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.

This was a delicous dish with a creamy sauce contrasting with the savory-crunchy topping. I doubled this recipe to serve four as a main course, baking it in an 9 X 13" baking dish and adding an extra 10 minutes of baking time. I also substituted a 15 oz can of fresh cut tomatoes for the fresh.

Very few ingredients, the scallions, goat cheese and crispy bacon made a very delicious filling and it cooked very quickly. This would be a nice dish for company as you could stuff the chicken ahead and cook it rapidly as it finishes in the oven after sauteing. My family would love to have it again.

The flavor of this slow cooker recipe was amazing and we loved the departure from the usual barbeque for shredded meat around here. The size of the beef chunks weren’t specified. My son cut them into 1” chunks and did not trim the fat. This may be why there was so much liquid at the end. The smaller pieces made it difficult to shred, we recommend cutting the beef into the size of beef shreds you would like to have at the end. You may not have everything on hand for this. I had the mustard seeds, but had to pick up the sliced dill pickles. I couldn’t find the 6 oz jar specified, so weighed out the 6 oz to make it easier for my son to put it together in the morning. Our can of chopped tomatoes did not have Italian seasoning, so we added 1 ½ tsp of dried Italian herbs. We served this as recommended on rolls with lettuce, sliced tomatoes and onions and look forward to making it again.

Comfort food with porkchops topping cheesy scalloped potatoes and vegetables. Definately a one pot meal. I should have used my mandolin to cut the potatoes. The scalloped vegetables looked perfect until I put the pork chops on top. Dripping meat juices made the potatoes watery. Be sure to cook your pork chops enough before you put them on top, I think I rushed it a little, and you can avoid this pitfall.

This crunchy cucumber salad has a surprising bite of vinegar and just the right amount of dill. The beautiful juxtaposition of the red onion, pale cucumber, bright green flecks of fresh dill in a white creamy sour cream base is very refreshing. This recipe solves the problem of running or salty cucumber salads. The salted pressed cucumbers exude an amazing amount of liquid and I was delighted not to have to rinse off the cucumbers. I doubled this recipe by doing the mandolin slicing, salting and pressing twice. It made a large bowlful. Since I was making the salad the day before and you were supposed to serve it within 8 hours of making it, I held the pressed cucumbers overnight. In the morning I drained again and then added the dressing and chilled for 5 hours. It tasted very fresh.

This is an amazing main dish salad for summer. I doubled this recipe and it make the perfect amount for a crowd. It is beautiful as well as tasty with fresh corn (sauteed in olive oil), scallions, avocados, tomatoes, and black beans with just the right amount of heat from the spices. I hope to make it again soon.

The batter of this bread was very beautiful with the contrast of the grated zucchini and the dried cranberries. However after baking it became very dark and harder to see. I used the toasted pecans and the larger sized loaf pan (they did not recommend). I am not sure the batter would have fit in a smaller pan. I used the yogurt option over the milk but it still did not help with the Florida factor and I had to bake it 20 minutes more (instead of 5 minutes less). Very good flavor, texture and the fruit and nuts remained in suspension. A nice use of a pound of zucchini.

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.

This is my favorite tasting brownie recipe. As much as I love trying new brownie recipes, I always come back to this one. I do not think the 1 cup of nuts is optional and walnuts make the best brownies. I always try to keep an 8 square package of unsweetened chocolate around as I can get up early in the morning if needed and make a pan of brownies to go to any function in a hurry if needed. These are fine plain, but to make them extra special, I make marshmallow brownies as my Mom did for neighborhood functions. Take out the brownies when they are almost done and cover with marshmallows. You can cut big marshmallows in half with greased scissors, but it is easier to just sprinkle on mini-marshmallows. Return to the oven until just starting to melt together. Cool and then cover with chocolate frosting. I use a batch of Baker's One Bowl Frosting with the remaining 4 squares of unsweetened chocolate. You will want to carefully cut these into reasonably-sized squares, otherwise people will want to take huge pieces and they are so rich they will not be able to eat it all. At one potluck I repeated saw the spouse helping finish uneaten portions. This time that I made them for my boys, I did not move fast enough to take a picture before they all disappeared, maybe next time!

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.

This simple bread was great with soup. I do not care for anise, but love seeds in bread and was delighted by the fragrance and extra flavor that the aniseeds gave to this bread. I cut the second loaf into slices and it was great toasted. This bread dried out incredibly fast and if you do not eat it immediately, cut into pieces and freeze so you have easy access to it and every piece tastes fresh.

I wanted to cook this recipe as is listed as one of her favorites. I halved the recipe and used only one chicken (her chickens are about 3 pounds, mine about 5 lb). This was my first experience cooking with preserved lemon (purchased). (These lemons are really small, so if you make your own from commercial standard-sized lemons, you may want to use ¼ of a lemon for each lemon in the recipe.) After the chicken is cooked and very tender, beaten eggs mixed with chopped preserved lemon and olives are poured over the top and baked. She has you scrub the chicken with a garlic salt paste which is a bit of a laborious procedure. The taste of the olive-preserved lemon cooked eggs served with the chicken may well be an acquired taste. I thought this was an interesting dish and I am glad that I tried it, but feel no need to make it again.

I made this delightfully savory tagine with beef stew meat. I used one head of cauliflower and did not weigh the cauliflowerets, so I made have been a little short there. I did the final baking step in individual casseroles as everyone ate at different times and that turned out brilliantly. I agree with Wester that without fat or some of the gravy on top the cauliflower can’t brown very well. I will make this again.

This turned out to be rather typical fatty short ribs on a bed of chopped vegetables. Substituted Vodka and added extra caraway for the Aquavit. These were OK, but did not develop deep carmalized flavors. I prefer the America’s test kitchen recipe.

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!

A fresh tasting, creamy goat cheese and grated apple mixture was good on top of perfectly cooked chicken breast. It is one of many versions of breaded chicken breasts topped with a mixture of ingredients, then a slice of cheese and baked in this cookbook.

This sounded strange, but was really delicious combining some of our favorite ingredients of Mango, mustard, cheese and chicken! I substituted pineapple jam for the apricot and thought it went with the pineapple juice and mango very well. It is one of many versions of breaded chicken breasts topped with a mixture of ingredients, then a slice of cheese and baked in this cookbook.

This is a flavorful baked salmon dish with a horseradish thyme bread crumb topping and the orange vodka sauce with scallions. It has a nice color as the recipe instructions indicate. It was a very interesting combination of ingredients that worked well together.

My chicken breasts were too large and so there was not enough space in the pan for the chicken-broth based liquid to go around the chicken and as a consequence the bread crumbs on the chicken became very soft. But it did fill the hunger I had to cook with pears and a small slice of pear with a raisin and the chicken was good. I used Bartlett pears instead of the Bosc and they held up just fine.

This baked salmon dish was topped with a mixture of scallions, curry powder, crumbs mayonnaise, sour cream, etc. The topping turned out a very yellowy orange color and tasted rather buttery and delicious with the salmon. I risked putting in double the curry powder and it was a good call, the flavor came through without being overpowering.

Another flavorful quick chicken breast recipe. The crispy breaded chicken chicken breast is covered with a cream of chicken soup-based sauce. The only lemon flavor is from the lemon peel and a small amount of lemon juice; I would have liked a stronger lemon flavor. It was quite pretty as it was flecked with the green from the parsley and scallions in the sauce.

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.

OK, yes this is an amazing way to use beets with greens. I am not a beet lover, but this made an delicious light supper. I arranged the ingredients on individual plates instead of one platter. I thought the beet greens were still a little tough, but chopping them helped.

What a lovely showpiece for beautiful blood oranges! I used the baby greens as in the salad on the previous page. There would have been a greater color contrast if you used the recommended baby romaine lettuce, but the red greens complemented the blood oranges nicely too. I chopped my almonds instead of crushing them and I kept thinking I was biting a lemon seed. The dressing was great, but next time I would prefer it on the greens instead of over the sliced oranges. I also am finding that I am not a fan yet of orange flower water, but being in the middle of an orange grove in full flower I realized it smells how the water tastes, so I am still trying (to like it). This salad bears repeating.

This was a new way to remove excess water with paper towels. I was using Bounty and so expected to end up with dried cucumber, but shouldn’t have been so worried. I should have used the lesser amount of Orange Flower water as I am still not used to this flavor, but I liked the sugar to lemon juice ratio.

This was my second attempt to prepare couscous by steaming and it went much better. I liked using a double layer of cheesecloth in the steamer. I bought the barley couscous from one of the mail order companies she listed. It was the same shape as regular couscous, but look more like grains of sand with a wide range of tan to brown color – very pretty. Each time it only steamed for 10 minutes and maybe since I was working with only a pound instead of 1 ½ pounds, it seemed to be easier to manage. However, I lost couscous stuck to the cheesecloth each time. Also couscous stuck to the cloth I covered it with before the final steaming. I loved the taste, it had such a hearty whole grain taste and it went well with the topping.

A garden explosion in your mouth! This is my favorite salad from this cookbook so far. Very ripe tomatoes, Florida onion (substituted for red), celery and orange pepper (in the picture I did not see that see used the called for green pepper either) in fine dice. I had only small capers as all my other recipes call for the small ones; but now I will look for and know what to do with the larger ones. This is the first time I have like the taste of the preserved lemon. It and the capers added such great bursts of flavor.

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.

A very familiar tasting vegan treat – Oh My Goodness – just Like Lara bars! This was very straight forward. You do blanch a pound of almonds. Because of the fresh apple, you probably do not want to keep them for very long. The cinnamon coating can be very strong, but I found if I rotated the bowl of cinnamon, the truffle gave itself the perfect light coating of cinnamon. If I rolled it around with my fingers, the coating became too thick and strong. Just like Lara bars, you could have a lot of fun with different fruits and nuts.

I was surprised at how much I liked this intensely flavored baked tomato salad. It does take a minimum of 5 hours to make however. I only added the smallest sprinkle of rose water to the tomatoes and it did give it that mysterious something extra. It is impossible after waiting through such a long preparation period not to tear into them while still hot, but they were a little bit better chilled and also as she suggests, at room temperature. The toasted pine nuts add a very welcome complexity to the mouth feel. The extremely long time that the oven is tied up would probably keep me from making this again, as well as giving it 5 stars. What a wonderful way to utilize an overabundance of tomatoes!

The almond paste filling made up nicely. I followed the suggestion to let the almonds sit in the water for an hour so that they would be softer to grind. Removing the skins which had filled with water, dark water spurted out that stained everything it touched. The almonds too had taken on a dark hue. The next time I wouldn’t let the almonds sit in the water for more than 5 minutes. The small pieces of mastic exploded under my pestle and ground nicely. I did try one as you can chew this sap as gum and it reminded my of the all natural spruce gum that I used to buy in Maine; I think it could make a good substitute that is easier to obtain, but I checked on-line and it was not cheaper. I used half of the suggested amount of rose water. I took Zosia’s suggestion to use the filo dough. But it also was difficult to manipulate. One sheet makes such a thin covering that it would tear while rolling and also when trying to shape it into a spiral (especially in the beginning which dissuaded me from trying to make individual snakes.). You can see the tears in my picture taken before coating with powdered sugar. I worried that the heavy concentration of cinnamon in the egg yolk would overwhelm the delicate taste of the almond paste filling, but it did not. I had planned to use the chopped almonds instead of the powdered sugar, but am glad that I did not want to peel any more almonds as that would have been overkill. There were definitely enough almonds in the filling. After baking, the filling tasted a little caramelized and amazingly good in the delicate crisp pastry. I do think you could bake it to look like a rattle snake with a little manipulation and that could also be stunning.

A rather dense bread with a wonderful Umami smell and flavor. In addition to the pre-ferment, it only calls for ¼ tsp of yeast. Like Zosia, I did not need the pan lid to flip, but you do have to be careful, because I did crack one and it wasn’t as pretty. I used a barbequing fork both to pierce the bread and also move it around in the pan instead of shaking the skillet when cooking the second side. After each loaf I poured out the darkened semolina flour and cleaned the pan with a paper towel. My loaves look just like the ones on page 111. This was fabulous bread. I made a double batch. Once I had laid the loaves out for the 1 hour rise, I started the second one in the food processor. You may not want to stop at a double batch and you don’t have to as there is a lot of the pre-ferment.

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.

I grew up in New England, but this was my first lobster roll. I don’t like mayonnaise, and so was happily surprised that the main binding ingredient was yogurt. They have you strain your yogurt if you don’t have Greek yogurt, but that doesn’t work so well if your yogurt is thicken with gelatin or some other agent. There was also mayonnaise, lemon juice, celery and scallion. I liked that the rolls were grilled. I used large sections of Cuban bread instead of the hotdog rolls and grilled them on the George Foreman. One other reviewer on the website also substituted precooked langostinos for the lobster as I did. A very fresh tasting sandwich!

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.

My first attempt to cook quinoa turned out well. Pureed sautéed shallots and carrots were added to the chicken stock and simmered with the quinoa. Cumin was added at the end. I was afraid it would be soupy, and it was very soft, but OK. It tasted good without tasting like cooked pureed carrots. I think it makes a great lunch all by itself.

Goat cheese was the secret ingredient that made this dish creamy and gave it a bit of a surprising flavor. The rice is cooked and used hot and I found that by the time I had prepped and cooked all the other ingredients, the rice had just finished cooking in the rice cooker. Onions and garlic are sautéed and the zucchini cooked until the liquid disappears. I chose the bouillon option and used the full amount of chicken base as I had used no other salt, not even to cook the rice, but next time I would only use half, the taste was too strong. This does not look outstanding, but makes up for that in flavor. My only complaint is that the amount cooked seemed small as it was so very good. You may want to consider making a double batch. Especially if you want to have some leftover for his suggestion to incorporate roasted chicken to make a good lunch.

This was my first attempt at a Hopping John. I was lucky to find a package of frozen black eyed peas at my local fruit and vegetable stand on New Years Day. My previous attempts at cooking with millet always left me feeling like I was eating bird seed (probably my mistake for munching on the parakeet’s millet in my youth). This book indicates that the millet must be heated until it starts to pop before cooking in water. My mistake was in using a large skillet instead of my medium as directed. The millet in the middle of the pan cooked perfectly and the surrounding millet stayed crunchy. The added bacon, chives, and vinegar made the teenagers come back (one had 5ths but claimed it was just because he was so hungry) for more until it was finished with no leftovers. The only improvement would be to cook it in the proper sized pan and to follow his advice to eat it more than once a year.

This made a delicious whole wheat naan. There is a lot of last minute activity so this wasn’t good timing to try to make it just in time for dinner (if you are also cooking dinner). I chose the buttermilk over yogurt option and found that I had to add about an additional cup of whole wheat flour in addition to what she had suggested. This was easy to make and had a total of only 3 tablespoons of oil, so much less than many Indian bread recipes that I have previously decided not to make (for that reason). I did not broil it to make the brown spots and it tasted fantastic warm out of the oven with butter chicken. It tastes just as fresh and moist inside storing in the freezer.

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.

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.

Very delicious, the sauce particulary had a complex flavor. However, I used top round instead of the beef chuck, and this leaner meat did not do as well. I had to cook it much longer than the recipe called for and the meat was still not as tender as I would have liked. Cooking the pearl onions and mushrooms separately ensured that they were not mushy. It was nice to use frozen pearl onions and not have to do all that peeling. I would try this again as a hearty winter comfort food.

I was interested to try this well-liked recipe when I had an over abundance of tomatoes. It was good, but would have probably been better if I had cooked it for the longer amount of time. I must have used a very coarsely ground cornmeal as well and next time I will pay more attention to using a more finely ground one. Definately worth trying again.

These fat fluffy pancakes are always my first choice to make if I have buttermilk around. In the old version of this cookbook I was always frustrated finding the recipe as it was called sour milk pancakes and it was stuck in at the end of the panckae section with other odd pancakes. For a special brunch dish top them with cottage cheese and cherry preserves.

These directions tell you exactly how long to hold your eggs after the water has come to a boil and been turned off. I often have to make 144 hard boiled eggs to give out at church and the only worse thing than seeing someone peel one where the yolk has a large outer green area, is one that is not cooked all the way through. I had always done 20 minutes regardless of egg size. Here the time is by egg size with 2 additional minutes if the eggs are right out of the refrigerator. I held large eggs right out of the refrigerator in the just boiled water for 17 minutes before running them under cold water. When I made them into deviled eggs, there was the faintest green tinge around the yolks and when I mashed them most were perfectly dry and just a few a little gummy in the center and hard to mash. So, great directions for perfectly hard boiled eggs!

The batter for the crust is ridiculously buttery. My springform pan is a little loose, and I am glad I placed it on rimmed baking sheet asd melted butter oozed out. It doesn't say what size of springfrom pan to use, but it turnes out well in my medium-sized one. It is difficult to spread out the very soft crust and get it to go up the sides of the pan. It pulled away when I used a spatula and I found fingers dipped in flour worked the best. I substitute small cut up chunks of guava puree and sometimes use walnuts for the sliced almonds. I have had to write myself a note in the cookbook that a half cup of jam or guava as well as a half cup of nuts are really enough. If you don't use the raspberry jam, substitute vanilla for the almond extract. You will be surprised at how pretty it turns out, and also how that crust puffs up and ends up tasting like a normal coffee cake.

I hate making frostings, but this is a rich tasting, easy recipe to make if you have 4 squares of unsweetened chocolate and a pound of powdered sugar on hand. The only problem that I have with this recipe is that they say to add the powdered sugar, butter and vanilla and then add the milk. If I do this I get concrete, so I don’t add all of the sugar at once. I then alternate adding it with the milk. It is important to end with the milk so it turns out glossy.

This simple soup is composed primarily of lentils and garlic. This is great during the fast preparation, but results in a rather thin soup. However the sour, but thick and creamy yogurt-goat cheese topping made it worth eating. She said to mix it in, but I liked leaving it as a lump in the middle of the bowl and dipping into it with the tip of my spoon. This is a simple and elegant meatless soup.

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.