Green Giant

Will an increasingly health conscious nation clamor for broccoli sprouts?Nothing would make Dr. Paul Talalay happier. He is, after all, the Johns Hopkins University Medical School researcher who determined that broccoli sprouts contain high concentrations of sulforaphane, an organic compound that spurs cells to produce cancer-blocking enzymes.Now Talalay and the company he founded to ensure his discovery is properly exploited, Brassica Protection Products LLC, have a powerful marketing ally, the Sholl Group Inc., licensee of Green Giant Fresh, one of the country's most recognized vegetable food brands.

You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry," says Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) near the start of The Incredible Hulk, comically mangling a signature line as he tries to speak Portuguese to some menacing co-workers at a soft-drink bottling plant in Brazil. Of course, comic-book fans love the Hulk when he's angry - and love a franchise when they feel it's hungry for success, which the Hulk movie series now officially is. After sanctioning the turgid 2003 Ang Lee version of the myth (simply called The Hulk)

My back yard is about 40 feet wide and open on two sides. I would like some privacy. Can you suggest a tall, narrow evergreen hedge plant? Leyland cypress (X Cupressocyparis leylandii) is the plant most often used for this purpose. It eventually grows 60-70 feet high and 10-15 feetwide. It is adaptable and works in many situations, but it does require full sun. Another plant that might work is an arborvitae called 'Green Giant' (Thuja plicata 'Green Giant'). There is beautiful hedge of this plant at the National Arboretum in Washington.

As a child playing under its branches in the 1930s, Michael Jenkins Cromwell Jr. knew that the massive elm near his Baltimore County home was extraordinary. "It was the largest and oldest tree, going back to Revolutionary times," he said. Decades later, others would be charmed by the majestic tree. Soon after buying their house near Brooklandville, Charles and Anita Stapleton decided to contact state foresters to measure the tree in their backyard. That call set into motion a chain of events that led to their tree being recognized as the largest American elm in the nation.

* Item: Green Giant Harvest Burgers for Recipes* Servings per package: 12 ounces or 6 servings* Cost: $2.99* Preparation time: varies with recipe.* Review: Here's a convenient, fat-free, low-cholesterol alternative to crumbled ground beef for use in sauces and casseroles. This frozen, prebrowned soy protein resembles the genuine article and was priced a bit higher than ground sirloin at my grocer. Its springy texture won't fool sophisticated palates, but it shouldn't offend them either. Flavored with dried onion and garlic, two cups of the Harvest Burger tasted fine in a taco filling and worked even better in spaghetti sauce.

Item: Green Giant Create a Meal! Oven Roasted Meal Starter, Garlic Herb FlavorWhat you get: 1 pound, 10 ounces (4 servings)Cost: $3.09Time to prepare: About 30 minutesReview: Green Giant bills this as "walk-away cooking," reminiscent of the days when home cooks shoved a pot roast into the oven for an easy meal. The giant has cut the potatoes, carrots, red pepper and sugar snap peas. All you do is toss them with chicken breast strips, vegetable oil and the seasoning packet, then wait for the oven-roasted aroma to fill your kitchen.

* Item: Green Giant Create a Meal for Ground Beef* What you get: 1 pound, 10 ounces, or 4 servings* Cost: $3.39* Preparation time: About 25 minutes, stovetop* Review: The beef industry has launched a $72 million campaign to make red meat more convenient, so expect to see more burger-based dinner kits like these in your frozen food section. Let's hope they get better. I can recommend only one of Green Giant's four new beef Create a Meals-- the lasagna flavor. The pepper and zucchini slices in the mix add zing and nutrition.

* Item: Green Giant frozen vegetables* What you get: 1 to 3 servings* Cost: About $1.75* Preparation time: 4 1/2 to 6 minutes in microwave, 13 to 15 minutes on stove top* Review: Green Giant has retooled old favorites and added new flavors to its extensive repertoire with great results. Among the new offerings in the easily recognized 10-ounce box are Southwestern Style Corn & Roasted Red Peppers and Teriyaki Vegetables. The corn includes julienne strips of roasted red and cooked green peppers in a very light tomato-based sauce that's a tad more elegant than the average corn medley.

Item: Green Giant Complete Skillet Meals What you get: 4 servings Cost: About $7 Nutritional content: Chicken Alfredo - 290 calories, 7 grams fat, 3.5 grams saturated fat, 920 milligrams sodium; Chicken LoMein -- 200 calories, 2.5 grams fat, no saturated fat, 760 milligrams sodium Preparation time: 9 to 12 minutes on stove top, 12 to 16 minutes in microwave Review: Green Giant is aiming its new line of frozen meals at youngsters, and the company seems...

Fila looks to score endorsement knockoutHunt Valley-based Fila USA, the American arm of Italy's Fila Holding S.p.a., has been picking up some heavyweight endorsements for its shoes and sportswear -- literally and figuratively.Riddick Bowe, boxing's heavyweight champion, has agreed to lend his name to a line of apparel and shoes called the Bowe Motion Collection.Jamal Mashburn, the fourth pick in the recent National Basketball Association draft, also has signed on. Mr. Mashburn, who was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks, is endorsing a new basketball shoe called "The Mash."

Richard Smalley, 62, a Rice University professor and Nobel laureate who helped discover buckyballs, soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules, and championed the field of nanotechnology, died of cancer Friday in Houston. He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with fellow Rice chemist Robert Curl and British chemist Sir Harold Kroto. They discovered a new configuration of carbon atoms, which they dubbed the buckminsterfullerene - buckyball for short - because of its resemblance to the geodesic domes designed by Buckminster Fuller.

Extreme makeovers are the rage these days, so it's comforting to learn that some things are not being reformed, reshaped, reinvented or revamped. Shrek, for instance. When everybody's favorite animated ogre lumbered across movie screens nationwide yesterday- in Shrek 2 - he was still giant, grumpy and of course, green. After all, why mess with success? Shrek, the lovable monster derived from the children's book by William Steig, was made a worldwide mega-movie star in 2001 by the folks at DreamWorks SKG, and the film won the first Academy Award in the new category of best animated feature.

My back yard is about 40 feet wide and open on two sides. I would like some privacy. Can you suggest a tall, narrow evergreen hedge plant? Leyland cypress (X Cupressocyparis leylandii) is the plant most often used for this purpose. It eventually grows 60-70 feet high and 10-15 feetwide. It is adaptable and works in many situations, but it does require full sun. Another plant that might work is an arborvitae called 'Green Giant' (Thuja plicata 'Green Giant'). There is beautiful hedge of this plant at the National Arboretum in Washington.

Item: Green Giant Complete Skillet Meals What you get: 4 servings Cost: About $7 Nutritional content: Chicken Alfredo - 290 calories, 7 grams fat, 3.5 grams saturated fat, 920 milligrams sodium; Chicken LoMein -- 200 calories, 2.5 grams fat, no saturated fat, 760 milligrams sodium Preparation time: 9 to 12 minutes on stove top, 12 to 16 minutes in microwave Review: Green Giant is aiming its new line of frozen meals at youngsters, and the company seems...

* Item: Green Giant frozen vegetables* What you get: 1 to 3 servings* Cost: About $1.75* Preparation time: 4 1/2 to 6 minutes in microwave, 13 to 15 minutes on stove top* Review: Green Giant has retooled old favorites and added new flavors to its extensive repertoire with great results. Among the new offerings in the easily recognized 10-ounce box are Southwestern Style Corn & Roasted Red Peppers and Teriyaki Vegetables. The corn includes julienne strips of roasted red and cooked green peppers in a very light tomato-based sauce that's a tad more elegant than the average corn medley.

Will an increasingly health conscious nation clamor for broccoli sprouts?Nothing would make Dr. Paul Talalay happier. He is, after all, the Johns Hopkins University Medical School researcher who determined that broccoli sprouts contain high concentrations of sulforaphane, an organic compound that spurs cells to produce cancer-blocking enzymes.Now Talalay and the company he founded to ensure his discovery is properly exploited, Brassica Protection Products LLC, have a powerful marketing ally, the Sholl Group Inc., licensee of Green Giant Fresh, one of the country's most recognized vegetable food brands.

A funny thing happened on the way to the microwave.Consumers decided that instant isn't everything. That taste matters. And that fixing a family meal is not so bad.Enter "speed scratch" -- a way of preparing meals using packaged ingredients that cuts cooking time but still provides a higher-quality meal than simply zapping a frozen entree.Several issues -- including time-strapped lifestyles and America's shifting demographics -- help explain the growing popularity of component cooking. But one of the keys remains unhappiness with bare-bones microwaving and the desire for a more satisfying cooking experience.

Richard Smalley, 62, a Rice University professor and Nobel laureate who helped discover buckyballs, soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules, and championed the field of nanotechnology, died of cancer Friday in Houston. He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with fellow Rice chemist Robert Curl and British chemist Sir Harold Kroto. They discovered a new configuration of carbon atoms, which they dubbed the buckminsterfullerene - buckyball for short - because of its resemblance to the geodesic domes designed by Buckminster Fuller.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Fishes and loaves will have to wait until next week. It was enough for the Minnesota Vikings to spring an upset for the ages in the NFL playoffs yesterday.Winless in four previous playoff games under embattled coach Dennis Green, the Vikings scored 10 points in the final 90 seconds to shock the New York Giants, 23-22, in an NFC wild-card game at Giants Stadium.Eddie Murray's 24-yard field goal with 10 seconds left earned Minnesota (10-7) its first playoff win since 1988 and a second-round date next Saturday in San Francisco against the 49ers.

* Item: Green Giant Harvest Burgers for Recipes* Servings per package: 12 ounces or 6 servings* Cost: $2.99* Preparation time: varies with recipe.* Review: Here's a convenient, fat-free, low-cholesterol alternative to crumbled ground beef for use in sauces and casseroles. This frozen, prebrowned soy protein resembles the genuine article and was priced a bit higher than ground sirloin at my grocer. Its springy texture won't fool sophisticated palates, but it shouldn't offend them either. Flavored with dried onion and garlic, two cups of the Harvest Burger tasted fine in a taco filling and worked even better in spaghetti sauce.