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

11 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 11Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family

By Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter - 2002

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 (1)  

These are delicious but very sweet. I tend to make them much smaller than the suggested size because of this. I don't like that liquid pools around the bottom of these while they bake, and find it necessary to pull this extra part off before serving. I'm not so sure why this happens.

Sometimes I dip or drizzle them in semi-sweet chocolate. Always a hit!

useful (1)  

These grew on me (unfortunately :) ) At first I really didn't like them, but I have to say, they actually are very good.

The dough never really came together for me- it was really crumbly. While the directions say to roll these into a ball and then indent them, I liked the shape better on the ones that I flattened slightly and then indented. The coconut didn't stick on as well as I thought it should even with the egg wash. Watch these carefully or the coconut will burn!

Instead of 1 oz cookies, I made these slightly smaller- 7/8 oz. It made almost 45 cookies that weren't too big.

useful (1)  

I like the turkey sausage in this. It's a nice alternative to beef. What I don't like at all are the noodles. I am not a fan of no-boil noodles so was a little apprehensive of this method of soaking regular lasagna noodles in hot water for 20 minutes. After this time, they were not totally 'cooked' so I knew they would absorb liquid while cooking- this is one of the reasons I don't like the no-boil kind. Well, they did absorb the liquid- too much, I think- and became very mushy.

If I make this again, I would go ahead and make regular boiled noodles and then assemble this lasagna. I would significantly reduce the amount of added salt and, perhaps, the amount of mozzarella- a pound was quite a lot.

useful (1)  

This is delicious- very lemony and garlicky. I have made it a number of times with shrimp but as you can see from the photo this time I used clams instead. Equally as good!

useful (1)  

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. It is always a hit. I will admit- this time I used panko instead of fresh breadcrumbs, thinking that they would be nice and crunchy on top. Clearly there is a reason why Ina Garten writes the recipes and I don't! The fresh bread crumbs are much better. I shouldn't have messed with a good thing.

Leftovers can be portioned out and frozen.

It is nice served with the broccoli and garlic recipe from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook.

useful (2)  

This is delicious and so simple to make. This is another one of Ina's recipes where the photo doesn't quite match the ingredients. In the photo, the breading has what looks like parsley flecks in it, yet the recipe calls for plain breadcrumbs not flavored (which could account for the green) and no herbs. I ended up adding minced parsley to the breadcrumb mixture and recommend that other cooks do the same.

It is really nice with the lettuce and lemon vinaigrette.

useful (2)  

Oh, this is really good! Creamy and delicious. I love it with the Tequila Lime Chicken since the acid in that balances the creaminess of the pudding.

useful (2)  

I love this recipe. It marinates overnight so all the work (there's not much to it) is done the day before. The orange juice is really nice with the lime juice and tequila. Simple and delicious. I served it with the Sagaponack Corn Pudding from the same cookbook.

useful (1)  

I'm not sure why you would need a recipe for this- and didn't realize until today that this cookbook even had one. Anyway- I pretty much make this daily in the summer. It's amazing. This summer I became addicted to Kumato tomatoes (they are dark purple/black). I can't get enough of them! In a recipe this simple, it's really all about the quality of the ingredients.

useful (0)  

This is really delicious but very rich. A little bit is all you need to warm up on a cold day. Next time, I might use more milk and less half and half but it really is good the way it is. I love the combination of milk and semi-sweet chocolate. Next time I will make the homemade marshmallows to go with it. It just seems wrong to use store-bought marshmallows in this!

useful (2)