Good morning, most welcome readers.

It seems today's fare is unusually varied, and if you can dig up the following requests, the next column will be so, as well. To diversify the fare of several readers, we are in need of a cream cheese pastry sent to Fare Exchange many years ago by a Signal Mountain cook, a Texas sheet cake that does not have a grainy-textured icing, twice-baked potatoes, lasagna made in the microwave and easy lasagna made with refrigerated ravioli.

•

Dessert comes first for many of us, and so came Linda Morris' version of fudge pie without a crust. "It's not baked over hot water as I always thought something you baked in hot water was done to make it soft," she explained. "This one is easy as well as delicious."

Fudge Pie

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 (1-ounce) square unsweetened chocolate

2 eggs, well-beaten

1 cup sugar or less, to taste

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Combine butter and chocolate in a small saucepan; cook over low heat until melted. Set aside.

Combine eggs, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl, stirring well. Stir in chocolate mixture. Add flour; stir until well-blended. At this point, you can add 1/2 cup chopped nuts.

Pour mixture into a well-greased 9-inch glass pie dish. Bake in an oven that has been heated to 325 F for 25 minutes or until pie tests done (do not overbake). This pie will come out with a nice crust.

Good served with a scoop of lime sherbet (or any other flavor).

•

Elsie Keith of LaFayette, Ga., who has been our newspaper friend for many a year, wrote to discuss the arrangement of refrigerator shelves.

Here's her method: "I have one shelf for milk/juice/water. Another for condiments, another for dairy and another for leftovers and miscellaneous. It surely saves time.

For my freezer (here we assume that this is a freestanding freezer in the Keith home), I bought plastic storage bins that fit in the freezer and are like drawers. I do not use the lids. I have bins for chicken, pork, beef, breakfast meats, vegetables. The refrigerator freezer holds odds and ends."

A dozen years of residence in Brazil taught Ann Souza a thing or two about Brazilian cooking. She wrote this week that "a reader requested this recipe. I make feijoada like this."

Brazilian Black Beans Feijoada

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper

4 garlic cloves, crushed

4 cups dried black beans, soaked overnight, drained

1 pound salt pork, boiled for 5 minutes, cut in 1-inch cubes (or bacon sliced thick)

2 pounds Portuguese linguica sausage or kielbasa

1 pound smoked ham hocks

4 bay leaves

1 tablespoon hot sauce

Ground black pepper, to taste

Salt, to taste

2 quarts water, more or less

Heat the oil in a large, heavy, deep pot and stir-fry the onion, bell pepper and garlic for 1 minute or until lightly golden. Add the beans, pork, sausage, ham hocks, bay leaves, hot sauce, black pepper and salt. Add enough water to generously cover, and simmer for 2 hours or until beans are tender, stirring occasionally and adding more water if needed. Serve with white rice and orange slices.

•

Ginny Gaines, our Signal Mountain gardener who also is a chef, answered your requests for the simplest roast chicken, saying that this is the only method she now uses, and baked catfish. In the video of "Barefoot Contessa" Ina Garten that I watched, she made homemade croutons browned in olive oil and served the chicken and juices atop these substantial croutons.

Ina Garten Perfect Roast Chicken

1 (5- to 6-pound) roasting chicken

Salt

Pepper

1 large bunch fresh thyme

1 lemon, halved

1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 Spanish onion, thickly sliced

Heat oven to 425 F. Remove giblets from chicken. Rinse chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat, and pat dry.

Place chicken in roasting pan. Add salt and pepper inside and out. Stuff cavity with thyme, both halves of lemon and all the garlic. Brush outside with butter. Scatter onion slices around chicken.

Roast in 425 F oven for 11/2 hours, without covering, or until juices run clear.

Baked Lemon-Dill Catfish

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh or dried dill

1 garlic clove minced

4 (4- to 6-ounce) catfish fillets

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs

Stir together mayonnaise, buttermilk, lemon rind, lemon juice, dill and garlic. Place half of mayonnaise mixture in another small bowl to serve with fish, and chill.

Rinse fillets, and pat dry. Brush fillets evenly with remaining half of mayonnaise mixture; sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Dredge fillets in breadcrumbs. Arrange on a lightly greased rack in a pan lined with aluminum foil.

Bake in a preheated 425 F oven for 20 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork and is opaque throughout. Serve with chilled mayonnaise mixture.

•

I heartily thank you for your company here. Next week?