CHICKEN IN SUN-DRIED TOMATO CREAM SAUCE from Creme De La Crumb

This comes from Creme De La Crumb. I used the sauce mainly as pasta sauce. I did bake one boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced it after it cooled some and spooned sauce over it and used the rest in pasta, tri-color rotini to be exact. The sauce is very good but I only used exactly half the sun-dried tomatoes and half of her homemade Italian seasonings, and just a pinch of salt, and it's perfect. I cooked a little onion in salted margarine so that combined with the salty Parmesan, I didn't need much more salt. The sauce didn't really thicken so I added one tablespoon of flour to the mixture to help it thicken. I'll add a little more next time. I got just over 1.5 c. sauce and used half and half and chicken broth.

I give this 4 stars and not 5 because it didn't need double the sun-dried tomatoes, that's just wasteful, and it needed flour to thicken it.

CHERRY-ALMOND VANILLA CUPCAKES from Better Homes and Gardens

These come from Better Homes and Gardens. I made half the recipe and it made six mini loaves, each cavity using about 1/3 c. batter, so about 2 c. of batter total. I left out the two tablespoons of maraschino cherry juice and used in its place 1/4 c. of chopped maraschino cherries, which was about half of a 10 oz. jar. This is a white cake that has cherry juice/cherries added. Not sure why the word vanilla's in the recipe's name because this has the typical amount of it in the cake.

I give these 5 stars. These are just as moist the next day as they were the day I made them. 

I made neon apple green frosting for them using my own recipe, not the one provided for the recipe. I used 1/4 t. liquid neon green (25 drops) and 2 drop of neon blue food coloring mixed together in a bowl, but I only used about half of it in the frosting, and the color's not showing up right.

 

PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES from Pretty.Simple.Sweet.

These come from Pretty.Simple.Sweet. I just want to state right away I noticed she goes with a MUCH higher gram weight per cup of flour than most recipes use. She uses 144 grams and I typically use 125 grams per cup (I used to use 120 g), which is just over 2 tablespoons more per cup than I'd use. That will definitely make a difference in cookies. I made a pudding cake of hers but I went with the lower gram weight instead of the one she said to use and it turned out great. I decided to go against my better judgement and follow her gram weight for both the flour and oats in this recipe. The cookies did spread some but not like in the photo and are slightly thick. I softened the dough for the next batch and those cookies did spread a little more but still not like her photo. I suspect she flattened her cookies, or some of them, after they came out of the oven because that's exactly how they look. 

I made half the recipe, omitting chocolate chips, and got 30 1 T./1.5" dough balls. They baked in 10 minutes whether the dough was warmed up a bit or cold straight out of the refrigerator. These taste good, are chewy in the middle but need more salt.

I give these 4 stars. 

CHEESY AU GRATIN POTATOES from Betty Crocker

These come from Betty Crocker. The recipe is simple. The sauce was a little too thick and too cheesy and should have been thinner. I did bake this covered, as I always do for potatoes, and that took about 70 minutes, then another 15 uncovered. I didn't put cheese and breadcrumbs on top. I always have a problem with my cheese curdling so it did in this recipe, which is not a big deal.

I give this 4 stars because of the sauce being too thick.

JORDAN MARSH-INSPIRED (BLUEBERRY) MUFFINS from Epicurious

These come from Epicurious. I made half and didn't use blueberries or sprinkle sugar on top. I used 1/2 c. of sweetened dried tart cherries and 1/4 t. almond extract and got seven using 1/4 c. batter for each. I added an additional 1/8 t. salt but they need more. They baked in 19 minutes at 350 degrees F, not 375.

They taste good and are moist when still warm but like almost every muffin I've ever made, these are pretty dry at room temperature. I even added a little vinegar to the milk to make buttermilk to ensure that these were moist but it probably didn't do any good. 

These get 4.5 stars when fresh and warm from the oven and 3 stars after they've cooled down because of how dry they are.