I am not from the south, so the idea of barbecued shrimp that isn’t actually barbecued sounded a little, well, silly to me. Martha has a recipe called Mr. Jim’s Louisiana Barbecued Shrimp in August Martha Stewart Living. I was ready to do some grilling until I actually read the recipe. No grilling needed. In fact, this recipe is very easy and quick.

You make a sauce with melted butter, garlic, Worchestershire, rosemary, lemon juice and lemon peel (I used zest instead of hunks of peel), hot sauce, and salt and pepper. Bring that to a simmer then add your shrimp (I did NOT leave the heads and tails on as the recipe directs! “Fish faces” as my dad always calls them. Ewwwww).  Shrimp cooks very quickly.

I was scratching my head a bit at this recipe because it makes so much sauce and it’s very thin – you can’t just put it on a plate. Then I realized the recipe says to serve it with a baguette for a reason – you need to serve your shrimp and sauce in a bowl and dip the bread. Holy cow, this was good. The shrimp was very flavorful and really addictive, but the bread….. It tasted like the best garlic bread you’ve ever had when you dipped it in the sauce. The white baguette soaking up that dark, delicious sauce. Oh, this was heaven. Three of us ate the entire pound of shrimp and whole baguette. In fact, it was so good that it physically pained me to dump the remaining sauce down the drain.

I am not from the south, so the idea of barbecued shrimp that isn’t actually barbecued sounded a little, well, silly to me. Martha has a recipe called Mr. Jim’s Louisiana Barbecued Shrimp in August Martha Stewart Living. I was ready to do some grilling until I actually read the recipe. No grilling needed. In … Read more →

I like to make cold dinner salads in the summer, so I was happy to see Mediterranean Tuna Salad in August Martha Stewart Living.  A quick, no-cook salad is just perfect for a warm August night.  In fact, a no-cook salad is likely to get 5 stars from me almost any night of the year.

I had a little trepidation about this one though, since I am not a big fan of capers. I’m a big girl though, so I went ahead with it.

To make the salad you chop up capers, celery and toasted almonds and mix it with canned tuna, lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, dill and salt and pepper. Very simple and no-fuss. You serve the salad on a bed of greens.

This was actually a very tasty salad and the capers were not overpowering, so I didn’t scream and run away. When I sampled the tuna by itself, I was a bit worried that there wasn’t any real dressing that would coat the greens, but when you eat the tuna with the greens, it tastes good. This salad is also good the next day, because the lettuce does not get soggy.

I like to make cold dinner salads in the summer, so I was happy to see Mediterranean Tuna Salad in August Martha Stewart Living.  A quick, no-cook salad is just perfect for a warm August night.  In fact, a no-cook salad is likely to get 5 stars from me almost any night of the year. … Read more →

We arrived home on Monday night from our two week UK trip. Jet lag is a killer. Tuesday was hard. I was tired, but I woke up far too early. All day long it seemed my brain was not keeping up with me. Poor Mr. MarthaAndMe had to get back on another plane and head off to a business meeting, so it was me and the kids for dinner. I decided to make Martha’s Grilled Pizza with Fontina and Arugula (August Martha Stewart Living) for dinner. Fortunately, I was functioning well enough to plan the meal and buy the ingredients at the grocery store.

Dough on the grill

I’ve never grilled a pizza and the recipe made it sound WAY too easy I thought, but I gave it a try. You shape your dough and brush it with oil. The recipe says to fold it in half, move it to the grill and unfold. Eeek. This was not easy, since the dough stretched when I picked it up and it kind of crumpled when I got it on the grill. I set the grill to medium as the recipe said and let it cook 3 minutes.  I came back and the dough was looking puffy, which was encouraging. Then I flipped it and revealed the horror of what had happened. It was burned to a crisp. Take note – set your grill to LOW not medium if you try this recipe! I immediately turned the grill off and began trying to scrape the burned parts off. I wasn’t very successful. The dough kept ripping and I had to take big chunks off. There were pieces of dough all over the grill and all over the deck (I was too tired to clean it up, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a pack of raccoons or some other animal feasted on the deck last night).

Finally I dumped the cheese on top and closed the cover to let it melt. Things at this point had gone from not pretty to heinously ugly.

Cheese

I tried to put the cheese on the parts that were the least burned, so it was rather uneven and awful looking.

I got this monstrosity off the grill with no trouble and went to get my bag of arugula. Another demerit for me. At the store, they did not have any plain arugula. They had a bag of spinach and arugula, so I decided to buy that. Well, in my jet lagged state, somehow I grabbed the wrong bag and ended up with a bag of spinach and “zesty greens”. There was some arugula in the bag, so I just went with it.

Results

The pictures are a little blurry because apparently I was not thinking clearly enough to even use a camera! The results? Well it was certainly ugly looking, but I have to say the parts that were not burned were delicious. This is actually a really great recipe. I am going to attempt to grill pizza again sometime, when I am more awake, and I will set the grill to the lowest setting and watch it like a hawk. The moral of the story: when jet lagged, get pizza delivered.

We arrived home on Monday night from our two week UK trip. Jet lag is a killer. Tuesday was hard. I was tired, but I woke up far too early. All day long it seemed my brain was not keeping up with me. Poor Mr. MarthaAndMe had to get back on another plane and head … Read more →

The letter from Martha in August Martha Stewart Living about Maine not only made me nostalgic, but it made me think about how to bring a little Maine into my house.

Rocks on the beach

When we stayed in Maine a few years ago, we were in a house right on the coast, with a very gorgeous, rocky shore (in York Harbor). I loved hearing the waves crashing on the rocks all night. Every time we climbed down to the beach (and this was not an easy walk – it was rocky and steep), I would come back with my hands and pockets full of rocks. “What are you going to do with all of these?” Mr. MarthaAndMe asked. I didn’t really know, but I knew I was not leaving without them. Thank goodness we didn’t fly because it would have cost an arm and a leg to fly them home since they are so heavy.

That trip left me with a collection of gorgeous Maine rocks. A few years later, we stayed on Cape Cod for a week and again I brought home piles of rocks. Mr. MarthaAndMe knew better than to question me that time. These rocks were even harder to procure though since the beach was down a 35 step steep staircase. Hauling all those rocks up was a challenge.

These trips left me with rocks for brains – no, just kidding – they left me with piles of rocks. I read Martha’s article about Maine and it made me crave the rocky beach. I got out my rocks and decided it was time to do something with them.

I decided that this gorgeous big rock would work well as a doorstop. It now sits next to the door out to the garage and it works perfectly. It stands up by itself and it is heavy enough to hold the door. I love the designs on it.

Next I had lots of smaller Maine rocks.  I decided to put these in a basket and put it in the family room. I love the mix of different colors and types of rock. Blue rocks like these just say Maine to me.

Next, I moved on to the Cape Cod rocks.  I took the larger rocks and put them in another basket in the family room (a basket which happened to come from Maine).

I love the green rocks from Cape Cod. I still had some smaller Cape Cod rocks left, plus some small pieces of driftwood. I bought a rectangular glass vase and put the rocks in it and put it on a shelf in the kitchen with the driftwood next to it.

I’m really happy to have all of my rocks out and on display. I think Martha would approve.

The letter from Martha in August Martha Stewart Living about Maine not only made me nostalgic, but it made me think about how to bring a little Maine into my house. When we stayed in Maine a few years ago, we were in a house right on the coast, with a very gorgeous, rocky shore … Read more →

My son loves baked beans. Usually I buy the store brand of baked beans and doctor it up with ketchup, mustard, Worchestershire, garlic salt, vinegar and brown sugar. But making my own would be very Martha. There is a Lucinda recipe for it in the August issue of Martha Stewart Living, so I gave it a try.

This is not for the faint of heart my friends. It was a two day extravaganza of beans and I am not recovered yet.

The instructions say to cover the dried beans with water and boil, then simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Ok. No problem. On another place on the page (not in the actual recipe) it says you can make the beans up to 2 days ahead by refrigerating them after this step. It does not say you HAVE to.

I went to the next step – cooking onions, bacon, and garlic, then adding beans and vinegar and BBQ sauce (which I made myself). Add water and boil. Simmer for 2 1/2 hours. After 5 hours of this, I still had pretty hard, nasty beans. I must have added at least 4 more cups of water than the recipe said. Finally, I gave up, added some more water and stuck it in the fridge for 24 hours. I took it out and heated it up the next day and they still were not soft enough. I cooked this another 3 hours, adding more water as I went until finally, finally, finally, it was edible. I still wasn’t happy with it. I thought some of the beans were still a bit tough to the tooth. And let me tell you, by the time we sat down to dinner with this, I didn’t want any because I had taste-tested it so many times along the way that I was sick of it!

My son liked it though. Mr. MarthaAndMe said they were “ok”. I wanted to put my head on the table and weep at that – 2 days of tending to these beans and all it got was an ok. My advice? Buy the canned beans and doctor them up yourself. This was ridiculous.

My son loves baked beans. Usually I buy the store brand of baked beans and doctor it up with ketchup, mustard, Worchestershire, garlic salt, vinegar and brown sugar. But making my own would be very Martha. There is a Lucinda recipe for it in the August issue of Martha Stewart Living, so I gave it … Read more →

Chicken salad is a great summer meal – no oven, no big heavy piece of meat on your plate, plus you can tell yourself that you’re just having a salad. Martha has a recipe for Chicken Salad with Tomatoes and Cucumber in August Martha Stewart Living. It sounded like a nice light meal.

I poached my chicken – the recipe says to cook it in the oven, but I prefer poaching for this kind of salad. Then you mix it with tomato and cukes that have been salted and drained, yogurt which has been drained, and add lemon juice, garlic and mint and oregano. Serve it on a pita with lettuce.

I loved this. The yogurt is much lighter than traditional mayo in the salad and the fresh herbs give it some pop. I like the tomato and cuke in it as well. This is a great recipe, easy to pull together and very tasty. It also takes great just by itself without the pita.

Chicken salad is a great summer meal – no oven, no big heavy piece of meat on your plate, plus you can tell yourself that you’re just having a salad. Martha has a recipe for Chicken Salad with Tomatoes and Cucumber in August Martha Stewart Living. It sounded like a nice light meal. I poached … Read more →

Whenever I make something with buttermilk, I think that I need to use it more often. I made Lucinda Scala Quinn’s Buttermilk Potato Salad (August Martha Stewart Living). Obviously, if it’s Lucinda it will be a winner. And it was.

I was really intrigued by this recipe. You’re supposed to use baby red potatoes, but I used regular and just cut them up. You mix the cooked potatoes with creme fraiche (so different!), buttermilk, horseradish, dill, chives and salt. OMG it was fabulous. So much lighter tasting than a mayo based potato salad and the herbs give it a nice flavor. The buttermilk adds a hint of tangy-ness which is perfect. I went light on the horseradish (not to mention the jar I have is rather old) but it did add a nice flavor to it. This is a truly amazing recipe and I’ll definitely turn to it again.

When is Lucinda going to break free and write her own cookbook? Everything that woman cooks is gold.

Whenever I make something with buttermilk, I think that I need to use it more often. I made Lucinda Scala Quinn’s Buttermilk Potato Salad (August Martha Stewart Living). Obviously, if it’s Lucinda it will be a winner. And it was. I was really intrigued by this recipe. You’re supposed to use baby red potatoes, but … Read more →

I have not been a very big fan of kale in the past, but Lucinda has a recipe for Kale Slaw with Peanut Dressing in August Martha Stewart Living, so of course I had to try it since I trust Lucinda implicitly.

You slice the kale very, very thinly – and I think this is an important part of the recipe, so make sure you do it!

You cut up some red pepper and carrot and mix it with the kale and some peanuts.

The dressing is simple – oil, vinegar, peanuts, brown sugar and salt in the Cuisinart. It comes out pretty thick, like a thin peanut butter.

Toss it all up and somehow it becomes this amazing delicious salad. I could not get enough of this and had 2 helpings of it. The peanut dressing combined with the very thinly cut kale makes for a very tender and interesting salad.  I didn’t even know I was eating kale and I enjoyed this very much.

I have not been a very big fan of kale in the past, but Lucinda has a recipe for Kale Slaw with Peanut Dressing in August Martha Stewart Living, so of course I had to try it since I trust Lucinda implicitly. You slice the kale very, very thinly – and I think this is … Read more →

The August issue of Martha Stewart Living has a recipe for Barbecued Pork-Shoulder Chops (a Lucinda recipe). I could not find shoulder chops, so I used regular loin.

You start by rubbing the chops with garlic, sage and salt and letting it sit for 2 hours. Then you are supposed to pour lager over it. I substituted apple juice. Let that sit again, then grill with a barbecue sauce.

The chops were moist and very tasty. I’ve never actually put BBQ sauce on pork chops before and it was a good match. I didn’t feel as though I really tasted the garlic, sage or apple juice, but I think they all contributed to the depth of the flavor.

My mom (Big MarthaAndMe) likes to say that you can’t buy a good pork chop these days. They used to be juicier and more flavorful. I don’t remember chops any other way than they are today, but I do find that they always taste better if you do some kind of marinade with them before cooking. This was a pretty good one and one to keep in my bag of pork chop tricks.

The August issue of Martha Stewart Living has a recipe for Barbecued Pork-Shoulder Chops (a Lucinda recipe). I could not find shoulder chops, so I used regular loin. You start by rubbing the chops with garlic, sage and salt and letting it sit for 2 hours. Then you are supposed to pour lager over it. … Read more →

I love the piece in August Martha Stewart Living about Hawaiian quilt-inspired designs. We went to Hawaii last summer and I brought home a quilt and a quilted throw pillow cover. The quilt is the breadfruit pattern. It hangs on a quilt rack with a quilt from my grandmother.  I bought it at an amazing little artisan shop in a village outside of Akaka Falls. The throw pillow usually sits on a chair in my bedroom. I bought the pillow at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Fortunately, my bedroom is in a pastel floral style and these items work well there. I think that Hawaiian quilt patterns are beautiful, but they don’t work in every home.

The article suggests stenciling cushions for an outdoor chaise with this type of pattern and that would be gorgeous I think. Fitting these patterns into other decor is difficult I think. I love that I brought these pieces of the islands home with us and they remind me of our trip there.

I love the piece in August Martha Stewart Living about Hawaiian quilt-inspired designs. We went to Hawaii last summer and I brought home a quilt and a quilted throw pillow cover. The quilt is the breadfruit pattern. It hangs on a quilt rack with a quilt from my grandmother.  I bought it at an amazing … Read more →