Frozen

Don't thaw frozen cranberries before using. Simply rinse in cold water and use as directed for fresh cranberries.-- Cole's Cooking A to Z

Pro footballCarruth's assets frozen after tests confirm he's baby's fatherRae Carruth's assets were frozen yesterday after it was determined that the former Carolina Panthers wide receiver is the father of his slain girlfriend's child.Judge Yvonne Mims Evans released the results of DNA tests that showed there was a 99.9 percent probability Carruth is the father of Chancellor Lee Adams.Evans said Carruth's assets would be frozen with the exception of $35,000 to help pay for his lawyers. Carruth and four other men are being held without bail in Charlotte, N.C., on first-degree murder and related charges in the slaying of Cherica Adams.

* Item: Cooley's SmoothyPak* What you get: 4 (16-ounce) smoothies* Cost: About $2.60* Preparation time: A minute or so in blender* Review: These SmoothyPaks of frozen fruit are ingen-ious. They're healthy, easy to use and they capitalize on kids' love of smoothies -- those fruit shakes you see teen-agers slurping at the mall. We tried the Strawberry-Mango-Pineapple and the Raspberry-Peach-Papaya flavors. Add a banana, a cup each of milk and juice, along with some yogurt, and you've got a nutritious and tasty snack.

THE LATE Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" foretold astronauts able to hibernate in a frozen state. It was pure science fiction, but, it turns out, he nearly got the date right.Last month, archaeologists unearthed three mummies preserved in incredible condition for half a millennium in an Andean volcano in Argentina. Scientists believe the mummified children were buried alive by Incan priests in a religious sacrifice, but quickly froze within Mount Llullaillaco before the corpses deteriorated.

While September signals to most people the dreaded end of summer, meaning a return to school and routines, autumn can be the most pleasant time of the year for the crabber.Cool nights, warm days, decreased algae growth and limited boat traffic result in clearer, calmer water, so one can truly enjoy being out on the bay.Crabs now become frenzied feeders, for they sense that they will soon be returning to the muddy bottoms to build fat cells in order to survive the winter. The next two months can be remarkably productive for the crabber who knows where to lay his or her equipment.

MONTREAL -- The hunter appears to have come to a horrible end.A slip of the foot on a frozen trail -- perhaps just as he was about to hurl his spear into the flank of some thick-furred quarry that would have fed his wandering clan -- and the hunter plummeted to his death in a deep glacial crevasse.The prehistoric drama might have occurred several thousand years ago, though, for now, scientists eager to study the human remains, discovered this month at a receding glacier in British Columbia, will only speculate that the hunter died before the arrival of Europeans to the Pacific Northwest.

Frozen berries exude much more juice than fresh, so always reduce the liquid and increase the thickener when using them in pies or cobblers.-- The Food Lover's TiptionaryPub Date: 6/14/98

A mystical creature. The embodiment of female angst.This is how Madonna describes her look in the new video "Frozen," from her album "Ray of Light," released Tuesday.In "Frozen," her hair is decidedly raven, she's clad in black from fingernail to foot, and her hands are decorated with trendy Mehndi temporary tattoos.But this look isn't as vogue as we expect Madonna to be, observers say. It may even mark the end of her days as pop's No. 1 fashion icon.The newest Madonna incarnation has a name: "Veronica Electronica," a spiritual alter ego whose style is suspiciously similar to the Goth look, a black, brooding, club-kid fashion staple that's been around for well over a decade.

TAMPA, Fla. -- David Cone was no match for El Nino last night as a freakish cold spell forced him to miss a spring-training start. With fans at Legends Field wrapped in blankets, the New York Yankees thought it best to keep Cone insulated from a stiff wind and temperatures in the mid-40s."

From the Artificial Reality Department: The geniuses who brought us the video aquarium and video fireplace are now peddling a "Christmas Through Your Window" videotape that shows falling snowflakes and twinkling holiday lights viewed through icy windowpanes.On the Yuletide tape, holiday music plays in the background. The video fireplace, which "turns your TV into an old-fashioned hearth," features the sound of crackling logs. "No chopping wood, no cinders or soot to clean," boasts the advertisement.

The idea of fresh, local, healthful foods in Baltimore City school cafeterias seems like a great idea. Who could argue with the health benefits of serving whole grains, fruits and vegetables (and by "vegetables," we don't mean ketchup)? There's something intuitively appealing about bringing school lunches back to what they once were, before frozen trays of ultra-processed chicken nuggets became the norm. But as with everything, there are trade-offs. Schools outsourced meal preparation in an effort to save money, and converting back will have costs - as much as $3 million, for example, to retrofit a warehouse into a central cooking facility.

1 No end to Madness (Part 1): The NCAA tournament continues with Syracuse vs. Oklahoma (7 p.m., chs. 13, 9). Boomer Sooner goes the dynamite. 2 No end to Madness (Part 2): The next game (same channels) matches Gonzaga and UNC. The former was mentioned by the Spice Girls: "I really wanna Gonzigazag ha." 3 Icy hot: They're almost down to the NCAA Frozen Four. ESPN2 has a regional semifinal at 5:30 p.m.: Denver vs. Miami. Miami? Oh, that's the one in Ohio. 4 Doesn't matter?: A colleague says it doesn't matter that the Caps (vs. Tampa Bay, 7 p.m., Comcast Sports-Net)

Some friends from the Confederacy came to visit us in St. Paul, Minn., last week, when the temperature was around zero and so we had to haul out electric blankets and crank the thermostat up to 68, but they still felt "chilled," and so I made them go for a walk outdoors, and when they returned, they felt warmer. They only needed to get perspective. Cold is not so cold if you compare it to actual death. I grew up at a time when you didn't complain about winter. Blizzards raged across the prairie, and that was that.

It's a freezing afternoon and I am at Atwater's in the Belvedere Square Market, having a cup of their delicious soup for lunch in order to maintain the chiseled physique and whippet-like quickness for which I'm known. My wife and I are at a table near the window, a prime spot for people-watching if you're into that sort of thing, and she is. Suddenly I look out and see an astounding sight. There on the sidewalk is a man wearing a fleece, shorts and flip-flops. The temperature outside is now 22 degrees.

J.R. SIMPLOT, 99 Businessman, philanthropist J.R. Simplot, Idaho's richest man and a state icon, died of pneumonia Sunday at his home. A farmboy who never attended high school, Mr. Simplot built a personal fortune recently estimated at $3.6 billion. He and the company he founded all but reinvented the humble potato, creating the first successful frozen french fries and partnering with McDonald's to sell them worldwide. The private company he began became one of the largest agribusiness conglomerates in the world.

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Joe Bollinger of Glen Burnie read that Lake Erie had frozen. "Which of the remaining four Great Lakes would be the next to freeze, and has it ever happened?" Lake Erie is the first to freeze because it's the shallowest. Old timers in Erie, Pa., recall driving across the ice to Canada. Lake Ontario would be next. The Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab says 90 percent of the five lakes' surface has frozen in extreme winters, such as the three beginning in 1976-77.

Somebody in North Baltimore ZIP code 21212 offered this for free on Yahoo: "Frozen moose head." "okay, gross, yes, but this is left from a documentary done on moose," the "freecycle" posting said. "it's frozen, in a large tote, does not have the antlers, from neck up. sooner pick up, the better ... please get it outta here!" Gotta be a great story there. And I'd like to bring it to you. But for some reason, the lady who posted the thing has been reluctant to go public. Looked at first like she'd cooperate, and I was all ready with the classic who, what, where: Who'd watch a moose documentary?

What makes sashimi tuna more special than tuna? I know it is eaten raw. Is it more susceptible to mercury contamination? Sashimi is a misunderstood term. The word "sashimi" is the Japanese term for "raw fish." But in America, "sashimi grade" has come to mean high-grade, very red cuts of tuna. However, the term "sashimi" on labels isn't regulated in the United States, so there is no guarantee attached to buying something called sashimi tuna. In this country, fish that is destined to be served raw must be frozen, except tuna, which loses quality if it's frozen.

Former Sun copy boy Bob Baker writes from Los Angeles with an old family story about his Uncle Connie skating on the ice from Canton to Annapolis, sometime early in the 20th century. "What year did the spectacularly hard freeze occur?" he asks. It was probably February 1905. Temperatures averaged 8 degrees below normal and sub-zero readings were common. There was 15 inches of ice at the head of the bay, and the St. Mary's River was frozen shore to shore for seven weeks.