Cookies should be eaten, not frozen.

Byline: FOOD DUDE By Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Food Dude likes exercise and agrees that everyone should try to do it, but when it comes to eating, my rule of thumb is to never, ever take advice from personal trainers.

Case in point: Check out a recent installment of The Oregonian's "Wellness" column in which a pair of fitness directors offer their tips on eating a more healthful Christmas dinner. Among their suggestions:

Offer guests flavored water.

Skin the turkey.

Use skim milk for all recipes.

Serve more water.

Sounds delicious, huh?

Now I'm no fitness expert (or food expert, for that matter), but I think there's only one way to cut calories during the holiday season and it has nothing to do with skinless turkey. It's called moderation, and it works.

So this holiday season, skip the flavored water and eat a little bit of everything. And save your fork. There's pie.

If you've got a question about food that hasn't been approved by the fitness experts, Food Dude would like to hear it. Write to the address at the end of the column.

Dear Food Dude: Can I freeze Christmas cookies?

- J.F.

Dear J.F.: In general, it's not a good idea, says Catherine Reinhart, co-owner of Sweet Life Patisserie.

Freezing almost any kind of cookie will compromise its texture. A cookie that's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside will probably turn soggy all around after being frozen and defrosted, Reinhart says.

You can freeze cookie dough, then defrost it and bake it, and if you really must freeze already-baked cookies, Reinhart recommends sealing them tightly in a layer of plastic wrap with aluminum foil around the outside. You can also seal them in a Ziploc bag.

Some cookies, such as shortbreads, might fare slightly better than most cookies in the harsh environment of your freezer, but in general, it's a bad idea to subject your holiday treats to that kind of treatment.

A better way to store your cookies, Reinhart says, is in airtight containers. Avoid storing strongly flavored cookies - such as mint, peanut butter and anise varieties - with other cookies, as they have a tendency to imbue other baked goods around them with flavor.

In general, shortbread cookies are a good way to go if you're making massive quantities of holiday treats to hand out as gifts, Reinhart says. That's because they're resilient. If shortbreads were people instead of baked goods, they'd probably be Scandinavians. Not only are they tough, but these beautiful blondes live a long time and they can tolerate cold temperatures better than the average cookie.

But again, Reinhart doesn't recommend freezing them. Most of the cookies Sweet Life sells during the holidays are shortbreads shaped like snowflakes, candy canes, menorahs and other holiday icons. They sell for $3.25 for three. The bakery also unloads lots of equally hearty Italian pizelles this time of year.

If you're wondering how long you can keep those holiday cookies, Reinhart says it depends on what kind of cookies you have and who's eating them. While shortbreads and pizelles will last a couple of weeks, drop cookies (cookies made from soft dough such as chocolate chip cookies) should be eaten within a few days, and cookies with fruit tend to last a few days longer, Reinhart says.

The cookies at Sweet Life have a shelf life of one day to a week, but when it comes to the ones you bake at home, Reinhart says, it's up to your own tastes. While she prefers to eat cookies fresh out of the oven, her mother has a much different definition of fresh.

"She would probably say a cookie is good for three years," Reinhart says. `Her motto is, `If it's not green or slimy, it's fine.' '

If you're looking purely for longevity, Reinhart says there is one sweet treat that probably could last three years: biscotti. These twice-baked Italian cookies were once consumed by explorers and soldiers on long expeditions. Now they're mostly eaten by yuppies at Starbucks.

Dear Food Dude: What's the best way to save an opened bottle of champagne?

- D.S.

Dear D.S.: Food Dude doesn't think there's any excuse for leaving an unfinished bottle of champagne, but I'll answer your question anyway.

Jeffrey Morgenthaler, head bartender at El Vaquero in Eugene, says a simple champagne stopper should do the trick. Don't expect your bubbly to be as good as it was when you popped the cork, but if you really are so party-challenged that you can't finish the bottle in one night, I suppose it's better than dumping it out.

"We go through champagne fairly quickly, but if you had a tight enough stopper, it would probably hold bubbles for four or five days," Morgenthaler says.

At Sundance Wine Sellers, which sells the stoppers for $5, manager Heather Breen says she's managed to get as much as a week of extra life out of a bottle using one of the devices, which has a spring-loaded stopper and two wings that grab onto the ridges of the bottle.

Don't bother using a regular cork or wine bottle stopper. It won't keep the bubbles in and it will probably end up on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator in the morning.

Steve Baker, a Eugene-based wine buyer for Portland's Zancanella Importing, says you won't be able to enjoy champagne's full effervescence the next day, but you might get to taste some new flavors.

"Even though you lose a lot of the fizz, you can taste more of the wine-i-ness," Baker says.

Baker says some of the finer champagnes have some surprisingly pleasant flavors that most people never taste. Of course, the same does not hold true for some of the cheaper sparkling wines on the market. Take the bubbles out of that stuff and there's not much left to celebrate.

Send your questions about food via e-mail to [e-mail]. Or, send mail to Food Dude, The Register-Guard, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2168.