My mom is from Peru and she makes empandas from a very similar recipe. This recipe gets two thumbs up for its authenticity! The only difference between my mom's empanadas and this recipe is the way you cook the beef. In my mom's recipe the beef is fried with all of the seasonings and onions. It is then drained of its excess fat. 80% lean works best because it prevents the meat from getting dried out when baking. I grew up eating beef empanadas and they are great! I think condiments really add something to the empandas; we always ate them with either lemon squeezed over them which works really well with the sweetness of the raisins and the spicyness of the paprika. The second option was to pour a few shakes of hotsauce to into your empanada. Cayenne peppersauce is excellent on an empanada!

I have made this recipe a few times and its a big hit at dinner parties. I make the "Tex Mex Pork" from Allrecipes and put the shredded pork in its sauce over pasta and add the "Habanero Hot Sauce" with sour cream as a condiment and everyone loves the combination! The only modification I make to this recipe is I cut open my habanero and remove the seeds and stem. My husband and I love hot food, but we managed to ruin a different recipe when we added whole habaneros because it was so hot that we couldn't eat the stew we had slaved over for an entire afternoon. I opt to put my habaneros in a pyrex and steam the habaneros in a double boiler for about 7 minutes. I think this mellows out the hotness of the sauce without losing any flavor. I add everything to a food processor minus the tomato and it makes a delicious fairly spicy sauce that pleases the masses.

I made this recipe for 18 people. I was making two desserts for a holiday meal so I put the custard into smaller ramekins than the recipe called for hoping to make a smaller version of creme brulee; big mistake! If you are going to make the effort to make this recipe I would say either make a huge creme brulee that you can put individual portions onto a plate or follow the recipe. I used ramekins that were too shallow which made it difficult to put into a water bath and to remove from a water bath without spilling them. Additionally, I was hoping to make a thicker sugar topping so I added the tablespoon to my smaller ramekins and two things happened that I didn't anticipate: 1) the sugar took longer to carmelize which cause the custard to bubble causing them to loose their perfectly smooth surface and 2) the sugar mixed with the custard making it too sweet for my taste. Anyhow, I tasted the custard prior to the sugar and it was perfection so if you don't deviate from the recipe I think this recipe is easy and tasty!!

I made this recipe with a few modifications. I only used 3 eggs (all I had), a big splash of milk, a large pinch of nutmeg, 3 large pinches of brown sugar, a pinch of ground cinnamon in the egg mixture and I added a pinch of dried ground lemon peel (McCormick's) and I fried the bread in peanut oil (peanut oil never burns) and butter. I finished off the french toast with a drizzle of melted butter and powder sugar and it was really easy and delicious! I will be making this again when I am short on time and I want a crowd pleaser.

This is one of the easiest and tastiest soups to make! I altered the recipe slightly by increasing some of the ingredients. I doubled the sausage required and omitted the pancetta. I also bought the sausage in bulk so there wasn't any sausage casings to deal with. I fried the sausage in a frying pan on the stove breaking the big chucks up with a potato masher. I then removed the sausage with a slotted spoon so I could leave the sausage drippings. I doubled the onions from the recipe as well; I sauteed the onions and garlic in the sausage drippings and then added them to potatoes that were cubed and cooked in vegetable broth. Again, I really increased the amount of potatoes; the recipe ask for 2 and I did about 10 medium sized potatoes. I didn't measure the vegetable broth; added just enough to cover all of the potatoes. Note when you cube potatoes if you cook them longer than 15 or so minutes they disintegrate so if you want a chunkier soup then you really need to keep your eye on your soup. I added the two cups of kale as instructed but I minced them since my kids aren't a big fan of kale and it really makes the recipe! Lastly I added half n half in place of heavy cream. My youngest who claims to HATE soup ate every last drop of this soup!

I made this recipe for thanksgiving for the first time this week and it was a huge success! I changed the recipe slightly. I only put in a couple teaspoons of minced parsley because I am not a big fan of parsley. I also used fresh herbs so I doubled the amount that the recipe called for. I omitted the turkey liver and I used Jimmy Dean's Sage Sausage because Safeway was out my favorite italian sausage that I would have used in lieu of turkey sausage. First let me say that Sage Sausage is fabulous! It added a ton of flavor to the stuffing. This recipe is especially good because you can make it ahead of time and you will be the only one that will know. (I made it two days ahead of time). I did as a previous reviewer suggested and didn't add the butter or in my case chicken stock until I was ready to bake the stuffing. It was super moist and very flavorful! My husband and daughters don't like sweet and savory but the rest of my family does so I split the stuffing into two casserole dishes just prior to baking. I left one without any fruit and the second dish I added 1 fuji apple, 1 golden delicious apple with a couple generous handfuls of craisins (sweeten dried cranberries) and I was amazed at how much stuffing was consumed. This recipe is super easy to follow and lends itself to being slightly altered to please everyone! I made it for 24 servings because I have a bigger family and there is hardly any left! Super easy and super tasty is a winning combo!

I made this dish for thanksgiving as an entree for my vegetarians. It was very easy to make and to prep. I rinsed the fish and laid them out on a cookie sheet and salt and pepper them about two hours before cooking them which helped a lot with timing all the elements of the meal. I personally don't eat fish but I make a lot of it when entertaining. From what I was told it was delicious. The topping made it a bit difficult to determine if the fish was done. It also didn't look as appealing as the picture from the recipe because I used all of the topping that I made per the recipe. If I make this again I would make less topping and I would chop the pecans and bread more coarsely strictly for presentation. I gave it 4 stars based on taste per my guests and how quick and easy this was to make.