Some things are a big "Duh, why didn't I think of that?"

Like the "Keep It Clean" spoon rest offered as part of Chef Curtis Stone's kitchen oeuvre.

"With a sleek unit built-in to hold water, this beautiful ceramic spoon rest allows you to have a clean spoon every time you set it down, which keeps your kitchen sparkling clean!" says the "Keep It Clean" news release.

And for only $39.95 at curtisstone.com. It reminds me of a painful high-fashion shoe.

I wonder if a glass from the ol' cupboard would do the same trick? You can also find stainless steel versions for much less by doing a Google.

Chef Stone stars on TLC's "Take Home Chef," in which he comes to your house cooks for you.

Also from TV

Food writer extraordinaire Marlene Parrish passes along a video link to a potato-peeling tip featuring -- of all people -- Dawn Wells, most known as Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island."

It's on YouTube: Go to youtube.com and search Dawn Wells. She boils water, scores a potato, cooks it until it's soft and then dunks in ice water. Voila -- skin peels right off.

Great for potato salad.

Food on the South Side

What could it be? Nut rolls, paska (plain and raisin), stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, halushki -- you get the idea. At St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, 1720 Jane St. this weekend. Times are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Call Dorothy, 412-884-3341, for more information.

Charity on the North Side

The Midwife Center for Birth & Women's Health will hold its fourth "Let Them Eat Cake!" fund-raiser from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, North Side.

Bakers created with a theme "Going green is a piece of cake." Besides cake judging, the event features "green" baking demonstrations, environmentally-friendly silent auction items, music and cake tasting and refreshments.

Tickets can be purchased for $40 until the end of the day tomorrow at midwifecenter.org. They will be $50 at the door. Receive a $10 gift certificate to Journey's Bookstore with a ticket purchase. An additional $10 donation entitles you to an 18-inch sapling from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Proceeds benefit the center's health fund, which assists under-insured women in the Pittsburgh area.

More cakes

Food Network's "Last Cake Standing" competition premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday. These things usually are pretty wack.

The four-part series begins with six competitors illustrating "one aspect of their life through cake." (Mine would be smacking the recalcitrant copy machine.)

It ends with a 24-hour cake-making marathon in which finalists make a 5-foot tall birthday cake for sextuplets and transport it 20 miles to their birthday party. Somewhere between there will be superhero cakes with fireworks. Go to foodnetwork.com for more details, cake eaters.

Breakfast with the Bunny

Trax Farms, Finleyville, is offering Breakfast with the Easter Bunny at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and April 10 and 11. Tickets are $7 per child. For more information, go to traxfarms.com.

Local contestants

William Altieri, a student at Canon-McMillan High School, will compete Saturday in Johnson & Wales University's 20th National High School Chef of the Year competition at the school's North Miami, Fla., campus. He has entered Classic Chocolate Cake. ... Pat Harmon of Baden, Beaver County, is one of 10 finalists in the National Cornbread Cook-off to be held April 25 in South Pittsburg, Tenn.

Men's Culinary Classic

Community Action Southwest will hold its Men's Culinary Classic from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday in Hall No. 1 at the Washington Country Fairgrounds, Washington, Pa. Amateur chefs will go toe-to-toe in eight categories. There will also be a pierogi eating contest at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $7.50 for ages 5 to 12 and free for children under age 5. Includes samples and ballot. The event benefits Community Action Southwest, an anti-poverty agency serving Washington and Greene counties. For more info, call 724-225-9550, ext. 404.

It's today! Hooray!

Today is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, says Welch's publicists, who add that their company introduced Concord grape jelly in 1923 but the sammich didn't show up much until World War II, when it became part of military rations.