In the September issue of Martha Stewart Living, Martha’s Pick (her personal recommendation) is AmorePacific Treatment Cleansing Foam. Martha enjoys its texture, according to the magazine. It’s meant to be a general cleanser which removes makeup and impurities (which I assume means dirt!). It’s supposed to reduce the appearance and severity of blemishes. Martha provides a link directly to the company, however they don’t have an online store, so I ended up ordering this from Sephora. It cost $54.38 including shipping, for 4.1 ounces.

This is a nice product. It does have a nice texture and it smells pleasant. It lathered nicely and my face felt clean, and not dry after using it. I used it for a week and didn’t notice any reduction in blemishes, although if that means acne, I don’t really have any to begin with.

I liked this, but I wouldn’t spend this much on a facial cleanser. I use an Oil of Olay cleanser that seems practically the same to me as this and costs under $10. I didn’t notice enough of a difference to pony up $40. If I was as rich as Martha, then yes, I guess I would.

In the September issue of Martha Stewart Living, Martha’s Pick (her personal recommendation) is AmorePacific Treatment Cleansing Foam. Martha enjoys its texture, according to the magazine. It’s meant to be a general cleanser which removes makeup and impurities (which I assume means dirt!). It’s supposed to reduce the appearance and severity of blemishes. Martha provides … Read more →

Another Martha dish I never would have come up with on my own! In September Martha Stewart Living, Martha has a recipe for Roasted Portobello Caprese Salad. It looked good and I liked all the ingredients, so I was in!

My pretty plate

The first step is to brush your portobello mushrooms with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and roast it with some garlic at 400. No problem. I like portobellos, but don’t often buy them, so this was a treat.

After that has roasted for 20 minutes, you add some sliced tomatoes to the pan and roast those as well. I picked my first tomatoes of the season for this recipe! I was so thrilled to be able to use my own!

Once the veggies are done, you rub the mushrooms with the garlic, then put a mushroom on the bottom of the plate and layer fresh mozzarella, basil and

My first tomatoes!

the roasted tomatoes on top in layers. You serve it with escarole on the side (I couldn’t find plain escarole so I used a bag of arugula salad mix).

This was a very simple supper to put together. I whipped up some homemade biscuits to serve it with and it was a complete meal. The portobellos were juicy and filling. The roast tomatoes were sweet and flavorful. The basil was a nice added flavor, as was the garlic. The mozzarella softened on top of the warm veggies and the whole thing was quite delicious. It looked very fancy I thought, but was so easy to make. This is a wonderful late summer dish, and a great way to put those tomatoes to good use!

Another Martha dish I never would have come up with on my own! In September Martha Stewart Living, Martha has a recipe for Roasted Portobello Caprese Salad. It looked good and I liked all the ingredients, so I was in! The first step is to brush your portobello mushrooms with olive oil and balsamic vinegar … Read more →

The September Martha Stewart Living “What’s for Dinner” section includes Egg-in-the-Hole Toasts with Ricotta and Bacon with Citrus Glaze. I’ve never had egg-in-the-hole, but I’ve always thought it was a cute presentation. I wanted to try this, but I was scared. Of ricotta. Seriously, it is one of those foods that makes me shudder.  It is because of ricotta that I never order ravioli or lasagna in a restaurant.

Part of my Martha project is opening myself up to new foods, or in this case, old foods that give me nightmares. Because of Martha, I have given in and eaten capers (not so horrible) and anchovies (still really gross). I even put brandy in a dessert and that was a big step for me. I have learned that I like Swiss chard, arugula and escarole. Ricotta is one of the final frontiers. I contemplated making this dish and leaving mine without ricotta, but that would be cheating. So I sucked it up. First battle – where do you find ricotta? I looked with the cheese. Wrong. It’s with the cottage cheese and sour cream in dairy.

I got down to business and made holes in my bread and brushed it with olive oil. I got it in the oven to brown.

I worked on the bacon next, cooking down some OJ and honey to make the citrus glaze. I’ve never made bacon in the oven before. We usually make it in the microwave, using this cute little bacon cooker that lets you hang the bacon over some rods, so the grease drips down into a dish. I have, from time to time, made it on the stove, where I’ve learned you have to turn the heat down before it starts to burn.  I got the bacon into the oven.

When the bread was brown I dumped the ricotta on top (seasoned with salt, pepper and thyme) and added the eggs. I kept checking both dishes. One minute the bacon was not cooked at all and the next thing I knew, it was burnt to a crisp. I was so mad at myself. A whole package of bacon, burned. I didn’t have time to start over, so I went on the table burnt and we picked at it and ate the unburnt pieces. In the oven you don’t have the luxury of turning the heat down to control how quickly the bacon cooks. I think you have to be right there, watching it like a hawk, ready to pull it out the second it starts to look almost done, because it will continue to cook once you take it out.

The eggs firmed up and I was ready to serve. I add some shavings of parmesan cheese to the top. The family gave this two thumbs up. I think they liked the novelty of it.  As for me, I ate the ricotta and it did not even make me shiver. In fact, it was pretty tasteless and I didn’t notice the grainy texture that usually makes me want to throw it across the room.  The bacon, had it not been black, would have been very good with the orange glaze on it. This dinner was reminiscent of the breakfast dinners I used to make sometimes when the kids were little and I was tired of trying to come up with dinner food we would all eat. Pancakes, bacon and fruit salad was my go-to meal if I was desperate. This was a fun and different dish to make. I think it would be great for a brunch.

The September Martha Stewart Living “What’s for Dinner” section includes Egg-in-the-Hole Toasts with Ricotta and Bacon with Citrus Glaze. I’ve never had egg-in-the-hole, but I’ve always thought it was a cute presentation. I wanted to try this, but I was scared. Of ricotta. Seriously, it is one of those foods that makes me shudder.  It … Read more →

Squash have taken over my kitchen. Although I did not grow any squash, my father grows enough to feed a third world country. So I have mounds of yellow squash, zucchini, and patty pan squash. He also grows a squash called kousa, which I don’t care for.

What to do with the squash? I like squash, but it gets old and boring fast. And I feel guilty if I throw it out. Quite a dilemma. Martha to the rescue. There’s a nice little recipe in September Martha Stewart Living for Warm Summer Squash Salad. I’m not exactly sure why it’s called a salad, but that’s a minor point I won’t quibble with. The recipe feeds 12 so I reduced it drastically to feed Mr. MarthaAndMe and myself.

First you saute some garlic then you add your thinly sliced squash. Once that’s done, you add some balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and oregano. And suddenly you have a squash dish that is not plain and boring. I enjoyed this a lot. The garlic and balsamic give it some real flavor, since squash can be quite dull on its own. This was very quick and easy to throw together and it helped reduce my mountain of squash. Points for Martha.

Squash have taken over my kitchen. Although I did not grow any squash, my father grows enough to feed a third world country. So I have mounds of yellow squash, zucchini, and patty pan squash. He also grows a squash called kousa, which I don’t care for. What to do with the squash? I like … Read more →

Martha Mondays is here again. This time, the scheduled Martha project was map coasters. If you made this project (or if you haven’t yet, post when you do), post a link to your blog or just leave a comment saying how it went for you.

For this project, I splurged and purchased a Martha Stewart craft knife. This project was very inexpensive I thought. I already had ModPodge and so in addition to the $10 craft knife, I just had to buy some round cork coasters, which were about $1.60.

I used a plastic cutting board to cut on and I printed my maps online. I had some trouble cutting the maps out. Martha says to use the knife to trace around the edge of the coaster. Mine didn’t come out perfectly even and in some places it was still attached to the paper, so I used scissors to cut it and trim it. They weren’t perfectly round. And once I even sliced away some of the cork! I am a menace with craft knife in hand.

Dude Martha assisted on this project. We painted ModPodge on the coaster, placed the map on top and smoothed it out. Then we applied more ModPodge and also did the edges. We left them to dry.

I was really pleased with my results. One coaster has a stray hair from the brush stuck on it, but that’s because I did not buy top of the line Martha brushes.  You can’t really tell my maps were not cut out perfectly. The coasters bowed just a little bit. If I had thicker coasters, that would not have been an issue.  I’m taking these coasters to the family lake house (since I used a map of the lake) and I think they will be a fun thing to have there. This project was easy (if *I* can get good results, it must be easy) and fun. You could do lots of other things other than maps with this. Photos, patterned paper, print outs of famous paintings, all sorts of neat things.

How did this work for you? Did anyone use something other than maps? Can’t wait to see your results!!

I’m putting together a Martha Mondays blogroll that I will post. If you want to be on it, please let me know the name of the blog to list. Once I have the list, we’ll start going through it so everyone can have a turn picking the projects. Look for another post today with the next Martha Mondays project!

Martha Mondays is here again. This time, the scheduled Martha project was map coasters. If you made this project (or if you haven’t yet, post when you do), post a link to your blog or just leave a comment saying how it went for you. For this project, I splurged and purchased a Martha Stewart … Read more →

In the ramekin with sour cream

I’ve been making Martha desserts for family dinners with my parents lately, so I decided to continue that trend and make Plum Tartes Tatin, from September Martha Stewart Living.

First stop, the grocery store, where I bought plums marked “ripe now” on the sign. They decidedly were NOT ripe and I put them in a paper bag for two days, hoping they would ripen. No change. They were still hard as rocks. Bravely, I forged ahead with this though since the plums have to be cooked and would (hopefully!) soften as I cooked them.

Second stop, another grocery store. My store did not have puff pastry – apparently there was a run on it. Who knew mid-August was prime puff pastry

On the plate with ice cream

baking time?

Happily, dear friends, I can tell you this is a super, super easy recipe! You cut up your plums and cook them on the stove with brown sugar and butter for about 10 minutes until they soften. My unripe plums did soften. You add a little salt and some brandy. Since I was cooking at chez Big MarthaAndMe, there was brandy available, so I added a little (not as much as Martha directs, but some). The alcohol cooks out.

Then you place your nicely smushed plums into ramekins and cover with circles of puff pastry. You’re supposed to thaw your puff pastry in the fridge overnight. I can never remember to do this. I found another excellent method though. On the day in question,  the thermometer registered 97 degrees on the deck, so I set it on the table out there for about 5-10 minutes and it was perfectly thawed.

You bake this for 40 minutes at 400. Mine was done in about 30 minutes though.

Martha says to serve with sour cream. Can I just say? Ick. I did try it with the sour cream (which I think was meant to be a cheap and quick substitute for creme fraiche) but let me tell you – ice cream is the way to go with this. This dessert was delicious. So good in fact, that every member of the family liked it  – from Big MarthaAndMe (who prefers tart tasting fruit desserts) to me (who prefers chocolate any time) to Dude Martha who likes anything sweet. Everyone agreed it was good. And I liked it because it was very simple to prepare. It was also very cute in the ramekins and looked like it was more work than it was. Big MarthaAndMe even asked for the recipe.

If I made this again, I think I might add some cinnamon to it. That’s my only comment though. Give it a try!

I’ve been making Martha desserts for family dinners with my parents lately, so I decided to continue that trend and make Plum Tartes Tatin, from September Martha Stewart Living. First stop, the grocery store, where I bought plums marked “ripe now” on the sign. They decidedly were NOT ripe and I put them in a … Read more →

I’m all for grilled veggies. I’ve never grilled radicchio though, so I had to try Grilled Radicchio, Summer Squashes, and Scallions from page 140 of Martha Stewart Living, August issue.

The squash and zucchini were good. The scallions were ok. The radicchio was really hard to grill since it kept falling through the slats.  I would skip the radicchio if I made this again. It didn’t really add to the flavor and it was just difficult. The rest of the veggies were good though, and it’s such a nice solution on a hot summer night to not have to turn on the stove!

I’m all for grilled veggies. I’ve never grilled radicchio though, so I had to try Grilled Radicchio, Summer Squashes, and Scallions from page 140 of Martha Stewart Living, August issue. The squash and zucchini were good. The scallions were ok. The radicchio was really hard to grill since it kept falling through the slats.  I … Read more →

When Martha Stewart Living changed its format in May, it began including a “Martha’s Pick” in the front of each issue, in the Apothecary section.  I’ve decided that as part of my Martha experience, I need to give these a try, even though honestly they are things I would probably never buy on my own. If they are things Martha personally highly recommends, I want to try them out in my life, to see if they make my life more Martha-like.

First up, Susan Ciminelli Marine Lotion, Martha’s Pick in August Martha Stewart Living. I bought the 2 ounce (yes only two) bottle. The magazine says it is $22. However, with the outrageous shipping and handling charge, this totaled $41.40. Eeek. For that price, it better give me the skin of a 6 month old.

I opened the bottle and my first reaction was that I didn’t like the scent. Martha says it “incorporates botanical ingredients – including algae oil, cypress, juniper, and marjoram.” I’m all for botanical ingredients, but this stuff really smells. To me, it almost smells like eucalyptus – kind of strong, somewhat minty smell.

I put some on and disliked the smell even more once it was on my skin. I also didn’t like the consistency of this – it’s a very thin liquid, almost like water, very easy to spill all over.

I rubbed the lotion in and it did make my skin feel smooth and even a day later I can tell where I applied it. However, I can’t get past the smell. I tend to be overly sensitive about smells, so I gave it to Teen Martha for her to try since she loves scented things. Her first reaction was “This reeks!” I’m a little more diplomatic and will say I just did not find the smell pleasing at all.  I think I’ll stick with my Cetaphil lotion!

More Martha Picks on the way in the coming weeks – I’ve ordered the May, June and Sept picks. Some are on back order.

When Martha Stewart Living changed its format in May, it began including a “Martha’s Pick” in the front of each issue, in the Apothecary section.  I’ve decided that as part of my Martha experience, I need to give these a try, even though honestly they are things I would probably never buy on my own. … Read more →

When Martha Stewart Living changed its format in May, it began including a “Martha’s Pick” in the front of each issue, in the Apothecary section.  I’ve decided that as part of my Martha experience, I need to give these a try, even though honestly they are things I would probably never buy on my own. If they are things Martha personally highly recommends, I want to try them out in my life, to see if they make my life more Martha-like.

First up, Susan Ciminelli Marine Lotion, Martha’s Pick in August Martha Stewart Living. I bought the 2 ounce (yes only two) bottle. The magazine says it is $22. However, with the outrageous shipping and handling charge, this totaled $41.40. Eeek. For that price, it better give me the skin of a 6 month old.

I opened the bottle and my first reaction was that I didn’t like the scent. Martha says it “incorporates botanical ingredients – including algae oil, cypress, juniper, and marjoram.” I’m all for botanical ingredients, but this stuff really smells. To me, it almost smells like eucalyptus – kind of strong, somewhat minty smell.

I put some on and disliked the smell even more once it was on my skin. I also didn’t like the consistency of this – it’s a very thin liquid, almost like water, very easy to spill all over.

I rubbed the lotion in and it did make my skin feel smooth and even a day later I can tell where I applied it. However, I can’t get past the smell. I tend to be overly sensitive about smells, so I gave it to Teen Martha for her to try since she loves scented things. Her first reaction was “This reeks!” I’m a little more diplomatic and will say I just did not find the smell pleasing at all.  I think I’ll stick with my Cetaphil lotion!

More Martha Picks on the way in the coming weeks – I’ve ordered the May, June and Sept picks. Some are on back order.

When Martha Stewart Living changed its format in May, it began including a “Martha’s Pick” in the front of each issue, in the Apothecary section.  I’ve decided that as part of my Martha experience, I need to give these a try, even though honestly they are things I would probably never buy on my own. … Read more →

I haven’t made many no-bake desserts, but Chocolate Mint Icebox Cake caught my eye on the MarthaStewart.com page of August Martha Stewart Living. It looked really good and once I found the recipe online, I realized it was very easy to make.

You start by whipping cream and adding sugar and mint extract. The next part was not quite so easy. I think the problem is that the recipe is just not clearly worded. You put the whipped cream between the chocolate wafers and make stacks. Then you lay the stacks sideways – this wasn’t really explained and I only figured it out by seeing the photo of the final product.It would have been helpful to be told how many cookies to put in each stack.

Next you cover the whole thing with more whipped cream and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days. Mine sat for 24 hours.  Before you serve, you cover it with mini chocolate chips.

Slicing this was not easy. The wafers do stay kind of crisp, so I had a little trouble.

It also didn’t look very pretty on the plate because I didn’t cut it very well. All is forgiven though Martha, because this tastes really, really great. The bad thing is it feels like it is a light dessert because it is all whipped cream, and you forget how fattening it must really be.

We really liked this one. The longer it sits, the softer the wafers get. We had the leftovers the next day and it was even better then.  I was quite surprised at how much I liked this.

I haven’t made many no-bake desserts, but Chocolate Mint Icebox Cake caught my eye on the MarthaStewart.com page of August Martha Stewart Living. It looked really good and once I found the recipe online, I realized it was very easy to make. You start by whipping cream and adding sugar and mint extract. The next … Read more →