Queezle_Sister's Reviews
8 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 8Sort by: Title 
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Perfect Recipes for Having People Over
By Pam Anderson
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2005
Cheddar Puffs with Scallions and Cayenne : page 131
This recipe is a basic gougere, with a bit of extra egg white. They were light and had good flavor (cheddar and scallions). The recipe suggests that they are good for entertaining because you can prepare them ahead, and then just reheat them. My friend did just this, and they were great.
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Chicken Soup with Asian Flavorings : page 8
This soup was prepared by a friend in our cooking club, and was served as the first course of our meal prepared from this cookbook.
We loved this. The broth had excellent flavor (chicken broth, ginger, lime zest, scallions) and was accompanied by a great diversity of mix ins (noodles, tofu, chicken, cilantro, basil, bok choy, bean sprouts, etc).
This soup could easily be an excellent lunch, or if accompanied by a salad, perhaps a light dinner. Its very flexible -- there is a long list of suggested mix ins. It is very similar to pho, but the broth is very different (much easier).
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Easy Baked Risotto : page 72
This recipe is a super simple way to prepare risotto. Rather than continuous stirring, the rice, broth, and flavorings are baked.
For cook book club, we were served rice cakes prepared from this risotto. The rice cakes were good - but a bit bland. I concluded from the conversation that the approach to risotto was brilliant, and I think it would be pretty easy to tweak it to amp up the flavor a bit more.
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14 daughter spotted this recipe and we prepared it together. Making ravioli was a first for both of us, and this recipe makes use of wonton wrappers, and so without the worry over making pasta it seemed pretty easy. Butternut squash, garlic, rosemary, prosciutto, and parmesan cheese make a tasty filling.
The instructions suggested cooking 12 at a time - this was a problem for us. They stuck together and made a bit of a mess. But some came out perfectly, and half are in the freezer waiting for another day.
The topping - fresh rosemary minced up and cooking in olive oil - made a really tasty complement to the dish.
I found reviews of this recipe elsewhere on line, and followed the suggestion to use egg instead of water to seal the wonton wrappers. I have include the link to that recipe and a picture of the uncooked ravioli.
This was great for a casual snowy friday night.
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This dish was my contribution to the cook book club dinner, and I selected it both because it was suggested as the ideal accompaniment to the pork and because there are lots of excellent pears available.
That this dish was simple to make was a delightful bonus. Pears are cut in half, cored, and filled with blue cheese. Then toasted walnuts and dried cranberries were sprinkled over the top.
Sometimes simple really is best.
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Really Good Lasagna : page 35
Maybe this should be titled "pretty good" lasagna. When thumbing through this cookbook, I realized that I had not prepared lasagna for years. This lasagna requires two sauces - a bolognese-style sauce (with prosciutto and ground beef, vermouth, tomatoes, vegetables and milk) and a Parmesan white sauce (alfredo-like). Relatively little cheese - some Parm and though it called for fontina, I couldn't find any, and used the internet suggested alternate, Provolone.
The lasagna was definitely good, but not worth the amount of work it required (about 4 hours!). The family has proposed that we test a different lasagna a month. Stay tuned...
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Risotto Cakes : page 75
These cakes were prepared from the easy baked risotto in this cookbook. They were pretty good, but needed perhaps a bit of salt? The cook book suggests serving these with goat cheese and on a bed of greens.
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This dish was prepared for a cookbook club, and it was the main course for a dinner taken entirely from this cookbook. It was prepared by the hosts for this gathering (not me), and it was the highlight of the meal.
This pork tenderloin was stuffed with apricots, garlic, and cranberries, and rosemary. It was accompanied by a gravy made from pan juices, apple jelly, port, and chicken broth.
This very flavorful dish was prepared before guests arrived, and walking into that kitchen with the amazing aromas of pork and rosemary was incredible. The pork delivered on its aroma.
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