Anne McAlpine: January 31, 2019

I received an interesting phone call from a reader who has been following my recipe columns since May of 1980, when I started writing for another newspaper. Yes, I have a copy of every column that I have written stored in those older-style magnetic photo albums. I often get asked to repeat an old recipe and it is much easier for me to find them when I store a hard copy.

In 1983 I shared my son’s favourite cookie recipe and the reader told me that it was a favourite with her kids and now her grandkids, and she had lost her copy. She was pretty sure that she remembered it but wanted me to share it here. I taught both of my kids how to cook and my son, Jason, liked to make what he called Mud and Worms – a top of the stove cookie that did somewhat resemble mud and worms. Jason made these so often that he knew the recipe by heart and although you are supposed to let them harden, he often tried a warm one. My grandma used to make these for my brother and me when we were kids too, so it is a very old recipe. Always use the old-fashioned oatmeal as the quick cooking or instant oatmeal will be mushy in the end result. I use shredded coconut instead of the grated kind.

I recently bought a cabbage for another recipe and had some leftover, so I looked through some old cookbooks for an easy cabbage dish. I found this one in a Company’s Coming cookbook and I really liked it. It would be a good side dish to serve with baked ham or porkchops, so I am sharing a porkchop recipe with you, too. Bacon Swiss porkchops are very easy to make and turn out moist and delicious. The recipe called for garlic powder, but I used a finely minced garlic clove.

I am still looking for some dairy-free recipes for a reader if you have some to share.