Mackenzie Recipe Reviews (Pg. 1) - Allrecipes.com (10462189)

World's Best Lasagna

Reviewed: Jan. 1, 2012

I've made this before as written and loved it -- seriously, the recipe as is is fabulous. I've since started following the basic changes, aka throw in a bit of nutmeg, just soak the noodles in hot tap water, etc. I was going to make it for a small gathering of friends for a New Years Party. Problem was one of the friends refuses to eat red meat and as a rule can't stand sausage. So I traded out the sausage for some ground turkey and the ground beef for about 15oz of spinach (added it to the sauce later after frying the turkey though) and instead of crushed tomatoes used dice tomatoes: delicious. It worked out wonderfully, and everyone was still raving about it!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful

Baked Spaghetti

Reviewed: Nov. 22, 2011

My mom and I made this as a family meal. It was super fun to put together -- we each assigned little jobs and then at the end we layered it together and stuck it in the over -- and on top of that, it was GREAT. We made it as is except we doubled the sauce after I read the reviews. I'm thinking about remaking it tonight only use spaghetti squash this time (and likely make a smaller amount!)

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
0 users found this review helpful

Ham and Beans

Reviewed: Jun. 2, 2011

This is a really good base recipe! I'm not sure what people were talking about with it being too sweet/too spicy, but then again we all have different tastes. This tastes like what my Mom always makes out of the jar (only about 20 times better), and was SUPER cheap to make, especially considering I'm a poor just graduated college student who really can't afford too much. Only problem I had and isn't the recipes fault is that the dry beans I had were a bit old so the 8 hour soak + cooking them for -3- hours still left them a bit stale, but again, not the recipes fault. I know I personally added a bit more cayenne and some beef boullion to enhance the flavor a little bit, but again, this recipe is good for alterations for your tastes!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
2 users found this review helpful

Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

Reviewed: May 28, 2011

As is, for my personal tastes, this recipe is 1) too bland and 2) I can taste the baking powder with each bite. After I made one pancake to see how the original tasted, I decided to add some vanilla and some extra sugar (and threw in some smashed bananas and cinnamon) and whew, I could finally eat them without syrup! But as is, they're very flour-y/baking powder-y tasting.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful

Quick and Easy Pizza Crust

Reviewed: Apr. 15, 2011

SUPER easy to make, and I'm normally a bit failure when it comes to anything bread-like. I admit to coming here not because I wanted to even homemake bread but because of an incident involving me using a box crust, opening some tomato sauce to realize it had botuli-tized (if that's even a word), and then two days later after buying some more pizza sauce (yes, I buy my pizza sauce -- I AM A FAILURE!) to realize I had no more boxes of crust to make. So I went in to this warily. Super easy to make and let's see--taking my first bite now... ...Spectacular. Absolutely spectacular. Tastes like a good solid crust and it holds up well! Yeah, it's bland but...I guess I've never tasted pizza crust that -isn't- bland. I might even use this over the boxed stuff now since it makes more and is even easier to do.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
0 users found this review helpful

Traditional Mashed Potatoes

Reviewed: Feb. 18, 2011

This is an awesome mashed potato recipe! My russet potatoes were really small so I upped it to 9 of them and then I worried about the mix. I used evaporated milk like several suggested--this is SOOOO CREAMY. I made them a second time and added some garlic and parsley and cheddar--delicious!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
2 users found this review helpful

Italian Herb Bread I

Reviewed: Jan. 9, 2011

My cooking-impaired roommate and I made this together, and I think that really helps -- having someone else to switch off with when kneading the dough is wonderful. I didn't have any problems whatsoever, and this was the first bread I made that didn't absolutely fail. I did notice some of the other reviewers, when talking about how it didn't cook, mentioned only "loaf" rather than "loaves", so I don't know if that was one of their problems...

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
2 users found this review helpful

Carrot Burgers

Reviewed: Jan. 8, 2011

As is, this recipe didn't hold together at all. I squished, I squashed, I let it sit in the fridge for a bit -- nothing held it together. It TASTED good, though, and I finally just ended up dumping it and cooking it thoroughly and eating it that way, but I couldn't form it into burgers. Perhaps grating it like other reviewers suggested will do better.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
3 users found this review helpful

Herman Reunion Cheese Ball

Reviewed: Jan. 4, 2011

This was good with a little bit of changing around! I added a little bit more garlic, some onion powder, and some seasoning salt (the initial recipe was a little bland!), and I also rolled it in chipped beef instead of almonds, but in the end it was delicious!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
11 users found this review helpful

Kyle's Favorite Beef Stew

Reviewed: Jan. 4, 2011

The house smelled HEAVENLY while this was cooking. I did things a little differently -- one of my older friends (I'm in college) suggested I marinade the cubed beef stew meat before hand, so I mixed some of the wine with some onion soup mix and then put the meat in it to marinade over night. I also just made this with 2 pounds of meat because I didn't have a 5qt crockpot so I figured reducing to 7 servings would be good. Also, I couldn't find any of the appropriate wine, and my friend suggested caubernet sauvignon so I used some of that! I also added celery. Upon eating it, I discovered that the recipe was a little bit too sweet for me, which might have been the caubernet -- I'm not certain -- but other than that this was delicious. Next time I'll try it with the real wine and try to figure out how to not make it so sweet!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
7 users found this review helpful

Peanut Butter Cornflake Crunch Bars

Reviewed: Jan. 3, 2011

My grandma made these all the time when I was little and would form them into haystacks and call them "Witch's Haystacks" :) She still makes me them now and again for treats around birthdays/holidays, but now I can make 'em myself! I, after reading the reviews, made sure to put only 7 cups of cornflakes in -- worked perfectly!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
3 users found this review helpful

Saltine Toffee Cookies

Reviewed: Dec. 22, 2010

Okay, big warning (not the recipes fault, but my understocked grocery store's) : Do NOT use salted butter for the toffee or else you'll be accosted by the salty taste! But again, not the recipes fault. Otherwise this was DELICIOUS. You'd never know these were saltines! The second time I made these I used unsalted butter and it was FANTASTIC. Also, I like toffee more than I like chocolate (I know, I'm bizarre), so I doubled the toffee recipe and followed another reviewers advice and poured half the toffee over a layer, then put a second layer of crackers on top, and put the next layer of toffee. Mmmmm. You literally couldn't tell these were saltines! A friend of mine suggests using matzo instead of saltines because that's how he makes his :)

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
6 users found this review helpful

Brazilian Lemonade

Reviewed: Dec. 2, 2010

After seeing some other reviewers suggest switching out the limes for lemons -- and highly preferring anything lemon to anything lime -- I tried that and found it waaaay too bitter. As I changed the recipe I'm not going to yet review it until I give the actual recipe a fair shake, but to even remotely get it to something drinkable I added an extra cup and a half of water, just threw the whole sweetened condensed milk in, and added an extra half a cup of sugar -- and then poured it over more ice to thin it out more. Again, my fault for using two big lemons. (oh, apparently I have to rate it -- putting a 3/5 until I manage to go to the store and get some actual limes)

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
3 users found this review helpful

Honey Barbecue Sauce

Reviewed: Nov. 27, 2010

I didn't have the molasses, but fortunately I saw the review with the creator saying that they no longer used the molasses, so I tried creating this recipe with what I had and by throwing in a little bit (perhaps 1/8th of a teaspoon? I'm more of a pinch and toss person than an exact measurement type of girl) of onion powder and bam, it was some of the most delicious barbecue sauce I'd ever made.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
2 users found this review helpful

Aunt Gail's Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Reviewed: May 15, 2010

These are superb. I love oatmeal lace cookies and was looking for an easy recipe -- and this is it! I didn't have any almond extract to use so I just used all vanilla, but will definitely do the almond next time I make them. They came out light, slightly buttery. The only problem: they look so much healthier than they are and you can just eat and eat them! Mmmmm!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
9 users found this review helpful

Bake Sale Lemon Bars

Reviewed: May 12, 2010

These were delicious despite the fact that I made a mistake. I know my own taste buds and I know I looooove lemony things, so I made sure to up the lemon that I was putting in (to about 3/4s of a cup -- as stated, I love lemon!). Just take a tiny taste of the lemon topping before you pour it in so that way you know if you like it or not! I also forgot to add the flour to the lemon part so, uh, that came out all watery, but that was my own fault and it still tasted delicious so...5 stars! Meanwhile, I just tried them with GourmetMommy's specifications and they came out...well, kind of like lemon-flavored scrambled eggs. So I think I'll just stick to the regular recipe!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful

The Best Banana Bread

Reviewed: May 1, 2010

I guess I didn't really use this review, though I used it for the basics. I used what I had on hand -- three smashed bananas, butter instead of margarine, half white sugar half brown sugar, two brown eggs, and my flour was half bread flour half wheat flour, and I added some cinnamon and vanilla. But whatever the case, delicious!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful

Easy Mushroom Rice

Reviewed: Apr. 25, 2010

I really liked this, despite the fact that I completely changed the ingredients to stuff that I have (but I give it 5 stars anyway, I know :P ) Anyway. i...really didn't have any of the ingredients, so my recipe consisted of brown rice, cream of mushroom soup, beef broth and butter. Threw it together, threw it in the oven, cooked it for longer cause hey, brown rice, and it was delicious.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
1 user found this review helpful

Four Cheese Macaroni

Reviewed: Apr. 21, 2010

I guess I shouldn't technically review this since I didn't really follow the recipe at all barring using butter and four random kinds of cheese (Haha--I did use the processed cheese food and two cheddars, but I otherwise used this...french kind of cheese, I can't remember the name, and some mozzerella because I had it in my fridge). I also used skim milk and kept the eggs in. It turned out good, though, so hey!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
3 users found this review helpful

Clone of a Cinnabon

Reviewed: Apr. 15, 2010

I didn't have a bread machine, so I used other reviewers suggestions and put the yeast into some warm milk and mixed all the stuff in. I also turned the oven to 200F and then turned it off before letting the dough rise. My dough got HUGE. More than doubled in size. Then when I rolled it out I ended up getting, like, 20 rolls. I, like others, mixed the butter with the cinnamon and brown sugar, and since my oven gets hot, I baked at 350 for 10 minutes and they -still- came out hard and crusty on the outside (it's my oven -- it's done this before) so with the rest of the batch I'll be sure to make sure they come out of the oven sooner. However, even with that self-inflicted issue, these were still DELICIOUS, particularly in the center. I'm not sure what people mean by too much cinnamon -- there didn't seem to be enough for me and my roommate! And my roommate--she normally hates EVERYTHING, but she went back for seconds.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
2 users found this review helpful