Recipe Requests

Jane Braun of Bel Air was looking for a recipe for hamburger chowder made with cabbage. Stephanie Allread of Bradford, Ohio, had a recipe for a hamburger chowder - however, it did not contain cabbage. It sounded like a wonderful soup to make this time of year, so I decided to give it a try anyway. In fact, it was extremely hearty and delicious, and I see no reason why some chopped cabbage could not be added along with the other vegetables. Served with a crusty bread and a salad, this soup made for a very satisfying weeknight meal.

Karen Roach of Catonsville was looking for the Diet Workshop recipe for bread pudding. She said it was great for breakfast. Phyllis Seward of Glen Burnie sent in a recipe from a Diet Workshop recipe booklet she had, and it sounds like it could be the one that Roach wanted. Considering this bread pudding is made with thin sliced bread, skim milk and artificial sweetener, it is surprisingly tasty. If last week's Bread Pudding With Lemon Sauce was too high in calories for you, this recipe is worth trying.

Kristine Kelly-Kaplan of Frackville, Pa., was looking for the recipe for a bread pudding with a warm, creamy sauce similar to the one that she and her family enjoyed so much on a visit to Walt Disney World in Florida. Mary Pat Wadzinski of Johnsburg, Ill., thought she might have the recipe that Kelly-Kaplan was looking for. It comes from a cookbook that she purchased on a visit to Disney World. This bread pudding is delicious and not too heavy or too sweet.

Jane Raley of Lutherville was looking for a recipe for a crab dip similar to the one she enjoyed so much that was served at the now-closed Jasper's restaurant in Pikesville. She says it was the best crab dip she had ever had. Harriett Heyman of Baltimore found three different crab-dip recipes in her collection. She says she has made all three numerous times and would recommend any one of them. I tested the one that sounded the most classic to me. It is a luscious concoction made with fresh lump crab meat and flavored primarily with Old Bay seasoning.

Wilma Stoffle of Knoxville, Tenn., was looking for a recipe for cookies like the ones her mother made many years ago using cornflakes, peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk. She remembered that the cookies were "sticky, very tasty and somewhat chewy," but neither she nor her mother could remember exactly how to make them. Debbie Iverson of Pasadena thinks she has the recipe that Stoffle wants. She got it from a call-in radio show when she lived in California in the '80s. These rich little goodies certainly match the description.

Thelma Maisenholder of Fallston was looking for a recipe for a Louisiana Ring Cake like the one her mother used to buy many years ago from Rice's Bakery in Baltimore. Irene Gozdziewski of Baltimore, 84, sent in a copy of the recipe that she clipped some time ago from the newspaper. She, too, remembers buying the cake from the Rice's deliveryman in the '40s and '50s. This is a classic, Southern-style ring cake. It is easy to make and is very moist and delicious with nice hints of orange and almond.

Sandra Stonebreaker of Ocean Park, Wash., was looking for a recipe for a soft, chewy molasses cookie similar to the ones sold at Starbucks. Mary Thorne of Pittsfield, Mass., said that she has never tried the cookies at Starbucks, but she thinks the "best" molasses cookie she has ever eaten was sold at a gift shop called the Jennifer House in Great Barrington, Mass. Thorne says that the shop closed a while ago but the outcry for its cookie recipe was heard loud and clear, and it was eventually published in her local newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle.

Doug Neils of Timonium wanted to find a recipe for a side dish called Red Rice. His aunt in North Carolina used to make this for him when he was a child in the early 1970s. He remembers that her rice had bacon, onion and some kind of tomatoes to make it red. He has tried to re-create it over the years, but with no real success. Kathleen Kosinski of North East sent in a recipe from an old Southern Living cookbook for Savannah Red Rice. This recipe has the ingredients that Neils was looking for and certainly would make a very tasty side dish for chicken, fish or pork.

Antoinette Cerrito of Greensboro, N.C., was looking for a recipe for making fig preserves. Janet Morrissey of Baltimore shared an easy recipe from her grandmother's recipe box. She says that it is a small yield because figs can be expensive, but the recipe easily can be doubled if you are lucky enough to have access to a fig tree. Fall is the fig season, so it's the ideal time to make these preserves. I found two varieties of fresh figs in my local grocery store. Morrissey says she usually puts her finished preserves in 4-ounce jelly jars and includes a jar in her Christmas gift baskets.

Janet Gross of Dayton, Ohio, was looking for a lost recipe from many years ago for making German Potato Salad in a pressure cooker. It seems that many readers are still using their pressure cookers, and many even still had the original recipe booklets that came with the cookers. One of them was Bobbie Nachman of Baltimore, who still had the recipe for German Potato Salad that came with the pressure cooker her parents gave her as a wedding present about 55 years ago. While pressure cookers are not as fashionable these days, they still can be a very handy item to have in the kitchen.