Recipes that appear in Idea Alley have not been tested by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
I've heard from various readers regarding favorite foraged foods such as poke salet and pigweed.
Both of these "wild" crops are in season, and while a variety of recipes exists for preparing them, I'm not comfortable encouraging people to go foraging in the woods, along roadsides and in abandoned lots for plants that may not be safe to consume. The plants may have been exposed to environmental contaminants or pesticides not approved for food crops. In addition, to the untrained eye, these plants can be difficult to identify and are easily confused with inedible plants. Poke salet, if not handled and cooked properly, can be toxic.
That being said, I'd like to thank the readers who shared recipes and ask for your understanding about why we are not publishing them.
An unidentified reader left a voice mail requesting a recipe for punch bowl cake.
This one is from the Idea Alley archives. If you have a different recipe, please share.
Gladys' Punch Bowl Cake
1 box yellow cake mix, PLUS ingredients listed on package
2 large boxes instant vanilla pudding
5 cups milk
1 can cherry pie filling
1 small can crushed pineapple
5 bananas, peeled, sliced
1 (16-ounce) container whipped topping
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts
1 small jar maraschino cherries
Bake cake according to package directions.
Combine pudding mix and milk in a bowl.
Layer half the ingredients in a punch bowl in the following order: crumbled cake, pudding mixture, cherry pie filling, pineapple, bananas, whipped topping, nuts. Repeat, using the remainder of the ingredients. Top with whipped topping, and sprinkle with additional nuts and maraschino cherries.
Gayle Bauguss shares this cake recipe, originally published in a column by Sara Sullivan of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers.
Sue's Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
3 eggs, divided use
1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (16-ounce) package confectioners' sugar
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a jellyroll pan.
Lightly beat one of the eggs, then combine it with the cake mix and melted butter; press mixture into the bottom of the prepared jellyroll pan.
Mix the cream cheese, remaining eggs and confectioners' sugar thoroughly, then spread mixture over cake dough. Bake 18 to 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before cutting and serving.
Makes 1 cake.
REQUEST
• Peanut Butter Pie like that served years ago at Magnolia Cafeteria in the Broadmoor Shopping Center on University Avenue in Little Rock for Mary Eddleman. "My grandmother worked there and used to bring this delicious pie home with her. ... It had peanut butter mixed with powdered sugar sprinkled on the crust before you pour the pie filling in and also sprinkled on top."
Send recipe requests, contributions and culinary questions to Kelly Brant, Idea Alley, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203; email:
kbrant@arkansasonline.com
Please include a daytime phone number.
Food on 05/13/2015