Nuts

A spinach casserole and a raspberry bread offer fun in the kitchen plus two delicious treats.Dora Parson of Baltimore wrote that she had a spinach casserole at the Old Country Buffet in Pike Park Plaza in Baltimore and fell in love with it. She hoped she could find a similar recipe. Her response came from Gloria M. Kohlhepp, also of Baltimore, who noted that her recipe is a "tasty, easy dish my family enjoys."Sally Burgess of Rapid City, S.D., requested a raspberry quick bread, preferably using fresh raspberries.

Quote: "That team over there drives us nuts."-- Braves manager Bobby Cox, whose team won the season series, 5-4, over the Rockies with a 14-inning victory yesterday.It's a fact: The Braves have at least one double in 45 consecutive games, the longest streak in the majors since the Indians went 75 straight in 1996.Who's hot: The Reds' Pete Harnisch has won eight consecutive decisions, dating back to June 12.Who's not: Braves' John Smoltz hasn't won in nine starts since June 18, the longest winless streak of his career.

Don't demand that O'Malley make good on every promise immediately. Wait till he is inaugurated.Henceforth, everything is Mike Hargrove's fault.Too many nuts, not all of whom are gun nuts, go nuts with guns.The Clinton administration supports the true democrats of Serbia, if it can find any.

FIRST, THE good news.Zenia Jenkins is, indeed, as mentioned in Wednesday's column about George Washington Carver High School's Hall of Fame induction ceremony for alumni, a staff member at the school. I got her name right. Even spelled it correctly.Now, the bad news. Jenkins is not a guidance counselor at Carver. She's an English teacher. That information comes from Carole Todd, who should know. Todd ITAL is END ITAL a Carver guidance counselor.The columnist regrets the error, and compliments Carver on having as fine a staff and administration as any high school can get. Proof of this is that they survived my son attending Carver and still have a commitment to education.

When operations close down in any embassy as a security precaution, the terrorists won.People who were mad at Japan for getting rich are madder when it's getting poor.The prospect of reporters going to jail rather than reveal sources in Starr's office is too tempting for your average federal court judge to pass up.Science fiction nuts held a convention in Bawlamer and felt right at home.Pub Date: 8/17/98

In a case that comes down to the nuts and bolts of the defense industry, a Florida businessman and his firm went on trial in federal court in Baltimore yesterday, charged with selling substandard hardware to defense contractors in Maryland and other states.The hardware was used to build components for some of the country's most sophisticated weapons systems, including F-22 fighters, cruise missile launching devices and the Milstar military communications satellite. No injuries or accidents have been blamed on the hardware.

Not the best Santa questionAS THE audience departed last Saturday from Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts after Ballet Theater of Annapolis' performance of its children's ballet, "Santa's Workshop," a mother began channeling the experience for her son."Did you see all the toys in Santa's workshop? Weren't the dolls wonderful? Did you see Mr. and Mrs. Santa?""Mo-om," said the little boy in the voice of long experience. "I already know what you're gonna ask me.""What?" asked his mother."You always wanna know which one did I like best."

People all over the world delight in eating nuts roasted, raw and ground. We enjoy them out of hand and in a wide variety of sweet and savory foods from breakfast to snacks to dinner to desserts.Nuts are dry fruits or seeds that generally consist of an edible kernel enclosed in a shell. That shell can range from medium-hard, thin and brittle to woody and tough. The seeds of a few other plants that are not strictly nuts are also considered nuts for culinary purposes.Nuts are sold shelled and unshelled in a variety of forms: blanched or unblanched, raw, dry- or oil-roasted, with or without salt, chopped, sliced, ground (as in butters or flours)

Lately I've been meeting people so wickedly busy they can't eat lunch.Some are noon exercisers who can't seem to justify both a lunch hour and an exercise hour. Some are in the crunch phase of a project. Others are wound up with mothering tasks that have them running in all directions at noon.These demanding situations lead to the notion that eating lunch is an indulgence. A weakness. Unnecessary.But running on empty takes its toll.What feels like afternoon stress -- headache, fatigue, short temper, inability to concentrate, even lack of physical coordination -- may really be hunger.

In a stinging defeat for federal prosecutors, a jury in Baltimore deadlocked yesterday over whether a Florida businessman intended to defraud the government by supplying substandard hardware to defense contractors building sensitive weapons systems.With the jury hung, the judge declared a mistrial in the complicated case, which examined the nuts and bolts of how weapons systems such as F-22 fighters and cruise missile launchers are held together.No injuries or accidents have been blamed on the fasteners.

The Empire strikes back - in a good way. In 2000, the giant E&J Gallo Winery lost a trademark infringement suit it brought against Bridlewood. So it turned around and bought its tiny rival. Good move. This chardonnay is far above the norm in this price range. It's finely balanced, with a crisp acidity and a light touch with oak. The flavors are what you'd expect with chardonnay - apple, lemon and nuts - but with an uncommon clarity and energy. 2007 Bridlewood Chardonnay From: Monterey County, Calif.

Some people take pistachios for granted. We love them sprinkled liberally over ice cream. Shaved over salads. Toasted and chopped for a halibut crust. Packed for some crunch punch in cookies. Sunken like treasure in soups. Dusted with tangy spice rubs. Even straight-up with a drink at the game - they can give peanuts an inferiority complex. Pistachios are native to the Middle East and are likely the oldest cultivated nut tree in history. Archaeological evidence shows traces of pistachios as far back as 7000 B.C. The first commercial pistachio crop was grown in California in 1976 and it produced 1.5 million pounds of nuts.

CHICAGO -- On the Northern Illinois University campus, Stephen P. Kazmierczak, 27, was considered a gentle, hard-working student, who was honored two years ago with a dean's award for his sociology work. Professors who taught him said it was hard to imagine he was the same person authorities identified as the gunman in Thursday's classroom shootings. "I knew Steve both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. I have had him in my home. I knew him as a warm, sensitive, very bright student," wrote Professor Kristen Myers in an e-mail.

Invoking great tax protests in American and Maryland history, Del. Pat McDonough is urging citizens to stuff peanuts into envelopes and mail them off to Martin O'Malley. The governor is not proposing a peanut tax. A 1-cent sales tax increase, yes, but groceries would remain exempt. What's with the peanuts? McDonough is calling for "no unnecessary taxes," and from that slogan, an acronym and postal peculiarity were born. "Please include in your envelope a few well placed peanuts to make the point that you are a N.U.T.

I still have Saturday, June 23, 1979, marked in my book of life as having started off as a bad day, an ugly day. It's too bad, on account of the great thing that happened the night before, but what can I tell ya? Stuff happens, even when your adopted hometown team wins. Doug DeCinces had hit a ninth-inning home run the night before at Memorial Stadium, giving the Orioles a huge win over the Detroit Tigers in the American League East pennant race. It was a big wow. (Later, some baseball historians decided that home run heralded the birth of Oriole Magic.

2005 Napa Ridge Chardonnay From: Napa Valley, Calif. Price: $12 Serve with: Salmon, grilled chicken Kudos to Napa Ridge for producing a good, inexpensive chardonnay that's actually from the Napa Valley. (There was a time when the only thing Napa about it was the name.) This is an entirely credible value for the money. It's not overly oaked and, while it's not exceptionally complex, everything is in balance. It has the predictable but quite enjoyable California chardonnay flavors of apple, lemon, vanilla and nuts.

2006 Swanson Pinot Grigio From: Napa Valley, Calif. Price: $21 Serve with: Salmon, swordfish There are a lot of bland, neutral pinot grigios on the market. This is not one of them. It's a full-bodied, creamy, intense white wine in a style reminiscent of the very best offerings from Italy. Its complex mix of flavors includes lemon, vanilla, apple and nuts. Certainly it ranks among the best pinot grigios from California.

My granddaughter is 10 years old, and she still wears diapers to bed every night. Can you give me some advice on how we can get her up to go to the bathroom? I remember years ago discussion of an electrical device that sounded an alarm to wake the child. Do these devices still exist? If there is no underlying medical problem, a bed-wetting alarm is a good treatment. At first the alarm may wake everyone in the house except the sleeping bed-wetter. Waking the child and getting her to the bathroom to finish urinating should address the problem within a month or two. Devices such as SleepDry or Wet-Stop2 cost $50 to $75. I suffered for years with stomach ulcers and had to be hospitalized when they turned into bleeding ulcers.

On the Internet, there is little time for grief. In an arena that feeds on a steady diet of confrontation, quiet reflection is naturally hard to come by, but that doesn't make it any less jarring in the face of a tragic story like the events that unfolded last week at Virginia Tech. As news of the shootings broke, few blogs or message boards found cause to pause too long for the dead. Instead, many moved startlingly fast to axe-grinding, finger-pointing and name-calling, often in a matter of minutes after hearing the news.

2006 Alice White Chardonnay From: South Eastern Australia Price: $7 Serve with: Crab dip, fried calamari, Buffalo wings This is not an outstanding chardonnay. It is an outstanding $7 wine. It delivers a clean, pure and simple version of this varietal, with none of the heavy or overripe flavors that can creep into Australian chardonnay. It's on the light side, with the typical chardonnay flavors of lemon, apple, nuts and spice. Restaurants should check out this widely available brand.