Pepperoni Meatza

Reviewed: May 15, 2013

To be honest, I didn't like this the day I made it. It tasted nothing like pizza and the flavors didn't seem to mesh. But the next day and the day after that, it was AWESOME. I wanted to eat it for every meal! I used frozen chicken burgers as the base to make "personal meatza" and topped with store-bought pizza sauce and our favorite pizza toppings. Add a dash of oregano to really bring out the flavors. I will be making this again!

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Reviewer:

RALWATTAR

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Hot Banana Milkshake

Reviewed: Apr. 8, 2013

I was expecting this to be good because I love bananas and banana milkshakes but this was...weird. Not very good. I wouldn't make it again.

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Reviewer:

RALWATTAR

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Peanut Butter and Cream Brownies

Reviewed: Apr. 1, 2013

I made this to take to our Easter gathering and it was a hit! I used a 9 1/2” springform pan. I used creamy peanut butter and increased the powdered sugar to 3/4 cup. I made this a day ahead of time and refrigerated it. I was able to get nice clean cuts by heating my chef’s knife under hot water and wiping it dry before each cut. I didn’t spread the whipped topping on as the top layer, but instead added some on top of each piece after drizzling it with chocolate syrup and caramel. Decadent, delicious and rich!

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Easy Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Reviewed: Mar. 31, 2013

This was good, but not great. I made half the recipe, but cut back on the mayonnaise by half and used only 2 T. for two chicken breast halves. Once mixed with the parmesan cheese, I had plenty to spread over the chicken. I assembled this in the afternoon, refrigerated it and sprinkled the bread crumbs on just before baking. There was some crispiness to this, but not as much as I had hoped. I may try this again using panko to see if it crisps up a little more.

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Italian BBQ Pork Chops

Reviewed: Mar. 30, 2013

This was great! I made half the recipe for two large (Costco) bone-in pork chops and had plenty, with some leftover. The 20 minute simmer time results in a slightly reduced sauce that has nice body. I put the sauce together early in the afternoon and let it sit at room temperature until it was time to grill. I'm interested in trying the leftovers on chicken.

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Chicken Marsala

Reviewed: Mar. 26, 2013

I went about this a little differently. I began by sautéing my mushrooms and removing them from the pan. I then cooked the chicken in the same pan and removed it to a warm oven and proceeded with the sauce. I added a little corn starch/water slurry to thicken the sauce and added a pat of butter. I added the chicken and mushrooms back to the pan, coating them with sauce and served. Very good!

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

Reviewed: Mar. 26, 2013

I am not a fan of oatmeal but my Hubs is. To try this out I made half the recipe, cutting back on the raisins to 2 T. I also cut the nutmeg to 1/8 t. and the ginger to 1/4 t. I diced the apple (about 1/4” dice) to make sure it would soften during the cooking time. Be sure to stir from time to time and more often towards the end of the simmering time, or it will begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, and could burn. I skipped the glazed pecans this time, but I’m sure they’d be wonderful with this. I froze this in individual microwaveable containers. Thaw and then microwave for a quick breakfast. Hubs gives this five stars, so I’m sure I’ll be making it again.

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Slow-Roasted Beef for Sandwiches

Reviewed: Mar. 26, 2013

When I saw the cooking method on this one, I knew I had to try it! My roast was 3.5 lbs. just as called for. I seared it for 4 minutes on each side. I used a remote digital thermometer, which was perfect for this. It took my roast 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to 115 degrees, and another 43 minutes to get to 130 degrees. I allowed it to rest for 15 minutes, for a total time of 2 hours and 28 minutes. I left the thermometer in and interestingly the roast only rose to 131 degrees during the 15 minutes of resting. I was concerned it would be too rare but it was perfectly medium rare with a lovely pink center throughout! I am delighted with this new method of cooking a roast and I’m anxious to try it on beef tenderloin. Thank you bd.weld!

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Tuna Fish Salad

Reviewed: Mar. 12, 2013

I made this as written, although I omitted the lemon juice because I didn't have any. This is a basic, straight forward tuna salad and I liked it because it was just that. When I'm hungry for tuna salad, I'll make this one again!

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Cajun Style Baked Sweet Potato

Reviewed: Mar. 12, 2013

I totally cheated when making this. I used Emeril's Essence instead of this seasoning blend, because they are so similar, and I already had the Essence on hand. I cubed my potatoes and roasted them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Nice to have something a little different. I served these with grilled pork tenderloin.

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Italian Chicken Soup | The Pioneer Woman Cooks | Ree Drummond

Reviewed: Mar. 12, 2013

Even though I streamlined this recipe to save some steps/time, it was still a bit time consuming. I skipped the pasta as we're watching our carbs. I bought a rotisserie chicken rather than cooking my own. I used a mix of red, yellow and orange bell peppers for the green. And I used tomatoes that were already diced. The rule of thumb that I follow when using dried herbs for fresh is to use 1/3 the amount which would have meant I should have used 1 T. plus 1 t. dried oregano. Well, that amount still sounded a little on the high side and I didn't want to overpower the other flavors in the soup, so I settled on 1 T. with 1 T. of olive oil. After sautéing the veggies, I added the broth and tomatoes and allowed this to simmer for about 20 minutes to further soften the vegetables. I then added the oregano/oil to taste, using about 2/3 to 3/4 of it. Don't forget the salt and pepper and I also added 1/4 t. cayenne pepper. I packed this for the freezer and will add the cream when reheating. My batch yielded ten 1 1/2 cup servings. Next time I will definitely add several cloves of garlic.

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Baked Omelet

Reviewed: Mar. 7, 2013

I've been making a few of the baked egg dishes here on AR for Hubs to grab and microwave for breakfast. This one seems to have been the best one yet. The others had very little milk or none at all. That made them a little tougher and not as fluffy as this one. This recipe also lends itself well to changing it up to suit your tastes or to accommodate what you have on hand. Lots of possibilities here! This time I used some jalapeno pepper jack cheese along with some cheddar. Mine yielded 4 good size servings. A definite do again!

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Apple Cole Slaw

Reviewed: Feb. 25, 2013

This was my first time making coleslaw and it was very good! I used a little less sugar and added some corn--so good!

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Reviewer:

RALWATTAR

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Personal Portobello Pizza

Reviewed: Feb. 20, 2013

Veryyyyyy delicious and healthy appetizer. We added the pizza toppings that we like (onions, olives, and green pepper). Thanks for this great recipe!

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Reviewer:

RALWATTAR

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Mediterranean Chicken with Eggplant

Reviewed: Feb. 20, 2013

This was a decent healthy recipe. I ended up stir-frying the eggplant slices because they just wouldn't get fully cooked in the oven. I used 1 tsp. oregano and thought that was plenty for us. I would make this again as healthy but tasty dish.

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Reviewer:

RALWATTAR

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

German Sweet Chocolate Pie

Reviewed: Feb. 19, 2013

This pie is addicting! I used bittersweet chocolate since that is what I had, but it was wonderful!

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Reviewer:

MLALAK

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Living In: Berea, Ohio, USA

Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice Bake

Reviewed: Feb. 19, 2013

This was very good. I sprinkled the chicken with some taco seasoning ,and sprinkled with cheese at the end of baking. I did find it needed about 55 minutes to bake. As other reviewers did I also used a soup can's worth of water. The rice was perfectly cooked. I actually would have liked this spicier, so will use medium or hot salsa next time. topped with sour cream and chopped green onion.

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Reviewer:

MLALAK

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Living In: Berea, Ohio, USA

Ciabatta Bread

Reviewed: Feb. 18, 2013

brushed with olive oil, sprinkled sea salt,pepper,and some herbs. It tasted like the bread at Macaroni Grille. we tore off chunks and dipped in olive oil while it was still warm. It was really great.

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Reviewer:

MLALAK

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Living In: Berea, Ohio, USA

Chicken Wild Rice Soup I

Reviewed: Feb. 16, 2013

We liked this one a lot. I knew I would be freezing this, so I went about making it a little bit differently. I cut way back on the butter for sautéing. I then added the broth and simmered to soften the veggies. I added the rice, chicken and seasonings. I did not add the flour, almonds or milk. This yielded 6 servings for me that I divided into 2-serving portions and froze. After thawing two servings, I reheated the soup. I made a roux using 2 T. of flour and 2 T. of butter and 2/3 cup milk. Once the roux has thickened, I add it to the hot soup. I don’t think the additional simmering time of 1 to 2 hours is necessary at all. I garnished mine with the almonds that I toasted in the oven at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until golden and fragrant.

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Reviewer:

bellepepper

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA

Living In: Dublin, Ohio, USA

Spinach Chicken Parmesan

Reviewed: Feb. 16, 2013

Oh wow, we loved this! Because some reviewers found this to be bland, I started by seasoning the chicken with garlic salt and pepper. I didn’t think there was enough of the parmesan/Italian seasoning mixture to roll the chicken in, so I just sprinkled half over the chicken in the baking dish, and reserved half to sprinkle over the top of the creamed spinach. I roughly chopped fresh spinach and wilted it in boiling water. I drained it and allowed it to cool before squeezing out the excess moisture. I added a minced clove of garlic while sautéing the green onions. Again I made sure to season the creamed spinach mixture with salt and pepper. I assembled this in the afternoon, covered and refrigerated it until dinnertime. With some added seasoning this is a great recipe!

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