Notes about Recipes in this book

• Croque monsieur

  • averythingcooks on July 09, 2024

    I scaled this to 1/4 for 2 (very tasty) sandwiches to eat beside a green salad. It has all the expected flavours but also includes herbes de Provence which, for us, requires a light hand. The only issue is that I had lots of extra sauce...so much that I doubled checked my scaling math. I did not use it all & we did not feel like we were missing any on the finished sandwiches. This is a good, classic take on these rich & filling sandwiches.

• Leek babka

  • averythingcooks on May 05, 2020

    First off, I loved Mary Berg on Masterchef Canada and her 1st cookbook is beautiful. So here is my first effort. I have never had good luck with instant yeast but with "warmed liquid+honey" and a "kneading session with the dough hook" I felt more confident. I needed to add more flour (super sticky) and I had to use my new buttermilk powder (in place of milk powder). The dough really was sticky even with additional flour......me = worried!! .... but it rose beautifully and rolled out to the required rectangle easily. It reached 200 F at around 47 minutes and I just had a warm chunk with butter.........I can taste the goat cheese, the leeks and the "homemade breadiness". I really was worried at a couple of points but man - it is just lovely :)

• Cacio e pepe popcorn

  • Singleta417 on February 06, 2025

    Great recipe. Next time I would use less salt cause the parmesan and pecorino is also salty. Fun easy snack,

• Summery corn soup

  • averythingcooks on November 21, 2023

    I used "frozen fresh" summer corn (blanched the cobs, removed the kernels & froze in "1 cob" portions) in this simple but delicious soup. Even without the cobs on hand to add to the simmer, you get lots of flavour from few ingredients. Her photo shows whole kernels garnishing the soup (but is not mentioned in the actual recipe) so I held some back for this purpose. I really enjoyed this light and fresh tasting soup.

• Flank steak with horseradish cream

  • averythingcooks on July 10, 2020

    I scaled the marinade back for a 1 lb flank steak and marinaded it for around 9 hours. The grilled meat was really flavourful (of course flank steak always is in my opinion) but I do think it still needed a more acidic punch (ie in addition to the balsamic vinegar maybe lemon juice?) I did not make the horseradish cream this time but I'm sure I will on a different grilled beef night. With a "blue cheesey biscuit bake" & a simple green salad as sides - this was a great dinner.

• Maple miso spatchcocked chickens

  • averythingcooks on November 29, 2023

    I roasted 1 chicken for the 2 of us and had to use white miso (in place of red) and it was really good. We made some cuts in the skin so that when we smeared the maple-miso mixture over the chicken at the 1/2 way point, we got some contact directly with the meat. We enjoyed this beside roasted carrots & a green salad and agreed that it was one of the better spatchcocked chicken recipes we've made.

• Blue cheese polenta

  • averythingcooks on December 05, 2023

    This was a delicious base for our glazed short rib "stew" last night. I probably lifted the lid and stirred more than she intended (worried about sticking) but it was still thick, creamy & smooth as promised and we loved the kick of the blue cheese. Yet another infinitely repeatable polenta/grits idea.

• Squashed potatoes with gremolata and feta

  • averythingcooks on July 12, 2020

    I was initially worried about the power of lemon in the gremolata (although I should know that is the point :) but once the salty feta was added, we both loved these crispy little potatoes.......they are delicious!

• Tourtière

  • averythingcooks on November 15, 2022

    My gold standard tourtiere is from Chatelaine (which tastes exactly like my mom's :) but I came here to try the hot water crust and expt with scaling down to a smaller pie. I cut this in 1/2 for a 7" springform (which worked) using a 1 lb mix of beef & pork plus some leek & fennel sausage. The filling was flavourful and made good use of herbes de provence. The hot water pastry came together quickly & rolled out beautifully but it did take longer than expected for the top to brown in the oven. We enjoyed this with chili sauce & a green salad but I will say we agreed that we do prefer a more traditional pie crust.

• Canadian baked beans

  • averythingcooks on November 16, 2022

    This does take some planning as you soak the beans overnight, slow cook them the next day and then refrigerate them over night to reheat on day 3....and they are really good. I did turn the slow cooker up to high at around 6 hours (old beans??) to get them softer and I was surprised at how saucy the end product was but we scooped them out taking however much sauce we each wanted and the interplay of BBQ sauce, maple syrup & mustard was just how we like them. Easy choice for a repeat.

• Buttermilk biscuits

  • averythingcooks on June 19, 2023

    I had high hopes here, but this is the 1st recipe from MB that I struggled with. She says the dough should be "very sticky" (to the point of adding more buttermilk to ensure this). Well, after the 1st addition of buttermilk it was...crazy sticky (ie wet) and basically impossible to handle at all. I tried it on the "very well floured surface" but had to return it to the bowl (which itself was not easy) and slowly began stirring in more (and more!) flour until I had something even remotely possible to handle. I kept going and ultimately cut my circle into 6 wedges. They did bake up very tall and they are actually pretty good BUT the journey to get there was not easy :) I can not see how that flour : buttermilk ratio can work.

• Herb salad with my go-to dressing

  • averythingcooks on January 16, 2022

    I made this dressing for a different base salad (green leaf lettuce with red onions, celery and red peppers). With its mix of both Dijon & grainy mustard, RWV, shallots and the surprise of herbes de province, we loved it and I would make it again for sure.