On Nov 7, Martha had a pasta show. I was totally excited since I love pasta, but I’ve never actually made the actual pasta itself. I had to make one of the recipes to give it a try and decided to go with Iacopo Falai’s pici (pronounced “pee-cee”. It looked pretty simple – I always thought pasta meant you had to have a pasta machine (which I do not), so I was excited that I didn’t need anything special to do this. This is a basic pasta that is hand rolled. No problemo I thought.

Ok, the first problem was the recipe called for “00” flour. On the show, Iacopo and Martha talked about it like it was a common thing. I’d never heard of it, but I’d never made pasta so I figured it was a no-brainer. My grocery store had nothing like this. They did have something called “pasta flour” which was a mix of semolina and durum. I bought that, figuring it was as close as I was going to get. I will admit up front that this may not have been the right thing for this recipe, but if not, gosh why didn’t they explain this was some specialty item you have to order online or whatever?

Ready to mix

Ok, so I started mixing this up in a bowl with my hand mixer. You see, my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and I are estranged. Our relationship is in danger and I’ve even considered a divorce – selling it on Craigslist. It is so darn heavy that I almost always would just rather get out my little mixer. I also hate how it is impossible to get anything to go in the bowl when you have the beater down. I just find the whole thing inconvenient. So, I started with the hand mixer. I did as it said and added the water gradually. It did not come together at all. Not even a little bit. So I gave in and hauled out the Kitchen Aid monster.

Let me give you some background on my state of mind here before I go any further. I have been sick all week with a sinus infection – no voice, constant nose blowing, not sleeping at night – you get the picture. The day before, mini-Martha spilled an entire glass of lemonade on a laptop. Huge, expensive disaster. Mr. MarthaAndMe has been away almost every night this week at meetings and events. Like everyone else in America, we are worried about bills and money. It has simply been a miserable week from start to finish.

With that as background, please close your eyes and picture me setting up

Aftermath of the tornado

the @#$*# Kitchen Aid, dumping my pasta mixture in and turning it on, only to discover that the bowl was not locked in properly and the mixer was not completely locked in the down position. I had a tornado of pasta mix swirling around me uncontrollably. I fully expected to land in some weird Italian Oz. I shut it off and cleaned it up with some colorful language. The dogs of course thought it was fantastic and began licking the floor in earnest (and if you read the Crabby Cake post, you know that meant they were also licking my feet which makes me NUTS).

Ok, so once I finally scraped the pasta off the walls and got it mixing and it wasn’t coming together at all. It was way too dry. So I added a little more water and a little more and so on until I doubled the amount of water in the recipe. Then it was together, sort of, but I was afraid to add any more. I mixed in the parsley  (the Kitchen Aid protested this and I think it could have burned out the motor had I not intervened – but would that have been a great loss?)  and then let it rest for 30 min as directed.

Can you feel the love?

I came back all excited to roll this out as I saw them do on tv. Silly me to think it would be easy. You’re supposed to roll this on the counter or a board in the same way you used to make Play-Doh snakes as a kid. You want to get an 8 inch piece that is 1 inch in diameter. Martha and her guest chef made this look so easy and fun. Not for me. The dough simply shredded and crumbled when I rolled it. Total mess. I was able to get a few long pieces with much smushing it together, and then because I was

Not so pretty

sweating like a hog and was ready to cry from frustration and exhaustion, I gave in and just shaped the rest into about 4 inch long pieces without really rolling it. It took forever. I think I was standing there about 45 min.

For the sauce, I shunned the sausage ragout (I hate sausage) in the recipe and made a fun little sauce with olive oil, stewed tomato, garlic, broccoli, scallions, spinach, mushrooms and herbs.

Finally, Mr. MarthaAndMe called to say he was on his way home from work, so I got the water boiling and dumped my sad looking pici in. The recipe says to cook it for about 4 minutes. I don’t know what galaxy that 4 minutes would be in, but in this galaxy it took 40 minutes for this to cook. Again, there I was, standing over a Martha dish, practically in tears, ready to drop dead from exhaustion.

Cooked

I didn’t think it looked very attractive at all when done. Mini-Martha thought it looked like worms, which is always what I want to hear as I’m sitting down to eat. I put the sauce on and we also sprinkled some bacon and parmesan cheese (also called nectar of the gods) on top.

The pasta tasted ok, but it was really heavy and doughy tasting. There was tons and tons left (this was supposed to feed 4 – we had 3 diners tonight and maybe ate 1/8 of it). I froze the rest. When I defrost it, I think I am going to cut it up into little gnocchi type pieces to make it more appetizing and manageable. My sauce was quite yummy.

So, I’m pretty disappointed with this recipe, especially after Martha raved

Ready to eat

about she always ordered the pici at Iacopo’s restaurant and she just loves it. Maybe my flour was at fault – I don’t know. But the whole thing just did not go smoothly and I’m bummed.

On Nov 7, Martha had a pasta show. I was totally excited since I love pasta, but I’ve never actually made the actual pasta itself. I had to make one of the recipes to give it a try and decided to go with Iacopo Falai’s pici (pronounced “pee-cee”. It looked pretty simple – I always … Read more →

I’ve only completed half of this cooking school lesson so far. Martha and Sarah Carey made chicken piccata (to demonstrate sauteing) and then an Indian spice yogurt marinaded chicken that was pan-fried. I’ll get to the second one at a future date (or not since I’m not a big fan of spicy Indian food).

Cutlets

The first step in this

Cutlets pounded

was to make chicken cutlets. I must confess, I never knew what that was really! I just thought it was a chicken breast that was pounded thin. I had no idea you were supposed to cut it in half, to reduce the thickness. Color me ignorant on that. I was a little apprehensive about cutting the breasts in half, but it was super easy. They came out evenly and there was no anxiety necessary!

Next you are supposed to pound the cutlets to make them thin. Martha uses a metal mallet. My mom always used the side of a wooden tenderizer mallet and that’s what I use too (don’t worry – I cover the breasts in plastic so the wood does not get contaminated – no salmonella for this family). This was no problem to do either.

Cooking.....

I coated the breasts in the seasoned flour and cooked them in the oil and butter. No problem there either. They cooked really quickly. Once done, I removed them and added the wine, lemon juice, capers and parsley.

This was super simple,

Feelin

super quick, and super tasty! I have never had chicken piccata before – I guess I thought it sounded boring. I’ve also never eaten capers before. I thought they were like olives (which I

A gorgeous dish

don’t like) so I’ve always avoided them. I have to say, they gave a nice flavor as long as you didn’t eat too many at a time.  I love how the chicken was nicely browned and kind of crunchy. This one’s a good thing! Thanks Martha!

A Side Note

As a side note, I want to mention that I made Martha’s matzoh ball soup (from the Cooking School book) earlier this week. I was sick as a dog and didn’t manage to take any photos. Basically I made chicken soup like I always do (this time I threw in some of the leftover celery root and parsnips from Cooking School lesson 3 – the braised pork shoulder). Her matzoh balls are different than the recipe on the side of the matzoh can. I must confess the first time I ever even tried this kind of soup was last year, so I’m a newbie at this. Martha has you whip the egg whites separately. This did make the dough lighter. I liked their flavor, but found it was hard to get them to come out very round. Mine were all lop-sided and disturbed looking. They tasted great though. So that one gets a thumbs up too.

My December issue of Living recently came in the mail, so I’ll be moving forward to projects from there soon. That issue is a little intimidating – everything is so over the top. I also have Martha’s holiday special issues for both food and crafts and will be using those as well. Christmas is really creeping up on us. I’m looking forward to having a Martha Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I feel as though Martha is helping me pay attention to details more than I normally would, which I am appreciating.

I’ve only completed half of this cooking school lesson so far. Martha and Sarah Carey made chicken piccata (to demonstrate sauteing) and then an Indian spice yogurt marinaded chicken that was pan-fried. I’ll get to the second one at a future date (or not since I’m not a big fan of spicy Indian food). The … Read more →

On Friday, Nov 14, Martha made mushroom prints with Seal. Wow! I thought they were amazing and was excited to do with it with mini-Martha. I even thought we might be able to frame them and give them as a gift.

First stop  – the store. I bought two pieces of 12×12 cardstock for 50 cents each at Joanns. They had never heard of spray fixative and acted like I was a lunatic (don’t you hate that? Are they there to serve the customer or what?). I found that at Michael’s for $6.49. Then off to the grocery store where we bought portabellas for $2.07 and shitakes for 67 cents.

We came home and removed the stems.  Mini-Martha placed the mushrooms on the papers. We covered them with bowls for 24 hours.

Number 1

Number 2

The result? NOTHING. One portabella made a little bit of a mark. One shitake left a white mark. That’s it. Total dud.

Now, Martha probably had her mushrooms brought in that day from her own private mushroom patch, so I wonder if this craft depends on having absolutely fresh mushrooms. If so, it would have been nice to be told that (no idea how one would find those in November when there are no farmers markets open here in upstate NY). I’m really, really disappointed in this and so is mini-Martha. Thumbs down, Martha.

The other thing I have to say is Martha said you should save the mushrooms and eat them after the craft. Mine had started to mold! Yuck!

Number 1 completed

Number 2 completed

On Friday, Nov 14, Martha made mushroom prints with Seal. Wow! I thought they were amazing and was excited to do with it with mini-Martha. I even thought we might be able to frame them and give them as a gift. First stop  – the store. I bought two pieces of 12×12 cardstock for 50 … Read more →

I signed up for Martha’s Thanksgiving Workshop email program. The idea is she will send me an email once a week to help me get ready for Thanksgiving. Ok, that’s clever, although I am not really feeling overwhelmed about Thanksgiving. Unlike Christmas, it’s just a dinner.

Week 1

The first email arrived the first week in November. She suggested that I:

– Choose a menu. This was easy since we tend to be traditional. I’m going with her classic menu.

– Create a guest list. Easy – it’s just the 4 of us. No guests.

– Order the turkey. I’m going to call the butcher today. I always get a fresh turkey.

– Create some decorations. Martha has big ideas about buying a cornucopia and then wrapping it in burlap and raffia. Sounds nuts to me. I have two that I filled with artificial fruits and vegetables and I think they are great. The one in my living room is crystal and has some gilded things in it. The family one is more casual. She also wants me to fill an urn with fresh produce for my porch. Instead, I have an arrangement of artificial flowers and pumpkins on my porch which will last longer than Martha’s. Do you see our “purkey”? Or “tumpkin”? We have these metal turkey pieces you insert into a pumpkin and it makes this cute turkey.

These are the kinds of things where Martha has great ideas, but I don’t know how anyone can have the time and money to do them all. Instead, I’m taking my inspiration from her and doing things in a less expensive and less over the top manner.

Family room cornucopia

Living room cornucopia

Front porch

Week 2

Update on week 1 responsibilities:

– I tried to order my turkey, I really did. My grocery store had a page in their ad showing that they have organic free range turkeys. Perfect, I thought! I went to the counter to order it and they told me they don’t take orders! They told me when they get deliveries and suggested I come in on those days! I could also call them and ask them to pull one out and hold it for me. Gee, how convenient.

– I took the quiz What Thanksgiving Side Dish Are You? Martha says I am mashed potatoes and gravy, which is totally accurate! I love mashies so, so, so much. It is a childhood deprivation issue (I’m throwing my mom under the bus again!). My mom usually had Thanksgiving when I was a kid and she doesn’t like mashed potatoes (which is why I can’t get enough of them). In fact, she doesn’t like much about a traditional Thanksgiving. We never had pumpkin pie either (although I believe there was pumpkin soup) and there were various frightening stuffing experiments that still give me the chills! I’ve never once seen a green bean casserole and she always made her own cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries and oranges.

– I have a table-setting ready to go (I’ll be posting photos soon)

– I am supposed to practice my side dishes. Well I made Big Martha’s mashed potatoes and the acorn squash with rosemary from the Nov. issue of Living this week, so that counts

– I am also supposed to bone up on my basic cooking techniques. I think I’m good with that, Martha. I’ve cooked many a Thanksgiving meal and I’m also following along with cooking school, so I think all is well.

Here’s a side note. I’m two weeks into the Thanksgiving workshop and I just got an email from Martha about the Christmas workshop. OMG. I haven’t even finished the table-settings for Thanksgiving. I just about died when I followed the link in the email. There is a TEN PAGE shopping list. 10 pages!!! I have never seen anything like this in my life! Now, I am sort of excited about it because Christmas does bring out my inner crafter, however this is way over the top. I’m SO scared. I’m going to have to attempt at least some of these crafts. Michaels just sent me a 50% any item coupon, so I guess I’ll put that to good use!

I signed up for Martha’s Thanksgiving Workshop email program. The idea is she will send me an email once a week to help me get ready for Thanksgiving. Ok, that’s clever, although I am not really feeling overwhelmed about Thanksgiving. Unlike Christmas, it’s just a dinner. Week 1 The first email arrived the first week … Read more →

It is time to dish, girls and boys. Have you watched this show? If you haven’t, here’s the deal. Martha created and produces this show for the Fine Living network. It’s a half hour show with Martha’s daughter, Alexis, and her friend, Jennifer Koppelman Hutt, the same gal that does the Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer Sirius radio show with her. Alexis and Jennifer sit around and watch segments of old Martha shows. Sometimes they attempt to craft along with the craft segments. The gist of the show is that they are talking while watching it – like you might do with a friend at home.

Some people hate this show and some people love it (which are you? Post a comment and tell me). Alexis is pretty open about her sex life (and the fact that she sleeps around a lot). Alexis also makes fun of her mother and sometimes can be kind of harsh. Both of them have said rude things about the guests in the Martha clips.

I think I’ve seen every episode of this (Mr. MarthaAndMe leaves the room when I watch it- he can’t stand it) and wanted to weigh in. I see how some people are offended by it, but mostly I find it funny. They are witty and snarky and sarcastic, just as I am with my friends. They don’t act like Martha is some goddess who is above criticism.

Here’s the other thing about the show that I totally get. Alexis has a mother who is successful, confident, sometimes pushy, and sets high expectations. I do too. So I totally understand Alexis. First of all, when you grow up with a mother who is all of those things, it can really do a number on you. Then when you try to make it as an adult and have to realize you may never match that success, it is even harder. The third component is that Alexis works for her mom, and I do some work for mine as well. You want to be a part of the success, but at the same time you feel like a complete and utter loser to have to work for your mom and it makes you a tad resentful to have to deal with her demands and expectations as an adult. So, I understand the psychology of Alexis. This is her way of working through some of the aggression and resentment she experiences towards Martha (just call me Dr. MarthaAndMe).

Probably because Alexis and I have this in common, I totally live for the little gems on the show where Alexis reveals things about Martha – such as they never had cupcakes at their house, Martha made Alexis sell vegetables at the end of the driveway, Alexis had an antique quilt on her bed as a child that she wasn’t allowed to sit on, and Martha’s impatience when things are not done right.

How does Martha feel about all this? Unless she comments, we’ll never know, however the fact that she created the show indicates maybe she’s cool with it. I also think Martha is savvy enough to realize this show introduces her to several new audience groups – younger women, and women who know they aren’t Martha and have no chance to ever be Martha and enjoy seeing someone laugh about that.

Some other thoughts on this show:

– Why do they always have snacks out if they never eat them?

– I don’t like how Jennifer never has her shoes on. I totally get that you kick them off when you’re hanging out with a pal, but even so, she’s on tv. I just would never take my shoes off on tv.

– Alexis totally has Martha’s craft gene. Whenever they do a craft, Alexis whizzes through it while Jennifer makes a mess. Who knew crafting was genetic?

– Alexis is more like Martha than she knows. She sometimes displays a high level of Martha-type snobbery/impatience/White Witch behavior and an unwillingness to understand how other people do things.

What are your thoughts on this show?

It is time to dish, girls and boys. Have you watched this show? If you haven’t, here’s the deal. Martha created and produces this show for the Fine Living network. It’s a half hour show with Martha’s daughter, Alexis, and her friend, Jennifer Koppelman Hutt, the same gal that does the Whatever with Alexis and … Read more →

So I bought all the major ingredients for Martha’s What’s for Dinner? (p. 208) from the Nov issue of Living (plus one additional side). My total came to about $25 for 4.

The menu was for pan-seared strip steak with mushrooms, white-cheddar grits, and collard greens with lemon. I did not make the dessert since we don’t eat dessert on week nights (ok, except for that 9 pm dish of ice cream which neither of us seems to be able to avoid, but I don’t even consider that dessert and that’s all I have to say about that!). I also made roasted acorn squash with rosemary (p. 221).

I had this one all planned out and was in the kitchen getting things organized when my son said to me, “What time are we leaving?” “Leaving for what?” I asked. “Hockey!” Holy flipping cows – I totally forgot it was hockey day since the kids were off from school. I was completely off schedule. Good thing he said something! This meant I had to get the meal partly cooked, rush out to hockey, sit there for an hour, then rush home and attempt to get it all on the table at a reasonable hour. Whew!

First, I got the squash ready for the oven. Not hard. Then I got the grits going by dumping them in the boiling water. Next I trimmed and cut up the collard greens and got those going. Then I had to shut it all off (but left the squash in the oven on a timer) to go to hockey.

Steak and mushrooms

When I got home, the squash was just about done. The grits needed some serious cooking and stirring. The greens were just about done. So I got going on the steak. I bought strip steaks, but very thin ones (trying to save a little money). I seared them in the pan pretty quickly then covered them on a platter. I had the mushrooms ready to

Grits

go in next. I sauteed those. By then the grits were ready (I added double the amount of cheese, plus some butter which the recipe did not call for). I then added chicken stock and Dijon mustard to the mushrooms to make a little sauce.

Miraculously, it was all ready. We sat down to eat. Mr. MarthaandMe

Yummy squash

and I took some of everything. The son (mini-Martha) took piles of steak and a tiny bit of grits. The daughter took tiny pieces of everything but the squash.

The verdict? Not so great. The steak was ok, but really we prefer our steak grilled (we have a Jenn-Air grill so grilling is possible year round).

Collard greens

The sauce was ok, but nothing to knock your socks off with. I like mushrooms, so those were good. No one liked the collard greens. They were a little bitter and peppery. I think that if I creamed them like I do with spinach they might be ok, but plain they were not exciting. The grits were not great. We are not a grits family and even with extra

The plate

cheese and butter, they were just plain and nothing really worth eating.

The real winner in this meal was the squash.  Somehow the butter, brown sugar and rosemary were just the right mix. I’ve never tried rosemary on a sweet squash like this and I have to say it was delicious. That recipe is a keeper. Not so much for the rest. So, Martha, I have to tell you that what’s for dinner wasn’t so great this month!

I have to say that at this point in this experiment I am more convinced than ever that there are some foods that are just not for me. Which is distressing since I consider myself adventurous and always eager to try new things.  I don’t know if Martha and I just have different palates or what, but her recipes are just not hitting it out of the park for me or my family. It’s interesting, because I’ve really long considered her a doyenne of good taste. I do have some Martha recipes that are fantastic, but in the past month of my intensive Martha lifestyle, I’m finding the things in the magazine are not doing it for me. Which is disappointing for me. I envisioned myself serving all these fabulous meals, and what I’m discovering is that the meals I was serving before were pretty darn fabulous!

So I bought all the major ingredients for Martha’s What’s for Dinner? (p. 208) from the Nov issue of Living (plus one additional side). My total came to about $25 for 4. The menu was for pan-seared strip steak with mushrooms, white-cheddar grits, and collard greens with lemon. I did not make the dessert since … Read more →

So I bought all the major ingredients for Martha’s What’s for Dinner? (p. 208) from the Nov issue of Living (plus one additional side). My total came to about $25 for 4.

The menu was for pan-seared strip steak with mushrooms, white-cheddar grits, and collard greens with lemon. I did not make the dessert since we don’t eat dessert on week nights (ok, except for that 9 pm dish of ice cream which neither of us seems to be able to avoid, but I don’t even consider that dessert and that’s all I have to say about that!). I also made roasted acorn squash with rosemary (p. 221).

I had this one all planned out and was in the kitchen getting things organized when my son said to me, “What time are we leaving?” “Leaving for what?” I asked. “Hockey!” Holy flipping cows – I totally forgot it was hockey day since the kids were off from school. I was completely off schedule. Good thing he said something! This meant I had to get the meal partly cooked, rush out to hockey, sit there for an hour, then rush home and attempt to get it all on the table at a reasonable hour. Whew!

First, I got the squash ready for the oven. Not hard. Then I got the grits going by dumping them in the boiling water. Next I trimmed and cut up the collard greens and got those going. Then I had to shut it all off (but left the squash in the oven on a timer) to go to hockey.

Steak and mushrooms

When I got home, the squash was just about done. The grits needed some serious cooking and stirring. The greens were just about done. So I got going on the steak. I bought strip steaks, but very thin ones (trying to save a little money). I seared them in the pan pretty quickly then covered them on a platter. I had the mushrooms ready to

Grits

go in next. I sauteed those. By then the grits were ready (I added double the amount of cheese, plus some butter which the recipe did not call for). I then added chicken stock and Dijon mustard to the mushrooms to make a little sauce.

Miraculously, it was all ready. We sat down to eat. Mr. MarthaandMe

Yummy squash

and I took some of everything. The son (mini-Martha) took piles of steak and a tiny bit of grits. The daughter took tiny pieces of everything but the squash.

The verdict? Not so great. The steak was ok, but really we prefer our steak grilled (we have a Jenn-Air grill so grilling is possible year round).

Collard greens

The sauce was ok, but nothing to knock your socks off with. I like mushrooms, so those were good. No one liked the collard greens. They were a little bitter and peppery. I think that if I creamed them like I do with spinach they might be ok, but plain they were not exciting. The grits were not great. We are not a grits family and even with extra

The plate

cheese and butter, they were just plain and nothing really worth eating.

The real winner in this meal was the squash.  Somehow the butter, brown sugar and rosemary were just the right mix. I’ve never tried rosemary on a sweet squash like this and I have to say it was delicious. That recipe is a keeper. Not so much for the rest. So, Martha, I have to tell you that what’s for dinner wasn’t so great this month!

I have to say that at this point in this experiment I am more convinced than ever that there are some foods that are just not for me. Which is distressing since I consider myself adventurous and always eager to try new things.  I don’t know if Martha and I just have different palates or what, but her recipes are just not hitting it out of the park for me or my family. It’s interesting, because I’ve really long considered her a doyenne of good taste. I do have some Martha recipes that are fantastic, but in the past month of my intensive Martha lifestyle, I’m finding the things in the magazine are not doing it for me. Which is disappointing for me. I envisioned myself serving all these fabulous meals, and what I’m discovering is that the meals I was serving before were pretty darn fabulous!

So I bought all the major ingredients for Martha’s What’s for Dinner? (p. 208) from the Nov issue of Living (plus one additional side). My total came to about $25 for 4. The menu was for pan-seared strip steak with mushrooms, white-cheddar grits, and collard greens with lemon. I did not make the dessert since … Read more →

I was excited to try the November Living’s Cookie of the Month. This month, the cookie is a maple cookie. They looked gorgeous in the magazine.

Beautiful dough

Making the dough was quick and simple. It seemed a little weird that it only used one egg yolk, not a whole egg (although I guess this makes it more like a shortbread). After you make the dough, you have to refrigerate it for two hours. This told me it was going to be sticky dough. Fear not! This is something I have experience with. My grandmother’s recipe for sugar cookies is practically goo until you freeze it and roll it out quickly. There are family legends of my aunt going out to roll them out in the garage in the middle of winter because it is so sticky.

After refrigerating, I rolled it out. It was pretty firm and not very sticky at all. Really not a big deal.

Rolling and cutting out

The recipe says to roll it out on lightly floured parchment paper. Ha! Are they joking?? I tried this and the paper kept slipping. I tried weighting it down with cans at the corners. I tried sticking some dough underneath it. Nothing worked – in retrospect it must have looked pretty funny – the parchment slipping all over and me attacking it with a rolling pin with flour flying everywhere. It really annoyed me! Finally I just floured my counter and rolled it out there. Take that!

Ready for the oven

The recipe also says to roll it out then stick it in the freezer before cutting out the cookies. Forget that – I was going to get this done! I went ahead and cut them out immediately. A little help from a spatula and they were on the tray. The thicker you make the dough, the easier it is to cut them out. I like my cookies a little thicker than what the recipe called for.

Speaking of cookie trays – Martha wanted me to put parchment paper on the trays. I use Aire-Bake trays with a latex non-stick sheet thingy on them. No need for parchment paper AND it’s more environmentally friendly. Take that, Martha!

These took forever to cook. Finally I gave up and cranked on convection and

Cookie seepage!

that did the trick. They did spread more than I expected so I had to do a little creative cutting! After they cool (Martha says to use baking racks – which I do not own, so I just let them cool on the trays), you spread maple syrup on them and then sprinkle on sanding sugar. I don’t have sanding sugar but I had a jar of pure cane sugar that was very coarse that we brought home from Hawaii, so I used that.

Voila! Very pretty

The end result looked very fall-like. However, the taste was not so great. Another disappointment! The cookies were not very sweet. They did have a maple flavor, but they were just bland and boring. The kids, who swooped in as I was removing them from the oven, thought they were ok (but really, cookies have to pretty bad for my children to reject them). No one was wild about them. I’m packing the rest up and sending them to Mr. MarthaandMe’s office. In my opinion, there are so many good cookie recipes out there that I don’t want to waste the calories on ones that are not so good. They weren’t awful, but they just didn’t excite me in any way.

What’s the deal Martha? Two bum desserts in this issue – both the dessert of the month and the cookie of the month. Not a very good thing. Does Martha even taste these recipes herself I wonder? What do you think?

I was excited to try the November Living’s Cookie of the Month. This month, the cookie is a maple cookie. They looked gorgeous in the magazine. Making the dough was quick and simple. It seemed a little weird that it only used one egg yolk, not a whole egg (although I guess this makes it … Read more →

On Wed Nov 5, Martha made stuffed cabbage with Jane Krakowski. Stuffed cabbage, as Martha pointed out, is a traditional Polish dish called golabki. I’m not Polish, and neither is Mr. MarthaAndMe, but we live, and were raised, here in Buffalo, NY which has a large Polish population. My father’s family lived on the east side of Buffalo and they had many Polish neighbors and friends. Mr. MarthaAndMe’s father is from the south side, where there was an equally large Polish influence. There’s a popular restaurant here called The Polish Villa and we also have the Broadway Market, which is a market many people visit at Christmas and Easter for Polish specialties. So, we’re no strangers to Polish food and traditions here.

That being said, I’ve never had stuffed cabbage. I know my grandmother is rolling her grave at that (sorry Gram!).  So when I saw Martha cook this up with Jane, I thought, I’ve got to try it! This was also convenient, since I had a half a head of cabbage left over from when I made fried rice (sometimes I chop up cabbage and add it to the rice). Let me say that using a half a head is not ideal, since I didn’t get as many

The filling

nice full leaves as I wanted, but it worked out ok. I had some filling left over (since I didn’t have enough leaves) and I just froze it.

I think maybe I needed to cook the cabbage longer. I was able to get the leaves off, but it was really crisp. As it was, it seemed like it took forever to cook the cabbage, wait for it to cool enough to take off some leaves, then put it back in, cool again and take off another one or two leaves. I was a little impatient!

For the filling, Martha says to use rice and ground pork and ground beef. I had ground turkey, so I used that (I am substituting that often and I add some Worchestershire sauce to give it some flavor and it works out great). I also happened to have a container of quinoa in my freezer that was already cooked, so I decided to use that in honor of Martha’s piece in the November issue of Living about using different grains. I added some cheese to my filling also, I must admit (I love cheese and really what other than chocolate does not go well with cheese?).

Rolling up the leaves was a challenge since some of mine were not full size. I

Cabbage origami

also think that if my cabbage had been softer, they would have rolled more easily. Having seen Martha do it on the show made it easy for me to understand how to roll it. I think if I had not seen the episode I wouldn’t have known how to roll it (I am very spatially challenged!).

I did line the bottom of my pot with some outside leaves from the cabbage as Martha recommended. Ok, I’ll confess that I cheated again on the sauce. I used some jarred spaghetti sauce and

In the pot

added water to it. I just don’t think tomato paste mixed with water is very appetizing. I added the pieces of apple, which sounded weird to me. I cooked this for one hour, as directed. The cabbage was not soft enough! It needed to cook longer. Other than that, I have to say I really liked this and it surprised me! I didn’t know if I would, but it was very tasty and something different to make. The apples gave it a nice flavor and this dish did not have that nasty cabbage taste you sometimes imagine. I froze what was left (enough for

Ready to eat

another meal) and will cook it longer when I defrost it, to get those leaves nice and soft. This was a good thing! Thanks, Martha for expanding my horizons. I also must add that I believe this to be a true Martha recipe (since she clearly was raised on this stuff). I’m coming to believe many of the recipes in the magazine have never been tasted by Martha which explains why they are not up to snuff. It’s understandable – she’s a busy woman, but it’s also contradictory for someone so committed to “good things.”

On Wed Nov 5, Martha made stuffed cabbage with Jane Krakowski. Stuffed cabbage, as Martha pointed out, is a traditional Polish dish called golabki. I’m not Polish, and neither is Mr. MarthaAndMe, but we live, and were raised, here in Buffalo, NY which has a large Polish population. My father’s family lived on the east … Read more →

Martha sent me an organizing tip of day about first aid kits. We have a first aid kit and I can’t tell you how many times it has saved the day. Not only do we have one in the bathroom, but I also keep a small one in each car. When we travel, I take along another small one. I find that Band-aids at least are an essential when traveling and I like to be prepared for other emergencies. When you stay in a hotel, it’s not as big a concern, but we often rent condos and there is no one to help you nearby, so you’d better be prepared.

Contents of our kit

Our first aid kit is kept in a plastic box with a handle (being able to grab it and go has really made things easy when it is needed). Here are the items I include (my list is more extensive than Martha’s- who would have thought I could be more anal than Martha!):

– band-aids

– Band-Aid brand hurt free antiseptic wash

– gauze

– tape

– triple antibiotic cream

– Neosporin

– bee sting remedy

– temporary dental filling kit

– eye wash

– special burn bandages (these are gel bandages that cover a burn and hydrate it – they are excellent!)

– insect bite remedy

– tweezers

– alcohol wipes

Now, when I read this email from Martha I thought “HA! I’m all set on this one” Think again. When I went to get the kit out, it was a total mess.  I felt totally like a bad mother (an occurrence I experience at least once a week I’d say!). The lid was off, things were out of their boxes and some things were on the shelf next to it. If someone was hurt, I would have had to scramble around to get out what I needed. Martha’s email resulted in me cleaning the mess up, getting it organized, and tossing out some out of date items. Martha would probably have on her calendar to restock this every few months (since I do not have a calendar of when household tasks should be done  – who does other than Martha?). As for me, I’m going to make an effort to keep it together and organized from now on. This was a useful tip from Martha. Knowing this kit is my cupboard, ready to go, gives me a safe feeling. Even a small task like this is definitely a way to bring a tiny bit of improvement to your life.

Martha sent me an organizing tip of day about first aid kits. We have a first aid kit and I can’t tell you how many times it has saved the day. Not only do we have one in the bathroom, but I also keep a small one in each car. When we travel, I take … Read more →