Shrimp and Zucchini Tostadas seemed like an easy dish to make (“doing” Martha does not have to always be time-consuming and overwhelming – sometimes just using nice ingredients in a simply elegant way is truly Martha).  I only had one tortilla in the house, so I decided to use pitas. I had a pack of 4 and set them out on the counter to defrost. When I came back, 2 were gone and there was a dog with a suspiciously full tummy. So I made two on pitas and cut my lone tortilla in half and made two with that. This dish is amazingly easy. You just saute up some garlic and zucchini. Stick the tortillas in the oven with cheese on them. Saute the shrimp and dump the shrimp and zucchini on top of the tortillas. Add some scallions and serve with sour cream (I also served with sliced avocado). These were AMAZING. And I don’t know why they were so good, but they were. The flavors went together perfectly. I’m going to make this dish again for sure.

Shrimp and Zucchini Tostadas seemed like an easy dish to make (“doing” Martha does not have to always be time-consuming and overwhelming – sometimes just using nice ingredients in a simply elegant way is truly Martha).  I only had one tortilla in the house, so I decided to use pitas. I had a pack of … Read more →

I really needed a quick, easy dinner to get on the table before heading out to a chorus concert. I thought Oven-Fried Chicken from May Martha Stewart Everyday Food was a good answer. Anything that resembles chicken nuggets is always a safe bet in this house.

Breadcrumb disaster

The recipe wasn’t as easy as I expected. First, I needed to marinate the chicken in buttermilk, garlic and salt and better. Then I needed to make my own breadcrumbs and toast them in the oven. Well, the toasting ended up as burning.  In my defense, I had just learned my grandmother was dying and had been sedated and would be leaving us shortly. I had had a week filled with evening school events, plenty of work stress, and no time to even go buy milk. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised I couldn’t even toast some breadcrumbs.

I had to get dinner on the table quickly so I didn’t attempt to make more breadcrumbs and just used some from a can.

When I took the chicken out of the oven, I was not impressed with how it looked. It did not brown at all and really wasn’t too appetizing. However, this tasted fantastic! It was crunchy and the chicken was flavorful. The buttermilk marinade really gave some wonderful flavor. I was really impressed by this dish and will definitely make it again, and maybe this time I won’t burn the breadcrumbs!

I really needed a quick, easy dinner to get on the table before heading out to a chorus concert. I thought Oven-Fried Chicken from May Martha Stewart Everyday Food was a good answer. Anything that resembles chicken nuggets is always a safe bet in this house. The recipe wasn’t as easy as I expected. First, … Read more →

I love scallops and have never tried them with watercress. The May issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food has a recipe for Scallops with Sauteed Watercress and Ginger (not up on Martha’s site yet). This recipe was a breeze to make. You saute garlic and ginger, then the watercress, then the scallops. You add some sesame seeds to the watercress as it is cooking, along with lemon juice. Very simple yet very tasty. I didn’t buy enough watercress, so I ended up with a tiny little pile of it.

I threw this together one night after a late school event, so it was definitely done in a rush, but it was good. I would make this again.

I love scallops and have never tried them with watercress. The May issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food has a recipe for Scallops with Sauteed Watercress and Ginger (not up on Martha’s site yet). This recipe was a breeze to make. You saute garlic and ginger, then the watercress, then the scallops. You add some … Read more →

Although gelatin goes where I fear to tread, I gave Martha’s Watermelon Coolers (May Martha Stewart Living) a try. My family loves smoothies. They are a special treat for us, so I thought this could be a winner. Additionally, Mr. MarthaandMe is known to freeze pieces of watermelon and eat them.

The first step was to puree the watermelon and then push it through a sieve. Next you heat part of the juice with some salt and add your softened gelatin to it as well as some lemon juice. No other ingredients!

You set it in an ice bath until it starts to gel, then pour into glasses and refrigerate. It looked very pretty and I served it with Mr. MarthaandMe’s birthday dinner.

Thumbs down on this one, big time. I thought it was just awful. First of all, it wasn’t very sweet, so if you are used to smoothies or other sweet fruit drinks, it is a palate shocker. I also thought that if you were blindfolded, you would not be able to identify this as watermelon. The only way I can explain it is that it tasted green to me in some way.

The gelatin did not enhance anything about this. It felt like half melted Jello.

Nobody drank this and it went down the drain. A big loser.

Although gelatin goes where I fear to tread, I gave Martha’s Watermelon Coolers (May Martha Stewart Living) a try. My family loves smoothies. They are a special treat for us, so I thought this could be a winner. Additionally, Mr. MarthaandMe is known to freeze pieces of watermelon and eat them. The first step was … Read more →

I made part of the What’s For Dinner section of Martha Stewart Living (May issue) – soy-glazed flank steak and spring green salad. If you’re looking for a quick and tasty dinner, I recommend this one.

The hardest thing about this meal was that there were a lot of ingredients, since you have to make a soy glaze and a salad dressing. The soy glaze has ginger, soy sauce, garlic, red pepper, rice wine vinegar and salt. Mirin was another ingredient but I didn’t have it and honestly didn’t even know what it was! We grilled the flank steak and that worked well. I don’t think I’ve ever had flank steak and was worried it would be tough, but it really wasn’t. I also worried that it needed to marinate to really get the flavors, but it was pretty good. Marinating would definitely add to the flavor though.

As for the salad, again, lots of ingredients, but it was also tasty. You quickly cook some snap peas then put them in an ice bath. I used mache in my salad. You use a veggie peeler to make strips of zucchini for the salad and also add basil and scallions. The dressing was easy – honey, rice wine vinegar,lemon juice, salt, pepper and oil. It had a nice flavor and the dressing wasn’t too heavy. I did serve the meat on top of the greens and I liked them together a lot. This was a winner.

I made part of the What’s For Dinner section of Martha Stewart Living (May issue) – soy-glazed flank steak and spring green salad. If you’re looking for a quick and tasty dinner, I recommend this one. The hardest thing about this meal was that there were a lot of ingredients, since you have to make … Read more →

I made part of the What’s For Dinner section of Martha Stewart Living (May issue) – soy-glazed flank steak and spring green salad. If you’re looking for a quick and tasty dinner, I recommend this one.

The hardest thing about this meal was that there were a lot of ingredients, since you have to make a soy glaze and a salad dressing. The soy glaze has ginger, soy sauce, garlic, red pepper, rice wine vinegar and salt. Mirin was another ingredient but I didn’t have it and honestly didn’t even know what it was! We grilled the flank steak and that worked well. I don’t think I’ve ever had flank steak and was worried it would be tough, but it really wasn’t. I also worried that it needed to marinate to really get the flavors, but it was pretty good. Marinating would definitely add to the flavor though.

As for the salad, again, lots of ingredients, but it was also tasty. You quickly cook some snap peas then put them in an ice bath. I used mache in my salad. You use a veggie peeler to make strips of zucchini for the salad and also add basil and scallions. The dressing was easy – honey, rice wine vinegar,lemon juice, salt, pepper and oil. It had a nice flavor and the dressing wasn’t too heavy. I did serve the meat on top of the greens and I liked them together a lot. This was a winner.

I made part of the What’s For Dinner section of Martha Stewart Living (May issue) – soy-glazed flank steak and spring green salad. If you’re looking for a quick and tasty dinner, I recommend this one. The hardest thing about this meal was that there were a lot of ingredients, since you have to make … Read more →

I’ve been meaning to make the Glazed Lemon Cookies from May Martha Stewart Everyday Food for a while, then I got the Cookie of the Day email about it and that got me off my butt and into the kitchen. Last night was Mr. MarthaandMe’s birthday and he always has gingerbread with lemon sauce, so I just made a lemon sauce last night. Making some lemon cookies felt like a natural extension of that.

The dough mixed up and was very crumbly. I had a moment of panic when it felt like it wasn’t going to come together. I turned off the mixer and went at it with a wooden spoon and was able to smush it together into dough.  It was still quite crumbly though and it was a bit messy on the baking sheet.

I popped them in the oven and this recipe actually cooked in exactly the time it was supposed to, which might be a first for me with a Martha baking recipe. The cookies didn’t spread much at all.

After they come out, you put together the glaze (just powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest) and spoon it over after they’ve cooled for just a few minutes.  I find glaze to be a bit frustrating in general – not thick enough to be a frosting and too soupy to really stick. I admit I applied the glaze while the cookies were still on the baking sheet. I couldn’t face the idea of having to wash a cooling rack also!

I got it on though and let it rest. then I decided to use a little more since I really had a giant bowl of glaze left. The second application stayed on a little better, so maybe let these cool a little longer than the recipe says (or maybe if you take them off the baking sheets they will cool faster).

I liked these cookies. They are very sweet and very lemony with just the right amount of crunch. I also liked the fact that they were very easy to make. No chilling of the dough, no crazy ingredients. Very simple and delicious. A good thing!

I’ve been meaning to make the Glazed Lemon Cookies from May Martha Stewart Everyday Food for a while, then I got the Cookie of the Day email about it and that got me off my butt and into the kitchen. Last night was Mr. MarthaandMe’s birthday and he always has gingerbread with lemon sauce, so … Read more →

Gelatin? Really, Martha? Martha has a whole section of gelatin-based desserts in May Living. I find gelatin really unappealing in general (except in the hospital when it’s the only food they will let you have), but I was willing to give Martha the benefit of the doubt. I gave the Strawberry Shortcake Jellies a try. When Martha made these on the show last week they did look kind of cute.

Pureed strawberry

First task was to puree and strain the strawberries and get the gelatin into them. Let me please say here that my gelatin did not make a cute little disk like Martha’s did – mine was kind of gloppy looking.

I got the strawberry into bowls and refrigerated that. While it was chilling, I made the cake. Martha says to use a 9 x 13 rimmed baking sheet. I didn’t have one that small, so I used a 9×13 baking pan. I was just barely able to cut out all the circles I needed from this – it was a very tight squeeze. The cake tasted great –

The cake

moist and lemony.

While I was cutting out the cake, I was also cooking the cream and milk for the panna cotta. I turned my back for a second and it boiled over making a huge mess. The panna cotta was not hard to make. I cooked it and strained it and added the gelatin. I didn’t have a whole vanilla bean so I just added some vanilla to it. I chilled the panna cotta over an ice bath until it started to set up, although this took longer than I expected.

I spooned the panna cotta over the chilled strawberry gelatin and then placed the cake rounds on top. Into the fridge again.

Adding the panna cotta

We took this out about 8 hours later that evening and I was nervous about the unmolding process. If you saw Martha make this on the show, you know that it did not go well for her.  It was a big disaster, in fact. I had little hope that I could do better than Martha, but I was willing to try. I dipped the bottom of the bowl in warm water and swirled it around. I took it out, dried the bottom with a towel and flipped it. Nothing. I did it again. Nothing. A third time. Nothing. I decided to go around the edge with a knife and then it came out nicely. Mr. MarthaandMe insisted he didn’t need a knife

Dipping

for his so he shook it after dipping and the cake and panna cotta came out, but the gelatin remained in the bowl. Not to say I told you so, but…..

My Success

He ended up using a knife to get the rest out.

This dessert was pretty looking, but I did not enjoy mine. I liked the cake. The strawberry gelatin part was ok, not great. The panna cotta was not good in my book. It looks like it should taste like pudding, but instead it ends up being a creamy sort of gelatin that is just not pleasing to my palate. I scraped it off and just ate the cake and strawberry. Then Dude Martha and I ate the cake scraps together and that was possibly the best part of the entire dessert!

Mr. Martha's mistake

Gelatin? Really, Martha? Martha has a whole section of gelatin-based desserts in May Living. I find gelatin really unappealing in general (except in the hospital when it’s the only food they will let you have), but I was willing to give Martha the benefit of the doubt. I gave the Strawberry Shortcake Jellies a try. … Read more →

I’ve never had a fish taco. There was a fish taco restaurant that opened near us a couple of years ago. We went in, but walked out. My concern with Mexican food is always that it is going to be too spicy. So, I was excited to see that Martha had a recipe for grilled-fish tacos with radish-cabbage slaw (again, the recipe doesn’t seem to up on the Martha web site yet) in May Living.  I had some ocean perch in the freezer, so I grilled that, after rubbing it with the spice mixture in the recipe. I mashed up an avocado and used some bagged slaw (I don’t like radishes so they weren’t missed). I kept the remaining oil, lime and seasoning mixture separate so we could drizzle on the amount each person wanted. I also served this with some sour cream.

This made nice tacos – just enough in them. I loved the taste of the fish in it and anything with avocado is bound to be a hit in my book.  I was all set to chalk this up as a big hit until later that night.

Do you remember a few weeks ago, when I made Martha’s pan sauteed sole? I had an allergic reaction later that night to the sole, which is a fish I’ve been eating regularly all my life. It seemed quite odd to me. Well, the same thing happened with the ocean perch, except it was more severe this time.  Here’s the interesting thing – I bought the perch and sole on the same day at the same fish market. These are both fishes that have never bothered me. I think something happened to this fish in transit or in storage  that caused the reaction I had. Maybe bacteria? I don’t know. But I refuse to believe I am suddenly allergic to fish. So I have to say that although I enjoyed the fish taco at the time, I’m not too fond of it in retrospect!

I’ve never had a fish taco. There was a fish taco restaurant that opened near us a couple of years ago. We went in, but walked out. My concern with Mexican food is always that it is going to be too spicy. So, I was excited to see that Martha had a recipe for grilled-fish … Read more →

The section in May Martha Stewart Living with pizzas was enticing, so I made Heirloom Tomato Pizza. I must confess though that I deviated drastically from this recipe. First, I didn’t make my own dough. I was going to, but ran out of time so I just used store bought dough. Next, there are no heirloom tomatoes to be had in April in Buffalo, so I used tomatoes off the vine from my grocery store. I did not order the Pecorino Pepato cheese you are supposed to for this and instead used parmesan. I also did not order the guanciale and instead used prosciutto. In my mind, those are reasonable substitutions.  In Martha’s mind,they are probably unacceptable.

I put this together and baked it. It was quite good. I like white pizza like this. I used wheat dough which makes me happy. My tomatoes were ok  – I’ll have to make this again in August when I am overrun with local tomatoes. I liked the sliced parmesan on this and the prosciutto got crispy and it was really good. So, whether or not this counts as a Martha dish, we liked it!

The section in May Martha Stewart Living with pizzas was enticing, so I made Heirloom Tomato Pizza. I must confess though that I deviated drastically from this recipe. First, I didn’t make my own dough. I was going to, but ran out of time so I just used store bought dough. Next, there are no … Read more →