Comments on: chopped vegetable, watermelon and feta salad

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 14 May 2012 01:56:21 +0000

I just wanted to say that I love this salad and have been craving it since I first made it. I doubled the amount of watermelon recommended because I love the taste and I had an extra 10 lbs of it lying around. Thank you for posting such delicious recipes!

PS I’m scared of cooking meat. I always without fail make it “crispy” (read: burned) because, uhh, I prefer it that way..

By: Merri

Merri — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:00:08 +0000

This might be oversimplifying things, but a really good rice cooker really does take all the stress out of cooking rice. I think my biggest fear is Indian naan. I absolutely love it in restaurants but I can’t replicate it for the life of me!

By: Noodoggy

Noodoggy — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:32:17 +0000

the fail safe way to cook rice perfectly requires just one thing: a timer. Boil your rice in way more water than it calls for. Boil the water, add rice. When rice grains start tumbling in the boils, set timer for 20 minutes. Boil at a decent simmer for 20 minutes. Drain rice. Perfect rice. It does require more pots and pans than the traditional boil away water methods, but perfect rice every time. And you dont have to worry about how your stove cooks on low lol I use this method until I get a handle on how the stove cooks.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:40:29 +0000

I just wondered if there are any support groups for people who are just afraid to cook, baking I can do when I want to but fixing dinner is just plain scary! It would be nice to find a group where I could be encouraged as I try overcoming my fear.
Thanks, Kelly

By: beth

beth — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:45:00 +0000

Meat. It always comes out burned, overdone, or disgustingly raw in the middle. I can turn heavens with vegetables, but really I don’t know what to do with a chunk of raw animal flesh. Eew. Might help if I were more inclined to eat the stuff – I’m mostly veggie; DH is the (non-cooking) carnivore.

Gravy. Unless it’s the “add-water-to-powder” in a packet stuff.

Biscuits. I live in the south. This is a source of shame here, to only be able to produce hockey pucks, in a land where the lakes never freeze solid enough for ice hockey anyway. sheesh.

BTW, rice: 2 cups (good quality) jasmine rice + 3 cups water in a pot. do not stir. bring to a low boil. reduce heat to lowest setting, cover, simmer 20 minutes. REMOVE FROM HEAT, LEAVE COVERED, AND LET REST 10 MINUTES before serving. this is the crucial step to good rice. same way you’d let a good roast rest after taking it out of the oven.

not that i know how to do THAT. heh.

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:44:02 +0000

Yeast breads used to terrify me. Just this week I started trying recipes, and so far, eh, okay. Facing my fears, though!

By: SusanL

SusanL — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:38:05 +0000

I know I’m a little late to this cooking phobia party (this is what happens with the “Surprise Me!” link)–but I just had to add–souffles scare me. I’ve tried to make them several times, and I’m convinced souffles are like a bad boyfriend: they make you really happy once or twice, but then continuously let you down THROUGH NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN. I went on a souffle bender a couple years back attempting to master the beats, and with no great consistent luck. Sigh. This salad looks delish, though.

By: B'ny from Mt. P

B'ny from Mt. P — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:53:44 +0000

I haven’t ready *every* comment here, but despite my love of guilty confessions, I’m going to redirect: has anyone made this salad? I might have committed the egregious error of over-mixing the dressing. It was runny and pooled in the veggies. There was also way more of it than the photos in the post seemed to show. But I wonder if I didn’t just over-mix, and the photos show the salad without the dressing. Either way, learn from my mistake, people. Don’t mix in the dressing, especially if you tend toward being overly obedient. I’d recommend tossing recipe slavery out the window and serving the vegetables with the dressing dolloped on top.

Thanks for a great recipe, Deb. I enjoyed giving watermelon a run with the serious vegetables.

By: Vanessa @ Tea and Pearls

Vanessa @ Tea and Pearls — Sun, 30 May 2010 04:49:57 +0000

I definitely surprise myself in the kitchen. I’m a pretty bold cook however even the boldest cooks get nervous. My fear is preparing my grandmother’s famous butter cookies without making a mess of the cookie press!

My cousin gave me the recipe so I’m going to make a second attempt around the holidays again. I’ll be sure to document it in my blog.

By: SaveMyPolarBear

SaveMyPolarBear — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:38:07 +0000

I want to be able to do a dinner party without sweating. Kind of an obvious castle-in-the-sky that everyone has, but seriously, what’s the tip to enjoying your dinner party and not panicking all the time?