COOK'S CORNER

Write to her at lcicero@miamiherald.com.

Linda Cicero has been charmed and challenged by Cook�s Corner readers for 25 years. She began the column while food editor of The Miami Herald, and has continued it through family moves to Denver and Northern Virginia. ''I have no formal culinary training -- my college degree is in journalism -- but I came from a home where food was important, and by 13, I was cooking dinner most nights. Today, nothing makes me happier than gathering family and friends in the kitchen, reveling in the camaraderie as we chop and whisk away.''

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COOK'S CORNER

Pickle soup turns skeptic into fan

I admit being skeptical about pickle soup, but when dozens of readers responded to Sandy K.'s request for this Polish Michigan specialty, I had to give it a try. Amazingly, the soup has a wonderful balance of creamy and tart that's perfect on a winter's day.

COOK'S CORNER

Miami baker contest finalist

Wvelyn Cleare of Miami enters cooking contests as a hobby, and has won some minor prizes. Now she's a finalist for a year's worth of groceries in the Hungry Jack ''Use Up the Box'' recipe and essay contest.
COOK'S CORNER

Save money with homemade dressing

Q: My family goes through a large bottle of ranch salad dressing every week. At $4 a bottle, I'm wondering if I can make this at home.
COOK'S CORNER

Snow Princess still works her magic

The Snow Princess ice cream dessert served years ago at Burdines tea rooms has a special place in readers' memories. Quite a few responded to a letter from Willa, who recalled trips to the tea room with her grandmother for the children's treat, a froth of whipped cream skirt over a cone of ice cream with a ceramic princess doll top.
COOK'S CORNER

Cuban-style roast pork is a South Florida essential

Q: Every year around the holidays you are in our home as we use your recipes for Cuban pot roast and carne mechada. I am of Armenian descent and my husband, too, but he was born in Cuba. Thanks to you I have become a pretty good maker of boliche (stuffed eye of round), but lack what it takes to make a good lechon (roast pork). Since Miami is where Cuban cooking is at its greatest, I would like to have a recipe for making lechon as well as some tips on baking it -- in regards to what kind of a pan to use as well as the best oven temperature.
COOK'S CORNER

No leftovers with Spanish pork roast

Q: Many years ago The Miami Herald had a recipe for Spanish pork roast. It had to be marinated overnight. The marinade was made up of chicken broth and vermouth. Green olives were put on it and then it was roasted. It was delicious and easy to make.
COOK'S CORNER

Sweet memories of Burdine's Tea Room

Q: When I used to visit my grandmother in Pompano Beach, we would go to Burdine's Tea Room and have the wonderful Snow Princess ice cream dessert. I think it is fairly simple -- ice cream, whipped cream and silver sprinkles with a ceramic princess on top that you could keep. I would love a recipe and a picture, too, if available. Memories!
COOK'S CORNER

Savory 'cookie' a family favorite

Q: Please help. I've lost the recipe for a favorite appetizer/snack I've always brought to family gatherings. I think I got it off a Rice Krispies box about 40 years ago. I think I could make it without the recipe, but hate to think of wasting the ingredients if I don't remember right. You mix the cereal with cheese, butter and flour and bake like a cookie.
COOK'S CORNER

Cheesecake flan a fan favorite

Q: Several years ago you published a recipe for an easy flan. It was made with cream cheese and evaporated and condensed milk. It was delicious, but I have since lost the recipe and would dearly love to have it again.
COOK'S CORNER

Grandma's custardy chess pie has a caramel twist

Q: I've been looking high and low for a custardy chess pie recipe I had in the 1960s and '70s in Thomasville, N.C. It was made by the Tasty Bakery in our small town. This pie didn't have the transparent type of filling as in pecan pie, but was more akin to an egg custard pie but with that unmistakable brown sugar flavor. I'm hungry to relive this exquisite taste treat!
COOK'S CORNER

Favorite Bake-Off cookies

With the holidays fast approaching, it seems timely to share three more nominations from readers for best recipes from the Pillsbury Bake-Off, this time for cookies. I'd heard of one of them, Cherry Winks, but the other two were new to me.
COOK'S CORNER

Cookie has baklava flavor but it's much easier to make

Melamakarona is the name of a Greek cookie made with citrus juice and dipped in honey, we learned from readers who responded to Eleanor Limbaugh's request for help replacing a favorite recipe for holiday baking.
COOK'S CORNER

Make-ahead breakfast ideas

You'll want to clip and save today's recipes to use not only for the upcoming holidays but year-round for weekend breakfasts. They are from readers who responded to a request for make-ahead breakfast/brunch casseroles. I just wish we had space to run all the recipes that were so kindly shared.
COOK'S CORNER

Pakistani pudding is good anytime

Thanks to helpful readers, we've found just the recipe for M.W., whose Pakistani son-in-law wished to taste again a dish his late mother made for breakfast with rice, milk, carrots, raisins and pistachios.
COOK'S CORNER

He misses the Rascal House salt sticks

Q: We still miss the Rascal House! For two decades, we would travel from California, stay in a Sunny Isles motel and eat all of our meals there. We especially miss the salt sticks.
COOK'S CORNER

Bake-Off cake kindles sweet memories of Dad

Q: When I saw that you were celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Pillsbury Bake-Off with readers' favorite recipes, wonderful memories returned of my father and his baking. I still have the recipe booklet for the third contest with a copyright of 1952. I pulled it out this morning to locate the recipe for Starlight Double Delight, which won the first prize of $25,000 in the senior contest. My dad loved to bake this cake.
COOK'S CORNER

Boxed mix, fresh fruit make for a simple, scrumptious cake

Q: I am desperately searching for a recipe for banana cake to make for a friend whose mother always made it, but now has Alzheimer's disease. She remembers it had layers and used a yellow cake mix. I believe it had mashed bananas in both the cake and the frosting.
COOK'S CORNER

Raisin cookies are an old favorite

Q: Through moving I lost one of my favorite cookie recipes. I used to boil water and raisins together and let the raisins soak, then add them to the dry ingredients.
COOK'S CORNER

Canasta Cake is a Memphis favorite

Q: About 55 years ago in Memphis, Tenn., there was a department store called Goldsmith's that had a wonderful canasta cake in the bakery department. It was chocolate with white filling. I have looked for this cake for years and haven't been able to find the recipe. Hope you can locate it for me.
COOK'S CORNER

Bake-Off faves you've saved?

Flipping through Pillsbury's Best of the Bake-Off Collection (Wiley, $29.95), a re-release of the 1959 classic, I was struck by how many of the recipes from the first 10 years of the contest have become favorites. Who hasn't tried Hershey's Kiss-topped Peanut Blossom cookies, Orange Kiss Me Cake or Tunnel of Fudge?
COOK'S CORNER

Long-lost recipe serves up creamy lobster on toast

Q: I lost part of this recipe -- all I can read is that you boil the lobster, break it up into small pieces, then make a white sauce, adding mushrooms and Tabasco and cumin. Then you add diced hard-boiled eggs, pour over lobster and mix thoroughly, sprinkle with cheese and broil.
COOK'S CORNER

Cinnamon, allspice flavor a Lebanese tabouleh

K.L. of Davie asked for ''a truly authentic'' recipe for making Lebanese bulgur salad. She remembered that her mother would make it ''and wouldn't even let us taste it until it had chilled for a day.''
COOK'S CORNER

Solving the mystery of a great-grandmother's potato salad

There's nothing as satisfying as fulfilling a request for a recipe that was a loved one's specialty. S.P.G. turned to our readers for help recreating a potato salad made by her Russian great-grandmother that she believed was called oliveyeah, but did not contain olives.
COOK'S CORNER

Toasted pecan rice makes a great potluck dish

Q: Ten or more years ago, I ate at the Crab House in Boca Raton. One of the side dishes was the best rice I've ever eaten -- it had a sort of roasted pecan flavor. Any chance of getting the recipe?
COOK'S CORNER

Cold summer soup is rich and super-simple to make

We've had lots of fun trying recipes for quick and easy summer desserts. Now Kay Briggs of Canton, N.Y., moves the focus to the beginning of the meal with a very easy and delicious summer soup recipe.