Write to her at lcicero@miamiherald.com.
Q: I am looking for a Cranberry Fluff dessert recipe. I believe it had a graham cracker crust. I first saw the recipe in a Women's Circle Home Cooking magazine from the late 1970s or early 1980s. It would be nice to have for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Q: Years ago, my Aunt Celia would whip up a wonderful chocolate bread pudding she made with cocoa powder. Recently, my cousins and I got together and were reminiscing about it. It was baked in a 9-by-13-inch pan. I can clearly remember having quite a tummy ache because I ate so much of it. I've looked on the Internet but cannot find a recipe that would use ingredients she would have been able to afford.
Many readers were prompted to write after we published a recipe for Czech fruit dumplings for 85-year-old Olga Wojciuch of Ladysmith, Wis., who wanted to taste this treat from her childhood. We've sent all the letters on to Wojciuch so she can choose the recipe that best matches her memories.
Q: Every year I think it is such a shame that I buy pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations but then end up throwing them away. This year I especially can't stomach the idea of paying for something that could be food and wasting it. Can you tell me how to make pumpkin pie with it?
Q: I had the most wonderful fennel salad at Fratelli Lyon in the Design District. Can you get the recipe? A: Kenneth A. Lyon graciously provided the recipe for this wonderfully different salad, which easily could serve as a light meal. I loved the symphony of flavors and textures -- the nuttiness of the cheese, the mild anise of the fennel, the slight bitterness of arugula and the sweet crunch of celery.
Q: I wonder if you can find a recipe for a wonderful Czech apricot dumpling. The apricots are wrapped in a fluffy, sweet dough and are steamed or boiled and covered with melted butter and powdered sugar. Weddings, funerals, family get-togethers -- these bring some happiness into this world, for sure. At 85, I'd sure like to taste my childhood at least one more time.
Q: A year or so ago, I picked up a recipe card at Williams-Sonoma for a lemon cake that used Meyer lemon juice, which you could buy there. I have misplaced the card, and Williams-Sonoma is saying they don't have the recipe on file anymore. Do you know where I could find it?
Q: I've misplaced a recipe I believe I cut from a cake mix box for a cranberry bread that was really good and easy to make. I always made it whenever fresh cranberries hit the grocery. Do you have anything like this? Please don't tell me how to make it from scratch. I don't have the time or inclination.
Fred Zackheim reminisced about the Tivoli Restaurant on Sunny Isles Boulevard, where he and his wife went on their first date 21 years ago.
Many readers immediately thought of The Bonfire when they read a query about the name of a ''casual family restaurant across the street from Fun Fair off the 79th Street Causeway'' in the mid-1950s.
While we've been unable to score on a request for the conch fritter recipe from Monty Trainer's, we have a wonderful version to share from Mary Gonzales, a third-generation Conch who provided her mother's recipe. (For those unfamiliar with the term, a Conch is a native of Key West, aka the Conch Republic. While Mary hasn't lived there for 59 years, she says she will always be a Conch.)
Q: When I saw the request for the alligator pastry recipe it gave me such a pang and trip down memory lane. I lived in Los Angeles for 20 years, and can say without hesitation that the premiere grocery store on God's earth is Gelson's. Their bakery is a slice of heaven, so to speak, and one of the most popular items is the Gelson's Alligator. I managed to snare the recipe before leaving L.A. and I'm happy to share it here. It's not for the faint of heart, short of time or high of cholesterol.
Q: One of the great treasures I've clipped from your column is the recipe for the tartar sauce from Morrison's Cafeterias. I don't think there has ever been as wonderful a place for inexpensive, comforting Southern cooking. I just made another batch of the tartar sauce and was wondering if you'd ever gotten the recipe for their fried shrimp. It was so light, not like breading at all, and oh, so crisp.
Q: I read your column in The Huntsville Ala., Times, but I grew up in Florida. Many years ago there was a steak marinade circulating that contained Dr Pepper, onion salt and garlic salt and possibly other ingredients. Have you heard of this? It was delicious.
Q: Do you have any tried and true recipes for beef cube steaks? I purchased some on sale, but do not really have any recipes. I came across one using mustard as a coating, but lost it. The last time I just ended up cooking them in a pan and they turned out so blah.
Q: In Sleuth's Corner, you mentioned a bread pudding recipe from an old-time bakery. Would it be possible for you to print it again? It is my favorite dessert.
Q: A friend read wonders if you have the recipe for three-cheese tortellini salad? It has roasted red peppers, fontina cheese, dressing and I am not sure what else.
Q: Several years ago, you had a recipe for a dish similar to paella made by Chesterfield Smith. Can you run it again? A: This wonderful preparation by the late Chesterfield Smith Sr. appeared in Cook's Corner in 1991. I've condensed it slightly here. South Florida's preeminent lawyer for half a century, he called ''The Dish'' a work in progress, subject to frequent tweaking. A champion of the poor and disenfranchised, Smith (1917-2003) was president of the American Bar Association and made national...
There's no doubt Key lime pie reigns in South Florida and beyond. Responses continue pouring in to our publication of the old-time recipe from the Fern Inn of Islamorada. Given how reliant we've become on computers, it's comforting to know how many cooks still have yellowed newspaper clippings of the recipe.
When legendary The Place for Steak on the 79th Street Causeway closed in the early 1990s, we began getting requests for its steak sauce recipe. Last month, we ran yet another reader plea -- and finally, we've got the answer.
Chalk up another win for Cook's Corner sleuths: We've got the signature Key lime pie recipe from the Fern Inn in Islamorada, home of a renowned version of the South Florida favorite in the 1950s and '60s.
Q: I value your column very much, and have a suggestion: Hard times are a-comin', and for many are already here. Years ago, I was an artist living hand to mouth, and appreciated tips for eating cheap from others similarly situated. I find myself increasingly pinched in my retirement. I never learned how to cook cheap cuts of meat, for example, or inexpensive ethnic foods. Perhaps you can devote a column to this matter.
Q: About 50 years ago, there was an article in The Miami Herald about a famous seafood restaurant in the Florida Keys that was known countrywide for its Key lime pie. The lady who owned it had died, and it was thought that the recipe died with her. However, her children had it, and agreed to let The Herald publish it. Is there any way you can find it?
Q: I have what is probably a stupid question, but how do you make Salisbury steak? I buy a frozen TV dinner all the time, but it seems to me I could make it better on my own, even though I'm a widower and not much of a cook.
Q: I am a weekly [online] reader of the food section of The Miami Herald, and I especially enjoy your column. It's a friendly, nationwide recipe and memory exchange.
Q: While traveling in Greer, S.C., we purchased fresh peach bread at a local fruit stand. It had a wonderful peach flavor. We would love to learn how to make it.
Tastes remembered from our mother's kitchens have been an abiding theme of Cook's Corner columns over the past 25 years. My favorites are those that educate as well as endear, and in so doing celebrate the lives of women who warmed our lives with sick-bed chicken soup and after-school brownies.
Super Bowl Sunday is the time for fumble-proof food: fix-ahead dishes guests can eat from paper plates without taking their eyes off the TV.
Giving from the heart is something Cook's Corner readers do with grace. For 25 years, they've shared their treasured recipes -- a generosity of spirit that's especially sweet in this holiday season of home-baked gifts and cookie exchanges.
Menus & memories from Linda Cicero's beloved column
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