bhnyc's Profile

From: New York, NY

Joined: June 6th, 2010

Chicken Fricassee with Meatballs from Back to Square One: Old-World Food in a New-World Kitchen

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recipe reviews (218)
book reviews (2)
useful review votes (196)

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bhnyc's Reviews

17 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 17Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again

By Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter - 2006

More than excellent. I actually won a baking competition at work using this recipe!

useful (0)  

Absolutely heavenly!

It's not the easiest cake to make- there's lots of sifting and folding- which is too bad because it looks like there will be many of these in my future. I brought it to a party and it was devoured. Apparently this needs to now become my signature dessert!

Tip- with all of the extra egg yolks, I made Peter Reinhart's challah from Artisan Bread Every Day. Between the two recipes, you use the dozen eggs. No more wondering what to do with the part you don't use!

useful (3)  

There's not much to say about this besides YUM. It's easy to make- I made two at the same time. Delicious with summer blueberries. I did cover the blueberries with some flour before adding them to the batter so they wouldn't all sink to the bottom of the cake. Looks pretty and tastes even better! And I used slightly more berries than the recipe called for.

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This is one of my favorite chicken salad recipes. The cook time for the roast chicken is perfect. I usually cook it ahead of time so it has time to cool. Gone are the days of poached chicken for chicken salad! Roasting it is so much better.

I love the crunchy celery and creamy mayo. Tarragon is one of my favorite herbs and it tastes really good with the green grapes. This salad makes a great sandwich and also is good over a green salad with Boston lettuce.

useful (1)  

This is the same recipe as in the Family Style Cookbook.

This is the recipe I always use for stock and soup. It does take a while to cook- 4 hours- but it is definitely worth it and the house smells so good while it is cooking. It makes a lot of stock which can be frozen to use later. I don't have a 16- to 20 quart stock pot, so I divide the recipe in half and make it in two smaller stock pots. The recipe calls for 3 5-pound chickens. This seems like a waste to me since most of the chicken ends up getting thrown out. Instead, I often make this with one whole chicken and lots of chicken bones which I have saved up in the freezer over time. I have also purchased the bones from the market in the past. This way you still get the rich flavor and color of the broth but don't spend as much money and waste so much chicken.

If you want to use the chicken in soup- follow the recipe in the Parties! book. That has you removing the breast meat after an hour so you can serve it in soup later. This is a lot less wasteful to me.

useful (0)  

This was good and easy to make. It takes moments to put together and then gets popped in the oven. It's a nice alternative to plain roasted chicken.

useful (1)  

This is easy and delicious. Serve it with the lamb kebabs.

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These are a nice light and flavorful scone. They are not too dry and not too sweet.

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This is a really nice alternative to plain old rice. I use brown basmati rice instead of white and it is delicious. I especially like serving this with the Indonesian Ginger Chicken from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

useful (1)  

This is such a simple dish to prepare and you can do it up to two days ahead of time. On cooking day, all you do is assemble the skewers and grill (though I used the oven).

At first I thought the extra sauce you are supposed to make would be unnecessary, but I actually think it really made a difference for this dish. The lamb was much better with it.

I served this over the Couscous with Pine Nuts. Great combination!

useful (2)  

I love lemon. Between the cake, the lemon syrup and the glaze, this is very lemony. I even added a little bit of lemon zest to the glaze for color and flavor. The consistency of the cake, though, is a little odd- maybe because it is drenched in syrup and has oil in it.

Don't let Ina try to fool you. In the descriptive paragraph she comments about how this recipe doesn't have a pound of butter like most of her recipes so it's 'healthier' than many of her cakes. Well, it does have tons of sugar, whole fat yogurt and a 1/2 cup of oil. Let's agree that this is 100% a dessert and not at all healthy! It is yummy, though.

useful (1)  

This is my go-to recipe when I have to make a gluten-free dessert, but everyone enjoys it. It looks really impressive but isn't too hard to make. The berry sauce makes more than you need so save it to serve over ice cream!

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If I could give this a rating higher than 5, I would! It is really, really good and easy to make.

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So much simpler than baking a pie. This comes together quickly and serves a crowd. I baked it in a 9x13 dish rather than ramekins.

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I love this recipe and have made it a number of times. I don't know why, then, I always forget just how much this makes! So much more than the servings suggested. Luckily it freezes well.

The first few times I made this, I made it as directed- with uncooked white rice. Both times, the rice didn't cook all the way through despite cooking for over an hour. I made it again and substituted cooked barley. That was really good. This time I used cooked brown rice, which I liked, but not as much as the barley.

Almost every time I make this, I use half beef and half pork. I like that more than all beef.

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How I love this recipe! I love that it is easier than making a pie and I love that you can use any summer fruits that you like. I also love that the recipe makes two doughs- one that you can use right away and one that you can freeze for later use. I usually end up making the summer fruit crostata and then freezing the second dough for the apple crostata (BC Parties!) in the fall. Yum!

useful (1)  

These are moist and chewy cookies. They are really good! I suggest doubling the recipe since it only makes 16-20 cookies and you'll probably want more. As Ina suggests, you can also freeze the dough and bake them later.

I'll be serving these with peach ice cream as an ice cream sandwich.

useful (2)