Strata with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Sausage

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Chill Time: 30 minutes to overnight
Cook Time: 35-45 minutes

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (December 2003)

This is another good Strata recipe from Everyday food. I made this along with the Canadian Bacon Strata for an Easter brunch and both were very well received. This one ends up almost tasting like pizza so has a completely different taste than the other one. It takes a bit more time because you need to chop and onion and brown the sausage, but still an easy dish with less than 30 minutes of work and ready to just pop in the oven in the morning.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Prep Time: 18 minutes
Chill Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10-12 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (December 2006)

These are really delicious cookies. However, the dough was not scoopable after chilling. I wonder if it is because I used chocolate chips instead of a bar semi-sweet chocolate. The other thing I did different was to use Andes little chip/chunks, instead of putting one on top for frosting. I will do that in the future though, because these will be great Christmas cookies, and worth the effort.

The prep time included waiting for the melted butter/sugar/chocolate mixture to cool, so this is really a pretty easy recipe. Putting mints on top will make it take a little longer.

Orecchiette with Sausage and Roasted Peppers

Total Time: 28 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (September 2004)

This is a good recipe for under 30 minutes. It doesn't call for broccoli but you can cook it in the pasta water before the pasta. I'm always happy when I can add broccoli or more veggies to a recipe and this works well. You can use jarred roasted peppers, but I roasted mine from scratch, and was still able to finish recipe in under 30 minutes, by starting the water and peppers at the same time.

Canadian-Bacon Strata

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Chill Time: 2+ hours
Cook Time: 46-60 minutes
Rest Time: 10 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (May 2006)

This is a great recipe. It is very easy to put together, you just need to grate some cheese and toast the english muffins, and then basically put together. It is a perfect brunch recipe and it was a hit at our Easter brunch today.

Baked Brown Rice (Tex Mex version)

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 70 minutes
Rest Time: 10 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Me and Cook's Illustrated

I took the idea of cooking Brown Rice in the oven and the Curried Tomatoes and Peas version that Cook's Illustrated had, but created a different version using different flavors. Red Gold has petite diced tomatoes with Chipotle (Fiesta Mexican would work too) and so I decided to combine that with some black beans to create a vegetarian meal.

1.5 cup brown rice
2 t. olive oil
2 1/3 c. water
1/2 t. salt
1 15 oz Petite Diced Tomatoes with Chipotle
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 oz shredded cheddar cheese


Preheat oven to 375.

1. Spread rice in glass 8x8 baking dish (or slightly larger, especially, if the sides are not too high).

2. Bring water, tomatoes with juice, oil and salt to a boil in a covered saucepan. When it comes to a boil add to rice in baking dish and stir.

3. Cover pan with 2 layers of foil tightly. Bake for 60-70 minutes until rice is tender. Stir in black beans in the last 15 minutes.

4. Remove from oven which rice is tender. Sprinkle cheese, and fluff with fork. Cover with clean towel and let sit for 5-10 minutes to absorb some steam.

Low-Fat Chocolate Pudding

Time: 20 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (June 2004)

Still trying to use up the gallon of milk I bought on sale, and this is a good recipe to use. This is supposedly "low-fat", and it definitely has less calories than the regular ATK pudding recipe which uses half-and-half! But it is still very rich, and not really "low calorie". It is very delicious really with a rich chocolately taste. My milk was 2% which is the lowest fat they suggest using, and it was a bit runny for me. It is best with whole milk.

Classic Macaroni and Cheese

Total Time: 35 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (March 2004)

CI has perhaps as many recipes for Macaroni and Cheese as they do biscuits! And they all seem just slightly different. I usually use a modified version from Cover & Bake, but I tried this one because it called for all milk in the sauce and I had bought a gallon of milk on sale and was wanting to use as much of it as I can. It was good as the other and I don't know that I could distinguish one from the other.

Like anytime I make a CI version of this, I cut my sauce recipe in half because I find their recipes too saucy for me. Actually, I did a 60% cut because it called for 5 cups of milk and 5 tablespoons of butter. It worked well and was just perfect (for me.) I used whole wheat bread for the crumbs and like them a lot, because they are bit nutty. Also, I didn't want to break open another thing of butter, and only had 1 more tablespoon for the topping, instead of calle for 3. I tried spraying the top with a little olive oil spray, and that worked well too.

I get this recipe done quicker by using two pots. I don't want to have to wait to finish cooking the pasta to make the sauce.

Chicken Pot Pie

Prep Time: 50 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (May 1996)

Recipe Source: Cover & Bake

CI has newer versions of Pot Pie, but I do like this one. I decided midway through to use a 2nd pan to speed things up. If I had done this earlier the recipe would have taken closer to 40 minutes most likely. One pan, would have taken me an hour - mostly because my chicken took a while to cook through.

I lightened it up just a bit, by using a little less butter. The biscuits are very rich, and I actually think I could have gotten away with decreasing butter to 4 T. I only used 2T ot butter for the sauce instead of called for 4T. This was perfect, in my opinion.

Black-Bottom Cupcakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes (if items are at room temp)
Cook Time: 23-25 minutes

Grade: B+

Make Again: Maybe

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (April 2007)

I had to make these two times because the first time I forgot to add the flour - whoops! I think part of the problem was that I tried to cut recipe in half, since it makes 24 cupcakes - way more than I wanted.

These are good, but I would like a little more chocolate flavor I think. I overcooked mine a minute or two I think, but they were still fairly moist. I'm not a big cake lover, but like these more than most. And since you don't need frosting, these end up being light if you make with lower fat cream cheese and lower fat sour cream (which I did.) I think about 200 calories each, which is pretty good for a cupcake.

Hearty Tuscan Bean Soup

Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 60 + 30 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (March 2008)
Recipe: America's Test Kitchen TV Show (Season 9)

This was good, but takes a while to make. I think if I make again I will use canned beans. I actually probably overcooked my beans, because they were taking too long, so I upped the heat and then they got a bit mushy. But I love kale in soups and this very flavorful. It was my first time using pancetta in a recipe and I liked it. Although I think bacon would be good too.

For a quicker version though Everyday Food has a good recipe too. Maybe not as perfect, but tasty regardless.

Anadama Bread

Prep Time: 19 minutes
Rise Time: 90 minutes x 2
Bake Time: 40 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Restaurant Favorites at Home

I really like this bread recipe. It is has a nice texture from the cornmeal, but it is nice and sturdy like sandwich bread. It gets its pretty color from molasses. It is fairly easy to make, but you do need to sort of cook the cornmeal (medium grind) in some hot milk first, to keep it from being too grainy.

My first rise took longer than the 90 minutes even though I did do it in the slightly warm oven, but the 2nd rise was more timely.

Shepherd's Pie

Prep Time: 40 minutes (35+5)
Simmer Time: 20-25 minutes
Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Recipe Source: Cover & Bake

This was good, but I don't know that I liked it better than the Cook's Country Version which is similar but uses beer instead of wine. I used ground beef instead of lamb, and it works fine, IMO.

Better Bran Muffins

Prep Time: 19 minutes
Cook Time: 16-20 minutes

Grade: B+

Make Again: Maybe

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (May 2007)

I liked these, but I think I might like the Bran Muffin from the Best Light Recipe better. (However, these have less calories - 237 without the raisins.) CI also has a previous regular recipe and both of their earlier recipes use Wheat bran instead of All-Bran cereal, which is where this recipe gets its bran. I will have to try the other ones again and compare. These are good for breakfast and not quite as sweet as other muffins so I like to have these on hand.

These take a little longer to make than most muffins because you have to grind the cereal in the food processor, and then you let the wet mixture sit with the cereal in it for 5 minutes.

Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 10 minutes (per sheet)

Grade: B+

Make Again: No

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (January 2008)
Recipe: America's Test Kitchen TV Show  (Season 10)

Note: Recipe link to the TV Show is for the salty version. The one I tried didn't have the salt sprinkled on top. 

Yes, these are pretty tasty, but I think I prefer the chewy kind, so probably won't make these again.