Queezle_Sister's Reviews
12 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 12Sort by: Title 
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Essential Pepin: More Than 700 All-Time Favorites from My Life in Food
By Jacques Pepin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2011
Caramelized Roast Pears : page 6
Oh so simple, and just delicious. This is just peeled and cored pears, sprinkled with sugar, lemon juice, and butter, roasted. At the end, you are instructed to mix in Madeira. We skipped the mint leaves (plants are buried under snow).
We served these with a bit of yogurt, and it was fantastic.
useful (1)
Chicken with Cognac Sauce : page 248
A simple roasted chicken with a rich cognac sauce. The chicken was a bit under-done, it needed about 15 additional minutes.
The sauce was complicated - chicken broth and wine, reduced, a flour/butter mix added, cooked, add cream, strain, cognac. I used good quality ingredients, and the sauce had great flavor, but we didn't like it with the chicken.
useful (0)
Creme Brulée with Verbena : page 519
I couldn't find verbena - looked everywhere. So we substituted 1/2 tsp vanilla.
This recipe made a very creamy and delicious creme brulee. They cooked up perfectly, and had great texture. Because we didn't have verbena leaves to strain out, we didn't bother to strain out the lemon zest.
In this recipe, the sugar topping is made of brown sugar. We had a lot of trouble getting the sugar to melt rather than burn. We tried both a torch and the broiler. I wonder if regular sugar would work better?? I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have.
This was prepared by my 16 yr old son as homework for his French class (lucky us!).
useful (0)
Flambéed Bananas : page 479
We saw this item on a restaurant menu, but decided to try making it instead of ordering.
I ran into some trouble when trying to cut the portions in half. If you use fewer bananas, but a big pan, do you use all the butter and all the brown sugar? I did, and that I think that was the start of my problems.
Here you bake the bananas (halved longitudinally) on butter and brown sugar, with more butter and brown sugar on top, and some lemon zest and juice. After 10 minutes at 450˚, you remove from the oven, add rum, and ignite. Its very dramatic as you spoon the flaming mess over the bananas. When the excitement was over, though, I had a pan with some soupy stuff, and a big lump of caramel.
We pulled the caramel out, and broke put it over the bananas. Somehow it was supposed to end up on top of them. I think this is an example of operator error.
My son doesn't like bananas, didn't even want to taste this, but ended up enjoying it quite a bit.
Photo credit goes to 13 daughter.
useful (3)
Garlic Mashed Potatoes : page 114
An excellent light mashed potato. Yukon golds are simmered with garlic, then pressed through a sieve, and mixed with butter and warm milk. I love making masher this way - their texture is perfect!
useful (1)
Pear Gratin : page 506
Delicious pears with a lovely nut/bread topping.
AJ is correct that this is a rustic dessert. I used leftover rosemary olive oil bread (costco), and substituted walnuts for the pecans. The gratin topping - bread crumbs, butter, a bit of sugar, nuts, and cinnamon - came together quickly in a small chopper attachment for my new stick blender. Its simplicity really allows the pears to shine.
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Pork Chops with Mustard and Capers : page 359
Wow! A very complex (and delicious) sauce over pan-seared pork chops. I was amazed to realize I had all the ingredients except the Brown Sauce. I used pork chops from a local farm - but they were quite a bit thinner than the recommended 1 inch. I ended up over-cooking them a bit (I really am not very comfortable cooking meat), but they were still delicious.
We felt that the sauce - which was chunky and bright flavored - overwhelmed the pork chops. Other than that, it was delicious.
useful (1)
Rice-Stuffed Zucchini : page 460
Finally a vegetarian stuffed zucchini that will knock your socks off!
The halved zucchini are salted - something we've all noted during this zucchini challenge as useful for firming it up. The stuffing includes onion, garlic, tomatoes, the innards of the zucchini, jalapeno, and rice. Rather than the long-grain called for, I used left-over short-grain brown rice, and it worked well. After stuffing the outer zucchinis, a bread crumb-mozarella-paprika topping is layered on, and its baked. I used half conventional paprika and half smoked.
The slight heat from the jalapeno complemented the other flavors, and it was so much more than the sum of its parts. I think we were all surprised - teenagers too - by how much we enjoyed it.
useful (1)
Sautéed Shallots and Haricot Verts : page 412
Crunchy beans with good flavor. If you like green beans, you would like this version, but if you don't, then you won't. I guess this is not a child-friendly recipe.
Beans are cooked in boiling water, then cooled off and dried off. After this, shallots are sautéed in butter and oil, and after that, the beans added back in. A generous sprinkling of salt and pepper then sets it off.
I found that the timing for cooking the beans was spot on, and the final flavor very nice. 13 daughter - not so favorable impressed.
useful (2)
Slow-Cooked Pork Roast : page 362
Should garner a 3.5 - this meat had wonderful flavor from a cumin-ginger-mustard-soy marinade. It is cooked at 275F for nearly 3 hours, and I turned it every 30 minutes (recipe says every 45 but I wanted to keep a close eye on it). Despite my attention, its temperature reached nearly 160˚F inside, and was probably a bit over done. The meat was very lean (from a local farm), and a bit tough. We did as suggested and served with the pan juices.
Cumin is the predominant flavor of the marinade. I cut the 1/4 tsp cayenne to 1/8 and couldn't taste it. Next time I'd go with the full 1/4 tsp.
useful (0)
Tagliatelle and Peas : page 91
This was fairly bland. To be fair, my 16 yr old son selected this to prepare because it was the easiest recipe he could find (that didn't come from jars or cans). Its very simple - a flat pasta with peas, olive oil, Parmesan, and fresh pepper. Don't forget the pepper!
This was pretty forgettable. But if your cupboards are bare, you might still be able to make this dish.
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Ziti with sausage and vegetables : page 94
This is a very basic recipe - probably most of us wouldn't need a recipe for this. Cook pasta, sauté sausage, add vegetables, mix together. A bit of pasta water, some spices garlic and cheese and there you are.
We substituted wagon wheels for the ziti, and also added peas. It was tasty, quick, and even better because my husband prepared it.
useful (1)