Hello and welcome to Martha Mondays this Christmas week. I hope all of you are ready, or almost ready for the big day and if you celebrate Hanukkah, I hope you had a nice holiday.

This week’s project, Vinegar Glossed Chicken,  was chosen by Sara at Sassy Suppers. I was excited to try this since it is a Lucinda recipe and I usually like her recipes a lot.

This recipe was pretty simple to put together. I used boneless chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken cut up since no one here likes dark meat. You start by browning your chicken in some oil. Once that’s done, add the chicken stock which you reduce by half. Next add in the vinegar which has been mixed with garlic and rosemary. The recipe says to swirl the pan and cook it down till it forms a glaze.

This did not work out very well for me at all. I followed the amounts exactly and ended up with a pan of very sour vinegar – cooking it down make it thicker, but did not change the flavor. There was no way I could feed that to my family so I set about doctoring it up. I added about a cup of more chicken stock and then added Wondra to thicken it. I added sugar to cut the taste of the vinegar – several teaspoons. I also added some water at the end and more Wondra to try to thin out the taste of the vinegar. No one really cared for this. I served the sauce/gravy separately so people could control how much they got. The chicken did turn a pretty color. I wouldn’t try this one again. I guess maybe if you love the taste of vinegar this would appeal to you, but it just tasted horribly sour to me. The kids complained about how it made the house smell. It was just overwhelming. Lucinda, you’ve failed me!

Hello and welcome to Martha Mondays this Christmas week. I hope all of you are ready, or almost ready for the big day and if you celebrate Hanukkah, I hope you had a nice holiday. This week’s project, Vinegar Glossed Chicken,  was chosen by Sara at Sassy Suppers. I was excited to try this since … Read more →

Sara at Sassy Suppers has picked Vinegar Glossed Chicken from the December issue of Living for the 12/21 project.  This should be fun to try.  If you need the recipe, let me know.

Sara at Sassy Suppers has picked Vinegar Glossed Chicken from the December issue of Living for the 12/21 project.  This should be fun to try.  If you need the recipe, let me know.

The Martha Mondays project for 12/14 is the chocolate caramel cookie bar in the November issue of Living. This pick is courtesy of Megan at Megan’s Cookin’. If you need the recipe, let me know. As always, new members are welcome – just email me or leave a comment if you would like to be added to the blogroll and have a turn making a pick.

The Martha Mondays project for 12/14 is the chocolate caramel cookie bar in the November issue of Living. This pick is courtesy of Megan at Megan’s Cookin’. If you need the recipe, let me know. As always, new members are welcome – just email me or leave a comment if you would like to be … Read more →

This week’s Martha Mondays project was Iced Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies, chosen by Robyn At Robyn’s Nest. These were really easy to put together. I did make a few changes.  I used whole wheat flour instead of regular;  I didn’t use raisins; I used regular applesauce instead of chunky and I added about 1/4 tsp of cinnamon. I thought the batter tasted incredible. Then I tasted a cookie warm and did not like it at all. Later I tasted one once it was cooled and had the icing on it and liked it much better. Everyone in the house gave this one a thumbs up. These are soft oatmeal cookies. I liked it because it is at least somewhat healthy and it feels substantial and filling.  Very yummy!

This week’s Martha Mondays project was Iced Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies, chosen by Robyn At Robyn’s Nest. These were really easy to put together. I did make a few changes.  I used whole wheat flour instead of regular;  I didn’t use raisins; I used regular applesauce instead of chunky and I added about 1/4 tsp of … Read more →

The Martha Mondays pick for 12/7, chosen by Robyn at RobynsNest is Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies. Sounds pretty yummy! I can’t wait to taste them. As always, if you would like to join, just email me or leave a comment.

The Martha Mondays pick for 12/7, chosen by Robyn at RobynsNest is Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies. Sounds pretty yummy! I can’t wait to taste them. As always, if you would like to join, just email me or leave a comment.

This week’s project was picture frame ornaments, chosen by MaryAnn at Stirrin It Up.

This is a really simple craft that would be great to do with kids. You print out the template, trace onto card stock and them glue and glitter them, after punching a hole at the top. Once the glitter dries, you make a cut out in one of them and glue a photo in it and then glue the back on. Very, very easy. Even I could do it.

In full disclosure I used Martha’s glitter glue and glitter that they sent me. I have to say I was quite pleased with the quality of both. The glitter glue has a brush attached inside the lid – just like rubber cement jars and I found that to be very convenient. Martha’s glitter was, as always, very nice.

This week’s project was picture frame ornaments, chosen by MaryAnn at Stirrin It Up. This is a really simple craft that would be great to do with kids. You print out the template, trace onto card stock and them glue and glitter them, after punching a hole at the top. Once the glitter dries, you … Read more →

The assignment for 11/30 is picture frame ornaments, chosen by Mary Ann at StirrinItUp.

Here are the dates for everyone’s next round of picks. Let me know if you can no longer participate. As always, if you can get your pick to me by Monday night (the week before your assigned date) so I can post it on Tuesday and everyone can do it in time for the date assigned to your name, that would be great. If you would like to join, just post a comment or send me an email- new members welcome. Thanks!

12/7 Robyn’s Nest

12/14 MegansCooking

12/21 SassySuppers

12/28 My Life Pru Singer

1/4 Abby Sweets

1/11 Homemade Iowa Life

1/18 Sweet Lorraine Bakeshop

1/25 MarthaAndMe

2/1 StirrinItUp

The assignment for 11/30 is picture frame ornaments, chosen by Mary Ann at StirrinItUp. Here are the dates for everyone’s next round of picks. Let me know if you can no longer participate. As always, if you can get your pick to me by Monday night (the week before your assigned date) so I can … Read more →

I never heard from the person scheduled to make this week’s pick , so I’m going to go ahead and choose it so we can get going with it. I thought we would try something a little different, so I’m choosing Birdseed-and-Suet Feeders from page 36 of November Living. I’m going to paraphrase the instructions for those of you who don’t have the magazine. You need 5 lbs mixed wild birdseed, 2 lbs suet (Martha says you can buy it from a butcher), 1 lb dried cranberries, and 1 lb raw peanuts. You need 5 1-qt plastic containers (takeout style) and twine.

First, render the suet by chopping and cooking over medium until it’s liquid. Strain through cheesecloth and let it solidify. Then heat it and strain it again. Mix it with the birdseed, cranberries and peanuts and fill the containers, leaving a loop of twine coming out of the middle of each. Freeze it 2 hours or overnight, remove from the containers and hang outside. It makes 5 (I’m going to cut this recipe at leas in half I think). I can’t wait to hear how it works for everyone!

I never heard from the person scheduled to make this week’s pick , so I’m going to go ahead and choose it so we can get going with it. I thought we would try something a little different, so I’m choosing Birdseed-and-Suet Feeders from page 36 of November Living. I’m going to paraphrase the instructions … Read more →

This week’s Martha Mondays was chosen by AquaSunday – thanks for the pick! Apple Tart, from November Living was the pick. This is a quick version of an apple pie since it uses puff pastry. You have to roll out the puff pastry first to Martha’s specs. Mine stuck a bit to the counter despite the flour. You cut off an inch around the edge and layer that along the side to create crust. The tart has a layer of applesauce, then Granny Smith apples which are brushed with butter and sanded with sugar. I added quite a lot of sugar because I do not like my apple tarts tart! I also sprinkled on some cinnamon, because I think that’s necessary too.

You bake this at 400 for 20 minutes – Martha says until the edges puff. Yikes! I should have checked mine sooner. At 20 min, my edges were dark brown. I had to cover them with foil for the next round of baking at 375 – until the apples are golden. When this comes out, you brush with apricot jam mixed with water and dust with powdered sugar. It looked very pretty I thought and it was very easy to make compared to a pie.

As for taste, I didn’t like it. I thought it was very sour. I dumped some more powdered sugar on top, but even then I didn’t care for it. The kids ate theirs though (and Dude Martha had more for breakfast this morning). Mr. MarthaAndMe didn’t care for it much either. I did like the puff pastry and it did look very nice. So if I made it again, I would use a different kind of apple that is not so tart and lots more sugar. Then I think it would be very good.

Did you try this? If so, please post a link or let us know how it went, and try to visit everyone’s posts! If you would like to join Martha Mondays, let me know via comment or email.

This week’s Martha Mondays was chosen by AquaSunday – thanks for the pick! Apple Tart, from November Living was the pick. This is a quick version of an apple pie since it uses puff pastry. You have to roll out the puff pastry first to Martha’s specs. Mine stuck a bit to the counter despite … Read more →

The pick for the next Martha Mondays is the apple tart on page 212 of November Living, chosen by AquaSunday. Sounds delicious! Please join us! Still room for new members if you’re interested – just leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

The pick for the next Martha Mondays is the apple tart on page 212 of November Living, chosen by AquaSunday. Sounds delicious! Please join us! Still room for new members if you’re interested – just leave me a comment or shoot me an email.