I made this as written and I thought that the sauce was a bit thin, like some other reviewers stated. I added a bag of stir-fry veggies that I had precooked and added when I stirred in the cashews. I served this over brown rice. Although it was tasty, I would probably not choose to serve it to company but I might make it again because I have a large container of cashews to use up.

Reviewed On: Oct. 31, 2009

I followed the advice of two other reviewers. I used a large can on pears in lite syrup. First I chopped up half of the pears (4 halves) and added enough syrup to equal 15 oz. I made the cake batter exactly as written except that I then chopped the remaining drained, pear halves and put them in the bottom of a well greased bundt pan. I sprinkled light brown sugar and freshly grated nutmeg on top of the chopped pears. I poured half of the batter on top of the chopped pears and then spooned on a streusel filling consisting of 1/2 cup white sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, and 1 cup of chopped pecans. I poured the rest of the batter on top of the streusel filling. I checked the cake after 45 minutes in the oven and it tested done so you might want to check your cake after 45 minutes to prevent over baking. When tasting this cake I took a bite of the plain pear cake without any of the additions and although it was tasty, I could not taste any pear flavor. Additional bites with the chopped pear and streusel filling were much more appealing to my taste buds since I was looking for an easy recipe with pear flavor. I would make this cake again with or without the additions.

Reviewed On: Oct. 31, 2009

I have made caramel popcorn the traditional way with great results but decided to try this recipe to save some time. Some microwaves have more power than others and I believe mine is really powerful because I felt like my caramel was ready after 3 minutes. Unfortunately I followed the directions and cooked it for the additional 1 1/2 minutes, even though I was pretty sure that it was overcooked. I nuked the coated popcorn for 20 seconds, twice. My popcorn was the color of Cracker Jacks but was not as tasty. I ate some of it but not the rest. I will make this again but use common sense as to when the caramel is ready.

Reviewed On: Oct. 31, 2009