This makes a very soft crusted pizza, which shrinks by about half its height. It is just there, it doesn’t have any noticeable flavor. I think it could be improved in flavor and texture by the addition of some cornmeal. I followed the recipe exactly using a jelly roll pan (place the crust in the center, not at the edges; it makes it easier to loosen). It was nice to eat something so full of vegetables.

The name of this recipe intrigued me from the beginning. I have never met a Ukrainian who has heard of this before or who didn’t fall in love and demand the recipe after trying it. The meatball itself is formed from a meatloaf recipe which makes for the most tender and flavorful meatball ever. Everyone wants to know how to get the horseradish inside. The secret is mix it with mashed hard-cooked egg yolks, soft bread crumbs and melted butter which solidifies into a substance that is firm and can be easily molded. You have to cook them very carefully so they do not fall apart. A small amount of sour cream gravy is then made and poured over the meatballs before baking; this is so intensely flavored that it just completes the experience. My mother-in-law would not eat horseradish, yet loved this meatball. People argue about the horseradish – it isn’t there, there isn’t enough, there is too much, etc. I waited 15 years to make it a second time, and then made 4 batches in one weekend. I am not going to wait 15 years before making it again. I then tried doubling the sourcream gravy, but it did not taste quite as good, I suppose because the drippings are not as concentrated.

The fresh majorum gave this squash dish a hearty flavor. I used patty pan squash and brown rice. Everything cooked up just right. I wasn't sure what a tian dish was, so used a large glass casserole dish and my rice and squash mixture was about 3 inches high. This made a nice light supper.

It seemed odd to have that much cabbage in a soup with fresh dill on top without making borscht. I was worried that without the red wine the flavor would be flat, but with a little white wine, it was a robust, flavorful soup. The pinto beans instead of the small white beans also worked. Do not skip the toppings. I interpreted shredded salami as short thin strips. Our dill is really lush right now and it was divine with the shredded salami on top of the soup.

This is my favorite wilted spinach salad. I like the dressing, it is minimal and brings the only problem to the salad; I never get enough wilting. This may be exacerbated by my tendency to sneak in more spinach. I think the solution is to add the spinach to the dressing in the pan. By the time I scrape all the dressing out of the pan and onto the spinach, it has already cooled quite a bit. I also have one boiled egg per person if you are having this for a meal.

This is a rich, very mushroomy soup with dairy being optional (in the form of creme fraiche added as a garnish) is a nice feature. The leeks and onion add great flavor without standing out. My Mom cooked this for me in 1993 and I found it just as delicious this time. I never just have dried Morels around and find it tastes good with whatever I have tried - porcini or mixed wild mushrooms. I am enjoying my new immersion blender to puree soups like this one. I think it would be even better with sauteed mushrooms added at the end for a little textural diversity. 3/23/2020. Great use of our dried morels. Found the soup a little thick and difficult with the immersion blender, could have used 1 cup additional liquid. Great plain with homemade Focaccia.

The perfect balance of onion to potato to dressing. The goat cheese flavor comes through without being overpowering. I made it as direction with the exception of using red potatoes and apple cider vinegar. I have eaten a lot of unsatisfactory warm potato salads over the years, and this is a winner! She suggests it could be the entire meal or a good picnic dish.

This seems more like a torte than a cake. I toasted the walnuts and skinned them as much as possible to reduce any bitterness. The directions worked well here. I like coffee, but not coffee flavored anything else, so I made a lemon flavored syrup instead of the coffee syrup. It was delicious, the flavors felt Greek and went together well. It was hard to wait the specified time, but it was worth waiting for. Be careful and only use the amount of syrup specified, it is perfect.

I cheated here using the somewhat dry left over brown rice in the refrigerator and a can of black beans. I did cook the onion, chiles and garlic however. Wow, what incredible flavor! She said to serve immediately, but that did not happen of all members of the famly. Using dryish brown rice was great here as it did not become soft and mushy. We served it with the new Johnsonville Brothers chorrizo sausages (grilled) and it was a great meal. These beans and rice would also make a great main dish aall by themselves.

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.

You don't think you like sauerkraut? This is actually just half sauerkraut with all the juices squeezed out, and half cabbage. I am still getting used to having a mandoline, and I kept cutting until I had taken off an equivalent weight of cabbage to the sauerkraut. The onion is sauteed and then the cabbages are added and cooked for a long time. This is the way the Ukrainian ladies that immigrated a long time ago make it for Church. They recommend using a slow cooker for making big batches. They had some other secrets, which I made the mistake of not writing down, but will try and find out and add later. This must be served with a really good kielbasa and boiled potatoes for an authentic meal.

Chocolate satisfaction in every bite. I made this straight forward elegant cake for a special teenager’s birthday. (I hate making frosting and icing cakes.) You just have to schedule enough time to bake the first layer, then enough chilling time for that and the subsequent mousse layers. My only problem came with unmolding. It had chilled enough, but my springform pan doesn’t have as much give as I would like and whichever direction I used to get the cake through was the wrong choice. I had unsightly streaks through all of the layers (on the outside). It was a real disappointment to me that it did not look like the picture, but everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

This rich bread is traditional for Easter, but also for greeting visitors. It makes a huge batch. I make half a batch to bake one large loaf which turns out beautifully if you bake it in your dutch oven. I don't use the tradional coffee can, but use other smaller pots with high sides for smaller loaves. For my bread machine, I make one third the recipe. As the whole recipe takes 6 eggs, these recipe reductions work well. This basic recipe does not have dried fruit, but I add 2 cups to the whole recipe; yellow raisens are the tradition. I cannot tolerate sulfur dioxide used in yellow raisens, so I substitute craisens which are delicious and to make a statement that I am not using regular (black) raisens in error. The next time I make this for a special occasion I intend to use dried cherries.

This monochromatic salad had a great taste. I did not serve this until the following day as it took longer than expected to grill the peppers and let them cool enough to work with. Not everyone liked how the preserved lemon stood out as it was sprinkled on top. I much prefer the tomato salad with capers for taste, but also for ease of preparation.

I was told if I made my own salsa, I would never buy the stuff in jars again and did not believe it. They must have been talking about this recipe! Just enough bite from the lime and cider vinegar. Great flavor from the toasted cumin seeds, without overwhelming. The moment you taste it, you forget the work involved to make it. I made no changes and will have to prepare this again soon – it doesn’t last long!

This pie bursting with fresh tomato and corn and a contrasting crispy flaky crust tasted delicious. The smell of the fresh corn was noticeable while baking. I did skin and seed the tomatoes throwing in a third as my tomatoes were only medium large. I still had trouble with a watery bottom; parts of the bottom crust seemed to have dissolved. One possible solution would be to sprinkle flour with the tomatoes and corn, but that might take away from the freshness of the tomatoes and corn and hide somewhat the lovely bursts of flavor from the cheddar and lemon mayonnaise. I would probably opt to roll the top crust thicker and skip the bottom crust altogether.

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.

These Swiss, Romano and ricotta cheese individual soufflés cooked quickly. If you like those flavors and brandy, you may like these strong flavored ramequins. The texture was also very grainy and like cornmeal.

Crisp and chewy around the edges and a rich fudgy chocolate center. These rich chocolate cookies are different from anything I ever ate before and are a revelation of what chocolate cookies can be. Timing and following the directions as to when to take t the cookies out are essential. I walked away from the first batch and they cooked all the way through and were just plain cookies. The rest turned out perfect. I do make my cookies smaller than they do and so cooked them for about 2 minutes less.

A huge pecan and maple icing covered Danish, what’s not to like? You know that I had to make this for my Gator’s (Univ. of Florida grad’s ) birthday. As you can see from the pictures, it went well except perhaps for the final product, but I was thrilled. The next time I think my dough will have a more even distribution of the butter and work better. The directions were great. I used smaller pecans on the outer rows and a larger pecan variety for the inner rows (to make it look more like a real gator). It is cut into 1 inch pieces. You will want to eat more than a 1” piece, but they are so rich, that much is very satisfying. The pictures show the raw dough, the baked Danish and the maple-glazed Danish.

I made this hot, curry paste and coconut milk dish for my family, knowing that it would be so hot I would not even be able to try one bite. They absolutely loved it, fighting over the leftovers. I liked that it was full of vegetables and the fresh lime juice, basil and mint added at the finish were appreciated.

I specially ordered the chickpea flour for this recipe. The batter was so incredibly watery that I did not see the need to add any of the 2nd half of the water. My flour was also so fine and the batter so smooth I also skipped the straining step. I used a 9 X 13” pan instead of the 14” deep dish pizza pan. I was surprised after the 30 minutes of baking that this very thin batter had thickened and now looked like the dried muddy plain of the Mississippi River. The oil I brushed on was rapidly sucked into the batter and so after the second baking step while the oven was turned off I did not obtain a glazed-looking surface. We chose the ground cumin topping. This was very hard to get out of the pan as I saw the oil I had used to coat the pan rise through the batter before I even got it into the oven the first time. This was very thin and tasted OK and I could see it would be great as part of a Vegan meal to add protein and be filling. It was interesting to try once, but I much prefer breads made with yeast. No one was interested in seconds and I do not see the need to try this again.

The most difficult part of this recipe is finding the 3 packages of Hunter sauce mix (they suggest Knorr) which is the basis for the rich and distinctive gravy in this dish. It takes frozen baby onions, but I prefer the taste of onion chunks. It also takes ½ pound of fresh mushrooms and I have used 1 pound and it still tasted great. My family loves it served over a large mound of mashed potatoes as recommended.

This dark hearty bread tastes very similar to Boston brown bread, but does not steam for hours. This is very satisfying for bread made with no fat or eggs. Do not use Greek yogurt; I did and I could not mix in all of the flour, nor could I “pour” the batter. I added water two TBLS at a time until it made a batter I could stir. This hearty quick bread has no eggs! The rolled oats gave it an interesting texture without adding nuts. I do not think it would have turned out as well with quick oats. Follow her advice to eat it with cream cheese on it; it is a nice contrast to the sourness of the rye, yogurt and molasses.

I used this for the Engadine tart that is described as being like a large shortbread cookie stuffed with caramel and walnuts. I weighed the dough to exactly make a 1/3 to 2/3s split for the upper and lower crusts and that took the guess work out. I have become used to forming these butter-soft doughs that need to be rolled out between sheets of plastic. It worked great especially since I found my 9” spring form pan (I had been making due with the 9 ½”). My only problem was a few cracks in the top crust, but I was delighted that the caramel did not bubble up through and they were not very noticeable. My pan was dark and I used a middle time, the next time I should cut it back a little, I like my “shortbread” not well browned.

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.

A nice presentation and easy to change the proportions as the amount of sesame oil to add to coat the peas is not stated. I started with pre-washed peas which increased the ease of preparation. The sweetness of the peas was accentuated and more noticeable than eating them plain. It is worth it to seek out the black sesame seeds as it really does make a spectacular presentation. They are not as pretty with the strings removed, but easier to eat. She suggests serving them as room temperature, I like them better with a little chill still on them, and they are more refreshing.

I substituted smoked mackerel for the trout. As it is a stronger flavored fish, I used all of the egg yolks, instead of the two specified. It still turned out too strong and I think it would be much better with the trout. My husband liked them just fine, and this could be a good use for left over smoked fish.

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.

I really made a mess of this recipe. I had fresh very local strawberries, but had to rely on frozen rhubarb, so only used one pound instead of two. I only had aluminum nine inch square pans, so substituted a large, deep glass casserole dish. The fruit really filled the dish. I was worried about the juiciness of the strawberries, so I sprinkled two tablespoons of flour on top with the maximum amount of sugar. Since the rhubarb had not completely thawed, I ended up cooking it an additional 30 minutes. Even so I had a soupy, very sour dish with hard chunks of rhubarb in the middle and the oatmeal crumble mixture did not get crisp. With half the rhubarb, it still seemed like an awful lot compared to the strawberries. Next time I would use also use only one pound of rhubarb, double the sugar, add ¼ cup of flour and mix that with the fruit mixture before adding the crisp mixture. Putting vanilla ice cream on top, made it scrumptious and hid any deficiencies.

This simple recipe turns out a surprisingly good rice pudding warm or chilled. I think that it is important to use the type of rice specified; I had a nice Lundberg fat, short-grained brown rice. I used vanilla-flavored almond milk and added the options of raisins, cinnamon and the dash of nutmeg. It turned out very creamy and if you weren’t told that eggs weren’t in it, I don’t think you would realize it. The recipe worked perfectly as written. It simmers for a long time at a low temperature and I think it could be adapted for the Crockpot. It was just the dairy-free, egg-free, delicious rice pudding recipe I was looking for.

OK, so it took me 6 ½ hours of near constant activity to produce one pan of totally amazing pecan rolls. The first time I made this recipe using the cookbook for that year of the TV show, I went out and bought the pan specified, a tall sided non-stick 9X13” metal pan. Making these for a bake sale was not one of my better ideas as you will want to keep and eat them yourself after all of that work. In addition to making the dough, filling and caramel glaze for the pan, you also make the pecan topping separately. Unfortunately I let them over bake a little and then went to sleep after turning them out of the pan and so they did not get covered on a timely basis, and so were a little dry. But these were still quite spectacular with all of that sticky caramel and crunchy pecans on top and they brought a very good price individually at the bake sale. Well worth the effort if you hanker for an amazing pecan roll experience.

A very beautiful presentation that would be very elegant for company. I only cooked one cauliflower, but it was very large. The sauce was thick enough to stick to the cauliflower. The cheese grated on top really makes the dish. The cauliflower was cooked perfectly which also added to the appeal of this dish.

This was fun to make clearing out all of the random bags of fresh spring greens out of the refrigerator. I also used new purple potatoes, and fresh carrots. Don't get too enthusiatic about what you are throwing in, you still have to eat it when the soup is done! It does make a lot of soup, but you can vary its appearance by garnishing it with different grains, crackers, or herb flowers.

I have not been able to cook any recipes with soy sauce (bad reaction to soy) until a colleague showed me this recipe. It turned out dark and real salty with some umami flavor and so seems like a great substitute. The next time I will try and find bouillon without MSG and substitute apple vinegar for balsamic to get rid of the sulfites.

This was an easy sauce to prepare while the fish baked and the rice and asparagus steamed. I used low-fat sour cream and substituted lime for lemon juice. It was great on the otherwise plain rice, fish and vegetables as suggested. The horseradish gave the rich sauce a robust flavor and added a nice touch of texture.

A great quick meal from ingredients you are likely to have on hand. I used white corn tortillas, canned black beans, her cooked salsa and grated cheddar cheese. It is easy to either expand or reduce the number of servings you make. I would have prefered to make it in the skillet, but I needed speed, so made it in less thna 5 minutes in the microwave. A nice emergency dinner.

This colcannon recipe was a great way to use cabbage with fresh new red potatoes, scallions and was lower in fat than other recipes I found. It was visually appealing as well. I probably used a higher ratio of cabbage, but it was still great.

The first time I made this I thought that the cream took away the tomatoey taste I expect from Lasagna. The second time I made it I substituted tomato sauce for the cream and I realized that I do not like the taste of the no-boil lasagna noodles. If you want to eliminate the boiling of the noodles you are better off using a no-boil recipe with regular noodles that you can get off of noodle boxes, spaghetti sauce jars or the internet. However, mMy familiy liked it just fine.

This was a fairly quick and easy, oven-baked shrimp toast covered with a milk sauce and intriguingly cover with cheese, tomato slices and after baking, crumbled bacon. We realized we had to be at some school function just as it came out of the oven and we ate on the run. It was hot, comforting and delicious, but there are probably better things to do with shrimp.

This Pennsylvania Dutch recipe is a very interesting pie for a budget – coffee, molasses, flour and spices are the main ingredients. It is also a pie that you should have all the ingredients on hand to whip up in a hurry if you stock unsulfered molasses. The coffee was supposed to be warm not hot, but I used cold coffee and that might be why the filling foamed up so much spilling over the sides. Place a baking pan or sheet of foil under your pie plate. I used my bigger 9” pie plate and make the crust edges extra high and it was not enough to prevent overflow. I would much prefer a fruit or nut pie, but it was enjoyed by those who like this sort of pie. I like the explanation that it was usually served with coffee for breakfast and that sure make sense.

These two whole grain loaves were moist and delicious. I love sesame, but I thought 3/4 of a cup with more on the top would be too much, but the sesame flavor did not overwhelm. I mixed black unhulled sesame seeds with hulled sesame seeds. I thought "cracking" the sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle was only appropriate for the hulled sesame seeds. I also substituted rolled barley for the oats. The recipe worked well.

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.

This bread is very quick to make as it only rises after shaping. My dough was so sticky that I did use flour to shape the rings even though the directions said not too. However the egg wash and seeds went on smoothly. I could not resist putting a light sprinkle of sea salt on the second batch. Although the sesame and cumin seeds were great, we loved the ones that also had salt the best. I would not make them again without the salt.

This sounded intriguing with the Mastic and anise seed for flavoring. The directions worked beautifully. I haven’t found green anise seed yet, so used the regular kind. Grind the Mastic before you add the warm toasted anise seed, better yet, let the anise seed cool first. I had good luck grinding the mastic previously, it had just exploded under the pestle, but here perhaps because I added the hot anise seed to the pestle first, it made a very thin sheet, which just became thinner as I ground it with the salt and sugar. This is a very thin soup, and as you can see from my photo, this is one of those recipes where what you cook does not match the picture in the book. That picture is the same color as mine before adding the ground up spices. After it simmers with the spices it did turn the light beige color that she indicates in the recipe. I liked it very much once you get used to how thin it is. I preferred just a very small amount of butter on top instead of the honey. Because it is so thin, I enjoyed eating the skin that forms on top while it cools. This makes a large amount.

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.

These were fun to whip up in the food processor. They have truffle oil, garlic and herbs. One recipe is just enough for one recipe of escargot, and they are the perfect size and have the perfect crunch to compliment the escargot and garlic herb butter. But I sure would like to try them on their own. The crispy exterior and eggy interior seem rather irresistible.

These large garlic bread crumb stuffed mushroom caps looked perfect with crispy-looking beautifully browned bread crumbs. However during the cooking in the butter, the liquid from the mushroom stems makes the bread crumbs mushy. I recommend leaving them out for that reason. I also think using sturdy bread crumbs are important. This was not as delicious as it looked.

This cream sauce made up very easily. I made it ahead by 20 minutes and it held well until everything else was ready. I am usually not a fan of nutmeg in savory dishes, but the small amount here was fine. I mad it for the cauliflower dish so added more nutmeg and lemon juice which gave it even better flavor.

I am usually turned off by mayonnaise, but the best fish I ever ate as a child I remember as Mahi Mahi with just mayonnaise on top broiled. So I thought I would give this mayonnaise-based recipe a try. I followed the recipe exactly except my mustard may not have been as whole grained as intended. I used fresh dill from the garden and fresh lime juice. The salom was baked with this mixture on top. The topping was creamy and a pretty yellowish with flecks of dill and tasted good.