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Calling all cooks. Auntie Emo is looking for recipes, we need reader input.

Do you have a recipe you would like to share? Are you looking for a lost recipe? AAE is where you ask for and share recipes.

RECIPE CHALLENGE:

B.H., of Douglas, said her husband raves about beef barley soup. "I hope one of your readers has a recipe that he or she would share. Thank you," she wrote.

Readers tips, tricks and techniques

T.M., of Ketchikan, sent in this tip for those of us that might hesitate to buy (or cut much) parsley because it generally goes so quickly. This also works well for cilantro.

As soon as you get the parsley home, remove the band and run the bunch under cool water. Cut about a half-inch off the stems. Put a little water in a glass, and put the bunch in there. No leaves should be in the water. Let the glass sit out on the counter for about an hour. The parsley really perks right up.

Then empty the water, rinse the glass and replace it. Now invert a clear gallon-size storage bag on the top of it and put it in the fridge. Change the water each day. (T.M. also clips the parsley another half inch every couple of days.) This really works and the parsley lasts for up to two weeks, in really good shape.

This tip is based on a column T.M. got from her mother some years ago from the Schaumbaurg Daily Herald, in Illinois, by Don Mauer.

Meanwhile, T.M. would like a tip on how to keep fresh basil effectively for more than a day.

• Ask Auntie Emo, coordinated and created by Emo Bylund, of Ketchikan, is a weekly feature in Neighbors and the Ketchikan Daily News that includes sought-out and shared recipes from Southeast Alaska.

To send in challenges, recipes or photos, write to Ask Auntie Emo, 186 Marblehead Lane, Ketchikan, AK 99801, or to aae@kpunet.net. If you are responding to a requested recipe, include the publication date and author of the original recipe request. Submissions must include name, telephone number and city of residence. Only initials and city of residency will be published.