Another cookie post. This is getting dangerous. My issue of April Everyday Food is here and I am excited! I had to make the Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies immediately. These are chocolate cookies dipped in a sugar/cinnamon mix (I did not add chili powder which was optional). I loved these cookies! They were easy to make and the top baked up all crinkly and crunchy looking. Oh, they were delicious! Very chocolately with just a hint of cinnamon. Crunchy and melt in your mouth good. A real winner.

Another cookie post. This is getting dangerous. My issue of April Everyday Food is here and I am excited! I had to make the Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies immediately. These are chocolate cookies dipped in a sugar/cinnamon mix (I did not add chili powder which was optional). I loved these cookies! They were easy to … Read more →

In a previous post, I talked about how the original Tollhouse cookie recipe, which was developed by the sainted Ruth Wakefield, required 36 hours of refrigeration before baking. When I tried it, I was bowled over by the results. The other interesting piece of info you should know about the original cookies is that flour was different back in those days, and had a higher protein content. The all-purpose flour we use today is not the same. So, in the interests of science, I decided to make the cookies using bread flour which has a higher protein content and is recommended in the cookbook Bakewise (read the excerpt here). I used the Tollhouse recipe on the Nestle bag again (note: this is not the same recipe Ruth used – I’ll give that one a spin another day, so stayed tuned) but substituted bread flour. I refrigerated the dough for 36 hours (this required me to make other cookies so there would not be a riot and I admit I slipped out to the garage to sample the dough a few times!)

The cookies don’t spread as much as the regular recipe. They look like cookies the way my grandmother used to make them. They’re thick. The edges are crisp but the insides of the cookies are chewy, but not in a sticky way, in the way that substantial baked goods are chewy. They seem a lot less greasy than the regular cookies and feel more substantial somehow. You have to bite into them – they aren’t thin cookies that sort of break off in your mouth. I kind of like the chewiness and the feeling that it’s a COOKIE. These get high marks from me.

In a previous post, I talked about how the original Tollhouse cookie recipe, which was developed by the sainted Ruth Wakefield, required 36 hours of refrigeration before baking. When I tried it, I was bowled over by the results. The other interesting piece of info you should know about the original cookies is that flour … Read more →

On page 50 of March Martha Stewart Living, there are instructions for creating an edible roasting rack for chicken. Basically you rip up a baguette and put it on the bottom of your roasting pan with some garlic and thyme. Brush the chicken with some butter and put some thyme under the skin, and place the chicken on the bread and roast it. I have to say I sort of scoffed at this initially, but it wasn’t bad. The biggest problem was that any bread that was not directly beneath the chicken burned to a crisp and was inedible. The bread that stayed under the chicken was delicious, and probably really bad for you! It was crunchy and greasy and really, really, really tasty. That being said, I don’t see myself doing this again. I felt WAY too guilty eating bread soaked in chicken grease and there wasn’t anything convenient or easier about this compared to a regular roasting rack.

On page 50 of March Martha Stewart Living, there are instructions for creating an edible roasting rack for chicken. Basically you rip up a baguette and put it on the bottom of your roasting pan with some garlic and thyme. Brush the chicken with some butter and put some thyme under the skin, and place … Read more →

Thanks to Pru at Perfecting Pru, we’ll be making Maple Bacon Quiche for our next Martha Mondays. Sounds delicious!

Thanks to Pru at Perfecting Pru, we’ll be making Maple Bacon Quiche for our next Martha Mondays. Sounds delicious!

The MSC Cupcake Club pick for this month is Lemon Meringue Cupcakes from Martha Stewart’s Cupcake book. I must confess I cheated on this one. I made a cake instead of cupcakes, but it was exactly the same components – cake batter, lemon curd, and 7 minute frosting.  I had people for dinner and really wanted to serve a cake, not cupcakes.

I thought the lemon curd was easier to make than I expected. I made the cake and curd the day before and assembled them and covered it then made the frosting the next day. As you can see, the curd turned slightly brown overnight. The frosting actually worked for me this time (a first!) and it was really, really good. I added some lemon extract to it to pump up the lemon flavor and the frosting was to die for! I thought the cake was pretty good. It was pretty and everyone enjoyed it.

If you’re looking for Martha Mondays, scroll down to the next post. MSC and Martha Mondays keep falling on the same day!

The MSC Cupcake Club pick for this month is Lemon Meringue Cupcakes from Martha Stewart’s Cupcake book. I must confess I cheated on this one. I made a cake instead of cupcakes, but it was exactly the same components – cake batter, lemon curd, and 7 minute frosting.  I had people for dinner and really … Read more →

Thanks to Sara at Sassy Suppers for choosing this week’s project – earring storage in a paint palette from March Martha Stewart Living (pg 48). I thought I had a paint palette my kids used to use for painting, but I couldn’t find it, so I thought I would show you how I store my earrings. I have plastic cases with little cube dividers like you might find for fishing tackle or for hardware like nails or screws. I put one or two pairs in each space and this keeps them together and makes it easy to find them. If I were more organized, I would arrange them by color, but I’m not!

The plastic cases are inside a big 8-10 drawer plastic unit that sits on a low shelf in my closet. I have a different drawer for each type of jewelry and also keep my shawls and scarves in it.

Thanks to Sara at Sassy Suppers for choosing this week’s project – earring storage in a paint palette from March Martha Stewart Living (pg 48). I thought I had a paint palette my kids used to use for painting, but I couldn’t find it, so I thought I would show you how I store my … Read more →

I have never been a fan of poached eggs. My mother used to make them. She used tuna fish cans with the tops and bottoms removed as the molds, but her eggs were always runny. I don’t like runny whites. Even the thought of it makes me shiver! I had poached eggs in NYC one morning as an adult as a kind of Florentine. They were served over English muffins with spinach and ham and a cheese sauce. They were also too runny and wiggly so I was turned off yet again.  Just recently in the Bahamas, our hotel breakfast buffet had poached eggs on English muffins with a thin slice of ham and a tiny bit of cream sauce. These eggs were perfectly cooked – solid whites and runny yolks. It was a revelation!

So when I saw Martha had a section on poached eggs in March Everyday Food I knew I would have to give it a try. This was my first time poaching eggs, and I could see why my mom used tuna cans! The eggs did not stay together very well. I made three and one was perfect and two were not even close, with the whites sort of floating off in the pan.

Putting a poached egg on top of a salad seemed a bit odd, but I was willing to go for  – after all a hard boiled egg is good in a salad. I didn’t have bleu cheese, so I used feta but I did have bleu cheese dressing so I used that. I thought this salad was quite good, but it had a lot of protein – chicken, bacon and egg. I think I would skip the chicken next time since it was almost too much. I did like the egg with the salad and am surprised that I did.

I have never been a fan of poached eggs. My mother used to make them. She used tuna fish cans with the tops and bottoms removed as the molds, but her eggs were always runny. I don’t like runny whites. Even the thought of it makes me shiver! I had poached eggs in NYC one … Read more →

Last night Mr. MarthaAndMe and I went out to dinner to take advantage of Restaurant Week. This is a wonderful Buffalo-area promotion (also happening in Pittsburgh) that encourages people to get out and try restaurants they normally would not go to. Dinners are $20.10 per person (some restaurants are even doing 2 for $20.10) and most include 2-3 courses. Each restaurant puts together a special restaurant week menu.  We went to Le Metro, a restaurant we’d never tried before. It was completely filled on a Thursday night so I think restaurant week is working. We were given some restaurant made bread and a garlic and white bean spread for it which was tasty and light. Mr. MarthaAndMe started with the salad which had green beans, hardboiled egg, purple potatoes, red onion and olive in it.  Very nice. I had corned beef soup which tasted mostly like beef soup. For entrees, he had lobster mac and cheese which was served in a hot skillet. Elbow mac with white cheeses and pieces of lobster made it very rich and delicious. I had spring roasted chicken with strawberry champagne sauce. This was lovely and came with rice and green beans. Dessert was creme brulee for the Mr. and chocolate mousse for me. The brulee was very nice with a crunchy top. My mousse was a disaster and had to be sent back. It was grainy and thick. I asked if there was another batch and fortunately there was, so my replacement mousse was excellent. For $40.20 plus tax and tip, this was a very affordable meal and a fun weeknight outing. I’m just upset that we don’t have time to try out more options – however restaurant week runs through Sunday. Wouldn’t this be  a great idea to drive business to restaurants in your area?

Last night Mr. MarthaAndMe and I went out to dinner to take advantage of Restaurant Week. This is a wonderful Buffalo-area promotion (also happening in Pittsburgh) that encourages people to get out and try restaurants they normally would not go to. Dinners are $20.10 per person (some restaurants are even doing 2 for $20.10) and … Read more →

File this one under “who would’ve thought?” I have to admit this recipe from March Everyday Food didn’t sound very good to me and I expected it to be not so great. Surprise! I used mahi-mahi for this one and it tasted great with the mushrooms, which are roasted by themselves first. You then set the fish on the mushrooms, like a roasting rack and cook the fish. This is quick easy and yummy. Martha says to serve with a parsley salad – parsely with a viniagrette on it. I thought that was nuts, but I have to say it complemented the fish very nicely. Somehow it was just what this dish needed.

File this one under “who would’ve thought?” I have to admit this recipe from March Everyday Food didn’t sound very good to me and I expected it to be not so great. Surprise! I used mahi-mahi for this one and it tasted great with the mushrooms, which are roasted by themselves first. You then set … Read more →

On a recent night I needed something for dinner, but was tired of all the usual suspects. I had three chicken breasts to use up, but what I really wanted was chicken wings. So I decided to get creative with what I had. I dug in the fridge and found a bottle of bleu cheese dressing and a bottle of Buffalo wing sauce. I also had some panko.

I poured about a cup of the bleu cheese dressing and some of the Buffalo wing sauce in a bowl (I didn’t use a lot – maybe two teaspoons-  you should adjust this according to how hot you like yours) and mixed. I cut a slit in each breast and put a couple spoonfuls of the dressing mix inside then dipped each breast in the dressing and coated it in panko. I sprayed the pan and I also sprayed the top of each breast with cooking spray. I baked at 400 for about 30 minutes and at the end I turned them over to brown each side.

Wow! I was pretty excited by the results. The panko made a really crispy crust. The dressing, because it was inside the chicken and coating it on the outside made the chicken incredibly moist and tender. The addition of the wing sauce made this taste just like wings. This was a quick dinner that I am definitely going to make again and again!

On a recent night I needed something for dinner, but was tired of all the usual suspects. I had three chicken breasts to use up, but what I really wanted was chicken wings. So I decided to get creative with what I had. I dug in the fridge and found a bottle of bleu cheese … Read more →