SMORGASBORD: Hey, yourself . . . Pie, oh my! . . . Identity gift . . . Veggie smart . . . Kiss and tell

Hey, yourself

Hey, Sugar! makes baked goods you'd be proud to send to a loved one (or yourself), packaged thoughtfully in a ribboned box to boot. Some cookie faves were the Choc3 (triple-threat chocolate richness), the chewy I Heart Ginger and the brightly flavored Strawlemon.

Buy a box of a dozen or more starting at $14 at heysugarchicago.com.

Pie, oh my!

Want to buy a fruit pie -- but not a whole family-size pie? If so, your only choice probably has been a Hostess fruit pie -- not bad, although pretty far toward the sweet end (the 4.5-ounce Hostess apple pie has 40 grams of sugar).

But now, for about the same price as a Hostess pie, Banquet has 7-ounce frozen fruit pies -- that's one generous serving (55 percent more than the Hostess pie) or two somewhat self-controlled ones. Even if you ate all seven ounces of the Banquet apple pie, you're looking at only 24 grams of sugar. The same amount of Hostess apple pie would have 62 grams of sugar.

You do have to bake the frozen pie, but the smell of pie in the oven more than makes up for that.

Identity gift

We realize these PlaceTiles erasable ceramic place cards (which come in a variety of styles) might not seem necessary for a small gathering, but they sure are clever and could add just the right element of unique style to your next dinner party. Use them for guests or to identify the dishes being served.

Buy a box of 6 for $35 at placetile.com.

Veggie smart

Quick: How many kinds of pasta sauce does Prego make? Twenty-one. You thought it was only 19, didn't you?

No, Campbell Soup's Prego label has added Veggie Smart Italian sauce -- smooth or chunky -- which provides more than two 2-cup servings of vegetables (a total of 1¼ cups of vegetables) in each ½-cup serving of sauce. They can get 1¼ cups of vegetables into ½ cup of sauce because some of the vegetables are in the form of concentrated juice. That 1¼ cups of vegetables is 50 percent of the USDA pyramid's recommendation of 2½ cups of vegetables per day.

The rest of the Prego sauces provide "more than a serving" of vegetables each.

Even with 21 kinds, Prego is no match for Ragu's 26 kinds of red pasta sauce (24 of which provide "more than a full serving" of vegetables in every ½ cup of sauce.

Kiss and tell

We first fell for See's Scotch Kisses -- each a gooey marshmallow surrounded by a layer of caramel -- at the suggestion of baking them into a sweet-potato casserole. But don't get us wrong, eating the supersweet candies works well too.

Order them as part of a "custom mix" ($19.60 per pound) at sees.com. The Scotch Kiss is item No. 19.

1/2: PlaceTiles are erasable ceramic place cards (which come in a variety of styles) that might not seem necessary for a small gathering, but they sure are clever, and could add just the right element of unique style to your next dinner party. (McClatchy Tribune)

2/2: Hey, Sugar! makes baked goods you'd be proud to send to a loved one (or yourself), packaged thoughtfully in a ribboned box to boot. (McClatchy Tribune)