RECIPE SWAP: MAKE EVERY DAY AN OCCASION WITH RECIPE FAVORITES FROM READERS

Someone recently made a comment to me that over time we will run out of recipes to put in the Recipe Swap column. I can assure you that will never happen. Just looking at the wonderful variety of good recipes that we have to share with you this week, I am already excited to see what gets sent in next week to share.

Sometime ago we had a request for an Amish Brown Sugar Cream Pie from Alice Niswonger of Cape Girardeau. I was able to find many brown sugar type pies but none of them had cream in them. But this week I found it. In looking through a wonderful Amish cookbook I ran across her recipe and I am looking forward to hearing about the finished results.

Old-Fashioned Brown Sugar Cream Pie

1 pastry for a 9" pie crust

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

4 1/2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup half and half

1 cup Milnot

1 teaspoon vanilla

ground cinnamon

Line pie pan with pastry. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, flour and salt. Stir in the half and half and let stand for 15 minutes to dissolve the brown sugar, then stir in the Milnot and vanilla; mix well. Pour into the pastry shell and drift cinnamon lightly across the top. Bake for 55 minutes or until the top bubbles a bit. If the crust is getting too brown, cover the pie lightly with a piece of foil. The pie will be shaky when you remove it from the oven but will set up as it cools.

Cool completely on a rack, cut into wedges, and serve.

Just a note about the method of preparation of this recipe. By chilling the pie crust before the filling is poured in, you reduce the likelihood of the crust puffing in the bottom of the pie as it bakes. Also, a canned milk product, like the recipe calls for, will give much better results than regular carton milk.

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Last week we had a request for a Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe for the upcoming St. Patrick's day holiday. Dortha Strack of Cape gave me one that she would like to have you try. This recipe is her recipe and was printed in the March 1997 issue of Today's Farmer magazine.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

5 pounds well-trimmed corned beef brisket

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium onion, quartered

1 medium head green cabbage, cut into 8 wedges

Place meat in a large kettle; cover with cold water. Add garlic and onion. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat. Cover tightly and simmer 3 1/2 hours or until tender. Place meat on warm platter; keep warm. Skim fat from liquid. Add cabbage; simmer uncovered 15 minutes.

Yields 10 to 12 servings.

I also received a recipe for New England Boiled Dinner from Juanita Hillis of New Madrid. She says it's an excellent corned beef and cabbage meal and everyone she serves it to really enjoys it.

New England Boiled Dinner

2 pounds corned beef

1/2 head medium sized cabbage

3 carrots

3 onions

3 turnips

4 potatoes

salt to taste

Cover meat with cold water. Simmer for two hours.

Prepare vegetables, cutting cabbage in four pieces, other vegetables in half.

Add to corned beef. Cook until vegetables are tender. Drain, serve on a platter with meat, thinly sliced.

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Laura Johnston of Cape Girardeau has lost her recipe for White Chili. How many times have I done that? Many times I find a particular recipe then forget where I saw it or where I put it. But I'm going to share my favorite White Chili recipe with Laura, but I still encourage you, the readers, to send in your favorites, too. The recipe I'll share is wonderful and I make it as printed in the Treasures From the Heart cookbook from The Blue Owl Restaurant and Bakery in historic Kimmswick, Mo. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

White Chili

3 (16 ounce) cans Great Northern white beans

4 cups chopped, cooked chicken breasts

1 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 (4 ounce) cans chopped mild green chilies

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

6 cups chicken stock or canned broth

3 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese (about 12 ounces)

sour cream

Place chicken in heavy large saucepan. Add cold water to cover and bring to simmer. Cook until just tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool. Remove skin. Cut chicken into cubes.

Heat oil in same pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and saute until translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic, then chilies, cumin, oregano, and cayenne pepper and saute 2 minutes. Add undrained beans and stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and add chicken and cheese to chili and stir until cheese melts. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle chili into bowls. Garnish with sour cream if desired.

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Another Cape Girardeau reader would like for you to enjoy her favorite meatloaf. As we all know, there are as many different ways to make meatloaf as there are days in the year. She told me that even members of her family who do not normally like meatloaf love this recipe.

Sweet and Sour Meatloaf

1 1/2 pound ground beef

1 cup bread crumbs

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 small onion, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Topping Sauce Recipe:

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons vinegar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons prepared mustard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together meat ingredients and from into a loaf. Wrap in foil before placing in pan. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Mix together sauce ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and pour over meatloaf after it has baked 50 minutes. Then bake another 10 minutes to heat the sauce. Yield about 6 servings.

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Delia Lampley of Cape Girardeau is looking for a good Amaretto Sauce recipe for her bread pudding. I'm sure there are many of you who love bread pudding and I think that different sauces are fun to try on it. Please send in your favorite bread pudding and/or sauce recipes and we will have fun with those next week.

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We also had a request from a woman in Cape Girardeau for nice dessert recipes using packaged cake mixes. As a full-time working mother she is on a tight schedule and having the convenience of a prepared mix to start with would help her. There are so many good recipes for cakes and cookies that start with prepared mixes, we should have plenty to share next week.

In thinking about time schedules and working parents, it would be nice to have a variety of quick to fix recipes to share. If you have a good tried and true recipe that you find is quick and easy, please send it in and we will dedicate a week of Recipe Swap to working parents and easy quick recipes.

Have fun looking for and sending in your recipes and I'll see you next week.