Grilled Chicken Breasts with Lemon and Parsley

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Marinate Time: 30 - 60 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (July 2007)

This is very good and easy. The nice thing is the technique, which is cooking on a cooler grill at first, and then browning at the end with higher heat. The chicken ends up quite moist. I lightened the dressing a little and used less oil, and it was still great. I will use the leftovers for a chicken salad, and I know it will be delicious. They offered two other flavor variations with this recipe, and I will be trying both of them.

Grilled Garlic Rosemary Potatoes

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes

Grade: C

Make Again: No

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (July 2007)

This recipe was one of the few from Cook's Illustrated that was not a winner for me. It tasted fine, but not GREAT. I would probably just prefer to roast the potatoes, even though that means having the oven on, because it is so much easier. If I want the grilled taste, and was willing to put in just a little bit more effort than this recipe, I would make one of the Grilled Potato Salads, which are much more flavorful, IMO.

Rustic Plum Cake

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 40-50 minutes
Cool Time: 30 minutes

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (July 2007)

Wow, this was really good. I am not a huge cake fan, and prefer my desserts a little more dense, and this fits that bill. The texture of the cake is almost closer to a cookie than a cake, but a little bit lighter. I skipped the almond extract, because I like just a hint of almond flavor, which is what this had. It was perfect.

I did have some trouble, not because of the recipe. After cooking the plums I looked for my 9" springform pan, and could not find it. Very strange, because everything has a place in my kitchen, and I never lose things. I must have brought it somewhere? Luckily, I have smaller pans (a 7" I use to cut recipes in half and 4 4" pans. I didn't quite have a pound of Italian plums, so I ended up using a 7" and one 4" and had a little extra dough, and exactly enough plums. The top of the cakes could have been prettier, but, hey, it is "rustic".

One other issue was that I forgot to check the cakes early, which I really should have because I was using smaller pans. The edges did get probably a little more brown than ideal, but it still tasted great.

I will definitely be making this again. It is so different than any other dessert I have ever made, since it is quite different than most cakes, but isn't a tart or pie.

Zucchini-Romano Muffins

Prep Time: 11 minutes
Cook Time: 22 minutes

Grade: B

Make Again: Maybe

Recipe Source: Muffins A to Z

This is not my favorite muffin recipe. I think it should use more zucchini. However, warm and slathered with some butter (which I normally skip) these taste good. The reason I made them was because I had some milk, pecorino cheese and a zucchini that needed to be used up and this recipe was perfect for that.

Spinach Dip

Prep Time: minutes
Cook Time: minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (May 2002)

This is a pretty good dip recipe and it works to use lower fat sour cream and mayo. It is more green than the usual recipe which I like.

Chicken Satay

Prep Time: 26 minutes
Marinade Time: 30+ minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (Feb 2005)

The recipe says that you shouldn't marinade for more then 1 hour, but I left marinade on for about 8 hours and all was okay as far as I could tell. This dish was a big hit, although I had way too much peanut sauce, so could make a smaller batch next time.

Sugar Cookies

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 12-15 minutes
Decorating: 30 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (January 2003)

These are super easy and taste very good if cooked correctly. The hardest thing is to roll dough out to even thickness so cookies cook at same rate.

Peanut Butter Bars

Prep Time: 18 minutes (including frosting)
Cook Time: 35-40 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

If you like peanut butter and chocolate this is a good an easy recipe. I think I prefer the peanut butter surprise cookies for these flavors though. These are just easier to make.

Oatmeal Cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10-12 minutes

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes



This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated Best Light Recipe. Of all the recipes I've tried (and that is most of them) from the book, this is my favorite. It is easy and these are delicious. I did modify to replace 1/2 c. raisins with an addiitonal 1/2 cup of oatmeal, and it works great. I don't know (or care really) if these are truly "light", but they are great. The taste is quite rich and they end up tasting almost like they have butterscotch chips in them.