Frozen

Sprouted-grain bread offerings in the market have been slowly but steadily on the uptick of late, and a number of health claims have attached themselves to the spongy, nutty-tasting loaves: more digestible, richer in protein and higher in vitamins and minerals compared with other breads. But are the claims true? Yes -- and no. Sprouted-grain products have distinct nutritional advantages over white breads, but when compared to other whole-grain breads, they're usually nutritionally comparable -- although nutrient contents can vary, depending on the sprouts included.

LAS VEGAS -- U.S. Forest Service officials in Colorado are calling it the conundrum on Conundrum Creek: how to remove six cows that wandered into a wilderness cabin high in the Rocky Mountains and froze to death - stiff as boards - when they couldn't get out. For officials, here's the beef: Environmental restrictions won't let them use machinery of any kind to remove the frozen carcasses. They can't use flatbed trucks because the cabin is eight miles from the nearest road.

Some good buys for your health and your pocketbook: Buy fresh fruits and vegetables in season. Buy frozen otherwise. Frozen is cheaper and may even be better for you than fresh. That's because produce is usually frozen at its ripest, which is usually when it maxes out in nutrient content too. Some nutrients do break down or leach out in the freezing process, but most make it through.

Compensation for chief executives at AIG, Ally Financial and GM -- all of which received exceptional TARP assistance during the financial meltdown -- is being frozen at last year's levels, the Treasury Department said. The ruling from Patricia Geoghegan, acting special master for executive compensation under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, also notes that the government has recovered 75% of the funds it invested in American International Group Inc. General Motors Co. has reduced its obligations by nearly half, while Ally Financial Inc. (formerly GMAC)

Total time: About 1 hour, plus freezing time for the dough Servings: About 9 dozen cookies 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature 1 cup sifted powdered sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) sifted flour 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1/2 cup candied whole red cherries 1/2 cup candied whole green cherries 1/2 cup candied orange peel 1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.

  Total time: 55 minutes, plus freezing and optional softening time Servings: 8 to 10 Raspberry sauce 3/4 pound fresh or frozen raspberries 1/3 cup sugar Juice of 1/2 lemon 1. Purée the raspberries in a food mill, discarding the seeds. The raspberries can also be puréed in a food processor, then strained to remove the seeds. This makes about 1 cup purée. 2. Place the berries in a medium bowl and whisk in the sugar until dissolved.

This is the land where Larry Gordy was destined to live, until it was made unlivable. The Navajo believe that a person will always be tied to the place where his or her umbilical cord is buried. When Gordy was born in 1968, his father put his in this rust-colored dirt. It was here on the family's ranch on the edge of the Painted Desert that his father dreamed of one day building homes for his children, and of tilling a field where watermelon and corn could grow. But the Gordys were forced to put their dreams on hold.

J.R. Simplot, whose lifetime fascination with the potato helped change the nation's eating habits and made him a billionaire, died Sunday. He was 99. Simplot, who in his prime drove around Idaho in a Lincoln Continental with the license plate "Mr. Spud," died at his Boise home, apparently of natural causes, according to the Ada County coroner's office. The son of a farmer, Simplot began building his fortune while barely a teenager, finding new ways to bring potatoes and other vegetables to market.

Government scientists believe Alaska's North Slope has huge deposits of frozen natural gas that current technology could extract, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The report estimates that more than 85 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the form of gas hydrates -- methane gas locked in water as an ice-like solid -- eventually may be recoverable, but cautioned that further research was needed.

Nestle USA, headquartered in Glendale, will invest $30.2 million in its frozen food plant in Solon, Ohio, this year to expand production of its highly successful Stouffer and Lean Cuisine lines, the company announced. The Nestle brands comprise 27.6% of the $4.8-million healthy frozen food category, with more than half of the $144 million growth last year due to new products or distribution of the Stouffer line, said Nestle spokeswoman Roz O'Hearn. "We want to continue that pace," she said.

Now that the Final Four is over, it's time for the Frozen Four. The NCAA Division I men's hockey semifinals and finals will take place this week at  the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Fla., home of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The site might be nontraditional but that's fitting because there are some nontraditional semifinalists involved. In Thursday's first semifinal, at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time, Union College of Schenectady, N.Y., will face Ferris State of Big Rapids, Mich., in a matchup of first-time semifinalists.

There's a world out there where a finger of ice can destroy everything in its path. Where strobes of green light dance across the sunless sky. Where unicorn-like creatures roam the sea. And it's not the stuff of CGI-loaded blockbuster fantasy film. It's "Frozen Planet, "a seven-part Discovery Channel and BBC mega-series exploring the Earth's arcane polar regions. (It premiered last week, but its first installment will repeat Sunday just before the second episode.) Made by the documentary team behind 2006's groundbreaking "Planet Earth" and narrated by Alec Baldwin, "Frozen Planet" is epic in scope and cinematic in execution, demonstrating how far nature documentary series have come.

The first thing to say about "Frozen Planet," a documentary about life at the poles that begins its multipart run Sunday on Discovery Channel, is that it is gorgeous to behold: lump-in-throat, tear-in-eye beautiful. It is the very point of such documentaries to be beautiful, of course, and not merely to honor, record and convey the awesome majesty of the natural world but also to look good on that big, expensive television set you bought yourself for Christmas. Like "Planet Earth" (2006)

A plant that was frozen in Siberian permafrost for about 30,000 years has been revived by a team of Russian scientists - and borne fruit, to boot. Using tissue from immature fruits buried in fossil squirrel burrows some 90 feet below the surface, researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Pushchino managed to coax the frozen remains of a Silene stenophylla specimen into full flower, producing delicate white blooms and then fruit. The findings, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describe what is a record for reviving presumably dead plant tissue - and may provide clues as to what makes some plants hardier and longer-lived than others.

The Iron Dog has begun. Yes, there is Alaska's world-famous Iditarod race that runs each year from Anchorage to Nome, but those are mere dogs compared with this annual test of men, metal, ice and lunacy. The world's longest and most grueling snowmobile race got under way over the weekend in the town of Big Lake, near Wasilla. It is scheduled to proceed more than 2,000 miles across frozen lakes, hills, forests and tundra to Nome and then on to a finish in Fairbanks, nearly a week after the start.

By long-standing tradition, the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner has been purchased rock-hard, frozen and cheap. That's starting to change. Turkeys are going Godiva. The same passion for eating that brought us gourmet food trucks and swelled ratings for TV cooking shows has boosted demand for top-drawer turkeys with fancy names and even fancier price tags — up to $150 for a prized Bourbon Red heritage variety. "People want a bird that has a name, a provenance, a pedigree — a bird you can brag about," said Kathy Gori, a 60-year-old screenwriter who splits her time between Sonoma and Santa Monica.

My curiosity is aroused. After the Winter Olympics, how long did it take the medical profession to get Paula Zahn's legs uncrossed? WILLIAM J. LEWIS Carson

Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills said that Saturday's opening of a new work by Chris Burden, "One Ton, One Kilo," has been postponed indefinitely while the search continues for 220 pounds -- or about $3.3 million worth -- of gold bars needed to assemble the piece. The stash that Gagosian and Burden had secured for the exhibition got caught up in a civil action that federal authorities have brought against R. Allen Stanford, accused of running a Ponzi scheme. His assets, including Stanford Coins and Bullion, the company that sold Gagosian the required gold, have been frozen by court order.

Apart from hosting shows such as Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" and History Channel's "Ice Road Truckers," Alaska isn't exactly a hotbed for film production. But after the state implemented generous film incentives in 2009, Hollywood began to warm up to the Last Frontier, sending several new movie productions its way. "The Frozen Ground," based on the real-life 1980s Alaskan hunt for serial killer Robert Hansen, became the most recent Hollywood feature to shoot in Alaska when cameras started rolling in Anchorage this week.

The most controversial question arising from the Sept. 2 arrest and continuing federal fraud probe of campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee may in the end be the easiest one to answer: Should candidates be able to request additional money from donors who have already contributed the maximum amount allowed by law? Of course they should - if those earlier contributions never actually reached their intended campaigns or are otherwise unavailable for use because they are frozen pending the outcome of various lawsuits.