The idea of roasting a chicken with plums is not something I would have ever thought of on my own. In fact, it seemed slightly odd to me. But I wanted to give it a try, and I’m happy others have joined me in making it for Martha Mondays. So here are my results for Roast Chicken with Plums, from September Martha Stewart Living.

This recipe was quite easy. Basically you stick some rosemary in a chicken and roast it. You take it out part way through and put some cut up plums mixed with honey in the pan, and cook some other plums separately in another pan with rosemary and  butter.

It doesn’t get much simpler than that. I didn’t truss my chicken, because once again I was caught without twine (sorry Martha). I also divided the recipe in half since I wasn’t feeding 12 and didn’t need 2 chickens.

This went very smoothly. I got the chicken cooking then added the plums. It all cooked in exactly the time Martha predicted (love when that happens and I also am loving roasting chickens at 450 degrees as she directs – much higher than the temp I used to cook them at). The plums got quite mushy and were like chunky applesauce with skin. Initially, I put them on the platter with the chicken, but ended up putting them in a bowl so the chicken could be carved.

I loved it! This was wonderful. The plums are an unexpected flavor to go with the chicken, but it really worked. They are sweet, but not too sweet. The chicken was perfectly cooked and was moist and delicious. I ate plum and chicken together in each bite and it was in perfect harmony.  This is a recipe I’ll be making again.

How was yours? Please share!

The idea of roasting a chicken with plums is not something I would have ever thought of on my own. In fact, it seemed slightly odd to me. But I wanted to give it a try, and I’m happy others have joined me in making it for Martha Mondays. So here are my results for … Read more →

For the next Martha Mondays, let’s make Roasted Chicken and Plums, which is on page 162 of September Martha Stewart Living. If you don’t have the recipe, post or email me and I’ll send it to you. I’m looking forward to trying it since it’s not something I would ever come up with on my own.

For the next Martha Mondays, let’s make Roasted Chicken and Plums, which is on page 162 of September Martha Stewart Living. If you don’t have the recipe, post or email me and I’ll send it to you. I’m looking forward to trying it since it’s not something I would ever come up with on my … Read more →

Martha Mondays is here again. This time, the scheduled Martha project was map coasters. If you made this project (or if you haven’t yet, post when you do), post a link to your blog or just leave a comment saying how it went for you.

For this project, I splurged and purchased a Martha Stewart craft knife. This project was very inexpensive I thought. I already had ModPodge and so in addition to the $10 craft knife, I just had to buy some round cork coasters, which were about $1.60.

I used a plastic cutting board to cut on and I printed my maps online. I had some trouble cutting the maps out. Martha says to use the knife to trace around the edge of the coaster. Mine didn’t come out perfectly even and in some places it was still attached to the paper, so I used scissors to cut it and trim it. They weren’t perfectly round. And once I even sliced away some of the cork! I am a menace with craft knife in hand.

Dude Martha assisted on this project. We painted ModPodge on the coaster, placed the map on top and smoothed it out. Then we applied more ModPodge and also did the edges. We left them to dry.

I was really pleased with my results. One coaster has a stray hair from the brush stuck on it, but that’s because I did not buy top of the line Martha brushes.  You can’t really tell my maps were not cut out perfectly. The coasters bowed just a little bit. If I had thicker coasters, that would not have been an issue.  I’m taking these coasters to the family lake house (since I used a map of the lake) and I think they will be a fun thing to have there. This project was easy (if *I* can get good results, it must be easy) and fun. You could do lots of other things other than maps with this. Photos, patterned paper, print outs of famous paintings, all sorts of neat things.

How did this work for you? Did anyone use something other than maps? Can’t wait to see your results!!

I’m putting together a Martha Mondays blogroll that I will post. If you want to be on it, please let me know the name of the blog to list. Once I have the list, we’ll start going through it so everyone can have a turn picking the projects. Look for another post today with the next Martha Mondays project!

Martha Mondays is here again. This time, the scheduled Martha project was map coasters. If you made this project (or if you haven’t yet, post when you do), post a link to your blog or just leave a comment saying how it went for you. For this project, I splurged and purchased a Martha Stewart … Read more →

For Martha Monday on Monday, August 17, let’s make the map coasters on page 42 of August Martha Stewart Living. If you don’t have the magazine, never fear! Here’s what to do.

You need paper maps (and if you don’t have any you could print some online, or use any other decorated or patterned paper you have), cutting mat, round cork coasters, craft knife, foam paintbrush and ModPodge.

Put the map on the cutting board, facedown and cut it out by tracing the coasters with the knife. Brush the ModPodge on one side of the coaster and stick the map onto it. Smooth the map to get rid of bubbles. Put more ModPodge on top of the map and on the sides, brushing it to smooth it out. Let it dry.

That’s it!

And if you’re new to Martha Mondays, anyone can join. Just do the craft, recipe or project on or around the planned date. Post it on your blog and put a link in a comment here. If you don’t have a blog or don’t want to blog it, feel free to just leave a comment here. I’ll post my results on Tuesday. The idea is we will all work on the same project on Martha Monday (if possible – if you want to d0 it earlier or later in the week, that’s perfectly ok) and report our results later in the week. Try to put your results as a comment to my post with my results, so we have them all in one place if possible. Can’t wait to see how everyone likes this one!

For Martha Monday on Monday, August 17, let’s make the map coasters on page 42 of August Martha Stewart Living. If you don’t have the magazine, never fear! Here’s what to do. You need paper maps (and if you don’t have any you could print some online, or use any other decorated or patterned paper … Read more →

Welcome to Martha Mondays. If you aren’t familiar, this is an open project where every week, we’ll cook, craft or do a Martha project together and then post or comment about it. The Martha Mondays recipe for August 10 was Grilled Vanilla Peaches, from August Martha Stewart Living.

I’m posting my take on it below. If you made it, or get a chance to make it, post your results on your blog (feel free to use the Martha Mondays logo so it is easily identifiable) and leave a comment here with a link. If you don’t have a blog or don’t want to blog about it, feel free to leave a comment about how it went for you.

I thought this recipe sounded delicious on paper – and it was easy. The first step was buying the peaches. Folks, I am ready to throw my hands up in frustration about this! I am having the worst time with peaches. I’m buying local peaches. First,  I have to watch like a hawk to be sure the check out person does not smush them into the bottom of a bag or bounce them around over the scanner. Then half of them rot before they get ripe. It’s very frustrating and expensive!

I finally ended up with 8 peaches that were somewhat ripe. Martha says to halve the peaches. Well, the recipe calls for freestones. Our local peaches are not freestones, so I ended up have to cut around the pits. So my peaches are not as pretty as I would have liked.

You place the peaches on parchment, on top of foil (Martha does not want food to touch foil!). I brushed them with oil and lemon juice, then the brown sugar, cinnamon,vanilla, and salt mixture. I thought it was going to be yummy.

I wrapped up the package and Mr. MarthaAndMe grilled it for 15 minutes as directed. We opened the package and the peaches did not look very cooked to me. They were definitely hot though and there was a fair amount of juice, however.

I served them with vanilla ice cream as directed. The ice cream melted almost immediately since the peaches were so hot.

I served this dessert to a group of 10 at my parents’ lake house, but only a few of us actually sampled it. Everyone else was happy to just eat ice cream or the cake Teen Martha made (she’s been slowly working her way through the old Betty Crocker cookbook on the shelf – this week it was a delicious butter cake with chocolate frosting)! None of the kids would touch the peaches. My father was skipping dessert entirely that night, so he wasn’t involved. It came down to me, Big MarthaAndMe (my mom) and Mr. MarthaAndMe.

I wasn’t wowed by this dessert at all.  The peaches did not have a very strong vanilla flavor. Big MarthaAndMe commented that she thought the dish would have been much better if you brushed the peaches with the flavoring then laid the peach halves directly on the grill so they could get charred and have a real grill taste. I agree with her (mom’s are always right). This tasted like partly cooked peaches with ice cream to me.

I wasn’t in love with the recipe, but it was fun knowing others out there were making too! So I want to hear how it went for you. Did you try it? Post a comment and let us know! Haven’t made it yet, but want to? Go ahead. There’s no time limit on Martha Mondays. You can make it whenever you want and report back.

Want to do another Martha Monday? I’ll post the assignment for the next Martha Monday in a separate post. Hope to see you there!

Welcome to Martha Mondays. If you aren’t familiar, this is an open project where every week, we’ll cook, craft or do a Martha project together and then post or comment about it. The Martha Mondays recipe for August 10 was Grilled Vanilla Peaches, from August Martha Stewart Living. I’m posting my take on it below. … Read more →

Welcome to the first Martha Monday assignment (click on the link to see the page I’ve set up about this – PLEASE READ – more details are on that page!!!!).  Martha Mondays is a weekly joint venture. Each week we will cook, craft, or do a Martha project together on Monday, with the goal being to add a little Martha to our lives.  I’ll post my results here and you can post yours on your blog and leave a comment here with a link to you blog or just lave a comment letting everyone know how it went for you if you don’t have a blog. The idea is we will all do the project on Monday (if possible – obviously, feel free to do it another day if you’d like). Then post on your blog or post a comment on mine about your results. To get things started, I’ll pick the projects, but once we’re up and running we’ll take turns choosing the projects (I’ll set up a schedule and email folks once we get to that point).

If you’d like to join, you can sign up here. Everyone is welcome. Once we get going, we will take turns picking the weekly project. And, as I mention on the main page I set up for this, if you don’t have the recipe or instructions for that week’s project, just let me know and I’ll email it to you. I can’t post it since it is copyrighted. This way you don’t have to be a subscriber.

Here’s the first assignment. For Monday, August 10, let’s make Grilled Vanilla Peaches, page 78 of Martha Stewart Living August issue (not up on Martha’s site yet, but just leave a comment if you want me to email it to you). Are you game? If so, ready, set, cook! Post your results on your own blog and/or on mine (I will try to always have my post up about it on Tuesday). And please – tell your friends to join in. The more the merrier!

Welcome to the first Martha Monday assignment (click on the link to see the page I’ve set up about this – PLEASE READ – more details are on that page!!!!).  Martha Mondays is a weekly joint venture. Each week we will cook, craft, or do a Martha project together on Monday, with the goal being … Read more →