Rock_lobster

Steel mill chili haiku: "easy and tasty. Only small swap that I made, frozen corn for canned." I didn't want to use a full 15 oz can of corn (I think beans or meat should be the star of chili, not to far nutritionally-inferior, but humble, filler that is corn) so I used about 1/2 c. frozen. Otherwise, followed recipe letting it simmer longer and serving with our favorite scoopy corn chips. Yum, what can I say - 2 year old ate it voraciously, and the adults ate it with the addition of hot sauce.

Big Ray's Kielbasa Cabbage Skillet for a Crowd Haiku: "Heavy paprika. This CAN really feed a crowd. It was just too sweet." We love the way cabbage absorbs the delicious slippery-ness of sausage grease, but between the butter, sausage, and the sugar, this was just too TOO much. Paprika was also such a dominant spice that if I made this again, I'd drastically reduce the sugar along with the paprika. The recipe also didn't say anything other than cooking the potatoes for 8 min. in the microwave - covered? uncovered? stir half-way through? The pre-cooking of the potatoes added simplicity to the timing of the recipe but for somebody who doesn't usually microwave spuds, I could've used some direction.

Texas Chicken Vegetable Soup Haiku: "This soup made me laugh. Um, where are the vegetables that are in its name?" Green onion and cilantro are a flavoring garnish, not a vegetable, so I guess it was the bottles of juice that gave this recipe its "Vegetables?" The taste wasn't bad at all, but it was so liquidy due to how much chicken broth and vegetable juice went into it. Even with the cheese and tortilla chips, we just didn't like texture or lack thereof - my 9 year old said it reminded her of a bowl of the "sauce served over burritos in a Mexican restaurant." I salvaged the leftovers the next day by adding a can of drained black beans, a 1/2 c. of frozen corn, and a heavy handful of sauteed zucchini and bell pepper.

Oatmeal Cinnamon Pancakes Haiku: "Pretty good pancake. They were quite thick and poofy. I used quick cook oats." Other than swapping quick-cooking oats for old-fashioned, I was faithful to the recipe, and the pancakes turned out okay (very tall, puffy) , just not cinnamon-y enough for that to be a flavor name featured in the title. With butter and syrup, they were good, just not outrageously so.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds Haiku: "Rinse & dry seeds first? No mention of that is here. Basic crunchy seeds!" This is pretty much my goof-proof pumpkin seed recipe. Nothing wrong with basic oily, salty snack, but sometimes it's fun to jazz it up sugary or spicy style too. Other than rinsing the slime and strings off the seeds and laying them flat on a dishtowel to dry, I can't complain about this recipe.