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Icicle Pickle Search Turns Up Easy Dough

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By JEFF HOUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 13, 2008

Last month, we got bombarded with mail after reader Kathi Williams asked for a recipe for icebox pickles.

Sandee Prickett of Zephyrhills writes that she was visiting her parents in Binghamton, N.Y., in July and went through old family recipes "looking for what her grandmother used to call Icicle Pickles." Prickett was raised about 20 miles east of Binghamton in Harpursville and moved to Zephyrhills in 1980.

"I am sure that was what someone was looking for a few weeks ago," Prickett e-mails. "I remember she had some in her refrigerator down here and her cleaning woman tried one and ended up eating the whole jar. My Gramma was not happy."

Prickett didn't find the pickle recipe, but she did find one for an easy pie crust made with oil that she wanted to share. She notes that to make "Lazy Girl Pie Crust," add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the flour and 2 tablespoons of cold milk to the oil.

Crouton Mystery Solved

It has been quite a while since Diana Boggs of Tampa asked for the crouton recipe at Ruby Tuesday's.

Marsha Duffey of Tampa e-mailed to say she and her husband are frequent diners at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant close to home.

"So I inquired of one of the servers about their croutons," Duffey writes.

"They are made with pumpernickel bread that is cubed, then deep-fried for a few seconds," she says. "When they are finished frying, they are dumped and sprinkled with garlic salt. That is all there is to it. Apparently, using garlic salt is what makes them soooo good. Diana Boggs can rest at ease. She now knows the recipe for the croutons she craves."

Looking For Peppers

Linda Lake of Lakeland - we're not making that up - remembers a recipe published in the late 1960s in either The Tampa Tribune or Orlando Sentinel for stuffed bell peppers done with shrimp instead of beef.

"All the recipes I have found use bread crumbs or something else instead of rice," she e-mails. "This recipe was done with shrimp fried in butter until almost done and then added to a cooked rice mixture and stuffed in the green peppers and baked. I have lost my recipe and would love to get it again."

EASY MIX PASTRY

1/2 cup Mazola oil

5 tablespoons ice water or cold milk

2 cups of sifted flour

1 teaspoon salt

Beat oil and water (or milk) with fork until creamy. Combine flour and salt, dump into mix and stir with a fork.

Form a dough ball and divide in half. Roll each half between 12-inch squares of wax paper. (Wipe table or counter with damp cloth so the paper will not slip.) Place dough in pan, add pie filling, cover with second dough layer and bake at temperature required for whatever filling you're using.

Looking for a recipe? Write to Jeff Houck, The Tampa Tribune, P.O. Box 191, Tampa FL 33601; or e-mail jhouck@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Recipes, for more recipes and to check out our archive.

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