southerncooker's Profile

From: Boomer, NC USA

Joined: January 3rd, 2010

About me: I collect cookbooks and love to cook and try new recipes. I tested recipes for Leite's Culinaria for almost eight years. I learned to cook from many good southern cooks including my Mom, Dad, several Aunts and my Grandmothers. My children and husband also like to cook and try new foods and recipes. My son still lives with us but our daughter is married. She often visits to cook with me. We are adventuresome eaters willing to try new things.

Bourbon Roasted Pork Loin from Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook

This was delicious. I know she says in the book not to use the good bourbon but all I had was Woodford Reserve so that's what I used. I marinated for about 8 hours in fridge. Loved the apples and onions... read more >

recipe reviews (2277)
book reviews (117)
useful review votes (491)

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southerncooker's Reviews

20 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 20Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

Brown Sugar Kitchen: New-Style, Down-Home Recipes from Sweet West Oakland

By Tanya Holland, Jody Horton, Michael Chabon, Jan Newberry
Chronicle Books - 2014

Even mr picky hubby enjoyed this one. Of course he usually enjoys desserts more that any other course. I did substitute Honey Crisp for the Granny Smith since HC was about 1/2 the price of GS.

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While this is probably considered a side I had it for my lunch today. I did only use one potato since it was only me and reduced the spices accordingly. I made a whole batch of the Creole Spice Mix page 51, since I also need some for the meatloaf and I may do the Blackened Catfish sometime as well.

I love baked sweet potato fries almost any way you season them up and these were fantastic. The Creole Spice was a little spicy but oh so good. I baked them on aluminium foil instead of parchment. They did take longer to get done than suggested in the directions though. I baked the whole potato for the 30 minutes suggested then after cutting into wedges I baked again for the additional 7 minutes, but they weren't done, so I baked another 10 minutes. Perfect! Could have been my oven though.

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These baked beans were fantastic. I made them as a side for Dad's birthday supper this year but they could easily be a main dish. The chopped ham from the hock and bacon sent this over the top. Loved the Homemade BBQ sauce as well.

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This was fantastic. I made it as part of our Valentines day supper 2015. I served it with salad, garlic bread and regular fries for hubby and son and sweet potato fries for me. Love the taste the blackening spices and the sauce that finishes off the steak.

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I'm really loving this book and couldn't decide which recipe to try first since I think I'd love making and eating most of them. Since I had everything already in my pantry this recipe was chosen for me. Even my picky husband loved these. They were fantastic. Loved the addition of spices - dried thyme, dried tarragon, garlic powder, cayenne, sweet paprika and black pepper in addition to caramelized onions. Had never heard of the technique she uses for caramelizing them though - she says to add water after they've cooked for about 5 minutes. I was doubting you would have great caramelized onions but it worked.

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Daughter, hubby and I enjoyed the truffles. Son-in-law didn't care for them and son only likes milk chocolate. I did have problems finding hazel nuts at our local stores though. I ended up buying two bags of mixed nuts hoping I'd be able to pick out enough to make the recipe. Unfortunately I only got half enough so I ended up using macadama nuts for the other half. This was part of our annual Christmas Eve appetizer supper for 2014.

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My son requested I make some chili so I showed him this. He said he'd try it if I substituted a poblano for the green bell and black beans for the pintos so I did.

I made it yesterday so I could reheat for tonight’s supper. Both hubby and son liked this as did I. Hubby isn't even a chili person and he liked it. Yes, finally!

I used the option of the ground beef instead of the diced pork or beef but I bet it'd be good with the other options as well. The stout (I used Guinness) and beef broth give it a nice lift and the apple cider vinegar adds a nice touch I would have never thought to use that in chili.

Ours was a little on the spicy side since I used the whole jalapeno instead of just a tablespoon as we enjoy spicy. This is a recipe to repeat. I did do a taste test (small bowl for my lunch) once it was done yesterday and it was just as good if not better after being reheated tonight but isn't that the way with chili?

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While this chicken was good I've had other fried chicken recipes that I enjoyed more. This chicken was much better with the apple cider syrup and cornmeal waffles daughter and I agreed. Son and son-in-law said they liked it own it's own. This chicken is fried partly done then finished in the oven on a paper towel lined baking sheet on a wire rack. I used thighs only since we like dark meat better here.

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When I was first looking through the book I asked hubby if he'd try this since he loves banana pudding. At first he said only if I'd make my regular BP first. I finally talked him into to it by telling him if he didn't like it I'd make his favorite one next weekend. He said it was really good but would be even better tomorrow since he likes his wafers really soggy. I like mine soft too so I did make it earlier in the day and put in the fridge to set. Lot of work in this one - making the vanilla wafers (mine were ugly), the homemade vanilla pudding (putting it through a fine mesh sieve works wonders) and caramelizing the bananas. So worth it though.

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While this is considered breakfast I made them for supper to go with the Buttermilk fried chicken. I've always wanted to try chicken and waffles and now I know it's delicious.

These waffles have yeast in them and are to set in the fridge after making for at least 4 hours or overnight. I did mine early this morning since I was making them for supper tonight.

Had some problems with the thin waffle batter -(it was so thin more like crepe batter) and learned after three attempts that I needed to barely cover the surface of the waffle maker then cook well past the point that my maker said they were done. Once I got the hang of it and got the first mess wiped off my counter top we were in business.

Everyone here agreed the were very tasty although almost each of us ate them a different way. Hubby doesn't eat chicken so he just ate waffles with maple syrup. Son ate maple syrup on his also and said he didn't like them together so he ate his chicken then his waffles. Son in law ate Aunt Jemima on his waffles with his chicken. Daughter and I liked the chicken, waffles and apple cider syrup all together.

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Here's one hubby and I both agreed on - delicious! When hubby first took a bite he said it tasted like chili and I thought Oh no, he doesn't like it since he's not a big chili fan. Surprise he loved it. He said the only thing that would have made it better was cheese. He loves my cheese meatloaf.

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This makes 1 1/2 cups of spice mix. Quiet a bit but the meatloaf called for 1/4 cup and I also used about a teaspoon on my Baked Sweet Potato Wedges. There are several other recipes in the book that calls for this spice including the Blackened Catfish which I may try soon. Of course I think I find find many other uses for this great spice.

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This was a great macaroni and cheese but I've eaten ones I liked better. Hubby didn't care for it though. The things that made it a bit different from other versions was the addition of a tiny bit of fresh ginger, garlic and Worcestershire. 1/8 teaspoon of each so you really didn't notice there were there. It was very cheesy though 8 ounces of cheese for 8 ounces of dried pasta.

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This was a great salad. Loved the roasted tomato dressing and the cornbread croutons were fantastic. Also the bacon brought it all together.

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I really loved the veggies, almost as good as the ones I made from Ted Allen's second cookbook. Daughter and son didn't care for them though. Son thought too sweet and neither cared that much for the spices. I loved that they have radishes in them. Made these as part of our Christmas Eve appetizer supper 2014.

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Son really enjoyed this one. I thought a bit on the salty side. I prefer my own version of potato salad with just mayo as the sauce to cover the potatoes, eggs, onions, dill pickles and other things. In addition to mayo this one had Dijon and coarse grain mustards, green onion, apple cider vinegar, lemon, garlic and sweet paprika.

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This was delicious and smelled up the house nicely too. Loved the addition of chocolate chips. I would have liked to have tried it with the chocolate chicory sauce as well but didn't find chicory coffee.

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This was a great accompaniment to the Creole Meatloaf. Hubby didn't care for it though. I did let mine sit in the fridge for awhile and think it tasted even better after that.

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My daughter and I loved this salad. Not sure why it's called roasted apple dressing since you chop up the apple and add to the pot with other dressing ingredients to cook before adding the other ingredients and then blend them all together before dressing the salad with it. It was delicious nonetheless.

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I made these to pack with my lunches this week. Of course once cooled and iced and icing set I had to sample one and boy were they good. I sent daughter and son-in-law home with a couple.

I did omit the currents since I didn't have any.

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