Maureen Sawyer > Recent Status Updates

Made Fried Chicken. Texture is decent, a bit too much white pepper for me. Good instructions.

Just received this today from Costco.
I saw this young guy on the cover and thought it might be just another influencer with a cookbook. But as I flipped it open, I liked that he covered the basics, then discovered he included QR codes with links to videos on how to make them. NOW that is a brilliant thing to add!!

Made the Baked Shrimp Scampi. Honestly was really surprised about how good this was. The panko soaked up the garlic butter so it wasn't pooling around everywhere. Will definitely make again! of course its Ina so it makes a lot but was just right for 4 people.

Made Coq Au Vin. Very good but think I would prefer bacon to pancetta next time. And definitely less broth or maybe some gelatin for more body/mouth feel. Definitely garnish with parsley for bright flavor.

Corn Risotto - Good, but lacking depth and needing some more corn umph. I would replace some chicken stock or maybe a special vegetarian stock with most of the water. Also noticed it was too much water and ended up soupy - would add less then add more if needed.

Made regular Snickerdoodles they were good, not better than others I've had though. The texture wasn't as good as I like. I used Kerrygold butter and that did add to the flavor, but not sure if that impacted texture. Will try other recipes to see how they compare.

Made the Peanut Butter cookies. Used Reese pieces instead of Peanuts and made them a bit bigger. They were perfect. Going to dip them in chocolate and freeze.

Made the Peanut Butter cookies. Used Reese pieces instead of Peanuts and made them a bit bigger. They were perfect. Going to dip them in chocolate and freeze.

Made the Ginger cookies. I cut back on the candied ginger a bit to about 1 T because they were for friends and I didn't want to overwhelm it. Also only had regular molasses instead of light. They turned out great. I would try with some more of the candied ginger cut up very small. Texture was chewy the first 2 days and softened a bit after. Still very good. Used organic sugar and it was really nice on the outside.

Made Mustard Chicken Thighs - Very good, would like to try with sweet onions, and maybe thyme (dill was NOT good when I tried some on it) Excellent with Ina's Parmesan Smashed Potatoes.

Made Orange Chicken. The sauce is a bit sour for me (however think it is pretty authentic and that it is just my taste buds) but the method was great. Think it would still work great with other sauces. Would love to try with air fryer too.

Made Southern version of Pho Ga. Very yummy and easy but felt like something was missing compared to restaurant pho. Need to compare the two.
Made M&M Cookies. Very yummy and great cookies, but Chocolate Chip is still my favorite. Liked that you could freeze them.

Made Coq Au Vin. Very good but think I would prefer bacon to pancetta next time. And definitely less broth or maybe some gelatin for more body/mouth feel. Definitely garnish with parsley for bright flavor.

Made Parmesean Smashed Potatoes and they are amazing! Was very surprised.I've made a lot of Mashed Potatoes in my day and these were decadent! Will make again!

Made Peach Raspberry Crisp.. BEST INA DESSERT YET! SOOOO GOOOD!

Made the Ginger cookies. I cut back on the candied ginger a bit to about 1 T because they were for friends and I didn't want to overwhelm it. Also only had regular molasses instead of light. They turned out great. I would try with some more of the candied ginger cut up very small. Texture was chewy the first 2 days and softened a bit after. Still very good. Used organic sugar and it was really nice on the outside.

Made brownie cookies.. accidentally added 3 tablespoons too much butter, and did everything in the wrong order. Added different toppings. Turned out very soft cookies, but they were still delicious.

I made the Cream Cheese Brownies but modified with Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour and I ran out of sugar, so I used Allulose for the white sugar in this recipe. Overall it was pretty good. But was a bit cakey, and lacking in chocolate flavor and cream cheese tanginess. Granted, I switched up the recipe a bit. And for being GF and lower sugar it was great. Want to try fudgy recipe or add in choc chips/nuts

So far I've made the Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and they're delicious. Important notes: Age the dough in the fridge for at least a day, use chopped chocolate, don't over bake, I liked them a bit smaller size than other cookies, and add the flaky sea salt on at the end.

So far I can't seem to get into it. The way it is written with short bursting 1 to 3 sentence paragraphs is preventing me from enjoying what sounds like a good story.There is a reason why you should vary your sentence lengths. Right now it feels like shot gun burst which destroys building atmosphere and hurts my eyes. I may have to do this one via audiobook where a narrator can hopefully add some personality to it.

Wow.. really giving me so much to think about. Thinking everyone should read this.