Potato Buns

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Rise Time: 30 minutes
Rest Time: 15 minutes
2nd Rise: 30 minutes
Bake Time: 18 minutes

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (July 2012)
Recipe Source: America's Test Kitchen (Season 13)

Note: the recipe is available on the ATK TV website and should be available to registered users for the rest of 2014 I think

I love this recipe. Don't be put off by the 45 prep time. That involves down-time while the potatoes are cooking, and the kneading time. The hardest part of this recipe is ricing the potatoes, but it only takes a few extra minutes. A ricer is quite helpful for that step, I'm not sure how well the recipe would work with just mashing the potatoes.

The dough is a dream to work with – seriously, it is the easiest shaping of dough I have ever experienced. The dough rolls into balls quite easily and after the rest is super easy to pat them into correct size. I have made these twice so far and I'm not sure I will buy store bought rolls again unless I am seriously strapped for time. These freeze well so can be made ahead.

My second time with the recipe I saved enough of the potato and potato cooking water to make a second batch the next day. That reduced the prep time to 15 minutes. So I ended up with 18 rolls total. I will be making this recipe again soon this way.

Twice Baked Potatoes with Cheddar and Scallions

Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Cool Time: 10 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes (while shells bake)
Cook Time: 10-15 minutes
Cool Time: 10 minutes

Grade: B-

Make Again: Maybe, with more seasoning

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (January 1999)

These are not hard to make, but take a lot of time. I did shortcut the cooking time a bit by using the microwave to kick-start the potatoes.

The mixture tasted very delicious before I baked the potatoes the second time. But the final product tasted a bit bland for some reason, like it was under-seasoned. I was a little disappointed after the work. They weren't bad at all, but I'm not sure the effort is worth it. I might just prefer adding all the good stuff to a regular baked potato.

Harvest Vegetable Pancake with Salad

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Grade: B

Make Again: maybe

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (September 2011)
(no recipe at link yet, but ingredients listed below)

This is supposed to be pancake made from Beets and Carrots (along with some chickpeas and potato). It is also supposed to be purple. I thought it would be good recipe for me to try beets for the first time since it includes a lot of other ingredients I do like.

When I went to go buy the beets, I was frightened by the thick looking dirty skin and shapes, so I didn't buy any. It seemed like they would be hard to peel. I don't know if they were good ones or bad. So, I decided to just try the recipe without them.

That wasn't a bad decision, but I used almost half the salt, because I thought a lot of the volume would have come from the beets. That was a bad decision. The pancake needed more salt. I also tried to get away with only 1/2 T of oil on the pan, and that made it harder to flip. The taste was decent, but it probably would have been much better if I had used the proper amounts of oil and salt. The salad and goat cheese on top was good. I am toying with the idea of making this again, but mixing in some goat cheese instead of putting it on the top.

3 beets, shredded
3 carrots, shredded
1 russet potato, cooked, diced
1 can chickpeas, chopped
1/2 c. flour
1 t. salt

Mix together and heat in pan coated with 1 T olive oil over medium heat for 10 minutes until crispy on bottom. Use plate to help you flip pancake over. Cook other side 10-12 minutes.

Top with Mesclun mix, dressing and some crumbled goat cheese.

Quick and Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

Stock Prep Time: 23 minutes
Stock Cook Time: 50-55 minutes
Soup Prep Time: 8 minutes (I prepped some with the stock)
Soup Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: America's Test Kitchen TV Show (Season 10) (Recipe at link)
Recipe Source: Best of America's Test Kitchen 2010
Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (January 2009)

Note: This is on the TV show website, so click link above and print, if you would like the recipe. It will probably be available through this year only.

I rarely make homemade chicken noodle soup, because dealing with chicken parts grosses me out. This recipe is pretty simple though, and most of the stock flavor comes from using ground chicken. That is nice and easy. You do have to cut two chicken breasts (on the bone) in half and simmer them in the stock for 30 minutes which also provides some of the flavor (and the meat for the soup.) Cutting the breasts was the hardest part for me. (I'll skip the details on why, because I don't want this to be an unappetizing read!)

The recipe ends up taking about 2 hours from start to finish, but there is really only 35-40 minutes of hands on time, so it is not a lot of work.

The soup was really, really good. The man in my life, who just really doesn't care that much about food (much to my dismay) said after his first bite "Wow, this is good." To elicit that response means it really was good. The broth was very flavorful and potatoes and carrots were perfectly cooked, along with the chicken. I used a frozen thicker Egg Noodle. Mrs Reames (I think.) It was my first time with them, and I think I would use them again, because they are more substantial. I didn't have parsley, so I added some peas at the last moment for a bit of green. I would definitely do that again. I also cut the chicken instead of tearing it, because I hate tearing the chicken.

Next time I make this, I might try doing the stock the day before and letting everything cool down first, so that removing the fat is easier (and you can get more of it.)

I'm not going to make this an A+ recipe yet, but it may get upgraded if after my second attempt I still like it as much.

Oven Fries

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (April 2007, Originally Jan 2004)

This recipe was originally developed for the magazine in Jan 2004, but they "lightened" it up a bit for the Best Light Recipe book. BUT, not really. All they did was use 1 teaspoon of oil instead of 1 Tablespoon of oil for tossing the potatoes with, but they still put 1/4 c. of oil on the pan.

Anyway, I lightened these up even more, by only using 1.5 Tablespoons of oil on the pan. I put the pan in the oven for a quick minute to warm the oil, making it easier to spread around the pan, so it was enough oil to keep the potatoes from sticking, and also enough to keep these potatoes quite tasty.

So this is still not a "low fat" recipe, but it is definitely lighter, and probably better than fries. And since I hate frying things this recipe is a great alternative to make when I'm having burgers or sandwiches. Since the fries bake for a while it is easy to make a quick burger or sandwich while these are baking for an easy dinner.

Even the prep time is easy, since 10 minutes of that time is spent with the potatoes soaking in water. So, a very easy recipe for a good amount of taste, makes this one an "A" for me.

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.

Cheesy Potato Casserole

Prep Time: 28 minutes
Cook Time: 70 minutes
Rest Time: 20 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (October 2005)

This is really very good, but a little bit heavy with all the cream. I would like to try using a little less cream next time, which I think would probably work. But it makes a large amount, so this recipe would work well for a large family meal. I included the crusts on the bread topping because I dind't want to waste them, and I think that was fine.

Shepherd's Pie

Prep Time: 60 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Cool Time: 10 minutes
(Prep time included 15 minutes of waiting)

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (Februrary 2006)

This was very good and true comfort food. I have made another CI version of Shepherd's pie from Cover & Bake, that might be better, but it has been a few years. This one was very tasty and used beer instead of wine. I will probably try the other one again this winter so I can compare. It was fairly easy, and allowed me plenty of time to clean up while preparing the basics before popping in the oven.

The one thing I had trouble with was using the 12" skillet to cook the meat - things were falling out, so I switched to my Dutch oven. And I wasn't even using a full 2# of meat (1.6 lb instead). I did add one carrot and some extra peas, but they didn't take up too much room. Also, I had trouble fitting everything into my casserole dish. If I used large enough equipement from the start, including my larger cutting board, I would probably shave 5 minutes off the prep time on this.

Garlic-Potato Soup

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (March 2007)

Some of the prep time and cook time overlaps. You can't prep everything at once, because the potatoes don't go in the soup until after the garlic is almost completely cooked.

I made some bacon to put on top instead of the garlic chips. I think that is a better option for me, because it adds a different flavor, and it was easier. This is a nice hearty soup. However, I think I would up the ratio of red bliss potatoes to the russets actually. Just a little. Otherwise, it was about perfect.

Roesti

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20-25 minutes
Rest Time: 5 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (March 2007)

My cake did not come together as much as it should have. I probably under cooked this - my heat was maybe not high enough. I also should have pressed down on cake more during cooking process. Also, my potatoes were quite small - I needed 10! It probably would take a little less prep time with larger potatoes.

I will make this again because it was very tasty. I used more like 2 T of butter instead of 4 and it was still very buttery. 4 would have been too greasy for me.

Rustic Potato Loaves

Potato Prep: 3 minutes
Potato Cook: 20 minutes
Potato Cool: 20-30 minutes
Mixing Dough: 10 minutes
Kneading: 11 minutes
1st Rise: 20-30 minutes
Shaping: 5 minutes
2nd Rise: 20 minutes
Baking: 45-50 minutes
Cool: 20 minutes or more

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Baking with Julia (contributing baker Leslie Mackie)

It might seem like this is a complicated recipe if you look at all the times listed above. But when you consider that most of the time is unattended, and that this recipe creates a unique type of bread, it really is not so bad. The potatoes are what add an hour to the time. If you had the cooled and cooked potatoes, you are actually spending less than 2 hours from start to tasting, to get this rustic bread.

This bread has a unique flavor from the use of 1.5 pounds of potatoes. It is a great flavor, in my opinion, just different than you might expect. The crumb on this is pretty tight and this makes a great sandwich bread. I have also enjoyed eating it plain.

I tried the bread after the required 20 minutes of cooling, and after it completely cooled, and I think it tasted best after completely cooling. It really still tastes great the next day too.

The recipe explains the process very well and I knew what to expect about this at first very dry dough, and then later wet dough. However, there seems to be one mistake, in that they never tell you to peel the potatoes after cooking them. You are told to cook them with the peel on, but I cannot imagine that you are to mash the potatoes with them on. Maybe that step is in there, but I can't find it!