Mindy Recipe Reviews (Pg. 1) - Allrecipes.com (1111019)

German Lentil Soup

Reviewed: Apr. 25, 2012

The recipe should have at least 3 times the amount of liquid stated (even for a slow cookier) since you need a 2 to 1 ratio even to just cook lentils. Anyway, I made this last night for dinner as I've been experimenting with caraway seeds lately. I feel that this recipe is a good solid base and would produce a tasty, warming soup as written. However, I did make the following changes to suit our tastes. We are vegetarian so I substituted vegetable broth (2 quarts) for the chicken stock, omitted the ham, but added 1 tsp. liquid smoke and 1 Tbs. dark brown sugar to add the smokey sweetness that the ham would have imparted to the soup. I doubled the vegetables, since we like lots of veggies, and doubled all of the spices except for the celery salt since we prefer more seasoned foods. I did not have celery salt so I just added 1/2 tsp. celery seed. (celery salt is just celery seed and salt anyway!) I cooked this on the stove instead of in a slow cooker and like most all stove top soups, I just added more water as necessary. It took about 1 hr. from start to finish. I served the soup with some home made whole wheat rolls. I think the soup tasted better today for lunch as it had time to develop the flavors as if I'd prepared it in a slow cooker. I will probably make this again sometime as I like to change up the seasonings in the different bean/lentil soups that I make.

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2 users found this review helpful

Banana Crumb Muffins

Reviewed: Apr. 22, 2012

Made these today for the kids and they devoured them. I tweaked the recipe a bit to make it more like the banana bread that I make. I added 1 tsp. cinnamon and a 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice to the dry ingredients, substituted 1 tbs. ground flax whisked with 1/4 for the egg, and added 2 tsp. vanilla to the wet ingredients. After combining I added 1/2 cup chopped pecans because my son wanted nuts in the muffins. For the topping, I doubled the butter and flour and added a pinch of salt so I would have enough to cover all the muffins. The muffins came out incredibly moist and the topping caramelized a bit on mine so they tasted reminiscent of pralines. I gave the recipe 5 stars because it is a good recipe and works well, however if I make them again I will reduce the sugar in the muffin batter to 1/2 cup as I prefer a less sweet muffin for breakfast. As written (especially if you include the topping) they're as sweet as most cakes.

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3 users found this review helpful

Bean and Kale Ragu

Reviewed: Oct. 19, 2010

We really enjoyed this. I did have to increase the cumin, and like some other reviews suggested I added some red wine and crushed red pepper flakes. The spicy pepper really complemented the dish well. I served this over a simple onion and garlic quinoa pilaf for a healthy, clean meal.

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5 users found this review helpful

Greek Lemon Cake

Reviewed: Aug. 24, 2010

This was a delicious cake! But like other reviewers, I wish I would have added more lemon! I iced the cake with a mixture of lemon juice, powdered sugar, and minced lemon zest. I will be making this again for sure, but with more lemon next time!

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6 users found this review helpful

Pain de Campagne - Country French Bread

Reviewed: Aug. 11, 2010

Great recipe! Thanks violet! I've made several breads before that have used a sponge starter, but this is the best (and easiest) I've tried so far. This will be my go to recipe for french bread. I think using whole wheat flour for the sponge added a lot in flavor. I had to add about 1/2-1 cup more flour to prevent sticking. I added another 1/2 tsp salt because of this. I was also in a hurry so I shaped the bread after kneading and then baked after the loaves had proofed. About 5 minutes before they were done, I brushed the loaves with olive oil (since we like a more chewy than crunchy crust). Even though it did not have the additional rise, the flavor of the bread was still well developed, had an excellent crumb, and wonderful chewy crust. I made 3 loaves instead of 2 so that they would fit on my pan. A trick for great crusty bread, make steam in your oven. Before preheating the oven, place a metal pie plate or other type of pan on the bottom rack. After the oven is preheated and you've put the loaves in, pour about 1/2 cup of water into the preheated pan and quickly close the oven, do this again about 10-15 minutes later.

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42 users found this review helpful

Sheri's Fun Fruit Turkey

Reviewed: Jul. 21, 2010

This is such a cute idea! We made this last thanksgiving and the kids had a great time with it and ate their fruit turkeys while waiting for dinner to be ready. I prepared all the pieces, made one for them to use as reference and let them have fun! The only things I changed were that I used fresh clementines instead of grapefruit sections and that I used pecans instead of walnuts because that is what I had on hand.

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7 users found this review helpful

Focaccia Bread

Reviewed: Mar. 5, 2010

I made this tonight with dinner. It turned out great, very tasty! It did not have the slightly tangy flavor that many focaccia breads have, which is the reason for the 4 instead of 5. However I will make this again and next time use a more piquant cheese such as romano, or perhaps a blend including asiago. I will also use shredded vs. grated. I used an electric stand mixer. Prior to baking I dimpled the surface and sprinkled on 4 cloves worth of minced fresh garlic, then drizzled on the olive oil and spread it around using a pastry brush. I baked it on a pizza stone for 10 minutes, then added the mozzarella. The crust browned nicely and the herbs and garlic complemented the cheeses and olive oil quite nicely. Even with the couple extra steps, I had this ready in less than an hour. Family loved it. Thanks for the easy recipe!

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3 users found this review helpful

Fluffy Whole Wheat Biscuits

Reviewed: Jan. 20, 2010

I've made these several times and they always turn out, even in the high altitude area that I live in. Quick and easy to make, even in the morning before school and work.

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2 users found this review helpful

Fluffy Pancakes

Reviewed: Jan. 19, 2010

This is the first pancake recipe I've found that doesn't come out all doughy in the middle. Family loved them! I added 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon and a tsp. of vanilla to the batter and served them with blueberry sauce.

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2 users found this review helpful

Pumpkin Pancakes

Reviewed: Dec. 4, 2009

I made these today with some left over pumpkin I had in the fridge. They were pretty tasty, although the first couple I cooked weren't quite done in the center because the batter was so thick. I added about 1/4 cup more milk and after that they were fine. I probably make these again, but I think next time I'll double up on the cinnamon, perhaps add a tsp. of pumpkin pie spice, and a little vanilla.

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2 users found this review helpful

Cloverleaf Rolls

Reviewed: Nov. 13, 2009

These did turn out pretty good for me, but I think I will add a touch more salt (maybe 1/2-1 tsp) next time as they didn't have the depth of flavor I was looking for. However, they were excellent with butter. I also had to add about 1 cup more flour to get the dough into an actual dough, not a batter. I only have one muffin pan, so I made 2 more sheets of knot rolls, baked for the same amount of time as the cloverleaf rolls. I also used an eggwash (beaten egg and water) before baking. They came out perfectly golden. I will probably make these again, but tweak them a little by adding more salt, or dipping the dough balls in melted butter before baking.

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12 users found this review helpful

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

Reviewed: Nov. 9, 2009

I had great success with this recipe and my family loved the cookies. They are very chocolaty! I might try the suggestion of doubling the dough next time as I only got 20 cookies out of the batch. I accidentally added the entire second egg, so to compensate for the extra liquid I added an additional 1/2 to 3/4 cup flour. I packed a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure out the dough and baked them 6 at a time as that is what would comfortably fit on my baking sheets. The cookies came out uniformly round and beautiful. They only needed 16 minutes in my oven, and came out uniformly round and beautiful. The secret to most chewy cookies is to take them out when you can see just a tiny bit of browning on the edges. They might not look done, but they are. Anyway, thanks for the great recipe! I will definitely make these again.

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2 users found this review helpful

Pizza Crust I

Reviewed: Apr. 6, 2006

I've made this pizza crust twice now and my family loves it! It stays nice and soft which is great because we have small children. I stretch it out kind of thin over a large pizza pan with holes so the bottom gets cooked nicely, it has never come out doughy like a lot of crusts will. I only bake it for about 14 minutes though unless there are alot of toppings. The only issue is that it doesn't really brown, it stays really light, but overall that's not a big factor to me. The flavor is very nice and seems like it would be excellent with some fresh herbs added in. (which I'll do next time!)

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6 users found this review helpful

Coconut Curry Tofu

Reviewed: Oct. 12, 2005

My son picked this as his first meal to make for our family (with help from mom ofcourse!)and everyone loved it! It was a very mild curry to our tastes so we added more chili paste. The only things I will add in the future would be garlic and lemongrass. Overall it was excellent!

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4 users found this review helpful

Mombasa Pumpkin Dessert

Reviewed: Oct. 12, 2005

This was delicious! Everyone enjoyed it, including my kids. Following the advice of the other reviews I used less sugar (only half the amount called for). I also added 1/2 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut to it to thicken it up a bit and then toasted some coconut with a little sugar to put on top. Fantastic!

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12 users found this review helpful

Spinach and Red Chard Quiche

Reviewed: Sep. 27, 2005

We had this for dinner tonight and it was delicious and very filling! Everyone enjoyed it, including our kids (ages 8,5,3,1). I did tweak the seasonings a little to our tastes by adding more curry powder and garlic, and I didn't have any milk so used yogurt thinned with water, but it still turned out excellent. Will definitely make again and maybe use the filling for home made pocket sandwiches.

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6 users found this review helpful

Authentic Mexican Tortillas

Reviewed: Feb. 21, 2004

These didn't turn out well for us. They tasted like biscuits and fell apart easily. I don't know what I did wrong as this recipe seems to have worked for plenty of people. I used boiling hot water and rolled them out paper thin like people had suggested. We ended up using them as a make shift tostada, they were decent that way. The kids really enjoyed them, but I'll keep searching for a better recipe.

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2 users found this review helpful