MELISSA_B Recipe Reviews (Pg. 1) - Allrecipes.com (1019718)

Garlic Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

Reviewed: Apr. 20, 2012

This was really tasty! I added carrots to the pan and used minced garlic which I spread on the chicken before baking. I also used just a touch more maple syrup and brushed it on three times over the last 20 minutes of baking. The chicken was perfectly done after one hour - the recipe time was right on!

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Janet's Rich Banana Bread

Reviewed: Mar. 3, 2012

This bread turned out moist and delicious, but I did make a couple of changes. I used softened butter (not melted), mashed the bananas (instead of slicing) used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, added a little cinnamon, and omitted the walnuts. Yum! It's a keeper! Note that my loaf was done in 50 minutes, so make sure to check yours early!

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2 users found this review helpful

Gobble Up Granola Snacks

Reviewed: May 30, 2010

I made these for my kids today with a couple of changes - I substituted honey for the corn syrup and sunbutter for the peanut butter because of nut allergies. I also added a pinch of salt and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Otherwise I used the ingredient proportions exactly as stated. They turned out tasty - 3 out of 4 of us enjoyed them, they were fast and easy, and I would definitely make them again! They were a little thin using the 9x13 pan and wanted to fall apart, so next time I'll use a slightly smaller pan and cut smaller (but thicker) squares. Note that an easy way to press them into the pan is to dump the mixture into it, cover with a piece of waxed paper, and use your hands to press it down.

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Crispy Fish

Reviewed: Mar. 20, 2009

I was looking for a fried fish recipe that didn't use eggs and came across this one. I cut down a little on the pepper, substituted cornmeal for about 1/3 of the flour, and fried the fish in canola oil. It turned out crunchy and yummy! I did have a lot of "breading" left over, so next time I'll make half the amount so it doesn't get wasted. Thanks for the good recipe!

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Whipped Cream Cake II

Reviewed: Feb. 7, 2009

I had high hopes for this cake but unfortunately have to give it three stars because it doesn't work well for cupcakes. As others have mentioned in their reviews, this cake doesn't get high in the middle - it flattens out - and at least one person had theirs sink in the middle. For my cupcakes, the batter rose above the edge of the pan, then sunk, leaving a flat ring of cupcake baked onto the pan around the edge of every cupcake. That ring-around-the-edges of my cupcakes stuck to my expensive non-stick pan. I tried everything to get the cupcakes out of the pan without ripping the tops off, but it didn't work. (Note: I did use paper liners and the cupcake "stumps" weren't stuck, just the tops. I also followed the recipe exactly, made sure not to overmix after adding the flour, and filled the cupcakes about 2/3 - 3/4 full of batter.) On a good note, the batter was beautiful - light and fluffy - and the taste was pretty good. It would work as a cake rather than cupcakes. If you do try cupcakes, I'd recommend not filling the tins more than halfway.

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Bread Pudding II

Reviewed: Jan. 31, 2009

Before I made this recipe, I didn't know if even liked bread pudding, so it was an experiment. I had almost a whole loaf of day-old Italian bread that was getting pretty stale. I didn't want to waste it so I found this recipe. I used the exact ingredients and amounts (including all 4 eggs) with two exceptions. First, I used a heaping half cup of sugar, not 3/4 cup to cut it down just a smidgen. I also used about 2/3 of a loaf of Italian bread. I cut it into thick, 1 inch slices, then into 1x1 cubes. I used golden raisins and also threw in a small handful of craisins. Beause of the extra bread, I had to let it soak in the egg/milk mixture for a few minutes and push it all down well with a fork to get all of the bread saturated. It turned out great - not soggy, wet or eggy. I prefer it warm, so I've been reheating the leftovers in the microwave. Yum!

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5 users found this review helpful

Chicken Tikka Masala

Reviewed: Jan. 31, 2009

This recipe is delicious! My husband, who supposedly doesn't like Indian food, even enjoys this meal. It's flavorful and a lot cheaper than going out for Indian food! The only change I made was to decrease the salt to 1 tsp in the marinade and 1/2 tsp in the sauce. I serve this with Basmanti rice and naan.

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Pittsburgh Style Sandwich

Reviewed: Jan. 25, 2009

This is a copycat of Primanti Brother's sandwiches - famous in Pittsburgh and oh-so-delicious! You can use any meat - I prefer capicola. Heat the meat in a pan with provolone on top until it's warm and the cheese is melty. Put it on Italian bread (I cut mine in slices to be more authentic), pile on some fries (not thin fries but not as thick as steak fries - homemade are best), then a vinegar-based cole slaw (not mayo-based). I used the Amish Slaw recipe from this site and it works great! Best sandwich ever!!!

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16 users found this review helpful

Swordfish a la Siciliana

Reviewed: Oct. 25, 2008

This tasted great and made for a wonderful presentation at the table! I made a couple of minor changes - I only used about half the oil, used a can of diced tomatoes (didn't have fresh), and left out the pine nuts (due to allergies). My family loved the little bits of sweetness from the raisins (I used golden) along with the tart, salty flavor of the capers and olives. Yum!

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Red Chard and Caramelized Onions

Reviewed: Sep. 17, 2008

Thank you to whoever posted this recipe! We get a farm share each year and one of the things we end up with tons of is chard. Other than cooking it with a little butter or oil, it was tough coming up with something to do with it, plus we didn't really enjoy it. This recipe is so yummy and has a great combination of different flavors! The onions, olives and capers are such great additions that the focus is taken off the fact that you're eating chard. LOL! I do recommend tasting it before you add the salt because the olives & capers add a bit on their own. Also get your onions nice and carmelized before adding them - it makes the dish sweeter. Because of this recipe, we now enjoy chard instead of just tolerating it!

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2 users found this review helpful

Peach Cobbler Dump Cake I

Reviewed: Sep. 17, 2008

This cake was pretty good - not bad but not fantastic, hence my middle-of-the-road 3-star rating. It was super easy - my husband thought I was crazy just dumping everything into the pan without mixing it! I drained about half of the juice from the peaches, just so they weren't swimming in it, but still felt like this cake was a bit soggy. Putting cinnamon on the peaches definitely helped the flavor. We ate this and enjoyed it well enough, but probably not enough to make it again. But thanks, though - it was a fun experiment! :)

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S'mores Bars

Reviewed: Sep. 17, 2008

Oh man, these were really good! I made them exactly as stated except without the nuts due to allergies. That layer of graham cracker and the marshmallow on top really did make these brownies taste like smores! They were a little tricky to cut as the marshmallows wanted to stick to the knife, but who cares - they were yummy!

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Tuna Piccata Pasta Salad

Reviewed: Sep. 17, 2008

This was really tasty! I was looking for something quick and easy using canned tuna when I came upon this recipe. I grew up eating tuna noodle casserole which uses cream soup, milk and canned peas along with tuna & egg noodles. This was a much lighter, fresher version - the lemon and capers are a great combination! My husband and I ate ours with egg noodles and the kids ate their with animal-shaped rice pasta and scoop of peas on top. There were no leftovers! Even my 4-year old who all of a sudden doesn't like anything I make for dinner had three helpings! (She declared that she didn't like it, but after trying one bite she wolfed down her entire plate!) This has been added to my recipe box. Note that I've made it with tuna packed in water as well as in oil and didn't notice a difference - the olive oil in the recipe compensates regardless.

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Grandma Johnson's Scones

Reviewed: May 6, 2008

Delicious! For the first time making this recipe, I wanted to follow the instructions as closely as possible so I could rate the original recipe. I discovered I was out of cream of tartar, but I substituted 1 tsp of baking powder for the baking soda and cream of tartar (for a total of 3 tsp baking powder) and it worked fine. Otherwise, I kept everything the same without any additions and divided the dough in half. In one half I used golden raisins to follow the recipe. In the other half, I added cinnamon chips and a few sprinkles of cinnamon in the dough. I patted each dough half into a circle and cut them into 8 triangles each - a perfect size for a serving. Both versions were great! It's less than 24 hours later, and there are only 5 of the 16 left with two of us eating them! I definitely recommend this recipe and can't wait to experiment with different add-ins. Thanks for a great scone recipe!

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3 users found this review helpful

Easy Italian Chicken

Reviewed: May 5, 2008

I bought some chicken legs on sale and was looking for a way to use them when I stumbled across this recipe. These were yummy! I made some minor changes - put s&p on the chicken before browning, used olive oil instead of vegetable oil, minced jarred garlic (with a bunch of the liquid) rather than fresh, and chicken broth instead of water. The cooking times and instructions were right on - the chicken was thoroughly cooked but still moist. They had a great, brown sticky coating on them that had just a little zing due to the red pepper flakes. My 3-year old daughter usually doesn't eat much meat at dinner - but she ate three of the drumsticks and wanted more! (Unfortunately they were gone!) I'll definitely make this again - thanks for the recipe!

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Grilled Brown Sugar Pork Chops

Reviewed: Apr. 25, 2008

Very yummy plus quick & easy - four and a half stars! I was looking for a recipe I could do on the grill where I didn't need to marinate the meat first. I made the recipe exactly as written except I substituted cinnamon for the ginger (I don't like ginger). I also put salt & pepper on the pork before grilling it. The key is not to overcook the pork - it gets too dry and bland. We drizzled the sauce over top of the pork when it was served and my kids gobbled it up. Even my 5-year old son, who very rarely has seconds on meat, at almost two pork chops himself! Definitely a keeper.

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Puttanesca I

Reviewed: Apr. 7, 2008

This was delicious! I cut back just a smidge on the oil, used a ~15oz can of petite diced tomatoes (we like it chunky!) instead of fresh, added an extra clove of garlic, and used regular black olives - presliced from a can since that's what I had on hand. Otherwise all ingredients and amounts were left as written. I did add the chopped anchovies to the oil while I sauteed the garlic so they basically "melted" away and just left the flavor. This was so good, I couldn't stop eating it! Even my husband commented on how good it was! (I didn't tell him it had anchovies until after he raved about it. :) I'm usually very sensitive to saltiness but this was fine - not too salty at all. I did rinse the anchovies before using them, so maybe that did it. This will definitely be a regular in our house - thanks so much!

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54 users found this review helpful

Banana Crumb Muffins

Reviewed: Mar. 13, 2008

Delicious! Before making these, I read quite a few of the reviews with people making changes to the original recipe. I decided to make them pretty much as stated so that I could rate the actual recipe. The only exception was that I used oil instead of butter (slightly healthier) and put a couple of sprinkles of cinnamon with the flour mixture. The recipe turned out awesome! I got exactly 10 perfect-sized muffins with nice tops - a bit higher than the edges of the paper liner but not too big so that the muffins "merged" together while baking. (I actually put out 12 paper liners but then put 2 back since there was no way I was skimping on the first 10 to end up with 12.) The topping was yummy and resulted in a really nice presentation. The amount stated in the recipe completely covers the top of each muffin nicely. Half the recipe would be more of a sprinkle on each, and double would be way too thick, in my opinion. I may experiment a bit when I make these again (and I definitely will be making them again!) - maybe using half white & half brown sugar in the batter, trying to replace the egg (my daughter is allergic), and maybe even tossing some chocolate chips in a few to be really decadent. :)

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5 users found this review helpful

Butternut Squash Casserole

Reviewed: Feb. 12, 2008

This was really tasty! We get an abundance of squash from a farm share and end up cooking, pureeing and freezing tons of squash. Usually I just add some butter or margarine and a little cinnamon. This recipe was a great change! I omitted the nuts due to food allergies and left out the nutmeg since I don't like it. I also omitted the white sugar (I didn't increase the brown, just left it as is), and it was plenty sweet. The combination of the squash, pineapple, brown sugar and cinnamon was delicious! I'll definitely make this recipe again!

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11 users found this review helpful

Roasted Chicken with Risotto and Caramelized Onions

Reviewed: Jan. 4, 2008

We enjoyed this recipe! I cooked the onion at the same time as the rice (in separate pans of course). I marinated chicken breasts in Italian dressing and garlic for half an hour and then broiled them while the onions and rice were on the stovetop. I only used 2/3 cup of Arborio rice for a smaller portion and used a full 4 cups of chicken broth (32oz box). It took 40-45 minutes for the rice and I stirred it almost constantly. I did still use a whole onion but not the entire amount of balsamic vinegar - probably about half. I was worried that the chicken stock would over power the flavor of the rice since so much of it was used and concentrated, but the onions with balsamic really gave the rice a nice flavor and it was so creamy! Instead of mixing the chicken into the rice, I served the breasts sliced on top. Yummy! I'd make this again - thanks!

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2 users found this review helpful