Peckish Sister's Profile

From: Central, FL USA

Joined: December 11th, 2010

About me: I have always liked to cook, particularly breads, fruits, vegetables, vegetarian, poultry and lamb dishes. After marriage we cooked together progressively more difficult dishes with him doing the meat, grilling and frying, and I did the "dough" and the same type of things I had before. After children we started cooking more simply. After discovering the cause of my frequent migraines was an evolving long list of chemicals and odd ingredients, I began getting back to cooking from basic ingredients, and found I could be well again. I also try to cooking from what I can get in season at the ever present fruit and vegetable stands.

Favorite cookbook: America's Test Kitchen / Cooks Illustrated Books

Manchester Stew from Skinny Instant Pot & Slow Cooker Cookbook

I switched up the vegetables and canned beans to reflect what I had on hand. It was my very first use of the Insta pot and I was skeptical of the 3 minute cooking time since I had increased the amounts... read more >

recipe reviews (465)
book reviews (18)
useful review votes (420)

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Peckish Sister's Reviews

27 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 27Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

Slow Cooker Revolution

By The Editors at America's Test Kitchen, America's Test Kitchen
Boston Common Press - 2011

The smokey meaty taste of the bacon that was thrown in raw and discarded at the end added wonderful flavor without tasteless bits of meat floating around in the soup. Dried and fresh mushrooms added to the complexity of flavor. The addition of canned tomatoes and greens at the end (I substituted Mustard greens for Swiss chard) gave this bean soup a surprising fresh flavor making it more suitable for year-around dining. I used 19-bean mix as that was what I had on hand. The only change I would make next time is to cut the white mushrooms into spoon-size pieces. The quartered mushrooms were ridicuously large. Definately the best bean soup I have ever had.

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This was not an overly sweet bean dish and the coffee flavor lurked just under the surface. All the ingredients worked just fine, and it cooked to perfection in the time allotted. Many of the recipes in this cookbook cook in less than 8 hours, but this one took 9-11, so a good one to make while at work. Maybe the flavors take getting used to, but it was just not too our taste.

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The drumsticks cook perfectly and the broiling makes the additional sauce thick and sticky. Be sure you like the barbecue sauce you use as the flavor gets quite concentrated. The next time I will try their barbecue sauce recipe. This is as good as chicken wings as it makes a big batch and is more economical.

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This turned out a well seasoned soup with many requests for the recipe. Since I followed the recipe (except for using a cheaper cut of beef and cutting it up instead of leaving it whole and shredding it later) it did turn out more like a soup than a stew. Personally I would have liked more barley, but that was not the general consensus. Interestingly everyone that was on a low carb diet particularly liked it. I will cook this again, both for home or pot-luck.

useful (3)  

This was a well flavored meaty black bean soup. Watch the black bean recipes, I meant to make just the black beans, but ending up making the soup by accident. This is not the usual black bean soup with lemon juice, garnished with egg that I am used to. I could not see buying a ham hock when I already had a meaty ham bone in the freezer. The soup was well flavored and I like the celery and carrots. I finally have a decent chili powder, so could use the full amount. Don’t do what I did and use a meaty ham bone, I could have done with a lot less meat.

useful (2)  

This chocolate pudding cake adapted well to the crock pot and had intense dark chocolate flavor in both the cake and pudding. In the past I have always been disappointed with not enough chocolate flavor in this type of recipe. However to get that flavor, melted butter and chocolate chips are added; this is also not the usual low fat dessert. I do not like chocolate desserts without the texture of nuts or fruit, but past experiments with nuts were not successful as they became soggy. The addition of ½ cup of dried cherries with the chocolate chips resulted in fully hydrated juicy cherries, a delicious complement to the chocolate. I used my round, 5 quart slow cooker which does not run hot, so I did not use the foil collar. It took an additional 25 minutes to fully cook. Be sure to be the one to scrape the last out of the slow cooker as a lot of chocolate goodness is left at the bottom.

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I love this dairy-free, delicious rice pudding made with light coconut milk. I leave out the garam masala. It is important to use medium rice. I had been using arborio rice, but it tasted too starchy. A real comfort food!

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The intense curry flavor brought a little heat, the ginger added to the flavor without being able to tell it had been added. This is a thin simple soup with a little bit of cream. I did the pureeing in the slow cooker with my immersion blender. I did not like the graininess of the cauliflower, but my family did. I really liked the cilantro which I used as a garnish instead of mixing in. I paired this with the rich currant scones from The Pie and Pastry Bible and it was a brilliant match. The sweetness of the currents countered the spiciness of the curry soup and added a heartiness to make a great meal.

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I loved the idea of this recipe as I hate stirring polenta for 30 minutes. It is a good recipe to use if you are around the house as it cooks from 4 to 6 hours. It seemed a little watery to me so next time I would try 7 cups of water. I used my slow cooker than runs on the cooler side and it took the longer amount of time. The next time I will try my slow cooker that runs on the hot side. I usually think that there isn't enough cheese, but I thought the 2 cups here was too much. I poured it into tupperware type containers and it has been great to have ready to go. It may sound strange, but i liked it in the Roasted Tomato Soup (The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook] and also for breakfast with a boiled egg.

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This robust chicken chowder has a surprising number of different ingredients, but if you don’t tell, even unadventurous eaters will consume and enjoy this. I hate creamed corn, but even I tolerated it in this chowder. The complex and intense flavors come from a little bit of bacon, chipotle chili in adobo as well as the chicken thighs and lots of fresh vegetables and herbs. There is quite a bit of fussing at the end with microwaving remaining ingredients and adding last minute fresh herbs. This was for a potluck where it would have been hard to do that (so I just threw all those ingredients before traveling except for the cream which I did add at the last minute) and it still turned out fabulous.

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This does give one a bit of a heart attack, just thinking of frying some of the packaged fried onions in butter! But it is a smallish amount of butter and you are also browning bread crumbs and you can control how much of this is put on each portion later. I love that this starts with 2 pounds of green beans and 10 ounces of fresh mushrooms. I had desperately wanted a healthier and fresher tasting alternative to the 2 cans of green beans and one can of mushroom soup recipe. But part of the packaged fried onions goes into making the mushroom gravy. Oh my but that tasted delicious as it went into the Crockpot. My green beans were very skinny and it took a long time to cut them all into 1 inch lengths, in the future I would do this preparation the day before. The preparation took me a long time; I would recommend recruiting a helper if you don’t want dinner to be delayed. I tried cooking this in my slow cooker that runs hot for the lesser amount of time in the range given. I checked the beans so often that that probably contributed to slowing down the cooking process. My husband likes crunchy green beans, but the kids are used to the mushiness of canned beans in this type of recipe and would have like them to have been cooked longer. A much superior green bean casserole overall and well worth the extra effort for a holiday meal. I like that this makes such a large amount and since the topping is applied to each portion, it is easy to preserve it for leftovers.

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A flavorful use of ground turkey. Be careful with the chili powder; I laugh at the 1/4 cup called for and at first tried 2 TLBS, the second attempt I used 1 tsp and for me that still makes very spicey taco meat. It is great to have on hand for tacos, burritos, nachos, salads, etc.

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These were amazingly delicious. The honey mustard sticky glaze is broiled so it is thick and sticky. These disappeared with no small amount of fighting. With the price of chicken wings, these are an excellent alternative. My suggestion is to get out two crock pots and make a double batch. They are that good; otherwise you may be disappointed to have no leftovers.

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Very flavorful, no adjustments needed to be made to the recipe. Onions, garlic, oil and spices were microwaved together in lieu of browning the meat and to provide another way to produce great flavor. I liked that it was not spicy, but you may want to add more heat. The companion recipe of toasted couscous made a nice base for the liquid sauce.

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An easy short time cooking (4-6 hour) potato soup. Some of the potato is mashed to increase the potato flavor. Instead I used my immersion blender in one corner of the slow cooker. Grated cheddar cheese, scallions and bacon are added on top. We thought sour cream made another nice choice.

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We serve this for Holiday dinners at the request of the guests! I make it in my slow cooker that can also saute, etc, so I make the cheese sauce in it, throw in the pasta and can forget about it.

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Other than light coconut milk there is not a lot of fat and sugar added. This recipe can be made ahead and sit in the crock pot for an hour or so if you are busy. I was hoping for more intense flavors and I am not sure if I prefer it over baked sweet potatoes. I did the mashing by hand as suggested and think the lumpy texture could be improved with a food processor. If you are looking for an alternative sweet potato recipe that is not all butter, sugar, pecans, etc., then this is a good one to try. It was a very pretty dark orange contrasting nicely with the dark cilantro.

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Fruity tender pork in a fruit sauce. I substituted dried mango for the dried apricot and used one cup of homemade apple sauce (The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook). I could not believe the price of thick pork chops and ended up with boneless country ribs which worked fine, but I needed to remove the top layer of fat at the end of cooking. It tasted good, but not overly sweet and just the right amount of dried fruit.

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This dal dish had a lot of components including many spices. It made for a great vegetarian meal served over brown rice. I loved the color splashes from the frozen peas, tomatoes and carrots interspersed between the split-pea colored cooked lentils. The addition of coconut milk gave it some depth. Unfortunately, not a great dish to serve the unadventurous.

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Using the rice type of rice is essential. I make it without raisins or cinnamon. I have under-(too thin) and over-cooked it (too thick). But when you get used to how it cooks in your slow cooker you can get it just right. I take it up into individual serving size containers with lids. Much better than store bought!

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This unique and flavorful pasta sauce has no tomatoes, but plenty of vegetables and the lentils and Italian sausage give it a hearty delicious flavor. I choose this slow cooker recipe for the ingredients and was thinking it would make a soup. I served it over a funny big bubbly shaped pasta, and it caught a lot of the sauce and worked well. It would be great for cold weather.

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This made an incredible shepherd’s pie that was the first dish to completely disappear at a Pot Luck. The flavor of the gravy and vegetables was intense, and the colors of the carrots, peas, beef, etc were picture perfect. I used a package of instant mashed potatoes (that made 5 cups of potatoes) as I was in a great hurry and it was the perfect amount to cover the top of a round 6 quart Crockpot. The only request my kids had was to throw shredded cheddar cheese on the top at the end.

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The flavor is ginger-sweet tomato with a touch of heat. My boys say 10 points on a 5 point scale. You know we will be making these again. One teenage son was left alone to place all the wing parts on a rack prior to broiling. He said that was very dangerous as the chicken already tasted so great. The recipe takes 4 lb of chicken wings, I bought two 3 lb packages, which I cooked in each of 2 slow cookers, and broiled each batch separately as well. This may be the first time we have followed the broiling distance (10”) exactly according to the directions and that part worked perfectly. I suddenly realized that I could make this now that I have a soy sauce substitute. I haven’t tasted wings quite like this before, but we all agreed that they are perfect and even more delicious than the wonderful two chicken leg recipes.

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I found everything for this soup except for the lemon grass. It was completely delicious and very popular with more adventurous diners. The red curry paste gave favor without too much heat. I liked that the spicy chili was on the side. I bought the better quality fish sauce and was glad I did. I occasionally noticed its flavor and felt it added depth to the overall flavor. The soup turned out perfectly in the specified time, and I would make no changes; I just hope to make it again real soon. I think that I would find this more soothing and interesting to have if I had a cold than the traditional chicken noodle soup.

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A nice and simple variation on the standard recipe. The grains fluffed nicely after sitting. This is a companion recipe to the Lamb Vindaloo from the same cookbook. It served as a nice base to soak up all the liquid from the Vindaloo but would also be good as a side dish.

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A very good lentil soup with bacon cooked in it for flavor that is removed at the end. It had great flavor and I particularly liked that Swiss chard is thrown in at the end. I cut it 1/2" across and removed the ribs as specified, but wish that I had cut it into 1" lengths. The long ribbons of Swiss chard tended to be served mostly with the first bowls. I only could find regular sized portobellos and so it was not practical to remove the gills as they specify with the larger portobello caps. There were a lot of ingredients which take a long time to prepare, but worth it.

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I made this on the occasion of a vegetarian guest. All diners, vegetarian or not seemed to really enjoy it. The fresh mushroom turned completely black in the presence of the black beans which was a little strange, but the flavor had a nice depth to it, and I loved the freshness the last minute addition of tomatoes added. I had previously tried to make a vegetarian black bean chili by leaving out the ham hock and adding liquid smoke. Needless to say, it wasn’t very good. We served the leftovers as a bean dip with melted cheddar and lots of fresh salsa on top and that was also very popular.

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