So you’re feeling pretty proud of yourself because you’ve finished your Halloween candy shopping, and there’s even still some left for Friday night.

But how are you coming along with that Thanksgiving turkey? And those Christmas cookies?

Saturday is the official opening of the holiday cooking season - at least, according to the food companies whose toll-free telephone help lines start taking calls then.

Reynolds Wrap’s Turkey Tips Line (800-745-4000) is a 24-hour automated service with recorded instructions for various turkey defrosting and roasting methods. Callers can leave their name and address for a free recipe brochure. There’s also a Web site at www.rmc.com/wrap.

The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line (800-323-4848) offers advice weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. PST, as well as a cookbook for $2.50 and a video for $3.50. For on-line information, visit www.butterball.com.

And for answers to baking questions, the Land O’Lakes Holiday Bakeline (800-782-9606) will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. PST. All callers receive a free recipe leaflet.

From Saturday through Nov. 7, Land O’Lakes will conduct a daily “Taste of Tradition Online” contest at its Web site, www.landolakes.com. Entrants must describe in 25 words or less, “How do you use food in your family holiday traditions?” Each daily winner, selected at 4 p.m. PST, will receive a KitchenAid mixer and $200.

Costume custom

Not that Halloween has anything to be ashamed of in the holiday hubbub department.

According to no less an authority than the Wilton cake decorating people, “Sometime in the last half-decade or so, Halloween rocketed past Thanksgiving to become the predominate American fall holiday, trailing only Christmas as the year’s most decorated-for occasion.” And “the number of adult-hosted parties on Halloween is nearly the same as New Year’s.”

Speculates a Wilton spokesperson: “Perhaps baby boomers have embraced Halloween because they were the first generation to really go trick-or-treating.”

Hot tip

And in the candy department, if you think the white tip on candy corn tastes different than the yellow-and-orange body, you’re right.

Favorite Brands International, a leading candy corn manufacturer, says “we give the white tip special treatment and make it firmer by using unique ingredients.”

By the way, the company reports that the most popular way to eat candy corn is color by color. But in what order?

, 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.