In today’s column, I promised a few more recipes from Doreen Sidor’s kitchen. Below the jump, you’ll find those recipes for Artichoke and Green Beans Romano, Maui Onion Rings and Filet Mignon with Merlot-Butter Reduction Sauce.

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Yesterday, I received an e-mail from blog reader Whitney, who has been craving a favorite treat from her childhood.

Here’s what Whitney had to say:

Today I attended a wake and there on the dessert table were Peanut Butter Fingers…the exact same ones that the Salem schools used to serve every Friday on pizza day. Not only were they delicious but they took me way back (it’s been many years since high school). I would love to have that recipe to make for my kids but I’m not having much luck searching online and the container they were in didn’t have a name on it. Do you happen to have the recipe or could you point me in the right direction to possibly find it…and maybe the pizza recipe too?

Well, I wrote Whitney back and asked her for a little more information about the dessert and her time in Salem schools. She said the fingers “looked like they were fixed in a sheet pan…they were flat and cut into small squares.” The bottom of these dessert bars were peanut butter, chewy and made with oatmeal. The top was chocolatey, like icing.

“I didn’t enjoy school lunches much but I LOVED these. I was in Salem schools from 1980 to 1993 (which doesn’t seem real to me somehow),” Whitney said.

I found a similar recipe online, which I will attach below. But it calls for chocolate chips on top so it may not be the same. While I call Salem schools in an effort to track down this recipe, I thought I’d check with all of my wonderful readers to see if any of you remember a treat like these. Better yet, maybe one of you has the recipe! If you do, please be sure to let us know!

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Debbie’s wish is my command. She says masa is available in the Mexican food section of your local grocery store. I’m going looking this weekend, but I might have to head for a different Kroger than the one I usually shop.
Here’s the McCormick recipe for Red Curry Chicken with Masa Dumplings:

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…and what have I done?
Well, I have cooked. And eaten. And drank. And fed people. And then started cooking again.
I have baked sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, macadamia nut cookies and date cookies.
I have feasted on London broil, cocktail shrimp, pad Thai, crab dip, meatballs, miniature egg rolls, lobster amandine, pistachio-crusted salmon, chicken piccata, breakfast casseroles and much more.
I have torn open boxes of Frango chocolates and cans of piroulines; crates of tiny, liquor-filled chocolate bottles and bags of Belgian candy; pillowy sacks of brownie mix and pancake mix.
I have stocked my kitchen with cooking-themed gifts — a pink spatula, a digital thermometer, a tea pot, a tea ball, a fridge magnet with measurement breakdowns, a tiny frying pan for melting butter or browning nuts.
About 10 days (and probably 10 pounds) later, I wonder which dish, which candy, which gift I treasure the most. But it isn’t any of those tangible things. Instead, it was the chance to laugh with my dad over a plate of Thai food and to get in the kitchen with my mom and cook up a big meal like we used to.
Food would be nothing without fellowship. That’s what the holidays always teach me.
But I cannot ignore the dishes I learned to make and the joy of eating them, too. Surprisingly, when I thought back on my Christmas holiday, I found that the easiest, most simple dish I learned to make was my favorite. And the most subtly sweet cookie I learned to make tasted the very best.
Here are my top two recipes of the holiday season. If you aren’t tired of cooking yet, give them a try! And please write in and share your own culinary experiences this holiday season. Which recipe are you most likely to make again before next Christmas?

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