Recipe Review from 8/25/08

Warm weather continues to bless us with it's presence, though parts of Minnesota to the north of us has freezing temperatures early last week. I only made 8 new recipes for August, quite a bit less than I had hoped. But I was gone for 5 days the first week of Aug and the second week of August was all "leftovers". So not bad for two weeks of actual cooking.

(Photo from FineCooking.com)

Yellow Pepper Soup (Fine Cooking, July 08, pg 60) 4.5
This was supposed to be a chilled soup, but the weekend was cool enough that I served it warm. This was also a recipe that I just sort of followed: I was to bake the peppers for 1 hour, but I decided I wanted to grill them, I seeded and halved before grilling, and I used my immersion blender instead of farting around with a food processor.

The flavor of the grilled yellow peppers blended with onion and jalapeno pepper for a bright kick was good. The recipe lost points in the putzy department. I probably should have baked them, but it seemed easier to grill. But it still took time to peel and quarter the darn things. For such a simple soup, having only a handful of ingredients, it took over an hour to make.

(Photo from CookingLight.com)

Zucchini Eggplant Lasagna (Ckng Lght, Aug 08, pg 119) 4.0
This recipe has been receiving quite a few comments on the Ckng Lght BB. The most common comments were how dry the recipe turned out to be and some concerns over the “no-boil” noodles. For some reason I had it in my head that the recipe turned out runny. I made sure I had the correct type of “no-boil” noodles and I decided to take the extra precaution of de-watering the eggplant a bit more. Well, as I was assembling I observed that in no way was there going to be enough liquid and I had to ADD water to the dish. Had I read the reviews correctly I would have known that...

This was a beautiful, light, and tasty vegetarian lasagna, and like the majority of lasagna’s, heavy on the prep. I sliced, peeled and salted the eggplant and let it sit for 15 minutes; then blotted dry and popped it into the oven for 10 to start baking. The zucchini needed to be sliced. The cheese grated. The sauce simmered. Thank heavens I just needed to take the noodles out of the package.

I’m also becoming more convinced that the US should move to a weight measurement instead of a volume measurement. Recipe called for 1 large eggplant. Well, my 1 large eggplant wasn’t big enough. Recipe called for 2 medium zucchini. Ummm...what is considered a “medium” zucchini? Again, I'm not sure I had enough. Same with one large onion - homegrown garden large or supermarket large?

However, when all was prepped, counters and dishes cleaned and the dish baked, this was a very good lasagna, and I had to tell the Husband hands off! for lunch the next day as it’s our dinner for the coming nights. I would make this again, putzy-ness and all.