Peckish Sister's Reviews
465 recipes reviewed. Showing 51 to 100Sort by: Book Title | Date 
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The Olive and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking
By Susanna Hoffman
Workman Publishing Company - 2004
I found the perfect tight fitting pan, but think it would have cooked better if it was in a looser fitting pan. I also would not mix the sesame seeds in with the oil, lemon juice and salt, but sprinkle the seeds over after rubbing the liquid mixture everywhere. They clumped and did not form the nice crust l expected. I usually do not like tahini by itself, but this simple sauce went well with the juicy chicken.
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These crispy, intensely almond flavored macaroons had the perfect contrasting creamy interior. I chose this recipe to use up some of those egg whites left over from the egg yolk sauces and rice pudding. It turned out to be a lot more work with blanching, skinning the almonds, and slicing them. It ground up well, but it was difficult to scoop out into pleasing shapes. It was all worth it, these are nothing like the gummy ones that come out of the store bought packages.
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Excellent creamy rice pudding that turned a rich brown color from the raisins and the vanilla extract. I used the Arborio rice as recommended. Not having whole milk, I used a combination of two and zero percent fat milk. Since I have had trouble with either runny or overcooked rice pudding, I eliminated one cup of the milk. She does not specify how much of the optional additions to add, so I added an amount of black raisins equal to the amount of rice (and also the sugar). It cooked perfectly, thickened just right, and I liked this version made with Arborio rice.
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This made a decent salad. My favorite village salad in Cyprus had a blob of potato salad. I made mine with yellow pepper, really ripe tomatoes, and California olives. I loved the addition of capers. I did reduce the oil and chose the lemon juice option. I am not used to cucumbers in Greek salads, but I really liked it.
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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.
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We love chicken with forty cloves of garlic, so could not resist this recipe. I bought peeled garlic cloves, so it was straight forward to put together and then let cook in the oven. I used my Dutch oven instead of a clay pot, and the recipe worked well. If you are looking forward to whole garlic cloves you will be dissapointed as they do disintegrate into the sauce as she describes. The olives however retain their texture and give bursts of salty flavor.This turned out okay, but is not a recipe that I feel a need to repeat.
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Instead of one half of a cup of coffee, I substituted one quarter of a cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice, so the sourness would not be overpowering. Then I only just brought it to a boil, instead of cooking it for fifteen minutes so it would not be over reduced. It made a very delicious lemon syrup that went well on the walnut cake.
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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.
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This was a very simple recipe. However the rice to water proportion was off. I heated water in my electric kettle and used it to add water until the rice was tender. It should be easier to cook as you are supposed to just add the water, cover and simmer for twenty minutes. I reccomend using the amount of liquid specified for your type of rice. I used Arborio and it was very delicious.
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Fish cooked on top of the stove with zucchini, tomatoes, a leek and a rich avogolemono sauce. I used steelhead trout. The thickest part was not cooking, so I moved that part over the flame and that helped it finish cooking without over cooking the rest of the fish. I couldn't 't bring myself to use sage and we loved it with Greek oregano. The sauce did turn a lovely pinkish color from the tomato juice. It made a great meal served with rice.
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These flavorful meatballs made with ground lamb were amazing. I could only find ground lamb in a one pound package, so I increased all the other ingredients accordingly. There is a lot of prep work here and you need to plan ahead as there is a long refrigeration period before frying. When the first batch was in the pan frying, I realized that I had forgotten to roll them in the chopped almonds then flour. It was easier to taste all the flavors in the meatballs without nuts. The ones with nuts make a very impressive appetizer.
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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.
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The Arborio rice is superb in this dish. For the lentils, I only had miniature green lentils and they worked well in this recipe. The topping of fresh cilantro mixed with vinegar worked well to cut the grease from the onions. However, 1/4 cup of olive oil was excessive to fry the onions, and I would use the minimum oil necessary. All the components are essential for an intensely flavored side dish that could stand alone for a vegetarian dish.
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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.
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We also really liked these potatoes. I used yellow Yukon potatoes, which cooked too quickly for this recipe, if the initial water step was missed, the timing would have been perfect. If you do not use russet potatoes, adjust the time accordingly. Read the directions carefully as I missed the addional 15 minutes required which is important to get the delicious crispness mentioned by the other reviewers.
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We grilled these skewers and they turned out quite well. Not liking either tarragon or Ouzo, I substituted another Greek herb, oregano. I highly recommend it if you also do not like licorice flavored dishes. We served this over rice the first time and the leftovers in pita bread with tomato, lettuce, onion and vinaigrette.
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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.
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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.
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Culinary Expressions
By Normand J. Leclair
Normand Pub - 2002
A sweet and gorgeous way to bake salmon. I substituted cherry jam for the apricot. The addition of green onions, vinegar, and spices kept it from being too sweet.
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This mixture of fresh breadcrumbs, butter, lemon peel, fresh thyme, etc. browned up beautifully. As there was no lemon juice the lemon flavor was rather subtle. A very nice and somewhat different way to cook salmon.
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From Rhode Island Gardens to Your Table: Recipes from URI Master Gardeners
By URI Master Gardeners
URI Master Gardener Association - 2012
I like that the amount of squash was specified by weight. This was a sweet casserole with brown sugar and butter. It was quite good, but I was in the mood for something more savory. However it would make a great accompaniment to ham. Teh recipe worked fine, but you want to be sure you evenly give out the big pieces of squash and apple.
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I followed all of the directions except that I cut the curry powder from 5 teaspoons to 2, and for me it had the perfect balance of sweetness from the apples and apple cider, smoothness thanks to my immersion blender, and richness from the ½ cup of cream. With tow whole roasted butternut squash, this made a big batch of soup. I did not think it needed the dollop of sour cream on top. Well worth doing again and would work well as a first course for a special occasion.
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Blue Ribbon Breads
By Margie C. Jensen, Carole Wade, Jr. Arch Cheney, Borge B. Anderson and Associates
Country Kitchen Press - 1977
This oil based quick bread used finely grated carrots which I took care of in the chopping part of my food processor. It took ½ cup of fine coconut and I used unsweetened natural coconut. This turned out as a bright orange short loaf which I made into finger sandwiches with cream cheese. The coconut’s texture matched that of the carrot and the flavor was not noticeable. I liked that it did not take any extra steps of melting butter, chopping nuts, etc. and could be whipped up in a hurry. I would make this again.
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The Very Best Of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes and More from the Popular Feature on NYTimes.com
By Martha Rose Shulman
Rodale Books - 2010
There was a fair amount of chopping involved. I loved the interesting mix of zuchinni, corn, bell bepper, onion and toasted cumin seeds. I could have used more of the cumin, but the flavor was good. I baked it in my 2 quart pyrex dish and it baked perfectly. I was suprised and impressed that the other two members of the family finished off this 6 serving size dish and there were no leftovers for lunch the next day.
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This did not seem so different from our usual sauteed summer squash recipe. I used half summer squash and half zucchini. But I like that the squash was in 1/4" dice, not our usual diagonal rounds. The onion was also a nice addition. Instead of the red pepper, I added a Cubanelle pepper that I don't always know what to do with from the CSA. For herbs I looked at the herbed cheese variation and decided to add dried marjorum. This was fragrant, delicious and perfectly cooked. There are two variations and the summer succotach with black beans also sounds intriguing.
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I could not resist making this recipe with fresh kale from my CSA. I used a mix of very aromatic dried mushrooms and fresh baby bella mushrooms. I love barley and this soup sounded, smelled and looked great. It was not spectacular and seems to be missing something. We did try the thicker leftovers as a pilaf with fish.
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We enjoyed this for breakfast though it did feel strange to taste sweet couscous. I made this rather quickly in the morning, micorwaving the couscous twice. I used brown sugar in the boiling water. I added the orange blossom water even though I am not usually a fan and did not mind it here. I used raisins in the couscous and topped it with the oranges, dates and pomegranite arils. Rather than cutting the oranges over the couscous, I quickly peeled and sectioned them by hand, cut the sections into bite-sized pieces and made up for the lack of dripping juice while cutting by splashing some orange juice on top. The pomegranite arils are what made this spectacular for me. However, I don't see myself making this on a regular basis. But it would be nice as a special treat when pomegranites and oranges are in season.
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The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook
By Editors at America's Test Kitchen
Cook's Illustrated - 2009
These are based on a blonde brownie recipe that contains a substantial amount of butter and brown sugar. To make Congo bars you add carefully toasted unsweetened coconut shreds to chopped pecans, chocolate and white chocolate chips. My son says they are now his favorite cookie.
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Better homes and gardens homemade cookies cook book
By Better Homes and Gardens
Meredith Corp - 1975
These economical brownies only use cocoa powder, but have very intense chocolate flavor and appetizing dark color. The half a cup of chopped nuts are sprinkled on top of the frosting also made with cocoa powder and buttermilk. The texture of the brownies was so very smooth, cake-like, dense and moist I was almost convinced it was from a cake mix and I baked them myself. This made a large 15 X 10" pan full. I lined it with heavy duty foil so I could bend up the side to assure that the batter or frosting did not overflow the sides. A great potluck dish that was very popular.
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So delicious, they are dangerous. This recipe in the book is a little odd as it is Just two paragraphs at the bottom of a page without a separate list of ingredients. I was inspired to try it as these were one of my mother's favorite cookies. These are dense, full of flavor and the walnuts in addition to the raisins add great bursts of flavor.
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We had hoped that these would be similar to the Chewy Hermit Bars, but these were good unremarkable cookies that were eary to whip up with ingredients on hand.
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Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Recipes from the Border and Beyond
By Martha Rose Shulman
Bantam - 1996
I was suprised at how well this rice pudding turned out. I think that 2/3 of a cup of raisins would be more satisfying than the 1/2 cup specified. I had a previous experience with a stovetop rice pudding recipe turning to mush, so I was skeptical about the 1 quart of milk that cooks down. So I only added 2 cups to start with, but it took all the milk nicely. I used Valencia rice and that may have contributed to the success of this recipe. However I should have removed all of the pudding from the pot when I was done cooking it, as the heavy-bottomed pot kept cooking and scorched what was left in the pan.
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Great Breads: Home-Baked Favorites from Europe, the British Isles & North America
By Martha Rose Shulman, Steven Mark Needham
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 1995
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.
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Do not omit the grated orange peel. These muffins tasted a little flat without it. I omitted it as I had already grated it off of the two oranges I used for the juice in the muffins (to use in Swedish Limpa bread). I like that these muffins had some whole wheat flour. More dates would have helped as well.
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Website: cooks.com
www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1745,159186-246195,00.html
I liked this version of the recipe as it allayed by fears as to what type of peanut butter to use. I loved that there was no butter to soften, nothing to separate or chop, etc. I had too soft a batter to roll into balls, so just dropped it. I was able to use a fork and sugar to make that important peanut butter cookie cross hatch pattern on top. They turned out better looking than I thought. I missed the taste of the flour. But I was able to give them to 3 different gluten intolerant people in addition to my son who said he was eating them like potato chips. A great recipe to have in the repertoire.
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The Very Best Of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes and More from the Popular Feature on NYTimes.com
By Martha Rose Shulman
Rodale Books - 2010
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.
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This is Huevos Rancheros with a layer of black beans between the corn tortilla and the egg. It brings back great memories of being in Cancun 25 years ago with my family and having a version of this quite frequently while we tried to figure out what was in it. I think there it had a flour tortilla and often the addition of canned peas. This is almost as good. My sister nicknamed it Mutilated Eggs as we had a hard time pronouncing its real name.
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A carefully fried sunny-side up egg on a corn tortilla with cooked salsa and I used Feta cheese. I had no cilantro, so used chives as a garnish. This was quite different from what I call Huevos Rancheros - scrambled eggs and salsa in a flour tortilla. This was fun to make from ingredients that I had on hand in the refrigerator, and was appreciated.
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Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Recipes from the Border and Beyond
By Martha Rose Shulman
Bantam - 1996
thisis a very simple cooked salsa with ingredients that you are likely to have. I like that the tomatoes were not seeded and as it takes two pounds, a good way to use up a lot of tomatoes. I found that we used it on a lot of different foods. If I had the time and ingredients however I would make our favorite tomato salsa recipe from the new Moosewood cookbook.
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The Best Vegetarian Recipes: From Greens to Grains, from Soups to Salads: 200 Bold Flavored Recipes
By Martha R. Shulman
William Morrow Cookbooks - 2001
I had a very similar experience to QS. I tried a new kind of apple, SweeTango. Very good for eating and cooking, both sweet and tart at the same time. The fragrance of the cooking apples was amazing. When I was ready to stop cooking the apples I had some juice in the bottom of the pan that I reduced to a syrup after taking the apples out. We also tried to eat it up warm. The galette was quite hard and not that flavorful.
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Although the other reviews of this recipe from her other cookbooks were not too good, I still wanted to try another yeast galette pastry recipe. The dough was so dry that I could not add all of the specified flour. That never happens to me in humid Florida. The recipe should have been enough for two galettes, but I could barely roll out the full recipe to the correct size. It made a nice enough galette, but without egg wash and sugar, was not particularly pretty. It also didn't taste particularly great. I made the apple galette, and we ate it soon enough that it did not get soggy.
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The Very Best Of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes and More from the Popular Feature on NYTimes.com
By Martha Rose Shulman
Rodale Books - 2010
This may well have been my first frittata. It seemed a good way to use up the last of that big bag of broccoli. I had all of the ingredients on hand, and with the potatoes, it seemed like it would be enough for dinner. The directions worked well and when I was afraid to cook it any longer on the top of the stove (fearing overcooking), I transferred it to the broiler and it finished cooking the top nicely. As you can see from the photos, I couldn’t resist dumping the last of the leftover shredded cheddar cheese from a Boy Scout trip and then adding some of her (also leftover) cooked salsa. We all enjoyed it and the leftovers were great for lunch the next day.
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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
The base recipe is the the Blondie (brownie) recipe with lots of brown sugar, toasted pecans (for which I substituted walnuts), chocolate and white chocolate chips. To make it a Congo bar, you add carefully toasted coconut. My son in college has declared this his most favorite cookie (to receive in a care package). This recipe makes a 9 X 13" pan of these very rich thick cookies.
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Mexican Light: Exciting, Healthy Recipes from the Border and Beyond
By Martha Rose Shulman
Bantam - 1996
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.
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The Best Vegetarian Recipes: From Greens to Grains, from Soups to Salads: 200 Bold Flavored Recipes
By Martha R. Shulman
William Morrow Cookbooks - 2001
This was a nice vinaigrette, although a little too heavy on the oil for me. I see that she has two versions of this recipe and this is the one without yogurt. I made it just as the recipe specified with pre-ground cumin. I was expecting more punch from the cumin. I think it would be great with freshly toasted cumin seed ground up in a mortar and pestle.
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Great Breads: Home-Baked Favorites from Europe, the British Isles & North America
By Martha Rose Shulman, Steven Mark Needham
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 1995
This simple filling had goat cheese, herbs and garlic. Use a small clove! I absent mindly used the largest garlic clove I found and the filling was a little too strong. My husband missed any hint of tomato in the filling. Some sun-dried tomatoes would be one way to fix this. Or you could process a can of pasty ready tomatoes for a rapid, chunky flavorful sauce like I do for cheese sticks. I did like the simplicity of this filling and how nicely it worked in the dough, baking perfectly without making the dough wet.
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The whole wheat calzone dough worked up nicely, when cut into 6 pieces and rolled out, it was a great thickness and easily held the filling. The egg wash for sealing the edges caused them to roll back,but not unstuck. Effective, but not pretty. The garlic oil was immediately absorbed each time, so they quickly lost that pretty shine. I wonder if you brushed them first with the egg wash and then with the garlic oil after cooking, how that would work. They baked up beautifully and did not get soggy, but also there were not vegetables in the filling. I was a little disappointed in the plain taste, but then there was only flour, salt, water and yeast in the dough. I think a small amount of sugar and oil would have made the crust more than just a functional piece of dough.
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This made a nice dense loaf of sweet rye bread. I added the large amount of grated orange zest, and crushed anise seed, but left out the cardomen regretfully as I can no longer tolerate it. This was OK, but was not the texture I was looking for (this was very smooth). I also think fennel seeds would taste better than the anise and I also think they would give more character whole, not crushed. I have been looking to recreate the best ever Swedish Limpa bread made by my mother’s friend. I should just ask for the recipe.
Still, this made two nice small loaves of bread that are great toasted.
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Supper Club: Chez Martha Rose
By Martha Rose Shulman
Atheneum - 1988
This was dreadful. I was glad that I was a little short on apples or the small amount of batter would have been completely eclipsed by the apples. I should have benefitted from Zosia’s experience with the plum tart and cut the apples into 16ths instead of eights. Even when cooking until some of the tops were black, some of the apples pieces were still very hard. The overwhelming taste of baking soda coated the apples. The next time I would mix all dry ingredients together before adding them to the apples. The glaze gave it a very lovely look, but the small amount of actual cake tasted very greasy.
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The Very Best Of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes and More from the Popular Feature on NYTimes.com
By Martha Rose Shulman
Rodale Books - 2010
I was very drawn to this unusual recipe with tomatillos and green pumpkins seeds. When I dry roasted the pumpkin seeds only one popped and then they continued to brown. However once I removed them from the heat they continued to pop and crackle for a long time. This looked like kiwi in the food processor (which I used instead of the recommended blender) with the dark bits of pumpkin seed contrasting against the lighter green of the tomatillo. I ended with tiny particles in the slightly chunky sauce; it was not smooth, but we loved it. I also left out 2 important ingredients, cilantro and Serrano chili. But it was a visual appealing and nice topping for grilled salmon. It was almost seamless, the flavor of the salmon and green pipian seemed really close and I had to keep checking to see if I had the sauce on my salmon. I would like to try it again when I do have cilantro.
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