I love the Yiddish expression, “a glazl varms” or literally, a glass of warmth. The old-time belief that tea tastes better out of glass is absolutely right. But this expression really hints at something else: hospitality, a relaxing break, a moment of grace.

I saw a product recently at New Seasons Market that struck me as a friendly sort of glass. Well, plastic.  It’s an Oregon company called Copa di Vino — wine in single-serving recyclable containers.

Go to the peanut butter, take a left, then straight for 2 aisles...

For the most part I’ve found that catchy packaging of alcohol is a way for  booze purveyors to charge more for something “vintage” or to get younger people to drink more, e.g., those lemonade-like things in containers that look like mason jars.

This product, though, seems different. It’s an easy way to take a small serving of wine on a picnic or hike. You can put them out at a party instead of the open bottle that draws drunk ol’ Uncle Bob in like a magnet. You can snap one open instead of strangling your partner who used the only corkscrew in the house to open a paint can.

I have no idea if this wine is any good. (I don’t drink the stuff myself.) For all I know, plastic is to wine like wrestling is to cable TV. Sure, it’s there, but we don’t need to encourage it.

But, whatever, it’s innovative. And the website does an admirable job of using normal-looking people instead of the improbable bar hoppers (and impossibly glamorous lifestyle) that’s used in the hard-sell of most alcohol.

–Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett

I tend to watch TV shows about people doing dangerous, improbable stuff I would never do.  Car chases, running for office, applying eyeliner, murdering mob bosses.

So, no, I don’t usually watch cooking shows on television.

I did like Julia Child, but only because she seemed to be having such a good time. Plus, that was a long time ago, before I had 842 cable channels, which on a good day, offer up at least three things worth watching.

Yet, as out-of-touch as I am, I still know about Nadia G. of the Bitchin’ Kitchen.

Nadia on The Cooking Channel

She’s in the big time: the Cooking Channel, and has been on YouTube for some time. The latter is great. That way you can quickly shut it off when someone comes into the room where you’re supposed to be working.

Nadia at first appears to be a proud member of the always-she-talks-with-her-hands New Jersey Italian-American club that is so prevalent on the tube. She’s actually a smart, media-genic kitchenista who speaks at least three languages. (She grew up in Montreal and her folks are Italian.)  She, as did Mrs. Child, makes cooking look easy and seems to be having fun, but unlike Julia she’s often doing it in very, very high heels, so right there you know she’s faking the good-time part a bit.

If you think about it, this journey from Julia to Nadia says a lot about our relationship to food. Back in the day we wanted to make classier food. Not fancy, but just classier. French-like. Now we want to make healthier food, faster. And we want it to be the healthy food that everyone else knows is healthy. (If you’re going to interrupt now and say you were into flax seeds in the 1980s before everyone else, please refrain.)

So much of this thirst for food-preparation knowledge is all about improving one’s odds for staying young, or at least staying around. If you don’t believe me, go to your local market the next time the national news has a story on blueberries as antioxidants. By the time you get there, you’ll be lucky to find enough sad little blue fruit to dot your cereal.

But, back to Nadia. What’s her appeal? I can wonder about this out loud (or on a blog) without shame now. Even The New York Times is curious. (If that link goes to a login page, then cough up the money for a NYT subscription. Come on!)

But I think the truth of the matter is that we’re poised for another shift in our relationship to food. We outgrew classy food and we’re soon to move on from our food as age-weapon period.

I predict that next up will be food as parlor game. Nadia, who changes costumes like a budget version of Lady Gaga, cooks against backgrounds of brightly colored, wacky sets. She talks as fast as an auctioneer, she’s goofy, sexy and without seeming to, she teaches viewers a thing or two about cooking. (You will never again fail to adequately strain your chicken broth after watching and listening to her do it.)

Let the games begin.

–Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett

Everywhere I look, it’s the Quinoa Network: All quinoa, all the time.

It’s not that the stuff is shockingly tasty. Even the typically enthusiastic Whole Foods website describes it with qualifiers, such as its “somewhat nutty flavor.” But quinoa is called the “Mother of All Grains” for its healthful properties and versatile nature.  It works in just about any recipe and it’s hard to ruin when cooking. When The New York Times is pushing quinoa pancakes, you know the stuff is hot.

(An aside: Why does everyone feel that pancakes need to be improved upon? What other dish gives us the chance to have butter, maple syrup and bacon on the same plate without raising eyebrows? Leave the pancakes alone, people.)

Quinoa, a spoonful of health (Wikimedia)

Quinoa (say “keen-wah”) is thought of as a grain, although it’s a closer cousin to a tumbleweed or spinach than it is to wheat. It’s usually described as a “pseudo-grain” which is sort of like calling it a cross-dresser.

A mouthful of the stuff is seemingly healthier than a week at a spa.  It’s got essential amino acids and lots of fiber. It’s nutritional pedigree is fabulous.

I wondered how this beloved-by-the-ancient-Incas food happened to take the culinary world by storm in the last year or so.  A gang called the Quinoa Corporation promotes itself as the first to bring quinoa to the US. When was the last time you heard of a company taking credit for bringing a desirable new substance into this country? I mean, besides the drug cartels.

Actually, research reveals that quinoa is just like those actors who are described in People and US magazines as “overnight” successes.  Quinoa’s been quietly taking bit parts in the US for more than 20 years (a trade group of  producers formed in the late 1980s). It’s been waiting in the wings for a break, and finally it got the culinary equivalent of a miniseries on HBO, the network that made even President John Adams a hot character.

Quinoa’s popularity is a direct result of the influence of vegetarians and the growing number of gluten-avoiders who have risen up and demanded foods that won’t (a) offend them politically; (b) make them sick and (c) cause dinner guests to gag.

I’ve been wondering…is there anything bad about this dish? The only criticism I could find was that too much quinoa can be bad for people who need to avoid oxalates in food, which can cause or aggravate inflammation among other bad experiences.  But if there is a food or drink out there (besides water) that has less controversy, I can’t name it.

So, hike on over to the store (or the internet) and buy a bag. If you don’t like it, you can always sprinkle it on the sidewalk to create traction during freezing spells. Step over the squirrels eating it and be on your way.

Coconut water seems to be the hydration-of-the-hip. I know this because I now regularly see fit-looking people with bottles of this elixir sticking out of their tote-bags and backpacks. Many of them are coming or going from a gym when sighted.

Those of us for whom Diet Pepsi remains the electrolyte-replacement beverage of choice tend to hide the bottles, not use them as accessories.

Various health-food grocery stores have been pushing the stuff for some time now.  And, it’s gone mainstream. I’m not sure, but I think I spotted some next to the Beer Nuts in the gas station mini-mart the other day. (Beer nuts have a lot of protein, by the way.)

I went looking for some info on this coconut water, and immediately stumbled over a factoid that will come in handy should anyone at the gym ever strike up some small talk with me.:

Coconut water is not coconut milk.

This seems obvious now that I think of it, but it wasn’t until an expert told me so. Coconut water is the liquid you see inside a coconut. (If the last time you saw a coconut was in a Trader Vic’s lounge, think hard.)

It comes out of young coconuts, making it sort of like veal, only not mean-spirited. The marketers of coconut water have been careful to avoid mentioning this similarity, which is wise. Apparently it is easy to get the coconut to part with its liquid center. There’s an expression in Haiti used to describe something that goes smoothly: “easy as coconut milk.”

It’s got a ton of potassium, meaning we all now can name two things with a lot of potassium, the other item being bananas. Sodium is actually a good thing for serious workout types and coconut water has quite a bit, but less than most sports drinks. So despite the attraction for the workout-gear-wearing set, boring old Gatorade is probably better for replacing the stuff lost in a real workout. (Mother Jones told readers this last summer. No one listened.)

Coconut water also has been shown to lower some kinds of cholesterol in rats, which is good news for them.

Wikipedia adds this: “There have been cases where coconut water has been used as an intravenous hydration fluid in some developing countries where medical saline was unavailable.”  The site does not mention that whiskey has also been used when medical saline was not available in those developing countries, primarily in US military hospitals.

A company called Zico has cornered the market on the stuff—or more to the point,  the social-marketing expert there knows how to work Google, but good. The Zico folks seem like nice people, despite the slightly scary looking tab on their website called “the pledge” which is just a way to get on their mailing list and get announcements about new uses for coconut water.

I’m heartened to discover that this stuff is not just for yuppies. The National Hockey League’s Boston Bruins drink it. If it’s good enough for the House that Orr Built, it must be okay.

–Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett

Food shoppers remain “financially wary—and weary” and will continue to be conservative in their food-spending and eating behaviors this year, says A. Elizabeth Sloan, a nationally known expert in food science and nutrition.

But “it’s not all doom and gloom for food marketers,” Sloan says in this month’s journal of Food Technology.

Dr. A.E. Sloan

She says that 72 percent of all meals are now prepared in the home, rejuvenating sales in the once stagnant sectors of basic ingredients, home baking staples, and prepared mixes.

Sloan, former Editor-in-Chief of McCall’s and past-director of the Good Housekeeping Institute, says despite consumer claims of eating out less often, U.S. restaurant industry sales are projected to reach an all-time high of $604 billion after three years of declines. Also, she added, almost everything from fast-food eateries to the large majority of fine dining establishments say they plan to add new menu items this year.

Sloan, who is president of the trend-tracking and predictions firm Sloan Trends, Inc. sees increases in sales of ready-to-drink tea and coffee, snack/granola bars, and dried-meat snacks. The fresh and frozen foods departments also posted above average growth, led by frozen vegetables and refrigerated lunches as did small, indulgent treats, like cheesecake and frozen novelties which enjoyed brisk sales.

Top 10 Consumer Packaged Goods Growth Categories. Chart by Symphony IRI Group/IFT.

Sloan’s article in the publication of the Institute of Food Technologists, also listed these areas of increased sales:

• Among the 10 largest areas of packaged goods, chocolate candy, salty snacks, and bottled water made significant gains last year.
• New/unique varieties, recipes, and flavor combinations topped the list of claims found on some of the most successful new foods/drinks introduced from 2009 to 2010.
• Packaging advances that permit microwave steam-cooking are now second only to flavor claims among the year’s best-selling new foods and beverages.
• Selecting groceries to prepare nutritious/wholesome meals was a priority for food shoppers, second only to taste. As were purchasing products in order to help manage a specific health condition or to lose weight.

–The Food Watchdog staff