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Caption: The “original keg cart” is a lightweight keg-moving device recently exhibited at the New York Restaurant and Food Service show in New York City. According to the maker, the unit is a “lightweight, smooth-rolling, innovative way to move kegs.” The keg carts are manufactured in Ontario, Canada by Steel Mobilia III. The carts are in use at Labatt and Molson breweries in Ontario, and have also been adopted by Labatt parent brewery Interbrew. Several small U.S. breweries have also found use for the keg cart, including the Summit Brewing Co. of St. Paul and Gentle Ben’s Brewing Co. of Tucson, AZ.

If your passion is food and you’re unemployed or seeking a change, you may want to consider the food writing profession as presented by seasoned writer Dianne Jacob in Will Write For Food: The Complete Guide To Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction And More. From getting started and breaking in as a restaurant reviewer to writing recipes, cookbooks, and freelancing, Jacob covers all possible industry careers and writing avenues. Will Write For Food is a outstanding and practical guide for career-minded food fans and aspiring resturant critics.

ALSEA, a Mexican fast-food franchisee, has agreed to buy 100% of Grupo Mozarella, a franchise operator in Mexico City controlled by Dominos Pizza, a U.S. pizza retailer. The purchase will give Alsea 22 outlets. Terms were not disclosed.

The popular hamburger joint ran out of food before its last scheduled closing time, according to a report by the Associated Press. Roger Patterson, owner of Roy’s since 1977, said he planned the closing to coincide with the biweekly meeting of the Salinas Valley Hot Rodders, which has used Roy’s as its meeting place for 18 years.

Club attendance, combined with other customers looking for one last Roy’s burger, caused parking to overflow into nearby lots and left the restaurant without food two hours before closing.

Patterson told the Associated Press he was closing because he couldn’t afford to fight a lawsuit over the restaurant’s lack of wheelchair access.

That’s easy! All the same comfort food I craved as a little girl. Cinnamon toast, cream of wheat with brown sugar, rice pudding, tapioca and, when I’m feeling a little better, grilled cheese. Mmm! Why, I think I feel a cold coming on right now!

Diane Carlin

Green Bay, WI

When I’m sick, I love to curl up in my PJs with a cup of hot lemonade with honey. My mother always made this for us when we were little; it brings back memories of Morn taking care of me. It has a magical way of soothing a sore throat and opening the airways. I now add a little cinnamon and cloves to spice it up a bit.

Sharon Bartlett

Port Orchard, WA

When I was young and didn’t feel well, Mom always made me macaroni with butter and salt–not really the most nutritious meal, but comforting for sure. Today, I crave the same thing when I have the sniffles, but now I use whole wheat pasta, olive oil and just a touch of salt–a little improvement at least!

Kimberly Blackburn

Greensboro, NC

Veggie pot pie. I make it with a store-bought whole wheat crust, then cook potatoes, peas, cauliflower and carrots in a bit of vegetable stock, and whisk in some cream of broccoli or asparagus soup and soymilk. Bake for 45 minutes, and I’m back on the road to health!

Sarah Collins

San Francisco, CA

Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. Nothing comforts me like this.

Charlene Poling

Haines City, FL

A big steaming bowl of creamy tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. My tastes have gotten a bit more sophisticated since childhood, but I still can’t resist opening a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup the second the sniffles start.

Samantha V.

Cleveland, OH

Amy’s No Chicken Noodle soup and–I know this is terrible–french fries. I swear, there’s something about oily foods that makes you feel better when ill. Either that, or it’s the remnants of my morn buying me Happy Meals when I was sick as a kid.

Lorena S.

Columbus, OH

SOUP, SOUP, SOUP

Nothing motivates healing like a soup full of healthy root vegetables and spices. I keep some containers in the freezer just in case. I also like lemon-water. I boil water and add the juice of half a lemon, then sip it.

Tamara Hitson

Via email

I love nice, warm potato soup. It makes me feel as if my room were there, holding me and rubbing my back.

Karen A. Mahoney

Via email

Matzoh ball soup. Sadly, I am presently sick and without a frozen stash of the soup. All of the commercial mixes contain MSG. Plus, they’re not all vegetarian, and if you’re working on going vegan, none will do.

Stacey Grimm

Via email

Soup, soup, soup! I make it with my favorite veggies … kale, carrots and Brussels sprouts. I also load it with lentils, onions and lots of garlic. A slice of crusty bread and it’s almost worth getting sick for!

Sharon Roy

Shabbona, IL

Amy’s No Chicken Noodle soup, and for an upset tummy, Mi-Del gingersnaps.

Nick Shepherd

Via email

I love a steaming bowl of homemade Thai coconut soup. The combined benefits of coconut milk, ginger, garlic, fresh basil, veggies, chili and lime soothe inflamed sinuses, muscle aches and fatigue. Also, the aroma is naturally energizing, and the soup feels like a comforting treat.

Betsy Faber

Bellingham, WA

Hot-and-sour soup from Harmony, the best vegetarian Chinese restaurant in Atlanta. When I have a cold, it really opens up my sinuses!

Elise Ray

Chamblee, GA

The Vegan Wanton Soup from Natural Village Chinese in Huntington Valley, PA, or Brown Rice and Braised Tofu. Weird choices, I know, but I always feel better when I eat these!

Shannon Ward

Hatfield, PA

HOT & SPICY

Strong ginger tea made with about four inches of sliced ginger, 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 2 cups of water. I simmer it for 1/2 hour and remove the ginger pieces before drinking. But if you have a sore throat, of course you have to eat a lot of ice cream!

Heidi Marquardt

Via email

Hearty vegetable stew with lots of spices–they start clearing out my sinuses almost immediately, and the warmth gives me an energy lift.

Lori Scott-Sheldon

Manchester, CT

Homemade mushroom and smoked Gouda tamales with roasted tomatillo salsa and Spanish rice on the side. It takes a while, but it’s worth it! Not only is the cooking a soothing and healing ritual, but stick-to-your-ribs nutrients are so important when you are sick!

Alice Schucard

Carlsbad, CA

UNIQUE TREATS

Miso soup and a clementine. The soup is a tasty, warm delight, and the citrus fruit is refreshing and cleansing. This is a healing food pair!

Nicole Haas

West Milwaukee, WI

Orange sherbet. I’m certain it kept me from succumbing to pneumonia last year!

Margaret O’Connor

St. Louis, MO

Pop-Tarts taste good no matter how sick you are and remind me of being a kid!

Brenda Caron

Via email

Any extremely chocolatey cake is enough to make me feel a thousand times better.

Jackie Martinez

Via email

Editors’ Note: For a healing warm-you-up drink, check out the recipe on p. 96.

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READER Recipe

HERB-CRUSTED TOFU
WITH MUSHROOM
GRAVY

Serves 4 * Vegan
30 minutes or fewer

Suchitra Swift created this savory
dish while playing around with
ways to make crispy tofu.
A lifelong vegetarian, she teaches
first grade in Harlem, NY.

1 16-oz. pkg. extra-firm tofu

Herb Crust

1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried Italian herbs
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Mushroom Gravy

1 small onion, minced
2 Tbs, olive oil
2 tsp. dried rosemary
5 white mushrooms,
chopped
1/2 cup low-sodium
vegetable broth
2 tsp. cornstarch

Think those New Year’s diet resolutions mean you can’t indulge in your favorite comfort foods–you know, diner-style specials like mac-cheese or frosted layer cake? Think again. The lightened-up versions on these pages have all the lusciousness of the originals, but won’t wreck your waistline-watching plans. So on those cold days in January when you find yourself craving cozy comfort foods the most, have them!

We totally transformed these yummy standards–even blue cheese dressing and eggplant Parmesan–in the calorie and fat departments, yet we promise you can’t tell the flavor difference. We even came up with a creative, nutritious twist on creamy scalloped potatoes by substituting sweet potatoes, for their vitamin-filled goodness. Finally, the icing on the cake is … our iced chocolate cake–a gooey, dense delight that’s surprisingly light. Now that’s comforting!

SCALLOPED POTATOES

Serves 8

There are lots of reasons to scallop
sweet potatoes instead of
spuds. Vitamins A and E–both
good for the immune system–are
two. And since this recipe has only
3 grams of fat (versus the 9
more in many homemade versions),
you won’t have to turn down seconds!

1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups roasted or low-sodium
vegetable broth
1 cup low-fat milk
3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 Tbs.)
1 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 bay leaf
3 medium sweet potatoes (about
2 1/2 lb.), peeled and thinly
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Coat 8 8-oz.
ramekins or 9×13-inch baking dish
with cooking spray.

2. Melt butter in large saucepan
over medium heat. Add onion slices,
and saute until soft, about 7 to
10 minutes. Add broth, mill garlic,
thyme, nutmeg and bay leaf; bring
to a simmer. Cook until liquid is
reduced to just under 3 cups, about
7 minutes. Remove bay leaf, and
season to taste with salt and

3. Add sweet potatoes to liquid.
Return to a simmer, and cook,
stirring occasionally, 5 minutes.

4. Pour mixture into ramekins
or baking dish; bake 30 minutes
baking dish, basting potatoes
occasionally with liquid in dish.
Sprinkle cheese over potatoes,
and bake ramekins 10 minutes;
large dish 20 minutes. Let both
rest 5 minutes before serving.

PER SERVING: 161 CAL; 4G PROT; 3G TOTAL FAT (1.5G SAT. FAT); 30G CARB; 7MG CHOL; 194MG SOD; 3G FIBER; 2G SUGARS

MAC AND CHEESE

Serves 8

This enlightened recipe has 200 fewer
calories than the standard homemade
mac and cheese–yet it’s still creamy-cheesy.
It’s great with a spinach and
mushroom salad.

8 oz. medium-sized macaroni
4 slices whale wheat bread
2 tsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 tsp. olive oil
1 cup reduced-fat cottage cheese
3 cups reduced-fat milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
1 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat 9×13-inch
baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Bring large pot of salted water to
boil. Cook pasta according to package
directions, until al dente. Drain,
rinse under cold water; drain again.

3. Process bread slices in food
processor to fine crumbs. Add butter
and 2 tsp. oil, and pulse to moisten.
Transfer to small bowl.

4. Puree cottage cheese in processor.

5. Whisk 1/2 cup milk, flour and
mustard in small bowl until smooth.

6. In large, heavy-bottomed pan, heat
remaining 1 tsp. oil over medium
heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring
often, 6 to 8 minutes, or until
softened. Add remaining 2 1/2 cups
milk, and bring to a bare simmer.
Whisk in flour mixture, and cook,
stirring constantly, 5 to 7 minutes, or
until thickened. Remove from heat.

7. Whisk in pureed cottage cheese,
Cheddar, and salt and black pepper
to taste. Stir in macaroni, and
transfer to baking dish. Sprinkle
top with breadcrumb mixture.

8. Bake, uncovered, 30 to 35
minutes, or until bubbly and lightly
browned. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes
before serving.

PER SERVING: 389 CAL; 20G PROT; 15G TOTAL FAT (8G SAT. FAT); 43G CARB; 37MG CHOL; 709MG SOD; 3G FIBER; 8G SUGARS

EGGPLANT PARM
Serves 6

Oven-frying the eggplant slices makes
a succulent dish that has only 9 grams
of fat–instead of 20 or more.

3 large egg whites
I cup fine dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 medium eggplants, sliced
into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
2 1/2 cups prepared marinara sauce
3/4 cup grated part-skim mozzarella
cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Coat
2 baking sheets and 8×11 1/2-inch
baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Whisk egg whites with 3 Tbs. water
in bowl until frothy. Combine breadcrumbs,
1/4 cup Parmesan, and salt and
pepper to taste in shallow dish.
Dip eggplant slices into egg whites,
then coat with breadcrumb mixture
and arrange on baking sheets.

3. Bake until golden; turn; bake until
golden again, about 30 minutes total.

4. Stir basil into marinara sauce.
Spread 1/2 cup sauce in baking dish.
Top with half of eggplant, slightly
overlapping slices. Cover with 1 cup
of sauce; sprinkle with half of
mozzarella. Cover with remaining
eggplant, and top with remaining
sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan.

5. Bake, uncovered, 20 to 25 minutes,
or until bubbly and golden. Let stand
10 minutes; serve.

On her pastoral Iowa farm, away from bustling city streets, Simone Delaty Alvarez pursues several passions: cooking; baking artisan bread; raising fruits, vegetables and herbs; and tending goats. In her simplified life, Simone derives pleasure from her stewardship of the land and from sharing bountiful crops with others: She hosts intimate, home-cooked, family-style dinners, enjoyed leisurely at her farmhouse table. It’s no surprise, then, that she has come to embody the spirit of the international Slow Food movement right in America’s heartland.

As the Slow Food story goes, in 1986, founder Carlo Petrini, an activist in Bra, Italy, greatly resented the proposed construction of a McDonald’s restaurant in his favorite piazza in Rome. To Petrini, such a fast food invasion of a historic city–famed for its glorious cuisine and elegant architecture–required some sort of response. Thus, Petrini launched the original branch of the Slow Food movement in the city of Barolo in the province of Cuneo, Italy. In 1989 in Paris, Slow Food went global with numerous grassroots groups, or convivia, sprouting up on five continents. Today, Slow Food members number about 80,000 worldwide. And the movement is growing.

Slow Food’s main tenet–to protect “the right to taste”–appears simple, but in reality it addresses many complex issues. Protecting taste means protecting artisan foods and food products, promoting sustainable agriculture, preserving food traditions, educating people about quality foods and enjoying the “slow” life–good friends, good food, good wine. And enjoying life’s simple pleasures at an unhurried pace. “One of the important things about Slow Food is its educational mandate,” New York-based Patrick Martins, director of Slow Food USA, says. “But it is important not to forget the pleasure side of the movement.”

That’s why, as a founding member of the Slow Food movement in Iowa, Simone with her community dinners exemplifies the Slow Food spirit. “I started these dinners 5 years ago, and I hold them from March to December on Friday and Saturday nights,” she says, noting that she seats her guests–anywhere from 8 to 20 people per meal–at one table. This compact seating arrangement inspires conviviality, free-flowing conversation and a true sense of fellowship. This seating also allows Simone a chance to speak about the food she serves. “I talk at every dinner about where the food comes from and what it is,” she says. “I don’t interfere with my guests’ conversations, but I do introduce each dish.” In season, she gives a tour of her gardens when guests arrive. This gives her guests a real connection to the food they eat and to the land where it is grown and harvested.

A native of the Limousin region in France, Simone (pictured in window) is content in her charming American farmhouse, but she still cooks like a Frenchwoman, and many of her convivial meals reflect her heritage. Each meal is either authentically French or Moroccan, or focused on brick-oven pizza dinners with traditional pizzas from Italy or France, or with those pizzas created by Simone. Like many French home cooks, Simone eschews elaborate cooking in favor of simple from-cratch meals based on good ingredients–seasonal, fresh-picked produce and just-baked breads.

“In my area of Iowa near the Amana Colonies, we talk about the home cooking of the Amish and Mennonites,” she says. “But I cook what I learned at home in France.” For her occasional dinners for Slow Food convivium members, she has served French meals structured in the traditional way: small appetizer courses; a main course; a salad course; an assortment of cheeses served with crusty French bread; and dessert. “A French dinner can go on and on. And here, people linger for about 3 hours. It’s very relaxed with lots of conversation and socializing.”

Indeed Simone’s farmland site has become something of a destination. “I have visitors who come to see what I am doing,” she says. “This is outreach for children and adults who want to see my herb garden, my kitchen gardens and the weekly bread baking in the brick oven.”

Although her land is limited to about 10 acres, hers is a working organic farm, and she is its primary gardener. She started with a small kitchen garden and an herb garden. Over the years, she has added five other gardens for crop variety, including six kinds of tomatoes, four kinds of eggplants and specialty crops such as the French green bean, celeriac and cardoons–a popular vegetable in Europe that is a member of the thistle family and tastes something like artichokes. Her main goal is to self-produce all the vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers for her season of dinners.

Simone attracts attention for another reason: Her brick-oven-baked artisan breads. “I make breads from scratch using organic flour,” she says. But what really makes her bread–a pain a levain, or French country bread–unique is that Simone uses natural leavening. “It is a very slow process,” she says, describing the mixing, kneading and rising of her loaves. Beginning with a starter–a mix of flour and water–held over from the preceding week’s batch of bread dough, she mixes up new dough, sets it aside overnight at a cool temperature, then adds more flour and water in the morning. After that, the dough rises for 1 hour, then is cut, weighed and placed into baskets lined with linen for an additional rising of 3 hours. It is then baked directly on the brick sole of her 400-degree oven.

Our company, Chick-fil-A, Inc., worked with Drs. Chetan Sankar and P.K. Raju and the LITEE team to develop a case study about our decision process to select a new point of sale system. They were understanding of our concerns about ensuring accuracy in the case study and were sympathetic to my limited time to work on this project. The process of creating the case study was iterative and didn’t impose on my busy schedule. First, I went to Auburn and was interviewed by Dr. Sankar and a graduate student. After the interview, they e-mailed me transcripts of our conversation with some follow up questions for clarification. I was able to clarify points and to edit the transcripts for accuracy. Then, the LYME team came to our office and discussed the decision process with Jon Bridges, CIO, and Mike Erbrick, Director of Restaurant Information Systems. In addition, we visited the Chick-fil-A at Piedmont Road in Atlanta, GA to see the chosen point of sale system in the field. The LITEE team interviewed the owner/operator of this store to learn the strengths and weaknesses of this system. Again, summaries of these conversations and observations were exchanged, and I could clarify or correct for accurateness. In the end, we had a case study that framed the key decision factors for a decision involving millions of dollars for us.

In the spring of 2001, I was able to attend the first class presentation for the Chick-fil-A Point of Sale case study. It was exciting to hear the students discuss the challenge of weighing pros and cons of business decisions. I also enjoyed hearing them suggest new ideas or technologies that have matured since we made our decision. The most rewarding result of this case study was seeing that many students mentioned the importance of meeting the business needs, not just picking a technology. Successful IT professionals are successful business people first. IT must align itself with the business. Project success depends on meeting the expectations of your users; not from telling your user, we picked this leading software package-Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft, etc. You have to understand the users’ needs, prioritize their needs, and implement solutions based on those needs. Sometimes, it is the best decision to select a hot technology; sometimes, boring technologies are best.

In addition, this case study has helped our recruiting efforts. Believe it or not, Chick-fil-A is not the first company that comes to mind when students think about future technology careers. When students hear Chick-fil-A, they usually think about jobs with the marketing department or owner/operator opportunities. Since this case study has been added to the curriculum, we have interviewed more than 20 students who have worked on the point of sale case study. After discussing Chick-fil-A in an MIS class, students begin to associate technology career options with Chick-fil-A, and they think of us as a company that uses new technology to impact the business.

I am glad that the LITEE team invited us to develop this case study. It seems to help students learn important business concepts, and it has greatly helped us to develop an image of a company that offers exciting technology opportunities. I would definitely be interested in working on another case study in the future.

Michael Garrison, Director of LT. Client Services, is an alumnus of Auburn University, where he received a BS in Finance. Michael earned his MBA in Computer Information Systems at Georgia St. University. Today, Michael works with the Chick-fil-A Computer Help Line,

the windows system administration team, the network administration team, and the LT. recruiting. The Chick-fil-A Computer Help

Line supports point-of-sale systems and back office systems for over 900 Chick-fil-A restaurants. The Windows System Administration team purchases PCs, configures them, rolls out new software and operating systems, and provides laptop/desktop support for more than 500 corporate staff and 900 stores. The network administration team manages our Microsoft Back Office networking systems and network applications. The LT. recruiting team recruits, selects, and hires individuals to work in the LT. department at Chickfil-A. This team also coordinates the performance management system and professional development plans.

The bus stopped on the side of the road where two cars sat waiting for us. In broken English we are told we will now be taken to eat and then to where we will sleep. We have been traveling for over 24 hours at this point. From Atlanta to Milan, and then the waiting around for other delegates to arrive at the airport, the bus ride to Turin, to the Palazzo del Lavoro and then more waiting around for another bus ride to take us to our accommodations. All the waiting had caused some impatience (not surprisingly) among some Americans around me. In response to the invitation for a meal, an American woman announced that none of us want to eat, that we just want to sleep. I watched the expressions of our Italian hosts go from confusion, to hurt-a sad sort of hurt. My friend and I spoke up and said we would eat, that we would be honored. The rest of the group got into the waiting cars and were taken to their accommodations. We remained standing on the side of the road with our two new Italian friends. The four of us proceeded to walk down the road No one spoke; the only sound was the crunch of gravel under our feet. It was dark, and a fog hung in the air. We walked into a seemingly abandoned courtyard and approached a stone building.

Upon entering this building, our senses were brought to life. We were welcomed by long tables laden with pitchers of wine, sparkling water, bread, smiling faces, and warmth. Chef Lucca and his family greeted us and brought out the first course (of many to follow) of cured meat. It became evident with the first taste, that the meat was cured by Chef Lucca himself, that the wine was from his grapes, that he was an artist, and we were sitting in his studio.

What brought me to this extraordinary place-partaking in a meal I will always remember-simple, yet rich with complex intonations of flavor and tradition? It was the vision of one man, Carlo Petrini, whose reaction in 1986 to the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Rome’s famous Piazza di Spagna sparked a now worldwide movement known as Slow Food. This movement seeks to link “pleasure and food with awareness and responsibility.” Slow’s Manifesto declares, “A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.”

While focusing on maintaining the right to slow down to the pleasures of a good meal, in the mid-1990s, Slow Food’s eco-gastronomy took a prominent and intrinsic place in the forefront of this movement. From the Slow Food website, this movement, “opposes the standardization of taste, defends the need for consumer information, protects cultural identities tied to food and gastronomic traditions, safeguards foods and cultivation and processing techniques inherited from tradition, and defends domestic and wild animal and vegetable species.”

In 2003, Petrini sought to honor the small-scale food producer-the small farmer, the cheese maker, bread baker, wine, meat … those of us who have devoted our lives to such endeavors. In October 2004, 5000 of us from 130 countries were brought to Turin for the first ever Terra Madre, a world meeting of food communities. The event was organized by Slow Food in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Piedmont Regional Authority, and the City of Turin. Speakers included Prince Charles of Wales, Vendana Shiva, Winona La Duke, and of course Carlo Petrini, to name a few. One need only to stand in the center of the Palazzo del Lavoro, which housed this event, and look around at all the diverse faces to grasp this incredible endeavor Slow Food has undertaken and to understand Carlo Petrini’s vision of a “virtuous globalization.”

Slow Food’s reach is vast. From New York City foodies to saving corn varieties in Central America, from inner city school gardens to the understanding that the consumer is always right, but that the consumer has the right to be educated about what he or she consumes. Slow Foods is about a different approach to living on this planet.

The Slow Food Manifesto declares that, “We are enslaved by speed and all have succumbed to the same corrupting virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods…. In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of living and threatens our environment and landscape.” Led by their mascot, the snail, Slow Food strives to overcome such forces.

Farinata

This is an Italian pizza-like dish made from chickpea flour.
Although this is considered somewhat of a street fond in Italy,
it is also considered Slow, as it is a regional specialty, the origin
being Liguria.

2 1/3 cups chickpea flour
3 3/4 cups water
1 tsp. salt
a good pinch of pepper
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion
sage leaves

1. In a large bowl pour the water and then add slowly the chickpea
flour, mixing it in with a wire whisk.

2. Add salt to the mixture and let it stand at room temperature for 3
hours or even better overnight.

3. Meanwhile slice the onion thinly and saute in olive oil.

4. Remove foam from the top of the batter.

5. Preheat the oven to 400[degrees].

6. Grease a baking pan, about 16″ x 12″, olive oil, once greased
add another 2 Tbsp. olive oil and put entire pan in oven till oil is
hot. Working quickly, pour hot oil from pan into china batter,
stir and pour entire mixture onto pan-this should sizzle. The batter
will spread out very thinly onto the pan. Sprinkle generously with
pepper, onions and sage.

7. Top the farinata with the onion slices and sage leaves. Bake for
20-25 minutes- until edges brown.

8. Remove from the oven and let it cool off for about 10 minutes
before cutting.

The food industry has taken on some heavy responsibility this year. Literally. Obesity has become a hot topic in the United States, with many consumer activists and others pointing at the food industry and demanding action. Food companies have responded in different ways, some of which involve packaging.

Several companies are using packaging to promote portion control, which has become one of the great bugaboos in the obesity debate. Kraft Foods, General Mills and the Frito-Lay unit of PepsiCo have all come out with package sizes designed to deliver an acceptable amount of calories. Kraft products along those lines include several Nabisco offerings, like Ritz crackers, in packages of exactly 100 calories. Frito-Lay has 75-calorie packs for Lay’s and Doritos chips, while General Mills rolled out Pop-Secret 100 Calorie Pop Premium Microwave Popcorn.

“We’re finding more and more that consumers want it to be easy to know the calorie content, so they don’t have to search for it on the package,” Kathy Parker, a senior business director at Kraft who oversees marketing for the 100-calorie packs, told The New York Tunes.

General Mills also is trying to tout the health benefits of its flagship line of cereals. The company is continuing to promote the presence of whole grain in its cereals–several of which were reformulated to include more whole grain, allowing a prominent nutrition claim on the label.

Health concerns also boosted the growth of diet candy, with sales more than quadrupling between 2000 and 2004, according to research firm Packaged Facts. The total of $495 million is a fraction of the sales for regular candy, but it’s the only segment in the category that’s showing growth.

A few other trends of note in the food industry, some of which carry over from previous years:

* There continues to be a struggle over proper standards for the term “organic.” A federal court in Maine got into the act this summer when it ruled that dairy farmers can’t call their products organic unless they furnish their cows 100% organic feed.

* Sales of food marketed especially to women grew at a compound annual rate of 80% between 2000 and 2004. Packaged Facts predicts that sales of foods and beverages marketed to women will reach $58.7 billion by 2009.

* Hispanics continue their ascendancy as the leading U.S. minority. Hispanics accounted for 50% of the nation’s population growth of 2.9 million in a one-year period, according to a demographics study by the Food Institute. Perhaps more important, the greatest source of Hispanic growth is now births and not immigration.

Here are looks at packaging among major food segments:

Dairy

Milk and other dairy products were whipsawed by a variety of consumer and market forces in 2004.

The price of fluid milk jumped from a 23-year low in early 2003 to a new high in early 2004. Contributing factors included high feed prices and strong cattle prices, spurred in part by the popularity of low-carb diets. A surge in alternative beverages, such as water, tea, soy milk and isotonic drinks, also cut into fluid milk’s share, according to dairy segment observers.

The result was a depression in sales for fluid milk in 2004. Dollar sales for whole milk in most retail venues rose 2.1%, but unit sales fell 3.9%. Sales of skim/lowfat milk were up 1.4% in dollars but down 4.4% in units.

Milk is still mostly sold in gallon and half-gallon containers. An ongoing trend has been the marketing of fluid milk in single-serve containers. According to Kevin Burkum, senior vice president for retail marketing at Dairy Management Inc., single-serve packaging is “allowing us to take milk to places it hasn’t been before,” such as vending machines and convenience stores.

Quick-service restaurants are another venue where single-serve is helping milk penetrate. Both McDonald’s and Wendy’s started selling single-serve milk last year in attractive plastic bottles, as opposed to the gabletop cartons McDonald’s had been using. The program, developed by the restaurant chains in cooperation with the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), resulted in greatly increased milk sales.

Cheese is a segment that got a big boost from the anti-carb movement. Total sales were up 5.6% from the previous year, reaching $1.85 billion. The sales spike came in spite of an increase in the price of block cheese, which forced converters like Sargento Foods to raise prices in 2004.

Sargento has focused its R&D efforts on snacking and entertaining, using reclosable packaging to make its Sargento SunBursts and Stars and Moons snacks more convenient for snacks. It has also used packaging to assemble an entire snacking occasion: Sargento Cheese Dips! Rolled out late last year, Cheese Dips! are packaged in a dual-compartment tray: one for the cheese sauce, one for a dippable snack (tortilla chips, pretzel twists or bagel chips).

For ice cream, premium and indulgent offerings continue to drive the category, working either within or outside the low-carb fad. The overall category was down 1.8% last year, but premium brands like General Mills’ Haagen-Dazs edged upward.