Etc...

It's time for a change

First he was simply Sean Combs, an aspiring recording artist from New York's Harlem neighborhood. Since then, as his hip-hop , producing, and acting careers gained momentum, you've known him as Puffy Combs, Puff Daddy, and, finally, P. Diddy. Oh, and then there's the name he uses on his urban-clothing line: Sean Jean. Well, guess what? Matters have reached the point where even he is confused about his identity . Or, as he told the New York Post: "Nobody knew what to call me.... and when I'd called someone on the telephone, it took me a long time to explain who I was." So, the music icon has decided to "simplify things." From now on, he wishes to be known as just ... Diddy.

Let's say you've rushed home from work, have an appointment in exactly one hour, and realize that there's just enough time to throw together a home-cooked meal - providing, that is, that you have the right ingredients. If you haven't remembered to thaw any meat and there's no time to make a supermarket run, what are the best food items to have on hand besides the staples, such as milk, butter, flour, eggs, and the like? The website of the cable-TV channel The Food Network, foodnetwork.com, recently addressed this question with a list of what its experts consider the most useful canned or packaged edibles to have available for those unplanned culinary moments. The must-have items to keep in the kitchen cupboard, according to foodnetwork.com:

1. Canned tomatoes
2. Chicken, beef, or vegetable broth
3. Dried pasta
4. Canned or dried beans (string, wax, lima, black, navy, pinto, kidney, garbanzo)
5. Canned tuna fish
6. Dried fruits
7. Olives
8. Breadcrumbs
9. Tomato sauce/tomato paste
10. Rice