Thanks to Karen at At Least Twice a Week for shaking me out of my work-induced stupor and sending me her pick for Monday – potato zucchini hash from May Everyday Food. If you need the recipe, let me know. It sounds delish.

Thanks to Karen at At Least Twice a Week for shaking me out of my work-induced stupor and sending me her pick for Monday – potato zucchini hash from May Everyday Food. If you need the recipe, let me know. It sounds delish.

One member of our household (who wishes not to be identified) has been experiencing intestinal pain for a while and I’ve finally convinced said person it is time to get serious about tracking down food causes. So we are investigating dairy and gluten as possible culprits. The plan is to take at least one full week to entirely eliminate each item (one at a time) from the diet, then add it back in and see what happens.

Sounds simple, but it’s so complicated to do. The gluten actually seems easier to me right now than the dairy, since there are small amounts of lactose in things that are made with small amounts of milk and butter, whereas it seems easier to just buy gluten free foods.

We’re trying to test the dairy this week. Sunday was Mother’s Day. Mr. MarthaAndMe made me a nice omelet for breakfast and I said I did not want to attempt to deal with the crowds in restaurants for dinner, so I cooked dinner. I really, desperately wanted fettucine with chicken and broccoli, but felt bad making it with the current dairy restriction for the certain family member (once we do determine what the cause of the problem is, I will make big changes to the entire family’s eating habits to encompass it, but am not going overboard until we figure it out).

I decided since it was Mother’s Day, I deserved to have what I wanted (especially since I was cooking it myself AND since no one had thought to actually run the dishwasher and put away all the breakfast dishes). But I was worried about the person in question, so I came up with a great compromise. I made some gemelli pasta (half a box). Once it was done, I scooped it out of the pasta water and put in some tiny broccoli florets and just let that sit a few minutes and it cooked completely. I cooked three chicken breasts in a pan with about half a jar of pesto. In a separate pan, I made a quick cream sauce with 1/8 stick butter, 1/4 cup cream cheese, 1/4 cup cream and some parmesan cheese to taste (with salt and pepper). I served all the ingredients separately so people could mix and match as they wanted. My thinking was the pesto was enough of a sauce for the pasta and the broccoli could be eaten separately (as could the noodles) for those who don’t like things mixed or with sauces. Those of us who wanted a regular cream sauce pasta dish mixed it all together.

This worked out quite well and was a pretty good solution to the dilemma, I thought. It also tasted really good! Of course, the person in question whined a bit about how he/she wanted the cream sauce, but we all survived.

If you have any tips for me on how to isolate a food allergy, I would really love to hear them. The initial testing isn’t getting us anywhere – no dairy for two days and the pain continues. But from what I’ve read we need to really give it at least a week. If we get nowhere, gluten is next on the list to eliminate. Wish us luck!

One member of our household (who wishes not to be identified) has been experiencing intestinal pain for a while and I’ve finally convinced said person it is time to get serious about tracking down food causes. So we are investigating dairy and gluten as possible culprits. The plan is to take at least one full … Read more →

Today’s Martha Monday project was chosen by Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet – Quinoa Apricot Nut Clusters. I was excited about this because it was totally different from anything I have made. There were a lot of steps in this though, mostly b/c Martha wants you to roast your oats, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and quinoa all separately. Eek. I bought pre-roasted nuts and seeds, so that helped reduce the time on this. With the quinoa, you have to cook it on the stove, then roast it, which took quite a while. Finally I had all my ingredients and I mixed them together. You’re supposed to form these into a cookie shape on a baking sheet and bake them. I could not get mine to stay together very well. I got them into blobs on the baking sheet, but when I took them off, they fell apart.

So it was messy. As for taste? It was definitely different. Mr. MarthaAndMe said he thought it needed some other flavor. I think maybe adding some cinnamon might help it. I’m not a fan of the apricot pieces either. The rest of it was pretty good and Teen Martha has been munching on it in little bits. This is great because it is gluten and dairy free, so if anyone in your family has those sensitivities, this is something everyone can enjoy.

Today’s Martha Monday project was chosen by Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet – Quinoa Apricot Nut Clusters. I was excited about this because it was totally different from anything I have made. There were a lot of steps in this though, mostly b/c Martha wants you to roast your oats, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and quinoa all … Read more →

The Martha Mondays project for next Monday is Quinoa Apricot and Nut Clusters.  Thanks to Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet for the pick.

The Martha Mondays project for next Monday is Quinoa Apricot and Nut Clusters.  Thanks to Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet for the pick.

My kids love cornbread. A whole pan of it can be made to disappear in an evening in this house. I have not yet stumbled on a recipe that is perfect. Some are too dry, some not sweet enough and some have pieces of corn in them (ick). So I was happy to give Martha’s recipe a try, from May Living.

Mix together 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt. Mix in 1 egg and 1 cup milk (the recipe says to use either goat milk or regular milk – I used regular) and 4 tbsp melted butter. The recipe says to use an iron skillet in the oven. I used a heavy metal round cake pan. Preheat the oven to 400 and heat the pan in the oven with 1 tbsp butter, then pour the batter in. Bake for 25 minutes then brush the top with 2 tbsp honey. This was a winner. Heating the pan in the oven meant that this got really crunchy around the edges but stayed very soft and moist in the middle. I liked the honey on top of it. My kids like to put honey on their cornbread and this was enough so that they didn’t need to slather more on. Very nice recipe.

My kids love cornbread. A whole pan of it can be made to disappear in an evening in this house. I have not yet stumbled on a recipe that is perfect. Some are too dry, some not sweet enough and some have pieces of corn in them (ick). So I was happy to give Martha’s … Read more →

I admit that when I saw the headline for Corn Cakes with Goat Cheese in May Everyday Food that my mind immediately jumped to hoecakes, which I learned to make from Paula Deen. These are actually nothing like hoecakes, but at least it got me interested in the recipe.

This is quite simple to make. Saute 3 cups corn (frozen is fine) with 1 small diced zucchini for about 3 minutes, along with salt and pepper. Dump into a bowl, cool for a few minutes and add 2 eggs, 2 sliced scallions and 1/4 cup cornmeal. Measure out 1/4 cups of it into a pan with a little oil and cook until brown on each side. Serve with a dollop of goat cheese on each.

Quick, simple, and pretty tasty. I’m not much of a fan of frozen corn and prefer fresh corn on the cob if I’m going to eat corn (which I keep reminding my kids is a grain, not a vegetable), but I enjoyed these. The goat cheese is a nice touch.

I admit that when I saw the headline for Corn Cakes with Goat Cheese in May Everyday Food that my mind immediately jumped to hoecakes, which I learned to make from Paula Deen. These are actually nothing like hoecakes, but at least it got me interested in the recipe. This is quite simple to make. … Read more →

I like peanut butter cookies, but the recipe I usually use came from my 7th grade home ec class! I like my cookies slightly chewy, but also slightly crunchy. A tall order, I know. For a few weeks, I’ve been meaning to make some cookies as a thank you for a friend and his favorite is peanut butter. I finally got around to it and decided I would use Martha’s recipe from her cookie cookbook.

The dough was quite sticky (and I’m surprised Martha did not say to refrigerate it since it seems she ALWAYS says to refrigerate cookie dough!). The cookie method making was quite different than what I am used to. I usually roll mine, dip the top in sugar then cross hatch with a fork. Martha says to drop the dough on the sheet, press it with the bottom of a glass, then crosshatch. This did not go smoothly! I had to dip the glass in flour after each one. Then the fork was getting mushed up, so I ended up having to dip the fork in flour each time as well, so it was time-consuming. The cookies were very sandy, but had a good flavor. The recipe was for creamy PB but then had you add in some chopped peanuts. I prefer to just use crunchy PB in my cookies. I would definitely stick with my own home ec PB cookie recipe, which has stood the test of time (thanks Mrs. Belmondo!):

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter, sugars and peanut butter. Add egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Roll into balls, dip in sugar, and crosshatch with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes.

At the bottom of my original home ec recipe is handwritten this (in a handwriting that is still familiar to me):

“Take out of oven and put in bag. Take them to school and give to Beth.” My best friend through much of jr high and high school, Beth Creighton wrote that and this recipe always makes me think of her. We’ve lost touch over the years, but I still have fond feelings for her and hope she has a happy life.

I like peanut butter cookies, but the recipe I usually use came from my 7th grade home ec class! I like my cookies slightly chewy, but also slightly crunchy. A tall order, I know. For a few weeks, I’ve been meaning to make some cookies as a thank you for a friend and his favorite … Read more →

Sirloin Salad with Cilantro was chosen as this week’s project by Sarah at Mum in Bloom. First of all I have to say I do not understand why this is called a “salad!” You marinate the steak in a mix of cilantro, OJ, vinegar, and jalapeno. Then you grill it and you’re supposed to serve it with more cilantro and red onion, with additional reserved marinade as a sauce. It’s not a salad. It’s beef with garnish.

My big Cuisinart is broken (I dropped the plastic thingy you push food down with and it broke and it won’t turn on without that locked on), so I made this in my little mini food processor, which worked fine actually. Then I realized my son drank all the OJ! I squeezed the juice from some tangerines instead.

The marinade looked and tasted good. The next problem was that the grill was out of propane (even though we have an extra tank to prevent this kind of thing from happening – it was empty too!). So I grilled this on the JennAir. We were rushing to get to my son’s hockey game and the meat was just not cooking, so I threw it in the oven for a while at the end because it was completely bloody. Somehow it went from beyond rare to completely well done in minutes so that wasn’t so great. I couldn’t really taste anything different about the meat, even though this marinated more than an hour. We put more sauce on it, but it was so thin it just ran all over.  I put a little in a small bowl and dunked each bite and that worked out better. I didn’t have red onion and don’t like it, so I skipped that.

This was something I never would have made on my own and was different, but it’s probably not something I would make again.

Sirloin Salad with Cilantro was chosen as this week’s project by Sarah at Mum in Bloom. First of all I have to say I do not understand why this is called a “salad!” You marinate the steak in a mix of cilantro, OJ, vinegar, and jalapeno. Then you grill it and you’re supposed to serve … Read more →

Yesterday was Mr. MarthaAndMe’s birthday. Every year, he asks for gingerbread with lemon sauce for his cake. He always had this as a child too, except I think his mother used a mix. The lemon sauce recipe was printed on the box.

Over the years, I’ve developed my own gingerbread and lemon sauce recipe that I make once a year for him (I did once make it for a family Christmas party and it is a nice holiday dessert). The cake is dense, moist, and very deeply flavored – it’s based on my grandmother’s recipe, but has been altered to suit my sensibilities. The lemon sauce is sweet and bright. It’s a hit every year and the kids enjoy it. I’m pretty much the lone hold-out since I don’t care for raisins and hate trying to pick them all out.

Gingerbread Cake

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup molasses (I use blackstrap)

1 cup boiling water

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 325. Mix butter, sugar and eggs. Add molasses and hot water then add dry ingredients. Stir in raisins. Bake in a 9 inch greased square pan for 50 minutes.

Lemon Sauce

1 cup sugar

4 tbsp cornstarch

dash of salt

2 cups water

juice of one lemon

4 tbsp butter

zest of one lemon

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir in water. Cook until it boils and is slightly thickened and clear. Use a whisk to prevent lumps. Remove from heat and stir in butter, lemon juice and zest. Serve hot.

Yesterday was Mr. MarthaAndMe’s birthday. Every year, he asks for gingerbread with lemon sauce for his cake. He always had this as a child too, except I think his mother used a mix. The lemon sauce recipe was printed on the box. Over the years, I’ve developed my own gingerbread and lemon sauce recipe that … Read more →

The Martha Mondays project for 5/3 is Sirloin Salad with Cilantro, chosen by Sarah at Mum in Bloom.  Thanks Sarah! I’m looking forward to it.

The Martha Mondays project for 5/3 is Sirloin Salad with Cilantro, chosen by Sarah at Mum in Bloom.  Thanks Sarah! I’m looking forward to it.