Martha’s Honey Teriyaki Chicken (May Martha Stewart Everyday Food) survived a very bumpy ride at my house, but was still good! Here’s the low down. I whipped this up on a weeknight. Very simple to construct – garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey and rice wine vinegar. No problem. I substituted boneless chicken breasts for thighs.

Poor little Teen Martha had to leave for an evening school event and I was feeling guilty because Mr. MarthaandMe has been working so late the past few weeks that it seems she never gets to eat dinner with us. So I stuck this in the oven and cooked it up for her, thinking I could just warm it up for our dinner later.

She liked it and even came back for more, which is unusual. Later, Mr. MarthaandMe called to alert me he was on his way home, so I stuck it back in the oven and heated up the rest of the food (some wild rice and vegetables). Everything was ready when he pulled in the driveway. But then he sat in the car for 20 minutes on a phone call. The chicken was looking a little dark by this point, but I pulled it out and was ready to serve when someone showed up at the door to talk to him about an estimate on some work we need done around the house. So the chicken was on hold again. By the time we finally ate, it was almost 8 pm and poor little Dude Martha was doubled over in agony.

I had little hope that the chicken would be edible at this point- but it was! And it was good! My only suggestion would be that this really needs to marinate before you cook it. We dipped each bite in the sauce since nothing really soaked in. Dude Martha ate his chicken nuggets (his request) but then at the end of dinner asked if he could taste this. He loved it and scarfed down an entire piece. I’ll definitely be making this one again.

Martha’s Honey Teriyaki Chicken (May Martha Stewart Everyday Food) survived a very bumpy ride at my house, but was still good! Here’s the low down. I whipped this up on a weeknight. Very simple to construct – garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey and rice wine vinegar. No problem. I substituted boneless chicken breasts for thighs. … Read more →

Roasted Mushrooms from May Living sounded like it would an easy side dish to make for dinner, and I happened to have some mushrooms I needed to use up.  Assembly was simple – you dump the mushrooms with pancetta, bay leaves, rosemary, garlic and salt and pepper and oil on a baking sheet and roast it. At the end you add some white wine and lemon zest. It smelled great as it was cooking. It tasted horrible. Inedible. I generally love mushrooms, but this dish tasted far too earthy for me – really, it tasted like dirt. It was truly awful.

Roasted Mushrooms from May Living sounded like it would an easy side dish to make for dinner, and I happened to have some mushrooms I needed to use up.  Assembly was simple – you dump the mushrooms with pancetta, bay leaves, rosemary, garlic and salt and pepper and oil on a baking sheet and roast … Read more →

In May Everyday Food, Martha touts the recipe for Roasted Salmon with Herbed Yogurt as a special occasion dish. I made it for a weeknight dinner – no occasion in sight other than the fact that I had some salmon hanging around.

My first hurdle was tracking down the Greek yogurt the recipe calls for. The last time I needed Greek yogurt for a Martha recipe I ended up at a small family-owned grocery store where I paid an arm and a leg for it. This time, I cleverly checked the organic section in my big supermarket and there it was for much less.

This is a very simple recipe. You mix the yogurt with dill and parsley and mustard and smear it on the salmon, then roast it at a high temp. It turned out perfectly. I would never have thought to put yogurt on salmon, but it had a wonderful flavor. This is much simpler than making a sauce. The yogurt topping turns slightly brown and gets a tad hard, so it is almost like a crust. It stays in place, unlike a sauce and I think it kept the salmon quite moist as it roasted. This is a good thing!

In May Everyday Food, Martha touts the recipe for Roasted Salmon with Herbed Yogurt as a special occasion dish. I made it for a weeknight dinner – no occasion in sight other than the fact that I had some salmon hanging around. My first hurdle was tracking down the Greek yogurt the recipe calls for. … Read more →

Pancakes are a tradition in our house. When our kids were younger, we used to make them every Sunday. I made them so much, I know the recipe by heart. In recent years, we’ve expanded our Sunday breakfasts and pancakes only happen once every month or every two month. I knew I had to make Martha’s Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes as soon as I turned the page in my May Everyday Food.

This recipe was easy to make, but that being said, I managed to goof it up. You use two cups of rolled oats. One cup you put in the Cuisinart with the other dry ingredients and grind. The other cup you are supposed to leave whole and add to the dough. I didn’t read the recipe carefully enough, so it all went in the Cuisinart. The usual suspects are added to this – milk, egg, oil, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt, as well as cinnamon.

The batter was quite thick and this made a LOT of pancakes. The recipe says it serves 4, but I think it would easily feed 6, especially if you have other food with it.

These pancakes were very heavy and filling. They tasted like oatmeal, which was interesting. I think they would be better with some chopped apple in them. I tend to like fruit in my pancakes. I almost always add blueberries to pancakes when I make them. These are tasty, hearty pancakes though and will definitely fill your family up. In the recipe, Martha suggests freezing them and then heating them up for weekday mornings. My kids refuse to eat frozen pancakes, so that’s not an option here.

Pancakes are a tradition in our house. When our kids were younger, we used to make them every Sunday. I made them so much, I know the recipe by heart. In recent years, we’ve expanded our Sunday breakfasts and pancakes only happen once every month or every two month. I knew I had to make … Read more →

I made Martha’s Mexican Shrimp Salad (May Living – the link is not up yet on Martha’s site, I’ll post it once it is) thinking it would make a great, light dinner. This was pretty easy to make. You put lime juice, lime rinds, allspice (no I didn’t have berries so I used ground), pepper, salt, orange juice, orange zest and water in a pot and boil then simmer it. Add your unpeeled shrimp and cook quickly. Dump the shrimp in an ice bath and then peel them. Then you marinate them in tomato paste, orange juice, lime juice, lime zest and red pepper with some tomato and red onion mixed. I served it on lettuce leaves wtih sliced avocado as directed.

My first mouthful was bland. It didn’t taste like anything. My second mouthful was more lime flavor. By the third it tasted quite strong. Now, I was ok eating this, but Mr. MarthaandMe was picking at his eating large quantities of bread. I asked him if he liked it and he said it was too much lime flavor for him and he just didn’t care for it. Sigh. So I ended up saving his portion which I will have for lunch.

Overall I would say this was ok, but not great. It mostly tasted like a mouthful of lime and not much else.  It had avocado though and I will eat almost anything that has avocado since I love it so much, so I was able to eat this.

I made Martha’s Mexican Shrimp Salad (May Living – the link is not up yet on Martha’s site, I’ll post it once it is) thinking it would make a great, light dinner. This was pretty easy to make. You put lime juice, lime rinds, allspice (no I didn’t have berries so I used ground), pepper, … Read more →

I’m a sucker for satay, so I made Chicken Satay Skewers from April Martha Stewart Everyday Food.  Some of you might remember the last time I used skewers for a Martha recipe – the skewers burned and fell apart. This time I soaked my skewers for several hours before using them. Aren’t I clever? Well, we’ll see….

I sliced my chicken and marinated it in the soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and red pepper.  I actually let it sit in the fridge a few hours even though the recipe does not say to do so. I made the peanut sauce – peanut butter, salt, pepper, red pepper, rice vinegar and red pepper. This was more of a paste than a dipping sauce. I actually ended up adding a little more water to try to get it to loosen up.

I threaded the chicken onto the skewers and cooked it on the Jenn-Air (outdoor grilling season isn’t here yet!). Even though I soaked the skewers, they still turned black and fell apart. What the heck! That really annoyed me, I must say! Next time I’m just going to cook the chicken strips without skewers.

The chicken was good, but I would have liked it to have a more Asian flavor – maybe some ginger or more soy sauce. The dipping sauce (paste!) was good, but if I made that again I would put some chopped green onion in  it and some soy sauce too.

This was a nice quick weekday dinner that didn’t take a lot of work. I would definitely make it again. Even Mini-Martha liked the chicken (but wouldn’t taste the dipping sauce).

I’m a sucker for satay, so I made Chicken Satay Skewers from April Martha Stewart Everyday Food.  Some of you might remember the last time I used skewers for a Martha recipe – the skewers burned and fell apart. This time I soaked my skewers for several hours before using them. Aren’t I clever? Well, … Read more →

I’m writing a book called Cookie: A Cultural History and I would love to include your cookie memories in it! Do you have fond memories of baking a certain type of cookie with your grandma, sampling a unique cookie on a trip or at someone’s house, decorating cookies in a fun way, eating cookies in a treehouse with your best friend, the smell of cookies when you came home, or any other fond memories that have to do with cookies? If so, I would love to hear about them. Send an email to brette@brettesember.com with COOKIE STORIES in the subject line and include your full name and city/state. If I am able to use your memory, I’ll need you to sign a permissions form the publisher requires. My goal is to include lots of different types of memories to show how varied and important cookies are in our lives.  I hope to hear from you! Please feel free to pass this along to others, as I am trying to collect as many diverse and wonderful stories as I can.

I’m writing a book called Cookie: A Cultural History and I would love to include your cookie memories in it! Do you have fond memories of baking a certain type of cookie with your grandma, sampling a unique cookie on a trip or at someone’s house, decorating cookies in a fun way, eating cookies in … Read more →

Since I am overwhelmed with just too much leftover Easter ham, I made Martha’s Ham and Egg Fried Rice for dinner (April Everyday Food).  I love fried rice, especially when I make it at home, so this sounded good.

The recipe was easy to put together. You cook up some garlic, ginger and the white parts of scallions. Then you add soy sauce, rice vinegar, rice, ham and the green parts of scallions. Once it’s cooked, you put it in a bowl and put a sunny side up egg on top of it.

I made mine all in one bowl instead of individual bowls and we just put it on plates. The fried rice was good and I loved the big pieces of scallions, along with the ginger, garlic, soy and vinegar tastes. I must admit I was not wild about the ham in this. Maybe I’m just tired of ham, but it was too strong a flavor. I usually make my fried rice without any meat.

As for the egg? I have a friend whose kids regularly eat rice with a fried egg and soy sauce so it wasn’t a foreign concept and I do usually incorporated some scrambled eggs into my fried rice.  Even with all of that in my head, I still couldn’t get into the egg. Maybe I’m off eggs since the asparagus quiche episode that made me so sick. Everyone else thought it was ok though. I wouldn’t make this again though since it wasn’t anything to write home about (although apparently it is enough to write on a blog about).

Since I am overwhelmed with just too much leftover Easter ham, I made Martha’s Ham and Egg Fried Rice for dinner (April Everyday Food).  I love fried rice, especially when I make it at home, so this sounded good. The recipe was easy to put together. You cook up some garlic, ginger and the white … Read more →

I gave Martha’s Tortilla Pie with Chicken a try (from April Everyday Food). I have thrown together tortilla pies in the past, but never followed any particular recipe. Usually I layered ground turkey (that I seasoned with taco seasoning), cheese, beans, chopped tomato, salsa, and tortillas and served with sour cream, lettuce, and avocado on the side.

Martha’s recipe was easy because you put 4 tortillas on the bottom, put in your filling, add 4 more tortillas and top with leftover ingredients. Very simple to assemble with only a few layers. I used shredded chicken breast (which I poached) instead of dark meat as the recipe says. I also cheated and used a jar of salsa instead of making my own.

This was terrific. I loved the shredded chicken in it as opposed to the ground turkey I usually use. I served it with some chopped lettuce and sliced avocado and it made a great meal. I will definitely make this one again. It was great as leftovers also.

I gave Martha’s Tortilla Pie with Chicken a try (from April Everyday Food). I have thrown together tortilla pies in the past, but never followed any particular recipe. Usually I layered ground turkey (that I seasoned with taco seasoning), cheese, beans, chopped tomato, salsa, and tortillas and served with sour cream, lettuce, and avocado on … Read more →

I am a big fan of brisket, even though I only started making it a few years ago. I had never had brisket before then – except for corned beef brisket. Martha has a recipe for braised brisket  with carrots, parsnips and garlic in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living. I usually use Emeril’s recipe for brisket, so I was interested in giving Martha’s version a whirl to see how they compared.

Emeril’s recipe requires you to make the brisket a day ahead, refigerate it and then reheat it before serving. Martha’s version is a one day plan. Emeril’s recipe creates this wonderful tomato-y sauce which is really tasty.

I started Martha’s brisket on a weekday afternoon. I knew both kids would be home for dinner and Mr. MarthaandMe too, and I was thinking Teen Martha’s boyfriend might also make an appearance, so I would have a crowd.

Liquid

First I browned the brisket on both side, then I cooked the onion and garlic. Next I added tomato paste, broth and wine and bay leaves, creating the liquid the meat would cook in.

I put the meat in and put it in the oven. The recipe says to cook for 2 hours, then to flip the brisket and cook another half hour. Then you’ve got another hour in which you cook the veggies you’ve added. Then you’re supposed to take it out, cover the beef and let the liquid cool so you can skim off the fat. Then you need 20 minutes to cook the liquid down.

After the meat had been in the oven an hour and a half, our power went off. Praying to the gods of the brisket, I called the power company and found out they would not have it back on for another 2 1/2 hours – 6:30 pm (also known as dinner time). So that was that for my brisket that day. Instead we went out and had hot dogs. The brisket went in the fridge.

The Cooked Brisket

The next day, I planned to continue the cooking process once I returned from an important excursion – prom dress shopping with Teen Martha and Big MarthaandMe. Silly me, I didn’t realize it would take SEVEN HOURS of hard labor to obtain the perfect dress. I got home at 5 pm. Quickly, I shoved the brisket in the oven and put it on convection roast. After an hour, I added the vegetables. I let those cook about 25 minutes (I used baby carrots and had my parsnip cut thin). No time to cool the cooking liquid and skim fat. Instead I boiled the hell

The Veggies

out of it and added flour to make it a gravy.

So there I am with this lovely brisket ready for dinner. Dude Martha announces he doesn’t feel well and doesn’t want to eat. Teen Martha says she’s tired and is going to bed. So there Mr. MarthaandMe are with a giant brisket before us. He unfortunately forgot the adage about slicing against the grain, so our slices were not very nice looking. We each had a few slices. I thought it was quite good, but I still like Emeril’s recipe better. The sauce/gravy was good. The veggies were good. I enjoyed it,but am going to

The Plate

stick to my usual recipe. Sorry Martha!

I am a big fan of brisket, even though I only started making it a few years ago. I had never had brisket before then – except for corned beef brisket. Martha has a recipe for braised brisket  with carrots, parsnips and garlic in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living. I usually use Emeril’s … Read more →