Fresh

The music season could end right now and I wouldn't complain much, because I could bask indefinitely in the afterglow of hearing Ben Heppner sing "Roses of Picardy" Sunday night. The tenor's performance of that wistful song from 1916, the third and final encore in his fabulous recital for the Shriver Hall Concert Series, sent me out into the drizzly air on a rare high. I admit I'm an easy pushover for old ballads like "Roses of Picardy," one of the most beguiling of World War I-era songs, but it takes an uncommon singer to make them sound fresh and substantive today (or to even think of performing them)

* Item: Dole Great Restaurant Salads* What you get: 2 1/2 servings* Cost: About $3* Preparation time: Open bag and serve* Review: I'm definitely a fan of pre-cut salad greens. But I'm not sure these new bagged salads from Dole are worth the price. The Triple Cheese Toss consisted of mixed greens with a small envelope of grated cheese you could just as easily come up with yourself -- even if it was pre-grated from a can in your refrigerator. No other dressing was included. The Mediterranean Marinade offered a similar mix of greens with a dressing spiked with peppers and mushrooms that honestly tasted more like a thick marinade.

ASHBURN, Va. -- Huey Richardson looked edgy, as if he were getting ready to sit in a dentist's chair.The linebacker, who was acquired by the Washington Redskins from the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday for a seventh-round pick, was obviously nervous yesterday as he stood in front of his locker and spoke to reporters.That's something Richardson never did in Pittsburgh, where he earned a reputation for being a loner."I was always just very quiet. I would never insult anyone or do anything to offend someone . . . I just basically said I'd rather not give interviews," Richardson said.

I am now a fresh fig fanatic. I admire the shape of the tree. I fantasize about wrapping myself in its leaves. Mostly I covet its fruit.I didn't use to feel this way. I once regarded figs as slabs of dried, unfeeling fruit that did their best work hidden deep in fruitcakes.That all changed one recent fateful evening in a Baltimore back yard. That was where I ate my first fresh fig. It was plucked from a tree by Steven P. Alperin, who grows figs and a variety of other fruit in his family's small back yard in Rodgers Forge.

Tell Marc Cassel you don't like beets, and you'll end up eating your words. That's what happened to the staff at Dallas' Green Room restaurant, where he is executive chef."

WASHINGTON -- One year after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, how as a nation are we different? Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to see the big picture. At dinner a few nights ago with friends who had been living in South Africa for two years, one of them remarked: "I don't recognize the country I've come back to." She didn't refer, obviously, to any physical transformation, but rather to what struck her as an America that had lost its bearings and sense of self in its posture both abroad and at home.

The clean, hot flavor of fresh ginger warms and refreshes like no other seasoning ingredient. An essential flavor of Chinese cooking, ginger is of inestimable importance to Asian dishes. Fresh ginger resembles a thick, knobby root with pale brown skin and moist gold flesh. The fresh root -- really an underground stem called a rhizome -- is nothing like dried, ground ginger; the latter is no substitute for fresh ginger. Whether ginger should be sliced, minced or grated depends on the dish.

Fresh herbs may have caught consumers' fancy, but just a few varieties make up the bulk of all supermarket purchases. By far, the most popular fresh herb is basil."

Fox is bold. ABC is going for laughs. NBC and CBS are playing it safe.That was the consensus of a sampling of media buyers who assembled last week in New York to hear the networks pitch their new shows for the fall TV season."