Finder

The Baltimore Sun is launching a new food-truck finder. Here it is , in its beautiful beta version designed by Baltimore Sun Production Technology Manager Adam Marton. The trucks' locations were provided to the Sun by an association of Baltimore food trucks in the form of a monthly schedule. Obviously, the locations of an individual truck on a specific day may have changed since this schedule was created.  The Twitter box on the Sun's food-truck finder should is a good place to look for hour-by-hour changes.

Liz Williams from Newton, N.C., wanted help finding a recipe for making baked lasagna that she had lost. She said the recipe came from a box of pasta she was using probably around 20 years ago, and it was the best lasagna ever. Back-of-the-box recipes are always popular and reliably good. I received quite a few of them from readers for baked lasagna from several different pasta brands. I decided to test the one Kay Sauvageot from Joppa shared that she said she came from a box of Mueller's lasagna noodles, circa 1980.

Contract talks between Howard County officials and the police union could be turned over to a fact finder if an agreement is not reached today, a union official said.The talks, which began in November, have intensified in recent weeks because the two sides could not agree on a financial package and working conditions, said Dale L. Hill, president of the Howard County Police Officers Association.Because of the impasse, an independent mediator was brought in Wednesday and was to return for more talks this morning.

Pat Arata from Mishawaka, Ind., was looking for a recipe she had lost for making crispy fried salmon patties that she thought was once printed on a can of Crisco. She said the patty puffed up a little when fried, which made her think the recipe likely contained baking powder or soda. Evelyn Bledsoe from Letart, W.Va., sent in a photocopy of the well-used recipe taken from a Crisco can many years ago that she thinks is the one Arata was searching for. The recipe has several hand-written notes on it. One says, "can add a small amount of mashed potatoes to the patties if desired.

"Watch your rods," I called. Almost instantly the two side lines went off."Fish on!" cried someone, and by the time fishermen got to the rods and started bringing the fish in, two rods in the stern rod-holders arched as chubby 2-pound bluefish tried to separate me from my lures.I eased my Catherine M into the deeper water off Love Point as the fishermen fought the fish to the fish box. We reset the lines and I headed the boat back toward the fish.One of the party came into the cabin and asked how I knew the fish were going to bite.

A fact-finder is to hear evidence this week from county officials and the police union, who have failed to reach agreement on a new police contract.The independent fact-finder, Herbert Fishgold of Washington, D.C., plans to arrive Wednesday to hear arguments and testimony from both sides. He then will issue a nonbinding opinion.The police contract expires June 30. If an agreement isn't reached by then, officers will work without a contract. County law prohibits them from striking.Last week, the county and the union met on their own in unsuccessful attempts to reach an accord.

Despite an expected decline in revenue from a sagging real estate market, Baltimore County can afford pay increases for its workers, according to a fact-finder who recommended 3 percent pay raises for employees of two unions in negotiations with the county. "The county's financial situation is not so dire as to require a wage freeze," the fact-finder, Robert T. Simmelkjaer, wrote in his decision, issued Thursday.

It seemed like old times.The white and cherry silks of Stuart Janney Jr., which have been carried in Kentucky Derbies and Maryland Hunt Cups, showed up in the winner's circle at Laurel Race Course yesterday after Finder's Choice won the Walter Haight Handicap.It might just have been another Saturday feature, a typical $50,000 weekend stakes, but Stuart Janney III, who inherited the horse after his father died four years ago, said it gave him a special feeling.Finder's Choice along with Private Terms, the Wood Memorial winner that failed as the favorite in the 1988 Kentucky Derby, were in the last crop of 3-year-olds that Janney's father bred and lived to see race.

Baltimore County's labor commissioner rejected yesterday most of a fact-finder's recommendations in negotiations between the county and two unions, including one that the county give the workers a 3 percent pay raise. The unions said they will seek nonbinding arbitration to resolve the dispute. In a one-page letter to the attorney representing the unions -- the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees and the Baltimore County Federation of Public Health Nurses -- Labor Commissioner George E. Gay wrote that the county "will not be following the recommendations" in six of the eight areas that the fact-finder addressed.

Recipe Finder did not run last week. The "reefer" on our fron food page was incorrect. The Evening Sun reqrets the error.

Steve Frazer from Reisterstown was looking for the recipe for the chocolate chip cake that used to be sold at Miller's Delicatessen in Northwest Baltimore in the 1970s. He remembers that it was a very dense cake and most likely made with sour cream with an abundance of tiny chocolate chips and a sugary crunchy topping. I received an email from Leslie Miller-Scherr of Baltimore in response to Frazer's query. She said that her family was the original owner of Miller's deli and that she remembers the cake well.

Stanley Levy from Baltimore was in search of the recipe for the cheesy potato casserole that he enjoyed at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Pennsylvania. He said it reminded him of macaroni and cheese but instead of pasta it was made with potatoes. A search of the Cracker Barrel website did not yield any recipes, so I contacted the company's office of corporate communications outside Nashville. Tenn., and described the dish that Levy was seeking. They thought that in all likelihood it was the popular hash brown casserole.

Viola Brown from La Pointe, Ind., was looking for a good and easy recipe for making tomato basil soup. She said she is 82 years old and has a hard time finding things she still likes to eat. It's not surprising that she would be in search of a recipe for homemade tomato soup, as it's a classic comfort food no matter what the season. Jenny Garcia from Santa Rosa, Calif., shared a recipe that she and her husband came up with that she said was inspired by a similar recipe in the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

Holly Renew from Baltimore was looking for a recipe for a mushroom loaf that was served at the now-closed restaurant in Canton called the Wild Mushroom. She said it was a featured item on the menu and similar to a meatloaf in consistency but contained no meat. I was not able to track down the exact recipe she sought, but I did some research and found a recipe for a very tasty vegetable "meatloaf" that was published in the March 2012 issue of Cooking Light magazine. This loaf is full of mushrooms and other vegetables.

Rose Dodds from Bel Air was searching for a recipe for a cake similar to one that she enjoyed at a party. She said the texture was similar to poundcake and the almond flavor reminded her of Italian amaretti cookies. Patricia Waxman from Chapel Hill, N.C., sent in a recipe she had seen in Southern Living magazine for an amaretto-almond poundcake that she thought might be similar to the one Dodds was looking for. She thinks it is the best poundcake she has ever made: "It's moist and delicious, and it's almost impossible to stop at just one slice.

Jeffrey Clayton from Baltimore was hoping someone would have the recipe for the sticky buns that were served in the cafeterias at Garrison Junior High and Forest Park High school back in the 1950s when he and his wife were students there. Unfortunately, I did not receive any recipes for those particular goodies, but I did get a super-easy and delicious recipe for making sticky buns from Helen Braun of Charleston, S.C., that I decided to try. She said she frequently makes these when she has last-minute company or if she just wants to treat her kids on a weekend morning.

Correction: In last week's Recipe Finder, the first ingredient for the Louisiana Ring Cake topping should have read 3/4 cup of the cake batter.

In yesterday's Recipe Finder column in A La Carte, an ingredient was missing from the Cheesy Onion Soup recipe. After thickening the soup, one gallon of warm water should be added with the remaining milk.The Sun regrets the error.

Brenda Cox from Raleigh, N.C., was looking for a recipe for making a baked spaghetti casserole like the one her mother used to make back in the 1950s. She remembers that her mother used tomato soup in her recipe. She has tried over the years to recreate the dish without success. Wilma Muir from Street saw Cox's request and sent in a recipe for the casserole that she said she found in one of her old cookbooks called "A Campbell Cookbook, Cooking with Soup," revised in 1982.

Linda Settles from Havre de Grace was looking for a recipe for brown sugar pie that duplicated the one her grandmother used to make. She said her grandmother had five daughters but none of them remember how she made the pie. Jeannie Armstrong from Dayton, MD found a recipe for the pie in a cookbook she bought at an antique store years ago. It was first published in 1915 and revised in 1944. I tested the recipe that she kindly sent in and found that it needed a little tweaking.