Notes about Recipes in this book

• Rhubarb shortcakes with buttermilk whipped cream

  • anya_sf on April 21, 2024

    As there are only 3 of us, I made 1/2 the rhubarb and whipped cream, but the full shortcake recipe, freezing the extras. The shortcakes rose a lot in the oven (dough squares chilled 4 hours before baking) and baked up nice and tender. In the rhubarb, not all the sugar dissolved, but that was okay as it was plenty sweet; we ate it all and were happy to have more fruit. Maybe it's my 1% buttermilk, but the cream only got billowy and would not whip to stiff peaks. It worked okay, and we loved the flavor, but would maybe reduce the sugar and try whole milk yogurt instead. Overall, these were delicious.

• Maryland-style crab cakes

  • anya_sf on June 29, 2024

    This magazine actually has 2 recipes for Maryland-style crab cakes: 1 broiled, 1 pan-seared (with additional seasonings). I made the broiled version, served with lemon wedges and not the cocktail sauce. The crab cakes would have been great had I found better crab. Unfortunately, the market only had (jarred refrigerated) claw meat. The recipe says you can use half claw meat, but the other half should be lump meat - definitely don't use all claw meat like I did, as the flavor was too strong. I would definitely make these again using the proper meat. Broiling method worked pretty well even though my broiler is extra strong; the crab cakes started to singe after 8 minutes, so I turned off the broiler and let them sit in the hot oven a couple minutes longer. Skipped the butter at the end.

• Braised chicken and mushrooms over polenta

  • Summerlandsky on May 24, 2024

    This was really good! Not super quick as it takes an hour with all the browning and simmering, but it’s worth it. I had to add more polenta to the liquid the recipe called for, and I didn’t even add all the milk. We also used closer to 2.5 pounds of chicken thighs and there was still plenty of sauce. Will certainly make again.

• Skillet chicken breasts with burst cherry tomato sauce

  • Wende on April 29, 2024

    This is really delicious, and very easy. To be able to give boneless, skinless chicken breasts this much flavor and incredible moistness is miraculous. The sauce could not have been easier, but I would suggest tasting it before adding the butter. Butter might have added silkiness, but I preferred the rustic texture and found that I neither needed the butter for taste nor texture. I could not find cherry tomatoes, but used Campari tomatoes and they worked well even though they did not burst as soon as smaller cherry tomatoes would have. I also threw in 2 extra anchovies because we love them, and held back a tad on salt because of that. I served it with the bread-for-sopping option, but I think this would also be excellent with soft polenta, which was not among the suggested options, as well. This recipe is good enough for company - a definite keeper

  • Kinhawaii on November 27, 2024

    Yum- I loved it with grape tomatoes & butter, but did adjust the herbs to my liking.

• Strawberry-white chocolate mousse

  • anya_sf on March 19, 2024

    I tested this recipe for CC. I made 1/2 recipe, which served 3 nicely, as the mousse was not overly rich. The texture was softer than expected, like whipped cream. The flavor was good, not too sweet.

• Air-fryer chipotle salmon tacos

  • anya_sf on March 19, 2024

    My family loved this. I had 3 smaller salmon fillets; there was just enough chipotle paste for the tops, but next time I'd make more. I removed the seeds from the chiles, so nothing was spicy, but might retain some next time.