Keep those "favorite recipes" coming

The stack of July 22, 2009, issues of The Lancaster News in the newspaper morgue is getting shorter.

Gregory A. Summers

Lori Sistare shows off the insulated/thermal bag The Lancaster News is giving away to each "My Favorite Recipe" cook who sends in a recipe that's published in the Wednesday issue.

Buy this photo

Just about once a week now, the voice on the other end of the phone makes the same request.

“I cut out the recipe for that Butter Pecan Pound Cake that has the icing mixed into the batter, but I don’t know what I did with it. Can you tell me how to get another copy of it? That thing is perfect with a cup of coffee.”

One of my neighbors, Ken McManus, has a similar opinion of the cake.

McManus recently said that he’s always grateful to see the last piece of the simple-to-make dessert disappear from Mrs. Ann’s often-used cake plate. He’s walking a little more these days because of that recipe.

“That thing is delicious,” he said. “To be honest, if there was more of it, I’d still be eating it. I’m glad to see it go.”

I blame the disappearing issues and Ken’s longer morning walks on Lori Sistare, TLN advertising consultant.

Why?

It’s been one of the most requested recipes since we started the “From Your Kitchen” feature that appears each Wednesday in The Lancaster News.

We launched the new food feature in July to salute some of our best local cooks and their tastiest recipes. That includes the Butter Pecan Pound Cake recipe that Lori lifted from her sister-in-law, Kathy Sistare.

There are tons of great recipes out there and there’s usually a story behind each of them, just like Rhonda Faile’s Chicken and Rice, that is published today.

I found out about Rhonda’s dish from our daughter, Betty Jo. Betty Jo fell in love with Rhonda’s chicken and rice while spending a leisurely, after-church Sunday afternoon at the Faile home last summer.

“Daddy, you gotta get Mrs. Rhonda’s recipe,” Betty Jo said. “It’s a lot better than yours.”

Gee, thanks.

But guess what?

My daughter is right. Rhonda’s chicken and rice is better than mine.

That’s why we want to highlight your recipes. We know that the best ones come from our readers just like Rhonda.

There’s nothing to it. Just send us the recipe, along with a brief two or three sentence description about where you got it and why it’s so popular.

You can send your recipes to news@thelancasternews.com for possible publication. You can mail them to My Favorite Recipes; P.O. Box 640, Lancaster S.C. 29721. Make sure to include you name and a phone number so we can contact you.

If we select your recipe for publication, we have a nice gift for you; it’s an insulated/thermal bag designed to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.      

No Lori, you don’t get another bag today for re-running the cake recipe.

But given the number of requests, I figured it was a good idea to publish it again.

That way, we can hang onto a few more copies of the July 22 issue.

Butter Pecan Pound Cake

Ingredients

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup water

1 box of pecan cake mix

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 container of coconut pecan frosting

Directions

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a tube cake pan or bundt pan.

– Mix together eggs, oil and water for about one minute with electric mixer. Add coconut pecan frosting and beat until well mixed. Add cake mix and pecans. Stir until well mixed. Pour into pan.

– Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

– Greg Summers is features editor of The Lancaster News.