Teen Martha won’t be a teen for much longer. She turned 19 last week. One of our traditions is that the birthday person gets to choose his or her birthday meal. This has resulted in many creative endeavors with me trying to fulfill their wishes. This year was no exception. Teen Martha asked for chicken breasts stuffed with cheese, blueberry muffins, carrots with honey and dill, cauliflower with Parmesan cheese, and for dessert a cookie dough cake or cupcakes. I scratched my head at this one a bit and did some googling. I soon determined there were a couple of options: cookie dough cheesecake, cookie dough cupcakes (a cake bakes too long and would cook the dough too much) or a layer cake with a layer of cookie dough inserted after baking. Teen Martha preferred the cupcakes.

I used Martha’s recipe from her Cupcakes book for buttermilk yellow cupcakes. For the cookie dough center, I used this recipe from AllRecipes.com. I used my cookie dough scooper and made exactly 24 balls of dough which I froze. Then I filled the cupcakes up 1/3 of the way with batter, put the dough ball in the center, and filled the rest of the way with batter. Next time I would make the balls a little smaller and be careful not to overfill the cupcakes (some of them just ran all over the place). They took a really long time to bake – about 40 minutes. And even so, some of them sank in the middle when I took them out.

I made up a frosting in the Cuisinart with butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, milk, and some melted chocolate. They were hard to frost and the edges kept breaking off, so this was not anything gorgeous to look at, but it tasted really good and it satisfied Teen Martha’s craving for cookie dough! There’s just something about cookie dough…

Teen Martha won’t be a teen for much longer. She turned 19 last week. One of our traditions is that the birthday person gets to choose his or her birthday meal. This has resulted in many creative endeavors with me trying to fulfill their wishes. This year was no exception. Teen Martha asked for chicken … Read more →

Here is another one of my weeknight, “I need a veggie, but I want something different” creations.

2 cups snap peas

2 tbsp tzatziki sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together and bake in parchment packet for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Serves 4. It’s that simple. The snap peas retain enough crispness that they are fun to eat. The tzatziki gives it a creaminess and a nice tang. I really loved this and will be making it again.

Here is another one of my weeknight, “I need a veggie, but I want something different” creations. 2 cups snap peas 2 tbsp tzatziki sauce salt and pepper to taste Mix together and bake in parchment packet for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Serves 4. It’s that simple. The snap peas retain enough crispness that … Read more →

Pru at Perfecting Pru chose apple pie for today. I haven’t made a pie since Thanksgiving! I enjoyed this. It turned out very beautiful – I’ve never brushed the top of a pie with egg before and it made it look great. I could not fit 12 apples in mine. I think I fit about 9. Everyone enjoyed it.

I had a little trouble getting the pieces out neatly, so Teen Martha declared it was “pile” not “pie.” Regardless, it tasted great. 

Pru at Perfecting Pru chose apple pie for today. I haven’t made a pie since Thanksgiving! I enjoyed this. It turned out very beautiful – I’ve never brushed the top of a pie with egg before and it made it look great. I could not fit 12 apples in mine. I think I fit about … Read more →

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve just signed the contract for the No-Pot Cooking cookbook! It will be published later this year by Adams Media. Thank you to everyone who has visited and commented on this blog. This book is for you, with lots of great recipes for cooking in parchment with no mess and no fuss. I can’t wait to share it with you. I’ll post more details once we have a definite pub date.

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve just signed the contract for the No-Pot Cooking cookbook! It will be published later this year by Adams Media. Thank you to everyone who has visited and commented on this blog. This book is for you, with lots of great recipes for cooking in parchment with no mess and … Read more →

I have some very exciting news I want to share with you. I’ve just signed a contract to write my first cookbook! I’ve already written a food history book (Cookie: A Cultural History, which contained some recipes), but that is tied up in the logjam that is a university press and isn’t out yet. I’m hoping that will see the light of day next year. In the meantime though, I’ve signed with Adams Media to write No-Pot Cooking or The Parchment Paper Cookbook (title is still not definite!). If you haven’t visited my other blog, NoPotCooking, you can click over there and see what it’s all about. The concept is no mess, easy cooking, all done in parchment paper. Perfect for small kitchens, busy people, and those who really hate washing dishes! I’m SO excited to be working on this. It will be in stores later this year (I’ll be sure to let you know when once I have a firm date).

This project is the reason I have been so slow to post lately. It was a rush to get it done so I had to cut back on everything I’ve been doing to get it done. I’m very excited about it and will be sharing more details as I have them.

I have some very exciting news I want to share with you. I’ve just signed a contract to write my first cookbook! I’ve already written a food history book (Cookie: A Cultural History, which contained some recipes), but that is tied up in the logjam that is a university press and isn’t out yet. I’m … Read more →

Summertime feels pretty far away right now, but making these fantastic crepes made me hopeful that summer will eventually come! My son likes to make these in the toaster oven when he comes home from school.

1 crepe (I find these pre-made in my produce section)

½ of a 1.55 oz milk chocolate candy bar, broken into pieces

¼ cup mini marshmallows

¼ of a graham cracker, crumbled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the crepe on the parchment. Line up the chocolate along one side. Add the marshmallows and graham crackers. Roll up the crepe. Fold the parchment. Bake for 5 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

*Reader favorite! This one appears in The Parchment Paper Cookbook

Summertime feels pretty far away right now, but making these fantastic crepes made me hopeful that summer will eventually come! My son likes to make these in the toaster oven when he comes home from school. 1 crepe (I find these pre-made in my produce section) ½ of a 1.55 oz milk chocolate candy bar, … Read more →

In honor of Martha’s new pies and tarts book, Pru from Perfecting Pru has chosen apple pie for next Monday’s project.

In honor of Martha’s new pies and tarts book, Pru from Perfecting Pru has chosen apple pie for next Monday’s project.

Things are finally slowing down here so I’ll have more time to blog. I threw up some Puerto Rico photos the other day but didn’t have time to write anything. San Juan is a beautiful city, with narrow cobbled streets, old forts, and Spanish architecture. One thing we did that was off the beaten path was follow directions in a guidebook to find a place that sells limbers. Limbers are a frozen juice, like a popsicle. They come in plastic cups and are sold from a window inside a hallway in a residential building. You wouldn’t have a clue it’s there unless you knew to look for it. In the photo, Mr. MarthaAndMe is standing outside the building. You have to go in a doorway and then go up to a barred window to order. They have a list of flavors, but seemed to be out of most of them. We ended up with passion fruit, grape, pina colada and one other I can’t remember. You aren’t given a spoon or straw and have this cup full of frozen juice. We sat across the street with a view of the harbor and tried to eat them. Mr. MarthaAndMe suggested squeezing the cup to get the juice to pop up a bit. Great idea – until we realized it made the cups crack and soon we had juice dripping everywhere. It was a complete disaster. It tasted great though!

We drove through El Yunque, the rainforest and it was beautiful. The other very special thing we did was kayak in the bioluminescent bay at night. We went to Fajardo (there are two others in PR as well). I don’t have any photos yet –  we took some with a waterproof disposable camera that I haven’t had developed yet. We arrived at 8 when it was getting dark. We didn’t shove off until about 8:30 or so. You have to walk through the water to get to about knee high water then they have you climb into sea kayaks (2-person). You kayak through a mangrove forest for about half an hour (quite an adventure in the dark!) and come out into a bay. As you turn into the bay, you notice that when you dip your oars in the water, the water seems to glow an eerie blue.  We paddled out to the middle of the bay and the guide tied all of our kayaks together and tried to talk about the phenomenon but one of the other guides was intent on squirting Teen Martha with a water gun and getting the other teens involved so we ended up not hearing much. You could put your hand in the water and swirl it and the water was electric blue when you moved it. They then put a tarp over our kayak and encouraged us to splash water on our legs. The droplets glowed like blue diamonds. It was absolutely amazing. It was really the highlight of our trip.

In the photos I posted earlier, I showed paella we enjoyed as well as a photo of Teen Martha with a pina colada. These were both taken at Barrachina, the place that claims to have invented the pina colada. The night we were there, they had flamenco dancers performing.

As for the shopping, it wasn’t great. Most of San Juan had tacky souvenir shops. There was one fantastic place that sold hats, but Mr. MarthaAndMe did not buy one. We found some galleries and some artisan shops, but I really didn’t buy much. There were two nice shops by El Yunque where I bought some things. When I got home, I realized nothing I bought cost over $12 which is incredible.

In photo #1 you’ll see a shell bracelet, a bar of soap, a leather case with leather dominoes, and a three dimensional sculpture of a San Juan scene. Photo #2 shows a little painting that has some shells glued on it and a watercolor print of a San Juan scene. You’ll also see a bowl with a basket edging, a bookmark and a Christmas tree ornament. The kids and Mr. MarthaAndMe got t-shirts. Teen Martha bought a tshirt dress and a beautiful white cotton embroidered top that was made in Ecuador. Dude Martha also bought a hat. One strange note is that all of the women’s clothes were tiny. Teen Martha could not find much that fit. Even an XL looked like a small to us. I did not understand it at all.

Photo #3 is a piece of aluminum that has been etched and painted and mounted on wood. We saw a lot of these, but almost all had the 3 kings in them and I’m not big on religious icons. We finally found this one.

Things are finally slowing down here so I’ll have more time to blog. I threw up some Puerto Rico photos the other day but didn’t have time to write anything. San Juan is a beautiful city, with narrow cobbled streets, old forts, and Spanish architecture. One thing we did that was off the beaten path … Read more →

Thanks to Sara at Sassy Suppers for picking Lemon Pudding for today’s project. Mine did not set up enough. It was quite thick when I took it off the stove (I brought it to a simmer as directed), but after I added the lemon juice it was thin. I hoped it would set up in the fridge, but it was more like lemon soup. Oh well. It was also quite lemony. Even if it had set up, I’m not sure anyone here would have eaten it.  Oh well. I’m hoping it worked for others.

Thanks to Sara at Sassy Suppers for picking Lemon Pudding for today’s project. Mine did not set up enough. It was quite thick when I took it off the stove (I brought it to a simmer as directed), but after I added the lemon juice it was thin. I hoped it would set up in … Read more →

View of mountains fro hotel Grounds of Rio Mar Beach Resort Old San Juan, viewed from a fort Beautiful beaches El Yunque rainforest Teen Martha’s 1st Pina Colada (drinking age 18)