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.

Corned Beef

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?

Veggies

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 Soda Bread

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

Soda Bread Sliced

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!).

Cheese soda bread

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!

My reuben

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 →

Like my blog? If you sign up for StumbleUpon, you can add it to your list of favorites and even write a review. Need someone to Stumble your blog? Let me know and I will gladly reciprocate!

Like my blog? If you sign up for StumbleUpon, you can add it to your list of favorites and even write a review. Need someone to Stumble your blog? Let me know and I will gladly reciprocate!

Well that title dates me doesn’t it? It sounds like something a 70’s DJ would have said to describe something he was about to spin on his stacks of wax.

Coming back to the current era, I made Martha’s Smoky Beef Tacos (March Everyday Food).  First I had to make a trip to the store. I needed a chuck roast. I’ve never made tacos with anything other than ground beef, ground turkey or sliced chicken breast, so this was a departure already. I also had to buy chipotles in adobo sauce. I am not wild about super hot things, so I was a little frightened by that. My grocery store also had only one can, teetering on the edge between the Mexican and Asian sections, which I thought a to be little dysfunctional.

Fortunately, I read this recipe the day before and knew I needed 2  1/2 hours for the meat to cook! This is not a quick last minute meal like most tacos are.

Ready to cook

This was very easy to put together. Cut the meat into 4 pieces and add it to a pot with ketchup, the chipotles, 8 garlic cloves, oregano and salt and pepper. That’s it! You cook it on the stove until it boils then stick it in the oven.

I assembled my tortillas, cheese, chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce and sour cream as toppings. When I took the meat out of the oven, it was not what I expected. I thought it would fall apart more as it cooked. No problem though – I put Mr. MarthaAndMe on it with a fork and it shredded nicely. I kept the sauce separate and served it in a bowl on the side.

This was really, really good. I loved having pieces of meat rather than ground meat. It had a nice flavor by itself, but I did sprinkle a little sauce on (Mr. MarthaAndMe dumped some on and said it made it very spicy – no kisses for his chipotle breath tonight). I have a lot leftover, so I’m going to freeze it for

Shredded

another meal.

The worst part of this? The pot! It came out of the oven totally gross, with sauce burnt all around the edges. I have not even attempted to scrub it – I’ve got it soaking. It’s going to be ugly. Mr. MarthaandMe wanted to know if Martha would come over to do the dishes.  I should get him to watch that Whatever Martha episode where she teaches how to load the dishwasher and how to wash dishes.  I think his head would explode!

My taco

Well that title dates me doesn’t it? It sounds like something a 70’s DJ would have said to describe something he was about to spin on his stacks of wax. Coming back to the current era, I made Martha’s Smoky Beef Tacos (March Everyday Food).  First I had to make a trip to the store. … Read more →

Well that title dates me doesn’t it? It sounds like something a 70’s DJ would have said to describe something he was about to spin on his stacks of wax.

Coming back to the current era, I made Martha’s Smoky Beef Tacos (March Everyday Food).  First I had to make a trip to the store. I needed a chuck roast. I’ve never made tacos with anything other than ground beef, ground turkey or sliced chicken breast, so this was a departure already. I also had to buy chipotles in adobo sauce. I am not wild about super hot things, so I was a little frightened by that. My grocery store also had only one can, teetering on the edge between the Mexican and Asian sections, which I thought a to be little dysfunctional.

Fortunately, I read this recipe the day before and knew I needed 2  1/2 hours for the meat to cook! This is not a quick last minute meal like most tacos are.

Ready to cook

This was very easy to put together. Cut the meat into 4 pieces and add it to a pot with ketchup, the chipotles, 8 garlic cloves, oregano and salt and pepper. That’s it! You cook it on the stove until it boils then stick it in the oven.

I assembled my tortillas, cheese, chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce and sour cream as toppings. When I took the meat out of the oven, it was not what I expected. I thought it would fall apart more as it cooked. No problem though – I put Mr. MarthaAndMe on it with a fork and it shredded nicely. I kept the sauce separate and served it in a bowl on the side.

This was really, really good. I loved having pieces of meat rather than ground meat. It had a nice flavor by itself, but I did sprinkle a little sauce on (Mr. MarthaAndMe dumped some on and said it made it very spicy – no kisses for his chipotle breath tonight). I have a lot leftover, so I’m going to freeze it for

Shredded

another meal.

The worst part of this? The pot! It came out of the oven totally gross, with sauce burnt all around the edges. I have not even attempted to scrub it – I’ve got it soaking. It’s going to be ugly. Mr. MarthaandMe wanted to know if Martha would come over to do the dishes.  I should get him to watch that Whatever Martha episode where she teaches how to load the dishwasher and how to wash dishes.  I think his head would explode!

My taco

Well that title dates me doesn’t it? It sounds like something a 70’s DJ would have said to describe something he was about to spin on his stacks of wax. Coming back to the current era, I made Martha’s Smoky Beef Tacos (March Everyday Food).  First I had to make a trip to the store. … Read more →

I love spinach, so I was happy to see Sauteed Spinach with Crisp Pancetta in the March issue of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food. This is super simple. You cook up some pancetta, then remove it from the pan. You cook your spinach in the grease, salt and pepper it, add the pancetta and squeeze some lemon juice on top. Quick, simple and very tasty!

I love spinach, so I was happy to see Sauteed Spinach with Crisp Pancetta in the March issue of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food. This is super simple. You cook up some pancetta, then remove it from the pan. You cook your spinach in the grease, salt and pepper it, add the pancetta and squeeze some … 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 →

I do a lot of reflection as I am watching Martha, reading her magazines and books and trying out her recipes and projects and I thought I would share of some my recent thoughts with you.

Good Things: What I like about Martha is that she is always looking for the best of things. She likes ideas and things that are high quality, innovative, thought out, and reliable. Her entire concept is based on “good things” and I find that she has taught me to be more discerning and give more thought to things that I do and choose.

Elegance: So much of what Martha does and owns is elegant, whether it is has simple elegance or over the top elegance.  Both are worth pursuing I think. We just remodeled our bathroom and the idea of keeping things elegant in a clean and pure way was quite directive for me. For me, elegance also means finding the natural order of things.

Constant Learning: Martha talks often about she loves to learn about new things. I find that exploring new ideas gives a spark to life, so I appreciate this about her. I, too, am naturally curious and am always happy to learn a new fact or discover a new way to do something. Sometimes I have to remind myself to be open to learning. I am often hesitant to do her crafts since I am not naturally talented in that way, but I do find I learn something each time. She has also helped me be open to new foods and ingredients.

Tenacity: On a recent show, Martha’s guest showed her how to fold parchment paper into a little box to cook fish in. Martha really had a hard time getting it and he reached over and wanted to finish it for her and she said something like no! I want to learn how to do this. I love how she is strong-willed and will not give up and I am trying to take that sensibility to heart in my own life.

Friendliness: As I watch Martha on tv, I am sometimes struck by how human she is in her interactions. She might misspeak, say “umm”, lose track of the train of the conversation, or stumble a bit. I despise public speaking, but do it sometimes as part of my job, so I admire how Martha approaches every person and situation with a friendly attitude and how that seems to see her through even if she is human and is not absolutely perfect in all she says and does. (I believe Martha is a perfectionist, as am I, so I think it must really bug her when she is less than perfect. I feel the same way, but am encouraged by watching her.)

Appreciation: If you watch Martha on tv, you will see she is always exclaiming about something is BEAUTIFUL or PERFECT. She can get so excited about a carrot or some bread dough. I think it’s easy to lose sight of these small perfections, and Martha has helped me open my eyes to them. When I am cooking, I try to appreciate the colors and shapes of the vegetables, the scent of the soup or the shape of a cookie. There’s something very zen about approaching things this way and I find it to be very centering.

I do a lot of reflection as I am watching Martha, reading her magazines and books and trying out her recipes and projects and I thought I would share of some my recent thoughts with you. Good Things: What I like about Martha is that she is always looking for the best of things. She … 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.

The Filling

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.

Ugly mess for the oven

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.

On the plate

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 watched Martha make Fudgy Skillet Brownies on the Today show (I almost can’t watch those segments – they are so disjointed and quick compared to Martha’s usual style and I can never get the image of her before the trial saying “I just want to focus on my salad” out of my head) and then looked the recipe up in March Everyday Food. I have to say I am still scratching my head at the concept. It’s in a section of the magazine about skillet cooking, which is supposed to be sort of, almost, not really easier than other cooking. It seems to me in this recipe, you are just substituting a skillet for a baking pan and it doesn’t make anything simpler.

I started by whisking eggs and sugar in bowl #1. Then you’re supposed to mix the dry ingredients in bowl #2. I skipped this step and just dumped those ingredients straight from the measuring cups when the time came. I melted butter and heated cream in the skillet then added the chocolate (I used a mix of dark and semisweet since I didn’t have any bittersweet hanging around – call me Substitution Sally).

You’re supposed to let the chocolate mixture sit for 5 minutes before incorporating it into the eggs. I had no patience for that – it was 8 pm and I needed my chocolate fix! Instead I tempered the eggs with it and then added it. No problems there. I added my dry ingredients and dumped it into the skillet. The batter is very thick and fudgy looking.

The recipe says to cook for 40 minutes. Mine was done at 25 minutes. They tasted good and came out of my nonstick skillet easily. They were definitely very chocolately and had a nice crunchy top and a soft delicious middle. Is there anything better than brownies late at night? I think not.

Would I do this again? Probably not. It seemed a little silly to me to use a skillet to make brownies. You still need to use at least one bowl to make this, so it’s not a one dish situation. Have you made this recipe? I’d love to hear what other think.

I watched Martha make Fudgy Skillet Brownies on the Today show (I almost can’t watch those segments – they are so disjointed and quick compared to Martha’s usual style and I can never get the image of her before the trial saying “I just want to focus on my salad” out of my head) and … Read more →