Cramer also recommended General Mills (GIS). He said this company raised its 2010 guidance and has always been an outperformer. "People don't cut back on food," he said, "not even when they're dieting!"

The program is to attempt to buy only the likes of Kimberly-Clark (KMB), Altria (MO), General Mills (GIS) and the higher-yielders.

As usual, the easiest way to make it back is to get on the horses that are leaders. What I did with 59 days left is figure out which companies were going to have the best quarters (e.g., Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Salesforce.com (CRM)) and which ones had already had the great quarters (e.g., Nike (NKE) and General Mills (GIS)), and I would buy gigantic positions in deep-in-the-money calls dated January. That way, I had the exposure I needed.

Dazzling earnings, here. Two days of dazzling earnings. General Mills (GIS) has put up numbers that were inconceivable a year ago, a true blow-away quarter that was bottom-line actual, as opposed to bottom-line subjective. For years the knock on GIS was that it was "manufacturing" the upside through nips and tucks and buybacks. Nobody can say that after this huge quarter. Commodity costs and fuel costs helped, but so did the ongoing restructuring that is the company's "holistic margin management." I know that the skeptics laughed at Ken Powell, the terrific CEO, about that term, but it is working. This stock's powering higher on this quarter even though it isn't a cyclical industrial. Good for Ken, good for General Mills, good for the shareholders.

In the latter theory the big durable good numbers and existing-home numbers are "in" the stock market. I say that because some of my hardest-hit names are directly linked to a stronger economy -- 3M (MMM), Caterpillar (CAT), Deere (DE), Fluor (FLR) and General Electric (GE) -- while the recession stocks are rocking: Procter & Gamble (PG), Celgene (CELG), General Mills (GIS), Pepsi (PEP), Coca-Cola (KO) and Abbott Laboratories (ABT). Worse, Dollar Tree (DLTR) and Family Dollar (FDO) are on the move.

Could someone pound General Mills (GIS) and Pepsi (PEP) more?

Gartman likes playing aluminum and grains. He recommended long Alcoa (AA), long Kellogg (K) and long General Mills (GIS).

increasing its quarterly dividend by 9.3 percent.

bellweather

Cramer said when he looks at the big picture, he sees a slow recovery coming, one that won't produce a lot of jobs or spending, but one that will produce a lot of profits from huge layoffs and falling commodity prices. This is good news for defensive names and high yielders like General Mills (GIS), and Yum! Brands (YUM), both of which he owns for his Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, he said.

Bought this under analysts' opinions (first mistake). Price was static. I sold mine when it was downgraded recently.

The International Dairy Foods Association tried, unsuccessfully to prevent the FDA from saying cloned food is safe. KFT and GIS are among the companies represented by this association.