Queezle_Sister's Reviews
10 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 10Sort by: Title 
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The Providence and Rhode Island Cookbook: Big Recipes from the Smallest State
By Linda Beaulieu
Globe Pequot - 2005
Coffee Milk : page 230
Coffee is the official flavor of Rhode Island. Those little cartons of single milk servings you can buy -- in RI among the chocolate and plain is coffee! You can also buy bottles of coffee syrup for milk. I grew up with this as a real treat.
This simple recipe calls for coffee syrup (we use Autocrat) and milk. Pure and simple.
My memory of this drink is better than the experience as an adult. The result has the color of coffee milk, and the aroma, but the taste is much more vanilla/caramel.
Good, but needs an espresso version!
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Cosimo's Famous Pizza : page 189
The sauce for this pizza is simple and good. A drained can of San Marzano peeled tomatoes are crushed in your hands, and mixed with salt, oregano, garlic, and olive oil. This uncooked sauce is then spread on pizza dough, and simply covered with mozzerella cheese.
My husband prepared this (assuring me that his hands were well washed). It was a nice simple sauce, with a good bright tomato flavor.
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Dark and Stormy : page 238
I prepared this drink using Cruzan Black Strap Rum. The combination of this very dark rum with the ginger beer was outstanding!
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French Doughnuts : page 17
This doughnut recipe is unusual because you do not deep-fat-fry, but instead, bake the doughnuts in a muffin tin. The result looks very much like a flat muffin. You then increase the fat content significantly by rolling them in melted butter, and then increase the sweetness by rolling them in sugar and cinnamon.
We were skeptical about the batter - it called for 1 tsp of nutmeg and 1 tsp of salt. But the result was very good, with the exception that the nutmeg flavor was more pronounced than many would like.
Initial ratings by the family ranged from "2" to "5", and after discussion, and continued munching, the consensus was that it rated a "4", very good. One thing is for sure - the 12 doughnuts didn't hang around long.
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Narragansett Indian Pudding : page 214
Indian puddings have a funny sort of texture. I like them, but they might be an acquired taste.
This recipe is made with cornmeal, sugar, milk, salt, baking soda, butter, eggs, molasses, cinnamon and ground ginger. First you cook it in a sauce pan, then you bake it.
The flavor is very mild (you might call it bland), its not very sweet, but is strangely enjoyable to eat.
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Phillipe and Jorge Chicken : page 124
This recipe produces a succulent chicken breast with fennel bulb, pepper, and both green and black olives. The sauce's amazing flavor came from 1/3 C of pernod (an anice flavored liqueur).
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Porcetta (Italian-Style Roast Pork) : page 109
I was inspired to prepare this recipe because we had really really really liked the Zuni Mock Porcetta. This recipe was similar, but a bit more streamlined. Both recipes ask you to make a spice and garlic mixture that you embed into cracks in the meat. The zuni recipe's spice mixture probably had twice as many ingredients, but in spirit they were the same - some citrus zest and heavy use of fennel seed. The cooking technique for this recipe was also less elaborate.
I had hoped that we'd find this simpler recipe to be just as good, but it simply wasn't. The depth of flavor was less, the pan juices were much less complex.
But it was still very good!
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Portuguese Rice Pudding : page 217
This is the easiest rice pudding recipe I've ever prepared. Cooked rice, sweetened condensed milk, and port. Yes, that is right, Port! I really liked the unusual flavor that came from the port, which I felt worked well with the sweetness in a pudding.
The only real problems were (1) it was too sweet, and (2) the texture is really just wet rice, not really a pudding texture.
I might make this again. But I think I'm more likely to apply the port idea to a different rice pudding recipe (one that is more custard-like).
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Rhode Island Indian Meal Corn Bread : page 179
This recipe, according to the cookbook, was taken from an old family cookbook. It specifies use of Rhode Island stone-ground whitecap cornmeal, for which I substituted normal yellow cornmeal (alas, not much RI corn meal in Utah).
This made a very sweet cornbread. I undercooked it, and the kids liked both its very soft texture and its sweet flavor.
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Spinach Pie : page 196
Amazing flavor, and expert execution by my DH, who prepared this for me on my birthday.
First you make pizza dough. Then you prepare a filling of spinach (the recipe specifies frozen), chopped olives, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. You roll out the pizza dough, cut it into 12 pieces, and make 12 hand-sized mini calzones. These were delicious.
We served them with some pizza sauce from our local Italian market.
My husband uses this cookbook for my birthdays because I grew up in Rhode Island. The header notes say that this item is known as a "Wimpy Skippy" in Rhode Island (from Caserta's Pizzeria in Providence). He was disappointed that I hadn't heard of a Wimpy Skippy, but none of us were disappointed about eating this delicious dish!
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