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Pecan Pie Bars: Cookbook Review 1

This month, Zoe & Eric are reviewing The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book, a cookie/dessert cookbook. This cookbook is all about shortcuts, making cookies with pre-made mixes and other shortcuts to make the process easier and faster.

Zoe’s Take:

8/10

I love pecan pie. It’s my favorite at Thanksgiving and my favorite at Christmas too. The biggest problem I have with pie is that the crust is often too much. With these pecan pie bars, I felt like I didn’t have to deal with a large amount of crust while I was eating it, which was definitely a plus. What I didn’t like so much was that the shortcut in the recipe made it so the pecans I added last didn’t really want to stay on the top, they just sunk into the batter. I also didn’t use corn syrup, I used honey instead, which didn’t make a big difference. I would definitely recommend these bars to a pecan pie lover, or someone who has a ton of people coming over for the holiday.

Eric’s Take

8/10

This cookie bar was delicious. It’s really just a denser pecan pie that you can cut into bars. The big “short-cut” here was using cake mix for the bottom. The recipe called for a 18.25 ounce package. The problem with that is most cake mixes don’t come in that size. It’s difficult to account for measured conversions when baking with eggs, so I just ignored the fact I was missing some mix. This was used in the crust, which is baked first. The dough wasn’t the easiest to spread, but I eventually got it level. The mix was easy enough to put together, but in following the directions exactly I believe I over-mixed my “Filling” (The pecan/custard part). The directions called for mixing for a minute on low speed, then a minute on medium speed. This recipe was also very rich. A square inch of this bar is enough for me. Those last two reasons are why this recipe lost two points. Overall very good and they ended up being a crowd pleaser!

December 5, 2018
#3: New Brunswick Slider

Zoe’s Take:

9.5/10

This was a really good slider that I was not actually expecting. The idea of using a ‘pot roast’ as slider meat seemed a little off to me at first. I’m so happy that I was wrong. Everything about these sliders was just SO GOOD. So why didn’t I give it a 10/10? Two reasons. The first reason is that it takes at least 5 hours to make between slow cooking the roast and making the sauce. The second reason is that I felt it needed something. Since I’m really into spicy and hot, I decided to switch out the pickled vegetables on top for my homemade candied jalapeno peppers. For me, that REALLY helped step the slider up to perfection. I definitely recommend you make this slider ASAP.

Eric’s Take:

9.5/10

This is my favorite recipe out of the cookbook so far! I’m kicking myself for not trying this at Epcot. The recipe for the pot roast is relatively basic. I decided to use my crockpot instead of a dutch oven. The sauce was really good too, I love Chinese mustard….which is basically Dijon mustard and horseradish. The lightly pickled vegetables added a great crunch to the sandwich. This recipe lost points on complexity. Similar to Zoe I felt it was a bit long to make the pot roast. Especially when considering the final product. For example, some roast beef would have been just as good and taken far less time. Overall great recipe!

November 20, 2018
#1: Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter, Caramelized Onions, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds Review

Zoe’s Take:

8/10

I really liked this ravioli. First off, I didn’t have to make pasta dough. The use of egg roll wrappers makes this recipe a lot easier for people who don’t necessarily know how to or have time to make pasta. The manchego cheese is what made the ravioli for me though. Butternut squash is good and all, but I love manchego cheese and it really helped the butternut squash become a fuller more nutty flavor. However, the real star of the show was the caramelized onions. Without them, the dish wouldn’t be as good in my opinion. I do think I would prefer that the ravioli be in pasta instead of egg roll wrappers however.

Eric’s Take

7.5/10

This was a great start to this cookbook review. This dish is very substantial. You only need a few ravioli to fill you up. The caramelized onion adds complexity to the otherwise fairly plain ravioli. The pumpkin seeds are more than just a garnish as they add texture to the dish. My only problem with the flavor of this recipe was that it was laking something to cut through the fattiness of all the butter. Brown butter is amazing, but on top of the buttery caramelized onions and ravioli filling, it was a lot. Some additional acidity may have been nice. I took liked the ease of the egg roll wrapper as a shortcut. However, if I were to make this recipe again I would probably make pasta dough. It’s relatively easy to make, and much easier to fill. The size of the ravioli in the recipe was also a problem for me. It was a good size, but very difficult to cut without a very small biscuit/cookie cutter, which most people don’t have.

November 7, 2018
Bob’s Burgers Burger Book #3

I’ve Created A Muenster Burger

Perfect patties topped with sauteed mushrooms and smothered in muenster cheese.

Zoe’s Take:

7/10

I was really excited about this burger and I was sadly disappointed by it. What this burger lacked was crunch. I think butter lettuce and green leaf lettuce are both good choices, but they’re not crunchy enough to be the only crunch in this burger. The muenster cheese sandwiching the sauteed mushrooms is amazing. I hate when my burger toppings just fall off, but the cheese acts as an anchor, holding the mushrooms in place. In fact, not a single one fell off my burger. I wish there was some acidity to the burger though, a tomato slice would have been nice, or some crunchy red onions. I also definitely recommend adding salt to your mushrooms.

Eric’s Take

7.5/10

Mmmm…Cheeeeeesssseee…. This burger was really good. I agree though that this burger lacked a lot of texture. It was very one note and soft. The butter with the mushrooms added a wonderful flavor and the cheese was great. Some additional flavor would have rounded out the burger. Seasoning the mushrooms is a must. I also would recommend some sweet/Spanish onion with the mushrooms. This burger lost its points on flavor. I found the ingredients the easiest to source and prep so far, this is definitely a really good recipe for a quick dinner.

October 17, 2018
Bob’s Burgers Burger Book Review #2

The Sweet Home Avocado Burger is an all-beef patty coated in a sweet lime sauce, topped with fresh avocado slices, sweet onions, tomatoes, peppers and stevia leaves (if you can find them).

Think… fresh crunchy veggies meets tangy sweet limeade.

Zoe’s Take:
7.5/10

The sweet and sour of the lime and honey marinade was interesting and totally different than what I normally look for in a burger. The vegetables on top were basically a simple fresh salsa. I love avocado, so that was perfect no matter what. It definitely needed a little more salt added on top of the avocado. I chose not to use a whole wheat bun, but that’s my personal preference. I would have liked something not so sweet on the burger, so I would have changed out the regular peppers for jalapenos or serrano peppers.

Eric’s Take:
6/10

This burger has a great concept. Bring in a lot of sweetness and combine it with buttery avocado and a slight bitterness from the stevia leave. Unfortunately…stevia plants are NOT easy to find, especially in the fall. I actually went to a few nurseries and spice shops and had no luck. I did find out that Lowe’s Home Improvement carries stevia plants in the spring, so I might try this burger again. The other issue I had was that the ingredient proportions were off. I ended up with a lot more veggies then I needed. Overall the flavors were really good. Marinading the beef in a lime juice made it slightly more tender. The instructions were a little confusing, so I didn’t add the honey to the lime juice when marinading the meat. Still added a nice flavor. This burger also had great textures. The four points for me were lost on difficulty of sourcing the ingredients, ease of instructions, appropriateness of ingredient amounts, and a missing component to cut the sweetness.

October 10, 2018
Bob’s Burgers Burger Book Review #1

This month, we at One More Bite with Zoe & Eric decided that we just had to review the very interesting, very intriguing Bob’s Burgers Burger Book. The “cookbook”, edited by the series creator was released in 2016, and features 75 recipes based on the Specials of the Day chalkboard seen in the popular animated sitcom. It was very hard to choose just 5 of the featured recipes to test and showcase for you all, but being October, we just had to give you some of the Halloween and horror themed burgers. Find a new review from this cookbook for the first four Wednesdays of October and tune in on Tuesday the 30th to hear our final thoughts!

Zoe’s Take:

7.5/10

I really liked the burger itself because I have this wonderful love affair with feta cheese. I used less salt in the patty because of how salty feta cheese is. Of course the chive spread was great, but I would have definitely liked less Dijon mustard, I didn’t find that it worked too well, because dijon mustard is just really strong.. What was definitely missing was fresh vegetables, I love frickles as much as the next person, but that doesn’t make up for some lovely lettuce and some red onion and tomato. Also, more chives, always more chives. And I definitely thought it helped to put the frickles on the burger, not just as “wheels”.

Eric’s Take:

8/10

This was a great burger to start with. I loved the creamy dijon chive mixture and fired pickles with the slaty feta burger. I paired this burger with a brioche bun, which worked well. I also used a 85% lean ground beef because I was stuffing the patties. The recipe was easy to follow and the ingredients are easy to find. This recipe lost two points for the following reason. Like Zoe, I felt the burger lacked a freshness component. With the fired pickles and feta it was a bit salty and desperately needed something like fresh tomato. All the flavors were there though, and in general I felt hit earned a good score.

October 3, 2018