Queezle_Sister's Reviews
19 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 19Sort by: Title 
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DK Children's Cookbook
By Katharine Ibbs
DK Publishing - 2004
almond, apricot, couscous : page 68
This was a great meal. I would eat it every day if I could. This recipe uses regular couscous, but you add various things including apricot. It really elevated the couscous to something very special.
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Blueberry pancakes : page 23
This recipe makes a thick cake-like pancake. Step 2 requires you to crack the egg into a bowl, and then put it into a measuring cup to whisk it; this uses an an unnecessary step. These thick pancakes were difficult to cook all the way through, the instructions should suggest spreading the batter thinner in the pan (or use more milk in the batter).
We used frozen blueberries, and they worked out fine.
Instructions for flipping the pancake was based on time - for a child's cookbook some additional instructions (like making sure a bubble that pops doesn't close) would be useful.
The instructions could also give advice on how to flip a pancake.
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Boiled eggs : page 14
This recipe gives instructions for something very simple, a boiled egg. They instruct you to put the eggs into cold water, bring them to a boil, and then boil for four minutes. However, there were no instructions for identifying the moment when the water was boiling. This vagueness would probably be frustrating for a child (and many adults). We started timing when the water wasn't quite boiling, but re-started once it was clearly at a boil. I was surprised that the eggs were not over-cooked.
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Breakfast Omlet : page 20
These omlets have a great combination of cheese and vegetables. Normally I strongly dislike mushrooms but when they are cooked and then put with this cheesy omlet they are OK. I was rather glad that my mom was not presently in the kitchen when i made these and ate them, this is because she would have said to put less cheese in them. As i ate it i did relise that the cheese was very powerful. Nonetheless it was amazing. I can't say that it was quick to make but it was easy and delicious. It was a fairly balanced meal and filled me up.
Yours truly,
13 Daughter.
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Cheese melt with poached egg : page 38
This recipe involves first preparing an english muffin with ham and a cheese mixture, broiling it, and adding a poached egg. If the recipe had only been the english muffin, this would have rated much higher. The timing for the poached egg, though, was pretty far off. We live at high altitude, and compensated by increasing poaching time by 25%. The eggs were way too runny, even for me, who likes a runny egg.
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Fruit smoothie : page 12
I loved this smoothie it was a great breakfast for my daughter. We substituted blueberries for the strawberries. It was delicious.
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Granola : page 16
This recipe calls for a great selection of dry fruit. Oil and honey are heated, oats and sunflower seeds are mixed in, and this is baked.
Unfortunately, it did not form clusters. The edges began burning before the center had started to turn brown. Anyone making this should really spread out the granola before baking, and perhaps decrease baking temperature.
I've read in various blogs that addition of egg whites will contribute to big clusters. We will try that variation next time.
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Green Salad with Dressing : page 26
The dressing for this salad was outstanding, no, actually it was phenomenal. We didn't have whole grain mustard, so instead we used spicy brown mustard. The instructions for making the salad itself was very ordinary.
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Hamburgers : page 40
This is a pretty standard hamburger recipe, but it came out really dry. The recipe is just a general guideline, and suggests adding ketchup, worchestshire sauce, garlic, mustnd, salt, and pepper. We grilled them outside, and possibly over-cooked them.
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Lamb kebabs : page 68
This recipe was great. We really loved the combo of flavors. It was even better with the accompanying recipe of almond, apricot, couscous.
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Mandarin cheesecake : page 86
This cake was very good. I think that it should have more oranges and less filling. This child's cookbook has detailed instructions on techniques and tools -- which I think is very useful for the target audience -- but here they should have instructed us to use the electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk together. Instead they advised a whisk. We couldn't break up the cream cheese clumps with our whisk. I think that if we make this again, we will try to mix the cream cheese better so that it does not have chunks.
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Mashed Potatoes Pies : page 64
This recipe is very straight forward, consistent with a recipe designed to be cooked by a child. My 12-year old daughter prepared this. We doubled the recipe and cooked it in 2 large pans instead of small individual bowls.
We loved the crunchy texture of the cheese on the mashed potatoes. However the carrots still were way too crunchy - so they should be cooked a bit more before this dish is put together.
We also had to put it under the broiler to get the top browned up.
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Meatballs with Salsa : page 66
These meatballs are made with ground pork, spices, lemon zest, ketchup, bread, garlic, and onions. The garlic and onions are chopped in a food processor - we recommend being sure to chop these finely - we didn't and wished we had. The resulting meatballs were a lovely texture and nicely flavorful.
The salsa is composed to pineapple, green onions, and cherry tomatoes. We were skeptical, but it tasted surprisingly good with the meatballs.
The cooking instructions say to broil on medium. Our broiler has only a low and high setting, so we used high. They were done in about 9 minutes rather than the suggested 15 minutes.
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Naan bread : page 106
This recipe made the best naan that I have ever had. It was a simple recipe but sort of advanced for a child's cookbook. I love seeing my child learn to cook and I think that this recipe was great to learning because the outcome was quick (for bread). The longest part was the rising. I put it in the oven that was just turned off to make the rising take a shorter time. Baking was only about 5 minutes under the broiler, and we could actively watch it as it browned.
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Pasta Salad : page 42
This was a decent pasta salad, it was quick and easy. But it didn't really stand out, nothing that special, not that memorable.
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Pesto Toast : page 36
If you like the crunch of toast, the smoothness of mozzerella cheese, and the sweetness of roasted bell peppers, then this recipe is for you.
We used pesto made from our home-grown basil last summer (not the cook book's recipe), and we used the broiler instead of a grill pan.
Our family members are big fans of the pesto-mozzerella combination, so this recipe suited us well. The illustrated recipe works very well for children, including the pesto instructions.
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Pizza : page 108
We used the dough recipe here for two pizzas (smitten kitchen toppings). The dough was fine - I prepared it in my bread maker, then let it sit in my refrigerator for about 10 hrs before we used it. Fine, bit nothing special.
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sausage popovers : page 74
Even though this is called a sausage popover, it is mostly bread (just one piece of sausage in the middle). We prepared these in a muffin pan, and found that they were too oily/greasy. Probably its better to just make popovers, and serve the sausage on the side.
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Scrambled eggs : page 18
These eggs are very good and I would have given it a four but you had to turn the heat up and the recipe told you not to. I liked these eggs with the milk added because I usually just do it with water. The instructions for this recipe calls for using a sauce pan instead of a frying pan - I suspect this was to make it safer for a child, and indeed for our 12 year old it worked very well.
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