Notes about Recipes in this book

• Beef and mushroom stir-fry

  • nicolepellegrini on March 24, 2021

    This was all right but a bit...peculiar for a stir-fry. The balsamic worked well with the beef and mushrooms but definitely made it taste more Italian than what I'd expect from a "stir-fry".

  • GiselleMarie on August 13, 2025

    This is awful! After reading the other cook’s note, I was mentally prepared for an Italian stir-fry, but I found the vinegar and lemon juice combined with soy sauce and brown sugar a terrible combination of flavors. To “fix” it, I poured oyster sauce over my helping, which made it at least edible. I really wonder if anyone at Food Network actually tested this recipe.

• Grilled eggplant salad

  • nicolepellegrini on October 11, 2020

    Simple but tasty side dish, leftovers hold up well for use in sandwiches, on bruschetta, etc.

• Avocado-egg pita

  • GiselleMarie on April 15, 2020

    This is Number 14 in “50 Breakfasts on the Fly,” an insert between pages 124 and 125. Very satisfying sandwich!

• All-purpose pork shoulder

  • GiselleMarie on September 29, 2020

    A good, basic, easy recipe, the leftovers of which are meant to be used in various dishes. We ate this the first night over rice with string beans from our garden and a kale salad as our side dishes.

• Pasta and shredded pork

  • GiselleMarie on September 29, 2020

    This makes good use of leftover All-Purpose Pork Shoulder from the previous page. The recipe calls for halved grape tomatoes, but I used Italian frying peppers from my garden instead. I chopped them into large pieces and fried them briefly in olive oil just to soften them a little. This recipe doesn’t call for salt and pepper but they’re necessary, even with the pesto and cheese.

• Tomato cobbler

  • debkellie on May 09, 2014

    With a glut of bush tomatoes (cherry tomatoes) on hand, I tried this tonight: my first ever cobbler. For a simple dish it was very tasty. The crispness of the top of the cobbler was a nice juxtaposition balancing softness of the tomato. I shaped the cobbler topping into quenelles for presentation effect ;-)

  • chawkins on September 21, 2015

    With the weather turning, I made this with what is likely the last of my tomatoes from the garden, there were a few cherries, but they were mostly regular and plum tomatoes. It smelled just like Campbell's cream of tomato soup when it came out of the oven, but the taste was much better, loved the grainy mustard in the topping.

• Tomato Caesar salad with bacon-Parmesan crisps

  • nicolepellegrini on July 12, 2015

    Love this, I make it every summer when I can get the best heirloom and Jersey beefsteak tomatoes. I like to top it with fresh basil leave instead of watercress or arugula. It's hard to not eat all of the Parmesan crisps before this hits the table!

• Taco-roni

  • lisalouise on December 03, 2021

    link broken