Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Although CI's demographic certainly includes decent cooks and enthusiasts, I'm fairly certain they include -- and target -- a goodly number of not-so-decent cooks who are looking for reliable recipes.

All,

Sound like it's time for The Pop Tart Recipe: http://josho.com/schnooks1.htm

Welcome to Americas test Kitchen, the home of Cook’s Illustrated where we specialize in …

Creating problems that any decent cook would avoid ….to attract a goodly number of not-so-decent cooks…. with uninspired, dumbed down and repetive recipes.

Does that completes this week’s “not a mugging"

Da*** ...Yet another hole in the ol' tongue.

Some of the older CI recipes are still my go-to favorites...carbonnade, black bean soup, rich beef broth, chicken and 40 cloves of garlic, fresh pasta, Alfredo sauce, and slow cooker meatballs and marinara. The chocolate sour cream bundt cake is a keeper too as is the old fashioned cake with fudge icing. I'm sure there are a dozen more I'm forgetting. I still enjoy the magazine, but find I'm cooking from it less. I may have aged beyond their target demographic.

Totally agree with Carey; I have at least 40+ recipes that are bullet-proof hits.

And, just to go sideways a little bit, BA enticed me back with an incredibly low priced, one year subscription - what a startingly poor demise that is! Do not waste your time & $. very sad

I didn't even realize BA was still in print.

So I took a 2nd look at the new CI magazine, and now that my feelings about the anchovy laced chicken stew have passed, I found 2 recipes I would like to try: beef and onion Ragu (DH pointed it out), and caldo verde soup (which will have to be a stealth maneuver as for all his Italian heritage, DH is not a fan of greens). There's also a pork rib roast that looks good, but with just 2 of us it's a lot of leftovers and I find leaner cuts of pork don't reheat that well.

Posted yesterday, this is a good example of the types of tweaks Mark makes to the CI recipes: http://myyearwithchris.wordpress.com/

We just had the second half of the Beef and Onion Ragu last night after freezing it for a couple of weeks.[without the Rigatoni]. We decided that if it makes another visit to our table, it will be with Mini Riggies or Penne. Neither of us liked the scale of the full sized pasta with the shredded meat.

I really liked the Caldo Verde soup, but it is only as good as the sausage. My sausage left a bit to be desired but it should be fairly easy to find a better tasting one.

So far, the star of the Nov\Dec has been the olive tapenade. Very nearly addicting.

I am grateful to have found CI when I did, back in 2004 or so. I was struggling as a cook (my mom never uses recipes and although what she makes is great, it's not my style of food for every day life) and found the science explanations behind the CI recipes invaluable to help me learn why things did or didn't work. CI and Canadian Living (who had their own program on the Canadian food network) became my go to sources for "bullet proof" recipes.
Like Carey, there are quite a few CI recipes that are in regular rotation at our house, I just made the old fashioned pot roast and glazed carrots on Sunday and am making the drop biscuits tonight to have with the leftovers; the pan seared chicken breasts with vermouth/sage sauce and French chicken in a pot are my kids' favourite chicken dishes and the beef tacos are a mainstay, as are many other recipes. Having said that, I rarely buy the magazine any more since I don't need more/better versions of what we like already and what works for me. I will buy the annuals if I find them cheapish as I like to have them for the few recipes a year that I find intriguing, but it's not necessary anymore. Conversely I still subscribe to Canadian Living magazine, even though they too repeat things over time. The difference, for me at least, is that CL offers articles that I find interesting and the recipes are generally created with efficiency in mind, they really know their target demographic. So even if it's a new chicken recipe, it's not going to take me all weekend and it's going to deliver on it's promise, and I likely won't even need to grocery shop for any non-standard ingredients.
And let's face it, if it wasn't for CI we wouldn't have all met. And I wouldn't trade that for anything.