Melanie W.'s Cornbread

I have yet to find a homemade cornbread recipe that I love. I was hoping this one would do it for me, but it didn't. It was a little dry (could be my fault), not sweet enough (even though I quadrupled the sugar), I don't like chunks of corn in my cornbread, or perhaps it was the strong rosemary flavor from my creamed corn, I don't know. For now I'll stick to my boxed mix (those little Jiffy boxes are great!)

Aside from increasing the sugar and decreasing the salt a pinch, I followed the recipe. If I were to go back and remake it I might add a little extra buttermilk, maybe it would have helped with the dryness? And, as you can see, I don't have a cast iron skillet so I cooked it in this glass dish. (but a cast iron skillet is on my kitchen wishlist!)

Danielle's Stroganoff Sandwiches

I have to admit, I didn't think I would love this recipe. But I'm glad I made it. Max and I both really liked it.

Like Deanna, I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. I'm not a big fan of ground beef, but I actually think ground turkey worked better in this recipe. I think ground beef would've been too heavy.

Other things I did differently were that I cooked the green pepper with the onion and turkey because I'm not a big fan of raw (or close to raw) green peppers, and I used fresh garlic instead of garlic powder. Also, as you can tell from the picture, we had ours open-faced, more like stroganoff on toast rather than sandwiches. We just thought it would be a lot easier and less messy to eat that way.

This was a very easy, quick, delicious dinner.

Danielle's Sun Dried Tomato Jam

I have mixed feelings about this tomato jam, and I can't really explain why. Every time I taste it, I experience the same thing -- half of my brain is saying, "Yum! This tastes good!" and the other half is saying, "Um, there's something there that just doesn't work for me. Jury's still out on it." The half of my brain that thinks it tastes really good has the edge, but I can't say I totally love it. I really want to love it, but every time I eat it there's a little something there...

That being said, I love the look of these little crostinis. I got a thin little french baguette, and these made perfect, beautiful little bite-sized appetizers -- which I promptly served to myself for lunch. :)

A couple of side notes -- I liked this better warm than cold or room temp. Also, I know this is supposed to be a "jam", but I think I might have liked it better without the sugar. You know, more savory and less sweet.

Cami's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf

I had high hopes for this loaf. It sounds like something I would go crazy for but in the end it was okay. Just okay. I also had problems with the outside being 'well done'. If I were to do it again I think I might drop the temperature a little so it cooked more evenly.

The taste did improve and deepen the next day. It also improved when I put some left over cream cheese frosting on it. That was tasty!

Danielle's Lemon Loaf

Yum! I was really impressed with this recipe. I like lemony things, but this was even better than I expected! The cake had such a well-rounded flavor, and I think it just may be the best lemon cake/bread I've ever had.

I also only made a half-batch (one loaf is plenty for the two of us). Based on what Melanie said about the butter, I only used 1.5 sticks instead of the 2 it called for (I generally try to use as little butter as I can get away with) and I thought it was perfect. I think the butter is what gave it the well-rounded flavor, but it didn't have a definite butter taste. I also used a little more lemon juice and zest because I had so much extra.

I was too impatient to wait for it to cool completely, and I'm so glad I didn't. The slightly warm cake was fantastic! I actually kind of wished I hadn't put on the glaze because the warm cake was so good by itself. I'm kind of torn about the syrup and the glaze. While the cake was warm, it would've definitely been better without the syrup and glaze. After the cake sat overnight, it tasted pretty good with the syrup and glaze. I think next time, though, I'll try either a plain sugary glaze (not lemon flavored) or a glaze with only a slight lemon flavor. I really just loved the cake itself, and the syrup and/or glaze are non-essential additions in my opinion.

I will definitely be making this again some time.