My kids and Mr. MarthaandMe love pumpkin bread. I make it every fall. I usually make two loaves and freeze one.  My November issue of Martha Stewart Living has arrived and there is a pumpkin bread recipe in it. I had to give it a try. It’s a bit weird though – sage? In pumpkin bread? Brown butter I was totally on board with. I love brown butter. I make this amazing rice dish with brown butter. Brown butter is an ingredient that is overlooked, I think. So I was totally cool with using it in this.

First, I browned the butter. You add your thinly sliced sage to that while it cooks. The rest of the recipe is pretty standard  – flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat with 1 cup regular), nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, baking powder, eggs, brown sugar, and pumpkin.

This smelled FABULOUS when I was making it. The batter tasted great and I snitched a little with a spoon, I admit. When it was baking, it continued to smell amazing, but the smell was a little confusing. I normally associate the smell of sage with poultry, so to smell that while bread was baking was a little odd.

I made one regular size loaf – the recipe says to make 8 mini-loaves. Because of this, it needed to bake longer than the recipe said – about 50 minutes. It looked beautiful when it came out of the oven. I could barely taste the sage and I also could not really taste the brown butter, which was a big disappointment. This tasted like pumpkin bread, but with something just slightly different about it. If you didn’t know it included those ingredients, I don’t think you would ever guess they were in it. Everyone in the house ate it and everyone but Teen Martha enjoyed it. She said she thought it wasn’t sweet enough. Mr. MarthaandMe ate his with cream cheese spread on it (I think that’s yucky but he’s always done that). I don’t think I would make this again, although the recipe has now made me want to explore using brown butter in other recipes. Brown butter cookies? Brown butter muffins? The possibilities are endless.

My kids and Mr. MarthaandMe love pumpkin bread. I make it every fall. I usually make two loaves and freeze one.  My November issue of Martha Stewart Living has arrived and there is a pumpkin bread recipe in it. I had to give it a try. It’s a bit weird though – sage? In pumpkin … Read more →

I hope you joined me on Martha Stewart Morning Living Live Radio on Sirius this morning! It will be replayed over the weekend. If you heard me, let them know!

I hope you joined me on Martha Stewart Morning Living Live Radio on Sirius this morning! It will be replayed over the weekend. If you heard me, let them know!

This week, it’s my turn to choose the next Martha Mondays assignment. This posting was delayed because I couldn’t decide! I know many of you prefer the recipe assignments, but I really wanted to do a craft.  So I decided to pick one of each, so those of you who are craft-resistant wouldn’t feel left out. So my main pick is the luminarias in October Living  – pages 78 and 80. I’m going to attempt to make one.  If you need the instructions, let me know.

If you don’t want to try this, let’s do the potstickers from October Everyday Food as the alternate selection. I’ll do both the craft and the recipe and you can pick which you want to do. I’m hoping someone will try the luminarias with me!

This week, it’s my turn to choose the next Martha Mondays assignment. This posting was delayed because I couldn’t decide! I know many of you prefer the recipe assignments, but I really wanted to do a craft.  So I decided to pick one of each, so those of you who are craft-resistant wouldn’t feel left … Read more →

This week’s Martha Mondays recipe is Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding, chosen by SweetLorraineBakeshop. Sticky toffee pudding is a very English dessert, and one we enjoyed on our recent UK trip.  I’m not sure how hard it is make regular sticky toffee pudding, but this was very easy.

The cake batter was pretty basic, except you have to soak some chopped dates in hot water before adding them. Dates are not a very common ingredient in US desserts, except possibly for fruitcake.

the cake

I got the cake in the oven and I should have checked it sooner because it too brown on the bottom. I set the timer for 55 minutes (the recipe says 55-65 minutes) but I would have pulled it out sooner if I had checked it.

While that was in the oven, I started the toffee sauce. This stuff is evil. Brown, sweet and delicious. Oh dear. It reminded me of those hard toffee candies – Werner’s I think is the brand. Just evil.

When the cake comes out, Martha says to cool for 5 minutes, then flip it and put it back in the pan. I totally do not get that step at all.  I used a silicone baking pan so it wasn’t sticking. Maybe it would in a regular pan? I don’t know.

Then Martha says to poke holes in it with a toothpick. This felt very Paula Deen to me – kind of like her poke cakes. I made lots and lots of holes and then

sauce on the cake

poured one cup of the sauce on top. It just sat there. It did not soak in. I let it sit a good hour before we ate it and nothing happened. Maybe some did absorb but I couldn’t see it.

Now for the taste test. We served the cake with additional sauce on it. I thought the cake itself had a nice taste but the sauce was the real winner on this. I could just eat the sauce plain or I could put it on ice cream…. I do have one complaint about the cake. The dates. I just didn’t like them in the cake. You’re eating a nice soft piece of cake and you get a chewy piece of date. I’m not a fan of raisins in baked goods either, so it’s the same objection, I guess. The flavor of the dates was fine, but just not the consistency. We didn’t eat the edges of the cake because it was simply overdone, but the insides were fine.

This week’s Martha Mondays recipe is Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding, chosen by SweetLorraineBakeshop. Sticky toffee pudding is a very English dessert, and one we enjoyed on our recent UK trip.  I’m not sure how hard it is make regular sticky toffee pudding, but this was very easy. The cake batter was pretty basic, except you … Read more →

I took my handy Dinner at Home cookbook (Martha’s newest release) to the kitchen and was all set to make Turkey and Pancetta Meatballs. I had defrosted some ground turkey and was ready to roll. But then I had another Martha-resistance moment. This also happened not too long ago when I bailed on Martha’s beef stew recipe. Apparently I haven’t fully recuperated, because I just could not bring myself to make this meatball recipe. What’s the problem, you’re wondering? The recipe was fairly harmless – onion, garlic, bread crumbs, sage, egg, lemon zest and salt and pepper. Not exactly how I would make them, but not awful. Except for one additional ingredient. Pancetta. Now when I selected this recipe, it sounded like a good flavor combo. The pancetta would liven up the meatballs. But then I read the recipe and I couldn’t do it. You stir in your uncooked pancetta into the turkey. Gag.  All I could imagine was pieces of flabby, fatty, mushy pancetta inside the meatballs. Here’s the thing – I like my bacon and pancetta cooked – really cooked. I cannot eat shrimp or scallops that are wrapped in bacon because while the bacon may not be raw, it is fatty and mushy and just unthinkable to me.

I considered cooking the pancetta first, but the idea of crunchy pieces of pancetta in my meatballs was not appealing either. So I bailed on the pancetta. I whipped up the meatballs the way I usually do – onion, garlic, breadcrumbs, Worchestershire sauce, egg,  Italian herb mix, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese. Then I got to thinking that maybe I could do something Martha with this recipe. I’ve regretted not trying Chicken and Ricotta Meatballs from Sept Everyday Food, so I dumped in some ricotta.

I always bake my meatballs in the oven. I served this with spaghetti sauce (jarred – sorry Martha) and Dreamfield’s spaghetti. The meatballs were good, but I didn’t notice anything different I could attribute to the ricotta. I have to say I am just not loving ricotta. I used to hate, hate, hate it. Now I’ve learned it is not toxic, but I just find it has no flavor and does nothing for me.

I took my handy Dinner at Home cookbook (Martha’s newest release) to the kitchen and was all set to make Turkey and Pancetta Meatballs. I had defrosted some ground turkey and was ready to roll. But then I had another Martha-resistance moment. This also happened not too long ago when I bailed on Martha’s beef … Read more →

The back page of October Martha Stewart Living is Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint cookies. I like PBJ, but I’ve never really gotten into the idea of the flavor combos as a dessert. Teen Martha needed to bring food into a class party (yes, they’re still having them, senior year in high school!) and so she offered to make these cookies. These are a pretty basic peanut butter cookie, but you make them into balls and press the end of a wooden spoon in the middle to make a hole for the jelly. She got them in the oven and then realized she was late and had to go. Where to? Dance rehearsal. No, Teen Martha doesn’t take dance class.  Today is the pep rally for homecoming and apparently the senior girls “always” (always meaning as long as she’s been there, but it never happened when I went to that school) put on a dance routine in the pep rally.  This dance routine has necessitated hours and hours of rehearsal. It has also required the purchase of a pair of black sweatpants, stencils, and “cute” material to use to cut out the letters SKA (seniors kick a**), which needed to be sewn onto the pants (wonder who was supposed to do that? Me of course. I cheated and showed her how to use that fabric tape you iron between two things which becomes glue).

So, back to the cookies. Teen Martha got them in the oven then realized in a panic she was going to be late to the all important dance rehearsal. At this point, the cookies became my responsibility. They took a little longer to bake than Martha said. Once they’re out and cool, you heat up some jam to thin it a bit, then fill the cookies with it. As you can see, I didn’t have the best aim when I filled them.

The cookies were good, but I would rather have plain PBJ. The dough was to die for. Everyone in the house was sneaking it. The cookies were a hit at school – not even a crumb made it home.

The back page of October Martha Stewart Living is Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint cookies. I like PBJ, but I’ve never really gotten into the idea of the flavor combos as a dessert. Teen Martha needed to bring food into a class party (yes, they’re still having them, senior year in high school!) and so … Read more →

If you’ve been following along with me, you might remember I inherited various items from my grandmother after she passed away. One item was an old cedar chest we found in her basement. It was in pretty bad shape, but from what little I found out about it, I thought it might have been a chest she was given when she married.  You can read about it here. I decided to have it refinished. I know Martha would do it herself, but this needed a lot of careful work. Fortunately a family member knew someone to recommend and I sent it off, with fingers crossed.

Here are the results. Pretty great, right? It’s an interesting height for a chest also – it fits perfectly underneath a window, but it too high for someone to sit on as a bench. I think it’s gorgeous. I haven’t decided where its final place will be – under a window or maybe in the dining room.

Here’s a funny thing – the company that made the chest was named Caswell Runyon and the man who refinished it has the first name Caswell. Weird, right? Anyway, he did an amazing, amazing job – even kept the old newspapers that were inside it in case I wanted them.

I loved inheriting items from her home that I knew and loved, but finding things in her basement I never knew about was exciting and intriguing. I treasure all of them.

If you’ve been following along with me, you might remember I inherited various items from my grandmother after she passed away. One item was an old cedar chest we found in her basement. It was in pretty bad shape, but from what little I found out about it, I thought it might have been a … Read more →

At the end of October, it will be the one year anniversary of my blog and Martha project. So it seemed fitting to have a party, in Martha’s honor (and mine of course). Halloween seemed like the logical choice. I bought Martha’s special Halloween issue of Living and got some ideas from there, but from the start my biggest challenge has been finding a way to take Martha’s ideas and make them work for a party that my kids’ friends will enjoy. Dude Martha is 11 and in middle school. Teen Martha is a high school senior. So, from the beginning, I’ve had to try to find ways to adjust Martha’s approach to make it work for a younger crowd.

First off, I wanted to make Martha invitations. She made one on her show that Dude Martha vetoed. No way would he give his friends an invitation that had a removable black eye mask. I turned to Martha’s site. He was intrigued by an invitation that involves making plaster casts of your finger and putting them in boxes with the invitation written on them. I vetoed that one – too much work and too gory. Finally I thought I found the perfect solution. Martha has a link to Pingg.com where you can create “free” online invitations that are printable.

Unfortunately, after we spent some time designing it, we realized you can’t actually print it out unless you want to pay them to mail it as a postcard. Sigh. Back to the drawing board. Mr. MarthaAndMe came to the rescue and whipped up an invitation himself using some Microsoft do-hickey. To be honest, it bothered me that the border on this goes around the whole paper, not just the ‘page’ you see, but I was done with this. Dude Martha handed them out. Teen Martha will issue Facebook invites to her peeps.

Once we formally invited people, I had to get to work on the party itself. I went out on a shopping expedition. I had only a few “must-haves” and of course I can’t find them anywhere! I want to make the gauze tablecloth with black tissue paper border that Martha has in the special issue. It sounds very simple. I found gauze material Joann’s, but I can’t find black tissue paper. Very disappointing. I’m going to see if I can order it online, but I’m sure the shipping will cost more than the tissue paper itself. I’m also looking for cheap doll body parts – we’re going to make “buried alive” cupcakes where a hand stick out the top of the cupcake.

From the Halloween Living special issue, I’m planning to make the white cake with marshmallow ghosts, guacamole with blue tortilla chips, pumpkin spiderweb cake, puff pastry and cheese pumpkins, and spinach and ricotta skulls. I’ve got some other food ideas I gathered from other sources as well. The food is definitely under control.

We’ve got some games/activities planned, but need more, so if you have suggestions, please share! We’re going to do the thing where you have boxes with different “body parts” in them (like peeled grapes for eyes) and kids will have to guess what they think it is. We’re going to do a mummy wrap contest – see who can wrap their friend in toilet paper first. We’ll also do Martha’s donut on a string contest (see who can eat it first with no hands). If the weather is decent, I want to hide little plastic pumpkins of candy outside. We also plan eyeball pong – a ping pong ball with an eye drawn on which kids will try to bounce into plastic cups to win prizes. I need more though, so please share any thoughts! Martha has a suggestion for a playlist, but it turns out Napster has several, so we’ll use those.

As for decorations, I plan to make Martha’s gourd totems, lit with Xmas lights. We will carve some pumpkins of course. I bought some spiderweb material to hang, and some crime scene tape. We have a friend who may be able to loan us some of his decorations to use.

I’m thinking of dressing up as Martha. I have blue eyes and blond hair about the same length (although mine is curly so Teen Martha would have to work some magic on that). What do you think would work for the outfit? Twin set and pearls? Or try to look like Martha on her show, in a cotton shirt and khakis and heels? If I could find a stuffed French bulldog I would carry that. I don’t know how anyone will know I am Martha.

So, as you can see, plans are under way here for a big party. I’ll share more as we get closer to the big day.

At the end of October, it will be the one year anniversary of my blog and Martha project. So it seemed fitting to have a party, in Martha’s honor (and mine of course). Halloween seemed like the logical choice. I bought Martha’s special Halloween issue of Living and got some ideas from there, but from … 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 →

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 →