WHITE (CHERRY ALMOND) CAKE from Just Plain Cooking

This dry as can be cake came from Just Plain Cooking. I made half, dividing the batter between two 6"x2" round pans, made a layer cake out it that was 3.5" tall. They baked in 26 minutes (there was still wet batter on the toothpick after 24 minutes) and are extremely dry. I added 1/4 c. pureed maraschino cherries, 1/4 c. ground toasted almonds, 1/4 t. almond extract and I used less vanilla than called for. The cake is made with equal parts butter and shortening and egg whites only, not whole eggs. I made my own yellow tinted frosting for it.

I give this 1 star. It's dry and is a big disappointment.

MINESTRONE SOUP from Bellyful

This comes from Bellyful. It's a good, basic recipe but has too much pasta in it. I left out the bay leaf, tomato paste and zucchini. I used pureed fire roasted tomatoes, 3/4 c., in place of diced tomatoes. I used frozen drained spinach in place of kale. I used chicken broth and water in place of vegetable broth. I only needed 1/4 t. of table salt and I used close to 1/4 t. red pepper flakes in place of black pepper.

I give this 4 stars.

PEACH GREEK YOGURT CAKE from The Chocolatess (and Ina Garten)

This comes from The Baking Chocolatess via Food Network's Ina Garten. Ina's recipe uses sour cream and this one uses Greek yogurt. I made half in an 8"x2" round pan and it filled it full. It baked in 35 minutes in my Breville oven. I used canned peaches that I patted dry and cut into 1/2" chunks. I used 1/8 t. extra salt. This cake is good but not very moist. Becauses my peaches are very soft I actually like them with a drier cake, so it's OK to me that this cake isn't as moist as it should be. The yogurt is fat free. The original recipe uses fatty sour cream which helps make cakes/muffins moist so if I made this again I'd use sour cream, and I would definitely make this again, and I'd add ground pecans to the batter too.

I made a thick glaze for this too. (1 c. powdered sugar, 1 T. melted butter, 1/8 t. vanilla extract, a drop of almond extract, and enough water/milk to make it of drizzling constistency.) 

I give this 4 stars because it should be moister than it is.

TOMATO AND LENTIL SOUP from Classico

This comes from Classico®, makers of pasta sauce. I used ditalini pasta in place of lentils, I used their Spicy Tomato Basil soup in place of the garlic one called for, and omitted basil since it was in the sauce already. Cumin is listed in the directions but not in the list of ingredients so I added 1 t. I omitted celery. I also needed to add an extra cup of water at the end since this got thick after it sat for an hour. I got five average servings out of this. It's good and very simple to make. The only "work" was chopping onions.

I give this 5 stars.

DRIED CHERRY MUFFINS from The Kitchenarium

This recipe's from The Kitchenarium. I made half using almost 1/4 c. batter for each muffin and got 10. The recipe called for no salt! so I added 3/8 t. and it was perfect, as was the amount of almond extract called for. I added 1/4 c. of ground toasted almonds and added 1/2 t. vanilla extract, and those two ingredients weren't in the recipe. Mine baked in exactly 14 minutes on 350. I don't care about getting domed muffin tops so I didn't start them out on a ridiculously high temperature like the recipe stated to do. I didn't coat my dried cherries, which were chopped, in flour before adding to the batter and they didn't sink, nor did I soak them in hot water to reconstitute them, as that's never necessary, ever. They'll plump up in the batter. I made a thick glaze for these.

Like most muffins, these are best eaten still warm from the oven. They're drier after awhile and the next day, so I had to heat them in the microwave. They taste great but I give them 4 stars.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE PUDDING CAKE from The Chocolatess

This recipe is from The Baking Chocolatess. It turned out good. I used two less tablespoons of cocoa powder in the pudding part because I know for a fact 4 tablespoons would have been way too much and would have been bitter. I also used Dutch process cocoa. I also used both light and brown sugar in the pudding along with the white that it called for. I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla in the cake, not 1.5 teaspoons. I always pour the hot water for the pudding into a measuring cup containing the sugar and cocoa powder and stir until it's disolved, then I pour that over the top of the cake. It makes no sense at all to sprinkle the mixture over the cake then pour hot water on top of that. I've been making pudding cakes since 2006 and I do this every time. I used (I always use this size) a 1.5 qt. baking dish. This baked in the time stated. 

I give the written recipe 4 stars and not 5 because of the excessive amount of cocoa powder in the pudding. With my changes, using two less tablespoons, I give this 5 stars. 

EASY LENTIL SOUP

This comes from Diethood. I used chicken broth and water in place of beef broth, omitted celery, bay leaf (I can never taste it), thyme, and greens. I used less oregano and potato too, one large russet (1.5 c.). I used a little less smoked paprika and left out chilis. I used one 15 oz. can of lentils (1 3/4 c.)

I give this 4 stars because the taste is nothing special.

CHICKEN ORZO SOUP WITH SUN-DRIED TOMATOES

This comes from Eatwell101. It's basic and simple to make, like most soups. You'll need to chop up jarred sun-dried tomatoes and onion, that's all. I've never been fond of Italian seasoning so I made my own with a recipe I found online, but I'm not too fond of that one even though I made adjustments to it. I used a lot less sun-dried tomatoes than called for, just 3 T., and that's enough to taste. I used water in place of cream. Orzo cooks fully in just 10 minutes. This could have used a little more, up to 1/4 c. dry, as this is brothy, but that's fine with me. I also used just 1/8 t. pepper flakes and that was more than enough. Anymore and I wouldn't have been able to eat it because it would have been too hot. 

I give this 4 stars.

 

JAM THUMBPRINT COOKIES from Nana's Best Recipes

This recipe's from Nana's Best Recipes. I made half, which used 4 T. butter and 2 T. shortening. I added 3 T. ground toasted almonds (325 degrees F for 4 minutes) to the batter and used half the amount of vanilla. I used a 1 T./1.5" diameter cookie scoop and got 15 cookies. They baked up to be 2.5" round. I used Smucker's seedless raspberry jam. These baked in my Breville oven in 10 minutes. These are very good. The shortening gives them a slightly crumbly texture on the outside and the sugar they were rolled in gave them a crunch too.

The dough in the photo on the website I got this recipe from looks crumbly but mine wasn't. I weighed out the flour using 120 g per cup and 25 g for half an egg.

I give these 5 stars and will make them again. I've been baking cookies from scratch for over 20 years and this is the first of its kind I've made. For some reason a thumbprint cookie never appealed to me. This is basically a much quicker version of a jam sandwich/linzer cookie and was quick to make and no trouble at all. I don't know how the baked and cooled cookies do in an airtight container because I only bake a few at a time and eat them within a short time of baking them.

BLACK BEAN AND TOMATO SOUP from Myself

I came up with this recipe on my own using the exact same flavors, almost, as another recipe. I just used less beans and added pasta and used tomatoes in place of tomato paste. To save over 200 calories, I simmered the onion in water instead of oil/butter.

YEILD: 3 servings

POT: 3 quart

CALORIES PER SERVING: About 200-220 if not using oil

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 c. low sodium chicken broth or water-broth combination
• 1/2-3/4 c. pureed diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 1/2 c. dry ditalini pasta (it will triple or quadruple once fully cooked)
• 1 c. black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 c. corn, canned or frozen
• 1/2 c. onion, minced, cooked in 2 T. oil or simmered in about 3/4 c. water (like I did to cut calories)
• 3/4 t. chili powder
• 1/4 t. garlic powder
• 1/2 t. or so of pureed chipotle in adobo (be very careful of adding too much)
• 1/2 t. fine salt

DIRECTIONS:

• Cook onion in the oil of your choice until mostly done or simmer them in a little water or chicken broth.
• Stir in all remaining ingredients. Cook 15 minutes, uncovered, or until pasta is cooked to your liking.
• Pasta will continue to cook and swell in the hot broth once the heat is turned off. If the broth gets too thick to suit you, add more water or broth, just 1/4 c. at a time.

 

JAM-FILLED COOKIES from Better Homes and Gardens

This recipe came out of my mother's old Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Cookies Cook Book and the recipe is posted below. It's a soft dough that's made with all shortening, both types of sugar, and milk. I made just half. I don't care for the dough. It tastes like oatmeal raisin cookie dough minus the raisins and spices and it doesn't suit a filled cookie, IMO. I cut my rounds slightly bigger, about 1.75", topped with less than the 1 teaspoon of jam (I used Smucker's red tart cherry spread) they said to use (it won't hold that much), and I flattened the top piece of dough in my hand with my other hand to make it larger than the piece below it, laid it on top of the jam and pinched the edges together to seal it and the seal held well, no leakage. They baked in 8 minutes. The edges were crunchy but because of the type of dough this is, it didn't harden much like I was hoping. I was hoping for a crunchy cookie, like a sandwich/linzer cookie.

I give these 3 stars. It was easy though time consuming and I wouldn't make again because of the type of dough this produced. 

DARK CHOCOLATE (AND PEANUT BUTTER) SANDWICH COOKIES from Tablespoon

I made half the recipe and got 20 slices/10 huge sandwich cookies. I unintentionally cut my dough slices too thick and baked them too long but they still turned out great. I made my own peanut butter filling (frosting) for them, not the marshmallow one in the recipe. These are made with Dutch process cocoa powder, hence the 'dark chocolate' in the recipe name. These have a hint of that particular sugar cookie flavor, and butter flavor. Good recipe and I'll make these again. I don't like that the 2" slices turned into 3-3 1/4" slices when cooked so next time I'll make my dough log 1.5", not 2".

I give these 5 stars.