Holiday worries nutty as a fruitcake

Call me crazy but I'm already thinking about the holidays.

I know, I know. It is not even Labor Day and the nutty food editor is worried about what treats to hand out at at Halloween, how big a turkey to buy and what cookies to bake in December. A therapist I knew used to call it "precoping."

It's all your fault, though I am not holding a grudge. I think about all this stuff for you. (Me? I buy the candy I don't like for Halloween, eat out on Thanksgiving and bake Cranberry Chocolate Chippers for Christmas.)

I worry about you and your travails in the kitchen and at the grocery store. I fret that I'm not helping you enough to figure out what to feed the kids and how to entertain your in-laws. I wonder what you really need to know to make the best Thanksgiving dinner ever. Maybe that just would be reservations.

Do you think there's a 12-step program for my obsession?

"Grant me the sense to accept the meals I cannot change, the courage to try new things and the wisdom to know when to get takeout."

This is the best newspaper job I've ever had, but sometimes it's the most confounding. I write about cooking, but are we even cooking anymore? The sales of convenience items and fast food say not so much. Do I review new convenience products that I philosophically have a problem with? Lots of packaging and chemicals at a hefty price and not much nutrition but, man, are they easy to get to the table.

Last week, I wrote about figs, not a big seller in Florida but something that caught my fancy and I wanted to share my discovery with you. Turns out plenty of you like them, too.

The feedback I received after a recent story on the renewed nutrition debate -- high-fat, low-carb vs. low-fat, high-carb -- exemplifies how hungry readers are for answers about the best diets to follow. Not being a scientist or doctor, I can't provide them. In fact, the scientist and doctors can't always answer those questions. I like the idea, though, of eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

This year, rather than worry alone about the holidays, I thought I'd invite you to join me in my little pity party. Think of it as a codependent thing.

What would you like to read and what information do you need to prepare for the holidays? I've got my own ideas on what is interesting and necessary but I'd like to hear yours.

Two years ago, we ran a four-part series on ways to cook turkey: deep-fried, smoked, nouvelle cuisine and quick. Several readers complained that we didn't run any stories on how to simply roast a bird.

The next year, we ran a long, extremely detailed story on everything you wanted to know about roasting a turkey.

Someone called and said she already knew how to cook turkey but wanted side-dish recipes. The fact that side sides would be featured in the next issue was not soon enough for her. She wanted to get her shopping done. Right then.

I'm not arrogant enough to think that the Taste section is the only place that St. Petersburg Times readers get food news. Magazines and television, especially the Food Network, provide lots of tips and recipes. The Internet has become the mother of all recipe sources with thousands available at the push computer key.

Still, I want to give you food news that's relevant to your lives or, at the very least, interesting. I know that recipes are important because I get calls and letters when they are lousy or wrong. I wish we could test them all. I also get calls when there aren't "enough" recipes and from people who've lost recipes they love. Nutritional information is a priority to many of you, and we hope to be able to include that on many more recipes soon.

In the meantime, though, what about the holidays? By holidays, I'm talking about the eating that begins with Halloween and ends with New Year's Day. (After that, of course, I'm looking for the you-danced-now-pay-the-piper stories. Translation: articles about dieting.)

Do you want party-planning tips and recipes? Are you interested in other readers' experiences in the kitchen or their nostalgic memories about holiday foods? How about information on good places to go when the family is gathering at a restaurant rather than around the dining room table?

Send your suggestions or requests by mail to Holiday Stories, c/o Taste, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL, 33731 or e-mail krieta@sptimes.com. Put HOLIDAY IDEA in the subject line. Whether by mail or e-mail, please include your name, daytime phone number and city of residence. The deadline is Sept. 6.

No phone calls please. I must keep the phone line open for emergency calls. Those would be the ones coming in from other recovering food editors.

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