Fare Exchange: Got any Green Egg recipes? How about fried goat cheese?

Jane Henegar

Welcome to Fare Exchange, as always; glad to have you back or glad to have you here for the first time.

We are hot on the trail of an Orange Julius recipe with the unique ingredient of baking soda and for recipes for fried goat cheese and frittatas. Finally, who has mastered a non-sweet homemade breakfast bar and the best kamado-style cookery?

Paula Brown misplaced her Orange Julius recipe and hopes you can find it. Fried goat cheese is a repeat, as is the request for a homemade version of the often-too-sweet breakfast bars. Frittata recipes and kamado cookery are part of the conversations below.

Steve Smith watched a TV show about an interesting recipe and was trying to retrieve the name. Before we could write this column to pass on his question, he solved his own dilemma. Here it is:

The recipe "started with 'F' and was something similar to fajita, but a longer word. It looked like a yellow piece of Mexican cornbread with red peppers plus other ingredients." And then, "On the Cooking Channel website, I went through the list of dishes beginning with F and found frittata, an Italian dish."

We would surely like some recipes for this skillet and oven breakfast dish.

RICE SALADS

The rice salad discussion turned up more than one Girls Preparatory School connection, this one attributed to Dene Donald, who headed the school's cafeteria for delicious years. Thank you, Anne E., for putting two and two together and finding the salad in the GPS cookbook. And thank you too, Estes Stephens, for sending George Cress's cold rice salad printed here with the recommendation that "It is indeed delicious."

Dene Donald's Wild Rice and Turkey Salad

For this recipe, be sure to use real wild rice. It is not as good if you use a brown rice/wild rice mixture. The recipe goes a long way and is delicious.

1/2 pound wild rice

4 cups cooked chopped turkey

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup French dressing

Salt to taste

1 (5-ounce) package sliced almonds

1 cup diced celery

2 cans Mandarin oranges

1 can pineapple tidbits

Cook rice according to package directions. Allow to cool. Add turkey, mayonnaise, French dressing, salt, almonds and celery. Chill in refrigerator. Just before serving, add oranges and pineapple. Serve over lettuce.

The original request for a wild rice salad brought this recipe attributed to another GPS legend, cafeteria director Mary Fort Roberts. Her daughter Janet Hartman shared this well-loved recipe for a casserole served hot.

Mary Fort Roberts' Wild Rice Casserole

1 pound hot sausage

2 pounds mild sausage

1 large onion

2 boxes Uncle Ben's wild rice mix (omit seasoning packets)

1 can beef consommé

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 cans sliced water chestnuts

2 packages slivered

1 large can of mushrooms

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon tarragon

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook sausage with onion. Cook rice as directed.

Mix all ingredients together. Bake in two 9-by-13-inch casserole dishes for 30 minutes.

IN PRAISE OF EGGS

Thank you, Martin Davis, for some good-natured chiding about the comment printed here on kamado-style charcoal grills. The earlier correspondent noted that the Primo version is American-made. Davis, a former Chattanoogan who saw the comment when visiting here, reminded us, "The Big Green Egg has been sold for 40 years out of Atlanta. And he continued, "I take issue with the BGE being characterized, by implication, as not being American." He researched and reported that the BGE "is sold by a company founded in Atlanta and to my knowledge still American-owned."

Note his final comments. "All I know is that I should be able to pass my current BGE down to whoever wants it 50 years from now."

Now that is some recommendation. As to recipes, he suggested to anybody who is interested in preparing foods in a kamado-style cooker: "Ask those of us who have been using the Big Green Eggs for 20-plus years."

So here's the ask. Big Green Egg cooks, send us your favorite recipes. You, too, Primo grill cooks.

PB&B

We now begin the peanut butter brownie discussion. Margaret McNeil noted, "You'll need two other things to go with these brownies: glasses of milk and the recipe. Why the recipe? Everyone will ask for a copy."

Peanut Butter Brownies

Filling

2 (3 ounce) packages. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

Prepare filling by combining all ingredients in a small mixing bowl; beat until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Brownies

1 cup butter or margarine, melted

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Stir together melted butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs; beat well. Add cocoa; beat until well-blended. Add flour, baking powder and salt; beat well. Stir in chips. Remove 1 cup batter. Spread remaining batter into a greased 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Spread filling over surface. Drop reserved batter by teaspoonfuls over filling. Using a knife, gently swirl for marbled effect. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean.

Gigi of East Brainerd sent her favorite version of the peanut butter brownie, this one fortified with oatmeal.

Peanut Butter Brownies

Brownies

1 cup margarine or butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup peanut butter

1 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups oatmeal

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon soda

Cream butter and sugars; add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract and peanut butter.

Mix in remaining ingredients: flour, oatmeal, salt and soda.

Spread or press into a greased or sprayed 9-by-13-inch dish or pan.

Bake for 25 minutes in a heated oven at 325 degrees. Cool about 10 minutes and add glaze.

Glaze

3 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup hot water or as needed

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together and spread over brownies while they are still warm.

And that is the glaze on the brownie, also known as the frosting on today's cake. Please come back with questions and answers, prepared to copy the best ideas of the best cooks. We refer here to all of you.