Salmon, avocadoes and tomatoes are on my fave foods list so putting them together with corn was something I couldn’t pass up. I made Martha’s Salmon with Sweet Corn, Tomato and Avocado Relish from Sept Martha Stewart Everyday Food.

This is a great dish for a busy summer night, when you don’t want to do a lot of work to have a fabulous dinner. You cook the corn quickly then cut it off the cobs. Cut up tomatoes and avocado and mix with diced onion, lemon juice, salt, pepper and oil. You grill the salmon and top with the mixture. Quick and painless.

This was such a colorful dish that I loved seeing it on my plate. The combination of flavors is nice, but I did have to add some more lemon juice to mine. I enjoyed it with the salmon, but I ate the leftover relish mix the next day for lunch plain and it was fabulous plain.  I’ll definitely make this dish again and again.

Salmon, avocadoes and tomatoes are on my fave foods list so putting them together with corn was something I couldn’t pass up. I made Martha’s Salmon with Sweet Corn, Tomato and Avocado Relish from Sept Martha Stewart Everyday Food. This is a great dish for a busy summer night, when you don’t want to do … Read more →

Yes, zucchini cookies. Really. I was a little leery myself, even though I have a fab zuke cake recipe. I couldn’t help wondering about zucchini in cookies though. So I had to give this recipe a go. It’s from September Martha Stewart Everyday Food (follow the link above for the recipe).

You start by creaming butter and powdered sugar (interesting to use powdered sugar). Then you add vanilla, lemon zest and salt. No egg or leavening! Add your flour and cornmeal (I had some frozen from the historical Jenney Grist Mill we visited in Plymouth, MA). Then add the grated zucchini. This was one of those recipes that didn’t seem like it was going to come together. I ended up smushing the dough up with my hands to get it to hold together.  It’s a little weird to have cookie dough with zucchini in it for sure. You definitely do not want to lick the beaters or the bowl because raw zucchini totally ruins it!

I baked it up and they came out quite nicely. Mine did not really spread on the cookie sheets very much and stayed rather round and thick. As always, they took longer to bake than Martha said.

I was dying to try them and popped one in my mouth when it was too hot (ouch) and was surprised at how good they are! They are crunchy and lemony and you would never know there was zucchini in it if you didn’t see the green flecks.

Now I knew the kids would turn their noses up at this, so I was a bit sneaky. I gave them each one to try (including Teen Martha’s boyfriend who I think eats nothing green, ever) without saying what it was. Everyone said they liked it, until I told them what it was, then they refused to eat any more! I liked them though and have probably snacked on a few too many since I am able to lie to myself and say “it’s just vegetables!” These cookies are really good and if you don’t tell anyone what’s in them, they will be a hit!

Yes, zucchini cookies. Really. I was a little leery myself, even though I have a fab zuke cake recipe. I couldn’t help wondering about zucchini in cookies though. So I had to give this recipe a go. It’s from September Martha Stewart Everyday Food (follow the link above for the recipe). You start by creaming … Read more →

It’s that time of the year when the tomatoes pile up around the kitchen and I look for new ways to use them. I love, love, love fresh tomatoes. They are such a luxury after a winter of mealy, white tomatoes. Martha has a recipe for Tomato Provencal in September Martha Stewart Everyday Food.

You lay your sliced tomatoes in a dish and then pile a mix of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme on top. You’re supposed to bake them in the oven. It sounded good. But it wasn’t. The breadcrumbs stayed dry and powdery. It was like tomatoes with sand on top. This is truly awful. If you’re going to bread your tomatoes, dip them in an egg wash first. Or use some olive oil and just a dusting of breadcrumbs so they become crunchy and wonderful. There were leftovers and I dusted them off the next day and heated them up in some olive oil and they were a million times better. There are so many wonderful ways to make tomatoes, don’t waste your time on this.

It’s that time of the year when the tomatoes pile up around the kitchen and I look for new ways to use them. I love, love, love fresh tomatoes. They are such a luxury after a winter of mealy, white tomatoes. Martha has a recipe for Tomato Provencal in September Martha Stewart Everyday Food. You … Read more →

A new idea for beans is always welcome. I make a lot of beans. Usually I have green beans, but I happened to have some fresh yellow beans so I used those. This is just a simple finishing idea for beans. Steam or boil them, then toss with some butter, salt and pepper and some toasted hazelnuts. I’ve used toasted pecans or toasted slivered almonds with beans and those are delicious, but this was something unusual and we enjoyed it (although my father-in-law asked “are those chickpeas?”). This is something I would not have thought of myself and it gets a thumbs up.

A new idea for beans is always welcome. I make a lot of beans. Usually I have green beans, but I happened to have some fresh yellow beans so I used those. This is just a simple finishing idea for beans. Steam or boil them, then toss with some butter, salt and pepper and some … Read more →

In retrospect, I should have just used my grandmother’s trusted family recipe for lemon meringue pie. It works, it’s delicious, and there’s no roll of the dice involved. Instead, I used Martha’s recipe from September Martha Stewart Everyday Food. For a dinner with my in-laws. Oh dear.

It started innocently enough. I bought refrigerated pie crust. I know, it’s not Martha, but I was under a time crunch as well as some health issues, so I needed to simplify.

This lemon meringue pie recipe is part of an entire section of recipes predicated on a lemon curd recipe. I get the concept of this (three desserts based on one basic recipe), but it was really quite annoying to flip back and forth between two pages to make this (“follow the recipe on page XX up to step one, then add X, Y and Z and then continue with the recipe”).

This is basically egg yolks, lemon juice, zest, sugar and cornstarch. I think this recipe is written wrong however. You are referred to the lemon curd recipe which says to cook until it coats the back of a spoon. It needs to cook longer and become much thicker in my opinion to become pie filling.

I poured the lemon into the pie crust and refrigerated. Then we packed it in a cooler the next day to take to the lake house. On the way there, it shifted and part of the lemon filling slopped out all over the cooler. This was the first sign I should have abandoned this and just served store bought cookies.

I made the meringue topping and popped it in the oven. It came out looking beautiful, with no hint of the disaster that lay beneath. I went to serve this pie and all the lemon ran out. It did not set up at all. It was a plate of crust, covered in soup with a floating meringue top. It all tasted ok, but it looked awful. Everyone was very nice about it of course and we ate it with spoons, but it was truly an unmitigated disaster. Sigh. I only make dinner for my in-laws once or twice a year and I try to make lovely food they will enjoy. What a disappointment this was.

In retrospect, I should have just used my grandmother’s trusted family recipe for lemon meringue pie. It works, it’s delicious, and there’s no roll of the dice involved. Instead, I used Martha’s recipe from September Martha Stewart Everyday Food. For a dinner with my in-laws. Oh dear. It started innocently enough. I bought refrigerated pie … Read more →

I’ve got a bone to pick, but it’s not with Martha. It’s with the grocery store.

Earlier in the week, I went grocery shopping and bought ingredients for a few Martha dishes. I specifically bought avocado so I could made Roasted Chicken Tacos (Martha Stewart Everyday Food, September). There was a nice selection of avocados and some were marked “ripe”. Now, from what I could tell, none seemed ripe to me, but the ones marked “ripe” were closer than some of the other cement footballs in the bin. I brought my avocado home and let it sit out in the fruit bowl with the bananas (known to help ripen fruit) for two days. Finally, I was desperate for something to make for dinner. I had to rule out a salmon dish with a corn/tomato/avocado relish since I didn’t have any corn. I ruled out a fontina and mushroom turkey meatloaf because I had no mushrooms. My choices were dwindling and so I went with the chicken tacos. The sticker on the avocado says “ripe,” I rationalized. It must be at least close to ripe. Wrong.

I had some leftover fried chicken so I used that in place of the roasted chicken. This recipe has very few ingredients – cilantro ( had to use dried which is no real substitute but I was desperate for a dish I could make), onion, salt and pepper, lime juice and salt and pepper, and tortillas.  And of course the cursed avocado. I tried to cut the avocado in half. It was so hard it would not separate in the center. I ended up peeling the skin off and cutting avocado off around the edges. It was just nasty. It was woody and pulpy and awful.  The entire dinner I muttered under my breath about the ridiculousness of labeling this as ripe! I find they do this with other things too – peaches, nectarines, plums, etc. There is usually a bin of regular ones, then one marked “ripe now,” but they never are actually ripe. Nor are they close to ripe.I understand ripe fruit has a short shelf life. I understand they have to pick things unripe to allow for transportation time. I do know the reasons. But it doesn’t change my frustration.

The whole thing made me cranky and grumbly. How far in advance must one buy avocados?

Anyway, we went ahead and ate these, but they were not great. Even if the avocado had been ripe I would have given this a thumb’s down. It just needed something – salsa, cheese, tomato, sour cream, lettuce. Anything at all really would have helped.  It was very blah and did not feel like anything close to a real meal.

I’ve got a bone to pick, but it’s not with Martha. It’s with the grocery store. Earlier in the week, I went grocery shopping and bought ingredients for a few Martha dishes. I specifically bought avocado so I could made Roasted Chicken Tacos (Martha Stewart Everyday Food, September). There was a nice selection of avocados … Read more →

I must admit, I’m really getting into the icebox cakes Martha has been having in her magazines. They’re easy to make and don’t require any baking. They’re perfect for summer.

This time I made  Chocolate Peanut Butter Icebox Cake from September Martha Stewart Everyday Food. This was another quick and simple dessert. You whip some heavy cream ( 1  1/2 c) with powdered sugar (1/3 c). Then you mix more cream (1/2 c) with smooth peanut butter (1/3 c) and fold the 2 cream mixtures together. You need a whole box of chocolate wafers. Create layers – lay down 6 cookies in a circle with one in the center and cover with 2/3 c of  the cream. Make another layer and so on. Reserve a few cookies to break in half and stand on the top of the cake and refrigerate. Wow! So easy but so good. This tasted like a decadent peanut butter pie. Mine may not have turned out as pretty as the one in the magazine, but it got high points from my taste-testers (as you can see, they got into it before I could take a photo of the cake as a whole). Everyone loved this – and I didn’t have to heat the kitchen up by using the oven.

I must admit, I’m really getting into the icebox cakes Martha has been having in her magazines. They’re easy to make and don’t require any baking. They’re perfect for summer. This time I made  Chocolate Peanut Butter Icebox Cake from September Martha Stewart Everyday Food. This was another quick and simple dessert. You whip some … Read more →

Lucinda Scala Quinn, you are a genius. Lucinda is a host of Everyday Food and a bigwig at MSLO. Whenever I see something from her, I know it’s going to be good.

In the July/Aug issue of Everyday Food, Lucinda appears on page 124 “Everyday Food on TV” with an idea for a quick summer pasta. It’s not even a recipe, just instructions for to throw together. Basically she says to cook angel hair pasta and then toss it with fresh herbs, lemon zest, lemon juice, cream and salt and pepper. This was SO incredibly easy to make and it was delicious – fresh and light tasting. I love ideas like this that are simple and quick but have amazing taste. You can use any herbs you have. I added a little Parmesan cheese (pasta requires cheese!) but not much at all. Give this one a try – you’ll love it!

Lucinda Scala Quinn, you are a genius. Lucinda is a host of Everyday Food and a bigwig at MSLO. Whenever I see something from her, I know it’s going to be good. In the July/Aug issue of Everyday Food, Lucinda appears on page 124 “Everyday Food on TV” with an idea for a quick summer … Read more →

Although local corn is not yet available here, we do have a lot of decent corn in the stores that is brought in from God knows where. August is corn season here, so I was happy to see all the great ideas for corn in July/August Martha Stewart Everyday Food. I tend to just cook corn on the cob or grill it. I don’t usually do much else with it. I had a few ears of corn hanging around, so I decided to whip up Corn and Zucchini Saute with Basil.

This was a quick dish to make. You slice zucchini and saute with garlic briefly. Then you cut the corn off the cob and add that. Add in some basil and some vinegar at the end and you’re done. I enjoyed this. I think it would be a great thing to whip up with some leftover corn. I’m not sure I would rush out to buy the ingredients just to make this dish, but as a way to use leftovers, I highly recommend it.

Although local corn is not yet available here, we do have a lot of decent corn in the stores that is brought in from God knows where. August is corn season here, so I was happy to see all the great ideas for corn in July/August Martha Stewart Everyday Food. I tend to just cook … Read more →

We spent the 4th with my parents and did chicken on the grill. I made Martha’s classic barbecue sauce, from July/Aug Everyday Food. What’s funny is Martha had another classic BBQ sauce recipe in June Living but I never got around to it. This one was slightly simpler – requiring a 2 hour cook time as opposed to a 3 hour cook time, and fewer ingredients.

I always make my own barbecue sauce, but I always start with ketchup and usually add mustard, brown sugar, vinegar, garlic salt and Worchestershire. Simple and easy and my kids like it.

Martha’s recipe starts with canned tomato sauce and includes onion, garlic, ground mustard, molasses, Worchestershire, vinegar and salt and pepper. It was easy to make and had to simmer for 2 hours. I tasted it after it had cooked and was not happy. There is no sugar in this recipe at all and it really needed some. So I dumped in brown sugar and that helped a bit. It still tasted very spicy to me – I guess from the ground mustard.  I hoped it would mellow a bit as it sat for a few days until the 4th.

On the 4th my dad did the grilling. My parents had their own barbecue sauce and we had Martha’s on organic chicken breasts. The verdict? Thumbs down. The kids did not like it at all and said it tasted too tomato-y. I thought it was just not good in general and I agree it tasted very tomato-y yet somehow a bit bland at the same time. I’ve got a big container of this left and am not sure if I will freeze it or just dump it. It was a disappointment for sure.

I typed this post then went downstairs to get the camera so I could get the photo. I made breakfast while I was there. I opened the fridge to get the eggs, and the big container of Martha’s barbecue sauce fell out and exploded all over the kitchen. What a mess! So I guess that is payback for dissing the sauce!

We spent the 4th with my parents and did chicken on the grill. I made Martha’s classic barbecue sauce, from July/Aug Everyday Food. What’s funny is Martha had another classic BBQ sauce recipe in June Living but I never got around to it. This one was slightly simpler – requiring a 2 hour cook time … Read more →