Fare Exchange: New recipes hit the spot with cooks' families, friends

Jane Henegar
Jane Henegar

To reach us

Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send. Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750 E-mail: chattfare@gmail.com

Good morning -- and hopefully a joyful morning -- to each of you. If you have a mere minute to note these requests, they come from Lou LaNeve of Atlanta. She wants a recipe for "a chimichurri or green sauce, and for a recipe that is like the Bonzo Cake available at Murphy's in Atlanta. It has a layer of brownie on the bottom, then a cheesecake layer and then a chocolate mousse layer. And it is topped with whipped cream."

Ginny Gaines is gracious enough to tuck several recipes in an envelope when one in particular gets her started. "I have been trying for the last few years to try something new for our family Christmas Eve meal. Some have met with success, others not quite so good. It's always fun to tinker with new ones but, of course, use those wonderful old ones that speak of past Christmases. One of the new ones has met with lots of approval."

These are simple but delicious brownies. The recipe is from 'Sunday in the South,' one of my favorites."

Brown Sugar Brownies

2 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup brown sugar, packed

5 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chopped pecans

Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in a 9-inch square baking pan. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, baking soda and pecans. Add the egg mixture and stir well. Pour the batter on top of the butter in the baking pan. Do not stir. Bake for 20 or 25 minutes. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes and then flip, upside down, onto a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar.

Mrs. Gaines continued. "Another 'new' recipe that I've now used several times is from the same cookbook. We usually have some form of sweet potatoes on the Christmas table, and this one is quite easy, and really delicious."

Chunky Brown Sugar Sweet Potatoes

4 to 6 large sweet potatoes

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into -inch chunks. Place them in a large, shallow baking pan.

In small saucepan, melt the butter over med. heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Pour the mixture over the sweet potatoes and toss to coat thoroughly. Bake for 1 to 1 hours, tossing once or twice. Potatoes will become slightly sticky and may brown around the edges slightly as they caramelize.

Makes 6-8 servings

And here's a Gaines grand finale for today, a cranberry relish with the creative addition of blackberries.

"This one is untried, but sounded quite interesting. Cranberries, like sweet potatoes, are a must for Christmas meals. But it has some different ingredients that might be quite delightful." The size of cranberry and blackberry packages is left to your imagination, but it doesn't seem that one could lose Mrs. G. will be preparing this one for Christmas Eve.

Fresh Cranberry- Blackberry Relish

1 bag fresh cranberries

2 tart green apples, cored and chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup orange marmalade

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice, or to taste

1 bag frozen blackberries, thawed and drained

In the bowl of a food processor pulse cranberries, apples, sugar, marmalade and lime juice until roughly chopped, 10 to 15 times. Taste and add additional sugar or lime juice to adjust flavors. Fold in blackberries. Relish may be made the day ahead.

One outpost of our family had a radical Thanksgiving menu: steaks on the grill. That got me thinking, "Why does a special-occasion meal have to be a standard menu?" This question may be bordering on heresy for some readers, but for the adventurous, here is a recipe tucked in the Fare Exchange file from a good many years ago. Its sender, Kathie McCarver, got it originally from the Top of the Rock Restaurant on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Mo. It was served alongside beef tenderloin and steamed vegetables with lemon sauce. There you have it, a special occasion menu for sure.

Not too many years ago we had Christmas Eve tamales, purchased locally. After sampling a vegetarian tamale at Trader Joe's in Atlanta, I am about to revisit that possibility. Why not?

And if you do something wild and crazy with your holiday menus this December, please pass them on to the rest of us. Again, why not?

Now about those peppery grits

Jalapeno Grits

1 cup mixed red, green and yellow peppers

1 tablespoon jalapeno peppers, minced (You may vary according to your preference of hotness.)

1 teaspoon garlic puree

4 ounces butter

1 quart chicken stock

2 cups heavy cream

12 ounces grits, uncooked

1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

Saute red, green, yellow and jalapeno peppers and garlic in 1 tablespoon of the butter until they sweat but are still al dente.

Bring chicken stock and heavy cream to a boil. Ad grits slowly, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until grits are cooked and thickened. Add peppers, pepper jack cheese and remaining butter.

Stir and hold warm to serve. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

If this is more than you can use, allow to cool in a flat dish. Cut into serving-size pieces, wrap in wax paper and place in a freezer bag. May be stored in freezer for several months.

To serve, reheat in microwave until desired temperature.

Just a Dash

Two anonymous mothers who have full houses of young children were discussing how to juggle a busy season of life. This is one trick they both use: "We are not so much cooks as we are gatherers. The problem for us, in trying to cook a whole meal from scratch, is that it's so hard to get it all ready on time. We may fix a dish or two for a special occasion, but to fill out the menu we gather ready-made dishes from our favorite restaurants. One of those is Vine Street Market."

Shall we gather at the river, in the kitchen, in the take-out line? And then shall we put it all together with love? If you've got ideas for gathering, please hit "Send."

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