These were just alright, in my opinion. I fear that cumin caused the downfall of these burgers. I have this spice in my spice rack but seldom use it because I don't care for the smell...but decided to give it a try. Initially I thought they smelled yummy but the taste was a whole different matter. I think the combination of the cumin taste and the slightly chalky texture from the black beans was a real problem. We ate them, they weren't terrible...but I did have to load mine with relish, ketchup and mustard to hide the cumin taste. I added 1/4 can of drained niblet corn and used a red pepper instead of green. These looked really pretty! I also used a HUGE amount of freshly ground black pepper and several generous dashes of extra hot red pepper sauce. I like the idea of making my own veggie burgers and will keep looking for the perfect recipe. This one has potential though, I might try to tweak it to our tastes.

Reviewed On: Oct. 25, 2009

Used 8 x 11 glass baking dish. Used white cake mix. Used 1 Tbsp. Watkins Pumpkin Pie Spice AND a generous dash of Watkins cinnamon. To get a uniformly lightly browned topping I had to bake about 50 minutes. Now for the taste-test verdict: holy toothache, Batman! This cake is seriously sweet. And I have a sweet tooth famous in these parts--I love cakes and candy, the sweeter the better. The 'crust' and the 'topping' were both too sugary for my liking. I did appreciate the pumpkin pie-like filling though, it wasn't overly sweet and had just enough spice ...yummy. I sampled this straight from the oven and I will give it another taste today now that it's been in the refrigerator, maybe that is why I thought it too sweet? I don't know if I'd try *this* recipe again...but the idea is cool so I will try another variation. My very picky, very anti-sweets husband said it was an amazing dessert...go figure!

Reviewed On: Oct. 11, 2009

While this recipe did have an interesting flavor, a rare find in the meatloaf world as I've known it which is the reason it got three stars from me, I wasn't impressed overall. And I love pickles...really, really love them on anything and everything. My husband agreed that the change of pace from my regular (very saucy/very moist but not "wildly delicious") meatloaf was nice but that it was bordering on bland, despite my addition of a generous amount of red pepper flakes and fresh black pepper, and wasn't particularly moist. I did add finely chopped pickles to the meat mixture as well. He said it needed the sauce that was on top put inside the meatloaf...but still have that sauce on top. A neat idea, sort of a meatloaf burger...but would need alot of tweaking before I'd make this again. Nah, I think I'll just find another recipe.

Reviewed On: Oct. 5, 2009