April Fool’s Day is a special day in our family. It is teen Martha’s (my teen daughter) birthday. Happy 17th Birthday Teen Martha! Because of this special event, we are usually more concentrated on birthday celebrations than on tricks. It is apropos that she was born on April Fool’s Day since she played a little April fool joke us on the day she was born. My bouncing bundle of joy weighed in at a whopping 11 1/2 lbs. Quite a funny little joke, except it was no joke! And I lived to tell the tale. I’m under strict orders not to post ANY photos of her on here or she will never speak to me again.

I thought I would share a special birthday cake I made for her a few years ago. It’s an April Fool’s cake – spaghetti and meatballs cake.

First I made a one layer chocolate cake (using my grandmother’s recipe which I might share with you someday if you’re nice!). I made white frosting and squeezed it out through a pastry bag to make it look like spaghetti. I made the meatballs out of fudge. The red sauce is strawberry jam and the parmesan cheese is grated white chocolate. It was a huge hit.

April Fool’s Day is a special day in our family. It is teen Martha’s (my teen daughter) birthday. Happy 17th Birthday Teen Martha! Because of this special event, we are usually more concentrated on birthday celebrations than on tricks. It is apropos that she was born on April Fool’s Day since she played a little … Read more →

Easter eggs. Anyone can do that, right?  Well, that’s what I thought anyway. I decided to do some decoupage eggs as Martha shows in April Martha Stewart Living and also the glitter eggs that are mentioned at the front of the magazine as being online (and are also in the Craft Encyclopedia). This sounded like something I could manage.

The first step was getting the eggs. Blowing out eggs was way too much work for me. Martha says in the magazine you can find blown out eggs at “any craft store”. Ha! Neither Michael’s nor Joann had them. Joann had no eggs of any kind – nothing wooden, paper, etc (and snotty people working there who were not interested in helping me). What craft store has NO wooden or faux eggs available 2 weeks before Easter?

Michael’s had wooden eggs so I bought some of those. I also bought some Mod Podge glue. As for decoupage, I simply do not have the fine motor skills to cut out the shapes in the template in the magazine. Not a chance. So I thought I would be clever and buy some Easter stickers and some cute little confetti.

The first thing I did was to paint the eggs I was going to decoupage. The first problem was that that the price stickers would not come off!

I don’t know how you paint these without getting fingerprints all over them. I ended up doing several coats and got it all over my hands and the table. I kept dropping the eggs (good thing they weren’t real!).

While those dried, I attempted to do the glitter eggs. I read the instructions in the craft encyclopedia several times. It says to hold the egg and paint it with glue then set it in the glitter and cover it. If you hold the egg while putting glue on, the glue comes off on your hands and does not stick to the egg. When you pick the egg up out of the glitter, the glitter comes off on your hands. This is why my first egg ended up with bald spots! I tried to dab a little more glue on and put more glitter, but that was unsuccessful.

I was ready to toss the damn eggs out the window, when Mr. MarthaAndMe suggested sticking a nail in the bottom of each one so I could hold the nail. The man is a genius. This worked perfectly and I ended up with evenly glittered eggs that looked pretty darn nice. He made some holes in a piece of wood so we could just stick the nails in it and let the eggs dry. My father-

in-law says you can do anything if you have the right tools, and again he was proven correct. I think the instructions for this craft made it sound far too simple and did not offer enough guidance.

Next, onto the decoupage. I have never decoupaged, but after hearing Rosie O’Donnell rave about it for years, I thought, how hard could it be? I’ve seen her demonstrate it several times and it looked so easy.

Wrong. The problem probably lies in my materials and I am willing to admit that up front. The stickers did not work. First of all, they were too large and crumpled at the edges because the eggs are curved. Mr. MarthaAndMe said they were too thick to work and that somehow the adhesive on the stickers interfered with the glue.  Similar problem with the confetti – it would not stick. I was using Martha Stewart confetti and it was kind of stiff.

Again, I was ready to open the window and pitch the damn things out, but Mr. MarthaAndMe suggested we just hole punch some white paper and use the dots to make polka dots with decoupage. You can see why I married this man. This worked pretty well. I had some trouble with the glue making the paint moist and the paint smearing and coming off.  I was also able to use the tiny Easter egg stickers I had – some of them stuck and some of it didn’t.

Was this fun? Umm, no. It made me crazy. It made a mess. It was not cheap. I would rather buy some decorative eggs for display than monkey around with this and have it never be quite right.

I guess the Easter bunny will not be too happy with me this year.

Easter eggs. Anyone can do that, right?  Well, that’s what I thought anyway. I decided to do some decoupage eggs as Martha shows in April Martha Stewart Living and also the glitter eggs that are mentioned at the front of the magazine as being online (and are also in the Craft Encyclopedia). This sounded like … Read more →

Top o’ the morning to you! Hold onto your hats gang, this is going to be a looooonnnggg post.  We always celebrate St. Patrick’s Day – it’s a family tradition – with corned beef and cabbage and my cheese soda bread. This year, I decided to do it Martha’s way.

First, Homemade Corned Beef with Vegetables, which is in March Martha Stewart living and also shown on the tv show. As I posted two weeks ago, I corned the beef myself. It was actually quite easy to do (other than not being able to find pink curing salt -I substituted a meat curing salt instead). The meat has to cure for two full weeks. I cooked this in much the same way I always do – in a big pot with some carrot, celery, and onion.

When I make this, I always add cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. Martha calls for tunips also, so I added those.  I followed her instructions about steaming the turnips and carrots, although in the past I have always just cooked all the veggies in the pot with the meat and they are good that way too.  The results?

Excellent! I was worried my corned beef would not be pink since I did not have pink curing salt, but as you can see, it did mostly turn pink. It tasted very good. If I had any criticism it would be that it seemed a little too salty. The vegetables were great and the turnips were a nice addition. Martha says to serve this with broth and mustard. In my family, we serve it with horseradish and ketchup, and some sour cream for the potatoes.  I will definitely corn my own beef again next year!

Martha has a recipe for Irish Soda Bread in the magazine and she also made it on tv, talking about how she made up this recipe herself (I was excited to try something that really was straight from her hands).  I also made my own cheese soda bread so we could have a taste-off.

Martha’s bread was easy to make, once I ran to the store for wheat bran! She uses milk that she sours with vinegar instead of buttermilk. Her recipe has no eggs in it, whereas mine does. She adds caraway seeds and raisins. The bread came together nicely. When I baked it, it flattened significantly though. Cutting it into slices was an adventure. It pretty much fell apart and wasn’t very nice

looking. It did, however, taste FANTASTIC. Really, really amazing. I am not a raisin fan, so I picked those out. The wheat bran really makes this bread wonderful – crunchy and sweet and hearty.  I will definitely make this again (although maybe I’ll make a loaf for me without raisins in it!).

Now for my own Cheese Soda Bread. Here’s the recipe:

4 c flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

6 tbsp butter

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 eggs

1 1/2 c buttermilk.

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients and stir in the cheese. Beat the eggs and reserve 1 tbsp. Mix eggs with buttermilk and stir into dry ingredients. Turn it out onto a floured surface and form it into a round. Place on greased baking sheet and brush outside with reserved egg. Bake for 75 minutes and allow to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

I have been making this for years and years and got the recipe from my mom (Big MarthaAndMe). It is  just as simple to make as Martha’s. It uses buttermilk and eggs and of course the cheese is a big change from Martha’s. I love this bread so much, but it is very different from Martha’s – almost like they are not both in the same family of breads. I think I will have to make both every year from now on!

Now, on to the leftovers. One of the reasons I love St. Patrick’s Day dinner is because there are always leftovers! The next day I always make a reuben sandwich. I use pumperknickel rye bread. I put ketchup on one slice and mustard on the other. I use sliced corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut and cook it in a pan like grilled cheese. Oh! It is so good.

My other big leftover dish is corned beef hash. First, I cook some onion and set it aside. I use the potatoes from the corned beef because they are already cooked. I dice them and then cook them in a pan with olive oil, slowly, until they are brown and crisp. Then I add the onion and diced corned beef and salt and pepper to taste. I serve it with ketchup. It’s to die for.

Top o’ the morning to you! Hold onto your hats gang, this is going to be a looooonnnggg post.  We always celebrate St. Patrick’s Day – it’s a family tradition – with corned beef and cabbage and my cheese soda bread. This year, I decided to do it Martha’s way. First, Homemade Corned Beef with … Read more →

Top o’ the morning to you! Hold onto your hats gang, this is going to be a looooonnnggg post.  We always celebrate St. Patrick’s Day – it’s a family tradition – with corned beef and cabbage and my cheese soda bread. This year, I decided to do it Martha’s way.

First, Homemade Corned Beef with Vegetables, which is in March Martha Stewart living and also shown on the tv show. As I posted two weeks ago, I corned the beef myself. It was actually quite easy to do (other than not being able to find pink curing salt -I substituted a meat curing salt instead). The meat has to cure for two full weeks. I cooked this in much the same way I always do – in a big pot with some carrot, celery, and onion.

When I make this, I always add cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. Martha calls for tunips also, so I added those.  I followed her instructions about steaming the turnips and carrots, although in the past I have always just cooked all the veggies in the pot with the meat and they are good that way too.  The results?

Excellent! I was worried my corned beef would not be pink since I did not have pink curing salt, but as you can see, it did mostly turn pink. It tasted very good. If I had any criticism it would be that it seemed a little too salty. The vegetables were great and the turnips were a nice addition. Martha says to serve this with broth and mustard. In my family, we serve it with horseradish and ketchup, and some sour cream for the potatoes.  I will definitely corn my own beef again next year!

Martha has a recipe for Irish Soda Bread in the magazine and she also made it on tv, talking about how she made up this recipe herself (I was excited to try something that really was straight from her hands).  I also made my own cheese soda bread so we could have a taste-off.

Martha’s bread was easy to make, once I ran to the store for wheat bran! She uses milk that she sours with vinegar instead of buttermilk. Her recipe has no eggs in it, whereas mine does. She adds caraway seeds and raisins. The bread came together nicely. When I baked it, it flattened significantly though. Cutting it into slices was an adventure. It pretty much fell apart and wasn’t very nice

looking. It did, however, taste FANTASTIC. Really, really amazing. I am not a raisin fan, so I picked those out. The wheat bran really makes this bread wonderful – crunchy and sweet and hearty.  I will definitely make this again (although maybe I’ll make a loaf for me without raisins in it!).

Now for my own Cheese Soda Bread. Here’s the recipe:

4 c flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

6 tbsp butter

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 eggs

1 1/2 c buttermilk.

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients and stir in the cheese. Beat the eggs and reserve 1 tbsp. Mix eggs with buttermilk and stir into dry ingredients. Turn it out onto a floured surface and form it into a round. Place on greased baking sheet and brush outside with reserved egg. Bake for 75 minutes and allow to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

I have been making this for years and years and got the recipe from my mom (Big MarthaAndMe). It is  just as simple to make as Martha’s. It uses buttermilk and eggs and of course the cheese is a big change from Martha’s. I love this bread so much, but it is very different from Martha’s – almost like they are not both in the same family of breads. I think I will have to make both every year from now on!

Now, on to the leftovers. One of the reasons I love St. Patrick’s Day dinner is because there are always leftovers! The next day I always make a reuben sandwich. I use pumperknickel rye bread. I put ketchup on one slice and mustard on the other. I use sliced corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut and cook it in a pan like grilled cheese. Oh! It is so good.

My other big leftover dish is corned beef hash. First, I cook some onion and set it aside. I use the potatoes from the corned beef because they are already cooked. I dice them and then cook them in a pan with olive oil, slowly, until they are brown and crisp. Then I add the onion and diced corned beef and salt and pepper to taste. I serve it with ketchup. It’s to die for.

Top o’ the morning to you! Hold onto your hats gang, this is going to be a looooonnnggg post.  We always celebrate St. Patrick’s Day – it’s a family tradition – with corned beef and cabbage and my cheese soda bread. This year, I decided to do it Martha’s way. First, Homemade Corned Beef with … Read more →

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. The decorations are green, which make me feel as though spring really will arrive soon! I love the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal (I”ll be making Martha’s version later this month).

I decorate my all season tree for St. Pat’s day and I think this might be my favorite tree of all the seasons and holidays. I have enough ornaments to fill the tree and I actually like all of them.  The little flat green shamrocks are wooden and Mr. MarthaAndMe drilled holes in them so I could hang them. Do you see the little shamrocks that are white on the inside with a green edge? I’ve had those a long time. They are made of sugar! They’re meant to be cake decorations. We glued two of them, back to back, with a piece of white thread through them so I could hang them.

I love the castle, the leprchaun hats, the Celtic knots, the harps, and the green marble shamrock from Connemara. Erin Go Brach!

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. The decorations are green, which make me feel as though spring really will arrive soon! I love the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal (I”ll be making Martha’s version later this month). I decorate my all season tree for St. Pat’s day and I think this might … Read more →

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. The decorations are green, which make me feel as though spring really will arrive soon! I love the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal (I”ll be making Martha’s version later this month).

I decorate my all season tree for St. Pat’s day and I think this might be my favorite tree of all the seasons and holidays. I have enough ornaments to fill the tree and I actually like all of them.  The little flat green shamrocks are wooden and Mr. MarthaAndMe drilled holes in them so I could hang them. Do you see the little shamrocks that are white on the inside with a green edge? I’ve had those a long time. They are made of sugar! They’re meant to be cake decorations. We glued two of them, back to back, with a piece of white thread through them so I could hang them.

I love the castle, the leprchaun hats, the Celtic knots, the harps, and the green marble shamrock from Connemara. Erin Go Brach!

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. The decorations are green, which make me feel as though spring really will arrive soon! I love the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal (I”ll be making Martha’s version later this month). I decorate my all season tree for St. Pat’s day and I think this might … Read more →

In the March issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food, there is a recipe for Irish Beef Hand Pies.  These are little pastry pockets with a meat and veg filling. They reminded a lot of Cornish Pasties which a family friend used to serve at his New Orleans restaurant and of which  I have fond memories.

This recipe sounded pretty easy, so I was eager to give a go on a busy weeknight. Silly me.

I cut this recipe in half, so keep that in mind as you read. First, you cook potatoes and cabbage with a little oil. I really, really think it needs some onion, so if you make it, add some onion at this stage. Once that is cooked, you add ground beef. Then some tomato paste, Worchestershire, thyme, water and salt and pepper. You cook it for about 15 minutes.

Next you are supposed to roll out a pie crust into a 14 inch square. The recipe says to use homemade or store-bought. I had a store bought pie crust and I attempted to roll it out and it ripped and shredded and was quite thin. I ended up tossing that in the garbage and making one from scratch. This should have been no problem – I’ve been making pie crust with the same recipe since I was about 10. However, this time, something was wrong with it. It did not form a ball in the Cuisinart like it is supposed to. At this point, I was not going to start over yet again, so I decided to just go with it. I did get it rolled out to about the right size, but after I put my filling on it and tried to fold it, it simply shredded. Complete disaster.  I made it work though since I had to get dinner on the table.

As you can see, they were not pretty looking. As for taste? Well, onion is definitely missing. I felt that in general they were kind of bland and dry. I would like the filling to be moister. However, if that’s the case, then the dough needs to be thicker so it doesn’t get soggy.

Overall, I was not impressed with these at all.

In the March issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food, there is a recipe for Irish Beef Hand Pies.  These are little pastry pockets with a meat and veg filling. They reminded a lot of Cornish Pasties which a family friend used to serve at his New Orleans restaurant and of which  I have fond memories. … Read more →

I love St. Pat’s Day and I love corned beef, so obviously I HAVE to make Martha’s corned beef. The recipe in the March issue of Martha Stewart Living (which Martha also made on the show), tells you how to corn your own. I’ve never done this and it sounded like fun. I love to brine turkey, so this was a new brining adventure!

I wrote down what I needed and went to the store. Immediate problem. Pink curing salt? They didn’t have it.  Three other stores (including two “gourmet” shops) did not have it either. Home I went with my head hung low. Martha provides a source, but I needed to get this beef corning, since it needs to sit for two full weeks, so there was no time for ordering and shipping.

Next I did some Googling to see if there is an adequate substitute. Based on information there, out I went to the store again, this time to buy Morton’s Quick Cure Salt. Apparently it’s almost the same, but without the pink color. So my corned beef will not be bright pink  – I think I will live through it.

Now that I had all the ingredients, I needed to crush coriander seeds, mustard seeds, peppercorns, bay leaves and cinnamon sticks. I don’t have a mortar and pestle (what Martha used on the show) and I don’t have a spice grinder. So I used the mini-Cuisinart. It did a partial job and that is going to have to be good enough. I cooked up the brine and got the meat soaking. Fingers crossed this turns out! Tune in on St. Pat’s Day to find out!

I love St. Pat’s Day and I love corned beef, so obviously I HAVE to make Martha’s corned beef. The recipe in the March issue of Martha Stewart Living (which Martha also made on the show), tells you how to corn your own. I’ve never done this and it sounded like fun. I love to … Read more →

In recent years, I’ve begun doing something special for Mardi Gras. It was never something we celebrated as a kid, but I find that by this time of year, everyone can use a little celebration to help them get through the winter doldrums.

Last year I made a king cake. This year, I bought paczkis.  Never heard of these? I’ll bet Martha has since they are a Polish tradition (a search of her site didn’t turn anything up – so I say Martha needs to do a show about these).

You used to have to go to a few specific bakeries in our area to find them, but now our grocery stores carry them for Fat Tuesday. Paczkis (pronounced “poonch-keys”) are similar to a jelly donut, but have a different texture. They are a bit heavier – like fried dough. They are filled with jelly or custard cream and are glazed, sugared, or powdered sugared. They are incredibly delicious!

I found this recipe online, although I haven’t tried it myself. If you’ve made them, let me know. Maybe next year I will make them myself.

In recent years, I’ve begun doing something special for Mardi Gras. It was never something we celebrated as a kid, but I find that by this time of year, everyone can use a little celebration to help them get through the winter doldrums. Last year I made a king cake. This year, I bought paczkis.  … Read more →

If you’ve been following along, you know that I’ve tried in the past to do some Martha crafts. You also know that I am basically hopeless.  That was proven yet again for those of us who weren’t positive. I decided to make the “Have a Heart” Good Things heart doily table decorations on page 51 of Martha Stewart Living (Feb). How hard could it be, right? This is a simple craft that just requires folding and cutting. Ha!

Basically you take a paper square dinner napkin (I even bought pink for this!) and fold it into a triangle. Then you fold the pointy side of the triangle back over. I did it! No problem! It helped that there were written directions and a photo in the mag to go by!

Ok, so next you cut from the left side and cut the top of one half of a heart. Then you cut the bottom of one half of a heart, leaving it all attached by at least 1/4 of inch on the right hand side. That sounded pretty simple. Silly me. You unfold it and voila, you should have a beautiful heart doily.

So lame, right? They sort of look like hearts, but all I can really see is the star shape in the center. As I am sitting there banging my head on the table, Mr. MarthaandMe comes along, picks up a napkin and scissors and snip, snip, snip in seconds has created the most perfect, magazine ready example.

Do we hate him? Oh yes we do. It’s not easy to be craft-impaired.

If you’ve been following along, you know that I’ve tried in the past to do some Martha crafts. You also know that I am basically hopeless.  That was proven yet again for those of us who weren’t positive. I decided to make the “Have a Heart” Good Things heart doily table decorations on page 51 … Read more →