July recipe reviews

[comabri]

Didn't think I'd get this many successes from this issue...

The Couscous salad with chicken, tomato and basil. Easy schmeezy. made a great lunch.

The lobster chowder . I used cooked lobster meat from the market (for convenience) and it was really delicious. It was easy and I had enough leftovers for 2 days. Quite yummy if you like lobster.

Teriyaki-Glazed Chicken with Tangy Apricot Ketchup . Wow. The Apricot ketchup really surprised me. I was a little wary of fruit and ketchup together (which is what I originally thought would be in this from the name of the recipe. No fear. No Heinz. But it turned out wonderfully. Friends really liked this one.

Rosemary rubbed Duck Breast with Caramelized Apricots . I substituted chicken for duck. The final product looked just like the photo. It was delicious. This one is going in my keeper box.
(I've never cooked with fresh apricots before so these two recipes were big experiments for me. I'm glad I tried them!)

Greens and cheese pie. I'm always afraid of phyllo dough - but this one wasn't hard at all. I liked the fennel and mustard greens in this one. I liked the flavor. I also subbed regular oregano for Greek oregano (I couldn't find it - or didn't know the difference.)

Lobster Roll. Also fast and easy. Great lunch but a little messy.

Turkey Vegetable Wraps. OK. Kind of normal. Nothing too special but it was fast though.

Up next: Roast-Chicken and Cranberry Sandwiches.

[This message has been edited by comabri (edited 06-26-2001).]

[JulieM]

Thanks a bunch for the reviews! I was especially interested in the lobster chowder. It sounds so delicious! The recipe said you could also use shrimp, which sounds equally yummy.

[Grace]

WOW! IMPRESSIVE!! You've been busy! Thanks for the wonderful reviews. I say this every month, but it's posts like these that are my absolute favorite. I'm so glad you were adventurous and tried these recipes. I am almost always pleasantly surprised by "weird" CL recipes (that's a subjective term - I should clarify that I mean weird to ME). They make it less scary to experiment with new things, since they do so much testing on their recipes before they print them, that total failures are rare.

I love apricots so much, and I was so excited to see this section this month, and I'm so glad that the apricot recipes turned out to be winners. Thanks again, and be sure and let us know about the sandwich - that one looks great too!

[Jessica]

I agree with Grace. These reviews really help me come up with meal ideas and I have tried many dishes just because you all have said they were good.

[Lynn B]

WOW, comabri! Thanks for the great reviews! You have been BUSY!!!

How are you finding time for your day job?!!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

Lynn

[comabri]

Just wanted to let you know I've tried the Roast-Chicken and Cranberry Sandwiches.

They were also quite good. I've always liked fruit with poultry though so that may be part of why I enjoyed them so much.

[Beth H]

I also tried the Couscous salad with chicken, tomato, and basil. I fixed it Monday night, and it made a nice lunch the past couple of days. It's a good recipe -- I never am quite as excited about couscous when I eat it as I am when I'm making it. So -- this recipe certainly wouldn't be a "10" but it's something I'd make again for a summery lunch/light dinner.

[wonderwoman]

My husband and I tried the Teryaki-Glazed Chicken with Apricot Ketchup and loved it! We're keeping it in mind for when we have dinner guests.

The only thing I'd change, though, is to not puree the entire apricot-onion mixture. We thought it would make a much prettier presentation to save some back and serve it with the chicken as a kind of apricot salsa.

I also tried the Rosemary-rubbed Duck Breast (substituting chicken for the duck). We both liked it, but we'll be experimenting with the measurements as we thought it had a bit too much black pepper.

[greysangel]

Just wanted to plug this recipe. I finally got around to trying this and it was excellent!! DH gave it an 8 (it was a little too peppery for him) and I give it a 9.5 I substituted lean center pork chops for the duck to lower the fat/calories. I didn't rinse off the pork which I think is what made it too peppery for DH over all. Next time I would use 1 or 2 tsp of pepper instead of 1 full TBSP. If you like the heat though, keep the pepper! I thought it was absolutely fabulous. I reconstituted dried apricots soaking them in white vinegar that the recipe calls for.

I'm really surprised there aren't more reviews for this...It is a definite repeat in my book and I would encourage you all to try this either with duck, chicken or pork.

JeAnne

[Leslie w]

I may be a minority but this was one of my favorite issues. I made every lobster recipe they had and they were all terrific. Even my hard to please 13 year old nephew said to me the other day "I just loved the lobster chowder you made for us last summer. Can you make it again?" To impress a 13 year old is hard to do, so I promised him it would be on the menu next time he came over.