The skinny on Twinkies.

CHICAGO - Twinkies, they're not just for dessert anymore. The new "Twinkies Cookbook" has recipes for everything from a Twinkie Burrito to Twinkie Lasagna.

Theresa Cogswell compiled about 50 recipes for the book.

Many were submitted to Hostess, as part of Twinkies' 75th anniversary celebration last year.

Cogswell tells Illinois' Daily Southtown newspaper that one of her favorites is a berry-laden Patriotic Twinkie Pie.

It's red, white and blue.

Cogswell says it makes a great centerpiece for a Fourth of July picnic, which you can also eat for dessert.

I confess that I never really liked Twinkies as much as Ho-Ho's or Suzy-Q's. They just don't have the excitement of the Ho-Ho, and they are not nearly as sublime as a Suzy-Q. (Honestly, I just wanted to use the word "“sublime" in a sentence). I do wonder if these recipes have a longer shelf-life than ordinary food, as we are all aware that a Twinkie lasts for decades, if not longer without losing their spongy texture.

There is really a lot of interesting Twinkie facts that you can find online. For instance, you can find a website that details the history of Twinkies, with the interesting facto of their naming by a gentleman named James Dewar:

Dewar came up with this name when driving by a billboard that had an ad for shoes from the "Twinkle Toe Shoe Company". He shortened the name to ....Twinkies....

So, I guess we might just be eating Nikes or Converse All-Stars if he went down another street!… Kind of scary.

You can also find a recipe for Vegan Twinkies, where no animals were killed in the process of making them. It seems odd, however, that someone with such deep beliefs about what is put in your body would be making a Twinkie. I suppose this is the "“liberal wing" of the Vegan movement. They are probably scorned by the more conservative vegans.

I found a place that sells deep-fried Twinkies (now that is adding insult to injury from a nutrition standpoint). My arteries harden just looking at the picture!

There is even a discussion on the survival of Twinkies on a space trip:

In discussing the Personnel Launch System spacecraft, Edmund Hack wrote:

A small cargo area for personal gear is included (you know, CDs, Twinkies, videotapes, pictures from home....).

This led to speculation here at Fermilab on whether, indeed, Twinkies would survive high-acceleration conditions. If not, space-station astronauts and cosmonauts will have to get along without Twinkies, or manufacture them in orbit. Would the sponge-cake structure collapse? Would the added weight squeeze the lard-and-sugar filling out, smearing it over the family portraits and compact disks?

Now there is evidence of your tax dollars at work!

I found very humorous article in The Onion that reveals the shocking fact that Hostess marketed Twinkies to minors!

"There is substantial evidence supporting the claim that, for decades, Hostess

has carried out an aggressive marketing campaign with the goal of promoting Twinkie use among underage consumers," the FTC report read. "Our nation's children have been targeted for the consumption of these fattening,

unwholesome cakes at a vulnerable age, before they are old enough to make responsible decisions about health and nutrition."

So that's a wrap on Twinkies, an all-time classic, but not one of my favorites. I would be remiss, however, if I left out the website for the Twinkie Project, a set of experiments performed on unsuspecting and unfortunate twinkies. Enjoy, and...Sweet Dreams...