I constantly find recipes online that I’d like to try. One of two things happen: I either print it off, and then lose the paper (despite multiple attempts to organize such things), or I leave the tab open, which is why at any given time I have 50 tabs.
Enough, I say!
Henceforth when I find an interesting-looking recipe, I’m going to add it to this list. That way, I’ll always be able to find it again. I’m aware that there are websites that help one track this sort of thing, but they have limitations, advertisements, and could one day reformat or cease to exist.
I’d like to review more recipes more often, but time is always a factor. So if I list a recipe and then try it out and don’t like it, I’ll move it to that category with a brief note about what went wrong. If a recipe rocks, I’ll put it in that category.
Recipes to Try
Breakfast
Double Chocolate Waffles with Strawberry Syrup
Poppy Seed Crepes with Strawberries & Cream
Lunch/Dinner Main
The Only Marinara You’ll Ever Need
Potato Gnocchi with Browned Butter and Sage
Cast-Iron Chicken Pot Pie with a Cheesy Garlic Biscuit Crust
Side Dish
Bread Machine Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
Cheesy Roasted Garlic Potato Balls
Roasted Ranch Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese
Cheesy Cauliflower “Bread†Sticks
SAUTÉED PEAS WITH MUSHROOMS AND THYME
Dessert
Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
Deep-Dish Cookie Pie (with beans for a healthy alternative), and I like Mother Rimmy’s suggestion to add some cocoa.
Blueberry Cornmeal Shortcakes with Lemon Cream
Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Waffle Cookies
Chocolate Tuile Spoons – there’s peanut butter mousse there too but I’m not very interested in that. It’s the spoons I want to try!
Chef Mitch’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones
Tuxedo Cake – someone brought this to a potluck recently and it was fabulous. I need to try it myself.
Baked Apples with Oatmeal Streusel Topping
Dianne Holgate’s Life Changing Apple Pudding
Charity’s Gluten Free Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies
Recipes I Loved and Will Make Again
Breakfast
Jumbo Zucchini Chip Muffins Recipe – I make these with half whole wheat flour and half AP, then cut the sugar drastically and substitute some with Splenda for baking (so I do 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup Splenda), and I never do the icing. Oh and I use dark chocolate chips, plus add some nutmeg. Then I keep them in the freezer for emergency fast breakfasts.
Banana Nut Oatmeal – I used the brown sugar option. I omitted the cinnamon because I wasn’t in the mood, and I added extra walnuts. I also microwaved it all at once. Oh and I added oat bran and a bit of flax instead of wheat germ because that’s what I had, but I don’t think that affects the taste. It was warm, tasty, and satisfying. I will do this one again.
Lunch/Dinner Main
Cream of Mushroom Soup – Delicious, but I skipped the celery and used the maximum amount of mushrooms. Also doubled the whole thing since it’s hard to find single leeks and only 4 oz of heavy cream. I wasn’t fond of the presentation of the recipe because it didn’t clearly lay out ingredients in purchasable quantities (ie it gives a weight for leeks, not how many leeks), but maybe engineers like it that way.
Side Dish
Dessert
Blueberry Cream Biscuits with Blueberry Sauce – Very easy and tasty, didn’t bother with the sauce. Recipe notes that skipping the sugar and blueberries would yield a savory biscuit, so I’m definitely keeping this in mind for other things.
Passover Flourless Chocolate Cake – Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Hot Fudge Pie – Tasty, but I made it with an under-rounded cup of sugar and it was still a bit too sugary. I’d make it with a half cup next time.
Michelle Obama’s White and Dark Chip Cookies (with butter and Crisco amounts fixed) – Someone brought some of these to a cake club meeting on election night with macadamia nuts substituted for the walnuts and they were OMG-good. I made some using this blog’s amended recipe and they were very good, which makes me think that the blogger is right that the more widely-listed recipe has errors in how much of the fats should be there. I have made these with and without walnuts and both were nice but with walnuts was far better (but I can’t take those to my daughter’s school). Still need to try them with macadamias. I found a bag of pre-crushed Andes pieces in the grocery store and those went very well.
Recipes That Were Okay But Need Lots of Tweaking
Breakfast
Lunch/Dinner Main
Chinese Lemon Chicken Recipe – The chicken itself was quite nice, but with the methodology suggested by a commenter: do the chicken as stated but then dredge it in flour first. I didn’t deep fry, but instead had about a 1/4 of canola oil in my dutch oven and cooked until brown on one side and then flipped. The lemon sauce was not good. Too salty by far (possibly the recipe meant to call for low-sodium broth?), and insufficiently lemony. Also too sweet and that’s with the sugar halved. I am still searching for a lemon sauce similar to my local Chinese buffet restaurant, but at least the chicken from this will be good on its own or with plum sauce.
Side Dish
Dessert
Triple Chocolate Layer Cake – The ganache was nice and I liked the whipping part, so I might incorporate some of that into how I usually make ganache, but the cake itself wasn’t as dark as I like, had a bit of a crumbly texture, and was too dry. It softened over time with the moisture of the ganache but there are better, darker chocolate cake recipes out there.
Orange Pound Cake – other people who ate this liked it but I found it painfully sweet, especially with the low-protein cake flour.
Recipes Not Worth Trying Again
Breakfast
Carrot Cake Oatmeal – I had high hopes for this but it was just Not Good. I didn’t use the optional molasses but I don’t think it would have helped. This didn’t taste like carrot cake, but rather bitter oatmeal. And the pain of grating the carrots in the morning was enough for me to not bother tweaking.
