Slab pie? That sounded so weird to me when I ran across this recipe in June Everyday Food. Dude Martha saw me looking at it and wanted it, so I bought the ingredients and got to work. The crust is to be made in the food processer. Oh, snap, mine’s broken and I haven’t ordered the part yet. No problem, I thought, I’ll just use my pastry cutter. Well, it had vanished. I already had all the ingredients in a bowl, so I went in with my hands! It actually worked pretty well (5 c flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar, 4 sticks butter 1 to 1 1/2 c water)

This pie is made in a jellyroll pan, hence the concept of it being a slab. The filling is basic – blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, zest, and cornstarch. Now, I approached this with a skeptical eye. I sometimes find Martha’s fruit desserts too tart. There is a history in our family of too tart desserts. My mother does not have a sweet tooth and likes her pies on the sour side. We call them pucker pies. I like mine sweet, sweet, sweet. So I DOUBLED the amount of sugar, thinking that ought to do it. I also added a tsp of cinnamon since I think it enhances the flavor (the recipe says: 8 c blueberries, 3 tbsp cornstarch, 1/2 c sugar, 1 tbsp zest, 3 tbsp lemon juice).

I pressed the bottom crust into the pan without rolling (I am such a rebel), smeared the filling and then rolled out the top crust. Into the oven it went – and promptly leaked all over the bottom of my oven (I should have put a tray under it).

It came out looking really gorgeous. It sliced nicely. I liked how it was a short pie. In my opinion, you don’t always need gobs of filling – sometimes a lot of crust can be a good thing. As for taste? It was still a little tart for me. Everyone did like it (including the famous Dude Martha who is watching me type this) and happily gobbled it. The crust texture was pretty fantastic, probably because I used my hands.

So I have to say the concept of a slab pie is getting high marks from me, although next time, I would use more sugar!

Slab pie? That sounded so weird to me when I ran across this recipe in June Everyday Food. Dude Martha saw me looking at it and wanted it, so I bought the ingredients and got to work. The crust is to be made in the food processer. Oh, snap, mine’s broken and I haven’t ordered … Read more →

Potato and Zucchini Hash from May Martha Stewart Everyday Food was our pick for today, chosen by At Least Twice a Week.  I love potatoes and am always looking for something new to do with zucchini. This recipe was pretty simple – fry up 2 potatoes (peeled and sliced thinly in small pieces) with half a sliced onion. Once the potato is cooked, add in 1 thinly sliced and cut zucchini. Salt and pepper it to taste. Martha says to serve with fried eggs, but I skipped that.

Very simple, and very good! I liked this, even though it sounded sort of weird (potatoes and zucchini?). It worked well as a dish though and was easy to put together.  I love it when Martha has me try something new and I am pleasantly surprised.

Potato and Zucchini Hash from May Martha Stewart Everyday Food was our pick for today, chosen by At Least Twice a Week.  I love potatoes and am always looking for something new to do with zucchini. This recipe was pretty simple – fry up 2 potatoes (peeled and sliced thinly in small pieces) with half … Read more →

Today’s Martha Monday project was chosen by Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet – Quinoa Apricot Nut Clusters. I was excited about this because it was totally different from anything I have made. There were a lot of steps in this though, mostly b/c Martha wants you to roast your oats, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and quinoa all separately. Eek. I bought pre-roasted nuts and seeds, so that helped reduce the time on this. With the quinoa, you have to cook it on the stove, then roast it, which took quite a while. Finally I had all my ingredients and I mixed them together. You’re supposed to form these into a cookie shape on a baking sheet and bake them. I could not get mine to stay together very well. I got them into blobs on the baking sheet, but when I took them off, they fell apart.

So it was messy. As for taste? It was definitely different. Mr. MarthaAndMe said he thought it needed some other flavor. I think maybe adding some cinnamon might help it. I’m not a fan of the apricot pieces either. The rest of it was pretty good and Teen Martha has been munching on it in little bits. This is great because it is gluten and dairy free, so if anyone in your family has those sensitivities, this is something everyone can enjoy.

Today’s Martha Monday project was chosen by Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet – Quinoa Apricot Nut Clusters. I was excited about this because it was totally different from anything I have made. There were a lot of steps in this though, mostly b/c Martha wants you to roast your oats, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and quinoa all … Read more →

My kids love cornbread. A whole pan of it can be made to disappear in an evening in this house. I have not yet stumbled on a recipe that is perfect. Some are too dry, some not sweet enough and some have pieces of corn in them (ick). So I was happy to give Martha’s recipe a try, from May Living.

Mix together 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt. Mix in 1 egg and 1 cup milk (the recipe says to use either goat milk or regular milk – I used regular) and 4 tbsp melted butter. The recipe says to use an iron skillet in the oven. I used a heavy metal round cake pan. Preheat the oven to 400 and heat the pan in the oven with 1 tbsp butter, then pour the batter in. Bake for 25 minutes then brush the top with 2 tbsp honey. This was a winner. Heating the pan in the oven meant that this got really crunchy around the edges but stayed very soft and moist in the middle. I liked the honey on top of it. My kids like to put honey on their cornbread and this was enough so that they didn’t need to slather more on. Very nice recipe.

My kids love cornbread. A whole pan of it can be made to disappear in an evening in this house. I have not yet stumbled on a recipe that is perfect. Some are too dry, some not sweet enough and some have pieces of corn in them (ick). So I was happy to give Martha’s … Read more →

Sirloin Salad with Cilantro was chosen as this week’s project by Sarah at Mum in Bloom. First of all I have to say I do not understand why this is called a “salad!” You marinate the steak in a mix of cilantro, OJ, vinegar, and jalapeno. Then you grill it and you’re supposed to serve it with more cilantro and red onion, with additional reserved marinade as a sauce. It’s not a salad. It’s beef with garnish.

My big Cuisinart is broken (I dropped the plastic thingy you push food down with and it broke and it won’t turn on without that locked on), so I made this in my little mini food processor, which worked fine actually. Then I realized my son drank all the OJ! I squeezed the juice from some tangerines instead.

The marinade looked and tasted good. The next problem was that the grill was out of propane (even though we have an extra tank to prevent this kind of thing from happening – it was empty too!). So I grilled this on the JennAir. We were rushing to get to my son’s hockey game and the meat was just not cooking, so I threw it in the oven for a while at the end because it was completely bloody. Somehow it went from beyond rare to completely well done in minutes so that wasn’t so great. I couldn’t really taste anything different about the meat, even though this marinated more than an hour. We put more sauce on it, but it was so thin it just ran all over.  I put a little in a small bowl and dunked each bite and that worked out better. I didn’t have red onion and don’t like it, so I skipped that.

This was something I never would have made on my own and was different, but it’s probably not something I would make again.

Sirloin Salad with Cilantro was chosen as this week’s project by Sarah at Mum in Bloom. First of all I have to say I do not understand why this is called a “salad!” You marinate the steak in a mix of cilantro, OJ, vinegar, and jalapeno. Then you grill it and you’re supposed to serve … Read more →

My May issue of Living arrived and there is section in it about an herb garden Martha designed for the NY Botanical Garden. It includes a list of what her must-have herbs are in an herb garden: Genovese basil, Red Rubin basil, Pesto Perpetuo basil, chervil, dill, Fernlead dill, flat leaf parsley, sage, sorrel and spearmint.

I grew up with a large herb garden. My dad has one in a raised bed on the side of the garage. I was often sent back there to pick herbs for my mom as she cooked dinner. He had everything you can think of.

We have a sad little herb garden here. Basically we scratched up the dirt next to the house, next to the deck and planted some chives, which come up every year, as well as some oregano that comes back also. I usually plant some basil and it almost always dies.

This year, we are going to make the herb garden bigger and surround it with some landscaping bricks to hold the dirt in. My must-have herbs will include:

– chives

– basil

– oregano

– rosemary

– dill

– sage

– thyme

– parsley (curly leaf)

– cilantro

What are your must-have herbs for an herb garden, or what would you grow if you had one?

My May issue of Living arrived and there is section in it about an herb garden Martha designed for the NY Botanical Garden. It includes a list of what her must-have herbs are in an herb garden: Genovese basil, Red Rubin basil, Pesto Perpetuo basil, chervil, dill, Fernlead dill, flat leaf parsley, sage, sorrel and … Read more →

I was excited about this recipe – Green Rice – from May Everyday Food. I love rice and I love green things. This was quite simple to make. You take 1 cup cilantro, 1/2 cup parsley, 1 clove garlic and 1/4 white onion, with salt and pepper and 1 3/4 cup water and blend it (I used the Cuisinart). Stir 1 cup rice with 1 tsp oil in a pot over high heat, then add the liquid. Bring to a boil, reduce to low, cover and let it simmer for about 15 minutes, then allow it to sit for another five. When serving, squeeze lime juice on it.

I have to admit the rice did cook perfectly. It looked very pretty and very appetizing. However, it just wasn’t good at all! It was bland – something I was quite surprised by! I didn’t really taste the cilantro or garlic. It was so bland in fact that I started doctoring it up at the table with butter, cheese, and leftover hollandaise sauce to make it palatable. No luck. Maybe this would be good if you served something over it that had a sauce, but as a side dish by itself, it was a big disappointment.

I was excited about this recipe – Green Rice – from May Everyday Food. I love rice and I love green things. This was quite simple to make. You take 1 cup cilantro, 1/2 cup parsley, 1 clove garlic and 1/4 white onion, with salt and pepper and 1 3/4 cup water and blend it … Read more →

I love hollandaise. I love it on asparagus, salmon, and broccoli. Sometimes I make hollandaise and then I add some cream and orange juice instead of lemon and use it on other fish. Hollandaise takes patience. I usually make mine in a pan and I start by melting butter and adding egg yolks and lemon juice, cooking over super low heat and constantly stirring, and then adding more butter at the end. I like it to be very thick.

I was intrigued when I saw Martha make easy hollandaise in the blender on her show the other day. She put in the egg yolks, lemon juice and warm water with salt and made it frothy in the blender. Then she poured in melted butter, which she suggested you cool first, slightly. She whizzed that up and supposedly it was ready.

I was leery of this – if you do it in the blender and cool the butter, how will the egg cook? I was willing to try it though.

The first problem was that once I had the egg, lemon juice and water in the blender, it did not come up to the bottom of the blades in mixer! I couldn’t froth it! Mr. MarthaAndMe wisely whipped out the little latte frother Dude Martha got in his Christmas stocking and stuck it in there and got it to froth. Whew. Then I added the butter in a slow stream (and I did use HOT butter and did not cool it as Martha suggested on TV).  The recipe says to blend until it thickens. Mine did not thicken and it was not hot or even very warm to the touch. Finally I gave up, dumped it in a sauce pan and cooked it on the stove quickly.  This got it to thicken up and I was certain the eggs were properly cooked.

I guess I wouldn’t recommend this method. It is faster than the traditional method, but it seemed to lack something in its consistency and did not have the same velvety texture. I also would not serve this straight from the blender without heating it up, so you would end up using a blender and a pan. Too much fuss for me.

I love hollandaise. I love it on asparagus, salmon, and broccoli. Sometimes I make hollandaise and then I add some cream and orange juice instead of lemon and use it on other fish. Hollandaise takes patience. I usually make mine in a pan and I start by melting butter and adding egg yolks and lemon … Read more →

Those of you who know my baking style know I ALWAYS make cakes in just one bowl. I never sift. So this cake fit into my philosophy. It’s from April Living. The cake is easy to make and you just dump it in and mix it.

3/4 c cocoa

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/2 c sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

3/4 c buttermilk

3/4 cup warm water

3 tbsp oil

1 tsp vanilla.

Easy. Mix, bake in two cake pans at 350. Mine took 25 min. The frosting is not as easy and involves melting chocolate:

2 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cocoa

6 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 sticks butter

9 oz melted bittersweet chocolate

3/4 cup sour cream.

I had just enough frosting with this, so don’t go overboard in filling the layer. It made a lovely looking cake and the frosting is really dense and provides nice coverage. I liked the cake (but it’s still not as good as my Gram’s mayo cake). The frosting was a bit sour almost, so I think I might not use all bittersweet chocolate. I did like the texture of it though.

Those of you who know my baking style know I ALWAYS make cakes in just one bowl. I never sift. So this cake fit into my philosophy. It’s from April Living. The cake is easy to make and you just dump it in and mix it. 3/4 c cocoa 1 1/2 c flour 1 1/2 … Read more →

I have to thank Martha for opening my eyes to cabbage. She first got me on the cabbage train last year when I made her stuffed cabbage and fell in love with it. Cabbage is not stinky, strong-flavored or nasty. It is sweet and delicate. So I was in when I saw roast cabbage in Everyday Food. This is incredibly easy. Just slice some rounds of cabbage (1/2 inch thick) and put on a baking sheet. Brush with oil and salt and pepper them. Martha says to bake at 400 for 40-45 minutes. I pulled mine out at about 30 minutes because it was burning. Next time I might roast at a lower temp for longer. I used savoy cabbage which I prefer to regular. The cabbage turned out tender and sweet and even the kids tasted it and did not reject it.

I have to thank Martha for opening my eyes to cabbage. She first got me on the cabbage train last year when I made her stuffed cabbage and fell in love with it. Cabbage is not stinky, strong-flavored or nasty. It is sweet and delicate. So I was in when I saw roast cabbage in … Read more →