Posts on Margaret 's profile

Janice Cook: i love puffy pancakes - we have a really simple recipe but it's so comforting

Janice Cook: love potstickers!

Janice Cook: What did you decide on?

Margaret : My Peach Delights recipe - it was light and yummy and everyone liked it. Not a real lot of flavor (you know, peaches aren't a strong flavor) but it was yummy and easy to make. Thanks for asking. Have fun with trial Thanksgiving.

Janice Cook: I always forget about the bookmarks! Soup season will help since it can be frozen in advance and will be on hand when things get busy.

Janice Cook: Hey there, I'm on a similar quest this month. Stumbled on some good reads through sparkpeople (no longer doing the diet tracking there but using sparksavings to handle our budget). There is a blog called 30 bucks a week - it's NYC couple who won't allow themselves to buy more than $30 in groceries. They cheat a bit since it doesn't count alcohol, household products, or eating out. . . but still some inspiring recipes - if you are looking for a good read, google it. Also, the website hillbilly housewife has some recipes that look promising which are budget friendly. I thought of the blog because they cook vegetarian and so do you. Anyways - good luck with your challenge!

Janice Cook: how'd they come out?

Margaret : badly - don't know why. :( tasted good but they didn't bake right.

Janice Cook: awww, sorry to hear that

Janice Cook: mmm i almost chose crab cakes for this week. soon . . . i have a bunch of recipes for them that i'd like to try. good luck!

Margaret : Thanks Janice. I'm trying to cook some recipes I've never made before. Although, to be honest, we've been so busy lately I feel like I haven't cooked a real meal in ages!

Janice Cook: Have fun! I had a crock pot book, a penzey's spice store book, and an old cookbook from sam's bachelor apartment days that I was able to remove from the bookshelf by finally putting our favorite recipes/ones we wanted to try in here. Still a zillion clipped out of magazines but at least that helped make space for some new books I got for Christmas which are the kind which I would probably keep for reference.

Margaret : That's exciting! I got rid of all my clipped recipes when I did the initial conversion to this site. But I still rip pages out of magazines, so a few are floating around. But I used to keep them all in a gigantic binder, and that's been taken care of! I'm working through 'The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook' now, which is awesome. I found about 30 recipes in it!

Janice Cook: That's awesome - I don't think I'll ever finished the clipped ones but the books feel like an accomplishment so I usually focus my efforts there. Some cookbooks I like to keep on the bookshelf for specific reasons but for general recipes that I'd like to try having them in here is my preference.

Margaret : Thanks Eunice! I'll fix that right now. And lentils would really bulk it up. I was thinking of adding some roasted garlic next time!

Eunice : how did the roasted garlic work out? i grated both the carrots and potato and since it was going to be pureed anyways, did this all with the food processor. added the grated carrots and potato straight into the pot that i sauteed the onions and garlic with and fried up just a little for a little bit of caramelization before adding seasonings, lentils and water. used just 1 lb of carrots and added in 1 cup of yellow lentils. added a bay leaf, about 1/4 tsp of grated nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp of dried thyme leaves. and then i browned 2 tbsp of butter, added about 2 tbsp of fresh chopped sage leaves to crisp in the browned butter and added that to the finished soup and whizzed to blend it all up. not sure if you want me to add this to your recipe or not since i changed it up a bit. if you want i could. thanks for the recipe, i enjoyed adapting it! oh and added more garlic because i love garlic.

Margaret : Hey Eunice - sorry I totally missed this comment! Feel free to add this to the recipe! :) Love it!

Eunice : mmmm...definitely trying this out. thanks Margaret!

Margaret : Let me know what you think Eunice. I loved it! :)

Doris Clark: You brave soul. You have a marvelous collection of recipes. I too,love browsing the cookbook section of my library. I currently have Linda Greenlaw's "Recipes From A Very Small Island" I was interested to get it after reading her *The Hungry Ocean" (her true life story the movie "Perfect Storm" was based on.) So keep on reading and writing, as I will, but mostly I'm just reading.

Margaret : Thanks Doris. I was just looking through your collection of recipes as well. :) I love to peek through everyones collection and see what they've got! The library is my greatest resource for cookbooks, and with only 1400 square feet in my house my husband laid down the law about many books I'm allowed to keep... I'll have to check for that book by Linda Greenlaw - sounds good. Thanks for the comment!

Matriarchy: I just got "One-Pot, Slow-Pot & Clay-Pot Cooking" from the library. Found my mom's clay pot and I want to try it out. I love to use the library to try cookbooks and see which I might buy for the permanent collection.

Margaret : That sounds like a good book - we found a clay pot at a local salvation army and I haven't tried it yet. Let me know what you think!

Matriarchy: When I was a kid, we always cooked whole chickens in it, and we called it the "chicken brick." Now that we are reaching the end of the too-hot-to-turn-on-the-oven time, I am already starting to look for roasted and braised goodness.

Margaret : If you're looking for good roasted side dishes - I just added a bunch of recipes from "The Roasted Vegetable". An amazing book!! I'm about half done entering all the recipes I liked out of it. As to the chicken - my mom had a clay pot that she did chicken in once but I wasn't interested in it because the entire chicken was white - the skin never browned! It looked kind of raw to me, so I wouldn't touch it. But I have some bread and side dish recipes for my clay pot.

Margaret : Monday: Salmon Burgers with Grilled Zucchini and Chinese Slaw Tuesday: Sizzling Shirmp, Salad and Chinese Slaw Wednesday: Leftovers Thursday: Bean and Corn Tortilla Lasgna with Avocado Friday: Spaghetti with Zucchini, Walnuts and Raisins!

Janice Cook: oooh - let me know how the lasagna turns out. that sounds delish!

Margaret : I can tell you that the grilled zucchini was maybe the most yummy way I've ever eaten it! :)

Janice Cook: woo hooo!

Margaret : Yea, I'm excited. Got through 1 book on here last night. :)

Margaret : I hear that Eunice. I just added a bunch of new recipes, feel free to comment on those!! :)

Janice Cook: first time making quinoa on your own??

Margaret : Yes indeed. I'm excited! :)

Janice Cook: keep me posted!!

Margaret : I found it to be totally yummy but a little high in calories for a 'salad' for me. So I eat 1/2 a serving during the meal. Yummy and filling! :)

Traci Downing: For when you don't have internet access??

Margaret : Well, more like a safety measure. I like to have hard copies of everything, and frankle the binder that I had all my loose recipes was like 12 inches thick so this site seemed ideal for storing all of them. But I'd still like to have a hard copy available.

Dave Weaver: For now you'll have to go to settings and download your recipes as an RTF file and put that on a CD. We hope to have a better option soon.

Margaret : Thanks Dave. That's a big help! :)

Dave Weaver: hi Margaret. I'm just curious, do you use the WeGottaEat menu planner for your weekly menu?

Margaret : Ha - I do not, but that's only because I didn't know there was a weekly menu planner on the site! I have this neat note pad that sticks to my fridge that I plan everything out on. Or, if it's slow at work, I use little scraps of paper... lol

Dave Weaver: Well, if you get a chance, try it out and let us know what you think. It can be found under the TOOLS menu at the top (called My Recipe Planner).

Margaret : Excellent. I shall try it now. Thanks for the tip!

Margaret : Ok, I just put in my dinners for next week. I don't think I'll bother using it for breakfasts or lunches, that will be too time consuming. I'm sad to see that you can't use things like "leftovers" as a meal so I have empty space for 2 dinners next week. The grocery list tool is neat too. I like them both! Thanks for the great tip! :)

Dave Weaver: Thanks for the feedback. We'll look into letting you add non-recipe items to the planner.

Margaret : That would be super! Then it won't look like I'm not eating dinner at all on Wednesdays or Fridays. LOL

Dave Weaver: We've added the ability to add non-recipe items to the planner. Now you can fill in you empty days :)

Margaret : Hey! Thanks Dave! Now I can eat everyday! :) You're the best!

Eunice : looking forward to seeing your millions upon zillions of recipes. i particularly like your recipe for Chai spiced winter squash puree ...mmmm...

Margaret : Hi Eunice - so glad you like that recipe. I have yet to try it.

Eunice : i love butternut squash and the flavor for this is yummmm! i do hate peeling them, though, so one thing i did change was to split the squash in half and bake until it's soft and tender and then scrape the flesh from the skin that way. fried up onions and shallots with the spices and then dumped the butternut squash and brown sugar in and sauteed some more. used a hand blender to smooth it out with the water. hate peeling butternut squash and hate doing dishes. anything to reduce my work in either of those 2 departments, i'm there. thanks again for the recipe!

Eunice : oh and welcome to WGE!

Margaret : Wow Eunice - I'm glad you both liked my recipe and liked it enough to change it around! I'll keep that in mind about cooking the squash first. That's waaaaaay easier then peeling it. I hate peeling too. :)

Eunice : if you want to be really fancy pants, try to keep shell intact and pour the puree back into it...instant container!

Margaret : whoa - that'll impress the pants off of everyone I know! sweet!