Notes about Recipes in this book

• Spicy nectarine and corn salsa

  • mfto on December 29, 2011

    I have made this several times with peaches. Never have the peaches been very sweet so I have added homemade quince jelly. I may try hot pepper jelly sometime. I also use cilantro instead of chives. When you can't get really good peaches, you have to add flavor.

• Stir-fried Thai-style beef with chiles and shallots

  • mfto on July 29, 2011

    I made this using leftover flank steak which I marinate but then just toss into the stirfry at the last moment. I used the full amount of marinade and sauce. Taste before using full amount of brown sugar and chili-garlic paste. I did not use chiles because it was hot enough for us with the chili-garlic paste. I didn't have the mint leaves but used lots of cilantro. The peanuts and lime wedges are good too. Served with jasmine rice.

  • ashallen on August 25, 2021

    Very fresh, strong flavors that work very well together. I wasn't able to find blade steak and used the flank steak option instead. I'll be more careful next time about how long I cook it since I let it go a bit too long and toughen this time. Leftovers held up better than I expected, but since a lot of the sparkle in this dish comes from its fresh, distinct flavors, I'll make a half-recipe next time for the two of us. Cutting back the fresh chiles to 1 yielded a happy heat level for us. Recipe uses a mixture of mint and cilantro as a substitute for Thai basil, but I'll hunt down the basil next time since it'd be excellent here. Recipe says to cook in a non-stick skillet, but a wok on a gas burner worked great.

• Blueberry buckle

  • annabelle_dc3563 on April 02, 2026

    Additional ingredients: Light brown sugar Lemon zest Vanilla extract baking powder Eggs Really good!! I was worried that the blueberries would overwhelm the batter but it turned out great! I used frozen blueberries. No way the whole thing would have fit into a 9" round cake pan (mine wasn't tall enough) but my 8" square pan worked great!

• Congo bars

  • anya_sf on February 29, 2020

    I've made these multiple times for school bake sales (without the nuts). They're the best.