Notes about Recipes in this book

• Chicken paprikash

  • ashallen on October 22, 2019

    Very nice dish with a creamy tomato-pepper sauce. I substituted additional red bell peppers for green bell peppers since I'm not a fan of the latter in this type of dish. Making a half-batch worked fine. [Cross-post for Annual Edition /Magazine /Science of Good Cooking/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

• Pot roast with root vegetables

  • ashallen on October 12, 2019

    Solid, basic pot roast recipe. My husband enjoyed it. I'm more of a beef stew vs. pot roast fan - I like how fat/membrane can melt away in stews whereas they seem to linger in pot roasts - but maybe I just haven't had the right pot roast yet! I wasn't able to get one of the beef cuts specified in the recipe and instead used regular beef chuck. The internal temperature of the roast never quite reached the 210F specified in the recipe. Adding root vegetables part-way through cooking brought the temperature down further. Veggies weren't well-cooked after the time specified in the recipe, which is odd because Cook's Illustrated's usually very reliable on timing. I ended up taking veggies out of the oven pot and cooking them separately on the stovetop to finish. Maybe I was opening and closing the oven to check on everything too much?? Meat was tender - though we would've liked it to have been even more so! [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

• Wilted spinach salad with bacon and balsamic vinaigrette

  • PennyG on February 15, 2011

    Excellent! Radishes from Greeling (instead of red onion) were great. I will use this as my go-to wilted spinach salad recipe.

• Spaghetti puttanesca

  • ashallen on November 10, 2019

    This is a robustly flavored pasta dish that my husband loves (I like it, too!). Flavors are both rich/savory and bracing. No fishy flavor from the anchovies (unless I accidentally chop the parsley/olives on the same cutting board I used for the anchovies - oops). Great with parmesan or feta cheese mixed in. [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

• Cauliflower gratin

  • dbuhler on July 06, 2024

    This is a favorite that our whole family enjoys! I don't have an 11x7 dish so I used my small 9x13 dish and it worked just fine. The crumbs didn't brown that much so I may end the cooking next time with the broiler.