My son, previously known as mini-Martha, has requested that he be referred to as Dude Martha. I will do my best to remember! Dude Martha asked me if there were any Martha cookies he could make and got quite excited about the soft chocolate chip cookies in the April issue of Everyday Food. He made these completely on his own and is quite a proficient little baker!

The recipe is pretty basic and the only way it differs from regular chocolate chip cookies is that it uses corn syrup instead of granulated sugar.

He did a very find job mixing it all up and scooping the cookies. They took a little longer to bake than the recipe said (as always). We put it on convection finally and that got the last batch done quickly.

How did they taste? Really great, actually! They truly are soft and have a very nice flavor. Dude Martha has requested that I save this recipe for him, since he plans to make these again and again. Of course, I’ll need to taste test each batch….

My son, previously known as mini-Martha, has requested that he be referred to as Dude Martha. I will do my best to remember! Dude Martha asked me if there were any Martha cookies he could make and got quite excited about the soft chocolate chip cookies in the April issue of Everyday Food. He made … Read more →

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though.

The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use it as breading. Quick and simple. And it really tasted great. You could definitely do this with crackers also. Rachel Ray has a recipe like this where you crush pretzels that I like too. My only comment would that I think I would dump it in the Cuisinart and crush it that way. It was hard to get the pieces very small and I think it would stick better if it was crushed more finely.

The vegetable tian sounds sort of weird and foreign – but a tian is defined as just a layered vegetable dish. Martha says to slice some onion and garlic and thyme (I only had dried) and put itn in the baking pan with olive oil then layer potato, zucchini, and carrot on top. I had baby carrots only, so I sliced them lengthwise instead of making coins. This dish turned out quite nicely. It is a very light and simple dish, but with a lot of flavor. The onions tasted great – almost caramelized. I would definitely make this again. It’s similar to a dish my mom (Big MarthaAndMe) made for us over the summer that I loved.  You take a baking dish and layer in sliced tomato, zucchini, onion and mozzarella cheese as well as some basil. Then you pour beef broth into the dish and cover it. Bake it for about 45 minutes at 375.  Take the cover off and let the cheese on top brown. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for a minute, then pour the liquid out of the dish and serve. It is SO good.

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though. The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use … Read more →

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though.

The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use it as breading. Quick and simple. And it really tasted great. You could definitely do this with crackers also. Rachel Ray has a recipe like this where you crush pretzels that I like too. My only comment would that I think I would dump it in the Cuisinart and crush it that way. It was hard to get the pieces very small and I think it would stick better if it was crushed more finely.

The vegetable tian sounds sort of weird and foreign – but a tian is defined as just a layered vegetable dish. Martha says to slice some onion and garlic and thyme (I only had dried) and put itn in the baking pan with olive oil then layer potato, zucchini, and carrot on top. I had baby carrots only, so I sliced them lengthwise instead of making coins. This dish turned out quite nicely. It is a very light and simple dish, but with a lot of flavor. The onions tasted great – almost caramelized. I would definitely make this again. It’s similar to a dish my mom (Big MarthaAndMe) made for us over the summer that I loved.  You take a baking dish and layer in sliced tomato, zucchini, onion and mozzarella cheese as well as some basil. Then you pour beef broth into the dish and cover it. Bake it for about 45 minutes at 375.  Take the cover off and let the cheese on top brown. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for a minute, then pour the liquid out of the dish and serve. It is SO good.

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though. The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use … Read more →

On yesterday’s show, Martha kicked the show off by demonstrating a “good, green thing.” Martha says you can take old shirts and cut them up and use them as napkins. Hey, I thought, even I can do that! It looked so very easy! Martha said you just cut a square out of the back of a shirt then you can hem the edges or fray them. Basic, simple steps. I really was sure I could do this one! Martha said instructions would be on the site, but they weren’t – just the video of what she did on the show.

My lines

Off I went to Goodwill, since Mr. MarthaandMe has no shirts he is ready to part with. I bought 2 short sleeve dress shirts for $2 each. One is pink and is not a button down. The other is a blue striped button down. I thought they would look cute together, maybe on a white tablecloth.

I got them home and marked off a 12 inch square on each. Then I cut them out. Umm, Martha? How do you make straight cuts? Mine were all jagged and weird, no matter how hard I tried. They looked pretty awful. I tried to trim them once I saw the edges, but that just made it worse. I really, really wish Martha would take the

My cuts

time to explain these kinds of things. I have no idea how to get it straight. There’s probably some expensive tool you’re supposed to have to do this (which really does not make this an affordable project if that is the case).

All right, I said to myself, maybe I’ll just fray it and you won’t notice. Right. That just resulted in an uneven frayed edge. So I tried to trim it again. No go.

Frayed

Now, look, in these photos they don’t look too bad, but I know that if you took one of these and opened it up to use as a napkin you would clearly see how misshapen they are.

The pink dress shirt was probably a bad choice – too thin really to be a napkin. The blue striped button down is a heavier material and I could see using that, although it still does not feel like real napkin material to me. Yet again, I am vanquished by a Martha Stewart craft. Is there no hope for me?? I would have felt to frugal if this had worked.

On yesterday’s show, Martha kicked the show off by demonstrating a “good, green thing.” Martha says you can take old shirts and cut them up and use them as napkins. Hey, I thought, even I can do that! It looked so very easy! Martha said you just cut a square out of the back of … Read more →

It is Easter season and Martha made Hot Cross Buns on her show (also in April Martha Stewart Living), so I decided to get in the spirit and make some. I have never had hot cross buns (I know, hard to believe) and I have to say they never really appealed to me, but I was game to give it a try.

The recipe starts with heated milk and yeast, sugar, butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and eggs getting mixed with a dough hook. I have several important things to tell you. First of all, I dusted off the KitchenAid mixer (and I do mean dusted off) and used the dough hook, which I think I may never have used (it worked quite well). Secondly, I kind of goofed. In the instructions it says to use 1 cup of milk, but up in the ingredient list, it says 1 cup plus 2 tbsp and 2 tsp of milk. The additional milk is supposed to be for the icing. I just was reading along through the ingredients and so dumped in all the milk. I have to say it really annoyed me that this recipe listed it this way! If you are making two separate things, I think the ingredient list should be broken down into two sections so you don’t make a mistake like this!

I got that mixed and then added the flour. The dough was a little goopier looking than it should have been (because of the extra milk), but I just went with it. I mixed in the fruit and let it rise for an hour. It rose nicely. I made it into individual buns and let it rise again.

I was sure it was going to be a total disaster because of the additional milk, but it was perfectly fine! I brushed them with the egg wash and baked them and they turned out nice and brown.

Once they were cool, I mixed up the icing. Here’s where things got a little hairy. The recipe calls for 2 cups of powdered sugar. My icing was like liquid – there was no way it was going to stay in place on the buns. I ended up adding one and a half cups more powdered sugar to get it to the right consistency (and as you can see below, it was still pretty runny).

I piped it on the buns (I cheated and cut the corner off a ziploc instead of fighting with a pastry bag). I think they came out quite nicely.

As for taste? I wasn’t all that impressed, but Mr. MarthaAndMe, who has a long, checkered past full of hot cross buns, told me you need to split them open and butter them. I did that and then I thought they were better.

This was a fun thing to try and it was actually pretty easy to make as long as you have the time for the two risings.

It is Easter season and Martha made Hot Cross Buns on her show (also in April Martha Stewart Living), so I decided to get in the spirit and make some. I have never had hot cross buns (I know, hard to believe) and I have to say they never really appealed to me, but I … Read more →

I posted my Valentine’s and St. Patrick Day trees, so I thought I would share my Easter tree with you also. I have some other eggs around the house and I like to display them in egg cups. I like my Easter tree because it not only has eggs, but it also has rabbits and some baskets.

I posted my Valentine’s and St. Patrick Day trees, so I thought I would share my Easter tree with you also. I have some other eggs around the house and I like to display them in egg cups. I like my Easter tree because it not only has eggs, but it also has rabbits and … Read more →

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to strain regular yogurt and use that instead, even though a few Twitter pals  suggested that. My grocery store, Wegman’s, does not carry Greek yogurt, which I find to be just weird. Another Twitter pal found it at Costco (we don’t have one of those here). Finally, I found it at a small family-owned store in my neighborhood, called Dash’s. However, I paid $6.50 for a two cup container! Not such an affordable little recipe, Martha.

Once I had my yogurt safely home (and delicately placed in the fridge so none of the liquid gold would spill), I got to work. I baked my potatoes, peeled them and because I don’t have a ricer (yet another gadget to add to my growing, expensive Martha to-buy list) I just used a mixer and smushed it up. I added melted butter and cream, the yogurt, and salt and pepper.

March chives

Then, dear reader, I sloshed out in the rain to see if I had any chives coming up. They were there – just peeking out of the ground, so I snipped a few tops and came back in and shook myself off like a dog. I mixed those in.

Then I tasted it. There was certainly no cheering. It was pretty bland. So I added what any potato goes happily with – cheese. Some parmesan cheese (also known as nectar of the gods). That gave it some flavor.

I baked this in a square baking pan for 40 minutes as directed. It came out looking nice and brown. It smelled good too.

But how did it taste, you ask? Ah, there’s the rub. It was not fabulous. It was grainy and kind of dry tasting. Thank goodness I added the cheese because it really would not have been great without that. I know the Greek yogurt is healthier than sour cream, but I would much rather use light sour cream than Greek yogurt in this dish.  Or maybe even a mixture of the two would give it the moisture it lacked. So, I’m afraid I can’t recommend this dish. Not a good thing.

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to … Read more →

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to strain regular yogurt and use that instead, even though a few Twitter pals  suggested that. My grocery store, Wegman’s, does not carry Greek yogurt, which I find to be just weird. Another Twitter pal found it at Costco (we don’t have one of those here). Finally, I found it at a small family-owned store in my neighborhood, called Dash’s. However, I paid $6.50 for a two cup container! Not such an affordable little recipe, Martha.

Once I had my yogurt safely home (and delicately placed in the fridge so none of the liquid gold would spill), I got to work. I baked my potatoes, peeled them and because I don’t have a ricer (yet another gadget to add to my growing, expensive Martha to-buy list) I just used a mixer and smushed it up. I added melted butter and cream, the yogurt, and salt and pepper.

March chives

Then, dear reader, I sloshed out in the rain to see if I had any chives coming up. They were there – just peeking out of the ground, so I snipped a few tops and came back in and shook myself off like a dog. I mixed those in.

Then I tasted it. There was certainly no cheering. It was pretty bland. So I added what any potato goes happily with – cheese. Some parmesan cheese (also known as nectar of the gods). That gave it some flavor.

I baked this in a square baking pan for 40 minutes as directed. It came out looking nice and brown. It smelled good too.

But how did it taste, you ask? Ah, there’s the rub. It was not fabulous. It was grainy and kind of dry tasting. Thank goodness I added the cheese because it really would not have been great without that. I know the Greek yogurt is healthier than sour cream, but I would much rather use light sour cream than Greek yogurt in this dish.  Or maybe even a mixture of the two would give it the moisture it lacked. So, I’m afraid I can’t recommend this dish. Not a good thing.

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to … Read more →

On a recent episode, Lucinda Scala Quinn demonstrated some of the fish recipes from April Martha Stewart Living. Now, I have professed my love for Lucinda before and I must say she has not disappointed me this time.

I decided to make Slow-Roasted Salmon.  Salmon is one of my go-to meals and I prefer to use wild salmon, but it’s out of season, so I had to settle for farmed salmon. When I make salmon I often grill it and serve it with lemon and dill. Sometimes I will oven roast it. Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, has a fab recipe for asian salmon that is to die for.

Lucinda’s recipe is super simple. You mix up some chopped tomato, chopped orange and chili paste (the only chili paste I could find was a sweet and sour Thai version – but that worked for me since I don’t like hot spicy things too much). You slit your salmon filets and sort of stuff them with the mixture, then the directions say to roast at 250 for 25 minutes.  At 25 min mine was still raw, so I cranked on convection and put it up to 400 and finished it off quickly.

This tasted terrific. I loved the citrus flavor and the chili paste gave it a little zing, but not too much for me. It was simply beautiful looking. I’ll definitely make this again. Points for Lucinda.

On a recent episode, Lucinda Scala Quinn demonstrated some of the fish recipes from April Martha Stewart Living. Now, I have professed my love for Lucinda before and I must say she has not disappointed me this time. I decided to make Slow-Roasted Salmon.  Salmon is one of my go-to meals and I prefer to … Read more →

Continuing on with the fish bonanza in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living, I made the pan sauteed sole. Sole is a fish that I make fairly often. I like it because it is mild and quick to cook.

Martha says to dust your fish with Wondra and pan fry it in some butter. When you flip it over, you add thin slices of lemon to the pan. I’ve pan fried sole before, but I’ve never added the lemon slices to the pan, and this was a nice touch. It made the dish very pretty and it seemed to really infuse the fish with a nice taste. I would definitely make this again.

Now for the drama. Although sole is a food I make often, I think this batch caused me to have an allergic reaction! About an hour or two after dinner, I started to feel hot. My entire face, chest and neck had turned beet red, as if I had the world’s worst sunburn. My cheeks were puffy and I was starting to feel like I was having some trouble breathing. I took some Benadryl which did the trick, but also knocked me out. I ate almost nothing else that day other than cereal, fruit, vegetables, and potatoes and definitely nothing that was new or weird. It seems quite odd to me that a fish I have eaten regularly could cause such a violent reaction, but I don’t know what else to think.

Continuing on with the fish bonanza in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living, I made the pan sauteed sole. Sole is a fish that I make fairly often. I like it because it is mild and quick to cook. Martha says to dust your fish with Wondra and pan fry it in some butter. … Read more →