I’m a sucker for satay, so I made Chicken Satay Skewers from April Martha Stewart Everyday Food.  Some of you might remember the last time I used skewers for a Martha recipe – the skewers burned and fell apart. This time I soaked my skewers for several hours before using them. Aren’t I clever? Well, we’ll see….

I sliced my chicken and marinated it in the soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and red pepper.  I actually let it sit in the fridge a few hours even though the recipe does not say to do so. I made the peanut sauce – peanut butter, salt, pepper, red pepper, rice vinegar and red pepper. This was more of a paste than a dipping sauce. I actually ended up adding a little more water to try to get it to loosen up.

I threaded the chicken onto the skewers and cooked it on the Jenn-Air (outdoor grilling season isn’t here yet!). Even though I soaked the skewers, they still turned black and fell apart. What the heck! That really annoyed me, I must say! Next time I’m just going to cook the chicken strips without skewers.

The chicken was good, but I would have liked it to have a more Asian flavor – maybe some ginger or more soy sauce. The dipping sauce (paste!) was good, but if I made that again I would put some chopped green onion in  it and some soy sauce too.

This was a nice quick weekday dinner that didn’t take a lot of work. I would definitely make it again. Even Mini-Martha liked the chicken (but wouldn’t taste the dipping sauce).

I’m a sucker for satay, so I made Chicken Satay Skewers from April Martha Stewart Everyday Food.  Some of you might remember the last time I used skewers for a Martha recipe – the skewers burned and fell apart. This time I soaked my skewers for several hours before using them. Aren’t I clever? Well, … Read more →

I am a big fan of brisket, even though I only started making it a few years ago. I had never had brisket before then – except for corned beef brisket. Martha has a recipe for braised brisket  with carrots, parsnips and garlic in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living. I usually use Emeril’s recipe for brisket, so I was interested in giving Martha’s version a whirl to see how they compared.

Emeril’s recipe requires you to make the brisket a day ahead, refigerate it and then reheat it before serving. Martha’s version is a one day plan. Emeril’s recipe creates this wonderful tomato-y sauce which is really tasty.

I started Martha’s brisket on a weekday afternoon. I knew both kids would be home for dinner and Mr. MarthaandMe too, and I was thinking Teen Martha’s boyfriend might also make an appearance, so I would have a crowd.

Liquid

First I browned the brisket on both side, then I cooked the onion and garlic. Next I added tomato paste, broth and wine and bay leaves, creating the liquid the meat would cook in.

I put the meat in and put it in the oven. The recipe says to cook for 2 hours, then to flip the brisket and cook another half hour. Then you’ve got another hour in which you cook the veggies you’ve added. Then you’re supposed to take it out, cover the beef and let the liquid cool so you can skim off the fat. Then you need 20 minutes to cook the liquid down.

After the meat had been in the oven an hour and a half, our power went off. Praying to the gods of the brisket, I called the power company and found out they would not have it back on for another 2 1/2 hours – 6:30 pm (also known as dinner time). So that was that for my brisket that day. Instead we went out and had hot dogs. The brisket went in the fridge.

The Cooked Brisket

The next day, I planned to continue the cooking process once I returned from an important excursion – prom dress shopping with Teen Martha and Big MarthaandMe. Silly me, I didn’t realize it would take SEVEN HOURS of hard labor to obtain the perfect dress. I got home at 5 pm. Quickly, I shoved the brisket in the oven and put it on convection roast. After an hour, I added the vegetables. I let those cook about 25 minutes (I used baby carrots and had my parsnip cut thin). No time to cool the cooking liquid and skim fat. Instead I boiled the hell

The Veggies

out of it and added flour to make it a gravy.

So there I am with this lovely brisket ready for dinner. Dude Martha announces he doesn’t feel well and doesn’t want to eat. Teen Martha says she’s tired and is going to bed. So there Mr. MarthaandMe are with a giant brisket before us. He unfortunately forgot the adage about slicing against the grain, so our slices were not very nice looking. We each had a few slices. I thought it was quite good, but I still like Emeril’s recipe better. The sauce/gravy was good. The veggies were good. I enjoyed it,but am going to

The Plate

stick to my usual recipe. Sorry Martha!

I am a big fan of brisket, even though I only started making it a few years ago. I had never had brisket before then – except for corned beef brisket. Martha has a recipe for braised brisket  with carrots, parsnips and garlic in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living. I usually use Emeril’s … Read more →

I am a big fan of brisket, even though I only started making it a few years ago. I had never had brisket before then – except for corned beef brisket. Martha has a recipe for braised brisket  with carrots, parsnips and garlic in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living. I usually use Emeril’s recipe for brisket, so I was interested in giving Martha’s version a whirl to see how they compared.

Emeril’s recipe requires you to make the brisket a day ahead, refigerate it and then reheat it before serving. Martha’s version is a one day plan. Emeril’s recipe creates this wonderful tomato-y sauce which is really tasty.

I started Martha’s brisket on a weekday afternoon. I knew both kids would be home for dinner and Mr. MarthaandMe too, and I was thinking Teen Martha’s boyfriend might also make an appearance, so I would have a crowd.

Liquid

First I browned the brisket on both side, then I cooked the onion and garlic. Next I added tomato paste, broth and wine and bay leaves, creating the liquid the meat would cook in.

I put the meat in and put it in the oven. The recipe says to cook for 2 hours, then to flip the brisket and cook another half hour. Then you’ve got another hour in which you cook the veggies you’ve added. Then you’re supposed to take it out, cover the beef and let the liquid cool so you can skim off the fat. Then you need 20 minutes to cook the liquid down.

After the meat had been in the oven an hour and a half, our power went off. Praying to the gods of the brisket, I called the power company and found out they would not have it back on for another 2 1/2 hours – 6:30 pm (also known as dinner time). So that was that for my brisket that day. Instead we went out and had hot dogs. The brisket went in the fridge.

The Cooked Brisket

The next day, I planned to continue the cooking process once I returned from an important excursion – prom dress shopping with Teen Martha and Big MarthaandMe. Silly me, I didn’t realize it would take SEVEN HOURS of hard labor to obtain the perfect dress. I got home at 5 pm. Quickly, I shoved the brisket in the oven and put it on convection roast. After an hour, I added the vegetables. I let those cook about 25 minutes (I used baby carrots and had my parsnip cut thin). No time to cool the cooking liquid and skim fat. Instead I boiled the hell

The Veggies

out of it and added flour to make it a gravy.

So there I am with this lovely brisket ready for dinner. Dude Martha announces he doesn’t feel well and doesn’t want to eat. Teen Martha says she’s tired and is going to bed. So there Mr. MarthaandMe are with a giant brisket before us. He unfortunately forgot the adage about slicing against the grain, so our slices were not very nice looking. We each had a few slices. I thought it was quite good, but I still like Emeril’s recipe better. The sauce/gravy was good. The veggies were good. I enjoyed it,but am going to

The Plate

stick to my usual recipe. Sorry Martha!

I am a big fan of brisket, even though I only started making it a few years ago. I had never had brisket before then – except for corned beef brisket. Martha has a recipe for braised brisket  with carrots, parsnips and garlic in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living. I usually use Emeril’s … Read more →

For Easter, I decided to make Martha’s Pineapple Mustard Glazed Ham (April Martha Stewart Living). I don’t generally make a ham for Easter. In fact, until last year, we usually were away over Easter and didn’t really celebrate at all. But this year we were home and I thought I would Martha-ify our Easter.

I often make a ham around Christmas and I usually baste it with Coke or pineapple juice and then make a glaze with brown sugar, mustard, and pineapple juice.

Martha’s recipe is more complicated (of course). She directs you to buy whole pineapples and peel, core and slice them (however, she does not give any instruction about how to do that). Fortunately, last summer in Hawaii we saw a demonstration of this at the Dole Plantation. Mr. MarthaandMe went to work with the pineapple. He used an apple corer to get the core out.

Once the pineapple is ready, Martha says to cook it with water and sugar for an hour to an hour and 20 minutes, until it is translucent. I did this and ended up with only half the juice the recipe says you will have. Sigh. So I dumped in some canned pineapple juice and cooked it down to the right consistency. Once that cooled, I mixed in mustard Note that at no point does this recipe say to remove the pineapple slices and reserve them, but I did take them out.

Next it was time to prepare the ham. Martha says to trim excess skin and fat and leave about 1/4 inch of fat. It has never occurred to me to remove the skin from the ham, but it struck me as a brilliant idea. I don’t like the skin or the fat and you make this wonderful glaze and it sits on the skin and doesn’t soak into the meat at all and you never taste it. So, Mr. MarthaandMe trimmed the ham. Next, I scored it and inserted cloves.

I brushed on half the glaze, covered it with parchment and foil and baked as directed. I then removed the covering, poured on the rest of the glaze and finished baking.  Martha makes reference to pan drippings, but everything in my pan burned to a crisp. In fact, I had to turn the oven temp down. Martha said to cook at 425 with the ham uncovered. My ham started to burn and smoke at that temp.

The recipe says to let the ham rest, and then to serve with the pineapple and the pan drippings  (of which I had none). Here’s where my biggest complaint comes in with this recipe. In the photo next to the recipe in the magazine, you see a big beautiful ham with pineapple rings attached to it. The recipe does not say to attach the pineapple to the ham at all.  I have never attached pineapple rings to a ham and was looking forward to that beautiful presentation. In fact, I have no idea how you attach them. Toothpicks?

The ham tasted good and it was particularly good when eaten with the pineapple slices which were practically candy. The family verdict was that my usual method is better. In the future, I will make my own glaze, but I am going to trim the skin and fat off, so that is my take away lesson from this.

I had planned to make an entire Martha meal and so I consulted the Cooking School book. I am sad to report I couldn’t find the kinds of recipes in there that I wanted. I wanted to make some cheesy potatoes and there wasn’t a single recipe that even resembled that. In fact, there are very few potato recipes in that book at all. I had artichokes and checked the book for some interesting recipes for that and all Martha has is how to boil them. So I abandoned that and went with some roasted asparagus, my grandmother’s cheesy potato recipe and some artichokes with butter for dipping.

For Easter, I decided to make Martha’s Pineapple Mustard Glazed Ham (April Martha Stewart Living). I don’t generally make a ham for Easter. In fact, until last year, we usually were away over Easter and didn’t really celebrate at all. But this year we were home and I thought I would Martha-ify our Easter. I … Read more →

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though.

The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use it as breading. Quick and simple. And it really tasted great. You could definitely do this with crackers also. Rachel Ray has a recipe like this where you crush pretzels that I like too. My only comment would that I think I would dump it in the Cuisinart and crush it that way. It was hard to get the pieces very small and I think it would stick better if it was crushed more finely.

The vegetable tian sounds sort of weird and foreign – but a tian is defined as just a layered vegetable dish. Martha says to slice some onion and garlic and thyme (I only had dried) and put itn in the baking pan with olive oil then layer potato, zucchini, and carrot on top. I had baby carrots only, so I sliced them lengthwise instead of making coins. This dish turned out quite nicely. It is a very light and simple dish, but with a lot of flavor. The onions tasted great – almost caramelized. I would definitely make this again. It’s similar to a dish my mom (Big MarthaAndMe) made for us over the summer that I loved.  You take a baking dish and layer in sliced tomato, zucchini, onion and mozzarella cheese as well as some basil. Then you pour beef broth into the dish and cover it. Bake it for about 45 minutes at 375.  Take the cover off and let the cheese on top brown. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for a minute, then pour the liquid out of the dish and serve. It is SO good.

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though. The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use … Read more →

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though.

The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use it as breading. Quick and simple. And it really tasted great. You could definitely do this with crackers also. Rachel Ray has a recipe like this where you crush pretzels that I like too. My only comment would that I think I would dump it in the Cuisinart and crush it that way. It was hard to get the pieces very small and I think it would stick better if it was crushed more finely.

The vegetable tian sounds sort of weird and foreign – but a tian is defined as just a layered vegetable dish. Martha says to slice some onion and garlic and thyme (I only had dried) and put itn in the baking pan with olive oil then layer potato, zucchini, and carrot on top. I had baby carrots only, so I sliced them lengthwise instead of making coins. This dish turned out quite nicely. It is a very light and simple dish, but with a lot of flavor. The onions tasted great – almost caramelized. I would definitely make this again. It’s similar to a dish my mom (Big MarthaAndMe) made for us over the summer that I loved.  You take a baking dish and layer in sliced tomato, zucchini, onion and mozzarella cheese as well as some basil. Then you pour beef broth into the dish and cover it. Bake it for about 45 minutes at 375.  Take the cover off and let the cheese on top brown. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for a minute, then pour the liquid out of the dish and serve. It is SO good.

The What’s for Dinner section in April Martha Stewart Living intrigued me – Matzo Crusted Chicken Cutlet and Vegetable Tian. I’ve never had matzo in anything but matzo ball soup and had never even heard of a tian! I was game though. The Matzo Chicken was very easy. You just crush up matzo and use … Read more →

It is Easter season and Martha made Hot Cross Buns on her show (also in April Martha Stewart Living), so I decided to get in the spirit and make some. I have never had hot cross buns (I know, hard to believe) and I have to say they never really appealed to me, but I was game to give it a try.

The recipe starts with heated milk and yeast, sugar, butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and eggs getting mixed with a dough hook. I have several important things to tell you. First of all, I dusted off the KitchenAid mixer (and I do mean dusted off) and used the dough hook, which I think I may never have used (it worked quite well). Secondly, I kind of goofed. In the instructions it says to use 1 cup of milk, but up in the ingredient list, it says 1 cup plus 2 tbsp and 2 tsp of milk. The additional milk is supposed to be for the icing. I just was reading along through the ingredients and so dumped in all the milk. I have to say it really annoyed me that this recipe listed it this way! If you are making two separate things, I think the ingredient list should be broken down into two sections so you don’t make a mistake like this!

I got that mixed and then added the flour. The dough was a little goopier looking than it should have been (because of the extra milk), but I just went with it. I mixed in the fruit and let it rise for an hour. It rose nicely. I made it into individual buns and let it rise again.

I was sure it was going to be a total disaster because of the additional milk, but it was perfectly fine! I brushed them with the egg wash and baked them and they turned out nice and brown.

Once they were cool, I mixed up the icing. Here’s where things got a little hairy. The recipe calls for 2 cups of powdered sugar. My icing was like liquid – there was no way it was going to stay in place on the buns. I ended up adding one and a half cups more powdered sugar to get it to the right consistency (and as you can see below, it was still pretty runny).

I piped it on the buns (I cheated and cut the corner off a ziploc instead of fighting with a pastry bag). I think they came out quite nicely.

As for taste? I wasn’t all that impressed, but Mr. MarthaAndMe, who has a long, checkered past full of hot cross buns, told me you need to split them open and butter them. I did that and then I thought they were better.

This was a fun thing to try and it was actually pretty easy to make as long as you have the time for the two risings.

It is Easter season and Martha made Hot Cross Buns on her show (also in April Martha Stewart Living), so I decided to get in the spirit and make some. I have never had hot cross buns (I know, hard to believe) and I have to say they never really appealed to me, but I … Read more →

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to strain regular yogurt and use that instead, even though a few Twitter pals  suggested that. My grocery store, Wegman’s, does not carry Greek yogurt, which I find to be just weird. Another Twitter pal found it at Costco (we don’t have one of those here). Finally, I found it at a small family-owned store in my neighborhood, called Dash’s. However, I paid $6.50 for a two cup container! Not such an affordable little recipe, Martha.

Once I had my yogurt safely home (and delicately placed in the fridge so none of the liquid gold would spill), I got to work. I baked my potatoes, peeled them and because I don’t have a ricer (yet another gadget to add to my growing, expensive Martha to-buy list) I just used a mixer and smushed it up. I added melted butter and cream, the yogurt, and salt and pepper.

March chives

Then, dear reader, I sloshed out in the rain to see if I had any chives coming up. They were there – just peeking out of the ground, so I snipped a few tops and came back in and shook myself off like a dog. I mixed those in.

Then I tasted it. There was certainly no cheering. It was pretty bland. So I added what any potato goes happily with – cheese. Some parmesan cheese (also known as nectar of the gods). That gave it some flavor.

I baked this in a square baking pan for 40 minutes as directed. It came out looking nice and brown. It smelled good too.

But how did it taste, you ask? Ah, there’s the rub. It was not fabulous. It was grainy and kind of dry tasting. Thank goodness I added the cheese because it really would not have been great without that. I know the Greek yogurt is healthier than sour cream, but I would much rather use light sour cream than Greek yogurt in this dish.  Or maybe even a mixture of the two would give it the moisture it lacked. So, I’m afraid I can’t recommend this dish. Not a good thing.

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to … Read more →

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to strain regular yogurt and use that instead, even though a few Twitter pals  suggested that. My grocery store, Wegman’s, does not carry Greek yogurt, which I find to be just weird. Another Twitter pal found it at Costco (we don’t have one of those here). Finally, I found it at a small family-owned store in my neighborhood, called Dash’s. However, I paid $6.50 for a two cup container! Not such an affordable little recipe, Martha.

Once I had my yogurt safely home (and delicately placed in the fridge so none of the liquid gold would spill), I got to work. I baked my potatoes, peeled them and because I don’t have a ricer (yet another gadget to add to my growing, expensive Martha to-buy list) I just used a mixer and smushed it up. I added melted butter and cream, the yogurt, and salt and pepper.

March chives

Then, dear reader, I sloshed out in the rain to see if I had any chives coming up. They were there – just peeking out of the ground, so I snipped a few tops and came back in and shook myself off like a dog. I mixed those in.

Then I tasted it. There was certainly no cheering. It was pretty bland. So I added what any potato goes happily with – cheese. Some parmesan cheese (also known as nectar of the gods). That gave it some flavor.

I baked this in a square baking pan for 40 minutes as directed. It came out looking nice and brown. It smelled good too.

But how did it taste, you ask? Ah, there’s the rub. It was not fabulous. It was grainy and kind of dry tasting. Thank goodness I added the cheese because it really would not have been great without that. I know the Greek yogurt is healthier than sour cream, but I would much rather use light sour cream than Greek yogurt in this dish.  Or maybe even a mixture of the two would give it the moisture it lacked. So, I’m afraid I can’t recommend this dish. Not a good thing.

Martha’s got an interesting recipe in April Martha Stewart Living – Twice Baked Potatoes made with Greek yogurt. The idea is the yogurt replaces sour cream. I was game. First problem – no Greek yogurt to be found! The recipe says you cannot substitute regular yogurt because it will separate, so I wasn’t willing to … Read more →

On a recent episode, Lucinda Scala Quinn demonstrated some of the fish recipes from April Martha Stewart Living. Now, I have professed my love for Lucinda before and I must say she has not disappointed me this time.

I decided to make Slow-Roasted Salmon.  Salmon is one of my go-to meals and I prefer to use wild salmon, but it’s out of season, so I had to settle for farmed salmon. When I make salmon I often grill it and serve it with lemon and dill. Sometimes I will oven roast it. Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, has a fab recipe for asian salmon that is to die for.

Lucinda’s recipe is super simple. You mix up some chopped tomato, chopped orange and chili paste (the only chili paste I could find was a sweet and sour Thai version – but that worked for me since I don’t like hot spicy things too much). You slit your salmon filets and sort of stuff them with the mixture, then the directions say to roast at 250 for 25 minutes.  At 25 min mine was still raw, so I cranked on convection and put it up to 400 and finished it off quickly.

This tasted terrific. I loved the citrus flavor and the chili paste gave it a little zing, but not too much for me. It was simply beautiful looking. I’ll definitely make this again. Points for Lucinda.

On a recent episode, Lucinda Scala Quinn demonstrated some of the fish recipes from April Martha Stewart Living. Now, I have professed my love for Lucinda before and I must say she has not disappointed me this time. I decided to make Slow-Roasted Salmon.  Salmon is one of my go-to meals and I prefer to … Read more →