Last night Mr. MarthaAndMe and I went out to dinner to take advantage of Restaurant Week. This is a wonderful Buffalo-area promotion (also happening in Pittsburgh) that encourages people to get out and try restaurants they normally would not go to. Dinners are $20.10 per person (some restaurants are even doing 2 for $20.10) and most include 2-3 courses. Each restaurant puts together a special restaurant week menu.  We went to Le Metro, a restaurant we’d never tried before. It was completely filled on a Thursday night so I think restaurant week is working. We were given some restaurant made bread and a garlic and white bean spread for it which was tasty and light. Mr. MarthaAndMe started with the salad which had green beans, hardboiled egg, purple potatoes, red onion and olive in it.  Very nice. I had corned beef soup which tasted mostly like beef soup. For entrees, he had lobster mac and cheese which was served in a hot skillet. Elbow mac with white cheeses and pieces of lobster made it very rich and delicious. I had spring roasted chicken with strawberry champagne sauce. This was lovely and came with rice and green beans. Dessert was creme brulee for the Mr. and chocolate mousse for me. The brulee was very nice with a crunchy top. My mousse was a disaster and had to be sent back. It was grainy and thick. I asked if there was another batch and fortunately there was, so my replacement mousse was excellent. For $40.20 plus tax and tip, this was a very affordable meal and a fun weeknight outing. I’m just upset that we don’t have time to try out more options – however restaurant week runs through Sunday. Wouldn’t this be  a great idea to drive business to restaurants in your area?

Last night Mr. MarthaAndMe and I went out to dinner to take advantage of Restaurant Week. This is a wonderful Buffalo-area promotion (also happening in Pittsburgh) that encourages people to get out and try restaurants they normally would not go to. Dinners are $20.10 per person (some restaurants are even doing 2 for $20.10) and … Read more →

File this one under “who would’ve thought?” I have to admit this recipe from March Everyday Food didn’t sound very good to me and I expected it to be not so great. Surprise! I used mahi-mahi for this one and it tasted great with the mushrooms, which are roasted by themselves first. You then set the fish on the mushrooms, like a roasting rack and cook the fish. This is quick easy and yummy. Martha says to serve with a parsley salad – parsely with a viniagrette on it. I thought that was nuts, but I have to say it complemented the fish very nicely. Somehow it was just what this dish needed.

File this one under “who would’ve thought?” I have to admit this recipe from March Everyday Food didn’t sound very good to me and I expected it to be not so great. Surprise! I used mahi-mahi for this one and it tasted great with the mushrooms, which are roasted by themselves first. You then set … Read more →

On a recent night I needed something for dinner, but was tired of all the usual suspects. I had three chicken breasts to use up, but what I really wanted was chicken wings. So I decided to get creative with what I had. I dug in the fridge and found a bottle of bleu cheese dressing and a bottle of Buffalo wing sauce. I also had some panko.

I poured about a cup of the bleu cheese dressing and some of the Buffalo wing sauce in a bowl (I didn’t use a lot – maybe two teaspoons-  you should adjust this according to how hot you like yours) and mixed. I cut a slit in each breast and put a couple spoonfuls of the dressing mix inside then dipped each breast in the dressing and coated it in panko. I sprayed the pan and I also sprayed the top of each breast with cooking spray. I baked at 400 for about 30 minutes and at the end I turned them over to brown each side.

Wow! I was pretty excited by the results. The panko made a really crispy crust. The dressing, because it was inside the chicken and coating it on the outside made the chicken incredibly moist and tender. The addition of the wing sauce made this taste just like wings. This was a quick dinner that I am definitely going to make again and again!

On a recent night I needed something for dinner, but was tired of all the usual suspects. I had three chicken breasts to use up, but what I really wanted was chicken wings. So I decided to get creative with what I had. I dug in the fridge and found a bottle of bleu cheese … Read more →

Pizza dough take two. Following yesterday’s post about using pizza dough to make cinnamon rolls, today’s post is about the recipe in March Everyday Food using pizza dough to make apple cinnamon tarts. I used pre-made dough for this. You roll it out, dot with butter, roll again and refrigerate. Then cut into 4 rectangles and arrange apple slices that have been mixed with cinnamon and sugar. Brush the edges of the dough with an egg wash then cinnamon and sugar.

These turned out really thick. Too thick. It needed to be a lot thinner to even approximate a tart. Not to mention the pieces were just huge. We each ate half of a piece and it was a lot. The apples did cook nicely and the top was pretty and crunchy on the edges. The flavor was good, it was just too much dough.  This was not a success in my opinion.

Pizza dough take two. Following yesterday’s post about using pizza dough to make cinnamon rolls, today’s post is about the recipe in March Everyday Food using pizza dough to make apple cinnamon tarts. I used pre-made dough for this. You roll it out, dot with butter, roll again and refrigerate. Then cut into 4 rectangles … Read more →

Thanks to Sara at Sassy Suppers, the project for next Monday is an organizing one. On page 48 of March Martha Stewart Living, Martha suggests using a painter’s watercolor palette (the thing you put the paint on in the different little compartments) to organize jewelry. The magazine says to use a ceramic one, but an inexpensive plastic one would work just as well.

Thanks to Sara at Sassy Suppers, the project for next Monday is an organizing one. On page 48 of March Martha Stewart Living, Martha suggests using a painter’s watercolor palette (the thing you put the paint on in the different little compartments) to organize jewelry. The magazine says to use a ceramic one, but an … Read more →

I love new uses for old things. In March Everyday Food, Martha is re-purposing pizza dough. I had some dough in the freezer I wanted to use up (no, I didn’t make it myself!). Cinnamon rolls are just decadent, so I was interested to see if you can really make them from pizza dough. First you roll the dough out (hard to do with elastic pizza dough) then dot with butter and fold into thirds and roll back to the original shape. Martha says to refrigerate for an hour then dot again with butter and sprinkle with a brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon and salt mix. Roll it up, slice it and bake.

These turned out quite well, although I couldn’t quite get past the taste and texture of pizza dough. It wasn’t as tender as cinnamon dough normally is. The family, however, enjoyed this one very much. All it’s done for me is make me crave real cinnamon rolls! And a tip – if you make this, I really recommend making some icing to pour over it. I think it would help it immensely.

I love new uses for old things. In March Everyday Food, Martha is re-purposing pizza dough. I had some dough in the freezer I wanted to use up (no, I didn’t make it myself!). Cinnamon rolls are just decadent, so I was interested to see if you can really make them from pizza dough. First … Read more →

Today’s Martha Mondays is Chocolate Marble Quick Bread with Ganache. Well, this one sounded really good. Thanks to Megan at Megan’s Cookin’ for the pick.

I must confess to a tiny goof on this recipe! I used only 3 oz of chocolate in the bread instead of 5. I just read the recipe wrong. It came out looking gorgeous. It tasted good and the ganache was yummy. But I would rather have real chocolate cake than quick bread any day think. If I wasn’t trying to lose weight, I could see having this with a cup of tea in the afternoon and it would be lovely, but if I have to pick and choose my calories, I’ll pick cake – or ice cream – or pie – or cookies over this I think. I’m not a fan of the texture of it somehow – too grainy or not quite moist enough. Maybe I’m just craving cake! Anyway, it was good and very pretty. What did everyone else think?

Today’s Martha Mondays is Chocolate Marble Quick Bread with Ganache. Well, this one sounded really good. Thanks to Megan at Megan’s Cookin’ for the pick. I must confess to a tiny goof on this recipe! I used only 3 oz of chocolate in the bread instead of 5. I just read the recipe wrong. It … Read more →

I wasn’t excited by this recipe when I saw it in the magazine, but when Martha and Anna L. made it on tv, it got me interested. It doesn’t sound like anything special when you read the recipe – a tomato sauce and some bacon on pasta. I was surprised at how wonderful the flavor was.

I used rotini but that was the only substitution I made. The tomato sauce was quick to whip up, but I found I needed to get a fork in there and physically pull the tomatoes apart. I also had to add more tomato juice to it because it was too dry.

I really, really liked this dish! The bacon gave it a nice smoky flavor and the tomato and onion had a nice sweetness. It really tasted like something that had cooked for hours. Thumbs up on this one Martha!

I wasn’t excited by this recipe when I saw it in the magazine, but when Martha and Anna L. made it on tv, it got me interested. It doesn’t sound like anything special when you read the recipe – a tomato sauce and some bacon on pasta. I was surprised at how wonderful the flavor … Read more →

I find the name of this salad to be a bit misleading. The recipe is in March Everyday Food. I thought I would be roasting all sorts of different veggies. Not so. You roast mushrooms, onion and garlic. That’s it! You add the mushrooms and onions to a green salad and use the roasted garlic to make a dressing. That dressing was rather unsuccessful for me by the way – my garlic did not mash up. I even used my handheld blender to whiz it up and the garlic remained in a smushy piece, floating around the dressing.

In addition to the vegetables, Martha has you roast some prosciutto. Lay the piece on parchment and stick it in the 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. The prosciutto gets nice and crisp and darkens in color. It crumbles nicely into the salad.

The recipe also calls for a side of lavash bread, with melted gruyere cheese on it as an accompaniment. I couldn’t find lavash, but I did find some naan and let me tell you, it was fabulous! I served this with cream of broccoli soup (Martha’s recipe from the Cooking School cookbook) and it was a lovely, light dinner. I liked the roasted mushrooms a lot, but then I am always a big fan of mushrooms! The proscuitto was good too, but a bit salty.

I find the name of this salad to be a bit misleading. The recipe is in March Everyday Food. I thought I would be roasting all sorts of different veggies. Not so. You roast mushrooms, onion and garlic. That’s it! You add the mushrooms and onions to a green salad and use the roasted garlic … Read more →

Martha’s recipe

In the March issue of Everyday Food, Martha has a recipe for sticky chicken wings. As you may or may not know, we live in Buffalo. So we know a thing or two about wings. I was interested to try Martha’s take on it, which is actually pretty similar to a recipe I use. I’ll share both here with you.

First up – Martha. I used chicken legs to make this recipe because I can find organic chicken legs but I can’t find organic chicken wings in our stores at this point. I actually think chicken legs are a nice alternative – they are less fatty and more meaty and you can still get that nice crunchy skin on the outside of it.

Martha’s recipe includes these ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp soy sauce

a 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and smashed

1 serrano chile

2 lbs chicken wings

Martha says to mix everything but the wings in a baking dish, add the wings, toss to coat, and bake at 300 for an hour, then increase the temp to 450 for 30 minutes. Martha says to serve with the sliced chile. I skipped that part.

This recipe was pretty good. The legs came out nice and brown and the sauce had a good flavor. It made one hell of a mess in the baking dish though- all the additional sauce burned. I’m actually still scrubbing and soaking it. I’m not wild about fish sauce in general, but it did add a nice note to this sauce.

Now onto to my recipe. This is an adaptation of a recipe in Buffalo Spree magazine.

5 lbs wings, tips discarded, cut into two sections

2 cups honey

1 cup tamari (gluten free)

2 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp garlic salt

Spray a roasting pan with cooking spray and preheat oven to 375. Arrange the wings and pour the sauce over them, turning to coat completely. Bake for one hour.  Turn the wings and continue to bake for 10 to 30 minutes. The time differential depends on how you like your wings. I like mine very dark, but not burned.  I also find that it will depend on your oven and how well you turn your roasting pan to take advantage of the hot spots in your oven.  If you like your wings spicy, add some hot sauce to the mixture. If you’re interested, traditional Buffalo wings are covered in nothing more than butter and hot sauce and taste best deep fried, but you can replicate it by roasting the wings completely plain and then tossing in the butter and hot sauce mix at the very end. I find that for baking wings you have more success with a sauce like my recipe. You can make my recipe with chicken legs if you prefer.

In the March issue of Everyday Food, Martha has a recipe for sticky chicken wings. As you may or may not know, we live in Buffalo. So we know a thing or two about wings. I was interested to try Martha’s take on it, which is actually pretty similar to a recipe I use. I’ll … Read more →