I was all set to make a lovely meal last night. I bought some tuna steaks and was going to grill them and serve with a lovely mango salsa. I had some fresh pretzel rolls from the store and local corn on the cob and some green beans from the farm stand. Then Mr. MarthaAndMe texted that he had a late meeting and wouldn’t make it. No problem – Teen Martha loves tuna so I would make it for the two of us. Then she went shopping for shorts, had a crisis (couldn’t find any!) and decided she had to keep shopping before going with friends to a fair. That left me and Dude Martha, who insists he does not like fish. The tuna remains in the fridge and I’ll try again tomorrow. (if you’re wondering, I had a salad for dinner and he had tuna from a can which does not qualify as fish, apparently)

In the meantime, this is a photo of my amazing clematis vine. I can’t grow much of anything, but this thing is going nuts. I originally planted it next to the garage where it did nothing at all. Then a few years ago I moved it to the backyard next to the deck. It went crazy and now gets tons and tons of flowers. This past winter my crazy dogs who now can run free in our newly fenced yard decided it would be fun to chew the vine down. By spring, there was nothing left. I was sure it was a goner, but it has come back to its full beauty. Now if I could just manage to tame it a little bit! It wants to just grow along the floor of the deck and I keep trying to get it to wrap around the posts.

I was all set to make a lovely meal last night. I bought some tuna steaks and was going to grill them and serve with a lovely mango salsa. I had some fresh pretzel rolls from the store and local corn on the cob and some green beans from the farm stand. Then Mr. MarthaAndMe … Read more →

My May issue of Living arrived and there is section in it about an herb garden Martha designed for the NY Botanical Garden. It includes a list of what her must-have herbs are in an herb garden: Genovese basil, Red Rubin basil, Pesto Perpetuo basil, chervil, dill, Fernlead dill, flat leaf parsley, sage, sorrel and spearmint.

I grew up with a large herb garden. My dad has one in a raised bed on the side of the garage. I was often sent back there to pick herbs for my mom as she cooked dinner. He had everything you can think of.

We have a sad little herb garden here. Basically we scratched up the dirt next to the house, next to the deck and planted some chives, which come up every year, as well as some oregano that comes back also. I usually plant some basil and it almost always dies.

This year, we are going to make the herb garden bigger and surround it with some landscaping bricks to hold the dirt in. My must-have herbs will include:

– chives

– basil

– oregano

– rosemary

– dill

– sage

– thyme

– parsley (curly leaf)

– cilantro

What are your must-have herbs for an herb garden, or what would you grow if you had one?

My May issue of Living arrived and there is section in it about an herb garden Martha designed for the NY Botanical Garden. It includes a list of what her must-have herbs are in an herb garden: Genovese basil, Red Rubin basil, Pesto Perpetuo basil, chervil, dill, Fernlead dill, flat leaf parsley, sage, sorrel and … Read more →

I don’t have Martha’s green thumb (or cash to pay gardeners!), but I wanted to share some of the signs of spring from our gardens that I am enjoying. Bulbs, I can manage! Other than that, I put my family to shame. My grandfather and his brother began the family greenhouse business referenced in the link, based upon my great-grandfather’s farmland. It’s now run by my uncle and his fiance.

I don’t have Martha’s green thumb (or cash to pay gardeners!), but I wanted to share some of the signs of spring from our gardens that I am enjoying. Bulbs, I can manage! Other than that, I put my family to shame. My grandfather and his brother began the family greenhouse business referenced in the … Read more →

I think we can now unquestionably say I have a black thumb. Mr. MarthaAndMe got me one of those hydroponic self-contained little gardens for Christmas and I am attempting to grow herbs. One month after we got it started, I have one little pot that did not do anything, 3 that are slumped over and dead and one that grew (basil). Mr. MarthaAndMe took it apart and determined the pump is broken, so we’re ordering a new one. I’ve transplanted the basil (the only survivor) into a little pot in my kitchen. I’m clearly cursed.

I think we can now unquestionably say I have a black thumb. Mr. MarthaAndMe got me one of those hydroponic self-contained little gardens for Christmas and I am attempting to grow herbs. One month after we got it started, I have one little pot that did not do anything, 3 that are slumped over and … Read more →

If you’ve been following along, you might remember The Great Garden Debacle of 2009. Martha convinced me I needed to garden. I started seeds inside and planted them and had them all wiped out by frost. Then I bought some plants and had an invasion of creatures and ended up not getting much out of my garden at all. It was a sad Martha attempt. We do not have green thumbs – or maybe we just don’t have the time and patience needed to grow a garden. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to have fresh produce at my fingertips. My dad plants a huge garden and I am always thrilled to bring home what it produces. I’ve also had success in the past with container gardening.

One of things I am determined to grow is my own herbs. Martha has sold me on the value, flavor and necessity of fresh herbs. I do have a small herb garden near our deck, but seem to successfully grow only chives and oregano in it. And that is only useful during about half the year here in Buffalo.

Mr. MarthaAndMe bought me one of those aquaponic growers for Christmas. You fill it with water and nutrients and it will grown a variety of herbs and vegetables under UV lights. To get started, he got me an herb assortment. We set the equipment up right after Christmas and now there are a few things sprouting (although I am getting worried – only some of the 8 things seem to be poking their heads up!). I’m hopeful I’ll get some fresh herbs at least and I’ll be very grateful to have them too, considering how expensive they are to buy in tiny little packets in the produce section. Will our black thumbs extend to basement gardening too? I hope not, but please tune in to find out!

If you’ve been following along, you might remember The Great Garden Debacle of 2009. Martha convinced me I needed to garden. I started seeds inside and planted them and had them all wiped out by frost. Then I bought some plants and had an invasion of creatures and ended up not getting much out of … Read more →

This week’s Martha Mondays was my pick – suet birdfeeders from November Living. Let me say I am so, so, sorry. If you made this and it stunk up your house as badly as it did mine, I apologize. I think this is truly the nastiest Martha thing I’ve ever made. My grocery store did not have suet so I ended up at a butcher. Mr. MarthaAndMe chopped it up for me since I was grossed out by it. The directions say to render this until it liquifies. It seemed to me like that would be pretty simple but it wasn’t. It took FOREVER, it smelled horrible, and I was not sure when it was actually done. There were lots of chunks of stuff still floating around in the liquid fat, but it was starting to burn. I pulled the plug and strained it.

Martha says you have to strain it with cheesecloth – I just used a sieve. Then you have to let it harden, then melt it and strain it again. Can I just say, this seems like a LOT of work for birds. Seriously, can you see Martha taking an entire afternoon to make these birdfeeders? I think not. I’m sure she buys them from someone who makes organic artisan suet birdfeeders or something.

So I did let it harden and liquify it again, but I confess I did not strain it the second time – there was nothing in it to strain out. I just did not care enough. I mixed in the sunflower seeds, peanuts and cranberries and we smushed it into plastic containers with string in it and froze it. I actually halved this recipe, but somehow it made 4 containers full. I was a little concerned when about 3 hours after I put it in the freezer it wasn’t sticking together.

I left it in overnight. This morning we checked them and they all seemed loose, but we hoped for the best. We took the most solid one outside and tried to get it out of the container. You can see from the photo that it completely fell apart.

What a mess and what a disappointment. I’m wondering if maybe the butcher didn’t give me enough suet? Maybe I should have kept on cooking it down even though it was on low and was burning? I don’t know what to think, but it sure would be a lot easier to just BUY one of these suet things in the store for $2 than to spend this much time horsing around and ending up with such a mess!

This week’s Martha Mondays was my pick – suet birdfeeders from November Living. Let me say I am so, so, sorry. If you made this and it stunk up your house as badly as it did mine, I apologize. I think this is truly the nastiest Martha thing I’ve ever made. My grocery store did … Read more →

What I planted

I committed to planting a garden this year in my quest for a Martha life. You might remember it didn’t start out so perfectly when I planted my seedlings (which I grew myself) and we got a late frost which wiped them all out. I replaced them with store bought plants. My tomatoes and peppers are continuing to grow, but aren’t ready for picking yet (no tomato blight in sight at this point). I’ll update everyone when we have some things ready for harvest.

I did add one interesting thing to the garden. I had an onion in my pantry that

What we got

was sprouting some green. Instead of throwing it out, we stuck it in the ground. It grew! And a few days ago, Dude Martha went out and dug a clump up for me (there’s one more clump out there still) when I ran out of onions and needed them for dinner. The clump had three small onions in it. I used one and have saved the others.  It was pretty exciting to use onions we grew ourselves. I didn’t notice any difference in taste, although this was a dish where the onions were only background.  It was quite fun to pull onions out of the ground after sticking some in on a whim. In fact, I’m amazed it grew since I don’t have much luck with gardens in general.

I committed to planting a garden this year in my quest for a Martha life. You might remember it didn’t start out so perfectly when I planted my seedlings (which I grew myself) and we got a late frost which wiped them all out. I replaced them with store bought plants. My tomatoes and peppers … Read more →

Last weekend we planted the seedlings I had been growing in the house for over a month. And immediately we had a serious frost. Almost everything died.  I know Martha has all sorts of frost-prevention items – little paper hats she puts over things, etc. If I had known it was going to have  a frost I would have at least tossed a blanket over the garden, but I had no idea.

So, yesterday we were at Walmart and I grabbed a few replacement plants so we could try again. I have to say this gardening thing is already quite discouraging!

It’s definitely much easier to buy the plants already started than to do it yourself from seeds – sorry Martha!

Last weekend we planted the seedlings I had been growing in the house for over a month. And immediately we had a serious frost. Almost everything died.  I know Martha has all sorts of frost-prevention items – little paper hats she puts over things, etc. If I had known it was going to have  a … Read more →

I’ve committed to spending more time on the gardens this year – flower and vegetable. Here is a before photo of a horrible disaster of a flower garden that has become overrun with weeds. It was just out of control. Now, I am sure Martha would be able to give me exact instructions about how to take control of it. Instead, we did what Martha most likely does – pay someone to do it for us!

Our lawn/garden guy came with a rototiller and tilled it and raked out the weeds, after we dug out the  plants we wanted to save. He mulched it and then we went and replanted the plants and bought a few more. I’m hopeful that it will look decent the rest of the year.

As for the vegetable garden, I started my seeds indoors about a month ago and this weekend we moved the plants outside. We dug up a small part of the yard, covered it with a biodegradable paper and put a fence around it (we have aggressive deer and rabbits).  We’ll see how it does. Part of our problem in the past has been that we take very good care of it but then go on vacation at the end of July/beginning of August and it all goes to hell.

I’ve committed to spending more time on the gardens this year – flower and vegetable. Here is a before photo of a horrible disaster of a flower garden that has become overrun with weeds. It was just out of control. Now, I am sure Martha would be able to give me exact instructions about how … Read more →

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this. On Martha’s show Friday, she made an arrangement of lilacs using a bowl and a vase together (this is also in May Living, page 50). Our lilacs are just in bloom, so I decided to give this a try. Of course, it was complicated by several factors. First of all, I don’t have a pedestal bowl and a vase that matches it. I do not have floral tape. I am also not a very talented flower arranger. I tend to prefer to leave my flowers growing outside, where they last longer. If I do pick them, I tend to just stuff a few in a vase.

I used an actual snipper thing to cut them with instead of wrestling with scissors. I found a pink bowl and pink vase to use, but the bowl has no pedestal and the vase is not very tall, so it didn’t come out looking like Martha’s.

The best tip I picked up from Martha’s demo was that you are supposed to smash the ends of the flower stalk so it will last longer. I never knew that and in the past, my lilacs have never lasted more than a day or two. It will be interesting to see if they last longer this time.

I’m not really wild about my arrangement. It’s ok. I love the lilacs and will enjoy looking at them and smelling them though. While I was cutting them, I was thinking of my grandmother, who just passed away. I remember helping her cut them behind her house, and seeing her arrangement on her dining room table.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this. On Martha’s show Friday, she made an arrangement of lilacs using a bowl and a vase together (this is also in May Living, page 50). Our lilacs are just in bloom, so I decided to give this a try. Of course, it was complicated by several … Read more →