Freezer

This year, 18 of us will get together for Thanksgiving. We all have food assignments. Mine has always been the turkey, the stuffing and the gravy. And since Thanksgiving is filled with tradition, we have always, always eaten a Butterball turkey. Not only do we slice up the big bird on Thursday, but the leftovers come out of the refrigerator on Friday and we have Thanksgiving dinner for lunch. So basically, I'm cooking turkey for 36. A few years ago, I ran all over North County looking for a large turkey.

Hey lady, want a cow? Sure, who wouldn't want a cow, or a pig for that matter, but, gee, it's not like I have a meat freezer. The idea of one's own personal livestock, grown by a responsible farmer, is appealing. But there are typically two deal-killers -- the expense and the required freezer space, even a side of beef, half the cow, yields somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 pounds. Meat clubs, or meat shares, are a way of letting consumers cut their commitment to a whole-animal purchase.

Baltimore County police are looking for a man who held up a Friendly's restaurant in Dundalk at gunpoint Friday morning. No one was injured in the robbery, but the masked man, who displayed "a long, black revolver," demanded money and put three employees in a freezer when he entered the restaurant in the 1500 block of Merritt Blvd. about 7 a.m., police said. The employees were able to free themselves and call 911. The robber escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash. - Nicole Fuller

This year, 18 of us will get together for Thanksgiving. We all have food assignments. Mine has always been the turkey, the stuffing and the gravy. And since Thanksgiving is filled with tradition, we have always, always eaten a Butterball turkey. Not only do we slice up the big bird on Thursday, but the leftovers come out of the refrigerator on Friday and we have Thanksgiving dinner for lunch. So basically, I'm cooking turkey for 36. A few years ago, I ran all over North County looking for a large turkey.

* If the electricity fails, do not open the freezer door unless absolutely necessary, and then only for the shortest time possible.A full or nearly full freezer will preserve food with very little thawing for 10 to 12 hours if the door isn't opened.

Boston.--At some point all parents, except those with too much confidence and too little imagination, have lain awake at night thinking about how we would do it -- child-raising -- differently if we had a second chance. We would be braver or more cautious, more permissive or more authoritarian, more understanding or more judgmental.One of the givens of life, however, is that children are unique, or as Mr. Rogers would put it, special. We know that we can't raise a son or daughter one way, then start all over again with the same exact genetic material.

Five employees of a Burger King in Baltimore County were forced into the restaurant's freezer early yesterday while a gunman attempted to steal money from the company safe.The man, who covered his head and face with a hood and black scarf, was unable to get any money during the incident in the 1600 block of Belmont Ave. in Woodlawn because the safe was locked with a timer, police said.Employees at Burger King declined to comment.Pub Date: 6/14/98

The shotgun holdup of a Linthicum restaurant Tuesday was too close for comfort for county restaurant managers, who fear the incident may be tied to other robberies in the region.Police in Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore counties are trying to solve a string of 12 holdups, in which employees are herded into walk-in freezers while the bandits escape."We are definitely concerned," said Gary Grismer, an area supervisor for Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant. "We've added more security and more lighting."

Anne Arundel County prosecutors said it is legal to not report a death and to put the body in a freezer - as was discovered in a Glen Burnie apartment over the weekend - leading legislators in the county's delegation to consider a new round of efforts to make it against the law. On Friday night, police were called to an apartment in the 7400 block of Furnace Branch Road because the body of Doris Lea Cooke, 83, who had been ailing and bedridden for years,...

Two gunmen forced their way into the back of Chi Chi's restaurant in the 8000 block of Ritchie Highway on Monday night and locked two employees in the freezer before getting the manager to hand over an undisclosed amount of money, police said.Both men wore ski masks and entered the restaurant shortly after 11:30 p.m., police said. After locking the two employees in the freezer and a third in a restroom, they forced the manager into his office and made him take money from a safe, police said.

Kenny Files said he "knew I had something" when he felt more than a little tug on his fishing line April 14 in the flood-swollen Potomac River near Williamsport in Washington County. Files, who was 12 at the time and has been fishing since "I was 3 or 4" pulled in a 31.75-pound muskie after casting a large white plastic grub lure. It turned out to be the state record. Files' father, Ken, said he was a bit surprised at his son's big haul. He had been fishing the same waters across from their home Falling Waters, W.Va., and had not caught anything bigger than a 9 1/2- pound largemouth bass at their regular fishing spot.

When Colleen Ballantine, Cheryl Sanders and Bradley Kennedy size up meat for their freezers, they're thinking three things: free-range, low-fat, clean of antibiotics. The three women are deer hunters, and their market of choice is the woods of Maryland. With consumer demand rapidly growing for animals raised humanely and meat free of things not found in nature, supermarkets are stocking bison and pasture-raised beef at premium prices. But hunters -- especially women -- say white-tailed deer are nearby and plentiful, healthful and economical.

Cash for Appliances just got cooler. Starting Friday, Marylanders can apply for $500 rebates on new central air conditioners under the popular federal program backed by stimulus dollars. State officials announced Monday that they plan to extend rebates to purchases of energy-efficient models in four new categories. State residents replacing old appliances also will be able to apply for $500 rebates on air-source heat pumps, $100 for freezers and $25 for room air conditioners.

A Maryland woman described by prosecutors as a torturer and maimer of her adopted girls was convicted Monday of killing two of them and stuffing their bodies into a freezer, and inflicting more than 80 injuries on the third. "What she did was absolutely horrendous," said Laurence Foley, foreman of the jury that deliberated for about 90 minutes inside a Montgomery County courthouse. "There was an overwhelming amount of evidence." The case stunned the region and cast a spotlight on the District of Columbia's child welfare agency, which had allowed Renee Bowman, 44, to adopt the three girls.

Emily Senatore from Kodak, Tenn., was looking for a recipe for making a cheesecake similar to the one made by Sara Lee and sold in supermarkets. She says that the light and creamy dessert is no longer to be found in the freezer section of her market and she would like to be able to make it at home. Darla Cole from Brooklyn, in South Baltimore, sent in a recipe for cheesecake that she calls a Sara Lee clone. I remember fondly the cheesecake made by Sara Lee, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Cole's simple and quick recipe produced something very close in taste and appearance to the original.

Austin's Deer Processing is hard by BWI Marshall Airport and a stone's throw from Arundel Mills on a bend in the road that really makes you slow down and pay attention. While folks were winging their way home after a visit with relatives or fighting mall traffic for those must-have holiday gifts, lots of hunters made the turn off Ridge Road and into Austin's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the first day of Maryland gun season. There was a sense of purpose this year as hunters raced to put deer in the freezer as a way to pinch pennies.

A man with a revolver robbed a Popeyes restaurant in Brooklyn Park at closing yesterday and left employees locked in a freezer, police said.Police said the employees were leaving the fast-food restaurant in the 5300 block of Ritchie Highway about 12: 15 a.m. when the armed man forced them back inside.The man made one of the workers lie on the office floor while another opened the safe and put money into a container, police said.After getting the money, the man locked the employees in the freezer and fled after taking the videotape from the restaurant's security camera, police said.

Two people accused of killing a Northeast Baltimore woman and stashing the body in a freezer were indicted yesterday on murder and conspiracy charges. A Howard County grand jury returned indictments charging first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and felony assault against Anthony Tyrone Williams, 32, and Kathy Lynn Gray, 40. Williams and Gray were arrested March 6 after a man contacted authorities and said a man named Tony tried to recruit him to help dump a body.

Austin's Deer Processing is hard by BWI Marshall Airport and a stone's throw from Arundel Mills on a bend in the road that really makes you slow down and pay attention. While folks were winging their way home after a visit with relatives or fighting mall traffic for those must-have holiday gifts, lots of hunters made the turn off Ridge Road and into Austin's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the first day of Maryland gun season. There was a sense of purpose this year as hunters raced to put deer in the freezer as a way to pinch pennies.