If the harvest loaf with the chocolate chips is a hit in your household, Maureen Meyer figures you're bound to love her banana chip muffins.

I persuaded Meyer, of San Jose, to share after she e-mailed to say she looked forward to making the harvest loaf recipe that ran in Home Plates a few weeks ago. Meyer said she began adding mini chocolate chips to banana muffins when her kids were little. Her children are 15 and 16 now and still remind Meyer to include the chocolate chips.

The banana muffin recipe came from Meyer's ``nana,'' Margaret Etta Wade. It started out as a banana bread recipe that gets a bit of tang from sour cream. Meyer sometimes substitutes peach or strawberry yogurt for the sour cream. The muffins freeze well -- if you can sneak them past the waiting hordes.

When Meyer sent the muffin recipe, she included a bonus recipe for strawberry bread. The recipe calls for a cup of pureed strawberries, which is about two pints of fresh strawberries. I realize we're pushing the limits of the strawberry season here, but I'm still seeing decent berries in the stores.

SECOND HELPINGS: Carol Sanford of Morgan Hill has a suggestion for those who want to use a lighter cheese in the trimmed-down baked potato soup recipe that ran in Home Plates. She buys Kraft's 2 percent milk sharp cheddar cheese slices. ``When needing shredded cheese, I just unwrap the slices and hold them together as I shred,'' says Sanford, a long-time Plates contributor. ``I have done it many times when making the recipe you gave us several years ago called Nell McKelvey's broccoli casserole. You need only four or five slices to make a cup.

``I go to two potlucks each month and have taken it a number of times, always getting favorable comments and some requests for the recipe.''

Request line

• Sanford would like help with a request of her own. When her three children, now all grown, attended San Martin School, pizza was their cafeteria favorite. Sanford discovered why after attending an event at school.

``It was indeed wonderful. It was something like 1 1/2 inches thick and baked in big rectangular baking pans, not resembling what we picture as regular pizza,'' she says. ``If one of the cooks from back then or anyone else knows a recipe, please share.''

• Home Plates readers are needed as peace-keepers. ``I lost my grandma's recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies,'' e-mails Terri. ``I am asking if your readers have one, in order to promote cookie harmony, to please share it.''

• Suzanna Sarasvati knows she can find pickling lime online, but she'd rather purchase it locally to avoid shipping costs. She'd like a source. ``This used to be stocked along with the home canning supplies. It seems to have disappeared from the stores.''

• Plates regular Jacqui Holladay of Gilroy wants to re-create a favorite from Asian restaurants. She loves the whole green beans with sauce, but she's not sure how to make the sauce. ``I cannot see anything else in the dish but green beans and a sauce. No onions, peppers or mushrooms, so it is hard to describe.''