MYSTICL Recipe Reviews (Pg. 1) - Allrecipes.com (1896518)

Big Al's K.C. Bar-B-Q Sauce

Reviewed: Mar. 22, 2011

Other than scaling this by a quarter to only make 12 servings I followed the recipe to a *T* It is EXACTLY what I was looking for to accompany my slow cooked BBQ smoked pulled pork... delicious! Thanks for a winning recipe, it has been added to my permanent recipe book file

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

Mysticl's Banana Cake

Reviewed: Mar. 16, 2011

I made this the other day and I must agree it was a really nice banana cake. The only quibble I might have with this is it was a tad on the sweet side for me and I LIKE sweet things so ... in the future I am going to reduce the white sugar in this to 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup. I did use buttermilk but I would also hazard a guess that this would be equally tasty and moist if you used cream or even milk ... maybe even plain greek yogurt instead. I used 4 very ripe bananas and I also added vanilla cause imo every cake can benefit from vanilla :) Instead of white all purpose flour I used stone ground whole grain whole wheat cake and pastry flour and it made a very light fluffy moist end product. So the short of it is .. I did make this recipe as listed with the exception of the vanilla and flour but in the future I will make the modifications I mentioned to take this from a 4 star which I think it is worth as written, to a 5 star adjusted for my personal tastes.

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

A-Number-1 Banana Cake

Reviewed: Mar. 16, 2011

I made this the other day and I must agree it was a really nice banana cake. The only quibble I might have with this is it was a tad on the sweet side for me and I LIKE sweet things so ... in the future I am going to reduce the white sugar in this to 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup. I did use buttermilk but I would also hazard a guess that this would be equally tasty and moist if you used cream or even milk ... maybe even plain greek yogurt instead. I used 4 very ripe bananas and I also added vanilla cause imo every cake can benefit from vanilla :) Instead of white all purpose flour I used stone ground whole grain whole wheat cake and pastry flour and it made a very light fluffy moist end product. So the short of it is .. I did make this recipe as listed with the exception of the vanilla and flour but in the future I will make the modifications I mentioned to take this from a 4 star which I think it is worth as written, to a 5 star adjusted for my personal tastes.

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

Homemade Butter

Reviewed: Jan. 25, 2011

I made butter today and yesterday was the LAST time I will ever buy butter. This was sooo easy and the butter tasted great .. btw so did the buttermilk that was strained off the butter when it was done separating. This isn't exactly a recipe it's more of a technique but it's one worth having in your head if not your recipe box. A nice tip for this is to take some saran and wrap it around the top of your bowl connecting it to the mixer to prevent splashes when this does separate as it can get kind of messy after it separates into butter and buttermilk as the buttermilk tends to get thrown out of the bowl by the lump of butter whirling in the bottom ;)

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

Thai Red Chicken Curry

Reviewed: Sep. 14, 2010

Pretty good curry recipe but it is missing a critical ingredient.... FISH SAUCE! at least 2-3 TBSP. Without it this would be bland indeed. Fish sauce is the Thai equivalent to adding salt ... No fishy taste so don't skip it. I would definitely double or triple the curry paste as well, in fact I personally add at least 4TBSP .. If it doesn't bring tears to my eyes, it's not spicy enough ;) I also did not use any cornstarch (not needed) or cilantro although I might consider using a handful of fresh basil which is more traditional. With those modifications I think this is a 5 star recipe but as it's written I can only give it 4 ... Too bland as written.

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

Burgundy Pork Tenderloin

Reviewed: Jun. 22, 2010

Love this recipe but did make a few changes. I used half wine and half beef broth instead of all wine and I used about 1.5 cups of each. Because I upped the liquid I used 2 packets of brown and or pork gravy. This gave me more yummy gravy to serve with the pork. Great with mashed potatoes! I did not have any celery on hand so I used celery seed to get the flavour without the actual celery. I also seared the pork before reserving and making the gravy in the same pan. I then added the pork back to the gravy and popped the whole pan in the oven to finish. The browned bits from the pork added more goodness to the gravy as I deglazed with the wine. Yum.

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

Golden Mushroom Chicken Pasta

Reviewed: Jun. 22, 2010

I was only making for 2 so I only used 2 chicken breasts instead of 6. Except for the butter I did not reduce the sauce portion ingredients however because I wanted enough to serve with pasta. I did reduced the butter to 2 tsps as I found the extra butter is not needed to make this sauce rich in taste. Make sure your Italian dressing mix is fresh or it can impart a stale taste that isn't very pleasant. I also used half wine half chicken broth for the liquid and ended up thinning this with a little more broth before pouring over cooked pasta. Use unsalted butter and low sodium soup to counter the saltiness of the dressing mix and you can get away with using lite cream cheese to cut some of the fat, the recipe will not suffer. I initially browned the cubed chicken breasts in the 2 tsp butter then reserved them while I made the sauce in the same pan and added cut broccoli and some chopped red pepper a couple minutes before serving. When the sauce was done I added the chicken back in and then tossed the whole lot with 2 servings of cooked pasta. Enjoyed this very much and will make again.

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

Angel Chicken Pasta

Reviewed: Jun. 22, 2010

I was only making for 2 so I only used 2 chicken breasts instead of 6. Except for the butter I did not reduce the sauce portion ingredients however because I wanted enough to serve with pasta. I did reduced the butter to 2 tsps as I found the extra butter is not needed to make this sauce rich in taste. Make sure your Italian dressing mix is fresh or it can impart a stale taste that isn't very pleasant. I also used half wine half chicken broth for the liquid and ended up thinning this with a little more broth before pouring over cooked pasta. Use unsalted butter and low sodium soup to counter the saltiness of the dressing mix and you can get away with using lite cream cheese to cut some of the fat, the recipe will not suffer. I initially browned the cubed chicken breasts in the 2 tsp butter then reserved them while I made the sauce in the same pan and added cut broccoli and some chopped red pepper a couple minutes before serving. When the sauce was done I added the chicken back in and then tossed the whole lot with 2 servings of cooked pasta. Enjoyed this very much and will make again.

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

Penne Chicken with Pesto, Spinach and Sundried Tomatoes

Reviewed: Jan. 11, 2010

Wow! Super easy fast and tasty. To reduce calories a smidge I used half and half instead of the heavy cream. I also added about 3-4 cups of fresh baby spinach which reduced to almost nothing, just a few flecks of green in the sauce but did add nutrition, color and flavor. I also added a few diced sundried tomatoes to the sauce and doubled the pesto. Five stars for a wonderful base recipe which tolerates modifications fabulously. This one will definitely enter my rotation.

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

Penne with Chicken and Pesto

Reviewed: Jan. 11, 2010

Wow! Super easy fast and tasty. To reduce calories a smidge I used half and half instead of the heavy cream. I also added about 3-4 cups of fresh baby spinach which reduced to almost nothing, just a few flecks of green in the sauce but did add nutrition, color and flavor. I also added a few diced sundried tomatoes to the sauce and doubled the pesto. Five stars for a wonderful base recipe which tolerates modifications fabulously. This one will definitely enter my rotation.

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

Absolutely Fabulous Greek/House Dressing

Reviewed: Jan. 3, 2010

I am not a Greek salad fan so my rating is based on my daughter's opinion. She told me that this dressing rivaled and in her opinion perhaps even exceeded the very best Greek salad she has ever eaten, and that was in Athens Greece, where she first fell in love with Greek salads, high praise indeed!

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

Gourmet Sweet Potato Classic

Reviewed: Oct. 19, 2009

I have been making different sweet potato dishes for decades. I can now say I have found my permanent one. I made this with 6 medium/smallish yams - the reddish fleshed sweet potato ;) The only change I made was to use brown sugar instead of white in the main body of the casserole. I did not double the crumble topping as some others have done, but I did use a 9x9 baking dish instead of the 9x13 recommended. This gave a smaller surface area and I had more than enough topping to fully cover the casserole in a thick layer of yummy goodness. My son who used to like sweet potatoes in the past but who had decided he no longer did was convinced with some urging to at least give this a try ... he did and when we were cleaning up he made a point of making sure the sweet potato leftovers in particular were handled properly to ensure he'd get to have some more the next day ;) I'd say without a doubt this was a winner.

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

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Reviewed: Feb. 9, 2008

excellent I added lemon juice as some suggested to enhance the lemon flavour and it turned out great. I will make again.

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

Almond-Crusted Halibut Crystal Symphony

Reviewed: Jan. 3, 2008

I have tried many wonderful recipes from this site with excellent results. In fact a good number of them have made it into regular circulation around my house. But this recipe is the first that I felt I had to review. I hate fish ... I mean I really HATE fish. My husband on the other hand is always asking me to make fish. So with company here for the holidays I decided to try 2 fish recipes from the site. The Broiled Tilapia Parmesan recipe and this one... based mostly on their high ratings and overwhelming positive reviews. I really enjoyed the Tilapia recipe ( altho I used Basa not tilapia) but I LOVED this one. I now have 2 fish recipes I will make again. The only change I made to this recipe was I doubled the sauce as suggested ... it was unbelievably good but I did have some leftovers not a lot tho so I will probably continue to double it. It was a big hit and compliments the fish wonderfully. Making the sauce was the most time consuming part of this recipe but worth the effort and it wasn't as unforgiving as I feared at the start. It reheated well in the microwave (not to boiling) so you can make this a bit ahead of time rather than trying to keep it warm ... then do your fish. I also did not use halibut but instead opted for Basa a fairly firm very mild white fish. No fishy flavour at all just delicate lovely flakes. Bottom line is that this is a very good recipe .. gourmet even .. try it.

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