You can never have too many ideas for salmon. We eat it a lot. In September Everyday Food, Martha suggests preparing it seared with bok choy, rice and a sauce made of soy sauce, fresh ginger, lime and agave. I didn’t have any agave and we ate this with some bread from the bread machine instead of rice. I also did not sear the salmon, but grilled it. This is a nice preparation. You wilt the bok choy and cook it with some garlic. When you plate it, you add the sauce to both. I enjoyed this and it was a quick way to brighten up salmon. It tasted best when we ate it together – salmon and bok choy together on the fork. It would be very good with rice as well.

You can never have too many ideas for salmon. We eat it a lot. In September Everyday Food, Martha suggests preparing it seared with bok choy, rice and a sauce made of soy sauce, fresh ginger, lime and agave. I didn’t have any agave and we ate this with some bread from the bread machine … Read more →

Mr. MarthaAndMe LOVES tuna noodle casserole. He asks for it for his birthday dinner every year. I never had tuna noodle casserole until I met him (my parents fooled around with all kinds of crazy food things, but never anything so traditional!). And I have to admit I’ve never been a big fan of it. Over the years, I’ve learned to make it so that I can choke it down. Usually I use 2 cans of tuna, one can of cream of mushroom soup, and egg noodles and I add in mushrooms, broccoli, peas, Worchestershire, Italian herbs, and lots and lots of cheese. Even so, I’ve never really cared for it.

In the September edition of Martha Stewart Everyday Food, Martha has a section on foods made using a bechamel sauce, one of which is tuna noodle casserole. I knew Mr. MarthaAndMe would be happy to find tuna noodle casserole on his plate for dinner, so I gave it a try. First I made the bechamel sauce, which is very easy – cook some onions (1/4 cup chopped) in 3 Tbsp butter, add flour (1/4 cup – I doubled this to make it thicker) to make a roux then stir in milk (4 cups) and let it thicken. It does take some time to make, but it’s not hard at all.

I cooked the green beans (10 oz – what a great idea – I never thought to add those!) and then cooked my whole wheat spirals (1/2 lb). I mixed the tuna (2 cans) with the noodles, beans and bechamel sauce and poured it into a casserole dish. Then I used some whole wheat bread (5 slices) to make breadcrumbs and mixed them with melted butter (2 Tbsp) and poured them on top. That was it! This was incredibly easy.

I baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes and it came out bubbly, warm and pretty. And here’s the newsflash. I actually liked it! All these years that I’ve been making this for him, it never occurred to me to substitute a real sauce for that nasty canned cream of mushroom soup. If only I’d known! This was simple, but very tasty. I loved having the beans in it. They gave it some substance and balanced out the creaminess of the sauce. The breadcrumbs on top are the perfect touch (in the past, I’ve used crumbled crackers or potato chips). This is really a terrific recipe.

Mr. MarthaAndMe LOVES tuna noodle casserole. He asks for it for his birthday dinner every year. I never had tuna noodle casserole until I met him (my parents fooled around with all kinds of crazy food things, but never anything so traditional!). And I have to admit I’ve never been a big fan of it. … Read more →

I have a long history with blondies. My friend Jean, who lived down the street from me, used to make the best blondies. We would bake them together all summer at her house. I have fond memories of mixing up blondies, putting them in the oven and swimming in her in-ground pool (such a big deal!) while they baked. We would get out dripping wet and eat them while watching General Hospital. Heaven.

I thought they were so good, I shared the recipe with my home ec class in junior high when the teacher gave extra credit for bringing in a recipe. I still have the original piece of notebook paper I wrote the recipe on and took to school.

Mr. MarthaandMe is a big blondie fan. He doesn’t like chocolate a lot (I know, I still can’t accept that), so blondies have always been one of his favorites. My kids have grown up eating Jean’s blondie recipe too. So we’re definitely blondie aficionados here.

With that history, obviously I had to make the Halloween Blondies on the last page of October Martha Stewart Everyday Food.

The recipe was quick and simple – butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, salt and fall colored M&Ms to put on top. I couldn’t find those fall colored M&Ms though! I did find Reese’s pieces in orange, yellow and brown so I bought those.

This is the first Martha recipe I’ve ever made that was done before the time it said. These were ready for me in about 40 minutes, as opposed to the 45-50 minutes the recipe says.

As you can see from the photo, the hungry hands in this house got into these before I could even take a photo. These were pretty good, but first of all, using the Reese’s pieces was a mistake. It really needs chocolate. Secondly, this recipe has too much salt. I would cut it in half.  Other than that, these were good. And the colored candies on top are really cute. This would be a great bake sale item.

Because Martha would, I’m going to share Jean’s recipe for blondies with you, which I think is better than Martha’s.

Jean’s Blondies

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup unsalted butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350. Melt butter, add sugar and stir till dissolved. Add eggs and vanilla and stir. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt. Pour into a rectangular baking pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts on top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

I have a long history with blondies. My friend Jean, who lived down the street from me, used to make the best blondies. We would bake them together all summer at her house. I have fond memories of mixing up blondies, putting them in the oven and swimming in her in-ground pool (such a big … Read more →

I was thrilled to see the section on side dishes in October Martha Stewart Everyday Food. I get tired of making the same old veggies the same old way. Spinach with Nutmeg and Lemon caught my eye since I love spinach.

This is a very simple recipe  – you just wilt your spinach, add salt, pepper and nutmeg. It says to serve with lemon wedges (and never says to add lemon juice) so I added it into the dish itself. The lemon juice intensifies the spinach flavor, but I found it to be a little too sour for me. The nutmeg is a nice flavor to add though. As you can see, some of my spinach turned brown, which was really weird. I may not have checked it over as thoroughly as I should have.

I was thrilled to see the section on side dishes in October Martha Stewart Everyday Food. I get tired of making the same old veggies the same old way. Spinach with Nutmeg and Lemon caught my eye since I love spinach. This is a very simple recipe  – you just wilt your spinach, add salt, … Read more →

My October issue of Everyday Food arrived yesterday and I dove right in. I had to try the Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese. Mac and cheese is always a big hit in this house.

It starts with cooking some onions, creating a roux and then adding milk. This recipe created a very milky sauce – 4 cups of milk to 3/4 lb cheese. I wasn’t happy with this at all. I ended up dumping in some Velveeta I had lying around (necessary for my grandmother’s cheese potatoes recipe which I made a few weeks and Velveeta never dies – seriously I think it would survive a nuclear attack). This helped it a lot. The recipe also calls for some Dijon mustard and Worchestershire.

I made the sauce and went to add it to the pasta and there was WAY too much. I only used half of the cheese sauce (I stuck the rest in the fridge and will use some on cauliflower tonight I think). I did add Velveeta, but I didn’t add that much, so I don’t know why this was so out of whack. I would suggest making it with a lot less milk – possibly just 2 cups.

As for taste — Eh. It was just eh. Personally I think the mac and cheese recipe Martha has in her Cooking School book is the best one there is, so I would stick with that in the future. This was easy to make and it was good, but not the best I’ve ever had.

My October issue of Everyday Food arrived yesterday and I dove right in. I had to try the Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese. Mac and cheese is always a big hit in this house. It starts with cooking some onions, creating a roux and then adding milk. This recipe created a very milky sauce – 4 … Read more →

The week of Martha’s pre-prepped dinners has come to a close at last. If you read my posts from the last 5 days, you’ll see that in the Sept issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food, the “Sunday Strategy” article details how to shop and prep in advance for 5 weekday meals. It sounded like a fun experiment.

Last night was the final meal and let me tell you I am a little tired of these pre-prepped ingredients at this point! Dinner was Pizza 2 Ways. You buy 2 pizza dough balls (I bought whole wheat) and on your prep day, you press them into rectangular baking sheets and freeze them. Let me tell you, It was a huge pain having those two baking sheets in the freezer all week. It was also a huge pain having those two baking sheets in use all week.

On cooking night, you spread olive oil on the crusts. On one pizza you spread some chopped up roasted tomatoes (pre-prepped) then plop some ricotta cheese around, sprinkle with Parmesan and salt and pepper. On the other pizza you’re supposed to thinly slice your pre-prepped potatoes and spread them. Sprinkle with rosemary and salt and pepper.

I cheated and took one pizza crust made a regular cheese pizza so that the family would not complain. On the other, I made half with the tomato/ricotta, 1/4 with the potato and 1/4 with some fresh tomatoes, broccoli and mozzarella just to have some veggies. I also cooked up tri-colored Swiss chard I bought at the farmer’s market and served that with a little butter and balsamic vinegar to have some more veggies.

Both of Martha’s pizzas got a thumbs down. Let’s start with the potato one. It’s just pizza dough, oil, potato, rosemary and salt and pepper. Blech. That’s not a pizza. In my opinion, potato does NOT belong on pizza. It was just yucky. The tomato/ricotta one was also not good. There just wasn’t enough topping. Ricotta has very little flavor, so this was just bland. The veggie pizza I made was ok – at least it had cheese. If I had added some garlic it would have been great. The plain cheese pizza was good, so at least there was no revolt.

I would say overall, I did not find this week to be a success. Only one night was a stand out winner – the salmon. The spaghetti night was pretty good too. The other nights are not worth bothering with. By the time this last dinner rolled around I was so sick of roasted tomatoes and baby red potatoes that I may never want to see them again! While pre-prepping does save some time, I would rather take the extra 15 minutes each night so that I can make what want fresh. I’m glad I tried the experiment, but I have to say that’s definitely not something Martha herself would ever do.

The week of Martha’s pre-prepped dinners has come to a close at last. If you read my posts from the last 5 days, you’ll see that in the Sept issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food, the “Sunday Strategy” article details how to shop and prep in advance for 5 weekday meals. It sounded like a … Read more →

I’ve never had fritatta before. It never appealed to me. It’s somewhere between a quiche and an omelet. But, continuing through my week of Martha’s pre-prepped dinners (“Sunday Strategy” in Martha Stewart Everyday Food Sept issue – read my earlier posts this week to learn more about it) I was faced with a fritatta.

This was another quick dinner to throw together. You fry some bacon pieces, add the potatoes you boiled on your prep day, then add some spinach and wilt it. Pour over all of this a mix of eggs, ricotta, parmesan, salt and pepper and stick it in the oven. Martha says to serve this with a green salad with her usual tasteless dressing made only of oil, vinegar and salt and pepper. The only item pre-prepped for this meal was the potatoes. I was supposed to wash my spinach and greens on the prep day but I didn’t, I confess.

A fritatta and a salad do not a meal make in this house. I heated up a loaf of whole grain Italian bread too. The kids wanted no part of this and found their own food.

The fritatta wasn’t bad, but I just don’t like potatoes in it. I don’t understand why they’re there. Leave them out, and it would be a decent omelet. I felt that this needed more cheese. I didn’t taste any cheese at all. So this wasn’t a winner at all.  I wasn’t very impressed with this ‘meal’. One more day of this week of dinners to go!

P.S. This gave me heartburn.

P.P.S. We’re off to a big farmer’s market today and I’m excited!

I’ve never had fritatta before. It never appealed to me. It’s somewhere between a quiche and an omelet. But, continuing through my week of Martha’s pre-prepped dinners (“Sunday Strategy” in Martha Stewart Everyday Food Sept issue – read my earlier posts this week to learn more about it) I was faced with a fritatta. This … Read more →

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m following the “Sunday Strategy” in Martha Stewart Everyday Food where you shop and prep for a week of cooking and then have quick meals to make each night.

Last night was Seared Fish with Crispy Potatoes and Green Sauce (and a side of tomatoes). This meal had a lot of prep done in advance. I roasted the tomatoes, made the green sauce, and boiled the potatoes in advance. All I had to do to make dinner was cook my fish and stick the potatoes in the oven to crisp. I was a little confused with the “green sauce”. First of all, it’s not really a sauce, more of a pesto, since it is thick and not liquid at all. The recipe did not say to warm it, so I served it room temp.

I grilled my fish (instead of pan frying) and mine was skinless, which is fine with me since I don’t like fish skin very much. This dinner was simple and easy. The potatoes crisped nicely in the oven and were delicious. The salmon tasted terrific with the green sauce – it really gave it some zing. The previously roasted tomatoes were to be served room temp. I wasn’t wild about these, but they were ok. I also steamed some broccoli to go with this meal. It was very satisfying and I enjoyed having the sauce for the fish (it’s made of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, basil and mint, ground up in the Cuisinart). This felt like a full meal to me (unlike the dinner from the night before).

Boiling the potatoes in advance made crisping them very easy to do – I’ll remember this trick and use it again. And I’ll definitely be making the green sauce, or a version thereof again in the future. Points for this one – a quick and tasty meal.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m following the “Sunday Strategy” in Martha Stewart Everyday Food where you shop and prep for a week of cooking and then have quick meals to make each night. Last night was Seared Fish with Crispy Potatoes and Green Sauce (and a side of tomatoes). This meal had a lot of … Read more →

In the September issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food, there’s an interesting section called Sunday Strategy. The idea is you shop for the whole week, do some cooking prep work on Sunday and then you can make quick and easy dinners every week night through the week based on the prep. I’ve seen this concept elsewhere – there are entire books about this for people interested.

I decided to dive in and give it a try – and what better week than the first week of school when things are nuts in general and some fast meals are just the ticket. I’m a little off schedule though. You’re supposed to prep on Sunday and make the first meal on Monday. With the Labor Day weekend, everything got pushed back a day, so I prepped on Monday and cooked the first meal on Tuesday.

My grocery bill for the entire week was $38.77 – however I had many things in my pantry/freezer (and from my dad’s garden) already: chicken breasts, spaghetti, salmon, lettuce, some tomatoes, onions, garlic, oil, sugar, cumin, vinegar, Parmesan cheese, and bacon – these are the pricey items, so I think you can add another $25 for that at least, so we’re looking at about $65 for the week, or a little over $11 per night. Keep in mind that you’re making really only one dish per night with this, and for my family, that doesn’t cut it, so I’ve got to add extra veggies or bread to go along with it most nights.

cucumber salad

The first dinner was Marinated Chicken with Cucumber-Mint Salad. You marinate the chicken (tenders) on your prep day in olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, garlic and salt and pepper. On your cooking day, you mix sliced cucumber with Greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt, pepper and fresh mint. You heat pitas in the toaster oven (first time I’ve seen Martha reference a toaster oven!). You cook some onion in oil then add in the chicken pieces and cook those.

This was very easy to pull together. It didn’t feel like much of a meal to us though. We ate it with the chicken and cucumber salad in the pita, so it was

on the pita

basically just a pita for dinner. I supplemented with some honey dill carrots and watermelon.

The chicken did have a nice flavor. That is one of the big benefits of this weekly meal plan – things have time to marinate and really soak up flavors. If I’m rushing around at 5:30 on a weekday there isn’t time for something to marinate properly. The chicken was tender and the cumin added some nice flavor. I loved the cucumber/yogurt/mint salad, which gave a nice fresh taste. I used whole wheat pitas and it all tasted good together.

In the September issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food, there’s an interesting section called Sunday Strategy. The idea is you shop for the whole week, do some cooking prep work on Sunday and then you can make quick and easy dinners every week night through the week based on the prep. I’ve seen this concept … Read more →

First:  a programming note for all of you loyal followers. I had this post and the two below it all set up to automatically publish one each day over the weekend and they didn’t. No idea why. WordPress had some kind of hiccup I think because I doublechecked my saved settings before we left. So, if you’re a loyal follower, you’ll have lots to read today – keep scrolling to see everything that should have gone up over the weekend! Now back to your regularly scheduled programming!

I’m no stranger to turkey meatloaf. In fact, I use ground turkey almost exclusively in place of ground beef in many dishes. I have a turkey and rice meatloaf with a cheese sauce that is a family favorite. I wanted to try Martha’s Turkey Meatloaf with Fontina and Mushrooms from Martha Stewart Everyday Food September issue.  You cook your mushrooms, then cook garlic and leaks. Mix it up with turkey, bread cubes, fontina, egg, sage (I didn’t have fresh, so I used dried), salt and pepper. I baked mine in a loaf pan instead of on parchment paper.

The meatloaf looked nice on the plate. However, I found it to be a bit bland. Fontina cheese has a very mild taste and even with the garlic and sage, it had little flavor.  No one was too fond of this. However, the next day, I ate some cold for lunch and it was wonderful that way. The garlic flavor really came out and I loved it. I picked at for lunch for several days until it was gone. I don’t know if the flavors just need time to meld together or if this is not good hot. I wouldn’t make it for dinner again, but I enjoyed it for lunch.

First:  a programming note for all of you loyal followers. I had this post and the two below it all set up to automatically publish one each day over the weekend and they didn’t. No idea why. WordPress had some kind of hiccup I think because I doublechecked my saved settings before we left. So, … Read more →