Notes about Recipes in this book

• Potato gratin

  • Nancith on January 19, 2024

    This was a nice gratin of sweet and regular potatoes but rather than a creamy sauce-like consistency, I ended up with curds and whey & don't know why exactly. I did sub half and half for the heavy cream, the milk + half and half did come to a boil for a short while (which it wasn't supposed to), but this experience is new to me in many decades of cooking. Was it the accidental boiling, or the oven temp (375), or the absence of heavy cream? I don't know! Anyone with insights, let me know! Anyway, if you make this, hopefully it will be creamy and not curds & whey! It still tasted fine but was disappointing appearance-wise.

• Spinach and lentil soup

  • Nancith on January 28, 2025

    So good, so flavorful! I chose to add the sherry vinegar to the pot rather than individual servings; that & the olive oil at the end were the flavors that seemed to pull it all together! One of the best lentil soups I've made!

  • Lottabooks on March 14, 2025

    This recipe calls for green lentils. Despite cooking the soup much much longer (and adding in the tomatoes later on so that the acid didn't affect the cooking of the lentils), the lentils were CRUNCHY. I threw the rest out. Ironically, the author lists types of lentils and their uses on the next page, and states that green lentils are "[b]est in salads or mixed with rice, in tomato sauces, or with roasted vegetables." Perhaps she should have called for brown lentils.