Joann Pelikan from Baltimore was hoping to locate a recipe for a dish she called Spanish steak. She said she enjoyed eating this when she was growing up in the 1960s and described it as steak that was slow-cooked with green pepper, onions and ketchup to yield a tender piece of meat with a tasty sauce. Mary Rostek from Perry Hall, Md., thought Pelikan’s request sounded very much like the steak Creole she has been making since she was married in 1948. Her recipe calls for using individual cubed steaks that are made from beef that is taken from the top or bottom round and tenderized (or cubed) by running it through a butcher’s tenderizing machine once or twice. It’s an inexpensive cut that is still readily available in most supermarkets. In her recipe the steaks are browned in a skillet and then slowly simmered with the sauteed onion, pepper and tomatoes for around an hour until they are tender. Rostek says this is still one of her family’s favorite meals and that it is an easy, foolproof and budget-friendly dish even for a novice cook.

Recipe requests:

Pat Braun from Mount Pleasant, Wis., said that a few years back she was at an Amish settlement and had a soft peanut brittle. It tasted just like traditional peanut brittle but it was not as hard. She had tried to duplicate it with no success and was hoping someone might have a recipe they would share for making it.