Candy Bars

Marge Chambers of Kelso, Wash., requested Baby Ruth candy-bar cookies.Tester Laura Reiley chose the response of Carolyn Drummey of Bel Air.Baby Ruth CookiesMakes 4 dozen cookies1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened3/4 cup sugar1 egg1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt2 Baby Ruth candy bars (2.1 ounces each), choppedIn a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt.

When it comes to meatballs and cake, these two requests will offer you a snicker and an aloha.Tanya Floam of Westminster requested a Snickers-bar cake recipe."

The deadest, whitest male of them all, Ernest Hemingway, gets a last frolic in the sun in the honey-hued "In Love and War." It makes his 1918 boy-girl thing with an older nurse seem like the greatest love affair since Almasy went gaga for Katherine in "The English Patient."Hemingway, an 18-year-old suburban swell from Chicago too good to join an actual combat unit, went to Italy as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. While handing out candy bars behind the lines, he was caught in a trench mortar blast and peppered with 247 nasty pieces of shrapnel in his leg. He may or may not have carried a wounded Italian back to the aid station; he said he did, but his citation says no such thing.

The Snickers bar always comes before the match. The Three Musketeers bar is saved for after.In between, South Carroll wrestler Mike Muller is in a world of his own.He finds an isolated corner, focusing, head down. He gets up and paces -- back and forth, behind the Cavaliers' chairs.On one occasion, he unknowingly walks in front, head down, obscuring the view of coach Pete Olson with a match taking place."Get outta here, Mike," Olson yells, half jokingly.Back to the corner where he has a brief chat with teammate Jason Hamper.

Rasheeda Wilson, 16, is no stranger to sacrifice. Just ask her about the cold Saturday nights she spent selling candy bars instead of going out with her friends.But none of those friends was accepted to the Sea Education Association's Science at SEA summer program at Woods Hole, Mass. That's where Rasheeda is headed -- if she can raise the money.The program accepted her and gave her a scholarship covering about half the cost. The rest is up to her, which is where the candy bars come in."The first day, we didn't sell half a box," she says.

On Saturday, the Performing Arts Association of Linthicum will present the next concert in its 1994-1995 season. The Warsaw Wind Quintet with Michiko Otaki, pianist, will perform on the stage of the new North County High School auditorium at 8 p.m.The quintet was formed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1973 by major soloists from the National Philharmonic and Radio Orchestras. They have played in the former Soviet Union and throughout Europe. The quintet regularly records for the Polish RTV and West Berlin Radio.

A death by chocolate and a revival by sweet fried dough offer a promise of pleasure.Johnny Ketchum of Baltimore asked if anyone "had a recipe for fatcakes. All I can remember is that my dad prepared the dough the night before and let it rise. Then he would deep-fry them in lard. They were larger than a doughnut," he wrote.Most recipes received referred to the "fatcakes" as fastnachts, a yeast raised dough that is fried and traditionally served on Shrove Tuesday.B. Hoffheiser of Baltimore responded with her recipe which she notes came from "my Dutch cook book."

Piedmont, California. -- Today's public high schools are graduating well-trained consumers instead of critical thinkers. As a teacher, I am alarmed to see how making money off young people has replaced educating them. My students spend more time exercising their wallets than their minds.Proof is in the increasing amount of class time that is devoted to fund-raising. Members of athletic teams, choirs and yearbook staffs sell T-shirts, candy bars and beefsticks throughout the school day.Every few weeks, I stop teaching for the delivery of flowergrams: flowers sold for $1 and personally delivered with a message to students during class.

CRUISING through our favorite discount warehouse the other weekend, we spotted a book we couldn't resist. We're happy to report that we bought "The Tightwad Gazette" for one-third the list price. The author would approve. After all, Amy Dacyczyn -- it's pronounced "decision," she says, "as in, 'I made a decision to marry a guy of Ukrainian ancestry.' " -- doesn't call herself "the Frugal Zealot" for nothing.As you might expect, the book is chock full of ideas for saving money, but the more interesting aspect is the philosophy behind the book and the monthly newsletter from which it was compiled.

Fire destroys home on Hillside Drive; residents unhurtA two-alarm fire last night in the 1200 block of Hillside Drive destroyed the two-story waterfront home of three men and caused an estimated $165,000 damage.No injuries were reported.Fire Department spokesman Capt. Gary Sheckells said no one was home when the fire broke out in a first-floor apartment at around 10:20 p.m., about 30 minutes after the last of three tenants had left the house.A second-floor apartment was unoccupied.Within minutes, the fire enveloped the dwelling, causing the second alarm to be sounded at 10:31 p.m.Nearly 40 firefighters from several fire stations brought the fire under control in less than an hour.

Elizabeth Walters grew up with many families. A foster child who was adopted at the age of 10, she split her time between her birth family and her adoptive family. Later, girlfriends at Catholic High School and co-workers and patrons at the neighborhood bar where she was a waitress also became like family to her. It was her appreciation for the concept of family that prompted Elizabeth Walters to confront the married man with whom she was expecting a baby about what role he'd play in the little girl's life, friends and relatives said.

COLLEGE PARK -- Before last night's game, the season's most popular Halloween costume seemed pretty clear. After all, ever since Chris Turner, that lanky California kid with the cottonball curls, took over as Maryland quarterback three weeks ago, sales of blond afro wigs in College Park have increased a hundredfold. But after last night's 18-17 nail-biting loss to Virginia, the Turner costume has been supplanted on the season's must-have list. The new costume of choice is a bit more elaborate, but it'll surely bring more candy.

Feeling insignificant? Here's the remedy: Create an Internet-based encyclopedia entry about yourself. All you need do is log on to www.wikipedia.org and write your life's accomplishments. Once you're finished, it will be available instantly to Internet browsers everywhere. Wikipedia isn't some online sideshow, either. It is used by tens of millions of people every week - more than CNN.com. Wikipedia is an interactive online encyclopedia that anyone can work with; you can create your own entries and edit existing ones.

Few can resist the inviting smell of a warm pan of brownies fresh from the oven. In her book, Brownie Mix Bliss (Cumberland House, 2005, $16.95), author Camilla Saulsbury opens up a world of confectionary possibilities, giving chocolate lovers almost 200 reasons to indulge. The book is divided into sections that include recipes for brownies and other traditional desserts like cookies, dessert bars and assorted brownie desserts - all of them starting with a plain box of brownie mix. There is also a section on frostings and glazes and a brief glossary that covers basic baking terminology.

For quick energy, is an expensive energy bar really that much better than a candy bar? There's nothing magic about an energy bar. Energy comes from calories, so if your energy bar has the same number of calories as a candy bar (most do), it will provide the same amount of fuel for your body. The key is to read the labels, says Sandra DeLong, a registered dietician at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown. While energy bars are usually high in vitamins and minerals, I've heard nutritionists compare them to candy bars with a vitamin pill stuck inside.

Are you usually haunted by Halloween candy long after the day has passed? Halloween is the top candy-producing holiday in the country, with sales this year expected to be about $2 billion, according to the National Confectioners Association. The group says more than 9 billion pieces of candy corn will be produced, enough to circle the moon nearly four times. But it doesn't take a culinary ace to recycle leftover Halloween candy into treats for the whole family. Adrian Ashton, chef at Cafe Mileto in Germantown, learned how easy it is to use candy in desserts when he first made his popular Snickers Cheesecake with Caramel Graham-Cracker Crust for a child's birthday.

Who can say why it started, this wave of shootings and homicides that has swept across the city, claiming children and innocent bystanders, leaving a gravely wounded police officer fighting for his life on a sidewalk in Pimlico. In the past week Tevin Montrel Davis, 10, was shot in the neck as he sat on the porch with his father; five people - including three young children - were shot in one barrage; and, not more than 24 hours ago, Dwight Gilmore, 13, was killed by gunfire as he stood with some friends.

Sue Schatz of Abingdon requested a Milky Way Cake recipe, and Carol Katsampis of Ellicott City replied with tester Laura Reiley's choice. Milky Way Cake Serves 16 to 20 six 2.10-ounce or 13 fun-size Milky Way candy bars 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, divided use 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 2 1/2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup buttermilk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 to 1 cup pecans, chopped (optional) frosting (see recipe) Melt candy bars and 1/2 cup butter in the top of a double boiler over simmering water.

FOR THIS GROUP, fund raising is at once the problem and the solution. The Parent-Teacher Association is big business at most schools; annual budgets of $30,000 and more are common. Yet this is a voluntary organization that can't afford to gouge its members. Typical dues are $5 a year. (Delegates to the National PTA's annual convention in Baltimore debated long and hard last weekend before voting to raise national dues from $1.25 to $1.75, effective in 2002. That's per year!) This means the bulk of the money for all the things the PTA provides -- from scholarships to computers to after-prom parties -- has to come from fund raising, the thing the PTA does best.

Marge Chambers of Kelso, Wash., requested Baby Ruth candy-bar cookies.Tester Laura Reiley chose the response of Carolyn Drummey of Bel Air.Baby Ruth CookiesMakes 4 dozen cookies1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened3/4 cup sugar1 egg1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt2 Baby Ruth candy bars (2.1 ounces each), choppedIn a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt.