I’m trying to love Martha’s Dinner at Home cookbook. I’m making an effort here people. So far I’m not wildly excited about it. My latest venture into the book is Roast Salmon and Potatoes with Mustard-Herb Butter (the butter ‘counts’ as a recipe since each of these menus has 4 recipes – I think that’s cheating!).

You slice up some potatoes and roast them, then add in your piece of salmon and roast that. This takes about an hour total. I ended up taking my salmon out and putting the potatoes back in to get them crispier.

When it’s all done, you brush both with your mustard herb butter (one stick of butter with 1/4 cup of herbs you choose and 1 tbsp Dijon mustard). I used oregano, chives and parsley for mine.

The herb butter was nice on the salmon, but I didn’t care for it on the potatoes. They already have some olive oil on them from the roasting and I thought this butter just made them greasy. The butter also does not have a very strong flavor. I gave up and got out some sour cream to dip these potatoes in. Put some garlic in this and maybe it would interest me!

The salmon was nice  – roasting it like this at a high temp keeps it moist. I use only wild salmon. This was crying out for lemon, so I squeezed some on it and it helped.

Another criticism I have of dinner this applies to a lot of Martha’s  menus, both in the book and in the “what’s for dinner” section of Living. If I am eating salmon with mustard-herb butter, I do not also want to eat potatoes with mustard-herb butter. I want different flavors on my plate. Recently I made cheese flautas and black-eyed pea salad from this book (it’s also in Oct Living). Both contained cilantro. I just don’t want to eat the same flavor from two things on my plate. I understand that this in some way pulls the dishes together, but honestly I don’t like it.

The menu for this also includes haricots verts with tapenade. I really hate tapenade. I did make haricots verts but steamed with butter, salt and pepper. The fourth component is lemon mousse which I didn’t have any interest in making on a weeknight (particularly since it has to chill for 45 min – I don’t have time for that).

I’m trying to love Martha’s Dinner at Home cookbook. I’m making an effort here people. So far I’m not wildly excited about it. My latest venture into the book is Roast Salmon and Potatoes with Mustard-Herb Butter (the butter ‘counts’ as a recipe since each of these menus has 4 recipes – I think that’s … Read more →

I’m trying to love Martha’s Dinner at Home cookbook. I’m making an effort here people. So far I’m not wildly excited about it. My latest venture into the book is Roast Salmon and Potatoes with Mustard-Herb Butter (the butter ‘counts’ as a recipe since each of these menus has 4 recipes – I think that’s cheating!).

You slice up some potatoes and roast them, then add in your piece of salmon and roast that. This takes about an hour total. I ended up taking my salmon out and putting the potatoes back in to get them crispier.

When it’s all done, you brush both with your mustard herb butter (one stick of butter with 1/4 cup of herbs you choose and 1 tbsp Dijon mustard). I used oregano, chives and parsley for mine.

The herb butter was nice on the salmon, but I didn’t care for it on the potatoes. They already have some olive oil on them from the roasting and I thought this butter just made them greasy. The butter also does not have a very strong flavor. I gave up and got out some sour cream to dip these potatoes in. Put some garlic in this and maybe it would interest me!

The salmon was nice  – roasting it like this at a high temp keeps it moist. I use only wild salmon. This was crying out for lemon, so I squeezed some on it and it helped.

Another criticism I have of dinner this applies to a lot of Martha’s  menus, both in the book and in the “what’s for dinner” section of Living. If I am eating salmon with mustard-herb butter, I do not also want to eat potatoes with mustard-herb butter. I want different flavors on my plate. Recently I made cheese flautas and black-eyed pea salad from this book (it’s also in Oct Living). Both contained cilantro. I just don’t want to eat the same flavor from two things on my plate. I understand that this in some way pulls the dishes together, but honestly I don’t like it.

The menu for this also includes haricots verts with tapenade. I really hate tapenade. I did make haricots verts but steamed with butter, salt and pepper. The fourth component is lemon mousse which I didn’t have any interest in making on a weeknight (particularly since it has to chill for 45 min – I don’t have time for that).

I’m trying to love Martha’s Dinner at Home cookbook. I’m making an effort here people. So far I’m not wildly excited about it. My latest venture into the book is Roast Salmon and Potatoes with Mustard-Herb Butter (the butter ‘counts’ as a recipe since each of these menus has 4 recipes – I think that’s … Read more →

I make Martha’s What’s for Dinner section in Living every month, but I don’t always make it all on the same night. For October, I decided to put it all together. I made Roasted Pumpkin Soup, Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto and Black-Eyed Peas with Baby Greens for dinner. This recipe is also in the new Martha Stewart Dinner at Home book, coming out this month (my thoughts on the book are at the end of the post).

This dinner was not something you can quickly

whip up. It took some time. First, I started with the pumpkin. For the life of me, I could not get my pumpkin cut up so I could roast it. Mr. MarthaAndMe stepped in and did the grunt work. This pumpkin was nearly impossible to hack up! He was really sweating. Finally I got in the oven and roasted it with onion, garlic and mushrooms. Once it was roasted and peeled, it’s simple to get it to be soup. You puree it with some vegetable stock and heat it and that’s it. It was horribly bland though, so I added some cumin and also added a little bit of cream. Even so, I didn’t find it particularly flavorful. I have made butternut squash soup in the past and that is much tastier. I’ll stick with that in the future.

The black-eyed pea salad with baby greens was a breeze to put together – peas, chopped tomato, cilantro, garlic, greens and dressing. I liked this and ate the rest of it for lunch the next day.

Now for the flautas. This was something completely new to me, so I was excited to give it a try. You start by cooking pumpkin seeds (green ones you buy at the store – NOT seeds from the pumpkin you roasted – I found mine in the bulk section) with garlic. You pulverize it into a pesto with fresh cilantro, lime and oil. I found this to be new and exciting. I love

the taste of cilantro and lime and the pumpkin seeds were a new ingredient for me. You spread the pesto on your tortillas, then add some Monterey Jack cheese and roll them. Then you fry them in some oil.

There wasn’t much to these when we ate them. Mostly, they tasted greasy from the oil. I am not big on deep-fried foods, so this didn’t appeal to my palate. I could barely taste the pesto, even though I slathered it on pretty thickly and

it had a nice flavor when I sampled it before making up the flautas. There wasn’t a lot of cheese in proportion to tortilla. They were just not worth the effort. Now, I can see making this pesto and using it with chicken and adding some tomato or avocado and not frying the tortillas – that would appeal to me then, but this just did not. It would be a fun twist on tacos.

Out of three dishes, one was quite good, one was ok and one was just not

worth it. Pretty disappointing!

Now, as for Martha’s new book, I have an advance copy and it is definitely a gorgeous book. It’s divided into seasons and then within each season are complete meals. Each meal is set up like the “What’s for Dinner” section in Living – 4 items that go together. The book is meant for easy entertaining or at home meals and the ingredients are meant to be accessible. There are certainly a lot of interesting things in this book – things you won’t find elsewhere, so I like it for that. However, although the ingredients are meant to be accessible, these are not meals you can make on nights where you pull out the cookbook and 5 pm and see what you can pull together. For me at least, I would not have most ingredients lying around and would need to plan in advance to make these dishes.  There are many things in here I would never make just for us at home for dinner. Who makes truffles as a weeknight family dessert? Not me.  I also felt as though many of the meals were not complete enough for me – they needed more vegetables, so more work would be involved in making them into a complete meal. That being said, it is a fun, inspiring book.

I make Martha’s What’s for Dinner section in Living every month, but I don’t always make it all on the same night. For October, I decided to put it all together. I made Roasted Pumpkin Soup, Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto and Black-Eyed Peas with Baby Greens for dinner. This recipe is also in the … Read more →

I make Martha’s What’s for Dinner section in Living every month, but I don’t always make it all on the same night. For October, I decided to put it all together. I made Roasted Pumpkin Soup, Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto and Black-Eyed Peas with Baby Greens for dinner. This recipe is also in the new Martha Stewart Dinner at Home book, coming out this month (my thoughts on the book are at the end of the post).

This dinner was not something you can quickly

whip up. It took some time. First, I started with the pumpkin. For the life of me, I could not get my pumpkin cut up so I could roast it. Mr. MarthaAndMe stepped in and did the grunt work. This pumpkin was nearly impossible to hack up! He was really sweating. Finally I got in the oven and roasted it with onion, garlic and mushrooms. Once it was roasted and peeled, it’s simple to get it to be soup. You puree it with some vegetable stock and heat it and that’s it. It was horribly bland though, so I added some cumin and also added a little bit of cream. Even so, I didn’t find it particularly flavorful. I have made butternut squash soup in the past and that is much tastier. I’ll stick with that in the future.

The black-eyed pea salad with baby greens was a breeze to put together – peas, chopped tomato, cilantro, garlic, greens and dressing. I liked this and ate the rest of it for lunch the next day.

Now for the flautas. This was something completely new to me, so I was excited to give it a try. You start by cooking pumpkin seeds (green ones you buy at the store – NOT seeds from the pumpkin you roasted – I found mine in the bulk section) with garlic. You pulverize it into a pesto with fresh cilantro, lime and oil. I found this to be new and exciting. I love

the taste of cilantro and lime and the pumpkin seeds were a new ingredient for me. You spread the pesto on your tortillas, then add some Monterey Jack cheese and roll them. Then you fry them in some oil.

There wasn’t much to these when we ate them. Mostly, they tasted greasy from the oil. I am not big on deep-fried foods, so this didn’t appeal to my palate. I could barely taste the pesto, even though I slathered it on pretty thickly and

it had a nice flavor when I sampled it before making up the flautas. There wasn’t a lot of cheese in proportion to tortilla. They were just not worth the effort. Now, I can see making this pesto and using it with chicken and adding some tomato or avocado and not frying the tortillas – that would appeal to me then, but this just did not. It would be a fun twist on tacos.

Out of three dishes, one was quite good, one was ok and one was just not

worth it. Pretty disappointing!

Now, as for Martha’s new book, I have an advance copy and it is definitely a gorgeous book. It’s divided into seasons and then within each season are complete meals. Each meal is set up like the “What’s for Dinner” section in Living – 4 items that go together. The book is meant for easy entertaining or at home meals and the ingredients are meant to be accessible. There are certainly a lot of interesting things in this book – things you won’t find elsewhere, so I like it for that. However, although the ingredients are meant to be accessible, these are not meals you can make on nights where you pull out the cookbook and 5 pm and see what you can pull together. For me at least, I would not have most ingredients lying around and would need to plan in advance to make these dishes.  There are many things in here I would never make just for us at home for dinner. Who makes truffles as a weeknight family dessert? Not me.  I also felt as though many of the meals were not complete enough for me – they needed more vegetables, so more work would be involved in making them into a complete meal. That being said, it is a fun, inspiring book.

I make Martha’s What’s for Dinner section in Living every month, but I don’t always make it all on the same night. For October, I decided to put it all together. I made Roasted Pumpkin Soup, Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto and Black-Eyed Peas with Baby Greens for dinner. This recipe is also in the … Read more →