Salad Dressing

It says it right on the package: "Cookies with a Cause." Every box of cookies created by Immaculate Baking Co., from Sweet Georgia Brownie to Key Largo Lime, features original folk art, a biography of the artist and information about the Folk Artist's Foundation that was founded by the company and receives 5 percent of Immaculate's profits. In marketing-speak, it's called "cause-related marketing," but for the growing number of food companies that tie their products to a good cause, it just makes better business sense.

If the idea of a casual '30s-era supper club appeals to you, check out Copeland's of New Orleans. Slip into a spacious booth as a pianist romances the two-level dining room with a medley of jazz classics. The glossy, inlaid-pattern tables, the deco trim illuminated in pink lights, the cozy darkness of the cigar bar, the Mardi Gras masks in the entry -- it's hard to look anywhere and not find wonderfully rich details in the place. What makes that even more surprising is that Copeland's is a restaurant chain, with 25 locations south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and a dozen more under construction.

* Item: Whole Foods Salad Dressings* What you get: 10 ounces* Cost: About $2.40* Preparation time: Pour straight from bottle* Review: Armed with recipes from the Whole Foods Web site, I made a trip to Fresh Fields in Mount Washington to find these salad dressings. It was worth the effort. I have found few products as versatile as these -- all of which taste as if you whisked them up yourself. The Roasted Garlic Ranch tasted great over a salad that included portobello mushrooms, olives and mozzarella.

An oyster bisque and a honey mustard salad dressing are the orders of the day.Faye Mager of Annapolis loved the oyster bisque served at the old Hutzler's department store and wrote that she would love to have a recipe like it.Help came from Kari Fandek of Towson, who notes that her recipe came from the "Williamsburg Cookbook."Ryan McPherson of Whiteville, N.C., requested a honey mustard salad dressing "like the one served at the Outback Steakhouse in Myrtle Beach, S.C."A response from Jeannie Winder of Crystal Lake, Ill., was the choice of tester Laura Reiley.

DURING THIS dark and sleepy time of year, I regularly run low on pep. So I am often on the prowl for dishes that either fire me up, or at least keep me from nodding off right after sundown.The other night in my search for stimulation, I wandered into the kitchen and tried to add excitement to my life by making a salad dressing with the juice from fresh oranges. I used oranges because they are among the few foods that taste better in the winter than in the summer.I also am a big fan of oranges.

Why buck the system: the luscious flavor system of potatoes-meet-dressing?Potato salad is too delectable to relegate to an occasional picnic side dish. Too irresistible to be just a sandwich sidekick.Augmented with slivers of cooked meat, chicken, fish or beans, it turns into a weeknight main course. At my house, it's often a Monday night special, incorporating leftovers from a weekend of feasting. Protein-rich tidbits add a spark of flavor. And in just the few minutes it takes to cook the potatoes, lackluster leftovers become luscious entrees.

Ostrich meat for good sportsHere's a first: a sports- nutrition food made of ostrich. Ostrim meat stick is a high-protein, low-fat, low-sugar snack that looks something like beef jerky. The taste isn't bad, either. Ostrim even has an Olympic gold medalist for a spokesman, wrestler Kurt Angle (above).There's only one catch. If your kids are like my kid, after they find out what's in it, they'll never touch it.Ostrim is available locally at GNC stores.The Fine Grind, a gourmet coffee and tea shop, has just opened at 101 S. Main St. in Bel Air. You can get 30 or so coffees by the pound, plus teas, imported candies and pastries.

IT HAS BEEN A GOOD year for lettuce. The cool, rainy weather may have made some swimmers shiver and some spirits droop, but the leafy crops have loved it. They are thriving.I would like to report that my garden has rows of various kinds of lettuce. I did buy a multitude of lettuce seeds. But for a multitude of reasons -- mainly poor planning -- the seeds remained in their packets, and the lettuce crop remained largely theoretical.However, I was able to harvest a little lettuce this weekend.

If a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down, a lot of dressing has been equally effective in helping us swallow lettuce and bland salad garnishes ranging from carrots to alfalfa sprouts.Even the presence of enticing or exotic greenery on the plate won't foster a slimmer you if it is slathered with blue cheese dressing (at 77 calories and 8 grams of fat per tablespoon) or a classic dressing of 4 parts oil to 1 part vinegar (at 91 calories and 10 grams of fat per tablespoon).These figures do not include the calorie-rich sugar (15 calories a teaspoon)

A salad dressing with a nutty flavor and a sauerkraut appetizer were requests that brought a ready response.Mary Lou Thompson of Longmont, Colo., asked for a "sweet poppy seed dressing, without onions, which is for fruit."Nancy McGilvray of Redmond, Ore., responded.McGilvray's Fruit Salad Dressing1/4 cup pineapple juice1/4 cup salad oil1 tablespoon honey1/4 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon curry1 teaspoon lemon peel1/4 teaspoon coriander1 teaspoon poppy seeds2 tablespoons wine vinegarCombine all in a jar and shake well.