Peckish Sister's Reviews
465 recipes reviewed. Showing 1 to 50Sort by: Book Title | Date 
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Skinny Instant Pot & Slow Cooker Cookbook
By Taste of Home
RDA Enthusiast Brands, LLC - 2020
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 of fresh vegetables. It turned out delicious, but the vegetables were very soft and I should have stuck with the 3 minutes!
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The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook: 2,000 Recipes from 20 Years of America's Most Trusted Cooking Magazine
By Editors at Cook's Illustrated Magazine
Cook's Illustrated - 2011
Parsley, olive oil, pecans and garlic. I enjoyed toasting the garlic on top of my new gas range until it was brown and soft. Be careful as two of the cloves burst open with a splatter. Don't be over generous with the parsley and pecans as I was, as the amounts listed keep those ingredients from over powering. It was too bitter, but with a small amount of fresh lemon juice tasted rich and balanced. I used it to flavor the cooked acorn squash halves before adding other components. The rest of the parsley pesto we will have over angel hair and gluten-free ramen noodle pastas. Making this pesto was a fun way to help use up a surprise ingredient of parsley in our Fruit/Vegetable box, and also give a different flavor to winter squash.
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This family favorite is the only way I have been able to eat eggplant, perhaps because it it salted, any excess moisture squeezed out and then roasted at a high temperature. If I am in a real hurry I use canned tomatoes and dried herbs. Last night I made it using fresh herbs and fresh tomatoes. We also love it because it does not come out soupy. It is well worth the time for all of the washing, chopping, sauteing and roasting. A great way to eat a lot of vegetables!
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Slow Cooker Revolution
By The Editors at America's Test Kitchen, America's Test Kitchen
Boston Common Press - 2011
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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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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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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Paleo Cooking with Your Air Fryer: 80+ Recipes for Healthier Fried Food in Less Time
By Dr. Karen S. Lee
Page Street Publishing - 2018
I love their poached eggs - cracked into oiled ramekins, if you make sure there is a thin layer of oil on top, they do not come out dried out on top. I turn them over onto a paper towel to absorb any extra oil before placing them on the serving dish, toast, English muffin, etc. It makes for a pretty egg for an English muffin.
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This delicious faux chicken wing dish made from cauliflower is really delicious, but it turns out dripping in too much oil/ghee, so I cut the ghee in half. We have not tried the Paleo ranch dressing recipe.
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We have tried several air fryer coconut shrimp recipes but like this the best. It is important to have good quality unsweetened shredded coconut, and this recipe calls for cassava flour, which I find makes the best tasting gluten free recipes. The tropical dipping sauce is based on pineapple juice and uses coconut aminos (a convenient soy sauce substitute).
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This is a meat-heavy mixture without eggs, milk, breadcrumbs, etc, but does have onion and herbs. I like it for a quick supper. The meatballs cook in a dish in the air fryer covered with a jar of marinara tomato sauce. I find that unless I move them around half way through cooking, some of them are not cooked all the way through. This is a simple tasty way to turn one lb of ground bison into a very fast meal and I like it served on millet brown rice ramen noodles for a one person portion.
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Air Fry Everything!
By Meredith Lawrence
Walah!, LLC Publishers - 2016
The dry rub is excellent. We frequently make this recipe with chicken thighs. I make large batches of the rub. For the two tablespoons of chili powder I make one teaspoon of it smoked paprika. The chicken is best fresh right out of the air fryer, so I prefer to not make enough for leftovers unless you want cooked chicken for a recipe.
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It will taste different depending on what type of mustard you use. Whole seed mustard made a thin sauce and many of the seeds did not stick. It helped for the final 4 minutes of cooking after the sauce was added, to stop at 2 minutes, add more sauce and shake, then cook for the final two minutes.
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We liked the rub that was used for cooking the chicken wings, it is worth trying without the sauce. The ssauce was improved by heating the cherry jam to dissolve lumps and cutting up the larger cherries in it. We also like that the sauce was applied after cooking.
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I used gluten-free beer, flour and bread crumbs in this recipe. The trick was to be sure to spray on enough oil to saturate the coating or it came out dry and unappetizing. It was nice to be able to manipulate the recipe and make something gluten free. The amount that is proacticaql to make at one time depends on your air fryer.
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Crockery Cookbook/over 120 Delicious Recipes for Your Crock-Pot Slow Cooker (Sunset Cookery Books)
By Sunset Books
Sunset Publishing Corporation - 1992
I used slightly larger amounts than listed on the recipe to go with the package sizes of what I purchased. I don't do well with sulfites in wine and cherries were in season so instead used cherry juice of the wine and cherries for the grapes. I also substituted coconut creamer for the cream, marjoram for tarragon and it turned out well.
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Good, but following the cooking time made the chicken overcooked. Very interesting tomato based flavor with ham, golden raisins, port, brandy and lots of garlic!
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The German Cookbook: A Complete Guide to Mastering Authentic German Cooking
By Mimi Sheraton
Random House - 1965
This is my favorite recipe that my German mother-in-law cooked and we have many fond memories of having it on special occasions. I was nervous about getting the meat correctly sliced by the butcher, but found a package in the store that was perfect. I opted not to use a recipe in another German cookbook, because it was too simple. This has a lot of variations, we make ours with spreading mustard on the beef and adding a piece of pickle before rolling and browning. The best part is the gravy! It is important to cook them long enough that they are tender, but not so much that they fall apart. The best part is the gravy!
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Paleo Perfected: A Revolution in Eating Well with 150 Kitchen-Tested Recipes
By America's Test Kitchen
America's Test Kitchen - 2015
I really missed crackers on a gluten-free and Paleo diet. This recipe sounded intriguing, I also added my favorite, cumin seed. However the crackers turned out oily, most were bending and tasted of ground almonds. Still looking for that perfect cracker recipe.
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The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook
By Editors at America's Test Kitchen
Cook's Illustrated - 2009
Using red, yellow and orange peppers makes these stuffed peppers a dish even skeptics really like. I made a triple batch, one regular with no changes, one vegan substituting chopped Portobello mushrooms for the ground chuck, and one batch Paleo using vegan cheese. Allow several hours for prep or have help, worth the effort. I found 4 peppers stayed upright nicely in my large circular, deep pyrex casserole dishes.
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Paleo Perfected: A Revolution in Eating Well with 150 Kitchen-Tested Recipes
By America's Test Kitchen
America's Test Kitchen - 2015
These are the best looking gluten-free muffins I have made. I chose the recipe as it had a majority of almond flour instead of other processed grains like rice. The flavor was robust and dense. I usually am not happy with the taste of commercially available blueberries and that was the case here, but with great blueberries it would be even better. The almond, sugar, lemon zest topping made it a real crowd pleaser.
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I loved this recipe, it was a little fussy in the cooking, first brown the chicken, adding other ingredients in stages and then making a sauce, then cooking in the oven. My first harvest of chard from the garden yielded only one pound, and the recipe called for two, but it still worked well. The flavorful sauce tasted like it had wine, broth, etc, but was mainly flavored by the onion, garlic and fresh thyme. The carrots were surprisingly firm and bright orange. I enjoyed this dish by itself, but the other dinner enjoyed it over spätzle.
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Slow Cooker Revolution
By The Editors at America's Test Kitchen, America's Test Kitchen
Boston Common Press - 2011
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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Website: Food.com
This is a fun cookie recipe that is like a Russian teacake without nuts or powdered sugar and flavored and colored by Jello. I tried Mango, and you use a small portion of the Jello in the frosting. I put chocolate sprinkles on some, green sugar on others and slivered dried mango on the rest. I found it on an old Xeroxed recipe from a friend and was delighted to also find it on line. You can use any flavor of Jello and would be a good recipe to use in a pinch if you only had flour, powdered sugar and margarine or butter on hand.
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The Olive and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking
By Susanna Hoffman
Workman Publishing Company - 2004
I used a pound of chickpeas and was glad not to have made the full recipe. I did peel the chickpeas and think that I should have cooked them longer initially as the skins were not loosened at all. I was delighted to learned how to remove the skins with the aid of baking soda. I aso whisked the peeled peas as they cooked, not waiting until the end of the cooking period. I liked the thickened but chunky texture. It is a some what plain soup and went well with the City bread to make a complete meal.
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This bread worked up nicely; it rose a lot faster than the recipe suggested, but the I only use bread machine yeast and that was probably a big factor. I added some of the suggested ingredients on page 122: chopped onion, sunflower seeds and cumin seeds. It made for a nice robust bread that went nicely with the chickpea soup. I found it hard to knead in all of those ingredients after adding the four and in future would add addition ingredients when the dough was soft. I added an entire very large chopped onion, so cooked the loaves until they were quite browned, so the onion would be cooked through, it was a bit of an excessive amount of onion. The two tablespoons of cumin seed and one half cup of sunflower seeds worked well.
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I had a big batch of the first baby zucchini from my CSA as the basis for this recipe. Since they were so tender, I gave the potatoes ahead start cooking. I cut back on the olive oil. The caper topping turned was could have been a mundane dish into something spectacular. My sons who are not fond of capers even commented on the random bursts of saltiness.
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I used one pound of ground lamb so increased the rest of the filling ingredients correspondingly. The filling was very good, but missed the presence of garlic. I found the directions for rolling the filling confusing and impossible to follow. The directions for making cigar-shaped rolls on page 90 worked great. If you use the egg wash, don't brush with the oil first as recommended or it will just roll off.
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What an interesting way to cook greens. I wanted to more healthful version of the Collard cobbler recipe we like. Although this did not call for collard greens, I just cooked them longer until they were tender. I did not have fennel, so added extra dill. She gave the option of either using polenta or cornmeal, so I used polenta on the bottom and cornmeal on the top. This worked very well, there was enough moisture on the bottom to cook the polenta and I am not sure how well it would have cooked on the top, but the cornmeal turned out cooked and crispy. I love the capers in here, but with the tougher nature of the collards and the pickled flavor of the capers, it tasted like eating grape leaves! This sounded very strange to me, but I was able to cut out nice big slabs for serving with the crusts intact.
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A nice side dish when you either have bulgar to use up or want a change for rice. I have been freezing my leftover tomato paste flattened out to make it easier to take out the small amounts needed. I was disappointed that it took so long to cook. It was delicious, however.
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I started with half of the water as I have found her soups too thin. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. It cooked smoothly until I added the tahini mixture and it acted just like a Yellowstone mud pot, so I thinned it somewhat with boiling water from my electric kettle. This sounded strange, but we loved the chewiness of the arborio rice, the flavor of the soup base, and definitely the saltiness of the olive garnish really made this soup work. The large amount of tahini made a great filling Lenten soup. I will repeat this surprisingly delicious soup.
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This is the author's favorite dessert and is also a favorite of mine. After the third day of going back for it at a restaurant on Crete for breakfast 37 years ago and realizing they were still cutting it out of the same pan, we went somewhere else the fourth day. I tried so hard to recreate it when I came back and fillo dough was not easily available and I had no idea of what semolina was. I like the sweetness and vanilla in the custard. Be sure to butter the backside of the sheets of fillo used to line the pan so that they remain flexible and can be bent over the filling.
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This syrup is not cloyingly sweet like some of the syrups largely made with honey. It cooks for 15 minutes to thicken and reduce. I used a Spanish orange liqueur. The clove and cinnamon taste too strong in the syrup when tasted by itself. But when poured on the custard semolina custard pie, it tastes just right.
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This was a good soup. I can not give it a higher ranking, because even though I enjoyed the leek in it, I longed for Scotch broth complete with carrots and thyme. I would not make this soup again, but would opt for making Scotch broth. I also could not leave out all of hat lamb meat and cut it up and added it to the soup after it finished cooking.
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I usually do not make my own stock, but you can not buy lamb stock. Make this the day before so that you can easily skim all of the congealed fat off of the top. I did not bother to take the time to chop the meat into little pieces, but browned the shoulder blade chops whole. This made a very flavorful lamb broth.
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An amazing and substantial Greek type salad based on broken up barley rings. I wish that the amount of water to sprinkle on the chunks of barley rings was specified. I used about three tablespoons. This was incredibly delicious, only missing a little onion. Be sure you do not make too much, it will not keep.
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Least year I learned the hard way to dunk the barley rusks from the Greek festival as I broke my tooth on one. This recipe intrigued me.The dough worked up like Playdough, soft and sticky, but still crumbly. Once again, patting out the dough was frustrating and the rolling pin made quick work of it. However my pieces were 9 X 4 " in size, smaller than her 6 X 12", but just as thick. I did not use wheat flour so as to keep them gluten-free. I found her directions to make the rings confusing, but pried up the long edges, carefully rolled them to the middle, pinched the edges together and then gently rolled the log form to try and achieve a cylinder shape and the pinched the ends together to form rings. Six fit on a pan, but I would have needed more pans if I had made them as big as she suggested, which would have made the long baking times problematic. I am not sure why you cool them, before drying them at 200 for seven hours. I did try them periodically. They were raw inside before drying, tasted rich and tasty at 2 hours of drying, and at 5 hours tasted more like dog biscuits (yes, I really liked them when I was 4 years old) and just like the barley rusks from the Greek festival so I took them out after 5 hours. I still don't know why they are called black. Because of the addition of the oil, they did not seem tough enough to break a tooth.
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I also made a half recipe using canned chick peas. I threw all of the ingredients in my small food processor and it made up very quickly. Be careful with the garlic, I used one largish clove and the flavor was over powering. I love the ground cumin and coriander. This made a nice quick lunch and would be great as an emergency appetizer with ingredients usually kept on with tortilla chips.
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An unusual flavor popping pudding. I used a high quality organic concord grape juice. My bottle only had four cups of juice so I removed one tablespoon of semolina flour. I was glad for the desired temperature as I reached that faster than the specified time. If I had cooked it to a particular thickness, I would probably have overcooked it.With no additional sweetner added, it tasted just right although not sweet. The blanched almonds sliced easily, and I toasted them in my convection oven. I did not make the sugared basil leaves as I do not cook with raw egg and had no dried egg white powder on hand. Instead, I decorated it with additional sliced toasted almonds. This would be great as a finish to a hot, spicy main course. I divided it all into individual dishes so it could cool faster. A thick chewy skin developed on top, with it being softer underneath at first. It is important to let it fully cool and then the texture is wonderful, uniform small, soft particles.
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I used leftover roast lamb, but left out the juices. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly. I was skeptical about scoring the top into 12 pieces, but it helped it vent while cooking, made it easier to cut into serving portions, looked very pretty and the filling did not seep through. The aroma while baking was amazing. The filling set up and the nuts, raisins, herbs, etc all worked well. My family was really impressed.
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My songs worked well on my warm stove. The dough also worked well according to the directions and I was delighted with the amount of whole wheat flour. My confusion started with the shaping of the loaves. For me 15 X 4" is not an oblong, but an extreme rectangle. To achieve this shape, the dough had to be more than "slightly flattened". The first loaf I tried to shape by patting, but the second I very quickly formed into shape with my rolling pin. I couldn't understand how 3 to 4 widely spaced slits could form a cross-hatch pattern on this long, skinny loaf and I did not want to risk that this thin loaf would deflate. I was supposed to put it on a well oiled sheet, but I put it on parchment as it usually works well for me. Don't do this! You brush it with water twice and some must have soaked into the bottom crust. I bagged the bread while slightly warm and instead of a crispy crust, I ended up with a very soft crust. But it did have a great sour tang and was the perfect bread to cut up and serve with soup for a crowd.
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I substituted un-named orange liquor in an orange shaped bottle for the Ouzo. I also chopped the lemon peel by hand, first peeling off thin strips. This made a beautiful golden colored, real lemony flavored syrup with delicious little golden colored decorative chewy chunks of lemon peel. It tasted good with the yogurt cake even if it did not noticeably soak in until the third day.
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This interesting cake went well,the thick batter spread nicely and it was easy to layer the Cyprus sweet-wine soaked raisins mixed with chopped almonds, cinnamon and sugar between the two layers of batter. I used a layer of greased parchment to help turn the cake out of the 10 inch spring form pan. This is where things went wrong. The cake baked perfectly in the allotted time, and when I turned it over and peeled off the parchment, I had a hard top through which he syrup would not penetrate. I couldn't even pour the first third of syrup as it was already pooling. I finally dumped it all on top and went to bed. Don't expect to be able to eat this soon after making it. I tried skewering it all over with minimal penetration. Perhaps pouring very hot syrup over a very hot cake would help. Maybe the ratio of ingredients is off. This cake has potentential. My cake was dry with a delicious hidden filling and amazing lemon syrup on top. It wasn't the syrup soaked cake of my dreams. However she does call it "frosting" the cake with the syrup, so maybe that is how it should turn out.
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I used our local large yellow onions and substituted 3/4 of a cup of apple cider vinegar for the red wine vinegar. I cut the onions by hand with no tears. These tasted great and were a lovely accompaniment to the roasted lamb. The last time I made pickled onions my husband enjoyed them on salads.
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I went against her advice and used what I could find, a boneless leg of lamb. I inserted the slivers of garlic. After fighting with my mortar and pestle for a while I turned to my spare coffee grinder that I use for spices and it quickly and uniformly pulverized the mustard seeds and peppercorns. I found it helpful to pour some of the oil on top of the lamb as well as pouring it in the pan to roll the herb-coated roast in. It took longer to cook this roast than the time indicated, and as carefully as I was watching, it overshot the temperature that I was aiming for. I followed her advice to let it rest in a warm place, advice that I will not follow again as I watched all the juices run out. However this did produce a beautiful crust and flavorful roast. My previous experiences with Greek flavored lamb have been dissapointing as they lacked the rosemary flavor I crave, and exploit oregano, not one I look for with lamb. However this was a pleasant surprise and tasted great with the recommended pickled onions.
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I like the Bulgar in this recipe. I have mainly previously just used it for tabouli. The white onions turned a light attractive pink color during the cooking process. The directions worked perfectly, but I felt it was under seasoned. It either needs stock instead of water or additional salt. I love the rich flavor provided by the walnuts. This is an excellent side dish especially when you want something substantial.
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The caramelized crispy bits were easy to make, you just need to watch the carefully so they do not burn over the high heat. I sliced them, and if you make them even in size, that makes the cooking easier. My largest pieces were not crispy, and the smallest pieces were the darkest. Using peeled cloves made this very fast. I used 16 cloves. This was great on the single vegetable cabbage salad. I could see using this on a wide range of dishes.
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I did not notice the add-ins for this simple dressing. I did use fresh Eureka Cook lemon juice whisked with the olive oil and salt. It gave a fresh bright lemony taste to the single vegetable cabbage salad. I do think Greek oregano would be a great addition. The special Greek oregano I picked up has more seeds in it than leaves.
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I followed Southern Cooker's lead and also made this single vegetable salad with raw cabbage, using my mandoline to make short work of shredding the cabbage. I also whipped up the oil and lemon Greek oil and lemon dressing. It was the fastest and simplest cabbage salad I have ever made. I topped it with the fried garlic topping and it turned it into a rather special salad.
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This is a straight forward lemon egg sauce. I liked that whole eggs were used, instead of the egg yolks in many of these recipes. The recipe worked perfectly and it was nicely thick at the time indicated. Steam was also just starting to rise and so I took it off the heat before it came to a boil. This went well with the meat stuffed grape leaves.
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Another great use of Arborio rice. I liked that the filling consisted of uncooked rice, meat, onions, dried fruit etc. It mixed up quickly, but such a small amount was used in each leaf that it was easy to stuff each leaf, but took a long time. The directions worked perfectly for cooking the stuffed grape leaves. I used ground pork because I had the exact amount needed on hand. The dried mango that I substituted for apricot gave a sweet burst of flavor even without pre-soaking it in wine. I have cooked a lot of stuffed grape leaves, but this recipe is now my favorite both to cook and to eat.
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