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The topic for this week’s Denver Post haiku contest is FIREWORKS.

The deadline is midnight Thursday (Denver time). Send your one stanza (5-7-5) haiku to lifestyle@denverpost.com or go online at www.denverpost.com/haiku to enter. (You can also read everyone else’s entries there.)

The weekly winner will win a $25 gift certificate to the Tattered Cover bookstore.

GOOD LUCK!

The topic for this week’s Denver Post haiku contest is road trips. The deadline is midnight Thursday (Denver time). Send your one stanza (5-7-5) haiku to lifestyle@denverpost.com or go online at www.denverpost.com/haiku to enter it or. The weekly winner will win a $25 gift certificate to the Tattered Cover bookstore.

(Thanks the Seattle Edible Book Festival blog for the photograph of Lauralee Smith’s Peep Haiku - it’s 5-7-5 - get it?)

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Last Fall a reader asked for book suggestions for a young relative who was being raised by an aunt and uncle. While there were a lot of books available about adopted children, there weren’t many books that related to parental loss and foster parenting. I had a few suggestions, but when I read Home Now by Lesley Beake (Charlesbridge children’s book publishers) I immediately thought about this reader and her request.

Devastated by the loss of her parents to AIDS, Sieta comes to accept her new home after meeting an orphaned baby elephant with memories like her own. While Home Now is specifically about the AIDS crisis in Africa (there is an endnote explaining the effects of AIDS on many African families) this book will help any child who’s been taken away from his or her parents due to drugs, neglect or illness, and placed with a relative or foster family.

The Denver Post has now set up a page on their Neighbors Forum to display the entries and give the week’s subject. Just go to www.denverpost.com/haiku.

This week’s topic is Summer in Colorado. Send a one stanza haiku to lifestyle@denverpost.com (or file it online on the forums) to enter.

The editor’s favorite wins a $25 gift certificate to the Tattered Cover bookstore.

Last week’s winner about the subject cats was won by Jim Vettling of Greeley:

Tom went out one night
Forgetting the shelter spay
He could just consult

Good luck!

Did you notice that the title of this post is a haiku?

That haiku you write
May award you 25
Dollars for great books

The Denver Post is running a weekly haiku contest. So how about you and your children entering a haiku poem to win a $25 gift certificate to the Tattered Cover bookstore, a wonderful local bookstore? (If you don’t live here don’t worry, you can order books from them online if you win.)

Every week The Denver Post will submit a new topic to readers of the newspaper - the topic for the week of June 4 is cats. I will let you know in a special post here at A Readable Feast what the next topic is since the contest isn’t posted on the newspaper’s website.

If you want to participate, you should submit a snappy, one-stanza haiku to lifestyle@denverpost.com.

I’ll never forget my fifth-grade English teacher, Mr. Cesstone, telling us to stop using the word "nice" and find other ways to convey what we were writing about. So, inspired by Mr. C. and Jane O’Connor’s book Fancy Nancy, let’s explore some plain and boring words versus fancy and exciting ones:

How can you make your writing more enticing? Get a good thesaurus or go to thesaurus.com. Then experiment and have fun with words and writing haiku.

(Feel free to submit your haiku below as well as turning it into the folks at the Denver Post. Good luck!)

Hello and Happy Mother’s Day from Switzerland, the land of chocolate. We are visiting my sister, Michele, her husband Ingmar, and my two nephews, Adam, 3, and Oliver, 4, and having a wonderful time.

I hope your family is treating you like the Queen you are this Mother’s Day, and that you’re indulging in something yummy. But if you’re watching what you eat, and want to find a healthy alternative to chocolate desserts, try this recipe from Cooking Light magazine via The Denver Post.

Chocolate Mousse
Recipe from Cooking Light Dessert
Serves 8

Tofu is incredible at masquerading as a creamy dairy product in nearly any dessert, including chocolate mousse. When tofu is whirled in the food processor or blender, it becomes smooth and creamy without the gritty or grainy consistency that low-fat dairy products can sometimes have. After its transformation, it becomes a peerless base for smooth-textured sweets.

Ingredients:

1. 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted (find the best quality of chocolate you can)
2. 1 (12.3-ounce) package reduced-fat extrafirm silken tofu (such as Mori-Nu)
3. 1/4 teaspoon salt
4. 3 large egg whites
5. 1/2 cup sugar
6. 1/4 cup water Fat-free whipped topping, thawed (optional)
7. Grated chocolate (optional) (again, the best quality)

Directions:

1. Place melted chocolate chips and tofu in a food processor or blender, and process 2 minutes or until smooth.
2. Place salt and egg whites in a medium bowl, and beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form.
3. Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 250 degrees.
4. Pour hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, beating at high speed.
5. Gently stir one-fourth of meringue into tofu mixture; gently fold in remaining meringue. S
6. poon 1/2 cup mousse into each of eight (six-ounce) custard cups. Cover and chill at least four hours. Garnish with whipped topping and grated chocolate, if desired.

Per serving: 147 calories (34 percent from fat); 5.6g fat ; 5.2g protein; 22.5g carbohydrates; 0.2g fiber; 134 mg sodium; 26 mg calcium

While you’re having your mousse, enjoy some Mother’s Day story books:

• I Like Noisy Mom Likes Quiet: A Mother’s Day Story
• Biscuit Loves Mother’s Day
• The Mother’s Day Mice
• Mother’s Day