It is a tradition at our house to have fondue on New Year’s Eve. It used to be just us and the kids, but over the years, more and more people have joined us. Our dining room table was at capacity this year and the two fondue pots I had going were barely enough. Next year, I think we’ll have to expand to another room and add a pot.

First, the table.  New Year’s started out as a simple thing and has gradually become more complicated. This year we ended up with 9 people (one unexpectedly showed up at the last minute and we had to scramble to add a seat). It’s hard to see in the photo, but I took curling ribbon, curled it,  and ran it the length of the table. Then I made shorter strands and laid them the opposite way along it. In between each place setting, I put another squiggle of curled ribbon. We also have some crazy new year hats and crowns that the guests amuse themselves with before dinner.

This year I used Martha’s fondue recipes. First, the cheese fondue. Let me say here that cheese fondue and I have a long and troubled history. The first few years it went beautifully. Then we entered a period where the fondue did not combine well for a few years – it would be stringy or separate. Last year I cheated and bought some already made, which I just heated. This year I put my trust in Martha. It was touch and go. I had the wine heated and started slowly adding cheese. All it did was clump up in the bottom of the pan. I kept stirring and stirring and slowly adding cheese, with no change. After half an hour, I reached the panic stage and Mr. MarthaAndMe was sent to look online for help while I called my mother. No help from either place. I kept stirring and finally added the cornstarch and lemon juice and POOF it suddenly came together. Miraculous.

With the cheese fondue I served:

– squares of ham

– slices of Italian chicken sausage

-cherry tomatoes

– slices of pear

– chunks of French bread

– chunks of pumpernickel rye bread

– pieces of hot pretzels (a total hit with the guests)

– broccoli

– cauliflower

– zucchini

I also served a honey mustard sauce and a creamy dill sauce. Also on the table was the carmelized onion dip (see yesterday’s post). Martha’s fondue was excellent. It had a nice mix of cheeses which gave it a nice depth of flavor. As always, you’ve got to keep an eye on you fondue pots. If it gets too hot, it starts to overcook. If you cool it too much, it gets clumpy.

Next up was the chocolate fondue. This is easy to make since you just melt chocolate in cream. I used a mix of dark and semi-sweet chocolate. It was fabulous. I also used the same recipe and substituted some white chocolate to make a white chocolate fondue.

With the fondue I served:

– strawberries

– pineapple

– marshmallows

– chocolate chip cookies

– fortune cookies

– chunks of rice krispie treats

– blueberries

– raspberries

– banana

– biscotti

– pound cake

I also served a bowl of chopped peanuts and a bowl of flake coconut (to roll things in after they are dipped in the chocolate). The chocolate fondue is always a big hit and so delicious.

We had a great time, but this party just about kills me every year! It takes so long to chop and prepare the many foods in advance and then there are so many plates, forks, and serving dishes to wash afterwards! Our party is dinner only – guests go elsewhere for the ball drop, so we were in bed by 10:30 and sound asleep from exhaustion.

It is a tradition at our house to have fondue on New Year’s Eve. It used to be just us and the kids, but over the years, more and more people have joined us. Our dining room table was at capacity this year and the two fondue pots I had going were barely enough. Next … Read more →

This recipe is from Season’s Eatings. My issue mysteriously disappeared, so please thank my friend Andrew Ritchie for sending it to me by visiting his amazing site, Martha Moments. I think Andrew knows more about Martha Stewart Living than anyone else (and his attempts to replicate Martha are always stunningly beautiful).

I decided to make this for our annual New Year’s Eve party. I always make fondue (which I will post about tomorrow), but I decided to add this to my repertoire as well. Here’s the link to the recipe.

 

 

First you slice and brown onions. Then you cover them and let them cook on low for 40 minutes. This went smoothly. The onions browned nicely. Once they are done, you add salt, thyme, and vinegar and uncover them and cook until the liquid is gone. I did this. Next you’re supposed to chop the onions and mix cream cheese and sour cream with a mixer. Instead, I dumped the onions in the food processor and chopped them in there and threw in the cream cheese and sour cream and whizzed it there. This was easy.

I tasted the dip at this point and was not thrilled. It had a strong vinegar taste. I added a little sugar, more salt and some pepper. It still tasted like vinegar to me but I didn’t have time to do anything else. I put it in the fridge and moved on to other things.

Next, I made the fingerling potatoes to dip in it. I cooked these in the oven with a little olive oil. They came out nicely.

 

 

When I served the dip, the vinegar flavor had disappeared, so I think it just needed to sit a while.

The dip recipe made tons and tons. I’ve got so much left over, I’m taking it to another party Friday. I’ll have to make more potatoes though since those are all gone. Thumbs up on this dish. It had a nice, rich,  sweet flavor and the potatoes were a great thing to dip in it. I would make this again. Our guests scarfed it down quickly and it was a hit.

This recipe is from Season’s Eatings. My issue mysteriously disappeared, so please thank my friend Andrew Ritchie for sending it to me by visiting his amazing site, Martha Moments. I think Andrew knows more about Martha Stewart Living than anyone else (and his attempts to replicate Martha are always stunningly beautiful). I decided to make … Read more →

This is my Christmas teacup collection. When I was a child, each year my grandmother gave me one for my birthday. You can imagine how I felt as an 8 year old, opening a china teacup. But now I’m glad I have the collection. Some of them have been broken and glued back together. I also am constantly looking for more that are not red, since most of the rooms in my house use pink or cranberry at Christmas, not red.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. As always, we will be having a fondue party. This year, I’m going to make Martha’s version, from her site. I just got back from the grocery store where I bought everything we need.  If I can locate my Season’s Eatings special issue magazine, I want to make the onion dip with the potato slices for dipping. Somehow the magazine is missing at the moment. If you have the recipe, would you email it to me? I’m tearing my hair out here trying to find it.

This is my Christmas teacup collection. When I was a child, each year my grandmother gave me one for my birthday. You can imagine how I felt as an 8 year old, opening a china teacup. But now I’m glad I have the collection. Some of them have been broken and glued back together. I … Read more →

Here is one of the boxes of Martha’s candy I’m giving away this season. I’m using Martha’s boxes, which I found at Walmart. I think I got the last package the store had, back in early December and I’ve never seen them again, so I think they sold like hot cakes.

Here is one of the boxes of Martha’s candy I’m giving away this season. I’m using Martha’s boxes, which I found at Walmart. I think I got the last package the store had, back in early December and I’ve never seen them again, so I think they sold like hot cakes.

On page 74 of December Living, Lucinda Scala Quinn has a wonderful looking meal. Since I’m not hosting any holiday events, I won’t have a chance to make the main course, but I decided to give one of the sides a try. The roasted brussels sprouts (I don’t know about you, but I’ve called these “brussel sprouts” not “brussels sprouts”) with parsnips sounded yummy.

I must confess I am the only person in my house who liked brussel sprouts. Mr. MarthaAndMe will choke some down if necessary, but only under duress. The kids won’t touch them. I also like parsnips, but I usually roast them with carrots and rutabagas, so this was a new one for me.

I do like roasting winter vegetables. I think it gives it a nice flavor and sometimes I get so sick of boiling vegetables. I usually add balsamic vinegar when I roast them, although this recipe only called for oil and salt and pepper, so I followed the instructions.

This cooked quite quickly since you cook it at 450 degrees (which always poses the danger of burning it). It had a nice taste. I forgot to add the pecans, but didn’t miss them. I will definitely roast brussel sprouts again.

On page 74 of December Living, Lucinda Scala Quinn has a wonderful looking meal. Since I’m not hosting any holiday events, I won’t have a chance to make the main course, but I decided to give one of the sides a try. The roasted brussels sprouts (I don’t know about you, but I’ve called these … Read more →

Every year I buy a gingerbread house kit and we decorate it (if you’re going to buy a kit, look for the ones that come with the plastic tray with the channels in it – this way you can assemble the house and decorate it right away since the channels keep the walls up). This year, I didn’t buy one, planning instead to make my own. That’s what Martha would do after all. Well, here we are just a few days before Christmas and I never got around to it. I did actually find and print out the recipe on Martha’s site, but I was discouraged by the fact that the template made 5 tiny gingerbread huts instead of one big house.

The great gingerbread debacle of ’08 came to a head the other night when the children complained about us not having one and how much they wanted to do it. Sigh. So Mr. MarthaAndMe made a quick stop at Bed, Bath and Beyond and grabbed a kit.

We assembled it as tradition dictates. Mr. MarthaAndMe does the actual construction. Each child gets to do a side to his or her specifications. I do some of the front and try to create some kind of uniformity. The dogs wait under the table for pieces of candy to drop.

This year, I followed Martha’s lead and made gumdrop snowmen, like she has on page  53 of December Living. I’m rather proud of mine (Mr. MarthaAndMe says he appears to be French with a beret and scarf) and mini-Martha made a fishing Cyclops.

This gingerbread house isn’t nearly up to Martha’s standards (the kit didn’t come with very much frosting, so the house seems kind of bare to me), but we had fun making it.

Every year I buy a gingerbread house kit and we decorate it (if you’re going to buy a kit, look for the ones that come with the plastic tray with the channels in it – this way you can assemble the house and decorate it right away since the channels keep the walls up). This … Read more →

Martha has a variety of homekeeping tips on page 136 of December Living.

She suggests we use fabric instead of wrapping paper and recommends making sacks. They’re reusable and can be tied with ribbon. I don’t really like this idea. It’s too homey and country looking for my taste. Somehow handing someone a cloth sack doesn’t feel as nice as handing them a wrapped gift or even a pretty gift bag.

She recommends we get kids involved in decorating, making cookies and drawing pictures. I agree with this. Our kids are definitely involved.  They are each responsible for wrapping the gifts that are from them. They do the cookie decorating and gingerbread house decorating. We also have a tree in the family room that is just theirs and they put their own ornaments on it each year. When they were younger, they would decorate the outsides of envelopes or draw pictures to give people.

Martha suggests looking for alternatives to store bought gift wrap and lists all the tired suggestions of using the comics, a map, sewing patterns, etc. I’m tired of people suggesting this and really I don’t want to get a gift wrapped in newspaper. I think it’s boring and tacky.

A green suggestion in this section is to shred the wrapping paper after the holidays and use it for packing. I like that idea a lot.

The section recommends keeping universal gifts on hand for an unexpected gift situation. I don’t do this. All of our holiday gatherings are planned in advance and I don’t have to worry about someone coming over unexpectedly.

Offering your time instead of a gift is another suggestion here. I like this, but I think it has to be something the person really will use. It’s easy to say you’ll babysit or take your grandmother on an outing, but a lot of times I think the recipients feel awkward about actually redeeming these gifts.

Another tip suggests planning ahead for holiday parties by moving coats around and making space in the fridge. Not a concern here since it looks like we won’t be hosting a single thing at our house this year. A good tip though.

Creative gift cards are another Martha suggestion. She says to buy them from unusual places like bakeries, golf courses, hair salons, etc. I usually give one uncle a gift certificate to a bakery and in the past we’ve given my mother-in-law a hair salon certificate (which I don’t think she liked by the way).  These can be good gifts, but I think you have to really know the person well enough to know what they would be interested in.

The last suggestion is to start a giving folder, where you keep a running list of ideas for gifts. I have a word document on my computer where I do this. It’s a great way to jot down things that come to you through the year which you might forget by December.

Martha has a variety of homekeeping tips on page 136 of December Living. She suggests we use fabric instead of wrapping paper and recommends making sacks. They’re reusable and can be tied with ribbon. I don’t really like this idea. It’s too homey and country looking for my taste. Somehow handing someone a cloth sack … Read more →

Yesterday I made the batter for the Meyer Lemon Lace Tuiles (page 32 of December Living). It was easy – lemon and orange juice, butter, flour, sugar, and lemon and orange zest (the recipe calls for Meyer lemon juice and zest – not attainable in my neck of the woods, so I just used regular). The recipe says to refrigerate overnight. Check.

Today I got it out and put the batter on the baking sheets as directed – 3 inch circles, 2 inches apart. No problem. I was really excited

about this recipe. You bake the batter then you take each cookie and wrap it around the handle of a spoon to make a tube shape. They looked crunchy and wonderful in the photos.

This recipe seemed really simple and I wasn’t worried about it turning out at all.

Silly me. Here is what I took out of the oven:

A total unmitigated disaster. There is nothing here that is usable.  It all ran into each other and did not maintain any shape at all. I threw it all in the trash.

What makes me even more upset is that this is the second batch of lemon cookies I’ve made this year that are worthless. The first ones were from a recipe I ripped out of a magazine in a Land o’ Lakes butter add for Lemon Meltaways. There was clearly a mistake in that recipe because the batter tasted like cornstarch and it cooked into piles of crumbs.

So I am 0 for 2 on my lemon cookie attempt this year. Really, this is why you should just stick with your tried and true family recipes. And from now I will.

Thumbs down on this Martha, very, very disappointing.

Yesterday I made the batter for the Meyer Lemon Lace Tuiles (page 32 of December Living). It was easy – lemon and orange juice, butter, flour, sugar, and lemon and orange zest (the recipe calls for Meyer lemon juice and zest – not attainable in my neck of the woods, so I just used regular). … Read more →

On page 118 of the Handmade for the Holidays special issue, Martha has a recipe for granola. This seemed like it would make a great gift. I ran around buying all the ingredients and began what was a simple process.

First you melt butter and stir in brown sugar, honey, salt, water, vanilla, and cinnamon. Then you stir in rolled oats, oat bran, wheat germ, raw cashews and raw almonds. You spread the mixture on two baking sheets and bake for an hour and a half. The granola looked great – golden and shiny. It stuck together just enough. You’re then supposed to mix it with dried cherries, coconut and golden raisins. Before I did that, I tasted it.

Oh boy. Thumbs down. It was very salty and not very sweet. It needed a lot more cinnamon and sugar and maybe something else (not sure what!). It was pretty bland, although the nuts tasted good. It did have a nice crunchy texture. The verdict was that I would not give this to anyone without some major doctoring. I’m considering trying to mix it with more sugar and cinnamon to see if I can make it edible, but as of right now, this is off the gift-giving list. Thumbs down on this, Martha.

During this whole process, my Handmade for the Holidays magazine fell into a sink full of water. I think it’s probably not salvageable (although I am trying to dry it), so this might be my last project from that issue!

On page 118 of the Handmade for the Holidays special issue, Martha has a recipe for granola. This seemed like it would make a great gift. I ran around buying all the ingredients and began what was a simple process. First you melt butter and stir in brown sugar, honey, salt, water, vanilla, and cinnamon. … Read more →

In December Living, page 208, the “What’s for Dinner” section this month is far too complicated. Cioppino? Really? For a busy weeknight in December? Not on your life. It’s just not happening. With all the expenses December brings, I cannot bring myself to buy mussels and clams for a weeknight meal. And I do not have time to try something totally out of my league like this.

I was, however, enticed by the bread accompanying it – Baguette with Parmesan and Roasted Garlic. Martha says to roast some garlic, then spread it on the bread and top with some shaved Parmesan. Oh, yummy! We did sprinkle a little olive oil on the bread as well. This was easy and tasty. To roast the garlic, I just dumped some olive oil over the garlic head, put it in a small glass pan and covered with foil then cooked the heck out of it.  It tastes fab, but be prepared to have garlic breath for the rest of the night.

In December Living, page 208, the “What’s for Dinner” section this month is far too complicated. Cioppino? Really? For a busy weeknight in December? Not on your life. It’s just not happening. With all the expenses December brings, I cannot bring myself to buy mussels and clams for a weeknight meal. And I do not … Read more →