WOLSELEY Recipe Reviews (Pg. 1) - Allrecipes.com (18006917)

Three Meat Cannelloni Bake

Reviewed: Apr. 19, 2007

I did make a few changes - I ran out of time so instead of rolling the cannelloni, I layered like lasagna and then cooked. Since I was going that route, I add a ricotta layer but just because we love ricotta in food! It smelled fantastic as it was cooking and was tasted just as good. Very creamy taste to the dish -not highly spiced but comforting. The only reason why I wouldn't give this 5 stars is that the recipe was quite long and involved - far too much for a week night dinner and the cost involved for the meat, fresh pasta and fresh herbs was quite expensive for an everyday family dish. I would definately like to try this again when I had more time and could follow the directions more exactly. Definately passed the Wolseley test as he gobbled down his portion in seconds and made his doggie plead for more!

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4 users found this review helpful

Tangy Honey Glazed Ham

Reviewed: Apr. 19, 2007

This was ok, would probably have been better if I hadn't overcooked the ham slices. I used a cook ham, placed on the slices and then put in the oven. Hubby, however, was late (an hour late, actually...but...ahemm....) so the ham was in WAY too long and so was horribly dry. I"m sure the ham would have tasted much nicer glazed had the ham not have been so overcrooked. Not a fair assessment. Did pour some of the left over glaze on Wolseley's dry dogfood and he gulped down, so it did pass the Wolseley test with flying colours!

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3 users found this review helpful

Hazelnut Chicken in Prosciutto-Cream Sauce

Reviewed: Apr. 17, 2007

Oh, the disappointment of this!! I thought for sure this would become a classic. The ingredients sounded perfect -especially the prosciutto. I hardly changed a thing and thought for sure this would be a special dish I could pull out for family and friends and reign as culinary Queen. Alas, it was not to be. I used almonds instead of hazelnuts but that was the only change I made. I sledged and dredged my chicken (the chicken itself was quite lovely) and it turned a wonderful golden brown and I could tell it was going to be succulent and juicy. (Not easy things to say about chicken) I used a good wine and fresh mushrooms, and waited for the magic to happen. I added the cream but the sauce hadn't reduced at the 5 minute point. I kept simmering and about 30 minutes later, it finally had reduced enough to serve as a sauce. I served and waited for everyone to 'ooh' Instead there was a silence. 'Sour' was the comment. Husband was also surprised that it wasn't a fantastic hit, agreeing that the combination should have been outstanding. We ended up scraping the sauce off and just eating the chicken. It didn't even pass the Wolseley test, as he just ate the bits of prosciutto out of the sauce and left everything else in his bowl. Considering the cost and effort involved, it was an absolute failure. So...not sure if I did something wrong, or perhaps our family's taste buds are off, but this was just not the dish for us!

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11 users found this review helpful

Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes

Reviewed: Apr. 17, 2007

Hey wait! This is my world famous recipe for scalloped/gratin potatoes! :-D Trust me - this is a never fail recipe. My husband HATED all potato dishes (He's Irish, go figure!) until I made this the first time. He was very hesitant to try it. Fortunately, he adored these. The key I have found (and from what I have deduced from eating my mother-in-law's)is the cooking time. If the potatoes are even remotely hard, the whole dish will flop. As a result, I ALWAYS cook my potatoes an hour and a half, sometimes two, depending on the density of the cheese mix. I understand that some parboil first but I find that is one too many steps and one too many pots. Don't be intimidated by putting together a basic cheese sauce. It is like gravy -once you figure it out, it will be the easiest thing you will ever make and you will never understand what all the fuss is about. My criteria for when I make this dish isn't always when we are having ham for supper but usually when we have too much, expiring-soon cheese. This is a fantastic way to use up whatever left over cheese you have in the fridge. I just throw them all in -it always works, even when using some rather offbeat cheeses (etc, blue brie!)I rarely give five stars, but would this time since this dish is very easy, inexpensive (especially if you were going to chuck the cheese to the garbage anyways)kiddie (and Wolseley) approved and an absolute classic. You will never use a bagged mix again!

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7 users found this review helpful

Stuffed Crown Roast of Pork

Reviewed: Apr. 9, 2007

This was a great hit this Easter and made a wonderful impression on my husband and children. It was much easier to make than I had originally feared. I had always stayed away from this particular cut because it seemed so daunting. I happened upon one in the butcher shop, however, and my husband said 'go for it'. Pork is my favourite roast and I usually order a pork loin whenever I do a pork roast, but never done up so nicely. I followed the recipe to a 't' and it was wondeful -very, very easy and as I said earlier, made a huge impression. The ONLY problem was that we couldn't figure out to cook the inside of the roast without overcooking the outsides. We ended up just leaving the inside abit raw and then cut around it, and then recooked the pinker parts. The inside was almost raw after over 3.5 hours of cooking.

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30 users found this review helpful

Artichoke Chicken

Reviewed: Mar. 23, 2007

A nice evening's dinner choice that, interestingly enough, made the most impact on our 6 year old who gobbled it down and pronounced it delicious. He has never called chicken delicious before so that was a rather interesting aside. We made no substitutions because I have always had great luck cooking chicken in mayonaise. The sauce/topping was very good and worked well with the mildness of the chicken. The only problem was the timing given (30 Minutes) is IMPOSSIBLE-it just cannot be correct unless you have parboiled the chicken first. We cooked ours for 1 hour 15 minutes and the chicken was still a ligh pink in areas. My thought here is that there is a significant enough mass used as a topping that 30 minutes was just not nearly enough time to cook the chicken properly. Keep this in mind! At 30 minutes, our chicken was completely raw underneath the artichoke.

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7 users found this review helpful

Easy Peasy Rice Bake

Reviewed: Mar. 22, 2007

This recipe was not worth the effort. It was essentially rice cooked in broth with some peas thrown in. I agree with all the previous reviewers when they suggest that you should just cook the rice in the broth-skip the water. We eat alot of rice and I use a rice cooker and I found this recipe more work than it was worth.

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4 users found this review helpful

Caramel Apple Pork Chops

Reviewed: Mar. 22, 2007

I was somewhat disappointed by this recipe as I had high hopes for it given the previous reviews and the ingredient list just seemed to scream 'delicious'! The pork chops were nice and tender but the apple topping did not have a very substantial taste to it so withthe mildness of the pork, it was all rather bland and tasteless. This made Wolseley's mouth drool, however and the kids loved the apple topping just as an aside.

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1 user found this review helpful

Awesome Broccoli-Cheese Casserole

Reviewed: Mar. 22, 2007

This was quite a nice side dish, fairly easy to make and tasty. It was quite a pretty-looking dish as well, that would look nice on a buffet. The kids all loved it, so this would be great if you had picky kids and wanted to try and get some more green veggies into them.

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1 user found this review helpful

Nana's Squash Casserole

Reviewed: Mar. 14, 2007

As my husband said, this was much nicer than he would have initially thought, especially given that he does not really like squash. It had a lovely texture to it and was a warm and yummy side dish. This was a bit more complicated than I would like for a weekday meal-cutting and dicing and a 1 hour bake time involved. We did have one fairly big change to the recipe -not sure if it changed it much but (being in Canada) cornbread was not easily available so I used fresh white bread diced up and added about 2 tbsp of cornmeal in its place. It whipped up nicely and once the egg and soup mix were added, the squash blended in nicely. The only other comment I would make is that I don't think the cheese was necessary as the side and top was a crispy brown and could have stood alone. Cutting the cheese would have cut the calories drastically -this being a side dish and the vegetable portion of our meal.

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6 users found this review helpful

Spinach Rice Casserole

Reviewed: Mar. 14, 2007

This was quite a nice addition to a weekday evening meal -nothing spectacular, but a quick and easy rice bake that was simple enough that it would be good along a variety of dishes. Everyone liked it and it was another great way to add some spinach to the children's menu. Just enough for my husband to have some for his lunch the next day at work.

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4 users found this review helpful

Amish Meatloaf

Reviewed: Mar. 5, 2007

I knew this one would be a hit because it is essentially the same recipe that my meatloaf has morphed into over the years. It was nice to actually see measurements, however, and so I stuck exactly to the ones mentioned here, except for one little difference. I used one cup crackers and one cup oatmeal (oatmeal really helps to cut down the grease in the hamburger and is a good way to add a dose of oatmeal to your kids day!) We quite like the sweeter taste of the meatloaf and this is actually what my 10 year old asked me to make to celebrate his birthday last month. We also make a heartshaped meatloaf for Valentines Day which brings me to the one point I might add. I almost always make my meatloaf in an unusual shape or in large cupcake pans. The meatloaf cooks much quicker and the kids LOVE having their own little 'special' loaf (especially the 6 year old) I keep making my meatloaf bigger and bigger each time and each time it all gets eaten. No chance for meatloaf sandwiches the next day! :-( Definately passed the Wolseley test as he decided to risk the human wrath and stole a taste from the table when no one was looking. He spent the rest of the dinner looking terribly pathetic sitting beside the table.... (we did give him a wee bit of leftover)

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2 users found this review helpful

Baked Havarti Chicken

Reviewed: Mar. 4, 2007

For a weeknight dinner, this was excellent. The marinade (we added a bit of mayo to it) made the chicken succulent and moist while the sauce made my husband do his 'oomahhh' noise, which is his sign that it is delicious. I actually doubled the sauce, because I just couldn't see how the amount suggested was going to be enough (our family is Danish -we love creamy sauces) We ended up using Asti Champagne instead of white wine which we were out of. This champagne is quite sweet so I am unsure how that affected the end result. Again, being Danish, havarti was DEFINATELY a huge draw, but I did not include any dill or the dill flavoured variety -it just seemed like too many tastes. Didn't get a chance to pass the Wolseley test ( Wolseley is our much loved Black Lab) as there was none left over for him to try -much to his sorrow!

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1 user found this review helpful

Potato Casserole IV

Reviewed: Mar. 4, 2007

Hmmmm. I consider myself a pretty good cook, so I don't think I made this dish incorrectly, so I guess our families tastebuds must be quite different than most. This was not a very popular dish with anyone, to include our 6 year old son or my teenage daughter who loves all things potato. This was quite dry ( I used all the required liquid) and rather bland. The consistency of the hashbrowns was also somewhat off. My 10 year old son *(also a potato fan)thought it would have tasted much better fried up, which we did try for the second go around (still quite dry) When we were on the third night of it (and this is a rather hearty family of 6 -so you can imagine how well this went over the third night) I used it as a topping for two pot pies I had made -sort of a la a shepherds pie. Still not a favourite. But...it did pass the Wolseley test -(Wolseley=our much loved black lab) gobbled it up. On the positive side -quick and cheap to make so I could see how this would be a fan favourite at potlucks or family parties.

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9 users found this review helpful

Wilted Spinach Salad

Reviewed: Jun. 2, 2005

I was quite skeptical about this one as I don't like wilted lettuce/spinach/greens etc. But..much to my delight, it was a rather nice texture. The taste was also very yummy and my kids loved it (and any way that gets them to eat spinach is a good thing!) My only comment was that there was excess dressing on the bottom and that made for some pieces of spinach to be drowned.

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7 users found this review helpful

Olive Pasta Salad

Reviewed: Jun. 1, 2005

Our 8 year old is crazy about Ancient Greece so we served this salad as part of a Greek dinner night. He loved it and he is a very picky eater. Enough taste that it isn't bland, but not overpowering. We just used Ditali lisci pasta instead for kiddie interest. Quite nice and easy to make.

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11 users found this review helpful

Chili with Ziti

Reviewed: Nov. 3, 2004

This was a great way to use up some home-made chili, so I used my own recipe and then topped the ziti with it. I always add cinnamon to my chili, so I didn't find it unusual that this recipe called for it. It was interesting that the same children that would not eat the chili in the bowl the night before, ate lots of it when it had noodles underneath.

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8 users found this review helpful

Aussie Chicken

Reviewed: Nov. 3, 2004

Everyone loved this one.

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1 user found this review helpful

Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes

Reviewed: Nov. 3, 2004

It was an expensive way to find out that the best mashed potatoes are just the old standby!

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2 users found this review helpful

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie

Reviewed: Nov. 2, 2004

This was quick and easy and a good way to use up leftover chicken. The only complaint I would have is that the insides were quite watery. While my children were quite happy with it, my husband mentioned it would have been nicer if the sauce was creamier. He suggested perhaps adding a bit of cream of chicken soup to it, so I might try that next time. But, as mentioned, it was quick, easy and emptied out a few containers of leftovers in our fridge! :-)

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4 users found this review helpful