In the October issue of Martha Stewart Living, Martha’s Pick is T Leclerc Liquid Eyeliner. Martha says to order this from Barney’s, but they did not have it in stock. I ended up ordering from Eva Scrivo. Cost? $26 but with shipping and tax I shelled out $36.00.I got the brown.

I had Teen Martha test drive this first since she uses liquid eyeliner regularly. She liked it, but didn’t think there was anything remarkable about it. I gave it a try next and it was my first attempt with liquid eyeliner. It’s harder to apply then pencil eyeliner so I made a bit of a mess. Once I got it on, it was fine looking. Any mistakes I made wiped off easily with a wet tissue. It did feel a little weird 0 like there was paint drying around my eyes, but I suspect that is something you get with any liquid eyeliner. This is a nice product, but isn’t any better than our regular (much lower priced!) drugstore finds.

In the October issue of Martha Stewart Living, Martha’s Pick is T Leclerc Liquid Eyeliner. Martha says to order this from Barney’s, but they did not have it in stock. I ended up ordering from Eva Scrivo. Cost? $26 but with shipping and tax I shelled out $36.00.I got the brown. I had Teen Martha … Read more →

In the October issue of Martha Stewart Living, Martha’s Pick is T Leclerc Liquid Eyeliner. Martha says to order this from Barney’s, but they did not have it in stock. I ended up ordering from Eva Scrivo. Cost? $26 but with shipping and tax I shelled out $36.00.I got the brown.

I had Teen Martha test drive this first since she uses liquid eyeliner regularly. She liked it, but didn’t think there was anything remarkable about it. I gave it a try next and it was my first attempt with liquid eyeliner. It’s harder to apply then pencil eyeliner so I made a bit of a mess. Once I got it on, it was fine looking. Any mistakes I made wiped off easily with a wet tissue. It did feel a little weird 0 like there was paint drying around my eyes, but I suspect that is something you get with any liquid eyeliner. This is a nice product, but isn’t any better than our regular (much lower priced!) drugstore finds.

In the October issue of Martha Stewart Living, Martha’s Pick is T Leclerc Liquid Eyeliner. Martha says to order this from Barney’s, but they did not have it in stock. I ended up ordering from Eva Scrivo. Cost? $26 but with shipping and tax I shelled out $36.00.I got the brown. I had Teen Martha … Read more →

Lorraine at Sweet Lorraine Bakeshop has chosen Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding for Monday October 12. We tasted sticky toffee pudding on our UK trip, so I’m excited to try to make it myself.

Lorraine at Sweet Lorraine Bakeshop has chosen Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding for Monday October 12. We tasted sticky toffee pudding on our UK trip, so I’m excited to try to make it myself.

It’s Martha Monday again and this week’s choice was Warm Vanilla Cider, from October Martha Stewart Living, chosen by Teresa at HomemadeIowaLife.

I have to admit, this is something I never would have made were it not chosen for today’s project. This is really a dessert drink more than anything else.

I cheated a little with this recipe, so please forgive me. You heat cider (6 c) with brown sugar (1/2 c) and 2 whole nutmegs (I used ground nutmeg) and the scraped seeds from a vanilla bean (I used vanilla extract). You simmer for 15 min. You serve it with whipped cream (I made my own – points for me) and honeyed walnuts. I made honeyed pecans instead (very simple – toss them with honey and roast for 15 min – I actually stuck mine in the microwave, which was faster as long as you keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn).

Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to like this, but it turns out I did! It was sweet and creamy and the nuts are to die for. This is something you could make on a cold winter afternoon to enjoy in front of the fire, or for after skiing (I didn’t say “apres ski” since I always find that to sound so pretentious!).

Here’s the funny thing though. Mr. MarthaAndMe, who LOVES vanilla and also really likes cider, did not like this. He didn’t even finish it. He’s weird about hot drinks and says he could not drink it because in his mind cider is not supposed to be hot (this is the same man who cannot fathom cold soups, so I suppose it is not surprising). Teen Martha liked this though. This was something fun and different and I enjoyed it!

It’s Martha Monday again and this week’s choice was Warm Vanilla Cider, from October Martha Stewart Living, chosen by Teresa at HomemadeIowaLife. I have to admit, this is something I never would have made were it not chosen for today’s project. This is really a dessert drink more than anything else. I cheated a little … Read more →

I signed up to participate in a bonus round of the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club. Members are required to bake one recipe a month, on the 15th. A bonus round for the Banana Pecan Cupcakes was set for Sept 30 on a voluntary basis. I couldn’t pass it by. It just so happens that the kids had been asking me to make banana bread AND I had some practically rotten bananas at the ready.

Mr. MarthaAndMe grew up eating banana bread a lot. I didn’t. His mother always baked banana bread inside a clean tin can, so that it came out round. As a kid, that was a big deal to him. Although I don’t bake my banana bread in a tin can, I do make it once in a while. Mr. MarthaAndMe likes to put cream cheese on his (blech!) but the kids like theirs plain. I always use my grandmother’s recipe which is foolproof. I was ready to give Martha’s recipe a try though.

Martha’s recipe is pretty similar to mine, but she uses cake flour. Normally I use half white flour and half wheat flour in mine, but I followed the instructions here. The rest of the recipe was pretty unremarkable. I whipped it up and filled cupcake papers with it. Then it hit me – the recipe has no cinnamon in it! That is a travesty, so I mixed some cinnamon and coarse sugar together and sprinkled it on the tops of the cupcakes. Also, I left about 6 cupcakes without nuts for Dude Martha, who prefers no nuts in his.

These cupcakes took a lot longer to bake than Martha said – about 10 minutes more. They turned out nicely and everyone liked them. I did not frost them because these are really a muffin, not a cupcake and I also did top them with cinnamon and sugar.

I think I would stick to my grandmother’s recipe in the future, but I might make them as muffins, because they are convenient for freezing and for people to grab for breakfast.

I signed up to participate in a bonus round of the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club. Members are required to bake one recipe a month, on the 15th. A bonus round for the Banana Pecan Cupcakes was set for Sept 30 on a voluntary basis. I couldn’t pass it by. It just so happens that the … Read more →

This week’s Martha Mondays is Apple Brown Betty, chosen by April at AbbySweets. I make apple crisp every fall, but have never tried Brown Betty – and didn’t even know what the difference is until I made this recipe. The difference has to do with the starch component. When I make apple crisp, I make a topping of flour, sugar, butter and cinnamon. Apple Brown Betty relies on bread crumbs.

I made fresh breadcrumbs as Martha directs. You mix your apples with cinnamon, sugar,  and nutmeg and lemon juice and then some of the breadcrumbs (which have been tossed with butter).  Dump it into your pan and cover with the remaining breadcrumbs. This gets baked covered in foil for 40 minutes, then you uncover it until the apples are soft.

It looked and smelled good. There’s nothing like the smell of apples and cinnamon to make it feel like fall. We liked it, but we like apple crisp better.  The texture of the breadcrumbs is hard to get used to when you’re used to the softness of apple crisp. This also isn’t quite as sweet as my apple crisp recipe.  Somehow apple crisp is mushier – you can’t see slices of apple, but in this they stayed fairly intact. It was good, and would definitely be better with some vanilla ice cream, but I won’t make it again.

Here’s my recipe for apple crisp which I would make instead of this:

Peel, core and slice 6 apples. Toss them with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 cup of water. Put in a square baking dish (sprayed with Pam). Mix and crumble together 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 4 tbsp butter. Spread over the top of the apples. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for an hour.

This week’s Martha Mondays is Apple Brown Betty, chosen by April at AbbySweets. I make apple crisp every fall, but have never tried Brown Betty – and didn’t even know what the difference is until I made this recipe. The difference has to do with the starch component. When I make apple crisp, I make … Read more →

April from AbbySweets has chosen Apple Brown Betty for our next project. Sounds perfect for this time of year! I’ll post my results on Monday. Share yours as a comment or link to your blog posted to my post on Monday. As always, if you would like to join, let me know and I will add you to the blogroll.

April from AbbySweets has chosen Apple Brown Betty for our next project. Sounds perfect for this time of year! I’ll post my results on Monday. Share yours as a comment or link to your blog posted to my post on Monday. As always, if you would like to join, let me know and I will … Read more →

Last week, on one of the new season’s episodes of her tv show, Martha introduced viewers to her latest ‘find’ – Raye’s Mustard, which she discovered in Maine. She showed several varieties and raved about the mustard. So of course I had to try it. I ordered a 4 oz jar of the Down East Schooner Mustard. The jar was $2.75 (reasonable) however the shipping was $9.95!

Despite the outrageous price tag, I kept an open mind about the mustard. And I’m glad I did. Because it was good. In this house we have several mustards in the fridge – store brand yellow, Gray Poupon country style Dijon, store brand honey mustard and Nance’s sweet hot mustard. In general, I am not a big mustard fan, but Mr. MarthaAndMe is. We sampled this mustard and while it is a basic yellow mustard, it was much, much better than store brand yellow mustard. It had a purer mustard flavor and had no aftertaste. We really liked it. I’ll give this find a thumbs up (but I probably won’t be footing the $10 shipping cost again).

Last week, on one of the new season’s episodes of her tv show, Martha introduced viewers to her latest ‘find’ – Raye’s Mustard, which she discovered in Maine. She showed several varieties and raved about the mustard. So of course I had to try it. I ordered a 4 oz jar of the Down East … Read more →

Last week, on one of the new season’s episodes of her tv show, Martha introduced viewers to her latest ‘find’ – Raye’s Mustard, which she discovered in Maine. She showed several varieties and raved about the mustard. So of course I had to try it. I ordered a 4 oz jar of the Down East Schooner Mustard. The jar was $2.75 (reasonable) however the shipping was $9.95!

Despite the outrageous price tag, I kept an open mind about the mustard. And I’m glad I did. Because it was good. In this house we have several mustards in the fridge – store brand yellow, Gray Poupon country style Dijon, store brand honey mustard and Nance’s sweet hot mustard. In general, I am not a big mustard fan, but Mr. MarthaAndMe is. We sampled this mustard and while it is a basic yellow mustard, it was much, much better than store brand yellow mustard. It had a purer mustard flavor and had no aftertaste. We really liked it. I’ll give this find a thumbs up (but I probably won’t be footing the $10 shipping cost again).

Last week, on one of the new season’s episodes of her tv show, Martha introduced viewers to her latest ‘find’ – Raye’s Mustard, which she discovered in Maine. She showed several varieties and raved about the mustard. So of course I had to try it. I ordered a 4 oz jar of the Down East … Read more →

This week’s Martha Mondays assignment was a donation bag. I loved this idea.  I try to take a bag to Goodwill once a month or so but I generally toss items into a closet and let them pile up and then stuff them into a bag when I’m ready to take them.  Martha’s suggestion was to designate a bag you keep things in. This actually is a really good idea. Not only does it keep it all together, but it makes it easy to grab and go when you get a chance to drop it off. Seeing the bag hanging there also reminds you to look for items to put in it and to regularly take the bag to be donated. Inspired by this, I’ve also designated an area in my pantry to pile up food pantry items. In the past I’ve tried to make mental notes of what I should donate from my pantry but I almost always forget. Now I’ve got an area set aside for those items so I won’t forget. I’ve also designated a shelf in a cupboard in my office for book donations to my local library. It’s amazing how a very simple project like this can make you feel so very efficient!

I haven’t heard back yet from the Martha Mondays member who is scheduled to choose for this week, but when I do, I’ll post her pick.

This week’s Martha Mondays assignment was a donation bag. I loved this idea.  I try to take a bag to Goodwill once a month or so but I generally toss items into a closet and let them pile up and then stuff them into a bag when I’m ready to take them.  Martha’s suggestion was … Read more →