"Over cooked" is the term that seems to have been coined when someone moves the sliders too far to the right in their tone mapping which adds that cartoonish look to their shots. It's not really a precise term, so when I say "cook" it more what I mean is make some adjustments to try bring out the details in the shadows. Since you are going for a more realistic look it needs to be subtle so you don't end up "over cooked" but still manage to get those details in the shadows to show.
There's a really good tutorial up on sticky, but I still think people (not you necessarily) confuse HDR with super saturated tone mapping. I'd never even heard of HDR (or seen it) until I registered on this forum a couple months ago, but I admit when I hit the forum it was the super saturated examples that caught my eye. Then I kept reading and then I "got it". It's all about the dynamic range, getting details to show in light and shadow that can't be seen in a single exposure. Being what it is, the tone mapping portion of the processing does allow that surreal saturation and it does work for some shots, but even then not too much of it.
Without seeing your original shots I can't tell if you need more shots or just some more adjustments in processing (the guys here with the experience can probably tell you though).