Let me be the first to say I absolutely doubted Martha when she showed how to dye Easter eggs with scarves. I thought it was completely nuts, so I had to try it for myself. I went through my dresser and did not have any scarves I was willing to sacrifice, so Mr. MarthaandMe was able to give me a tie which I cut into pieces.

You wrap the egg in the fabric, with the print part facing the egg. Martha says to twist tie it – I used rubber bands. Then you cover it with a white muslin and rubber band it shut again.

You boil the eggs in water with vinegar for 20 minutes. I took them out, unwrapped them and was completely stunned at how gorgeous they are! This was very simple to do and results are stupendous! I now wish I had blown the eggs out so I could keep them. I am definitely going to be doing this craft again.

Mr. MarthaandMe said that this is hands down the best craft I have done from Martha and he is right. In fact, this is the first craft that I am willing to call a “good thing”!

Let me be the first to say I absolutely doubted Martha when she showed how to dye Easter eggs with scarves. I thought it was completely nuts, so I had to try it for myself. I went through my dresser and did not have any scarves I was willing to sacrifice, so Mr. MarthaandMe was … Read more →

In what will be a continuing series, I want to share with you my garden progress. When I was recently on Martha Stewart Radio, Morning Living, I mentioned that one of my big upcoming Martha projects is a garden. My father is a marvelous gardener and produces mass quantities of vegetables each summer, all summer. I love having fresh veggies in the garden, but Mr. MarthaandMe have never quite gotten the hang of it. When we lived at our previous house we tried to have a garden, but having a toddler and busy jobs meant we didn’t really tend to it well. After we had lived here for a few months, we attempted a garden. We grew some very nice pumpkins (on our pumpkin tree as we called it, since the the vine grew up into a tree!) and not much else. We just aren’t so good at regular watering and weeding.

We’ve made do with some tomatoes and peppers in pots and a tiny little herb garden since then. This year, I am going to try to live up to Martha’s expectations and have a somewhat real garden.

I got started by buying an indoor greenhouse (covered tray) and some seeds. I planted my seeds and lo and behold in about a week, things started to sprout! So far, so good. We’ll see what the rest of the season holds. (yes that appears to be mold growing with my plants – not really a good sign).

In what will be a continuing series, I want to share with you my garden progress. When I was recently on Martha Stewart Radio, Morning Living, I mentioned that one of my big upcoming Martha projects is a garden. My father is a marvelous gardener and produces mass quantities of vegetables each summer, all summer. … Read more →

Martha has a recipe for a rolled omelet in the April issue of Everyday Food. It looked like a fun little thing to whip up, so I gave it a try. You start by mixing milk and flour, which I would not have thought to put in an omelet. Then you add your eggs and salt and pepper. Pour the omelet into your pan (I cut this recipe in half and used a small baking sheet meant for the toaster oven) and sprinkle on the spinach.

This bakes for about 10 minutes, then you sprinkle cheese on and let it melt. When you take it out of the oven, you’re supposed to roll it. I found this to be a bit hard to do since it was so darn hot! I did finally get it rolled and it really looked pretty cute. My slices looked good too and let me tell you, this really tasted terrific! I love spinach and cheese (as you well know if you’ve been following along with me) so this was a great combo in my book. I even ate it heated up from the microwave the next day and it was just as good. I have to say I was pretty surprised by this dish. It was light and fluffy and baked to perfection. And the fact that you can make it ahead and heat it up again makes it a great thing for a holiday brunch.

Martha has a recipe for a rolled omelet in the April issue of Everyday Food. It looked like a fun little thing to whip up, so I gave it a try. You start by mixing milk and flour, which I would not have thought to put in an omelet. Then you add your eggs and … Read more →

My son, previously known as mini-Martha, has requested that he be referred to as Dude Martha. I will do my best to remember! Dude Martha asked me if there were any Martha cookies he could make and got quite excited about the soft chocolate chip cookies in the April issue of Everyday Food. He made these completely on his own and is quite a proficient little baker!

The recipe is pretty basic and the only way it differs from regular chocolate chip cookies is that it uses corn syrup instead of granulated sugar.

He did a very find job mixing it all up and scooping the cookies. They took a little longer to bake than the recipe said (as always). We put it on convection finally and that got the last batch done quickly.

How did they taste? Really great, actually! They truly are soft and have a very nice flavor. Dude Martha has requested that I save this recipe for him, since he plans to make these again and again. Of course, I’ll need to taste test each batch….

My son, previously known as mini-Martha, has requested that he be referred to as Dude Martha. I will do my best to remember! Dude Martha asked me if there were any Martha cookies he could make and got quite excited about the soft chocolate chip cookies in the April issue of Everyday Food. He made … Read more →

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though.

The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use it as breading. Quick and simple. And it really tasted great. You could definitely do this with crackers also. Rachel Ray has a recipe like this where you crush pretzels that I like too. My only comment would that I think I would dump it in the Cuisinart and crush it that way. It was hard to get the pieces very small and I think it would stick better if it was crushed more finely.

The vegetable tian sounds sort of weird and foreign – but a tian is defined as just a layered vegetable dish. Martha says to slice some onion and garlic and thyme (I only had dried) and put itn in the baking pan with olive oil then layer potato, zucchini, and carrot on top. I had baby carrots only, so I sliced them lengthwise instead of making coins. This dish turned out quite nicely. It is a very light and simple dish, but with a lot of flavor. The onions tasted great – almost caramelized. I would definitely make this again. It’s similar to a dish my mom (Big MarthaAndMe) made for us over the summer that I loved.  You take a baking dish and layer in sliced tomato, zucchini, onion and mozzarella cheese as well as some basil. Then you pour beef broth into the dish and cover it. Bake it for about 45 minutes at 375.  Take the cover off and let the cheese on top brown. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for a minute, then pour the liquid out of the dish and serve. It is SO good.

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though. The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use … Read more →

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though.

The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use it as breading. Quick and simple. And it really tasted great. You could definitely do this with crackers also. Rachel Ray has a recipe like this where you crush pretzels that I like too. My only comment would that I think I would dump it in the Cuisinart and crush it that way. It was hard to get the pieces very small and I think it would stick better if it was crushed more finely.

The vegetable tian sounds sort of weird and foreign – but a tian is defined as just a layered vegetable dish. Martha says to slice some onion and garlic and thyme (I only had dried) and put itn in the baking pan with olive oil then layer potato, zucchini, and carrot on top. I had baby carrots only, so I sliced them lengthwise instead of making coins. This dish turned out quite nicely. It is a very light and simple dish, but with a lot of flavor. The onions tasted great – almost caramelized. I would definitely make this again. It’s similar to a dish my mom (Big MarthaAndMe) made for us over the summer that I loved.  You take a baking dish and layer in sliced tomato, zucchini, onion and mozzarella cheese as well as some basil. Then you pour beef broth into the dish and cover it. Bake it for about 45 minutes at 375.  Take the cover off and let the cheese on top brown. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for a minute, then pour the liquid out of the dish and serve. It is SO good.

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though. The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use … Read more →

On yesterday’s show, Martha kicked the show off by demonstrating a “good, green thing.” Martha says you can take old shirts and cut them up and use them as napkins. Hey, I thought, even I can do that! It looked so very easy! Martha said you just cut a square out of the back of a shirt then you can hem the edges or fray them. Basic, simple steps. I really was sure I could do this one! Martha said instructions would be on the site, but they weren’t – just the video of what she did on the show.

My lines

Off I went to Goodwill, since Mr. MarthaandMe has no shirts he is ready to part with. I bought 2 short sleeve dress shirts for $2 each. One is pink and is not a button down. The other is a blue striped button down. I thought they would look cute together, maybe on a white tablecloth.

I got them home and marked off a 12 inch square on each. Then I cut them out. Umm, Martha? How do you make straight cuts? Mine were all jagged and weird, no matter how hard I tried. They looked pretty awful. I tried to trim them once I saw the edges, but that just made it worse. I really, really wish Martha would take the

My cuts

time to explain these kinds of things. I have no idea how to get it straight. There’s probably some expensive tool you’re supposed to have to do this (which really does not make this an affordable project if that is the case).

All right, I said to myself, maybe I’ll just fray it and you won’t notice. Right. That just resulted in an uneven frayed edge. So I tried to trim it again. No go.

Frayed

Now, look, in these photos they don’t look too bad, but I know that if you took one of these and opened it up to use as a napkin you would clearly see how misshapen they are.

The pink dress shirt was probably a bad choice – too thin really to be a napkin. The blue striped button down is a heavier material and I could see using that, although it still does not feel like real napkin material to me. Yet again, I am vanquished by a Martha Stewart craft. Is there no hope for me?? I would have felt to frugal if this had worked.

On yesterday’s show, Martha kicked the show off by demonstrating a “good, green thing.” Martha says you can take old shirts and cut them up and use them as napkins. Hey, I thought, even I can do that! It looked so very easy! Martha said you just cut a square out of the back of … Read more →

It is Easter season and Martha made Hot Cross Buns on her show (also in April Martha Stewart Living), so I decided to get in the spirit and make some. I have never had hot cross buns (I know, hard to believe) and I have to say they never really appealed to me, but I was game to give it a try.

The recipe starts with heated milk and yeast, sugar, butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and eggs getting mixed with a dough hook. I have several important things to tell you. First of all, I dusted off the KitchenAid mixer (and I do mean dusted off) and used the dough hook, which I think I may never have used (it worked quite well). Secondly, I kind of goofed. In the instructions it says to use 1 cup of milk, but up in the ingredient list, it says 1 cup plus 2 tbsp and 2 tsp of milk. The additional milk is supposed to be for the icing. I just was reading along through the ingredients and so dumped in all the milk. I have to say it really annoyed me that this recipe listed it this way! If you are making two separate things, I think the ingredient list should be broken down into two sections so you don’t make a mistake like this!

I got that mixed and then added the flour. The dough was a little goopier looking than it should have been (because of the extra milk), but I just went with it. I mixed in the fruit and let it rise for an hour. It rose nicely. I made it into individual buns and let it rise again.

I was sure it was going to be a total disaster because of the additional milk, but it was perfectly fine! I brushed them with the egg wash and baked them and they turned out nice and brown.

Once they were cool, I mixed up the icing. Here’s where things got a little hairy. The recipe calls for 2 cups of powdered sugar. My icing was like liquid – there was no way it was going to stay in place on the buns. I ended up adding one and a half cups more powdered sugar to get it to the right consistency (and as you can see below, it was still pretty runny).

I piped it on the buns (I cheated and cut the corner off a ziploc instead of fighting with a pastry bag). I think they came out quite nicely.

As for taste? I wasn’t all that impressed, but Mr. MarthaAndMe, who has a long, checkered past full of hot cross buns, told me you need to split them open and butter them. I did that and then I thought they were better.

This was a fun thing to try and it was actually pretty easy to make as long as you have the time for the two risings.

It is Easter season and Martha made Hot Cross Buns on her show (also in April Martha Stewart Living), so I decided to get in the spirit and make some. I have never had hot cross buns (I know, hard to believe) and I have to say they never really appealed to me, but I … Read more →

I posted my Valentine’s and St. Patrick Day trees, so I thought I would share my Easter tree with you also. I have some other eggs around the house and I like to display them in egg cups. I like my Easter tree because it not only has eggs, but it also has rabbits and some baskets.

I posted my Valentine’s and St. Patrick Day trees, so I thought I would share my Easter tree with you also. I have some other eggs around the house and I like to display them in egg cups. I like my Easter tree because it not only has eggs, but it also has rabbits and … Read more →

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to strain regular yogurt and use that instead, even though a few Twitter pals  suggested that. My grocery store, Wegman’s, does not carry Greek yogurt, which I find to be just weird. Another Twitter pal found it at Costco (we don’t have one of those here). Finally, I found it at a small family-owned store in my neighborhood, called Dash’s. However, I paid $6.50 for a two cup container! Not such an affordable little recipe, Martha.

Once I had my yogurt safely home (and delicately placed in the fridge so none of the liquid gold would spill), I got to work. I baked my potatoes, peeled them and because I don’t have a ricer (yet another gadget to add to my growing, expensive Martha to-buy list) I just used a mixer and smushed it up. I added melted butter and cream, the yogurt, and salt and pepper.

March chives

Then, dear reader, I sloshed out in the rain to see if I had any chives coming up. They were there – just peeking out of the ground, so I snipped a few tops and came back in and shook myself off like a dog. I mixed those in.

Then I tasted it. There was certainly no cheering. It was pretty bland. So I added what any potato goes happily with – cheese. Some parmesan cheese (also known as nectar of the gods). That gave it some flavor.

I baked this in a square baking pan for 40 minutes as directed. It came out looking nice and brown. It smelled good too.

But how did it taste, you ask? Ah, there’s the rub. It was not fabulous. It was grainy and kind of dry tasting. Thank goodness I added the cheese because it really would not have been great without that. I know the Greek yogurt is healthier than sour cream, but I would much rather use light sour cream than Greek yogurt in this dish.  Or maybe even a mixture of the two would give it the moisture it lacked. So, I’m afraid I can’t recommend this dish. Not a good thing.

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to … Read more →