Catbatty's Reviews
8 recipes reviewed. Showing 1 to 8Sort by: Book Title 
| Date | Rating | Recipe Title
The Sparkpeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight
By Meg Galvin, Chris Downie
Hay House - 2011
LOVED! Very simple. Great taste. The lemon and the Parmesan *make* the dish. Otherwise, would be a simple stir-fry of sliced mushrooms and a bit of chopped fresh spinach. My husband is VERY tentative about cooked spinach--but it pretty much disappears amongst all the mushrooms. HE LIKED THIS DISH.
I halved the recipe, but then I think I goofed on the lemon and added too much. So it had a real tingle but was still soooo good. YUM. (PS: I don't see that this is so non-fattening, has bacon and bacon grease, but there is a note that we can save about 35 calories if we leave out the bacon.) Can't wait to make this again. Just thinking about it makes me yearn.
OH, I used (for half the recipe) 1 portobello and 2 shiitake (fairly large ones--but I removed the stems). Also, we use a fantastic bacon, Beeler's (no nitrites/nitrates, is uncured and the flavor is just to die for). We cube it and keep it in freezer for any cooking we do that uses bacon, like beans of various kinds and all kinds of things that my husband invents...like red bell pepper, bacon, cheese open grilled sandwiches. :)
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Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook
By Audrey Alsterburg, Wanda Urbanowicz
Big Ideas Publishing - 2001
The is Rebar's most popular house dressing. The dominating taste is basil but is enhanced by the taste of mustard and honey and garlic. YUM! We used it on salad but also can be used as a drizzle over all kinds of other things. Come tomato harvest time, we also plan to drizzle this dressing over toasted crusty bread with sliced fresh tomatoes on top. A keeper. So far, I have made one batch and we have poured it over salads two nights in a row (for a total of four salads)...and a few plates of sliced avocados. (We still have some leftover!) I took photos!
Next time I make I will increase the fresh garlic. I can't get enough garlic these days. :)
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Mac & Cheese: More than 80 Classic and Creative Versions of the Ultimate Comfort Food
By Ellen Brown
Running Press - 2012
Many pans. Confusing directions. Had to guess what to do with the 6 ounces of goat cheese (which I didn't have, so used feta + bit of cream cheese).
The actual TASTE was pretty good in an odd way, but I think I can re-write the entire recipe to make it much more delicious and far easier to make with less dirtying everything in the kitchen!
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Lots of Parmesan, small amount of cream cheese & Monterey Jack. Not all that thrilling. Seemed like a bland, white sauce.
Just OK. I would not make again. (But might consider for elderly person who needs simple tastes.) Too plain for me and too few veggies and the cheese completely disappeared--couldn't even tell it was there. PLUS, as with the last recipe I made from book (Med Mac and Cheese w/Olives -- which now I yearn for and wish I'd given more stars) too many pans/steps.
I would make the white sauce in larger pan and add the ingreds to IT, rather than add the sauce and ingreds to the pot of drained pasta, for easier cleanup...and I don't know if steeping the milk with the onion and the 1 clove and the 2 bay leaves and the 3 peppercorns did much of anything, except dirty ANOTHER pan.
This author seems to be shy about vegetables. The amounts are tiny, seems to me (1/2 c spinach, 1/2 cup artichoke hearts). I would like more than just a smattering of them. The topping was good. (Mix 3/4 c. Panko, 2 T. olive oil, 2 T. parsley (used cilantro), 1 sm clove garlic (I used 4 roasted). NEEDS SOME LIVENING UP is mostly my complaint. Dull. Could be peppier.
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Forever Summer (Style Network's)
By Nigella Lawson
Hyperion - 2003
This was demonstrated on Oprah long ago. I use 2 bone-in, skin-on breasts...and I loved it!! It is the EASIEST recipe!!! I've since made it several times.
Just throw the things into zipped baggies and toss in fridge till ready to bake.
It's so un-fussy! Let's you, if you like, devote more time to the other dishes you are making OR for those times when you know you won't feel like cooking. (Just allow time for it all to marinate.)
(Nigella said that she makes it maybe 2 times a week.)
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EatingWell
(December, 2005)
Fudgy, brownielike and decadent. Eating Well's Managing Editor, Wendy Ruopp, shares her friend's recipe for these fantastic cookies: "Christmas isn't Christmas without Patti's cookies." Dress them up with a drizzle of melted chocolate.
Catbatty's Comments:
I don't even like chocolate all that much. But, these chocolate cookies are ...unreal. Especially when still a little warm. Oh my goodnesss!! My husband and I couldn't stay OUT of them!!!! I used one 6-ounce bag Brach's Almond Supreme (milk chocolate covered almonds) and for the chocolate chips, I used Hershey's semi-sweet.
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Cooking Light
(September, 2011)
These unreal, fantastic bars have caused quite a hub-bub at our local library. A friend of a librarian made and sent to the library. Staff and some patrons inhaled them, raving.
I had one and went nuts--could NOT get them outta my mind. I HAD to find the recipe--nobody knew. A mission began for all involved. FINALLY, we got the info from the friend (took weeks). (MANY people were doing same, btw, and there is STILL--months later--talk about the bars and their, now, fame.)
We made them (daughter did) and they were sooo good.
The salt makes the recipe.
See here:
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/salted-caramel-brownies-50400000115182/
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Almost Vegetarian: A Primer for Cooks Who Are Eating Vegetarian Most of the Time, Chicken & Fish Some of the Time, & Altogether Well All of the Time
By Diana Shaw
Three Rivers Press - 1994
Yuck. I found this 'spoon bread' to be nasty. I've never eaten spoon bread, but I can't imagine that is how it is supposed to taste. (The lemon zest is the ingredient that I blame the most.)
You break 2 eggs into a bowl, beat them up, add 2 cups buttermilk (I checked it for taste, thinking perhaps IT had gone bad and was responsible for the nasty taste--but no), 2 T. of Cheddar, 1/2 c. cornmeal, bit of salt, and 1 T. of lemon zest.
Author seems to want to offer healthier recipes. But in this case, the only way I could eat any of this yuck was to smear with butter. I may throw it out.
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