This was a hit at our daughter's baptism after-party. I will serve these again for family gatherings; they went fast!

I wasn't crazy about this recipe. It was very watery. Even after a day in the fridge, the cucumbers didn't come close to absorbing all of the liquid in this recipe, and I used more cucumbers than the recipe called for. My family wasn't crazy about this taste of this either. I'll keep looking for a different cucumber salad recipe ... a lot of people liked this one, but it didn't work out for our family. Sorry!

My family loved this super-simple recipe! I didn't have any celery in the house, so I used cherry flavored Craisin's instead, and I think I'll stick with that instead of the celery in the future, because it really complimented the flavors of the apple and cherry jello nicely. The red hots never totally dissolved, so I just fished out the bits that didn't melt. I used sugar-free Jello and fat-free cool whip to garnish, making this a really yummy low-calorie snack. Thanks!

YUM! I love recipes like this that give you a jumping off point to be creative with. I took a lot of advice from previous reviews to make this my own. I treated it like a gumbo and added everything but the kitchen sink, (potatoes, carrots, a can of corn, a can of diced tomatoes in addition to the stewed, a can of black beans), and kicked it up a bit with some cayenne pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. I used chicken broth instead of water, no celery, (my family just doesn't care for it), turkey burger instead of hamburger, and beef kielbasa. I served it topped with a dollop of sour cream, some shredded cheddar cheese, and drizzled in Frank's Red Hot sauce. Very filling, spicy, and delicious! Thanks!

This was very savory and delicious, although my dieting husband definitely had to use this meal as his "cheat night".

This was really easy and really delicious! I followed the recipe as described, except I took another reviewer's suggestion and added some diced pancetta to the saute'ing butter, onions and garlic, just to add some more texture to the sauce. I will definitely make this simple, tasty sauce for my family again.

Like many others suggested, this was pretty good but needed some modifications to be to my family's liking. Instead of using bullion cubes and 10 cups of water, I used six cups of chicken stock and four cups of water. I omitted the celery just because I didn't think it would add much of anything to the soup. I added quite a bit of sea salt to taste, as it definitely needed some more flavor beyond what the recipe calls for. After cooking in the crock pot for about six hours, the soup was too watery for our tastes. I added an entire second bag of dried peas, (a 1 lb. bag) and let that cook in for another couple hours. Then the soup ended up being a little bit too thick, so I added two more cups of chicken stock to smooth it out. Finally it was just right! I think next time I make this I'll cook it for the first six hours with four cups water and four cups chicken stock, then add the second pound of peas and the last two cups of stock at the end. I like how this added to the texture of the soup by having that thick pea soup base that we like, but still having a chunky texture with the second bag of peas and the other veggies and sausage. If you like thick, chunky soups, you'll probably like those modifications as well. :)

I've never cooked with bok choy before, and decided to buy a head from the farmer's market and give it a try. This was easy and pretty good. I did add some additional vegetables to the mix and served it over rice as suggested, just to make it a heartier meal on its own.

This was very good, but like many others, I changed things up a bit. I used lean ground turkey instead of beef and cooked it with a diced onion. I also added a can of corn and zucchini to the stuffing mixture as well. Instead of tomato sauce I used tomato soup in the filling mixture and on top of the peppers. Instead of cooking the peppers in additional tomato sauce I anchored them in a can of chicken stock and covered them to bake, so the broth kept them moist and steamed without having to baste at all. Very yummy, balanced, and filling; a hit with my family.

This was a special request by my boyfriend ... I've made him the box-type lemon bars before, but these were MUCH better. I wanted them to be extra lemon'y, so I added a tsp. of lemon extract to the lemon mixture, as well as some lemon rind to the crust. Definitely lemon'y, but not overwhelmingly. YUM!! I will make these again.

I only had two cups of conf. sugar in the pantry, and decided to try this with the suggestions of others to use less sugar. I thought the frosting tasted de'lish with less sugar, but the consistency wasn't quite as firm and air'y as I would like it to be. I used two cups of sugar, but in the future I think I'll try three cups, although two cups really brought out the cream cheese'y flavor. To help with the consistency, I refrigerated the cake, and I think it was very good ... I used the frosting to top a 13" X 9" cinnnamon swirl cake. I thought that maybe the butter flavor was too potent, and might try a half butter half shortening route next time around with this frosting. All in all my family thought it was very tastey, and I will try it again with a few alterations in the future. :)

I have never tried to make a chocolate frosting before, and thought this was simple and absolutely delicious for my first go at chocolate frosting. It was much MUCH better than pre-made frostings. I read one review that this frosting was not chocolate'y enough, and if anything I found it to be more than enough of a chocolate'y taste. I took the advice of others that said that this did not make very much frosting, and doubled the recipe, which made enough to generously frost a 9" X 13" pan of walnut brownies. YUM!! I will certainly make this again.

I made these for Christmas, and my family loved the zippy lemony taste. I wanted them to stand out as the lemon cookie varietal of my spreak, so I added a little more lemon extract to the dough and frosting, which really gave them a punch. They were very light and fluffy, and had potential for falling apart easily if I wasn't careful when frosting them, but all it all I will definitely make these again. I think they have great potential to be made with cherry extract as well, and garnished with marachino cherries, which I will probably try in the future too, perhaps for a Valentine's cookie. ;)

I made this for New Year's Eve, and my friends loved it. I used the tips for making it less greasy, and I did not think the dip was too greasy at all. Also, what I did was scooped the dip into the middle of a hollowed out rye bread, and searved it with rye bread and cut up onion bagels for dipping. Perhaps serving it in bread was what helped the grease factor, maybe the bread sucked up some of the grease. Also, I had chopped up the onions in my food processor, and diced them down so small, that I thought it might not come out very good, but I think the finely diced onions helped evenly spread the punch of onion flavor throughout the dip. My one friend nearly ate the whole thing, she thought it was so good!!

I made these for Christmas, and my family raved over them. My boyfriend's Italian mother said that they are the same cookies her old Italian aunts make for wedding spreads. She gave me a tip, that adding a bit of red food dye to the frosting will give it a shinier appearance. Other than that, these cookies tasted perfect, they'll definitely be made again next year.

I made a triple-lemon cake using this recipe's main idea ... I baked a box-mix lemon cake in two 8" round pans and cooled. While cooling I made a package of lemon pudding, using the pie-filling instructions on the box, and refrigerated. When the cakes cooled out of the oven, I added the lemon jello per the instructions of this recipe, and allowed to cool in the fridge. To finish it off, I used the lemon pudding as the middle layer, and made my own white wedding cake frosting with a hint of lemon to top it off. If you like lemon you will LOVE this cake - lemony perfection!! ;) This would probably be quite yummy using cool whip for a top if you don't want to make a frosting. ;)

YUM!! This recipe yielded plenty to generously frost an 8"-round layer cake. I'm not a big fan of shortening aftertaste, so I substituted with 1 stick of butter, (1/2 c.), and only used a 1/4 c. of shortening. I also opted out on using the butter powder since I didn't have any, and also since I added real butter in the first place. Instead I used 1/8 tsp. of dried lemon rind just to give the frosting a slight zing. Really great, really yummy, really easy ... just make it and enjoy!! ;)

I was a tad unsure about using so much baking powder, so I cut it to 4 tbsp. and the cookies still turned out FABULOUS. They needed to bake a bit longer than the recipe says, but otherwise it was smooth-sailing with this recipe. I made a batch that were vanilla flavored using vanilla extract too for the family members that don't care for anise. YUM!! Would be good with lemon or cherry flavoring as well. These are definitely a part of my Christmas cookie list (and year-round baking list) from now on, so soft and yummy, great icing too!! Pretty to dress up with a little food coloring and crystal sprinkles.