sgogo's Reviews
6 recipes reviewed. Showing 1 to 6Sort by: Book Title 
| Date | Rating | Recipe Title
The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Heavy-Duty Revised Edition
By America's Test Kitchen, Daniel J. Van Ackere, Carl Tremblay
America's Test Kitchen - 2006
More of a recipe for really great meatballs, their recipe for quick tomato sauce to use with this recipe is on pg. 175. However, the meatballs are simply phenomenal. We couldn't stop eating them. I think the bread soaked in buttermilk was the right touch for creating a really nice savoury, tangy character in the meatballs. The spaghetti and sauce were almost an afterthought.
We froze the leftover cooked meatballs, and heated up in sauce after being defrosted a few months later they were still wonderful. Highly recommended.
useful (1)
Gourmet
(December, 2005)
I really wanted to love this cookie. So much that it's the second Christmas that I've attempted it. Last year I found that the cookies ended up unevenly round, and overly rounded on top. Icing them to look nice and neat was tricky.
I tried again this year, in the hopes of making them rounder and flatter before they went in the oven, but they just ended up like lumpy oval cakes.
The icings, vanilla and chocolate, are hard to get to the right consistency so that they aren't too stiff or too runny. It takes a lot of trial and error, and honestly the end result is just...overly sweet, kind of cakey cookies that are nothing to write home about. So, moving on.
useful (2)
How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition): 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
By Mark Bittman
Wiley - 2008
Like many of the recipes in this book, this is a basic recipe which can be adapted. He gives a basic recipe for fruit/vegetable quick bread with nuts or seeds, and suggests combinations that would work. I made this bread with orange juice, carrots and pumpkin seeds, and with brown sugar as suggested in the adaptation on pg. 844.
It turned out nice and sturdy, with a deeper flavour from the brown sugar. I cut the sugar down to 3/4 cup, and it was fine. The only complaint is that it is a bit dry, but that can be fixed with tinkering I'm sure.
I'm always looking for quick bread recipes to use up something or other, and this looks like a good starting point for improvising. (Truly the strength of this cookbook, as we know.)
useful (0)
Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life
By Jamie Oliver
Hyperion - 2008
I really love this recipe. I've made it 3 or 4 times, and each time I can tweak it to my taste or according to what I have on hand, and it still works great.
It's basically a chicken and potato bake (Jamie's recipe titles are a little too wordy) with an oregano vinaigrette. I've used regular potatoes, cut up into smaller pieces, and they worked just fine. Also, I've skinned and not skinned the tomatoes, and there wasn't a big difference. He also suggests smashing the oregano with the vinaigrette, but I just tore up the leaves a little and it seemed okay.
However I've done it, the chicken and potatoes end up a little caramelized and crispy, the sauce is fresh and tangy, and everything melds together. Nice with just a salad. The leftovers are still great warmed up the next day. Enjoy!
useful (2)
The New Basics Cookbook
By Julee Rosso, Sheila Lukins
Workman Publishing Company - 1989
This is a nice salad to make at the end of summer when the ingredients are freshest and at their best. Essentially it's a pasta salad with lots of basil, tomatoes, green beans and olives. I've made it twice, both times with penne instead of fettucine, which I imagine would be tricky to eat in a salad.
I had a problem with the proportions of the red wine basil vinaigrette they suggest to use as the dressing, on page 190. There seemed to be way too much oil in the ratio, but even scaling it back the dressing seemed too oily for the salad. You ended up with a pool of oil at the bottom of your bowl, kind of offputting. Also, the vinegar ended up being too dominant.
Rejigging the vinaigrette would improve this recipe a lot. Just make sure the ingredients are nice and fresh, and you can't go too wrong.
useful (1)
Website: Orangette
An odd recipe at first glance, it contains no fat - no butter or oil whatsoever. However, I guess it's the high proportion of bananas (3 mashed) that provides the moisture necessary. I skipped the cinnamon sugar topping, reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup, and reduced the amount of cinnamon to 1 tsp. I'm not a huge fan of the combo of cinnamon and chocolate, and this seemed to strike a nice balance.
I also used a 9 inch square pan, which cut down the baking time to about 12 minutes.
It bakes up to be dense and chewy but still soft, with big banana flavour. A nice snacking cake for sure. If low fat is your only concern, it's a great alternative to banana bread, and I'll probably make it again because it was so easy and quick. Might be nice with some walnuts or pecans. Oh, and it supposedly freezes very well.
useful (0)