Celebrate the opening of Pirate season with a tin of Classic Baseball Shortbread, made especially for fans from an old family recipe at the Cooperstown Cookie Co. in New York.

	Cookies by Cooperstown Cookie Co. Click photo for larger image.

The flat, baseball-look-alike treats come in two sizes, "bunt" and "baseball," and four flavors: Classic Shortbread, Mudville Mudball Chocolate Chip, All Star Almond and Boys of Summer Lemon. The baseball look-a-likes are sure to delight the little fan whose baseball glove is welded to his or her wrist.

The cookies were unveiled in October 2004 by Pati Grady, founder and president of the company and mother of five, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame's World Series Gala. The product's been a home run ever since.

"I've been a baker all my life. One day I said to my husband, 'Why hasn't anyone done baseball cookies?' So I got out my shortbread recipe and cut the first ones with a glass," she recalls.

With encouragement from the Hall of Fame, and after finding a bakery to make the cookies by hand and a tinsmith to design cutters, the business was launched. Her barn served as the distribution center.

"Baseball goes across all socio-economic strata in America," she says. "And what's more basic than baseball and cookies?"

Made with quality ingredients and no preservatives, a large tin (a dozen cookies) is $18.99 and a small (a half dozen) is $11.99, plus $8.95 shipping. To order, call 607-435-5789 or www.cooperstowncookiecompany.com.

You can "catch" the company on Food Network's "Unwrapped" show May 14.

Chef and cheese at Market District

Chef Barb Kleyman and cheese shop specialist Blake Bodenreider will highlight cheese as an entree and dessert from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Giant Eagle Market District, Shadyside. Stop on your way home for a few tasty samples.

Doughnuts, no trans fats

With the reopening of its Market Square and McKees Rocks stores, Jenny Lee Bakery is debuting a new product line that includes trans-fat-free doughnuts, a new trend that bakeries including Krispy Kreme are in on. Doughnuts without guilt are catching on.

Easter fun at Schramm's

It's Easter egg hunt time this weekend at Schramm Farms & Orchards, Jeannette. Kids up to age 10 can fill their baskets from noon to 4 p.m. tomorrow and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Everyone gets a prize, and the Easter Bunny will be on hand for photos. Train rides, weather permitting, will be on tap the first three hours each day. Call 724-744-7320.

Gourmet salts

For most of us, salt is everyday stuff in a salt shaker filled from a blue Morton's box sporting a girl under an umbrella. It's white, it works and who knows or cares where it's mined.

Times, they are a changin'. A press release from a company named Das Foods has announced its line of "Premium Gourmet Salts" from small farms around the world. Some of the "artisan" salts that now can grace our tables include:

Black lava salt -- a "vibrant" black mix of Pacific Ocean salt and volcanic lava from the island of Molokai.

Alaea red salt -- Pacific Ocean salt mixed with red clay.

Kala namak -- Pink rock salt from the Himalayas in India.

Cyprus salt -- Hollow crystals mined from the Mediterranean.

Fleur de sel -- For use on chocolate.

Perhaps someday "Pass the salt" will be an archaic term, replaced by "Where's the kala namak?"

The last word

"Salt is white and pure -- there is something holy in salt." -- Nathaniel Hawthorne