2007 Canada Food Guide

This morning, Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group President, Cyma Zarghami, joined the President and Mrs. Bush, along with other food and beverage industry and entertainment executives and CEOs, the Ad Council and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at the White House to discuss the current effort towards the fight against childhood obesity.

The meeting stemmed from the recent announcement by HHS, the Ad Council, Dreamworks SKG, Nickelodeon, and others about the launch of a new series of public service advertisements designed to help prevent childhood obesity featuring characters from the movie SHREK. Nickelodeon will premiere the SHREK "Be A Player" PSA on February 1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and air it throughout the year as part of the network's on-going "Let's Just Play" campaign, which strives to encourage kids and families to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Last chance to Play With Your Food

The final offering of Play With Your Food this season in Stamford is Tuesday, March 13 from noon to 1:30p.m. at Stamford Center for the Arts' Rich Forum.

Presented by JIB Productions in association with the Stamford Center for the Arts, Play With Your Food is a theater series that offers a gourmet lunch, readings of one-act plays by professional actors and post-performance discussions with the director, actors and audience members.

After dining in the Mercede Promenade on classic American fare by Lucky's Restaurant, patrons will head to the Leonhardt Studio where they will be treated to short one-act plays by three award-winning playwrights, each read by Connecticut-based professional actors.

The three plays to be presented include David Lindsey Abaire's "Baby Food;" Scene I from "The Dying Gaul" by "Prelude to a Kiss" author Craig Lucas; and "Foreplay," Bernie Orenstein's satirical comedy on a country club social circle.

Something to warm you up

On a cold evening, the fireplace burning and a bowl of something good and hot is just what you need to warm up.Many people through the years have shared recipes for a great variety of soups, chilies and stews. Known as winter comfort foods, they can be prepared on top of the stove, in a crock pot, in the oven or as in pioneer days, over an open fire in a big iron kettle. You can just picture me stirring soup in an iron kettle and it is 1 degree above 0. I don't think so!Soups can be hot or cold, thick or clear, mild or spicy, meaty or vegetarian or made with seafood. There's a soup for everyone's taste. The slow cooking method gets the best results and the best flavors. We need to expand our menus and include some new soups or chilies for the family. Once I try a new recipe and it is great, I rarely go back to the old one.

Red-faced over 'dogfight'

NEW DELHI: It may have been just a line in FM P Chidambaram's 30-page budget speech, but sometimes a few words become indelible. It happened to BJP leader Yashwant Sinha when he was labelled "rollback FM" and it happened even earlier to Congress veteran N D Tiwari when he presented what came to known as the "bindi budget".

The budget announcement bringing down duty on pet foods from 30% to 20% seemed innocuous enough, but has now led to several red faces in Congress with even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apparently somewhat taken aback by the "relief" finding mention in FM's speech.

If that was not enough, the sparring between minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh and Left over the minister's suggestion that Communists eat dog food has only made matters worse.

And talking of the budget…

The union budget may be termed bland but healthy (Like curates eggs, good in part, DNA, March 1), but the expectations of the salaried class have not been met. After one long year of wait, the benefit will be just a Rs1,000 reduction in annual income tax ie: Rs80 per month.

We were expecting at least a Rs25,000 increase in the threshold limit, coupled with Rs25,000 increase in 80C limit, which would have helped to reduce tax liability and increase compulsory savings, but it was not to be.
CU Venugopal, Mumbai

II

P Chidambarams union budget for 2007-08 has literally gone to the dogs, with his assertion that pet food will be cheaper now with the cut on duties. The common man may be left in the lurch, but every dog has its own day!
EL Vaidyanathan, Mumbai

III

The finance minister has increased the income tax exemption limit by Rs10,000, which is ten per cent higher for the general tax payer, about 7.4 per cent for women tax payers, but a little over five per cent for the senior citizen, which is less than the inflation rate.

Psilakis, Pretty Much a Greek God, Has Another Opening

Michael Psilakis's ambitious new restaurant, Anthos, opens Monday in the old Acqua Pazza space. It's been a busy, up-and-down year for the chef: His critically praised Dona closed, unexpectedly, one week into 2007. Just a couple of weeks later, he converted his high Greek eatery Onera into the more casual Kefi, which went on, in this week's issue, to win four stars from the Underground Gourmet. The wheel in the sky keeps on turning, as they say. Looks like it's lifting Psilakis back up. We went inside Anthos and got all the evidence. .

Canine accounts

THIS may be the Year of the Fire Boar, but for me, the recent festive celebrations centred around dogs, rather than pigs. It seemed almost as if the outgoing Dog didnt want to take its final bow until it had left some indelible memories for me.

It all began on Feb 14, Valentines Day.

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4th-quarter earnings dip for Publix Super Markets

Publix Super Markets Inc., the Lakeland-based employee-owned supermarket chain, said Thursday that fourth-quarter earnings decreased 1 percent to $291.9 million, compared with $294.9 million a year ago.

Publix has numerous stores in South Florida.

Sales for the 13-weeks were $5.6 billion, a 3.2 percent decrease from last year's $5.7 billion, a 14-week period. Adjusted for the shorter period, sales would have increased by 3.8 percent. In another key indicator, sales at stores open for at least a year increased 2.4 percent.

Publix's earnings for 2006 climbed 10.9 percent to $1.1 billion, compared with $989.2 million for 2005.

Sales were $21.7 billion, a 5.2 percent increase from last year's $20.6 billion. Comparable-store sales for 2006 increased 5.2 percent.