sturlington's Profile

From: Hillsborough, NC US

Joined: March 11th, 2010

About me: I am an avid home cook. I am using this site to keep track of my favorite recipes from my cookbook collection.

Favorite cookbook: Fresh Every Day

Favorite recipe: Chocolate Brownies (Ad Hoc at Home)

Website:
simplycooking.wordpress.com


Latest review:

October 6th, 2012

Easy Cheesy Chili Chicken from Eating Stella Style: Low-Carb Recipes for Healthy Living

My husband enjoyed this a lot. It was easy enough for a weeknight, but I will have to tweak the seasonings some, as it was just a bit too salty for my tastes. read more >


recipe reviews (537)
book reviews (49)
useful review votes (414)

sturlington's Reviews


Search Reviews:

13 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 13Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Foster's Market Cookbook: Favorite Recipes for Morning, Noon, and Night

By Sara Foster, Sarah Belk King, James Baigrie, Martha Stewart
Random House - 2002

2nd August 2010 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits : page 16

I have a go-to buttermilk biscuit recipe but I am always willing to try variations. I made the cheese biscuits, and they were really wonderful for a summer dinner. Everyone ate at least two. My usual biscuit recipe only calls for 1/2 stick of butter, though, while this recipe requires 2 full sticks, so watch those calories!

useful (0)  


30th August 2010 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Prosciutto and Sun-Dried Tomato : page 162

This is a super-easy but very elegant recipe suitable for entertaining. I can see myself making this again and again.

useful (0)  


1st October 2010 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Italian-style Chicken and Mushroom Soup with Orecchiette : page 63

I had to make some changes to this recipe based on what I had on hand: I used kidney beans instead of cannellini, and I omitted the spinach altogether. It still turned out great, and my husband called it a perfect rainy-day soup. I really liked the addition of roasted mushrooms and garlic to the soup. If you have leftover roasted chicken, this soup is a good way to stretch it into another meal.

useful (0)  


3rd December 2010 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Chicken and Sweet Potato Soup : page 67

This is a chunky soup full of vegetables. I liked it because it adds some new flavors to chicken soup, but it also can be adapted to what you have in your fridge. A nice soup.

useful (0)  


27th September 2010 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Crispy Mashed Potato Cakes with Easy Applesauce : page 210

Delicious, and a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. Be careful not to eat too many. The "easy applesauce" side, though, was not as successful.

useful (0)  


23rd December 2011 (edited: 1st October 2012)

Classic Sugar Cookies : page 243

This was a terrific cookie dough for cutout shapes, perfect for Christmas cookies. I liked the touch of lemon very much. The icing wasn't as successful, but that was my fault -- I didn't have enough confectioner's sugar. However, the cookies are also very good plain or with a few sprinkles. These will likely become my annual Christmas cookies.

useful (0)  


28th November 2010 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Spiced Pumpkin Bread : page 21

This was good -- I added golden raisins, which were a nice touch -- but it makes two huge loaves and it calls for a lot of sugar, more than I would normally like to use in a recipe like this. I would only make this again if I had some extra pumpkin on hand that I needed to use.

useful (1)  


2nd November 2011 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Balsamic-roasted Vegetables : page 113

A useful, basic recipe. While I can't imagine ever roasting all of these vegetables together, the recipe is adaptable enough to suit almost any veggies you have on hand.

useful (1)  


5th February 2011 (edited: 30th July 2012)

Chicken Chilaquiles with Spicy Tomatillo Salsa : page 206

This recipe calls for a LOT of cheese and dairy, more than I was really comfortable with, so I modified it quite a lot to make a cheesy-chicken enchilada. I ended up only using some cream cheese and some colby-Jack. I left out the sour cream, heavy cream and feta. It was still quite good with the tomatillo salsa.

useful (0)  


4th October 2010 (edited: 30th July 2012)

Baked Capellini with Chicken and Four Cheeses : page 218

An elevated version of baked pasta with four cheeses that incorporates pre-cooked chicken and lots of veggies. It's a little gloppy and certainly not low-cal, but delicious enough to go back for seconds.

Whenever I see a recipe that calls for four cheeses, I always interpret that as meaning "whatever cheeses I have in my cheese drawer." After all the cheeses melt together, I can't ever detect the distinct flavors, so it seems like two cheeses are as good as four. This time, I used fontina, provolone and asiago.

useful (0)  


7th April 2011 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Southwestern Shepherd's Pie with Chicken and Chili Mashed Potatoes : page 224

I modified this recipe a lot. I think it's amenable to that. I added cabbage and omitted peppers and corn. The gravy was very delicious but didn't thicken as much as I would like. Good comfort food, but next time I would try different vegetables, such as peas and carrots.

useful (1)  


16th December 2011 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Chunky Peanut Butter Cookies : page 242

Not the greatest cookie. Easy to make and tasty enough, but something is lacking. I will try a different recipe next time. These did get a little too brown on the bottom, despite my watching them assiduously, but I always have that problem with cookies, so that might have been my fault.

useful (0)  


10th September 2011 (edited: 9th October 2012)

Grilled Tuna with Scallions and Wasabi Mustard : page 188

I was surprised that this dish was a little bit bland, given all the strong flavors in the marinade and mustard. I didn't make the wasabi mustard but rather bought it pre-made, which was probably the problem.

useful (0)