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.

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 →

On a recent episode, Lucinda Scala Quinn demonstrated some of the fish recipes from April Martha Stewart Living. Now, I have professed my love for Lucinda before and I must say she has not disappointed me this time.

I decided to make Slow-Roasted Salmon.  Salmon is one of my go-to meals and I prefer to use wild salmon, but it’s out of season, so I had to settle for farmed salmon. When I make salmon I often grill it and serve it with lemon and dill. Sometimes I will oven roast it. Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, has a fab recipe for asian salmon that is to die for.

Lucinda’s recipe is super simple. You mix up some chopped tomato, chopped orange and chili paste (the only chili paste I could find was a sweet and sour Thai version – but that worked for me since I don’t like hot spicy things too much). You slit your salmon filets and sort of stuff them with the mixture, then the directions say to roast at 250 for 25 minutes.  At 25 min mine was still raw, so I cranked on convection and put it up to 400 and finished it off quickly.

This tasted terrific. I loved the citrus flavor and the chili paste gave it a little zing, but not too much for me. It was simply beautiful looking. I’ll definitely make this again. Points for Lucinda.

On a recent episode, Lucinda Scala Quinn demonstrated some of the fish recipes from April Martha Stewart Living. Now, I have professed my love for Lucinda before and I must say she has not disappointed me this time. I decided to make Slow-Roasted Salmon.  Salmon is one of my go-to meals and I prefer to … Read more →

Continuing on with the fish bonanza in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living, I made the pan sauteed sole. Sole is a fish that I make fairly often. I like it because it is mild and quick to cook.

Martha says to dust your fish with Wondra and pan fry it in some butter. When you flip it over, you add thin slices of lemon to the pan. I’ve pan fried sole before, but I’ve never added the lemon slices to the pan, and this was a nice touch. It made the dish very pretty and it seemed to really infuse the fish with a nice taste. I would definitely make this again.

Now for the drama. Although sole is a food I make often, I think this batch caused me to have an allergic reaction! About an hour or two after dinner, I started to feel hot. My entire face, chest and neck had turned beet red, as if I had the world’s worst sunburn. My cheeks were puffy and I was starting to feel like I was having some trouble breathing. I took some Benadryl which did the trick, but also knocked me out. I ate almost nothing else that day other than cereal, fruit, vegetables, and potatoes and definitely nothing that was new or weird. It seems quite odd to me that a fish I have eaten regularly could cause such a violent reaction, but I don’t know what else to think.

Continuing on with the fish bonanza in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living, I made the pan sauteed sole. Sole is a fish that I make fairly often. I like it because it is mild and quick to cook. Martha says to dust your fish with Wondra and pan fry it in some butter. … Read more →

April Fool’s Day is a special day in our family. It is teen Martha’s (my teen daughter) birthday. Happy 17th Birthday Teen Martha! Because of this special event, we are usually more concentrated on birthday celebrations than on tricks. It is apropos that she was born on April Fool’s Day since she played a little April fool joke us on the day she was born. My bouncing bundle of joy weighed in at a whopping 11 1/2 lbs. Quite a funny little joke, except it was no joke! And I lived to tell the tale. I’m under strict orders not to post ANY photos of her on here or she will never speak to me again.

I thought I would share a special birthday cake I made for her a few years ago. It’s an April Fool’s cake – spaghetti and meatballs cake.

First I made a one layer chocolate cake (using my grandmother’s recipe which I might share with you someday if you’re nice!). I made white frosting and squeezed it out through a pastry bag to make it look like spaghetti. I made the meatballs out of fudge. The red sauce is strawberry jam and the parmesan cheese is grated white chocolate. It was a huge hit.

April Fool’s Day is a special day in our family. It is teen Martha’s (my teen daughter) birthday. Happy 17th Birthday Teen Martha! Because of this special event, we are usually more concentrated on birthday celebrations than on tricks. It is apropos that she was born on April Fool’s Day since she played a little … Read more →

April Fool’s Day is a special day in our family. It is teen Martha’s (my teen daughter) birthday. Happy 17th Birthday Teen Martha! Because of this special event, we are usually more concentrated on birthday celebrations than on tricks. It is apropos that she was born on April Fool’s Day since she played a little April fool joke us on the day she was born. My bouncing bundle of joy weighed in at a whopping 11 1/2 lbs. Quite a funny little joke, except it was no joke! And I lived to tell the tale. I’m under strict orders not to post ANY photos of her on here or she will never speak to me again.

I thought I would share a special birthday cake I made for her a few years ago. It’s an April Fool’s cake – spaghetti and meatballs cake.

First I made a one layer chocolate cake (using my grandmother’s recipe which I might share with you someday if you’re nice!). I made white frosting and squeezed it out through a pastry bag to make it look like spaghetti. I made the meatballs out of fudge. The red sauce is strawberry jam and the parmesan cheese is grated white chocolate. It was a huge hit.

April Fool’s Day is a special day in our family. It is teen Martha’s (my teen daughter) birthday. Happy 17th Birthday Teen Martha! Because of this special event, we are usually more concentrated on birthday celebrations than on tricks. It is apropos that she was born on April Fool’s Day since she played a little … Read more →