cjucoder Recipe Reviews (Pg. 1) - Allrecipes.com (10281834)

Zippy Shepherd's Pie

Reviewed: Feb. 11, 2012

Wow I loved this! Normally I increase the spice amounts but I am glad I restrained myself. It was just right. I did add some paprika and ancho chili powder, just a bit. Instead of ketchup I used chili sauce (that stuff in the ketchup isle, not an asian sauce) since I like it better. I also used frozen mixed veggies that also had corn and beans. Forgot the tomatoes, but man the red bell pepper is fantastic in this. Thanks to previous reviews I made a lot more potatoes. Glad I did. Worked really well and I'll be making this often!

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Beef Barley Stew

Reviewed: Feb. 4, 2012

Excellent Stew! I used 1/2 cup of barley instead of 1/3, and added some Mrs. Dash Steak Seasoning. Used more thyme and bay also. Other than that kept to the recipe. I did cook it for much longer, probably around 2 1/2 hours before adding the barley and at least another hour after. Next day leftovers are still amazing.

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Colour and Spice

Reviewed: Feb. 4, 2012

I was making Tandoori Chicken and was looking for an accompaniment. This mix of vegetables looked really interesting, and the spices are close to a tandoori mix. I dislike the gooey liquid in canned beans, so I drained and rinsed the beans as I always. To replace that I dissolved some flour in chicken stock and added that. I used the Tandoori spices instead of these, didn't use soy, mixed in the chicken, and served on fresh baby spinach. Very nice!

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Campfire Skillet Breakfast

Reviewed: Jan. 18, 2012

A classic. I can't think of a more perfect combination of ingredients, especially if you add peppers (bell and/or hot). The proportion of ingredients is not all that important in this mix, almost anything will work. Not just for breakfast and not just for camping. Made it this morning in my cast iron skillet on the stove. Happy tummy!

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Big Smokey Burgers

Reviewed: Jan. 14, 2012

Fantabulous burger! I scaled it to one serving, and kept to the recipe other than leaving out the chipotle in adobo (I didn't want to open a whole can just for my one burger). The burger was then cooked on my cast iron grill pan, love that thing. Usually I like a lot of condiments but in this case it didn't need it and in fact I thought would counterbalance the highly flavored meat (except maybe fresh lettuce/tomato would work well). I did dress with some chili sauce to make up some of the spice I lost with skipping the chipotle, and also some grainy mustard. Next time I won't bother grating the onion and just top with slices as I usually do, and I'll add more grill seasoning (love the stuff, and I use Mrs Dash salt-free so you can add more without it becoming too salty). Those very minor quibbles aside I adored this!

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Dip For The Stars

Reviewed: Jan. 11, 2012

I don't understand what went wrong with this. I triple checked the recipe and I don't think I made a mistake. It looked beautiful, and the ingredients seem like they would work so well together. No one ate it. I wasn't that thrilled with it either. I used almonds instead of pine nuts (cost). Maybe it was the feta, it was a very strong feta and I normally love feta, but I don't think I liked it in this. Not sure if that is the problem though. I molded it in a standard loaf pan and that fit the recipe perfectly.

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Christmas Cornflake Wreath Cookies

Reviewed: Jan. 11, 2012

This was the first time I ever made anything like this, never did rice crispy treats etc. Used a double boiler to melt the marshmallows and butter, which never combined. I wasn't sure what the consistency was supposed to be, so I just trusted the recipe. After adding the rest of the ingredients it all came together fine. I think I could have stirred it a bit longer to better incorporate the food coloring, but it was fine. I ended up with 8 big wreaths, I think I was too afraid of it setting up before I was done. I left out the almond and added a bit more vanilla since I was also serving another almond cookie. These looked great and I'm glad I made them.

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Cherry Snowballs

Reviewed: Jan. 11, 2012

These were pretty and fun and got rave reviews. Cherry and coconut go so well together. Personally I thought they were too sweet. I will probably use much less sugar in the dough next time, the cherry and sugar glaze have plenty of sweetness. I also probably will only bother with these on special occasions.

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Almond Crescents

Reviewed: Jan. 11, 2012

These are flat-out amazing. The dough is crumbly, and so are the finished cookies, but I love the texture. Great idea to roll into a rope, but I had trouble getting it down to 1/4 in, it would break apart. No matter, so what, I had bigger cookies. The cinnamon goes perfectly with the almond flavor and the amount is spot on. I'm not going to wait until Christmas to make these again.

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Oatmeal Pancakes

Reviewed: Jan. 10, 2012

The batter was not thick enough, had to add more flour. Also needs a bit of salt. I really did like the oatmeal in this, so I'll try again using less milk and adding some standard pancake add-ins (blueberry, walnut, vanilla etc)

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Pesto Chicken Florentine

Reviewed: Jan. 10, 2012

Simple and quick to throw together. I never thought of putting pesto and alfredo together, but it works really well! I used jarred alfredo instead of a mix, added some canned artichokes and topped with parmesan instead of romano. This is a very good combination of flavors.

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Crustless Cranberry Pie

Reviewed: Jan. 10, 2012

This is more like a quick bread then pie. I baked it in a 9x9 pan which worked really well. I cut back on the sugar a bit and added more nuts, just my taste. Very quick, easy and delicious.

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White Bean Tuna Salad

Reviewed: Dec. 14, 2011

White beans and tuna are a great combination so I wanted to give this one a try. I halved the recipe, but still used 2 cans of tuna since I didn't want more beans than tuna. Left out the sugar. Served on lettuce which worked very well. I think I would like capers in this, but it is already so sharp with the amount of vinegar I would reduce that before adding capers. It really needs to sit awhile before eating to blend the flavors. I liked this a lot as easy, throw together food.

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Quick and Easy Brownies

Reviewed: Dec. 8, 2011

Wowza! I am not an experienced baker, and rarely eat sweets. Sometimes, though, I really want a Brownie. Previously when that craving hits I bought a box mix at the grocery store. Today I found this recipe and low and behold I had all the ingredients on hand. After reading the reviews about the amount of flour making these too cake like and recommending cutting the flour to 1 cup I decided to compromise. I didn't want too cake-ey or too gooey, so I made a guess and used a very heaping 1 cup of flour. I used way more than 1/2 cup walnuts because I love nuts. Also threw in some chocolate chips (that can never hurt I assume). These are the Best Brownies I Ever Had. Never will I buy a box again, these were just as easy and way way way better.

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Eggplant and Mushrooms with Wild Rice

Reviewed: Dec. 8, 2011

Hmm. Well, there are good and bad things here. Mushrooms and wild rice were made for each other. I kept to the recipe other than doubling the rice. It was a nice creamy sauce, I liked that texture after I doubled the amount of wild rice. The seasoning was great. On the other hand the canned soup flavor/stickiness didn't work that well here. I think a homemade bechamel would be a better flavor/texture balance if we are looking for creaminess. The eggplant was completely lost. If I didn't cook it myself I would never know eggplant was even in there. To recreate this better for me I would leave out the soup and make my own thinner, lighter cream sauce. I loved the idea of eggplant with these ingredients so I plan to revisit this with the tweaks I mentioned.

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Cole Slaw Dressing

Reviewed: Dec. 8, 2011

I never made a cooked dressing like this before so I wasn't sure what to expect. When the recipe said "boil until thick" I was confused since it never became what I think of as "thick". I suppose one egg yolk will only do so much thickening. In the end, after reducing by about 1/4 it became what I would call "coat a spoon" consistency. Still very liquid, so I was worried I failed somehow. After dressing a slaw and refrigerating I think the consistency turned out to be just right. I didn't add additional sugar as other reviews suggested since I don't like things too sweet. I like this slaw dressing better then any others I've tried so far.

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Marzetti® Apple Bacon Walnut Salad

Reviewed: Dec. 8, 2011

I love this salad. I had apples and blue cheese that I needed to use up and found this recipe. Fantastic combination of flavors. I used "Cole Slaw Dressing" recipe on this site and it all worked very well. The only faults I can find were my own; I used a bit too much caraway and I used prepackaged broccoli slaw that was a bit tough. Those were the only changes I made and if I would have kept to the recipe exactly it would have been better. I think I would like a bit more blue cheese. This is a keeper!

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Quick Chili I

Reviewed: Nov. 29, 2011

This is excellent chili. I did need to adjust the seasonings to my taste, mostly by adding more. Instead of hot pepper sauce I used ground ancho and chipotle peppers. 2 Tbs sugar would be too much in my opinion, I omitted it this time but I usually add a tiny bit with any tomatoey dish. Used two onions. Even with that I thought the balance of beef:tomato:beans was perfect. Even though it is fine after 30 minutes I added extra liquid and let it cook longer to make it even better.

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Amazing Cocktail Sauce

Reviewed: Nov. 11, 2011

Now THIS is how I like cocktail sauce! It's not too sweet and has a nice kick. Most recipes seem to add a bunch of sugar, but ketchup is already plenty sweet enough for me. My horseradish was not quite sharp enough (different brands are different), I should have added another TBS. Next time I'll double check that. No need to try another recipe, this is it for me!

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Tuna Salad Crescents

Reviewed: Nov. 8, 2011

Well, I think this missed in a couple areas; the amount of filling to roll, and the sweet flavor of the crescent dough with tuna. I was looking for a tuna melt sandwich, and I could see that 1/2 cup of salad was very small so I used a cup. That still turned out to be a very small amount compared to the dough, but you couldn't really fit more filling in a single crescent. Left out the relish since I had pickles in the tuna salad itself and didn't bother with the egg (which is just for aesthetics). I think biscuit dough would work much better, the flavor isn't as sweet, and you could make it more like a sandwich by using more filling and folding over. I almost gave this a 2 star rating, but some might be looking for a roll on the sweet side that has just a hint of tuna. Personally I wont be using this again.

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