Misc Dec reviews:

[ElinorC]

I tried the Sonora Grilled Cheese sandwich and it was surprisingly good. I added a little more seasoning (cumin)and I was pleased with how 'grilled' it tasted with just the cooking spray. I haven't had a grilled sandwich in a good while.

Pea and Pasta Soup Sips: This soup would have been delicious with a really good chicken stock with a hearty flavor but unfortunately I used the regular canned chicken broth and it was tasteless. There weren't enough other ingredients to give it much extra taste.

Veal with Apple-Thyme Sauce: This sauce was really strange and my husband and I couldn't eat it. I don't usually discard a dish but I got rid of this one.

[chefandi]

I made the truffle sugar cookies the other day and the were great! I wasn't sure if I would like them or not but they were easy and really cute after they were done! Everyone at work raved over them.

[BethR]

Originally posted by chefandi:
I made the truffle sugar cookies the other day and the were great! I wasn't sure if I would like them or not but they were easy and really cute after they were done! Everyone at work raved over them.

That's interesting -- I made these today and I wasn't really impressed with the way mine turned out. They tasted a little too egg-y for me -- perhaps because the sugar cookie recipe I always use doesn't contain any egg. I also thought the chocolate icing was disappointing. Maybe I should give them another try; maybe my egg was old or something. I do think they are very visually appealing -- a really nice-looking addition to a cookie tray! Did you make any modifications to the recipe? TIA -- Beth

[chefandi]

Beth- I personally didn't think that they were the best sugar cookies that I have ever made, but like I said my co-workers thought they were great. It's a personal preference I think.
However I too was disappointed with the chocolate icing but I just added more white chocolate then called for and thought they were better that way.
I think these look great however I am anxious to try the others!

[Peggy]

Tonight I made the Chicken Italiano. It had a very good presentation...spinach layer on bottom, topped with breaded chicken breasts, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and parmesan cheese. It also had a good flavor. If I make it again I will add some sauteed onion and garlic to the creamed spinach mixture on the bottom. I like more flavor in "creamed spinach". Overall, this was a repeater for me with those changes.

ElinorC - Wow! The outcome of the veal dish sounds quite unfortunate!! I think I will stay away from that one! Thanks for the warning.

Peggy

[This message has been edited by Peggy (edited 12-04-2000).]

[NancyR]

Last night I tried the Soy-glazed Sweet Potatos and they were great!! I couldn't find mirin so I substituted sherry and it obviously worked fine. Who knows what they might have tasted like if I had used the real thing!

For the same meal I tried the Roasted Lobster tails with ginger dipping sauce. Maybe I used too much ginger but I thought the sauce was gross....threw mine away. Also, the lobster tasted funny although my husband cheerfully ate mine. I had never roasted lobster in the oven before. Has anyone else got tips on preparing lobster? I hardly ever make it but wanted to have a "secret weapon" for a fancy meal for guests and I was trying it out on us.

[mb]

we made the antipasto bowl for an office party this weekend & it was a real hit. i just left out the pepperoncini peppers because they are too spicy for me & i didn't want them 'ruining' the entire salad. the only thing is that the recipe said it made 20 servings, and 9 of us were able to finish it off! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[Norma]

I made the antipasto bowl also and agree it was very good. I only made one-fourth of the recipe because I was trying it out for possibly taking it to a party this weekend. I put the pepperoncini peppers in but I squirted the juice out before hand and cut the big ones in thirds so we wouldn't get a mouthful of hot stuff...just a bit. I didn't notice their taste in the rest of the veggies at all. Each taste remained individual I thought. It still looked good after 24 hours. If I were serving it to company, I would make it several hours before. Our dinner is at 6:00 PM. I will make it about noon.

[BethR]

I made the Two-Layer Caramel Pecan Bars and I think they're very good. The layers on mine didn't look as distinct as the photo in the mag. I was very glad the whole thing popped out of my pan easily, because they are difficult to cut while still in the pan. I did a test freezing and thawing and they seemed to fare well. These are repeaters. I'm making Raspberry Strippers next!

[pmmahan]

Beth-
I am planning on making the two layer pecan bars - glad to hear they are good.
I've also made the Pork Chops Mole (excellent) and am making the Green Chili Ravioli tonight. Friday I made the spinach calzone - that was excellent as well.

[Denise]

Made the baked potato soup last weekend. It was excellent, definately a comfort food!

[BethR]

I finally made the raspberry strippers... Wow, these are my favorite out of the three December cookie recipes I've tried so far (Truffle-Iced Sugar Cookies and Two-Layer Pecan Caramel Bars are the other two). I did one log each with apricot and raspberry. I did notice the raspberry kind of soaked in to the cookie a bit -- did anyone else have this happen? My raspberry and apricot preserves were both the "all fruit" kind of preserves, but different brands. Any food scientists our there with theories on this? http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif
Beth

[Dawn G]

Last night I made the chicken italiano and thought it was great (and very easy). I agree the spinach was a little bland, but overall the dish was very good.

[sunbrie]

I made the truffle sugar cookies and thought they were pretty and tasted fine (no oohs and aahhs, though). I also made the baked potato soup which was good but I have a question for Denise and anyone else who made it--did you have large chunks of potato skin floating around? I did and didn't really like that.

[ChefChris]

Just wanted to add that I made the Fresh Cranberry muffins and we thought they were tasty.

Chris

[Tiger]

Last night I made the Spinish Calzone ( had leftovers tonight). It was very good! My husband and I both loved it. I made the dough in my breadmaker. I have enough ingre. leftover to make it again next week.
But you have to cook it longer than 15 min!
I cooked it for 35min. Even re-heating it tonight, I didn't do it long enough and had to put it in the micro.

[pmmahan]

I think the packaged pizza dough cooks quicker than homemade... I tried it last week and it took exactly 15 minutes to cook.
I can't wait to experiment with this one!

[ElinorC]

I made the Upside-Down Tamale Pie and it was very good. I've never been fond of polenta (we used to call it cornmeal mush) but the spicy topping tasted good on it. I did improvise a little and added some peppers and onion to make it a heartier dish. I would make it again for a quick tasty meal.

[Denise]

Sunbrie - Must admit that I baked the potatoes and then scrapped the potato off the skins. My bf is phobic of potato skins!

[Joyce]

Question for all of you who have tried the spinach calzone recipe...taking a 14 x 10 piece of dough, folding it in half and having it serve 6 did not seem like a decent portion size. Did you stick to six servings?? Would six servings be skimpy??

[pmmahan]

When I made the Spinach Calzone, I was making it for (2) 25 year old men and myself (all three of which hadn't eaten that day) so i too was worried it wouldn't be enough.
I actually used 1 and 1/2 of those packaged pizza dough thingeys (Pillsbury)and kept the filling the same. We had salad, too. I was stuffed!! And the guys seemed satisfied... the filling is plentiful.
(oh yeah, and I added 1/2 cup chopped canadian bacon)
and there was a piece left over the next day!

[This message has been edited by pmmahan (edited 12-06-2000).]

[emilycat]

I have a couple of questions:

First, the antipasto bowl has gotten awesome reviews, so I'm bringing it to our first supper club cooking get together (yippee! it finally got started! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif ) But I wondered, for those of you who have made it, how much difference would it make to leave the cubed mozzarella out? Our entree will have cheese in it, too, and I don't want to overload...but will it be missed?

Also, our host is making the Chicken Italiano, and now I realize that I, too, would like to have the recipe, but I managed to leave it in my now-recycled issue...would anyone be so kind as to post it for me?

Thanks, all!

Emily

[Norma]

Regarding the antipasto bowl, I think you could leave the cheese out very easily, Emily. I had almost forgotten there was cheese in it. The veggies were the thing for me. It's very good.

[emilycat]

Thanks, Norma....I think I'll definitely leave it out then http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[donleyk]

Does anyone have the recipe for the antipasto bowl, my copy is at home and would like to get the ingredients on the way home tonight. Thanks in advance! -Kim D

[Cindy Rafferty]

Yesterday I made the Kale, White Bean, and Savory Cabbage Soup. It took awhile, lots of chopping. It's good, but not as favorful as some of the other CL soups such as the Wild Rice, Sausage, and Spinach soup, or the Stick-to-your Ribs Spaghini soup. There aren't many seasonings in the soup. Any suggestions?

[joanieb]

A slight dissenting vote for December's Chicken Italiano. Not a repeater for us. Found it quite bland (that no-fat cream cheese needed to be reduced-fat for some mouth feel!), in spite of taking Peggy's suggestion to saute onions & garlic (lots!) and add to creamed spinach mixture. Shockingly, Mr. "The only green thing I eat is coleslaw" ate more of the spinach than I did! Not a total loss, into-the-trash dish like last month's 24-hour pasta dish (bleh!), but a tad disappointing.
Hugs!

[RunnerKim]

I know people are moving on to Jan/Feb but thought I'd share my review for the soy-glazed sweet potatoes. I loved them! I have not been a big sweet potato fan in the past but have found that I just don't like really sweet recipes. This one was fantastic (and a also really liked the roasted sweet potatoes from Nov.).

We also really enjoyed the green-chili raviolis from Dec. Tried the chicken Italiano with some garlic powder, salt/pepper in with the spinach. Neither my husband nor I are big cooked spinach fans so weren't overly excited by the dish, although it does look pretty.

Kim

[JennyLiz]

Cindy-
What issue is the Spinach/Sausage/Wild Rice soup in? It sounds great! jennyliz

[Abby]

I made the Fresh Cranberry Muffins this evening and they were very tasty! I did make some substitutions, however. They call for 2% milk; all I had was lowfat buttermilk and skim so I used the buttermilk. Also, for some reason when I tried to grate the oranges for zest, the zest turned kinda mushy so I used the juice from one clementine. They had the perfect orange flavor with this substitution.

[Cindy Rafferty]

JennyLiz: the sausage soup with spinach and wild rice is in the Oct. '00 issue page 178. Everyone in my supper club loves it! I recommend buying favorful sausage, some of it is bland and this seems to make a difference in the taste, Cindy.

[Colleen]

Nancy,
I tried the Roasted Lobster tails with ginger dipping sauce as well. I love ginger and I love lobster, so it was o.k. However, it certaintly wasn't as good as I was hoping. I have never baked lobster in the oven either. Usually I steam or boil it.

I made it with the snow peas and cherry tomatoes side dish. That was FANTASTIC!!!!!! the store didn't have snow peas so I used sugar snap peas instead. It really was wonderful. I think that if I didn't make this to go with the lobster then I wouldn't have been as happy.

[misstapioca]

The FRESH CRANBERRY MUFFINS from Dec 00 are tremendous. i would never use a dry berry in this recipe. they were delicious for breakfast with a wonderful cup of tea. i cant wait till fresh cranberries in the store again. I think the frozen ones might get too soggy.
We loved the caramel pecan bars, they looked just like the picture. around the edges you can see where the caramel filling crept up the sides of the pan. i was just sure to generously coat the pan with cooking spray.
The Sonora Grilled Cheese sandwiches were very fast and easy, also very filling not bad for 270 cal./sandwhich. Was very nice with a bowl of campbells tomato soup!
Snow Peas with cherry tomatoes(pg 176)were soooo good. I think the right sesame oil makes every yummy. Even the smell of it makes me salivate!
The roasted lobster tails with ginger dipping sauce was ok. i have better luck ordering lobster in restaurants. I think roasting it made the meat kinda tough. Probrably here in south texas we dont get a decent lobster tail like you would in Maine or pac. NW.



[This message has been edited by misstapioca (edited 02-12-2001).]

[Terrytx]

I did the Chewy Coconut Macroons-loved them

Smothered Sirloin Steak with Adobo Gravy-pretty good, would make again.

Southwestern Breakfast Casserole- Should have doubled the recipe, everyone loved it.

Green Chili Ravioli-Also a crowd pleaser.