It sounded simple enough to whip up the Balsamic-Rosemary Viniagrette in March Martha Stewart Everyday Food and marinate some pork chops in it for Balsamic Glased Pork Chops.After all, Lucinda Scala Quinn made it look very easy and tasty when she appeared on the Martha Stewart Show.  Silly me.

This is another one of those blender recipes Martha is so fond of lately. You dump in your balsamic, water, garlic clove, salt, pepper, rosemary and mustard and whizz it up. Then you drizzle your olive oil in and presto it is supposed to be done.

Not so fast! As I was pouring it out into a container, the big lump of garlic clove came plopping out. The blender didn’t even touch it. So I dumped it all back in and pulsed it. Still nothing. So next I fished it out and put it in the mini- Cuisinart. No luck there either – it just hung out on the sides and refused to chop. Finally I pulled out a cutting board and minced it by hand. By this point, I had a counter full of dirty dishes for a recipe that was supposed to be simple! This not a happy Martha moment.

I poured some over the chops and let them sit in the fridge a couple of hours. Then I grilled them on the Jenn-Air.

I wasn’t excited about these at all. I think they really need to marinate overnight to get any flavor. I could barely taste the viniagrette. There wasn’t anything special about this, and after all the work it was to make, I was annoyed!

It sounded simple enough to whip up the Balsamic-Rosemary Viniagrette in March Martha Stewart Everyday Food and marinate some pork chops in it for Balsamic Glased Pork Chops.After all, Lucinda Scala Quinn made it look very easy and tasty when she appeared on the Martha Stewart Show.  Silly me. This is another one of those … Read more →

On the last Cooking School segment, Martha Stewart and Sarah Carey made custards. I would have made the creme brulee, but oddly I just don’t have a blow torch sitting around. So I decided to go with the flan. I have never made flan or creme brulee, so this was a new experience for me.

First I cooked the sugar and water. This was simple – and I kept wiping down the sides of the pan with water. It turned the right color. When I poured it in the ramekins, I had the same problem Martha had on the show – it cooled very quickly and I could not get the bottom of each covered evenly.

Then I moved on to make the custard. I whisked the eggs and egg yolks and cooked the milk and sugar. I tempered the eggs, then added the rest of the milk. I strained it and poured it into ramekins. I added the water bath and cooked for about 35 minutes. They came out perfectly.

One small problem. Martha says to remove them from the water bath using tongs. They kept slipping out of the tongs and I almost got them wet, which would have been not so wonderful. Mr. MarthaandMe came riding to the rescue and got them out, but did manage to burn himself with the hot water in the process.

I let them cool on a rack, then chilled them. They came out of the ramekins nicely without a lot of trouble, and looked really pretty on the plates with the syrup on them. There was just one teeny tiny problem. They tasted really, really awful. As in edible. The custard was just gross  – no flavor to it. The syrup had a slightly burned taste. It was simply horrendous, so they all got dumped down the drain. So much for flan.

On the last Cooking School segment, Martha Stewart and Sarah Carey made custards. I would have made the creme brulee, but oddly I just don’t have a blow torch sitting around. So I decided to go with the flan. I have never made flan or creme brulee, so this was a new experience for me. … Read more →

Another item on the March Martha Stewart Living “What’s for Dinner” menu is spring onion soup. I simply adore French onion soup, so I was definitely interested in making this.

Now, of course, I could not find spring onions. So I substituted the yellow onions recommended. My store has them labeled as “sweet yellow onions” so that encouraged me.

There is not a heck of a lot to this soup. You slice your onions thinly then cook for about 15 minutes until they are translucent, but not carmelizing. Then you add chicken stock and water. The next step is to put it in a blender. If you recall my Shrimp Bisque in My Sock post, you will know I had some trouble with this in the past! This time, I tried to use my hand blender (the ‘boat motor’ as Emeril calls it). It didn’t work. There were too many onions and not enough liquid. I bypassed the Cuisinart (since I didn’t want spring onion soup in my sock) and went straight to the blender. It worked beautifully.

I put the soup in bowls and drizzled with oil. I didn’t have any flatbread, so I served it with some stoned wheat crackers.

The soup had a nice flavor – very sweet and a very creamy texture. My biggest beef was that it was not hot and I would have preferred it hot. By the time you put it through the blender and then into a bowl, it’s not hot anymore.

It needed pepper, so we added that as we were eating it. I would recommend putting it in as you cook. This was good, but I would rather have French onion soup!

Another item on the March Martha Stewart Living “What’s for Dinner” menu is spring onion soup. I simply adore French onion soup, so I was definitely interested in making this. Now, of course, I could not find spring onions. So I substituted the yellow onions recommended. My store has them labeled as “sweet yellow onions” … Read more →

Another item on the March Martha Stewart Living “What’s for Dinner” menu is spring onion soup. I simply adore French onion soup, so I was definitely interested in making this.

Now, of course, I could not find spring onions. So I substituted the yellow onions recommended. My store has them labeled as “sweet yellow onions” so that encouraged me.

There is not a heck of a lot to this soup. You slice your onions thinly then cook for about 15 minutes until they are translucent, but not carmelizing. Then you add chicken stock and water. The next step is to put it in a blender. If you recall my Shrimp Bisque in My Sock post, you will know I had some trouble with this in the past! This time, I tried to use my hand blender (the ‘boat motor’ as Emeril calls it). It didn’t work. There were too many onions and not enough liquid. I bypassed the Cuisinart (since I didn’t want spring onion soup in my sock) and went straight to the blender. It worked beautifully.

I put the soup in bowls and drizzled with oil. I didn’t have any flatbread, so I served it with some stoned wheat crackers.

The soup had a nice flavor – very sweet and a very creamy texture. My biggest beef was that it was not hot and I would have preferred it hot. By the time you put it through the blender and then into a bowl, it’s not hot anymore.

It needed pepper, so we added that as we were eating it. I would recommend putting it in as you cook. This was good, but I would rather have French onion soup!

Another item on the March Martha Stewart Living “What’s for Dinner” menu is spring onion soup. I simply adore French onion soup, so I was definitely interested in making this. Now, of course, I could not find spring onions. So I substituted the yellow onions recommended. My store has them labeled as “sweet yellow onions” … Read more →

The March “What’s for Dinner” main entree in Martha Stewart Living is Scallops with Wilted Spinach and Arugula. I love scallops and was ready to give this a try. This is a very simple recipe. You pan fry your scallops in a little oil. I love cooking scallops this way – the outside gets brown and crunchy. Once the scallops are done, you take them out and cook some garlic and add spinach and arugula and cook until wilted. You serve the scallops over the greens.

My biggest beef with this recipe was that it really needed some lemon, so we ended up squeezing lemon over it. I loved the greens and will definitely try those two in combination together again. What is truly shocking is Teen Martha ate the greens and liked them and usually she will turn and run at the sight of spinach.

The best part about this dish was the presentation. The scallops looked just gorgeous against the greens.

The March “What’s for Dinner” main entree in Martha Stewart Living is Scallops with Wilted Spinach and Arugula. I love scallops and was ready to give this a try. This is a very simple recipe. You pan fry your scallops in a little oil. I love cooking scallops this way – the outside gets brown … Read more →

The March “What’s for Dinner” main entree in Martha Stewart Living is Scallops with Wilted Spinach and Arugula. I love scallops and was ready to give this a try. This is a very simple recipe. You pan fry your scallops in a little oil. I love cooking scallops this way – the outside gets brown and crunchy. Once the scallops are done, you take them out and cook some garlic and add spinach and arugula and cook until wilted. You serve the scallops over the greens.

My biggest beef with this recipe was that it really needed some lemon, so we ended up squeezing lemon over it. I loved the greens and will definitely try those two in combination together again. What is truly shocking is Teen Martha ate the greens and liked them and usually she will turn and run at the sight of spinach.

The best part about this dish was the presentation. The scallops looked just gorgeous against the greens.

The March “What’s for Dinner” main entree in Martha Stewart Living is Scallops with Wilted Spinach and Arugula. I love scallops and was ready to give this a try. This is a very simple recipe. You pan fry your scallops in a little oil. I love cooking scallops this way – the outside gets brown … Read more →

On the Feb 17 Martha Stewart Show, Lucinda Scala Quinn made two vegetable dishes from Everyday Food I was dying to try – Carmelized Green Beanswith Nuts and Buttery Broccoli with Parsley. Can I just say that I love Lucinda? When she comes on the show it is like a breath of fresh air. She is so calm and controlled and she is also beautiful. I like Sarah Carey, but Sarah always seems a little ill at ease with Martha. She’s always apologizing for making a mess or not doing it Martha’s way, but Lucinda and Martha act like they are equals and are very comfortable with each other and in tune. I also think Lucinda has very good taste, so I was excited to give these a try.

We eat a lot of broccoli in this house. It’s one of the few vegetables everyone will eat. Also, Teen Martha’s boyfriend (Shorty) is mad about my broccoli. He just loves it, so whenever Shorty stays for dinner, I try to make it. Usually I boil or steam my broccoli, similar to the method Lucinda uses. This recipe then says to add butter, parsley and some white vinegar to the broccoli. I really did not feel the parsley did much at all. And I was not wild about the vinegar, and in fact didn’t feel you could really taste it very much. I’ll stick with my regular broccoli I think. When I want to dress up my broccoli, I add some toasted pecans and brown butter.

Now, the carmelized green beans are another story. This is a completely new method for me. Lucinda says to heat some oil and then add your beans and cook on medium low, partly covered, for 30 min. At the end, you add some pine nuts. The beans become sliglty brown on the outside and very soft. The process really did make them sweeter and easier to eat. I loved it! Teen Martha even liked it and she normally does not like beans. This was a true hit and I will be making it again. Thanks Lucinda.

On the Feb 17 Martha Stewart Show, Lucinda Scala Quinn made two vegetable dishes from Everyday Food I was dying to try – Carmelized Green Beanswith Nuts and Buttery Broccoli with Parsley. Can I just say that I love Lucinda? When she comes on the show it is like a breath of fresh air. She … Read more →

On the Feb 17 Martha Stewart Show, Lucinda Scala Quinn made two vegetable dishes from Everyday Food I was dying to try – Carmelized Green Beanswith Nuts and Buttery Broccoli with Parsley. Can I just say that I love Lucinda? When she comes on the show it is like a breath of fresh air. She is so calm and controlled and she is also beautiful. I like Sarah Carey, but Sarah always seems a little ill at ease with Martha. She’s always apologizing for making a mess or not doing it Martha’s way, but Lucinda and Martha act like they are equals and are very comfortable with each other and in tune. I also think Lucinda has very good taste, so I was excited to give these a try.

We eat a lot of broccoli in this house. It’s one of the few vegetables everyone will eat. Also, Teen Martha’s boyfriend (Shorty) is mad about my broccoli. He just loves it, so whenever Shorty stays for dinner, I try to make it. Usually I boil or steam my broccoli, similar to the method Lucinda uses. This recipe then says to add butter, parsley and some white vinegar to the broccoli. I really did not feel the parsley did much at all. And I was not wild about the vinegar, and in fact didn’t feel you could really taste it very much. I’ll stick with my regular broccoli I think. When I want to dress up my broccoli, I add some toasted pecans and brown butter.

Now, the carmelized green beans are another story. This is a completely new method for me. Lucinda says to heat some oil and then add your beans and cook on medium low, partly covered, for 30 min. At the end, you add some pine nuts. The beans become sliglty brown on the outside and very soft. The process really did make them sweeter and easier to eat. I loved it! Teen Martha even liked it and she normally does not like beans. This was a true hit and I will be making it again. Thanks Lucinda.

On the Feb 17 Martha Stewart Show, Lucinda Scala Quinn made two vegetable dishes from Everyday Food I was dying to try – Carmelized Green Beanswith Nuts and Buttery Broccoli with Parsley. Can I just say that I love Lucinda? When she comes on the show it is like a breath of fresh air. She … Read more →

My teenage daughter eagerly awaits the delivery of each issue of Martha Stewart Living. She goes through the magazine and makes a list of all the things she wants to make from it, then never has time. Yesterday, though, she wanted to make cookies, so I suggested she try the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies in March Everyday Food.

She mixed up the sugar, peanut butter, and butter then added eggs, vanilla and dry ingredients. The dough was very crumbly and did not come together at all. She stirred in the chocolate chips (we didn’t have any chocolate to chop) and then tried to use the little cookie scoop we have to make the cookies, but it would not form. Finally she ended up forming them by hand, but as you can see in the photo, they were very crumbly.

She made them larger than the recipe called for, because it was nearly impossible to get smaller ones to stay together. They took longer to bake than the recipe said because they were so large.

As they baked, they did not spread at all, which we thought to be surprising. The end result was a very nice cookie. Since they didn’t spread, they remained nicely formed. The peanut butter flavor was very mild and you might not realize it was a peanut butter dough right away. They were just the right mix of crunch and softness. A good thing! Nice job Teen Martha!

My teenage daughter eagerly awaits the delivery of each issue of Martha Stewart Living. She goes through the magazine and makes a list of all the things she wants to make from it, then never has time. Yesterday, though, she wanted to make cookies, so I suggested she try the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies … Read more →

I’ve been through March Martha Stewart Living and this issue is primarily about gardening. I’m not a great gardener by any means, so I do want to learn from it, but it’s winter in Buffalo with snow on the ground. There isn’t going to be any gardening to be done around here for months yet, so Martha has left me with not much to do in this issue! Therefore, I have turned to Everyday Food and will be making several recipes from there this month.

The recipe for Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes looked good and it looked pretty easy. That is until I went to the pantry and discovered the box of penne I have is more than half empty, so I substituted rigatoni. A small cheat.

Now, can I just say that my definition of easy, everyday cooking does not involve three pots for one dish? In this recipe you’re supposed to cook the pasta in one, cook the chicken breast in another, and make the sauce in a third. That’s a lot of clean up in my opinion.

Despite that, this was a snap to make. I boiled the noodles and while they drained, I made the sauce in that pot (thus getting down to 2 pots which definitely made me happier!). The sauce was quite easy to make – cook garlic and flour in butter ( used half olive oil and half butter – trying to be heart healthy!). Then whisk in milk (I always use skim milk instead of the whole milk Martha uses in every recipe and never have a problem). Next you add mushrooms and sundried tomatoes, then cheese. Add the chicken and pasta, put it in a dish, sprinkle some cheese over it, and in it goes into the oven.

I cut this recipe in half – Martha wants you to make two pans of it and freeze one. I love doing that, but I won’t do it with a new recipe because then you could end up with double the amount of inedible food!

I regretted that decision though because this was DELICIOUS! Really, truly fabulous. I was a little nervous when I scooped the first spoonful out (which is when I remembered to take the photo, so pardon the messy area), because at first it seemed like it might be a little runny, but it actually was not.

This was creamy, cheesy and just perfect. I usually do not like sundried tomatoes, but in this recipe they worked wonderfully. I think I might like a little more chicken than it contains. There is only one chicken breast in the whole pan, so increasing that would make this feel a little more like a main dish. I cannot wait to have leftovers for lunch today.

So now kids, this is what I’m wondering. This is one of my first forays into Everyday Food and it was a home run (truly a “good thing”). Do we think maybe those recipes are better in general? What are your thoughts?

I’ve been through March Martha Stewart Living and this issue is primarily about gardening. I’m not a great gardener by any means, so I do want to learn from it, but it’s winter in Buffalo with snow on the ground. There isn’t going to be any gardening to be done around here for months yet, … Read more →