Nuts

Supermarkets pulled pistachios and some pistachio-laden foods from their shelves Tuesday, moves resulting from this week's Food and Drug Administration warning to consumers not to eat the nuts because they could be tainted with salmonella. The FDA is scrambling to prevent a repeat of a recent salmonella outbreak from peanuts that has sickened more than 690 people in 46 states.

Dear SOS: My husband and I recently spent a weekend in San Francisco and had a superb dinner at Perbacco. Everything was wonderful, but our dessert was one of the most delicious I've ever tasted. If you could get the recipe for its pine nut and honey tart, I could begin to cure my craving. Deborah Pollack Ventura Dear Deborah: I love everything about this tart. Not too sweet and with just the right touch of saltiness, this rustic dessert takes on light floral notes from the addition of Tasmanian honey, balancing the richness of the buttery pine nuts.

As we continue to lose our financial minds in sports, there are occasional blips of common sense. Not many, mind you. Not in a world where the salary of a basketball player can be measured in six figures a game, or a baseball player in six figures an inning. Interestingly, the pro football player who risks life and limb and likely future serious physical impairment, trails in the category of obscene cash flow. Maybe in his next contract talks, he can cut a deal to be paid by the concussion.

  On Saturday evening at Staples Center, the Clippers will play in their first playoff game in Los Angeles in six years. "Well, I think the place will be going nuts," NBA analyst Charles Barkley said on TNT's "Inside the NBA. " "You know, they haven't been to the playoffs in a long time and obviously with Lob City and Chris Paul and everything, they're very excitable. I think it's going to be a fantastic atmosphere. " The Clippers' first-round Western Conference playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies is tied at 1-1. Games 1 and 2 were played in Memphis.

Question: Help. How do you treat macadamia nuts before you can crack them open? We have this beautiful tree and lots of nuts. Answer: Tom Cooper of Rancho Nuez Nursery was kind enough to furnish the following information compiled by the California Macadamia Society: Macadamia nuts should be allowed to drop from the tree naturally. Gather the nuts at least once a week and remove the husks with the aid of a large pair of pliers.

Finally, somebody has the nerve to speak of the interminable menace that is the squirrel ("Damn Cute Menace," by David Page, June 3). Every time I grumble about finding a way to permanently eliminate our cute, furry friends you would think I had proposed taking a bazooka to Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Rick Leddy South Pasadena -- Six years ago my mother received an avocado tree as a gift. We planted, fed and nurtured it. After four years it finally produced baby avocados.

A handful of nuts a day may keep heart attack away, according to a group of researchers at Loma Linda University. A six-year study of diet and fatal coronary heart disease among 34,000 California members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church found that nuts were the only food item listed with a statistically significant protection against heart-attack death. "Compared to a person who never ate nuts, a person who ate them at least once a day had only 47% of the risk" of fatal heart attack, said Dr. Gary E. Fraser, co-author of a study presented last week at the Second International Conference of Preventive Cardiology in Washington.

Nuts are high in fat. But they're also high in fiber and potassium and therefore should not be disregarded altogether. In this cake, a few hazelnuts go a long way. We roast the nuts to heighten their flavor and aroma. And instead of sour cream, we use light peach yogurt to add moistness to the coffee cake. It's a terrific sweet for your mid-morning coffee or afternoon tea.

IN Jane Engle's article "From Soap to Nuts" [Travel Insider, Jan. 7], she went into extensive detail about the problem with nut allergies, all of which are true. However, never once did she mention another common and very difficult-to-deal-with allergy, and that is allergy to eggs. So many things contain egg: mayonnaise, salad dressings, some breads, almost all cookies and muffins, some pastas, frying batter etc. Hopefully, you will play catch up and address that subject. ALICE N. BESSMAN Los Angeles

Strolling through his vast groves of shapely pecan trees, Harry Willson lovingly raps the dark bark of one. "I'm older than these trees," said Willson, 67. "I was born in 1920, and these trees were planted in 1925. My father bought this grove in 1926, and we've been at it ever since."

  Total time: About 2 hours, plus cooling time Servings: 8 Note: Matzo cake meal (sometimes labeled matsah cake meal) is available at well-stocked supermarkets and at kosher markets. If you are serving the cake at a kosher meal that includes meat, use nondairy margarine to grease the cake pan. 2/3 cup (90 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) hazelnuts 1 cup almonds (5.3 ounces) 1/4 cup matzo cake meal (1 ounce) 1 cup sugar (7.2 ounces)

Sometimes in cooking, a little extra effort pays off with big improvements. That's true of this leg of lamb from Russ Parsons. It's boned, stuffed, then tied back together before the final roasting. The result is a real showpiece for a dinner party. What's more, most of the work can be done the day before. And you can buy the lamb already boned from the butcher, which will make it much easier to prepare. Total time: 3 hours, plus resting time Servings: Serves 6 to 8 Note: The lamb can be prepared through Step 4 (stuffed and tied)

Greg Donoghue grew up around film sets. His father worked as a film publicist in Europe and his uncle is Pierre Spengler, a producer of the "Superman" movies. But the 30-year-old had never seriously considered a career in the movie industry until he got a chance to direct his own short film called "Sunshine Manor," a love story about the relationship between a nursing home patient and her doctor. "It takes a lot of patience, and time is your worst enemy," Donoghue said of his directorial debut.

Two men tied to reputed Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger came to collect money. "I knew one of the guys," says Dana White, recalling the mid-1990s incident, "and he was [Bulger's] right-hand man. " The shakedown, for the regular payment allegedly charged to run a business in Bulger's territory, came while White was teaching a boxercise class at a South Boston health club. White didn't have the money, so he left Boston and moved back to Las Vegas, where he had gone to high school.

"I found this recipe many years ago on the back of a bag of prunes. I tried it and I realized after the first batch that they were irresistible. But then we moved and the recipe got lost in the shuffle. I went 20 years without being able to make them. I wrote to the prune company, I searched the Internet, I couldn't find them. Then one day I was going through a box of old family photos and there they were. It was like a family reunion. " - Ronna Ballister, Altadena Sweet tart oat nut bars Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes, plus cooling time for the bars Servings: Makes about 4 dozen bars.

As we continue to lose our financial minds in sports, there are occasional blips of common sense. Not many, mind you. Not in a world where the salary of a basketball player can be measured in six figures a game, or a baseball player in six figures an inning. Interestingly, the pro football player who risks life and limb and likely future serious physical impairment, trails in the category of obscene cash flow. Maybe in his next contract talks, he can cut a deal to be paid by the concussion.

At first, Larry Ladd just let it go. But after the farmer caught six thieves plundering his walnut orchard in less than a day, he knew he had a problem. He's not the only one. As prices for almonds and walnuts rise with demand, a growing black market has emboldened "nutnappers" to cut holes in fences, sneak into distribution centers and drive off with truckloads of nuts.

Nut and peanut allergies may be getting more common in children, doubling over the last five years in the United States, researchers reported Tuesday. Canadian researchers said they also were seeing many more cases of peanut allergy. Two reports published in the December issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggest that peanut and tree nut allergies, which can be deadly, will continue to become more common.

Paro may be the most famous companion robot around today, but he's likely to have some competition before too long. Here are a few others currently in the works: The "emotion bear. " It laughs. It sneezes. It waves. It strikes up a conversation. And if nothing much is going on, it falls asleep. A concept currently being tested by Fujitsu in Japan, the "emotion bear" can sense when people are near and turn to face them. And when it gets to know people well enough, it can tell what mood they're in - and behave accordingly.

Total time: 1 hour Servings: 4 to 6 Note : Gorgonzola dolce is a sweeter type of Gorgonzola; it is available at cheese stores as well as select gourmet stores and well-stocked markets. Sherry vinaigrette 2 tablespoons minced shallots 2 tablespoons Spanish sherry vinegar 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice, plus more to taste 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil Combine the shallots, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a medium bowl and stir to combine.