Notes about Recipes in this book

• Autumn vegetable soup

  • eyeGillian on November 20, 2023

    This recipe is on pages 84-85

• Corn soup with pesto

  • mharriman on December 26, 2017

    I made this a day ahead for a Christmas Day first course and it was okay as a precursor to a lobster tail dinner. The dollop of pesto sauce improves this soup. Even with pureeing the soup, the texture isn’t smooth, and that’s why it doesn’t get a higher rating. Because corn is fibrous, I’m not sure any recipe is going to get a super smooth consistency. Pesto- I opted for a full fat version and used a James Beard formula.

• Island chicken

  • mharriman on January 16, 2022

    Tasty and tropical, especially uplifting on a freezing, snowy day. Halved the recipe for two people and used four skinned bone-in chicken thighs. Also subbed fresh juice from one orange and mandarin orange slices for the canned mandarin oranges/juice. The overall cooking time was 35 minutes. Thighs were juicy and tender, and the fruit, broth ingredients were perfect. This is a good one to repeat any time of year. Served with Indian basmati rice.

• Cornish hens with spiced apple stuffing

  • mharriman on March 19, 2019

    Satisfying. My two minced Granny Smith apples made much more stuffing than the two hens I had and they were pretty big hens, so I put the rest of the apple mixture in a small oval baking dish and cooked that alongside the hens. That dish was almost applesauce- nice with everything else. Reducing the temperature to 325 from 450 after 15 minutes seemed too much reduction, so I reduced the temp to 350 and my hens were still not done baking at the additional 45 minute mark. They were ready to eat with an additional 25 minutes of roasting. I made a wild rice mix to go along with the meal and that was a very good complement. Next time, I’d add something to the apple mixture, before stuffing the birds, such as the wild rice. This, like all Jane Brody recipes I’ve made (and I made many when my children were growing up) is hearty and wholesome, but not something to “wow” about. We ate the second half of the birds and stuffing tonight and everything was still moist (heated up in microwave).

• Turkey chili

  • jdjd99 on December 15, 2024

    Have been making this regularly for 30 years. It’s a family favorite. Recently made the best version ever with 1 pound Rancho Gordo Ayocote Morado beans (cooked first), half crushed tomatoes, half petite diced tomatoes, and just one pound turkey. Cooked in covered Dutch oven in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half. Rested a couple hours before serving.

• Swordfish primavera

  • eve_kloepper on March 18, 2016

    excellent, healthful fish dish. served a pilaf alongside.

• Chicken and root vegetable soup

  • eve_kloepper on January 15, 2012

    Perfect example of simple, superb food. It really doesn't need any seasoning other than s & p, although I couldn't help myself and added a bit of minced parsley for color. Didn't have enough chicken broth and filled in with water and white miso. Sublime.

• Russian beef borscht

  • mharriman on January 09, 2025

    Delicious. JB’s recipe makes a hearty beet and beef soup that is full of flavor. I made half a recipe ( 6 servings) but kept the 1 pound of beef. I increased the liquid because six cups wasn't enough to make the vegetables and beef into a soup. This recipe takes a good portion of an afternoon in the kitchen, perfect on a snowy day like today. While the meat was cooking in the consumme, I prepped, cut, and shredded the vegetables, which made good use of the time. I used tenderloin steak for the beef, which was lovely, along with the vegetables. This one’s good enough to repeat.

• Linguine with shrimp and red pepper sauce

  • mharriman on March 17, 2019

    I made this for a family lunch and we thought it was bland. We thought the cayenne pepper added an out of place one note to the butter, shrimp, linguine, and sweet bell peppers. The title of the recipe suggests the red peppers and shrimp are made into a sauce. They aren’t. This is linguine with chopped peppers, chopped onions, and sliced shrimp, with a bit of butter mixed in at the end. I didn’t add Parmesan at the end. Maybe that would have helped.

• Vegetable-stuffed peppers

  • mharriman on December 04, 2017

    This is a good light stuffed pepper (about 227 calories per stuffed pepper) but it lacks depth. It’s pretty bland. The cayenne pepper provides a bit of zing but my husband and I thought it needed more cheese and/ or a sauce or rice/grain. This is good if you just want a light lunch or dinner meal, and I’ll tag it for that kind of a day in my cookbook.

• Jo-Ann's Chinese chicken salad

  • mharriman on December 01, 2020

    I had a big package of snow peas to use up, it was lunch time, and this recipe looked like a quick and good one for both. I used leftover rotisserie chicken, made the dressing while the vegetables were steaming, and had lunch ready in 15 minutes. The grated ginger In the dressing helps flavor this salad a lot. Substitutions: peanut oil instead of sesame since that’s what I had on hand and omitted the zucchini since I was out of it.

• Couscous with peppers

  • Foodfann on June 03, 2021

    Not sure why I rated this a 4 in the past. I even used higher quality curry powder this time and it was still kind of boring. Family not enthusiastic. If I could rerate, I would give it a 2 or 3.

• Stuffed pattypan squash

  • kgmom on July 14, 2022

    A multi step process, but some can be done ahead. Really delicious.

• Green bean and red onion salad

  • mharriman on August 13, 2019

    A quick salad that has a nice bite because of the red onions and homemade vinaigrette. I used a package of microwave haricots- vertes and timed it so they’d be al dente. It doesn’t really get any easier than this!

• Red cabbage salad

  • mharriman on April 10, 2020

    My husband and I really liked this salad. We thought the yogurt based dressing made it a notch above the usual cabbage slaw style salad. I used two small Empire apples and they worked well. I think any crisp apple would do.

• Carrot-apple salad supreme

  • mharriman on April 07, 2021

    Very refreshing take on carrot and raisin salad. I used freshly squeezed OJ instead of orange juice from concentrate. Also used gala apples instead of Granny Smith since that’s what I had on hand.

  • carolfo on March 23, 2026

    It’s so 50s dinner for me. Delicious and reminiscent of suppers in my neck of the woods, Rhode Island.

• Kohlrabi and carrots salad

  • ricki on January 16, 2023

    Perfectly nice without the yogurt or oil, and without tarragon (had neither fresh nor dried). Added thin slices of half a fresh jalapeño.

• Tim's corn bread

  • ricki on March 08, 2018

    Relatively light and moist for a whole-grain corn bread. Cut the honey to 2 Tbsp and increased the fat, using half oil and half melted butter. The sweetness still came through, and I wouldn't any more honey. I will make this again.

  • ricki on January 15, 2026

    Still a favorite. Maple syrup (2 or 3 tablespoons) is good and easy. Also works to substitute durum flour for half the whole wheat.

• Banana-bran muffins

  • jchavelh on November 15, 2015

    Easy and very nice texture. Needs the raisins (and perhaps a drop more sugar)

• Dated bran muffins

  • mharriman on October 07, 2021

    I hadn’t made these for decades and decided to revisit the recipe. Instead of Using All-Bran cereal, I used Bob’s Red Mill Wheat bran. With 1 cup of buttermilk, the batter was quite dry, so I added 1/4 cup. It was still dry, but workable. In the end, the muffins were very much like eating whole wheat toast, with a hint of nuttiness. I could barely taste the dates, probably because there are only 6 dates for 12 muffins. My warm, baked muffin was improved with a teaspoon of butter.

• Pumpkin muffins

  • mharriman on February 23, 2021

    This recipe provides a good hint of pumpkin flavor but not as much as I was wanting this morning. Because the recipe only calls for 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin purée, as much as the raisins called for, the overall effect of pumpkin is diluted. I added another 1/5 cup of purée without much difference in flavor. The other thing I didn’t like was opening a 15.5 oz can of pumpkin purée for only a 1/2 cup. On the upside, my muffins turned out beautifully at 18 minutes. So, it’s a pretty fast homemade baked good in the morning.

• Raspberry-yogurt pie

  • eve_kloepper on March 06, 2015

    Wonderful. I made this with frozen raspberries which was not ideal. Half frozen, for the ones that get pureed with the yogurt and gelatin, and half fresh, for putting directly on crust and decorating top of pie, would be best. I abhore fatfree products and used regular Greek yogurt. I'm sure low fat would be fine, but nonfat should be avoided if possible. Only caveat. the crust is too thin. Next time I will double ingredients for the crust.