LEMON CRINKLE COOKIES from Lauren's Latest

This recipe is from Lauren's Latest. The cookies use both lemon juice and zest, and the dough balls are rolled in powdered sugar. I got 29 1 T./1.5" dough balls. I rolled them in white granulated sugar instead. They spread out as they should, even with cold dough. They taste good but I've had better.

I give these 4 stars.

AMISH-STYLE BAKED OATMEAL from Once Upon a Chef

This is good and comes from Once Upon a Chef. I made half in an 8"x2" round baking dish and got four smallish servings. It took 40 minutes. I used far less cinnamon, no vanilla, no raisins, and I didn't sprinkle nuts on top but did add them to the filling. I chopped my apple pieces much smaller so that they'd cook through more than larger pieces would and they did soften mostly.

I think this needs a little less oats and a pinch more salt and less sugar as it's awfully sweet. I think this would have worked better with quick oats since they're not quite as firm as rolled oats, and they're smaller. The top is a little too firm because the liquids (egg, milk) sank to the bottom, only wetting the oats there.

I grade this a B. 

LEFTOVER RICE PUDDING from Taste of Home

This comes from Taste of Home. I used to make "leftover rice" pudding often over 10 years ago but got sick of it and haven't made it since. You use leftover salted white rice, or make some fresh, which is what I've always done, including this time, add milk, salt, and sugar to it and simmer it until it thickens. That's it. Very simple and basic, and good. I added cinnamon, less than 1/8 t., raisins, and 1 c. diced apple. This recipe called for a little too much milk, in my opinion, so I used 1/4 c. less and that was perfect. This calls for way too much vanilla. I didn't use any.

Because of calling for too much vanilla and not enough salt, I grade this an A-. The directions didn't tell you how much uncooked rice you'd need to equal 2 cups cooked (you'll need 2/3 c. rice and 1 1/3 c. salted water, by the way since rice triples in volume) so if you don't know how much rice increases in volume you'll have to look it up online and you shouldn't have had to. The recipe should have told you.

LEMON CUPCAKES WITH VANILLA FROSTING from Sally's Baking Addiction

These cupcakes come from Sally's Baking Addiction. They were a failure. I made half and used a mini loaf pan (2/3 c. capacity cavities, standard muffin cups are 1/2 c. capacity) and got five using 1/3 c. batter for each cavity, so this made a little more batter than the recipe said it would. I got about 1 2/3 c. batter. I added 1/2 t. poppy seeds, not part of the recipe, but it wasn't quite enough. If you make half a batch you'll need about 3/4 t., which is 1.5 teaspoons for the whole recipe. I made my own glaze for it.

The cupcakes are very dense, holey, shiny, sticky, and sank in the middle. They're edible but something went wrong. Reading the comments on her site others had the same problem as me though we're in the minority with our failures. If I'm at fault I must not have beat the butter and sugar enough.

These get a D even though they're edible. This is the second failed recipe of Sally's in just a few days time.

DUMP AND BAKE CHICKEN PARMESAN from 12 Tomatoes and Happy Go Lucky Blog

This comes from 12 Tomatoes, which they got from Happy Go Lucky Blog. I have to grade this recipe a C just because the amounts of liquid and bake time was way off. I made half and needed an additional 1/2-3/4 c. of water and 22 minutes bake time, so this took 62 minutes in a 9"x2" square stoneware dish. I learned that the hard way when I made this for the first time about 1 1/2 weeks before the second attempt and had to keep opening the oven, letting all the heat out, to add more water. So this time I started with more water, and extra seasonings.

The flavor of this is good but that will depend on which store-bought pasta sauce you use. The topping uses both mozzarella and Parmesan cheese but far more mozzarell. I left out the breadcrumbs. This needs at least equal parts of each cheese since mozzarella is practically flavorless and Parmesan is full of flavor. I added, for half the recipe, 1/8 t. each dried oregano and basil just to give it a little more flavor since the sauce gets watered down, literally. I'm not sure what the purpose was in covering this with foil for just 20 minutes. The liquids are barely warm at that point. I was going to do this on the stove top and wish I had since it's easier to monitor things. Before baking this I baked a boneless skinless chicken breast and shredded it while the pasta baked. After about 54 minutes, when the pasta was almost finished, I added it to the dish, then topped the pasta with cheese. So what should have taken up to 45 minutes according to the recipe took me 62. If you read the comments at Happy Go Lucky Blog you'll see many people agree that there wasn't enough liquid and they had to add more. 

I grade this a C. I would make this again but on the stove and will transfer it to the oven to melt the cheese. 

EASY APPLE CRISP from Life is But a Dish

This recipe comes from Life is But a Dish. I used a 13"x9"x3"/4 qt. baking dish. I chose this one because the topping uses a mixture of brown and white sugar, which I prefer. Most use all brown sugar and I'm not a fan of that. I sliced my apples thin then cut them crosswise to make smaller pieces. I omitted nutmeg and lemon juice/zest from the filling and I added 1/2 t. table/fine salt and 2 T. flour to it. I used 7 T. margarine and 3 T. butter in the topping. I softened both slightly in the microwave because it's much easier to cut into flour and oats if it's not hard as a rock. I truly feel that butter is wasted in an all-butter crumb topping. You get the exact same results with using mostly margarine and you don't get the strong butter flavor.

I'll grade this an A- because the filling, which has a large amount of added sugar, had no salt in it but it desperately needed some. I always use a heaping 1/4 t. fine salt per 6 apples no matter how much sugar is added. This had 4 lbs. of apples (8 medium ones) and a full cup of sugar so it's criminal that we weren't told to add any. The recipe states to use "oats" but didn't say which type, quick-cooking or rolled. Someone in the comments asked the author if they could use quick cooking ones and was told by the author that those "should be ok" so I used rolled oats. It should have been made clear in the recipe.

Edit- I think the topping should use 2 T. less each flour and oats. It's more crumbly than it should be, and I think it makes a little too much for this recipe. You taste the topping more than you do the apples, and the cinnamon is too much. I'd use 3/4 of the topping next time for this size pan but it truly is a great one.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE QUICK BREAD from Baker Bettie

This is the sweet version of the 'basic quick bread recipe' that I made recently from Baker Bettie. I made half in a 1 qt. loaf pan just like I did for the savory quick bread recipe of hers. I used 3/4 t. fine salt but it needed more, probably another 1/4 t. The mini semi-sweet chocolate chips sank to the bottom of the loaf. I lined the bottom and sides of my pan with well-sprayed foil but the loaf stuck slightly in spots so I recommend you line your pan fully with foil or parchment paper. I used slightly more vanilla extract than called for for half the recipe and it was perfect. I used homemade buttermilk (white vinegar added to milk.) This is more like dense cake than bread, which I like.

How this differs from her basic quick bread is that this has sugar, and a lot of it, and cocoa powder. This sweet version rose higher and was more batter because of the sugar, I guess. 

I made a glaze for mine: 1 T. melted butter, 1/8 t. pure vanilla extract, 3/4 c. powdered sugar (not weighed out), and a little water.

I grade this an A- because it needs more salt and I'd already added more than the recipe called for and because we shouldn't have been told to use chocolate chips if they were going to sink.

ONE-POT CREAMY CAJUN CHICKEN PASTA

This was another successful one-pot meal. This one's from Budget Bytes. Things I did differently- I baked and shredded just one large 8.2 oz. boneless skinless chicken breast and added it last instead of cooking it with the pasta, I pureed the fire-roasted tomatoes before adding to the pot because I cannot abide chunks of tomato, and I left out the cream cheese. She said you could use cream in place of the cream cheese so I did, 1/2 c. added at the end. I only used a pinch of cayenne pepper and I left out the black pepper. My Barilla penne took 22 minutes to cook. I added a little frozen and thawed spinach at the end just for looks, really. I added some Parmesan cheese but I couldn't really taste it so I'll omit it next time. I liked her Cajun spice mixture though it doesn't taste anything like store-bought ones I've had.

I grade this an A. I think I'll use just 6 oz. of pasta next time but use the same amount of chicken broth, cream, and tomatoes.