Jul 01 2009
The Mailbox: Teri Watson
Searching for spicy sauce
Does anyone know how to make the spicy sauce served at the Japanese Kitchen Restaurant in Fresno? It is a colorful, bright, orange-red color and is a very thick sauce that they mix with teriyaki sauce. It makes a very tasty and appealing chicken or beef dish.
– Michelle Wilkinson, Modesto
Peanut butter popcorn
We are trying to revise our recipe for peanut butter popcorn (1 cup sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup Karo corn syrup) to make it low sugar. We think that if we had a recipe for sugar-free caramel candy, we could modify it with peanut butter to come close to the original taste. Can anyone help? Thank you very much.
– Don Weber, Citrus Heights
A well-dressed potato salad
I am looking for a recipe from the 1940s. It was in the Betty Crocker children's cookbook, and it was for a potato salad that included Italian vinegar and oil dressing as an ingredient. I have had no luck in finding it. Thank you.
– Marion Butts, Los Banos
Lemon buttermilk cake
I am looking for a cake recipe from a cooking magazine that I made in July 1996. I think it was called lemon buttermilk cake or lemon butter cream cake. It had three layers, and between the layers was a cream cheese with lemon juice frosting. Fresh berries circled the cake. It was delicious.
Does anyone have this recipe?
– R. Voss, Grass Valley
Italian lemon-drop cookies
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Makes 36 to 40 small cookies
Sheila Beswick of Lincoln enjoyed the lemon-drop cookies sold at The Joy of Cookies on the K Street Mall. They were moist on the inside, slightly crunchy on the outside. Most of the recipes she found call for flattening the cookies and dipping them in sugar.
This is an adaptation of a recipe shared by Janice Thornton of Merced. These cookies are not too sweet and would be good with a cup of tea.
This recipe may fill the bill for Beswick.
Note: You may freeze these cookies, but freeze unfrosted. Frost after they are thawed.
INGREDIENTS
Cookies:
½ cup sugar
¼ cup butter
3 large eggs
1½ teaspoons lemon extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon peel
Frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For cookies, cream together the sugar and butter. Add eggs and lemon extract, and beat well. Add flour, baking powder, salt and lemon peel. The dough should be soft and sticky.
With a small cookie scoop, drop dough onto a slightly greased cookie sheet or baking stone, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until firm and lightly browned. Remove cookies from cookie sheet. Cool completely on wire racks.
For frosting, combine powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon extract, and mix until smooth. Frost the tops of each cookie. Once frosting has dried, they can be stacked. Store in an airtight container.
Per cookie based on 36 cookies: 70 cal.; 1 g pro.; 12 g carb.; 2 g fat (1 sat., 1 monounsat., 0 polyunsat.); 21 mg chol.; 23 mg sod.; 0 g fiber; 7 g sugar; 23 percent calories from fat.
Sand tarts
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Makes about 3 dozen
Linda Hennessy of Sacramento was looking for a cookie recipe that her mother used to make in the 1960s. They were balls, called sand tarts, that included walnuts and were rolled in powdered sugar after being baked.
Betsy Katz of Roseville shares her recipe, which her mother used to make and Katz now makes. Her family loves these cookies, so she doubles the recipe. She says they freeze well.
Note: Prep time does not include 4-hour chill time for the dough.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
Cream butter and granulated sugar. Add water and vanilla, and mix well. Blend in flour and walnuts or pecans. Chill dough for 4 hours. Shape into balls and bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove from pan, cool slightly. Roll balls in powdered sugar.
Per cookie: 105 cal.; 2 g pro.; 9 g carb.; 7 g fat (3 sat., 2 monounsat., 2 polyunsat.); 14 mg chol.; 1 mg sod.; 0 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 60 percent calories from fat.
Comments Off