Recipes: Week 25

 I was originally going to do a post of our Thanksgiving food recipes this week, but then we never made a Thanksgiving meal. Then, I thought I'd do a recipe post on Little Pumpkin's birthday foods. But that didn't really happen very well, either. So I'm just going to continue with my regular recipe posting method, and share more of the regular recipes that we have made, and tried, from the past few months. Those recipes include...

Healthy Apple-Walnut Muffins

This is one of those recipe cards, or pages, that I have no idea where I got it from. It looks like it is part of one of those recipe books that they would mail you a few sample pages in hopes that you will buy the entire book. It is definitely nothing recent, as the pages that I have are a bit yellowed with age. I was curious to try this recipe as it takes no sugar! It uses apple juice concentrate instead. Sometimes things with no sugar can be quite terrible, in my experience, so I was interested to see how these muffins would turn out. I did not have the Granny Smith apples that it called for, and just used the Gala apples that I typically keep on hand.

The Honest Review: For starters, you can see that they didn't turn out looking exactly like the photo on the recipe card! However, these were not a bad muffin! I believe we all liked the flavor, and it was definitely not a very sweet muffin. The texture, however, was a bit tough, or rubbery. My thought is that I potentially over-mixed the batter, and they could have also been a slight bit over-baked. (My oven- it has a schizophrenic thermostat that randomly fluctuates 50 degrees either direction.... So unless I keep a close eye on it, things don't always turn out quite perfect.) While this wasn't a stellar muffin, I think it has the potential to be a good muffin if it can turn out without the chewy, rubbery texture. I want to try this recipe again. This recipe is staying in our collection at this time.

Banana Pancakes

I think that I have more than one banana pancake recipe, but I haven't looked for sure, or compared them. Whenever I have some bananas that don't get eaten before going too ripe, I look for a new recipe to try that uses extra ripe bananas. This pancake recipe was the choice this time. It comes from my sister, Sally, who I believe got it from her sister-in-law.

The Honest Review: Who doesn't like pancakes? Well, there are some folks, believe it or not, who would rather eat something else. While this was a good recipe that we enjoyed, Jason would prefer something else. Especially since they had banana in them. He ate them and said they were ok, but definitely not his favorite. Little Pumpkin and I enjoyed them, though! Someday soon I will have to pull out all my banana pancake recipes and compare them to find the best one. This recipe is staying in our collection.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

This is a recipe that I consider to be a classic, old recipe. I'm not insinuating that my Aunt Jo is old, or anything, but this recipe has been around my entire life. I remember eating it several times as a kid, both at home, and once or twice with Aunt Jo. Jason, on the other hand, has been fairly adamant that he doesn't like tuna unless it's the actual fish steak. He doesn't care for the canned tuna at all, even in sushi! So I wasn't quite sure how this recipe would go with him when I made it.

The Honest Review: First, I would like to say that I think this is a really easy recipe to make. Second, I really like Tuna Noodle Casserole. Surprisingly, Jason also really liked this recipe! Little Pumpkin likes it and eats it well, too. I have actually made this casserole several times, and we all really enjoy it. I will say this, though: if you follow this exact recipe, I find it to be very dry, so I have made some alterations to improve upon this basic recipe. Alterations: Double the sauce recipe. If desired, add frozen mixed vegetables (Jason prefers this), or an additional can of tuna. I also find it hard to fit one recipe into a square 8"x8" dish, so I always use the next larger size pan. If you're looking for an easy, quick, tastes good casserole, this is one I would recommend! This recipe is staying in our collection.

Saucy Chicken and Asparagus

This looked like a very interesting recipe to me. It is another one of those cut-outs from an old Taste of Home magazine from way back when. Does Taste of Home still do that? I haven't seen one of their magazines for ages, but no matter. The biggest concern I had with this recipe was the use of mayonnaise. If you've been following my recipe reviews, you know that Jason does not like mayonnaise and does not care to try anything that has mayo in it. For this recipe, I didn't tell him that it had mayo until after we ate it. (Is that mean?)

The Honest Review: This was....interesting. It wasn't terrible, but it was definitely a different flavor. Jason almost pinpointed the mayo taste in it. The mayonnaise, curry, and lemon juice flavors together were a bit unusual. Eating it all together, with the asparagus, was a unique combination. We  didn't think it wasn't bad, per se, it was just something that we weren't very fond of. This recipe is tossed from our collection.

No-Title Recipe

This recipe, I am almost certain, came from my co-worker Debbie a few years ago. There is no title, or name, for the recipe as you can see. I am pretty sure, though, that it is supposed to be Chicken Tortilla Soup. I have never attempted to make this recipe (it's also missing instructions...), but I know I have eaten Debbie's home-made Chicken Tortilla Soup. Hence why I asked for, and received, this recipe! I decided to try and make this one day, and I was positive it is supposed to be made in the crock-pot.

The Honest Review: Well, it definitely wasn't the most picturesque meal I've ever made! As far as taste...well, the flavors weren't too bad. But, it just wasn't quite right. If I remember correctly, it was very liquid-y; as in the texture was pretty much water-like. I thought that Tortilla Soup was supposed to be a little bit thicker, but I honestly haven't had it in a few years. When I asked Jason his thoughts, he said, "Maybe throw out this recipe that we don't really know how, or what, it's supposed to make, and get an actual recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup." Haha! I'm OK with that plan. This recipe is tossed from our collection.

Squash Bake

I know for a fact that I have multiple recipes, or versions, of "Squash Bake." I think, though, that this is the first recipe I remember having at home as a kid. And, I kind of remember when we got this recipe from Mrs. F. I was not extremely fond of Squash Bake as a kid, I don't believe, even though I did like squash cooked the "normal" way that Mom made it (Brown Butter Squash). We primarily used yellow summer squash at home; I'm not very familiar with other types of squash, to be honest. When my Mom and sister visited in August, they brought us some squash and zucchini from their gardens. Since Jason is not a huge fan of squash, pumpkin, or gourd-type vegetables, I wasn't sure how this recipe would go over.

The Honest Review: I think we were pleasantly surprised with this dish! I know I was a bit surprised when I actually enjoyed eating it. I don't think that Little Pumpkin ate it extremely well, but she ate it. And while Jason ate it and said it was OK, I think he did ask why people eat gourds; that he didn't really see the point. Until I try all the other squash casserole recipes, I will say this one is my favorite. This recipe is staying in our collection at this time.

Sweet Muffins

I actually made this recipe back in Week 21, and used frozen blackberries. I had wanted to try it with peaches, as I thought that just sounded delicious! I finally made these peach muffins this fall using this basic Sweet Muffin recipe.

The Honest Review: These peach muffins did not disappoint! It was hard to not eat them all hot out of the oven as they smelled really good! Not only did they smell good, but they tasted delicious, too, just like I had envisioned. If I didn't say it before when I reviewed this recipe, I'll say it now: I would recommend this muffin recipe with your choice of frozen or fresh fruit! This recipe is staying in our collection.

Well, I'm going to let those muffins wrap up this week's recipe post. I am trying to get caught up on my recipe posting, but in doing so, I have realized that I've kind of fallen off track on what my original intent was. I originally was trying to whittle out all the recipes that we don't like, and organize all the recipes we do like into my very own cookbook. I haven't done so well on the "organize into a cookbook" part and need to get that back in gear. I have two ideas for accomplishing that: 1) keeping the majority of the recipes in their original form and putting them in page protectors in a binder; 2) type out all the recipes, each on a full-page paper, and put them in page protectors (or not) in a binder. My recipes that I use all the time get splattered and grungy, hence my thought of using page protectors. Is one idea better than the other?

What would be your preferred method for organizing, maintaining, and storing your recipes?