It’s Martha Monday again and this week’s choice was Warm Vanilla Cider, from October Martha Stewart Living, chosen by Teresa at HomemadeIowaLife.

I have to admit, this is something I never would have made were it not chosen for today’s project. This is really a dessert drink more than anything else.

I cheated a little with this recipe, so please forgive me. You heat cider (6 c) with brown sugar (1/2 c) and 2 whole nutmegs (I used ground nutmeg) and the scraped seeds from a vanilla bean (I used vanilla extract). You simmer for 15 min. You serve it with whipped cream (I made my own – points for me) and honeyed walnuts. I made honeyed pecans instead (very simple – toss them with honey and roast for 15 min – I actually stuck mine in the microwave, which was faster as long as you keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn).

Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to like this, but it turns out I did! It was sweet and creamy and the nuts are to die for. This is something you could make on a cold winter afternoon to enjoy in front of the fire, or for after skiing (I didn’t say “apres ski” since I always find that to sound so pretentious!).

Here’s the funny thing though. Mr. MarthaAndMe, who LOVES vanilla and also really likes cider, did not like this. He didn’t even finish it. He’s weird about hot drinks and says he could not drink it because in his mind cider is not supposed to be hot (this is the same man who cannot fathom cold soups, so I suppose it is not surprising). Teen Martha liked this though. This was something fun and different and I enjoyed it!

It’s Martha Monday again and this week’s choice was Warm Vanilla Cider, from October Martha Stewart Living, chosen by Teresa at HomemadeIowaLife. I have to admit, this is something I never would have made were it not chosen for today’s project. This is really a dessert drink more than anything else. I cheated a little … Read more →

Teresa at HomemadeIowaLife has chosen Warm Vanilla Cider for next week’s assignment. The recipe is on page 68 of October Martha Stewart Living. If you need the recipe, email me.  I look forward to trying it!

Teresa at HomemadeIowaLife has chosen Warm Vanilla Cider for next week’s assignment. The recipe is on page 68 of October Martha Stewart Living. If you need the recipe, email me.  I look forward to trying it!

This week’s Martha Mondays is Apple Brown Betty, chosen by April at AbbySweets. I make apple crisp every fall, but have never tried Brown Betty – and didn’t even know what the difference is until I made this recipe. The difference has to do with the starch component. When I make apple crisp, I make a topping of flour, sugar, butter and cinnamon. Apple Brown Betty relies on bread crumbs.

I made fresh breadcrumbs as Martha directs. You mix your apples with cinnamon, sugar,  and nutmeg and lemon juice and then some of the breadcrumbs (which have been tossed with butter).  Dump it into your pan and cover with the remaining breadcrumbs. This gets baked covered in foil for 40 minutes, then you uncover it until the apples are soft.

It looked and smelled good. There’s nothing like the smell of apples and cinnamon to make it feel like fall. We liked it, but we like apple crisp better.  The texture of the breadcrumbs is hard to get used to when you’re used to the softness of apple crisp. This also isn’t quite as sweet as my apple crisp recipe.  Somehow apple crisp is mushier – you can’t see slices of apple, but in this they stayed fairly intact. It was good, and would definitely be better with some vanilla ice cream, but I won’t make it again.

Here’s my recipe for apple crisp which I would make instead of this:

Peel, core and slice 6 apples. Toss them with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 cup of water. Put in a square baking dish (sprayed with Pam). Mix and crumble together 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 4 tbsp butter. Spread over the top of the apples. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for an hour.

This week’s Martha Mondays is Apple Brown Betty, chosen by April at AbbySweets. I make apple crisp every fall, but have never tried Brown Betty – and didn’t even know what the difference is until I made this recipe. The difference has to do with the starch component. When I make apple crisp, I make … Read more →

April from AbbySweets has chosen Apple Brown Betty for our next project. Sounds perfect for this time of year! I’ll post my results on Monday. Share yours as a comment or link to your blog posted to my post on Monday. As always, if you would like to join, let me know and I will add you to the blogroll.

April from AbbySweets has chosen Apple Brown Betty for our next project. Sounds perfect for this time of year! I’ll post my results on Monday. Share yours as a comment or link to your blog posted to my post on Monday. As always, if you would like to join, let me know and I will … Read more →

This week’s Martha Mondays assignment was a donation bag. I loved this idea.  I try to take a bag to Goodwill once a month or so but I generally toss items into a closet and let them pile up and then stuff them into a bag when I’m ready to take them.  Martha’s suggestion was to designate a bag you keep things in. This actually is a really good idea. Not only does it keep it all together, but it makes it easy to grab and go when you get a chance to drop it off. Seeing the bag hanging there also reminds you to look for items to put in it and to regularly take the bag to be donated. Inspired by this, I’ve also designated an area in my pantry to pile up food pantry items. In the past I’ve tried to make mental notes of what I should donate from my pantry but I almost always forget. Now I’ve got an area set aside for those items so I won’t forget. I’ve also designated a shelf in a cupboard in my office for book donations to my local library. It’s amazing how a very simple project like this can make you feel so very efficient!

I haven’t heard back yet from the Martha Mondays member who is scheduled to choose for this week, but when I do, I’ll post her pick.

This week’s Martha Mondays assignment was a donation bag. I loved this idea.  I try to take a bag to Goodwill once a month or so but I generally toss items into a closet and let them pile up and then stuff them into a bag when I’m ready to take them.  Martha’s suggestion was … Read more →

I’m posting my Martha Mondays results a day early this week since I’ve got something that has to go up tomorrow. This week’s assignment was Molasses Spice Cake. (This is also in Martha’s Halloween special edition magazine that’s on stands now). A very fall-like selection by Pru Singer of Pru Singer: My Life. On first glance, this looked to be like gingerbread. Further reading revealed it to be much more.

The cake batter is interesting – the usual butter, brown sugar, flour and eggs (4 eggs – quite a few) but also sour cream, mace (which I have never used and had to go buy), cinnamon, lemon zest and fresh ginger (not dried, which I found to be a very interesting idea).

I didn’t soften my butter enough and ended up with some very small lumps. I just closed my eyes and ignored that! This cake baked in exactly the time Martha said (a first for me I think).

The next step was the frosting – cream cheese frosting. Although this was more cream cheese with a tiny bit of powdered sugar thrown in, as well as some sour cream.

That’s not all folks. Martha then wants you to do a glaze. I have to say this glaze, which was butter, sugar, cream and vanilla, tasted like a very decadent and wonderful caramel sauce. I forced myself to put the pot and rubber scraper in the sink and turn the water on so I wouldn’t keep sampling it!

Around here we say that someday I will open The Butt Ugly Bakery: Where Everything Looks Like Crud But Tastes Great. I’m really not into the finer points of cake decorating. I’ve spent too many hours crying over crumbs in my frosting and frosting smeared around the edge of my cake plate. Life is too short to cry over imperfect frosting. If I am making something for a special occasion, I will exert some Martha effort and try very hard to make it look good. But for every day, if it tastes good, I’m not too concerned with how it looks. Thus, my photo of this cake. A bit messy. And yes, I put the cake on a dinner plate that is concave, so the center of my cake is lower than the edges, meaning my glaze puddled in the middle.

I liked the cake – it was very moist and dense with a complex flavor. The edges were crunchy, which was really interesting. I did not care for the cream cheese frosting at all. It was almost sour (since it had very little sugar). If it was real cream cheese frosting, it would have been good, but very sweet. The glaze was good and the only thing that saved the frosting at all in my opinion. I would love try this with a lemon sauce.  Mr. MarthaandMe is Mad About Gingerbread so he gave this a major thumbs up. Teen Martha did not like it, but doesn’t like spice cakes in general.

I’m posting my Martha Mondays results a day early this week since I’ve got something that has to go up tomorrow. This week’s assignment was Molasses Spice Cake. (This is also in Martha’s Halloween special edition magazine that’s on stands now). A very fall-like selection by Pru Singer of Pru Singer: My Life. On first … Read more →

The Martha Mondays project for Sept 14 was chosen by Pru Singer at My Life: Pru Singer. Thanks Pru! Pru has chosen Molasses Spice Cake. I’m looking forward to baking it!

As always, anyone is welcome to join in. Make the project/recipe/craft and post results on your blog or comment to my post about my result here. I make my projects on Mondays and post results on Tuesdays (you’re free to make yours whenever).  If you want to become an official member, let me know and I’ll add you to the Martha Mondays blogroll. Members get to take turns selecting projects.

The Martha Mondays project for Sept 14 was chosen by Pru Singer at My Life: Pru Singer. Thanks Pru! Pru has chosen Molasses Spice Cake. I’m looking forward to baking it! As always, anyone is welcome to join in. Make the project/recipe/craft and post results on your blog or comment to my post about my … Read more →

I love challah. There’s a bakery near us that makes wonderful challah and I’ve been known to buy three loaves at a time so I can freeze some. I have a challah recipe of my own from a friend, but it’s never quite as good as bakery challah.

I was excited to learn that this week’s Martha Monday was Apple Honey Challah, from Sept Martha Stewart Living. If you’re going to make this recipe, you need to plan to spend the day at home. This thing rises three separate times! It took me about 6 hours from start to finish.

ready to rise

It wasn’t hard to make – your basic bread ingredients mostly. The biggest challenge I encountered was the apples. The recipe says to use apples that are sliced 1/4 inch thick. Slices do not work! I spent a long time, kneading away, trying to keep the apple slices in the bread. They fell out, landed on the floor, or simply would not incorporate. Finally, I pulled as many out as I

with apple pieces

could find and chopped them up. Then they easily mixed into the dough.

This recipe did what it was supposed to otherwise – rose when it was supposed to and rolled out nicely and fit in the pan well.

Before you put it in the oven, you brush it with honey and butter and then brush it again once it comes out. This definitely enhances the natural sweetness of the bread.

I baked mine about 10  minutes longer than the recipe says because it just

Done

was not brown enough on the outside. I made this earlier in the day and ended up putting it back in the oven to warm it for dinner, so it had some extra baking time.

This was wonderful bread. The honey makes it very sweet. It’s tender and soft and smells heavenly. The apples were not very noticeable and if I made this again, I would just skip them since I didn’t feel it added much. I did have one problem – the center of my bread was not cooked! I had raw dough at the very center.

Everyone enjoyed this and all but the raw dough disappeared at dinner. I plan to heat the remains up in the oven and try to finish baking them. Other than that, this went very well and I was so proud of the way it looked! This was just as good as bakery challah!

I love challah. There’s a bakery near us that makes wonderful challah and I’ve been known to buy three loaves at a time so I can freeze some. I have a challah recipe of my own from a friend, but it’s never quite as good as bakery challah. I was excited to learn that this … Read more →

First, I apologize to all Martha Mondays members because when it comes to crafts like these, I am just hopeless.  I gave it my best shot, but I’m pretty much a total crafting loser.

This week’s Martha Mondays project was pom poms.  I chose to make the napkin ring pom poms. I measured my tissue paper, cut it and folded it. I was fine to this point.

Then I twisted the wire and tried to fluff the tissue. Here is where things got ugly. Somehow, this seemed too long to be for a napkin ring. It looked like a giant bizarre butterfly. I am not very good at fluffing.

I tried to put another wire higher up from the fold, so there would be less paper

first attempt

flapping around and that worked better. The results were still not that impressive, but that’s due to my ineptitude. I am sure this project worked just fine for others. I do think this is a cute alternative to napkin rings. A friend of mine recently gave a luncheon at her house and didn’t have napkin rings that matched. This would have been a nice project for her because she could have made them in any color she wanted to match.

Second attempt

First, I apologize to all Martha Mondays members because when it comes to crafts like these, I am just hopeless.  I gave it my best shot, but I’m pretty much a total crafting loser. This week’s Martha Mondays project was pom poms.  I chose to make the napkin ring pom poms. I measured my tissue … Read more →

Megan of Megan’s Cookin’ chose this week’s Martha Mondays project. We’re going to make pom-poms. These look very cute. Megan is going to do hers in fall colors and is channeling Halloween. Make yours any color you’d like and we’ll compare results next week Tuesday, after everyone has a chance to make them on Monday.

I’m starting the round-robin for assignments and will be going down the Martha Mondays blogroll. If you’d like to be added to the blogroll so you can be an official member and have a turn choosing a project, let me know.

Megan of Megan’s Cookin’ chose this week’s Martha Mondays project. We’re going to make pom-poms. These look very cute. Megan is going to do hers in fall colors and is channeling Halloween. Make yours any color you’d like and we’ll compare results next week Tuesday, after everyone has a chance to make them on Monday. … Read more →