Safe food

The University of Maine Cooperative Extension will hold a two-day workshop for volunteers who prepare, handle and serve food at community meals, such as church suppers, pancake breakfasts, fair booths and large family gatherings. “Cooking for a Crowd,” which will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 6 and 14, focuses on food safety for quantity cooks.

The workshop aims to reduce the risk of food-borne illness by showing volunteers the proper way to plan, purchase, store, prepare, cook and transport food and the way to handle leftovers. The workshop will be held at the Penobscot Extension Office at 307 Maine Ave. in Bangor. For information or to register, call 942-7396 or (800) 287-1485.

Making whoopie

Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro takes the cake (or the pie, in this case) in the January-February 2001 issue of Saveur Magazine. Moody’s whoopie pie made “The Saveur 100: A celebration of mastery in food, drink, writing, design and restaurant life.” The annual list honors, as its editors write, “something old-fashioned, almost (not quite!) extinct: mastery. Calm, confident, practiced skill.”

Of Moody’s perfect pie, the editors write, “A specialty of the area, this burger-size dessert consists of creamy white frosting between two flavored cakes. Chocolate is the standard here and elsewhere, but we prefer the Moody’s molasses version. They do whoopie right.”

No more butterfingers

Frequent moviegoers may want to pick up the Popcorn Fork, which claims to eliminate greasy fingers and the need for napkins while eating popcorn. Inventor Don Sothman calls it “the most unique eating utensil since the dark ages” and he may be right. The plastic contraption looks like one of those crane arcade games – let’s hope it grips popcorn better than those cranes grip stuffed animals. To use it, you hold it as you would a pencil and squeeze the tines together to grip the snack food of your choice. For information or to order,, visit www.popcornfork.com or call 888-931-2207. The forks cost $9.95 for a 12-pack.

Smart cookies

How fortunate! E-fortunecookie.com lets you tuck a personal message into a fortune cookie. You can make one or a million, with a number of different messages inside, for between 10 and 50 cents each. The possibilities are endless – you can propose, announce a promotion, write your company’s slogan, thank someone, mark an anniversary or as the folks at e-fortunecookie.com say, just “be your own Confucius.” Whatever the message, it’ll be sweet. For information, visit www.e-fortunecookie.com or call (800) 808-FORTUNE.