An e-mail landed last week that immediately got us here ROTFL: Someone proclaimed April "Emotional Overeating Month."

"Month?" I said.

"Let's talk 'year,' " said my colleague Karen.

"How about decades?" I opined.

This brought to mind an article from Good Housekeeping magazine that I've kept since it appeared in September. Written by Geneen Roth, who consels about emotional eating and who has earned Oprah's imprimatur, the article posits that if you eat too much, you don't really like food.

What you like is what you get emotionally from eating, generally overeating: "Food is our drug of choice," Ms. Roth writes.

"Emotional eaters and/or those of us who feel as if we are overweight are not supposed to enjoy food," she writes. "We are supposed to skulk around, eating food that tastes like leather. Better yet, we should be eating astronaut food: freeze-dried pellets of desiccated vegetables."

Take time, instead, she says, to really savor what you eat. "Why not be astonished by the crisp taste of an apple? Why not revel in the smooth texture of an olive? Since you need to eat to live, why let one moment of joy -- even one -- pass you by?"

It's not like we food lovers don't know this. Of course we do. But, post-Easter and Passover, and on the cusp of farmers market season, it's an idea worth repeating.

For myself, I know that when I carefully watch what I eat (I'm a longtime Weight Watcher), I enjoy food, and life, more, because I feel good. I enjoy what I eat, rather than being hampered by it.

When I eat poorly, I eat from boredom. (If you could see me, you'd know winter bored me out of my mind.) Rather than look for that thing that sparks my drive, I eat until something -- an idea, an activity -- charges my engine again and I shake myself out of lethargy.

The e-mail that sparked this column is pegged on emotional eating caused by the poor economy. Stress is making us overeat, it says, before it pitches some product to stop that.

But the economic downturn is also producing stories about how people are turning off to materialism and slowing down all around. And they're reconnecting to food in ways not seen in awhile, planting their own gardens, sourcing fresh, pungent, bursting-with-taste food.

Let's slow down and smell the roses, so to speak, even if we don't eat them.

I myself just passed up a box of chocolates in the advertising department. It's not that I don't like chocolate, it was that I'd have stuffed it in my mouth and gone on to the next task, without thinking twice.

And I need to do that.

• Tomorrow, chefs from Washington County prepare their specialities for a dinner benefiting the Court Appointed Special Advocate program of Washington County. At 6:30 p.m. in Bella Sera by Greco, Canonsburg. Menu: everything from Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia and Sundried Tomato Risotto to Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse Filling. Tickets are $85 each, $65 of which is tax-deductible. Go to www.casawashingtoncounty.org or call 724-228-0414.

• Make-a-Wish will hold its sixth annual Grapevine wine-tasting at Bossa Nova, Downtown, from 6 to 8 p.m. April 23. Buy tickets for $50 by calling 412-471-9474; they are $55 at the door ($35 for designated drivers). Receive a commemorative wine glass courtesy of Quest Diagnostics, learn the history of wines, sample a chocolate fountain from The Melting Pot and bid for prizes. More information: wishgreaterpa.org.

• The Autism Center of Pittsburgh will hold Spring Fling 2009, a craft and vendor show, featuring food as well, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 9 at the Mt. Lebanon Recreation Center, 900 Cedar Blvd.

• The Taste the Good Life fundraiser for Arc of Westmoreland will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. May 7 at DiSalvo's Station Restaurant, Latrobe. Sumptuous food and drink is promised for $125 per person by May 1, $150 afterward. Groups of 12 or more, $110 per person. Seating limited. Call 724-539-0500 or visit disalvosrestaurant.com for details.

• April is Scouting for Food Month. Boy Scouts have been busy distributing bags to collect cereal, canned goods, peanut butter, paper products, soap and other commodities for donation to the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank. You'll also see Scouts collecting at grocery stores, so help out.

Enrico Biscotti and the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture will hold another in their series of "Meet the Farmers" dinners. This one will be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on April 23. Speakers include Lori Sands, farmer and coordinator for the Northwest Pennsylvania Growers Cooperative; Tom Mish of Mish Farms and Meat Market; Kristen and Nate Johanson of Wolf Lake Poultry Farm, New Alexandria; and Scott Smith of East End Brewing Co. Buffet of antipasto, brick-oven pizza and dessert prepared by Chef Kate Romane of Enrico. $20. Reserve by calling Enrico at 412-281-2602 or e-mail enricobiscotti@gmail.com.

The International Association of Culinary Professionals has bestowed an Award of Excellence on Giant Eagle Market District for its "Perishables Reference Guides and Monthly Newsletters." The award was made April 4 in the category of Educational and Communication Materials.

Sunday's episode of "Last Cake Standing" on the Food Network was a peek at making modern wedding cakes. Contestants consulted with a newlywed couple on their cake while riding in a limo, then hopped out to make one to serve later in the day at their reception. Those who didn't ask enough questions, or ignored the couple's requests, lost out. And so Elisa Strauss, of New York, created a cake too traditional for the couple and was voted out. Courtney Clark of Ann Arbor, Mich., created one that met the couple's desire for telling their story in layers while remaining smartly stylish. Next Sunday: Super hero cakes. At stake: a $50,000 prize.

The Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail will hold its Winemakers Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Quincey Cellars in Ripley, N.Y. and at South Shore Wine Co., North East, Erie County. Reservations are required. Cost: $60. Go to chautauquawinetrail.com or call 1-877-326-6561.

Edy's is accepting nominations for its annual Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute competition. Nominate your neighborhood and win an ice cream social. Go to slowchurned.com by May 29 for details.

You can also see a profile of John Harrison, Edy's official taster.

Now, there's a guy who savors food.