The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

You've gotten your flu shot and stocked up on hand sanitizers but are you ready for a close encounter with household allergens? This time of year it's tough to tell whether sniffles stem from an allergy or a virus. Here are a few tips to help in dismissing the allergens in your home.

Number one and most important is to lose the shoes at the door. Though most trees aren't producing pollen at this, point their fallen leaves are busy breeding mold. And once those spores get on your shoes, they travel inside the house with you.

Next, boot fluffy from your bed. Sleeping next to a pet can make you feel warm and cozy and physically miserable. Don't blame the animal, blame your animal's dander and fur; have your four-legged friend decamp to a cozy pet bed.

You might put the Christmas tree on layaway. Yes, fresh trees smell wonderful, but for everyday they stand in your home they breed mold and can irritate the sinuses.

Last, sleep clean using a non-perfumed laundry detergent and no perfumed softener to wash, sanitize and fluff your bed pillows on a bi-weekly basis.

You might try preparing the cozy cabin pasta dish below, pairing with a Charles Smith 2011 Secco Bianco, a scrumptious new wine from Charles Smith Wines, Walla Walla. The Secco Bianco, a white wine teaming in bubbly fall nuances, exhibits a fresh mortar and pestle of anise seed, late harvest melon, crushed elderberry and a whimsical drizzle of sage flower honey that puddles the tongue in balanced minerality.

A brave move for a local wine maker, Smith imports the grapes for his line of Secco Bubbly from vineyards in North- ern Veneto, Italy where thousands of years of rich alluvial topsoil is the basis for the sensuous grapes used. Smith's mastery in blending 77 % chardonnay, 15% Pinot Bianco and 8% Rabosco Piave grape becomes the 2011 Secco Bianco, a delightful wine with holiday appetizers and perfect with the hot and spicy foods of fall and winter. Charles Smith Wines: 35 Spokane Street, Walla Walla, 509-526-5230

"Eat Art, Drink Imagination!"

Spicy Sweet Pasta with Sweet Potatoes & Pears

Serves 4

2-cups each: peeled, cubed pre-roasted sweet potato &

pear

1-tablespoon olive oil

1-teaspoon each: sugar, chili powder, cinnamon

4-cups cooked rigatoni pasta

1/3-cup smooth peanut butter

3-ounce cream cheese cubed

2-teaspoons sriracha hot sauce

1-tablespoon soy sauce

6-green onions sliced diagonally

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, toss potato and pear in first four items and roast. In a fry pan add remaining ingredients, heat to well blended, add potato & pear and green onion, toss well and serve dish paired with Charles Smith 2011 Secco Biano for a "scummy" mouth-watering pairing!

For color photos and catering ideas from Moveable Feasts Catering: www.chefjudithhenderson.com.