Personally, I think most breakfast cereals are ridiculously overpriced — but at least Cheerios is giving back this month. Instead of some goofy prize that ends up in the garbage, the company is tucking little kid books into their boxes.

The books are small, but they are bonafide books, packed with lots of fun illustrations. There’s a book about electing a duck for president, and a Dora the Explorer tale. The book giveaway – called Spoonfuls of Stories — includes six titles and some 5 million books all told.  The campaign is the seventh annual, and is done in partnership with First Book, a nonprofit children’s literacy group.

If you have kids or grandkids who might enjoy a new storybook, grab a box of the cereal quick because the campaign already started.

It’s not headline news, but it makes me smile when I come upon a mainstream product that shows the big guys are actually “getting it.” This week, the smile was prompted by Crisco’s new Puritan Canola Oil with Omega-3. The omegas come from algae, which means it’s a great option for vegetarians — fish is another big source. 

Crisco is such a massive company with competitive prices that it could easily ignore the call for better, healthier oils. Instead, the company is on the move, tweaking its products and basically giving mainstream eaters access to better food. This new oil is about $3.99 for 16 ounces.

In case you don’t know, this is walnut season here in California. The squirrels know, trust me. The house across the street — which happens to be my former residence and is owned by my parents — has a GIGANTIC walnut tree in the backyard. Huge. It is loaded with walnuts nearly every year.

When I lived there, I’d harvest the walnuts, taking great care to make sure every last one was properly dried, then cracked, then placed in the freezer before it was mixed into exactly the right cookie, crust, muffin or granola. Love those walnuts. Fresh are the best.

This year, however, the squirrels are the benefactors of said walnuts. If that isn’t bad enough, the puffy-cheeked little things apparently enjoy tormenting me with their abundance. Just yesterday, a squirrel literally ran across the road, jumped up MY tree, skittered across MY garage roof and into MY backyard to bury a walnut. Glad he has walnuts. Little scamp.

I understand loving the suburban wildlife, but I protest. I think that if the occupants of the walnut-tree-house don’t wish to harvest the crop, they ought invite a fellow human in to take over. Could those little squirrels possibly need THE ENTIRE CROP?

If you happen to have a walnut tree in your yard and don’t know how to harvest them, email me and I’ll give you the details. If you don’t, just know that fresh picked, hulled and dried walnuts are an incredible treat that every eater of nuts should know about! The next time you see a squirell, wish IT a happy walnut season!

Since I love Togo’s and love even more a terrific bargain, I made my way to Togo’s last week for the roast beef with avocado sandwich. Two bucks of yum! I made the mistake of saying yes to their yellow mustard, which I won’t do THIS WEDNESDAY when they’re serving up turkey with avocado!!!!

If there’s a Togo’s near you, get yourself there for the $2-deal. Not sure if the tips go to the Juvenile Diabetes folks or not, but either way, remember to drop a little extra in the box. Togo’s deserves to raise lots of cash for this cause — and it gets HUGE kudos for delivering the bargain in spite of Wall Street’s antics. They could have backed out of the deal, but they didn’t. That’s moxy.

FYI: After this Wednesday’s turkey and avocado, the next week is MY week. Hot pastrami! I’ve been eating this sandwich for years… way before I had wrinkles. OOOps. Too much info. According to our informant there will be two avocado-turkey weeks, two pastrami weeks!!

Togo’s on Wednesday. Be there. And make a donation.

It was a pear-fect week here at our house. Literally. Besides the vat of Pear liqueur I made up for Christmas gifts (shhhh! don’t tell the family) we discovered an utterly delicious salad combo that we can’t stop eating. Spinach with pears and goat cheese. This salad is not just good. It’s can-I-eat-it-every-night good.

You don’t need a recipe for this; Just put more spinach than you think you want into a large bowl. Add just as much red onion as you want — remember that the rock-hard red onions are sweetest. Top that with a thinly sliced pear. Toss and serve with a few slices fresh goat cheese — I use Laurel Chenel. Feta would be lovely too, but the fresh goat cheese is irresistable.

I’m not sure it pairs perfectly with any wine, but I’d try a middle-of-the-road white. Apologies about the no-photo. I just couldn’t stop myself from eating all of it every time I made it. Maybe next time.

It was a big package — a box big enough to fit a basketball for sure. And the return address promised chocolate. I had waited for this package for three days. The publicist called me twice to announce it’s arrival.

Happy that the package had finally arrived at its destination, I carefully opened it with a sharp knife. I reached inside and pulled out a large wad of paper. Beyond that was a big bubble of impervious plastic that could only be opened with a knife.

Inside that was a cool pack and a 1-by-3-inch box of chocolate. Inside that were three 3/4-inch-square chocolates. I’m not going to dis the chocolate itself, but the packaging? Talk about overkill. And overhype. If I want a second opinion on these I’m going to have to get a clean knife. Good thing I didn’t have a large audience for this grand package-opening!

Say there, is that Republican stew? Are you sipping a Democrat martini? Since not all food and drink is new and different, you need to know that the hard-working publicists out there are working overtime in the creativity department, working the upcoming election for any and all possible publicity angles.

A pair of flavored vodkas arrived this week with recipes to go with. One vodka is blue, the other red. Can you guess which goes to which party? The raspberry UV Blue is used to mix up democrat drinks. The UV Cherry is used to mix up republican drinks. I’m not accusing anyone of anything, but I have to ask, who did the flavor picking here? Cherry for the Republicans? That, I say, is a little like pulling the short straw.

Just fyi: The UV Blue does taste a bit like raspberries; the UV Cherry like a maraschino cherry. Both do make for rather patriotic colored drinks.

Vodka aside, the reason I had to post this today is a button I got in the mail from Hahn, a Monterey County winery that makes both Hahn and Smith & Hock wines. These savvy folk chose not to limit their profits by choosing sides. Instead, their poster and button read: Vote for Hahn: A Wine for All Parties.

Now that’s more like it! Stay tuned. I’ll try to find a copy of their poster to share.

Finding the right food to go with the right wine for my Happy Together column is fun work; but it does take a lot of cooking and taste-testing. Often, it take several tries before I finally find something worth sharing with our readers. Thought you might enjoy seeing behind the scenes of my pairing circus…

Since it’s such a big job to prepare and test, I usually do three wines at a time; sometimes I find matches for all three. Sometimes not.  Last night I cooked up dress-down versions of three dishes I thought might work. The prettiest dish — the wine-poached salmon — wasn’t a win. It just didn’t work with the wine. The wine will have to find a better friend.

The best news is that I found one that did work. Even though my sauce separated (as you can see,) the flavors in this dish were exactly right for the wine. I’ll tweak the recipe and try to get a decent shot… look for the dolled up version of this one in an upcoming Happy Together.

Until tonight, I had everything to dislike about Citrix, the name behind the company that developed the new software that produces our newspaper. Can you blame me? After decades in the biz, here I am, having to learn a complicated new program developed by the ultra- or uber-clever folk at Citrix. Not that they did anything wrong. But can I say that old dogs don’t even like to learn new tricks?

Enough of complaining. Tonight, I learn that Citrix was a major sponsor in the Light the Night walk for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Palo Alto!!! Go Citrix. The company apparently was part of a terrific event raising needed cash to find a cure — and help those who are sick. Since my own daughter is a lymphoma survivor, this is close to my heart.

In case you are wondering, YES, there is a food angle. Turns out the Citrix and Lymphoma folks served up a decent meal in advance of the walk. The meal included garlicky pasta — that was white, yet remarkably herby according to all accounts. The bread was also white, but there was a lovely salad of nice greans.

Again, Go Citrix. If you’d like to support the folk who support the news and who support people who are battling lymphoma go to www.lls.org and click on donate. Citrix will be happy, The Lymphoma Society will be happy and my family will be happy because we know that your donations are the only reason our daughter is well and happy.

Because I’d already seen the new chef at The Restaurant at Wente in action — serving up duck confit and roasted hen-of-the-woods mushrooms to crowds of people who likely had no idea how expensive and time consuming the dish was to prepare — I was thrilled to accept the invitation to an early supper last week — and to stick my fork in a few more of his creations. After a tour of the winery, we were served the most unctuous appetizers ever — then seated for a five-course meal.

The first two courses came off beautifully, but when Chef Arthur Wall came out to chat about the third course, he could see that we were perplexed. On the menu was blue cheese souffle. On our dishes were salad greens.

All had not gone well in the kitchen, it seems. Half the souffles failed, creating a last-minute plate shuffle that left Wall composed but not exactly happy. ”I’ve made this so many times. I don’t know what happened,” he told us. We felt his pain.  When guests asked if they could taste some of the souffles that DID turn out, he responded, “I’ll see what I can do. Some of them are in the trash.” We laughed, picturing the kitchen craziness that must have ensued, and appreciating his honesty. Anyone who’s ever cooked for a crowd has been there.

Several minutes later, servers emerged with gorgeously appointed plates of souffles that were worth begging for. Wall, who’s been at the restaurant for just three months, is a huge fan of working with seasonal, local foods. He’s also got a touch of New Orleans in his heart — he likes to dress up his food with a little spice.

If you’re lucky enough to get a reservation at The Restaurant at Wente soon, enjoy. The new chef is likely to surprise your tastebuds.