Holiday wishes include special dishes

Now that we’re zipping along on our way to Christmas, a number of Forum cooks will have a merrier trip of it, if only you can help.

Stanwood reader Cheryl Vlach, for instance, tells us, “I am writing to you in hopes that some of your readers can help me out by finding a recipe that I made as a youth, but lost long ago. It was a drop cookie which used popcorn as a main ingredient. I remember popping extra when we planned to have popcorn in order to make these fun cookies.

“I don’t recall much more other than it seems like we may have made them in different colors during different seasons. Does this sound familiar to anyone out there? I would love to have this recipe again, so I could pass it on to my children. Thanks for your help.”

Frances Duncan of Everett is looking for a really good recipe for pumpkin bars. She says she has lots of pumpkin, and does have a pumpkin bar recipe, but she doesn’t like it.

Speaking of pumpkin, several readers have pie on their minds. Their recipes call for deep-dish pie shells, and thanks to all of you who shared the how-to for foolproof crusts, we’ve got a good solid lock on that.

But, there’s a major problem nowadays. How are you supposed to manage/fit the crust into one of the new glass deep-dish pie plates with the depressions running around the edge? How do you make the dough fit in properly? And what about the edge? Can you still flute it above the depressions? Or what?

Next, Monroe reader Mary Huber writes, “Recently, the prune upside-down cake that my mother used to make was brought to my memory. I don’t have the recipe, but I thought ‘piece of cake’ – I can find it on the Internet.

“Well, I’ve searched, but haven’t come up with a recipe. I hit a couple of dead ends for prune upside-down cake, but did find a number of recipes for apricot-prune upside-down cake. I think my mother sometimes used a cake mix for the cake part, but I’m not sure how she did the prune mixture on the bottom of the cake. I’m guessing the recipe could date back to a span running from the 1930s to the 1950s. I’m wondering if one of your readers would have this recipe to help me walk down memory lane. It sure would be a blessing to be able to make this cake. Thank you.”

And Marion Rostad of Lynnwood would like to speed up her Christmas preparations by using a pressure cooker for certain things, such as beef and pork roasts. She’s scoured the booklet that came with her cooker, but finds no answers to her questions.

“Surely,” she says, “someone out there has processing times for cooking various things, and I would really appreciate it if they could share them.”

If you can help with any or all of the above SOS requests, please write to Judyrae Kruse at the Forum, c/o The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.

We are always happy to receive your contributions and requests, but please remember that all letters and all e-mail must include a name, complete address with ZIP code and telephone number with area code.

No exceptions and, sorry, but no response to e-mail by return e-mail; send to kruse@heraldnet.com.

The next Forum will appear in Monday’s Time Out section.