Fare Exchange: Snickerdoodles an old-fashioned favorite

By Jane Henegar

* Today’s requests come from “Maggie H.” who has two favorite foods she would like to prepare on her own since she’s away at college. Can you help her with Memphis-style dry-rub ribs and a shrimp Caesar salad?

The request for potato chip cookies brought an instant answer from Peggy J. Long, who sent you two recipes “because I enjoy taking two recipes and their ingredients and mixing and matching until I find what tastes best.” So for those who, like Ms. Long, like a challenge, here are two to choose from, or to mix and match.

Potato Chip Cookies

1 cup shortening

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups crushed potato chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream shortening with white and brown sugars. Add eggs and mix well. Mix together flour, salt and baking soda and add to batter. Add potato chips and, if you choose, nuts. Shape into small balls. Press down with floured fork, and bake in a preheated oven at 325 F for 10 minutes or until done.

Grandmother Hill’s Potato Chip Cookies

1 cup Blue Bonnet margarine (not light)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

21⁄2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional secret ingredient)

2 cups crushed potato chips

1 cup butterscotch chips (optional)

Cream margarine and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Mix flour and baking soda and add to batter. Add lemon juice, if desired, and potato chips, along with butterscotch chips if you choose. Drop by teaspoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 F for 10 minutes or until done.

Betty Domal found the lost snickerdoodle recipe in the much-discussed “Dining With Pioneers” cookbook, copyrighted in 1981, so it’s an old-fashioned favorite. Ms. Domal noted that she thinks the ingredients wouldn’t cost a lot and are mostly things the average cook would have on hand.

Snickerdoodles

1 cup shortening (Crisco)

11⁄2 cups sugar

2 eggs

23⁄4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 teaspoons sugar for rolling cookies

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon for rolling cookies

Heat oven to 400 F. Cream shortening, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Combine flour, cream of tartar, salt and baking soda; stir into creamed mixture. Stir in vanilla extract. Shape the dough into balls the size of walnuts. Combine remaining 4 teaspoons each of sugar and cinnamon, mixing well. Roll each ball in this mixture. Place on a greased cookie sheet and flatten cookies slightly. Bake at 400 F for 8 minutes or until the first cookies begin to fall. (They are supposed to fall, and this makes a crunchy cookie.) Makes 5 dozen.

The much-missed Town and Country restaurant’s red snapper is now at your fingertips, thanks to Jay Parker, who also “loved their red snapper and ordered it for three decades.”

Town and Country’s Red Snapper

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 pound red snapper

1⁄2 teaspoon Cavender’s all-purpose Greek seasoning

1⁄2 teaspoon paprika

Melt butter and pour over fish. Add seasoning to taste. Bake at 350 F for 10 to 12 minutes or until done.