Canadas Food Guide

Growing up in Jersey, I had sportscasters like Warner Wolf on Channel 2, he of the famous "Lets go to the video tape!" segue; Len Berman of Channel 4, whose "Spanning the World" highlights package (narrated by Don Pardo, naturally) would piece together everything from Morganna the Kissing Bandit sightings to fiery drag racing crashes in which (altogether now) "No one was hurt!"; and Russ Salzberg of Channel 9, who didnt have any of the folksy shtick of the other two, but came across like a dude from the old neighborhood that had the Mets yearbook committed to memory. And he also had some truly awful sweaters, like a 5-year-old had chewed up and thrown up a box of Crayolas on something the Salvation Army rejected. I thought about all of them this week as a true pioneer in the industry said good-bye to his nightly gig on Channel 4 in Washington, D.C.

Central Florida Wages

Central Florida wages are in the news again. It's no wonder. It's a pure and simple fact that people need decent wages in order to sustain themselves. Companies are fully aware of their costs - when prices go up they are covering for their expenses - higher taxes, fuel costs, increased product costs, insurance and several other factors. If the employers realize this and make adjustments to compensate themselves, why is it so hard for them to realize that the employees have increased expenses as well.

Low wages put many decent, hard-working citizens into a position where they require some type of public assistance. According to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, fifty percent of of households seeking food assistance have at least one person working full time.

A 2000-Calorie Appetizer Is Too Much

Washington (eCanadaNow) - A 2,000-calorie appetizer. A 2,000-calorie main course. Another 1,700 calories for dessert. Those aren't typos. It's more like par for the course at Ruby Tuesday, On the Border, the Cheesecake Factory, and countless other top table-service chain restaurants. But since those chains make almost zero nutrition information available on menus, their customers don�t have a clue that they might be getting a whole day's worth of calories in a single dish, or several days, worth in the whole meal.

"Burgers, pizzas, and quesadillas were never health foods to begin with, but many restaurants are transmogrifying these foods into ever-more harmful new creations, and then keeping you in the dark about what they contain," said Michael F.

Spring break for student's budget

The funny thing about traveling on a budget is no one seems to realize it can be done anywhere and on any scale. From Miami to Gatlinburg, students don't have to spend all their surplus scholarship money on a week-long getaway.

Many MTSU students will be relocating to various beach destinations March 5 through 10, and who could blame them? To make the 10-plus hour drive more bearable and cost-effective, bring along filling food such as sandwiches, fruit, peanut butter and crackers or trail mix.

Once the destination is reached, the cash-strapped student would be wise to stock up on far more reasonably priced food from the grocery store instead of relying on restaurants or greasy but cheap fast-food places.

A helpful resource for finding the good but inexpensive eateries is "Rachel Ray's $40 a day" Web site (http://www.foodnetwork.com).

Sepp's Announces Shareholder Loan

DELTA, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - March 2, 2007) - Sepp's Gourmet Foods Ltd. (TSX:SGO) ("Sepp's" or the "Company") announces that a shareholder and insider group of the Company has agreed to provide the Company with a line of credit for up to $500,000. The line of credit bears interest at 10.25%, is repayable by April 30, 2008 (subject to an extension provision) and is secured by a charge over the Company's assets, subordinated to all existing debt except for a previously announced shareholder line of credit with which it ranks pari passu. In the event that the Company is unable to repay the amount of the loan, the $500,000 line of credit can be converted at April 30, 2009 to 1,351,351 shares (a conversion price of $0.37). Additionally, up to 476,190 share purchase warrants exercisable at a price of $0.37 will be issued to the shareholder group as consideration for providing the line of credit.

Woolworths' pet food contaminated

As a precaution, Woolworths has withdrawn all Woolworths branded dry dog and cat food from its shelves, due to concern that there is a small possibility that some customers' pets may be at risk from micro traces of a contaminant which has been identified in some batches of Woolworths labelled dry dog food.

Local couple adds fizz to home cooking

It's "a hobby gone wild," say Gary and Karen Hanebrink, owners of Homeplace and makers of Pop Jack's Handcrafted Fizzes, whose fledgling enterprise has made the leap from hobby to business.The couple makes and bottles root beer and other non-alcoholic drinks, such as green apple soda; lemon, orange and raspberry fizzes; vanilla creme; and even a creamy root beer drink called a brown cow, which Mrs. Hanebrink says tastes like a root beer float.Their root beer is made from a family recipe with a sassafras root base."It's a family recipe, but we had to adapt it to meet all the FDA requirements for what you have to do to sassafras to make it OK to use," Mrs. Hanebrink said.

"Root beer can be made out of several types of roots or bark -- birch, cherry and sarsaparilla, which is more western, but regionally it is traditionally made from sassafras," Hanebrink said."Pop Jack is my grandpa, so we call it Pop Jack's homemade root beer, but actually our company is called Homeplace."The couple sell their root beer at Eastern Illinois University's Celebration, and at living history and Civil War re-enactments, longtime interests of Hanebrinks.They also do some retail sales to restaurants, as well as help out with some area fundraisers, such as Boy Scouts."The drinks have some carbonation in them," Mrs.