Notes about Recipes in this book

• Spanish migas with fried eggs

  • averythingcooks on October 27, 2022

    Cut in 1/2 for the 2 of us, this was a tasty (and quick) dinner that made smart use of my freezer (bacon, a couple of baguette ends and a mix of chopped anaheim & cubanelle peppers). Because we ate this beside scrambled rather than fried eggs, I also added a small container of olive oil braised grape tomatoes (also from the freezer) to keep the mix moist and for added colour. A repeat idea for sure.

• Malted milk pancakes with Nutella maple syrup

  • Bessp on August 11, 2024

    I just couldn't get these to work. I made the recipe exactly as stated. I tried on a variety of heat levels, from medium to extremely low, and the bottom of the pancake burned every time before it reached "bubbles pop and don't fully close up immediately", and they were taking like 15 minutes per pancake at the very low end. The pancakes didn't rise in the pan and were very weak structurally, so I ended up with very floppy, thick crepes with quite a bit of char. If I tried to flip them when the bubbles were just starting to pop on the surface, they just totally fell apart. It's entirely possible this is user error somehow, but I've made plenty of other pancakes before with no problems. I think between the 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of milk powder in the recipe, there's just too much sugar in the batter.

• Italian pasta and bean soup

  • averythingcooks on February 03, 2026

    I used the finely chopped bacon, ditalini pasta, Great Northern beans and fresh oregano. I also added some hot Italian sausage meat with the onion & celery and frozen spinach + fresh basil near the end for some more greens/veg. This is nice winter soup that we will have no trouble working through this week.

• White chicken chili

  • averythingcooks on November 01, 2022

    This made a great one pot "cold & rainy" fall supper. As I never have hominy on hand, I used creamed corn from the freezer for the blender step and added pinto beans later in place of whole hominy. I have a freezer full of roasted peppers (poblanos, Anaheim & jalapeno) which went in and I am always happy to use the results of my late summer canning - this time my tomatillo salsa. It is easy to up the heat re: your preference (which I did) and we really enjoyed this creamy bowl.

• Shrimp pad Thai

  • BrendaD1962 on May 01, 2022

    I’ve made better. It was just ok. Wouldn’t make again.

• Elote

  • averythingcooks on November 16, 2022

    I had to move the cobs up in the oven to get the desired cook (1st time I've cooked cobs under the broiler) and after that...we are corn OFF the cob people. I sauteed a mix of red onion, orange pepper & green onions and then stirred in the corn. The "dressing" was delicious (with a mix of feta + a little parm) but a 1/2 recipe was more than needed for my 2 cobs so I just added it slowly to taste. A very nice little side that is worth repeating.

• Skillet sausage and cheese pizza

  • averythingcooks on November 18, 2022

    We really enjoyed this pizza using a mix of sweet & hot Italian sausage, their dough recipe and my own pizza sauce from the freezer. After much debate / online reading we opted to start the sausage cooking 1st rather than putting raw meat directly on the pizza & I also added thinly sliced red onion. The instruction re: starting the skillet (I used cast iron) on the burner before moving to the oven does produce a nice crisp crust - just watch it carefully because the change from "not done" to "done" happened very quickly! This is worth repeating.

• Fried pork sandwiches

  • averythingcooks on May 16, 2024

    I cut a 10 oz piece of pork tenderloin into 1/3'ds for 3 crispy cutlets. I keep a jar of broken crackers/ends of bags so I used those in place of the saltines. I liked the flavour of the crispy crumbs & the addition of mayo to the egg mixture. Roughly 5 minutes per side at 400 F in the air fryer was perfect and rather than make sandwiches, we ate these with a rice/black bean combo & some jammy peppers.

• Buffalo cauliflower bites with ranch dressing

  • averythingcooks on April 15, 2026

    I just made the ranch dressing to dress a simple romaine salad. I thinned it with a little buttermilk and it certainly did the job for us.

• Beef taco bake

  • averythingcooks on April 30, 2023

    I cut this in 1/2 (6" round) and I made my own refried beans using a mix of pinto & navy beans from the freezer which worked well. I made the meat mixture on the stove top (ie why the microwave??) & customized it to ensure ours was quite spicy. I also used a mix of pepper jack & cheddar. I prepped the layers early in the day so it came together quickly at dinner. I've made similar recipes that we liked better but we still enjoyed it with some pickled onions & sour cream.

• Classic macaroni and cheese

  • averythingcooks on October 21, 2023

    This really is a classic version that uses Monteray Jack + sharp cheddar. We thought the cheese sauce needed a little more "something" so I threw in a handful of parm and some hot sauce. A mix of fresh bread crumbs from the freezer & melted butter worked for the crispy topping (quicker/fewer dishes than the method here) and as always, added a large handful of ham. Even a 1/2 recipe made a very large pan (serving 4 easily) and with Monteray Jack on hand, this is worth repeating.

• Baked Brie with honeyed apricots

  • averythingcooks on December 18, 2022

    This inspired a great little appetizer. A small wheel (rind removed & cubed as instructed) fit perfectly in my smallest cast iron pan. I did not make this topping as I had a little jar of apricot jalapeño jelly to use up. I upped the holiday look by sprinkling with a mix of diced jalapeños & red fresnos, baked it until it was bubbling hot and served with crackers. I like this method as I got a much more uniform bake on the cubed Brie (compared to a whole round) and the pan contained all the melted cheese perfectly. I can see using this method again (and again!) with varied toppings, including this one :)

• Ultimate spicy beef nachos

  • BrendaD1962 on October 29, 2022

    Fantastic! A definite hit in our house. Highly recommend.

  • averythingcooks on February 12, 2024

    This was a great platter of fully loaded nachos for Super Bowl viewing. I did tweak a couple of things. We prefer mixing black beans into the meat mixture rather than using refried (so those chopped jalapenos just went into the pan) & I included dollops of tomatillo salsa to each layer of chips. Chopped tomato & green onion were the toppers and we devoured these with a sour cream/tomato salsa crema.

• Pizza dough

  • averythingcooks on November 18, 2022

    I made this dough for the skillet pizza from the same book and it was fine....but I do make others that I like more for various reasons. I seem to prefer doughs that proof the yeast 1st and have some actual kneading involved but still rise in the same time or even less.

• Giant chocolate chip cookie

  • averythingcooks on November 22, 2022

    This is baked in a 9" spring form and is very quick to put together. To us, this seems more like a blondie than a "cookie" based on its consistency but it is certainly very tasty :)