Ascher, one way that I scout recipes is by going on allrecipes.com or epicurious.com, then doing a search for say 'brownies' and sorting the results by 'rating' instead of whatever they have it sorted by. Then you can look for recipes that have a ton of 4 star ratings and know that they should be at least decent. I won't make anything that is 3 stars or less ;) Then I go into the reviews for that recipe and see what people are changing up and what they are leaving alone . . . for example, the brownies we love are 'Brooke's Bombshell Brownies' from Allrecipes. They get an insane number of reviews that average like 4 or almost 4. But when you go into the reviews, lots of people say that they are great but very sweet, or that they reduce the sugar by x amount and they are still great. That's exactly the kind of thing I want to know - so I always reduce the sugar when I make them. Enough reviewers saying the same thing tend to be onto something! The one thing I've learned on these sites is ALWAYS read a bunch of the reviews.
Here are the recipes that I have saved in my 'recipe box' on Allrecipes that I know are good:
Buttermilk Pancakes - one warning, this makes a huge amount . . . great with fresh fruit pieces thrown on top of pancakes once you pour the batter into pan
One Bowl Chocolate Cake - fail safe chocolate cake, looks like a liquid wreck when you put it in the oven but has never let me down
Hummus
Sesame Noodles - I only use 2 tbs oil instead of 6, and add a ton of fresh steamed broccoli, green beans, or snow peas- very good if you kick up the spice too
Cream Cheese Penguins - quick and easy instant winner for pot lucks, family get-togethers, etc
Turkey Chili - my mom also makes this, we both love it. you can easily double the spices (except salt, salt to taste)
From my Epicurious 'recipe box' that I know are good:
Mascarpone Cheesecake - could eat this unbaked, all day, every day
Roasted Garbanzo Beans w Garlic & Swiss Chard - can make with kale instead of swiss chard if you want
Spicy Black Bean Soup - so good next day
lamb meatballs - can be made with twice the herbs, and with pork or beef - so good with hummus on pita, you don't really need to add the sandwich bread it comes out ok w/out
A few other recipe links that I frequently reference:
Beef & Broccoli
Martha's freezer granola bars - I make tweeked versions of this all the time, little less honey, add flax seeds (or whatever seeds) and use dried unsweetened cherries, keep in freezer because they're melty - dang son those dried cherries with the hint of peanut butter and honey, SO GOOD
Basic salad dressing - I will mess with this depending on what's in the salad . . . grated ginger is nice or a little peanut butter is nice, chives, cilantro, basil, parsley, yogurt, milk kefir, goats cheese, etc (separately!)
HTH!
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