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

7 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 7Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine

By Martha Rose Shulman
Rodale Books - 2007

This interesting cake has only buckwheat and whole wheat flours. If you like buckwheat pancakes and/or European-type cakes, you will like it. I followed the recipe exactly, but probably should have taken it out of the oven a few minutes earlier. I also was unsuccessful in spinning the spring form pan with batter to spread it out. I tried to compensate with a spatula, but as you can see from the picture, I still ended up with the domed shape she warned about. Going with the theme of a European cake, I used black currant preserves for the filling and it was a good choice. If you are looking for an overly sweet frosted cake, this isn’t it. But I can highly recommend it for tea.

useful (1)  

This did turn out quite surprising compared to her apple and pear clafoutis. The cherries retained a lot of the Kirshwasser taste and after cooking looked and tasted more like plums. The egg mixture turned quite purple from the addition of cherry juice and was evenly distributed throughout the cherries with the cherries on top poking through and looking very pretty. For the apple and pear clafoutis the egg mixture covered and mostly stayed on top with the fruit mostly on the bottom. The bits of crust scraped off the bottom and sides of the dish tasted particularly good when hot. The egg mixture had a nice sweetness that quite contrasted with the less sweet fruit. The vanilla bean flavor came through, but wasn’t overpowering. This was my first experience using a cherry pitter. I quickly realized that if you just shoot the seeds into the trash, you can loose some of the fruit that sticks to the seed. The clafoutis desserts would be great to serve when one of the diners cannot chew very well as they are so soft.

useful (1)  

An explosion of flavors! A great way to use some of that tomato excess. When I was in Cypress there was a dish that drove me crazy. It sort of looked like tabouleh, but it also had cucumber and only had a few grains of couscous in it, but it was their version of tabouleh. So this recipe made me fell less crazy. It was the easiest method for preparing couscous I have ever used: soak for 30 minutes, then microwave for 1 minute, I love it! I resisted the temptation to add the second quarter cup of lemon juice as I felt the lemon flavor was strong enough. I also drained the juice from the tomatoes before adding. I thought it tasted perfect, but my son thought it was excessively acidic. I loved the flavor and color from the scallions. I do however think the original version with bulgar, a whole grain, would be healthier than this version with processed carbohydrates.

useful (4)  

Y ou start with a big pot of lentils and barley which ultimately makes both a soup and a salad. I loved the barley and lentil salad that you make by straining out the liquid. I substituted a large bunch of large green onions for the leek. It was good hot or cold. The thin broth is served with thick dry homemade bread rubbed with raw garlic and placed in the bottom of the bowl. We enjoyed this the first time we had it, but the leftovers did not sell even after the salad was long gone.

useful (1)  

I made a small batch in the oven in my large Pyrex casserole dish. I was skeptical, but it turned out perfectly with a pretty sparkly top. After cooling it tasted even better as the grit particles were softer. This is a basic recipe with just water, salt and optional butter, but could be used as a base to stir in cheese or other ingredients. I am always looking for an easy way to cook polenta (grits) and this sure beats the slow cooker.

useful (1)  

This was shockingly similar to a slowcooker recipe I made last week. I did not cook the lentils as soft as in the slowcooker version, but I like this one with its fresher taste better. I now have the right “soup” macaroni, the little shells were visible, but not dominant. I actually followed the directions and used a parmesan cheese rind tied in cheese cloth. It gave the soup a great depth of flavor and did not drip melted cheese as feared. This time I did cut up the Swiss chard leaves into smaller chunks which made it easier to serve and to eat. There was extra parmesan grated on top which we all appreciated.

useful (2)  

This was a delicious tomato based lentil soup with onion and garlic. You have the option of using canned or fresh and I used fresh. I used orzo for the pasta which was all that I had on hand and it was a mistake. If you use the recommended 1/2 cup of elbow noodles, it would not have absorbed as much water. The grated cheese on top made this a very satisfying meal.

useful (0)