I've had a busy couple of weeks, but I'm back with some reviews!
Bacon, Lettuce, & Tomato Bucatini
(issue 63)
I have made this twice in the past week, it was so good! The first time was for guests and I followed the recipe almost exactly (adding twice as much spinach and a few more tomatoes). The second time I didn’t have any dry white wine opened, but I did have a dry red so I used that and subbed balsamic vinegar for the red wine vinegar (and added additional spinach and tomatoes). It’s difficult to decide which I liked most, but I’m leaning slightly toward the second version. Very flavorful with the bacon adding a smoky taste and the garlic bread crumbs contributing a nice crunch to compliment the thick pasta.
Vegetarian Thai Curry
(issue 63)
Curries are a specialty of mine and I like trying new recipes, even if the sauce ingredients in this one were similar to many others that I use. I was interested in this particular recipe because I’ve never used potatoes in a curry before (since I serve over rice, the double-starch seems redundant) but I had a couple to use up and they went into the pot. First, I think that one tablespoon of curry paste for 4 servings is on the hot side for a mass-marketed recipe. I usually add ½ teaspoon per person as a starting point, even though my husband likes it hotter. One of our guests is fairly insane about the amount of heat that he likes and he used 2 teaspoons, mixed with some additional coconut milk, in his bowl (in addition to the curry paste already in his portion). Yowie! Another guest couldn’t eat more than a couple of bites because it was too spicy for him. What is that saying about “pleasing all of the people all of the time…”?!
All in all, it wasn’t a spectacular recipe, but it was quite good. I added 2 teaspoons of fish sauce for the salty taste (Thai food is delicious in its balance of sweet, sour, and salty and I was surprised that the recipe contained brown sugar and lime juice, but no fish or soy sauces).
Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls
(issue 63)
Yep, these would’ve been very jumbo! I made 18 rolls (in two 9”x12” pans) instead of 12 and they were quite large enough! The dough was wonderfully tender, if a pain to work with (extremely soft). I like the way plain yogurt “acts” in my bread doughs, so I subbed it for the buttermilk, and I used skim milk instead of whole milk. For the filling, I reduced the butter by a third and also used a mixture of dark brown and white sugars instead of all white (I just love the taste of dark brown sugar in cinnamon rolls!).
These were an excellent treat. Tender sweet bread with a swirl of cinnamon-sugar, and the icing was very good. We actually had these for breakfast on our boat on a lazy Sunday morning and I warmed the rolls before we left and had placed the icing in a small zip-top bag so, when we were anchored down and ready to eat, it was simple to snip the corner off of the bag (yes! I actually remembered the scissors!!) and pipe the icing on the rolls. I’ve decided, though, that I find the cream cheese icing a bit of a distraction from the flavors of the roll itself, and I’d prefer a plain vanilla icing in the future. However, the cream cheese icing, eaten with a spoon, was great in itself (hey, there was some left over, was I supposed to just throw it away?!?)
Bacon, Lettuce, & Tomato Bucatini
(issue 63)
I have made this twice in the past week, it was so good! The first time was for guests and I followed the recipe almost exactly (adding twice as much spinach and a few more tomatoes). The second time I didn’t have any dry white wine opened, but I did have a dry red so I used that and subbed balsamic vinegar for the red wine vinegar (and added additional spinach and tomatoes). It’s difficult to decide which I liked most, but I’m leaning slightly toward the second version. Very flavorful with the bacon adding a smoky taste and the garlic bread crumbs contributing a nice crunch to compliment the thick pasta.
Vegetarian Thai Curry
(issue 63)
Curries are a specialty of mine and I like trying new recipes, even if the sauce ingredients in this one were similar to many others that I use. I was interested in this particular recipe because I’ve never used potatoes in a curry before (since I serve over rice, the double-starch seems redundant) but I had a couple to use up and they went into the pot. First, I think that one tablespoon of curry paste for 4 servings is on the hot side for a mass-marketed recipe. I usually add ½ teaspoon per person as a starting point, even though my husband likes it hotter. One of our guests is fairly insane about the amount of heat that he likes and he used 2 teaspoons, mixed with some additional coconut milk, in his bowl (in addition to the curry paste already in his portion). Yowie! Another guest couldn’t eat more than a couple of bites because it was too spicy for him. What is that saying about “pleasing all of the people all of the time…”?!
All in all, it wasn’t a spectacular recipe, but it was quite good. I added 2 teaspoons of fish sauce for the salty taste (Thai food is delicious in its balance of sweet, sour, and salty and I was surprised that the recipe contained brown sugar and lime juice, but no fish or soy sauces).
Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls
(issue 63)
Yep, these would’ve been very jumbo! I made 18 rolls (in two 9”x12” pans) instead of 12 and they were quite large enough! The dough was wonderfully tender, if a pain to work with (extremely soft). I like the way plain yogurt “acts” in my bread doughs, so I subbed it for the buttermilk, and I used skim milk instead of whole milk. For the filling, I reduced the butter by a third and also used a mixture of dark brown and white sugars instead of all white (I just love the taste of dark brown sugar in cinnamon rolls!).
These were an excellent treat. Tender sweet bread with a swirl of cinnamon-sugar, and the icing was very good. We actually had these for breakfast on our boat on a lazy Sunday morning and I warmed the rolls before we left and had placed the icing in a small zip-top bag so, when we were anchored down and ready to eat, it was simple to snip the corner off of the bag (yes! I actually remembered the scissors!!) and pipe the icing on the rolls. I’ve decided, though, that I find the cream cheese icing a bit of a distraction from the flavors of the roll itself, and I’d prefer a plain vanilla icing in the future. However, the cream cheese icing, eaten with a spoon, was great in itself (hey, there was some left over, was I supposed to just throw it away?!?)
