Notes about Recipes in this book

• Hot and sour soup

  • djoh437938 on July 11, 2011

    this recipe is so good, had to go to a japanese market to find it, it is worth it, totally.

• Stir-fried portobellos with ginger-oyster sauce

  • jumali on September 22, 2011

    Tastes good but not worth the mountain of prep work and cleanup.

• Oven-fried onion rings

  • jumali on September 22, 2011

    A bit time consuming, but tastes very good.

• Blueberry cobbler

  • jumali on July 26, 2010

    An excellent recipe! The blueberries were the perfect consistency--neither too runny nor too thick, and the cornmeal added a great texture to the biscuit. I'll definitely make this again.

• Potstickers with scallion dipping sauce

  • love2laf on February 10, 2010

    Excellent flavour and cooking method for the wontons. I still find my patience worn thin by making so many little nibblies. The dipping sauce was only average though.

• Thai pork lettuce wraps

  • love2laf on February 03, 2010

    One of the few recipes I can't think to make an improvement on. After one bite, I stopped caring about the messiness of serving this way, and just dug in.I did not use pork tender loin though, I used pork shoulder, and I used my grinder instead of the food processor.

  • SACarlson on June 15, 2019

    I did the same thing. I put pork shoulder through my meat grinder. I love this recipe--so easy and so delicious!

• One-hour broiled chicken and pan sauce

  • eliza on March 15, 2018

    This was on the program recently so I thought I would give it a try. A 3-4 lb chicken is butterflied and then placed in a hot pan and broiled. My chicken was almost 4 lbs so I went with the slightly longer cooking time. Even so, my chicken wasn't completely cooked and had to go back in for an additional 10 minutes. By this time the breast meat was slightly overcooked. If I make this again, I would add about 5 minutes to the stovetop time before putting it in the oven. On the plus side, the taste was good and I enjoyed the pan sauce/gravy with the addition of thyme and garlic.

• Italian vegetable stew (Ciambotta)

  • ecasey830 on October 06, 2019

    Labor-intensive but worth it

  • Partyof7 on March 06, 2021

    So delicious. A fantastic lunch especially when adding chickpeas. It is labor intensive. I doubled the recipe for a teacher’s lunch and it was difficult and hard to brown properly in my skillet!

• Stir-fried beef and broccoli with oyster sauce

  • Kouture007 on January 13, 2013

    Everyone's favorite.

• Thick-cut pork tenderloin medallions

  • Kouture007 on December 20, 2011

    Bacon-wrapped version is fabulous.

• Skillet chicken pot pie with biscuit topping

  • Kouture007 on December 20, 2011

    Kevin liked it

• Turkey gravy

  • Kouture007 on January 13, 2013

    Can be made ahead.

• Modern ham and split pea soup

  • chawkins on June 13, 2020

    Pretty good. Instead of a ham steak, I used a ham bone.

• Cream cheese brownies

  • chawkins on September 14, 2015

    Very good fudgy brownies. I baked them in my counter-top oven a lot longer than the recipe stated, but then I adjusted the temperature and time for convection baking, I probably did not have to do that. From their television shows, their ovens seem to be convection.

• Drunken beans

  • chawkins on August 07, 2016

    Very good, the beans were so creamy. I quick soaked the beans on the stove and cooked in the Instant Pot. I started the recipe with the sauté mode, after the beans were added, switched to high pressure for 10 minutes. Released 10 minutes after cooking, and continued with recipe by using the sauté mode.

• Best butterscotch pudding

  • Analyze on March 25, 2017

    HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I made it side by side with the older "Butterscotch Pudding" published by the same company in the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and this one was SO much more flavorful. Because you end up cooking the caramel to a deeper color/flavor, it turns out a better pudding with WAY more intense flavors; it also has more rich ingredients (more butter and cream). The older ATK recipe (while good) is incredibly mild by comparison (kids might like it better). If you do make this amazing recipe, I'll add that we personally preferred it without the rum, though it's good with the rum too.

• Applesauce snack cake

  • Analyze on March 12, 2019

    This is SO good! The base cake has a wonderful apple flavor and a great texture. I tried both this recipe, and the Oat-Nut Streusel variation. My husband, who doesn't normally like oat streusel or sweet quick breads, loved the streusel variation. I actually preferred this original version with the cinnamon-sugar topping, as in my opinion it complements the apple flavor in the cake better, and actually makes the cake taste more apple-y. You can't go wrong with either version, or try half and half like I did :) I already have several apple cake recipes that I love, and didn't think I needed another, but I did! I'm excited to try the ginger-cardamom version next. Personally, we had it for breakfast, but this would be great with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream too.

• Grilled Thai beef salad

  • SACarlson on June 28, 2019

    The ingredient proportions in the dressing recipe are all off. There are better recipes for Thai beef salad out there, so I would skip this one.

• Flourless chocolate cake

  • Nancith on April 24, 2017

    This garnered rave reviews with our dinner group! Dense, fudgy, deeply chocolate & decadent. However, even with using 9" rather than the preferred 8" pan, the baking time had to be almost doubled before it got to the correct temperature for doneness. It was still quite jiggly even after cooling to room temp, but the time in the refrigerator firmed it up perfectly. Being in a bit of a hurry to serve it, we couldn't figure out why it was so hard to remove a piece, until I remembered the parchment paper! Don't forget to remove that!

• Braised halibut with leeks and mustard

  • Rinshin on January 11, 2017

    Not bad, but I believe this can be better. Followed the recipe completely but for my taste, the halibut was bit on the dry side. I did like the reduced white wine based sauce along with cooked leeks but would have liked a more mustard taste. Next time I either reduce the amount of time fish poaches/braises or reduce the temp from 135 to maybe 120. Another method I might try is making the sauce ingredients separately along with leeks and using the aluminum enclosed packet of halibut and sauce ingredients for more tender fish and baking it.

• Strawberry cream cake

  • mamacrumbcake on September 05, 2017

    The good: the cake is beautiful and impressive. The strawberry filling is delicious. (Don't omit the kirsch.) Just about everyone will enjoy it. The bad: Twice I've made this and twice the chiffon cake didn't rise as I had expected, though I followed the directions to the letter. I wonder if greasing the cake pan is the problem? Most other chiffon cake recipes say not to grease. Anyway, I'm not thrilled with the cake layer and in the future might substitute a different layer. Also, I didn't love the cream cheese whipped cream, but I was the exception.

• Breaded pork cutlets (Pork Schnitzel)

  • SenseiHeidi on May 17, 2020

    Delicious! We have an egg allergy and I successfully subbed 1/2 cup unsweetened original cashew milk for the oil/egg wash mixture.

• Latino-style chicken and rice (Arroz con pollo)

  • SenseiHeidi on November 15, 2019

    I was going to rate this as rather boring for the 2 hours of time involved, then I ate a bowl with a squirt of lime juice, extra salt and black pepper. Yum. Makes enough to feed 8 to 10 easily.

• French-style pot-roasted pork loin

  • Foodiewife on January 07, 2018

    Definitely a bit of work, but it looks gorgeous for entertaining. Definitely loved the flavor of the sauce and wouldn't change a thing.

• Thai-style grilled chicken with spicy, sweet, and sour dipping sauce

  • MeganGarcia on March 27, 2019

    This was delicious even though I couldn't find chicken breasts as small as specified. I served it with steamed jasmine rice and sauteed snow peas fresh from the garden. The sweet and sour dipping sauce was great with the rice as well. The rub was easier to put together using a food processor for the garlic and cilantro.

• Pressure-cooker chicken noodle soup

  • MeganGarcia on October 05, 2018

    Excellent flavor especially for the short ingredient list and minimal effort involved.

• Cherry clafouti

  • klrclark on August 09, 2020

    Very custardy, I liked it a lot. I forgot to coat the cherries but it turned out good.

• Pasta with streamlined Bolognese sauce

  • klrclark on December 07, 2020

    T hi is was very good and easy. You definitely need the reduced wine, otherwise it tastes like meat cooked in milk

• Penne with vodka sauce (Penne alla vodka)

  • Partyof7 on October 09, 2022

    Straightforward recipe, but a little complicated pureeing half the tomatoes, and dicing half. However I did appreciate the texture of the sauce. Delicious too

• Red lentil soup with North African spices

  • Partyof7 on August 25, 2018

    Very fast and easy. The herbed butter drizzled on top takes it over the top. Yum

• Simple chocolate sheet cake with milk chocolate frosting

  • Partyof7 on July 16, 2019

    Wow! This sheet cake looks so basic, but it is incredibly delicious. My teenage boys devoured it! It will be a go-to dessert. So easy to transport too.

• Our favorite chili

  • Wrluedke on January 01, 2020

    Didn’t have the balanced flavor of other chili I have cooked. Don’t need to make again.

• Tomato and mozzarella tart

  • dc151 on July 07, 2020

    I forgot the basil, but otherwise followed the directions. It was lovely!