Pumpkin Prailine Pie

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Chill Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Chill Time: 50 minutes
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Bake Time: 35 minutes
Topping Time: 10 minutes

Grade: B+

Make Again: Probably not

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (October 2006)
Recipe Source: Best of ATK 2008

This recipe is currently available on the Cooks Country website, but probably won't be forever, so print it out if you want to try it. 

This tasted good, but I guess pumpkin pie is not my favorite. The biggest complaint I have with the recipe was I could not make it as pretty as it should have been. The sugar on top didn't caramelize and after sitting in the fridge all day (which they said was OK) the outside topping liquified a bit. The topping did taste very nice though and I liked that in combo with the pumpkin.

Also, I'm not great at pie crusts, so mine ended up a bit tough, although I thought it tasted quite good.


If I wanted to make a pumpkin pie again, I might try this once more. However, if I was just going to make a pie, I would go with another type. I would like to get better at pies someday.

Dream Bars

Crust Prep Time: 8 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes
Topping Prep Time: 8 minutes
Bake Time: 35-40 minutes
Cool Time: 2 hours

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Best of America's Test Kitchen 2010

I'm not sure where this recipe first appeared.  The author was from Cook's Country but I don't find this on that website. It may be from this Baking book.

I found a copy of the recipe here: Dream Bars

Anyway, these were absolutely delicious.  You must like coconut to enjoy these.  They are rich and delicious.  I have to admit to skipping the pecans in the topping.  I did add them to the crust.  I don't love pecans and I actually burned them during toasting, since I left the kitchen and forgot!  They were fine without, but the nuts probably added a little structure. 

The recipe is super simple.  It takes a bit of time to go through the steps, but only 16 minutes of work.  (Although probably actually more if want to toast the pecans and not burn them.)

I'm not sure how well these freeze yet, but if that works, this might go to an A+ recipe.

7 Layer Bars

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Grade: B+

Make Again: Maybe w/ changes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (February 2007)

These are a little bit different than the easy recipe from on the can of the sweetened condensed milk. The recipe adds toffee bits to the crust (good change), toasts the nuts and coconut (good), adds milk chocolate and rice krispies (fine, but couldn't tell the diff) and also used twice as much condensed milk (maybe not such a good change). I felt like these were just a little bit too gooey. And while I didn't mind the extra chocolate, I'm not sure it added much, so I might skip that step along with the cereal. Of course they tasted good, but just not sure all the updates are necessary.

Oatmeal Snack Cake

Prep Time: 18 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Frosting: 15 minutes (with cooling)

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (May 2008)

This is a very yummy simple cake (said from someone who doesn't love cake.) It is very moist, and I really liked the frosting. I don't have a perfect 8x8 pan, and choose to use my 9x9 pan instead of the one that is really 7.5x7.5. This was fine, just had to cook a little less. However, the frosting did not cover the cake. I hoped it would, because I can usually get away with a less thick layer, but there was not enough. I quickly made a half recipe of the frosting and that was enough. I'd probably use the smaller pan next time.

Pecan-Crusted Chicken Cutlets

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (October 2006)

Wow, this was really delicious. (And I don't even really like pecans!) Well, when they are ground up finely in things, I don't mind them, so this dish works for me. It is very flavorful and the crust was really crispy and good.

The one think I will note is that if you make this with 4 large breasts you may run out of crust, or it will be close. I only used one breast, and included the tenderloin, and used up most of the pecans/bread mixture with a half recipe.

I believe if I made this for others, I would assume a package of 3 breasts will easily feed 4 peoples, because the cutlets were quite rich. I used less oil to fry in, but it soaked up all I used.

Coffee Cake Muffins

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Grade: B

Make Again: No

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated Christmas Baking

These are good, but I think I should give up the idea of making a coffee cake muffin and just make a regular coffee cake, which is easier to me. I hate putting that struedel on the top, it gets so messy. These ended up looking pale and not that pretty, so I probably would not make again.