The Martha Mondays project for 2/8 is crayon hearts, chosen by Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet. Sounds like a great project for Valentine’s Day!

The Martha Mondays project for 2/8 is crayon hearts, chosen by Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet. Sounds like a great project for Valentine’s Day!

I used to love to send postcards when I was a kid. I always sent them to my grandmother, who stuck them into random pages of her cookbooks. She always said she liked to happen upon them in the future. When she died, we found lots of them in her cookbooks.

This week’s Martha Mondays project, chosen by  Sarah at Mum in Bloom, is to make your own postcards. The project is very simple. Print out the template for the back of the postcard and glue it onto the back of a 4×6 photo. The photo I used is one we took on the shores of Loch Ness this past summer.

Here’s a little secret. You don’t even really need to print out the template. You can simply mail a photo if you write the address on the right hand side and leave a place for the stamp. In fact, you can mail all sorts of weird things. There’s a whole little business surrounding this in Florida, where we go every spring. We have mailed a whole coconut (no packaging, just a label), a flip flop (again, just a label) and a plastic bottle with a note in it (label glued on the outside), all sold in gift shops down there.

My aunt, who was postmaster of her town, used to mail her own photos as postcards often (without any backing glued on) while on vacation.  If you’ve got a printer with you, this is a great way to send personalized postcards for very little cost. I have to say I always do like to look through postcards though wherever we are. I like to see what photos are being used. I have some blank postcards I bought as a child and now have all the ones  I sent my grandmother and they are interesting to look through.

I used to love to send postcards when I was a kid. I always sent them to my grandmother, who stuck them into random pages of her cookbooks. She always said she liked to happen upon them in the future. When she died, we found lots of them in her cookbooks. This week’s Martha Mondays … Read more →

Martha wrote her personal column in Feb Living about her favorite breakfast dishes. One that caught my eye was breakfast quinoa. Quinoa is a grain that is similar to barley or Israeli couscous.  I’ve experimented with it a few times as a side dish, but never would have considered it for breakfast. So, one morning, I decided to try it. The recipe has you cook the quinoa in milk and it says it should take 23 minutes total. You add brown sugar and cinnamon for flavor.

I cooked mine for 30 minutes and it was as hard as pebbles. I had to abort since I had to get going, so I just covered it and turned the stove off. When I got back home an hour or so later, I added more milk and turned it on again for about 15 minutes. Still too hard. I put it in the fridge and got it out the next morning. This time I added a lot more milk  – all in all I would say I at least had to double the amount of milk this called for – and cooked it for another half hour. Finally, finally, it was soft enough to eat.

It tasted a lot like steel cut oatmeal, especially with the cinnamon and sugar, which is how I make oatmeal. It was something different, but I would probably rather have oatmeal.

Martha wrote her personal column in Feb Living about her favorite breakfast dishes. One that caught my eye was breakfast quinoa. Quinoa is a grain that is similar to barley or Israeli couscous.  I’ve experimented with it a few times as a side dish, but never would have considered it for breakfast. So, one morning, … Read more →

Looking for a yummy lemon cookie? This is a good one. Lemon Icebox Cookies from Jan/Feb Everyday Food were a winner here. I made half a batch of this since it said it made 60 cookies. You make the entire thing in the Cuisinart which is a nice quick solution that I loved! You do have to chill the dough after you make it, which adds some time to this. Once the log of dough is chilled, Martha says to roll it in sugar, then slice it. I think if I made this again, I might do something to the cookies after slicing – they looked pretty plain with just a little sugar on the sides.

They were wonderful though. They taste like a lemon shortbread, but just a bit lighter. They would be wonderful with tea or to serve to people after a nice lunch.  I enjoyed them a lot and everyone in the house gives them a thumbs up!

Looking for a yummy lemon cookie? This is a good one. Lemon Icebox Cookies from Jan/Feb Everyday Food were a winner here. I made half a batch of this since it said it made 60 cookies. You make the entire thing in the Cuisinart which is a nice quick solution that I loved! You do … Read more →

When I was ready to pop with baby #2, my Dr took me off work and put me on disability because I had contractions every time I stood up. This meant I had several weeks at home with nothing to do. At an earlier point in my pregnancy I made a raspberry cake mix upon my daughter’s request. She was 5 and everything had to be pink or purple. For some strange reason, at that late date in my pregnancy I desperately craved that raspberry cake mix. I think I made it several times. Christmas  hit and I wanted to send something in to the people I worked with at the courthouse. I made raspberry cake mix in the shape of stars (I guess I had little star shaped pans I used)  and wrapped them in colored cellophane (no frosting) and Mr. MarthaAndMe delivered them. Looking back now I’m pretty appalled that a) I thought store bought raspberry cake mix was good, b) I thought it was good all by itself with no frosting and c) I actually sent it in to people I worked with. I plead pregnancy insanity.

All of that came rushing back to me when I saw the raspberry cupcakes in February Living. These are REAL raspberry cupcakes though- made with real raspberries. Teen Martha is a raspberry fan, so I knew she would enjoy these. I am not such a big raspberry fan. I find the berries too tart and can’t stand all the little seeds, but I do like raspberry flavor.

To make these cupcakes, you puree one carton of raspberries and coarsely chop another. The recipe does call for red food coloring. I debated about this. I really hate food dyes since I don’t want those chemicals going into my body.  However, since I planned to give most of these away, I did go ahead and add a little of it.

Martha said these cupcakes would make 2 dozen. I had tons of batter left over. I ended up using some of it in a mini loaf pan and the rest I just dumped. I think you could get almost 3 dozen from this.

The cupcakes did turn out sort of pink. The batter tasted fantastic, but as with many of Martha’s cupcakes, I found the baked cupcake didn’t taste as amazing, although it was still very good. And definitely much better than raspberry cake mix!

Then there was the frosting. I am just about ready to skip all of Martha’s frostings from now on. I don’t know if I just am incapable of making them or what. If you read my recent debacle with the coconut cupcakes, you know I’m already at the breaking point. This one just about put me over the top. The recipe is for a pink buttercream frosting. First you cook egg whites and sugar and salt in a double boiler. You’re supposed to get it to 160 degrees. Mine got to 158 degrees and then immediately fell to 150. I had the heat on high, the water was boiling and I was whisking, but I could not get that temp back up no matter what I did. I gave up on that and went to the mixer stage. You’re supposed to beat this for about 11 minutes to get stiff peaks. I cut this recipe in half and so had a hard time with the mixer since all the egg white stuff just flew to the sides of the bowl and I had to constantly scrape. I let this go for about 14 minutes and then I threw in the towel. No stiff peaks to be seen. I added the butter and some food coloring and it turned out ok.

I frosted the cupcakes and sprinkled with pink sugar. I think they looked pretty. They were pretty good, but I’m not wild with love for them.  This is definitely a cute thing to make for Valentine’s Day, so I recommend it for that. And you can feel somewhat righteous since there is actual fruit in the cupcakes!

When I was ready to pop with baby #2, my Dr took me off work and put me on disability because I had contractions every time I stood up. This meant I had several weeks at home with nothing to do. At an earlier point in my pregnancy I made a raspberry cake mix upon … Read more →

I usually prefer pot pie to shepherd’s pie, but I decided to try out Martha’s Shepherd’s Pie from Feb Living.

This is made with ground turkey and lots of veggies. I had to doctor this one a bit. You cook the turkey and veggies (celery, onion, carrots and peas – I also added green beans)  and add some water and cornstarch to make the gravy, but there wasn’t nearly enough of it and it wasn’t thick enough for my taste. So I added chicken broth and flour to thicken and increase volume. The top of the pie is potatoes mashed with parsnips and yogurt. I was surprised that I really liked the mash. The yogurt really worked for a creamy texture and the parsnips gave it some added flavor. This was a fun dish to make and it came together very quickly.

I usually prefer pot pie to shepherd’s pie, but I decided to try out Martha’s Shepherd’s Pie from Feb Living. This is made with ground turkey and lots of veggies. I had to doctor this one a bit. You cook the turkey and veggies (celery, onion, carrots and peas – I also added green beans)  … Read more →

I usually prefer pot pie to shepherd’s pie, but I decided to try out Martha’s Shepherd’s Pie from Feb Living.

This is made with ground turkey and lots of veggies. I had to doctor this one a bit. You cook the turkey and veggies (celery, onion, carrots and peas – I also added green beans)  and add some water and cornstarch to make the gravy, but there wasn’t nearly enough of it and it wasn’t thick enough for my taste. So I added chicken broth and flour to thicken and increase volume. The top of the pie is potatoes mashed with parsnips and yogurt. I was surprised that I really liked the mash. The yogurt really worked for a creamy texture and the parsnips gave it some added flavor. This was a fun dish to make and it came together very quickly.

I usually prefer pot pie to shepherd’s pie, but I decided to try out Martha’s Shepherd’s Pie from Feb Living. This is made with ground turkey and lots of veggies. I had to doctor this one a bit. You cook the turkey and veggies (celery, onion, carrots and peas – I also added green beans)  … Read more →

Sarah at Mum in Bloom has chosen Personalized Postcards for next week’s project. Should be a fun project!

Sarah at Mum in Bloom has chosen Personalized Postcards for next week’s project. Should be a fun project!

Maple granola. Yum. You can thank MaryAnn at Stirrin It Up for this week’s recipe, which is on page 24 of Feb Living.

I like granola a lot, but have not been eating much of it lately since I can’t eat a lot of nuts. This only elevated my craving for this recipe. I have to admit, I was a little leery of it since it has coconut (the recipe says to use coconut chips – no idea what that is, so I just used regular coconut flakes) and raisins in it, neither of which I am a fan of. This granola has lots of yummy stuff in it – rolled oats, pecans, maple syrup, olive oil, sesame seeds, nutmeg, and brown sugar. It takes about 50 minutes to bake this slowly in the oven, but it is really worth it.  I loved it. It is delicious and amazing (once I picked the raisins out).  Everyone in the house gave this a thumbs up. Mr. MarthaAndMe groused a little, saying he expected bigger pieces of granola, but he got over it once he tasted it. I would definitely make this again.

Maple granola. Yum. You can thank MaryAnn at Stirrin It Up for this week’s recipe, which is on page 24 of Feb Living. I like granola a lot, but have not been eating much of it lately since I can’t eat a lot of nuts. This only elevated my craving for this recipe. I have … Read more →

The other night I made the best lamb chops EVER and I thought I would share it with you. It’s easy and incredibly flavorful (ok the picture looks weird – I attempted to cut a chop open and pour sauce over it but somehow it came out looking like a train wreck).

I rub my chops with rosemary and salt and pepper and grill them (I have a Jenn-Air, but you could use a grill pan or just roast them in the oven). While that was cooking, I got out a large saute pan and melted 1 tbsp of butter and added 1 chopped clove of garlic and 1 tsp of dried rosemary (use fresh if you have it – I didn’t).  Once the garlic begins to soften, pour in one 16 oz bottle of Pom pomegranate juice.  Reduce the sauce until it is thick and syrupy (about 10 min). Don’t worry if you walk away and it reduces too much – just add a little chicken broth to bring it to the consistency you want. I like mine very thick.

That’s it. Serve your chops with the sauce. It is amazing. Sweet, slightly tart, fresh, and rich. I even ended up putting some on the mashed potatoes and parsnips we had with it. Mr. MarthaAndMe was practically licking the plate to get all of the sauce. Even Dude Martha enjoyed it.

The other night I made the best lamb chops EVER and I thought I would share it with you. It’s easy and incredibly flavorful (ok the picture looks weird – I attempted to cut a chop open and pour sauce over it but somehow it came out looking like a train wreck). I rub my … Read more →