I just had to share this with my readers. Teresa Stannard is the director of the library in a place called Parchment, Michigan. Parchment paper was manufactured there from 1912 – 2000 at the Kalamazoo Valley Paper (KVP) Company.   The library has many samples of the papers the plant produced, but KVP was especially known for its parchment paper.   Here is a link to a scan of a 1931 KVP booklet in their collection entitled “Paper Finds Many New Uses.”   It contains several pages devoted to parchment paper cooking techniques.  You have got to check this out – as well as the other uses they describe for parchment paper! Many thanks to Teresa for sharing this!

I just had to share this with my readers. Teresa Stannard is the director of the library in a place called Parchment, Michigan. Parchment paper was manufactured there from 1912 – 2000 at the Kalamazoo Valley Paper (KVP) Company.   The library has many samples of the papers the plant produced, but KVP was especially known … Read more →

Hallmark will no longer carry The Martha Stewart show after the show ends this year (new shows run through the spring and reruns will continue this summer).  I admit I haven’t watched it a lot lately. My DVR still records new shows and I usually fast forward through them just to see who she has on and what they’re doing, but I almost never slow down and actually watch segments.

From the press releases it sounds like Martha will continue to work with Hallmark and I’ll bet we’ll see specials from her on Hallmark. In related news, Home Depot will no longer be carrying Martha’s paint.

What are your thoughts? Are you sad to see the show go? Do you watch it regularly? Is it time for it to go?

Hallmark will no longer carry The Martha Stewart show after the show ends this year (new shows run through the spring and reruns will continue this summer).  I admit I haven’t watched it a lot lately. My DVR still records new shows and I usually fast forward through them just to see who she has … Read more →

My book, The Organized Kitchen has just been released and as it happens, January is National Get Organized Month. Here are a few tips to help get your kitchen organized for the new year!

• Tackle one drawer, cupboard or shelf a day to make progress. Completely reorganizing your entire kitchen is an overwhelming task, but if you can find 5 minutes a day (while your pasta is cooking or your broccoli is steaming), you can get a lot done over a week.
• Think about the activities that are happening in your kitchen. Most people use the kitchen as a multi-purpose room and homework, laundry, crafts, bill-paying, and more all take place in this one space. If you can shift some of these activities to other areas of the home, it will free up storage space (keep your scrapbooking supplies in a hall closet and move your household files to a box under your bed, for example) and make the kitchen feel less cluttered and over-used.
• Too often when we organize we forget about comfort. The kitchen needs to be a room that is welcoming and warm, so although you are clearing your counters and shelves of clutter, don’t forget to keep some touches that express your personality and make the room comfortable.
• Transfer pantry items like flour, pasta, cereal, rice, beans, etc. into square glass or plastic storage containers. Square containers stack and fit together on shelves much easier and actually save space (eliminating those gaps between round containers).
• Create zones. Store all baking equipment in the baking zone. All items for drinks such a blender and glassware should be together in one area. Cookware and cooking tools should be positioned near the stove. This way everything has a place it belongs which also makes it more convenient to use and reach for.
• Find extra space by using metal standing shelves to add an additional layer inside cabinets. Bring in an unfinished book case and paint it to match your cabinets and give it the same pulls–it will look like additional built in cabinetry.  Use the insides of cabinet doors for storage for spices, pot lids, a message board, plastic bags and more.
• Look up for more storage. Install a shelf over the doorways of the room. Hang a three-tier basket from the ceiling. Put shelving around your soffits for tons more storage. If you have a separate pantry with a door, install storage above the door on the inside.
• Get rid of your junk drawer. This is additional storage space you are losing out on. Everything in that drawer belongs somewhere else. Move it to where it belongs and suddenly you have an additional drawer.

With a little thought you can make your kitchen a place you love to cook in!

My book, The Organized Kitchen has just been released and as it happens, January is National Get Organized Month. Here are a few tips to help get your kitchen organized for the new year! Tackle one drawer, cupboard or shelf a day to make progress. Completely reorganizing your entire kitchen is an overwhelming task, but … Read more →

New year, new resolutions for many of us. If yours is to simplify, eat more healthfully, or cook more at home, parchment paper packets can help you!

Here are some tips to get started with parchment paper cooking, which will allow you to cook with ease with no clean up, producing healthy, yummy dishes in a flash:

• When in doubt, cut the piece of parchment bigger than you think you need. You can always trim it or just fold it, but if you start out with it too small, it’s hard to work with.
• When you head into the kitchen to cook, ask yourself if you can make the dinner you had planned in parchment. You can convert just about any dish to parchment cooking. For starters, check out my book, The Parchment Paper Cookbook for 180 ideas.
• Remember that when cooking in parchment you don’t need to add more than a few drops of oil, butter or fat. Your food cooks in its own juices and steams inside the packet.
• For the prettiest results, stack your ingredients with the most colorful on top.
• You can brown your food by opening the packets, folding the paper edges under or cutting them off and quickly broiling while keeping an eye on the packet. Parchment singes but does not burn, but you should still keep an eye on it.
• Twist the ends of your packets to easily seal them. I find this to be the simplest and most effective method. See the Technique page of this blog for details.
• Remember you can recycle or compost your parchment!

I’ll be adding more delicious parchment packet recipes soon after a holiday break. Check back soon!

New year, new resolutions for many of us. If yours is to simplify, eat more healthfully, or cook more at home, parchment paper packets can help you! Here are some tips to get started with parchment paper cooking, which will allow you to cook with ease with no clean up, producing healthy, yummy dishes in … Read more →

Ashley has chosen Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens from page 116 of January Living. If you need the recipe, let me know. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that your new year is off to a great start!

Ashley has chosen Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens from page 116 of January Living. If you need the recipe, let me know. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that your new year is off to a great start!

Santa brought me a gnocchi board, a scone pan, and a food mill, all kitchen items I asked for and hope to try out in the coming weeks. I also got lots of ornaments for my kitchen tree.  No cookbooks this year, but I didn’t ask for any.

I asked for an apron, because so many of my clothes have gotten ruined with all the cooking I did in the past year, but I asked for one that was just for the top only. Apparently such a thing does not exist and I got what is called a cobbler’s apron – which looks to me like the top to medical scrubs and was pretty hideous. That went back and I am thinking I am going to have to buy a traditional apron, or remember to change into junk clothes before cooking each day.

I got a few nice pieces of cranberry and caprice glass for my collection and a gorgeous vase I saw when we were in NM and which I should have bought, but did not (my mom calls this the museum in her mind – all the things she should have bought, but didn’t).

I got a tree topper to add to my collection. I also got a giant fortune cookie which will be super fun once I break into it!

We have family parties tonight and tomorrow, then New Year’s Eve is our traditional fondue party. Then it will be time to work on taking all the decorations down and trying to resume normal life and get back to work!

What toys did Santa bring you?

Santa brought me a gnocchi board, a scone pan, and a food mill, all kitchen items I asked for and hope to try out in the coming weeks. I also got lots of ornaments for my kitchen tree.  No cookbooks this year, but I didn’t ask for any. I asked for an apron, because so … Read more →

I love hearing about people’s holiday food traditions. In my family, the Christmas menu is pretty much set in stone. First, sometime before Christmas, I make Hal Linden’s Hanukah bread. Christmas Eve we always have a ham and potato latkes (recipe from The New Basics Cookbook by the same gals who wrote the Silver Palate Cookbook), which we started making when TeenMartha was tiny and watched a Sherry Lewis and Lamb Chop special where they sang a song called “Everybody Loves Potato Latkes.” It aired on a Christmas Eve when we were snowed in and we whipped them up and it became a tradition. We serve them with sour cream and homemade applesauce. We usually round out the meal with some grapes, and then have cookies while we watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Christmas morning we always have baked donuts. I got the recipe from one of Dianne Mott Davidson’s Goldie’s Catering mysteries (they are called Galaxy Donuts). They’re made with different grains, baked and dipped in cinnamon sugar. We always have hot chocolate with them.

For lunch, we have a fun buffet. The ham from Christmas Eve comes out, along with marble rye bread and rye bread dip. Mr. MarthaAndMe always gets a summer sausage in his stocking, so we eat that with cheese and crackers and an assortment of mustards. Grapes and tangerines round out the meal. The kids usually get candy in their stockings and eat some of that.

Christmas dinner is at my parents’ house. During the afternoon when we are opening gifts, my mom makes gougere, which is a cheese puff pastry. Dinner is always beef tenderloin. She makes a broccoli wreath (cooked broccoli dotted with cherry tomatoes surrounding a bowl of hollandaise sauce). We also have a salad and potatoes (usually roasted potatoes, but this year it will be twice baked for something different). We have cookies for dessert. This year I bought a tray from an Italian bakery and we are going to try that, along with some I made and some that were given to her. My mom doesn’t make cookies anymore and we like to have something different when we go over there, rather than eating our own cookies again.

When we see my in-laws, they always insist on taking us out to dinner although I would be happy to cook for them. Then we have two other family parties which are usually overloaded with tons of wonderful food. One aunt always makes sticky buns. My mom usually makes a pork roast or some kind of chicken breast dish for one of them. I like getting to sample family members’ cookies!

What are your holiday food traditions?

I love hearing about people’s holiday food traditions. In my family, the Christmas menu is pretty much set in stone. First, sometime before Christmas, I make Hal Linden’s Hanukah bread. Christmas Eve we always have a ham and potato latkes (recipe from The New Basics Cookbook by the same gals who wrote the Silver Palate … Read more →

This year I made some changes and additions to our holiday decorations. As always, we have  a tree in the living room with my ornaments and white and pink lights, braided pearl strands and pink bunting. We have a tree in the family room with the kids’ ornaments. I also have a tree in my office with book ornaments.

This year, partly because I now do a lot of my work in the kitchen, I added a kitchen tree, with kitchen themed ornaments. It has blue and white lights. I found all sorts of cute ornaments – knife, fork, spoon, blender, pots and pants, strainer, PBJ sandwich, milk carton, pitcher, tray of gingerbread men, toaster, crate of blueberries, a ravioli, chocolate covered strawberry, and even a Hostess cupcakes – all on eBay! I must admit though I am jonesing for another ornament on eBay. It’s a little oven with cookies baking in it. It lights up AND it smells like cookies baking. It’s going for around $110 though, so I won’t be buying it any time soon. I had the most fun prowling eBay for the ornaments I did buy though!

I haven’t figured out what to put on the top of this tree yet. Some people have suggested a chef’s hat, but I’m not a chef, so I don’t like that. I was thinking maybe a little doll’s apron tied around the top, but am not sure what that would look like. Any ideas?

Teen Martha and I went to a Christmas tour of homes and I loved how some people had ornaments hung in their windows. If you look in the background of the kitchen tree photo, you can see I have my 12 days of Christmas ornaments in the windows, but I wanted to do something else. I realized I had 3 blue star ornaments that would be perfect in the big window over my sink, so Mr. MarthaAndMe hung those for me. Next year, I am going to do something on the shelf above it as well – maybe a grouping of reindeer with some that cottony stuff that looks like snow drifts.

At the tour of homes, I also loved decorations people put on the backs of their kitchen chairs. Next year I’ll be doing that too. I haven’t been able to find what I want to do it this year.

And just a note here that my kitchen walls really are not the color they look like in these photos! They are a very, very pale subtle green but somehow they look horrible and neon in these photos!

Moving on to the dining room, I’ve added to my tree collection this year with several new ones, and I also bought a white sparkly runner to put them on so they pop more.

In case you didn’t know, I don’t do red for Christmas. Pink is my Christmas color. I do cranberry in the family room. The kitchen is blue themed so I am going with decorations in blue in there.

I have had the same Christmas dining room centerpiece my entire married life. It was time for a new one. Not an easy task with my color scheme. I bought this 60% off at Michaels and had to do some work on it. It had some awful brown roses in it I pulled out. I added more pink poinsettias, some gold accents, and put it in a shiny mercury glass vase I got at TJ Maxx for $19. I am THRILLED with the results!

In the living room I have my display of tree toppers on the mantel. This collection has grown as well, so I thought I would share it with you. I also found some fabulous vintage pink curly-que garland at an antique shop, so I’ve replaced the pink bunting on the mantel with that. I also bought pre-lit garland this year because I got tired of seeing all the wires from the lights I wrapped around the garland.

Again, the colors of my walls just look horrible in these photos for some reason!

Decorating for Christmas is so much work, but I just love it so much! The hardest part for me is I spent so much time and put so much thought into and we never have a single person come over to see it (neither set of parents is interested in coming here for Christmas), so at least I get to share it with you!

This year I made some changes and additions to our holiday decorations. As always, we have  a tree in the living room with my ornaments and white and pink lights, braided pearl strands and pink bunting. We have a tree in the family room with the kids’ ornaments. I also have a tree in my … Read more →

This week was my pick and I chose Chocolate Mint Crackles from December Living (I am in love with the cover of this issue by the way). I was excited about these cookies. Every year I make cut out, gingerbread cookies, chocolate chip and then one or two other types, one of them usually something new. I was hoping this one would become a favorite.

The cookies were easy to make. I hated them though. The recipe calls for “mint extract.” I had mint extract and peppermint extract in my cupboard. I went with the mint. Yucky. I thought they tasted like spearmint chewing gum. If I make them again, I will use the peppermint extract, which I think will taste right. I just could not get past the mint taste. The cookies were pretty. The only one in the house who likes them is Dude Martha, so they’re all his. Did you try these? What did you think?

This is our last Martha Mondays until January 9, however, I do have some posts coming up between now and then, so be sure to pop back in. I’m looking forward to trying some great new projects with all of you in the New Year. I’m so happy to have all of you to cook with – thank you for joining me as we try new things! Happy Holidays to my Martha Mondays players, and to all my readers.

This week was my pick and I chose Chocolate Mint Crackles from December Living (I am in love with the cover of this issue by the way). I was excited about these cookies. Every year I make cut out, gingerbread cookies, chocolate chip and then one or two other types, one of them usually something … Read more →

This is one of things where I find myself asking “what took them so long?” My fridge has long been a wasteland of tomato paste cans with one tablespoon scooped out, the rest left to die. I never use an entire can and it seems every time I need some, I have to open a new can since the old one has become an alien life form. These great new squeeze tubes let you use just as much as you want without creating waste. I paid $2.99 for a tube. And they contain only tomato paste and salt – no nasty preservatives! Love ’em.

This is one of things where I find myself asking “what took them so long?” My fridge has long been a wasteland of tomato paste cans with one tablespoon scooped out, the rest left to die. I never use an entire can and it seems every time I need some, I have to open a … Read more →