335-7525.

Sweet talk

Now you can satisfy your sweet onion tooth in the dead of winter, thanks to OSO sweets from the Andes mountains of Chile.

You should see them in area supermarkets through March. Our office onion connoisseur pronounced them quite passable until the Texas 1015s and Vidalias start showing up this spring - followed, of course, by the hallowed Walla Walla sweets of summer (which certainly can’t come one minute too soon). , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

MEMO: We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446; fax 459-5098