I make Martha’s What’s for Dinner section in Living every month, but I don’t always make it all on the same night. For October, I decided to put it all together. I made Roasted Pumpkin Soup, Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto and Black-Eyed Peas with Baby Greens for dinner. This recipe is also in the new Martha Stewart Dinner at Home book, coming out this month (my thoughts on the book are at the end of the post).

This dinner was not something you can quickly

pumpkin soup

whip up. It took some time. First, I started with the pumpkin. For the life of me, I could not get my pumpkin cut up so I could roast it. Mr. MarthaAndMe stepped in and did the grunt work. This pumpkin was nearly impossible to hack up! He was really sweating. Finally I got in the oven and roasted it with onion, garlic and mushrooms. Once it was roasted and peeled, it’s simple to get it to be soup. You puree it with some vegetable stock and heat it and that’s it. It was horribly bland though, so I added some cumin and also added a little bit of cream. Even so, I didn’t find it particularly flavorful. I have made butternut squash soup in the past and that is much tastier. I’ll stick with that in the future.

black eyed pea salad

The black-eyed pea salad with baby greens was a breeze to put together – peas, chopped tomato, cilantro, garlic, greens and dressing. I liked this and ate the rest of it for lunch the next day.

Now for the flautas. This was something completely new to me, so I was excited to give it a try. You start by cooking pumpkin seeds (green ones you buy at the store – NOT seeds from the pumpkin you roasted – I found mine in the bulk section) with garlic. You pulverize it into a pesto with fresh cilantro, lime and oil. I found this to be new and exciting. I love

spreading the pesto

the taste of cilantro and lime and the pumpkin seeds were a new ingredient for me. You spread the pesto on your tortillas, then add some Monterey Jack cheese and roll them. Then you fry them in some oil.

There wasn’t much to these when we ate them. Mostly, they tasted greasy from the oil. I am not big on deep-fried foods, so this didn’t appeal to my palate. I could barely taste the pesto, even though I slathered it on pretty thickly and

frying

it had a nice flavor when I sampled it before making up the flautas. There wasn’t a lot of cheese in proportion to tortilla. They were just not worth the effort. Now, I can see making this pesto and using it with chicken and adding some tomato or avocado and not frying the tortillas – that would appeal to me then, but this just did not. It would be a fun twist on tacos.

Out of three dishes, one was quite good, one was ok and one was just not

taking a bite

worth it. Pretty disappointing!

Now, as for Martha’s new book, I have an advance copy and it is definitely a gorgeous book. It’s divided into seasons and then within each season are complete meals. Each meal is set up like the “What’s for Dinner” section in Living – 4 items that go together. The book is meant for easy entertaining or at home meals and the ingredients are meant to be accessible. There are certainly a lot of interesting things in this book – things you won’t find elsewhere, so I like it for that. However, although the ingredients are meant to be accessible, these are not meals you can make on nights where you pull out the cookbook and 5 pm and see what you can pull together. For me at least, I would not have most ingredients lying around and would need to plan in advance to make these dishes.  There are many things in here I would never make just for us at home for dinner. Who makes truffles as a weeknight family dessert? Not me.  I also felt as though many of the meals were not complete enough for me – they needed more vegetables, so more work would be involved in making them into a complete meal. That being said, it is a fun, inspiring book.

I make Martha’s What’s for Dinner section in Living every month, but I don’t always make it all on the same night. For October, I decided to put it all together. I made Roasted Pumpkin Soup, Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto and Black-Eyed Peas with Baby Greens for dinner. This recipe is also in the … Read more →

I make Martha’s What’s for Dinner section in Living every month, but I don’t always make it all on the same night. For October, I decided to put it all together. I made Roasted Pumpkin Soup, Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto and Black-Eyed Peas with Baby Greens for dinner. This recipe is also in the new Martha Stewart Dinner at Home book, coming out this month (my thoughts on the book are at the end of the post).

This dinner was not something you can quickly

pumpkin soup

whip up. It took some time. First, I started with the pumpkin. For the life of me, I could not get my pumpkin cut up so I could roast it. Mr. MarthaAndMe stepped in and did the grunt work. This pumpkin was nearly impossible to hack up! He was really sweating. Finally I got in the oven and roasted it with onion, garlic and mushrooms. Once it was roasted and peeled, it’s simple to get it to be soup. You puree it with some vegetable stock and heat it and that’s it. It was horribly bland though, so I added some cumin and also added a little bit of cream. Even so, I didn’t find it particularly flavorful. I have made butternut squash soup in the past and that is much tastier. I’ll stick with that in the future.

black eyed pea salad

The black-eyed pea salad with baby greens was a breeze to put together – peas, chopped tomato, cilantro, garlic, greens and dressing. I liked this and ate the rest of it for lunch the next day.

Now for the flautas. This was something completely new to me, so I was excited to give it a try. You start by cooking pumpkin seeds (green ones you buy at the store – NOT seeds from the pumpkin you roasted – I found mine in the bulk section) with garlic. You pulverize it into a pesto with fresh cilantro, lime and oil. I found this to be new and exciting. I love

spreading the pesto

the taste of cilantro and lime and the pumpkin seeds were a new ingredient for me. You spread the pesto on your tortillas, then add some Monterey Jack cheese and roll them. Then you fry them in some oil.

There wasn’t much to these when we ate them. Mostly, they tasted greasy from the oil. I am not big on deep-fried foods, so this didn’t appeal to my palate. I could barely taste the pesto, even though I slathered it on pretty thickly and

frying

it had a nice flavor when I sampled it before making up the flautas. There wasn’t a lot of cheese in proportion to tortilla. They were just not worth the effort. Now, I can see making this pesto and using it with chicken and adding some tomato or avocado and not frying the tortillas – that would appeal to me then, but this just did not. It would be a fun twist on tacos.

Out of three dishes, one was quite good, one was ok and one was just not

taking a bite

worth it. Pretty disappointing!

Now, as for Martha’s new book, I have an advance copy and it is definitely a gorgeous book. It’s divided into seasons and then within each season are complete meals. Each meal is set up like the “What’s for Dinner” section in Living – 4 items that go together. The book is meant for easy entertaining or at home meals and the ingredients are meant to be accessible. There are certainly a lot of interesting things in this book – things you won’t find elsewhere, so I like it for that. However, although the ingredients are meant to be accessible, these are not meals you can make on nights where you pull out the cookbook and 5 pm and see what you can pull together. For me at least, I would not have most ingredients lying around and would need to plan in advance to make these dishes.  There are many things in here I would never make just for us at home for dinner. Who makes truffles as a weeknight family dessert? Not me.  I also felt as though many of the meals were not complete enough for me – they needed more vegetables, so more work would be involved in making them into a complete meal. That being said, it is a fun, inspiring book.

I make Martha’s What’s for Dinner section in Living every month, but I don’t always make it all on the same night. For October, I decided to put it all together. I made Roasted Pumpkin Soup, Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto and Black-Eyed Peas with Baby Greens for dinner. This recipe is also in the … 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 →

The March “What’s for Dinner” main entree in Martha Stewart Living is Scallops with Wilted Spinach and Arugula. I love scallops and was ready to give this a try. This is a very simple recipe. You pan fry your scallops in a little oil. I love cooking scallops this way – the outside gets brown and crunchy. Once the scallops are done, you take them out and cook some garlic and add spinach and arugula and cook until wilted. You serve the scallops over the greens.

My biggest beef with this recipe was that it really needed some lemon, so we ended up squeezing lemon over it. I loved the greens and will definitely try those two in combination together again. What is truly shocking is Teen Martha ate the greens and liked them and usually she will turn and run at the sight of spinach.

The best part about this dish was the presentation. The scallops looked just gorgeous against the greens.

The March “What’s for Dinner” main entree in Martha Stewart Living is Scallops with Wilted Spinach and Arugula. I love scallops and was ready to give this a try. This is a very simple recipe. You pan fry your scallops in a little oil. I love cooking scallops this way – the outside gets brown … Read more →

The March “What’s for Dinner” main entree in Martha Stewart Living is Scallops with Wilted Spinach and Arugula. I love scallops and was ready to give this a try. This is a very simple recipe. You pan fry your scallops in a little oil. I love cooking scallops this way – the outside gets brown and crunchy. Once the scallops are done, you take them out and cook some garlic and add spinach and arugula and cook until wilted. You serve the scallops over the greens.

My biggest beef with this recipe was that it really needed some lemon, so we ended up squeezing lemon over it. I loved the greens and will definitely try those two in combination together again. What is truly shocking is Teen Martha ate the greens and liked them and usually she will turn and run at the sight of spinach.

The best part about this dish was the presentation. The scallops looked just gorgeous against the greens.

The March “What’s for Dinner” main entree in Martha Stewart Living is Scallops with Wilted Spinach and Arugula. I love scallops and was ready to give this a try. This is a very simple recipe. You pan fry your scallops in a little oil. I love cooking scallops this way – the outside gets brown … Read more →

Martha made Moroccan-Spiced Chicken with Olive, Apricot, and Pistachio Couscous on her show, on Thursday (Jan 22). These recipes are also the February What’s for Dinner in Martha Stewart Living, along with Minted Carrots.

I’ve made Moroccan chicken in the past (slightly different) and have always served it with a yogurt sauce, so this was a slight departure. We had Moroccan chicken at Epcot and also something very similar at an Afghani restaurant in NYC (which may have been the best chicken I’ve ever eaten).

Cutting up the chicken

First of all, we cut up the chicken the way Martha did on the show. Mr. MarthaAndMe went in boldly with the kitchen shears and I have to say, Martha’s method was a lot easier than the method they showed when they did the cooking school episode about this. The shears are an easy way to go and I would definitely use this method again to cut up a whole chicken. It was not nearly as unpleasant as the other method.

Next I mixed up the spices and oil and got the oven and pan hot. I spread it over the chicken, popped it in the oven and got going with everything else.

The carrots get roasted in the oven also. I have to say that roasting vegetables is my new favorite method and this was easy to do. While that was cooking, I started the couscous. On the show, Martha made her couscous plain and added the additional ingredients after it was cooked, so I did it that way too, even though the recipe says to add the apricots to the couscous while it is cooking (mini-Martha likes his couscous plain, so I wanted to have some plain for him).

Now, as I am cooking all of this, the kitchen is filling with smoke. It is just pouring out of the closed oven. The chicken is supposed to cook at 425 for 30-35 minutes. I was at about 40 minutes and it wasn’t done, but my kitchen had become a danger zone. I had had on the exhaust fan the entire time, but it wasn’t doing the trick. I opened every single window in the kitchen, the back door and the window in the attached bath, as well as cracking the sliding glass door in the dining room. It was still horrendously smoky – and we were freezing since it was about 19 degrees outside. I was just about at the point where I was going to have to take it out no matter what when finally, it was done and I let it rest.

I turned off the oven and the smoke started to clear out, but slowly. This was seriously a pretty dangerous situation. Maybe in Martha’s test kitchens they have heavy duty exhaust fans, but I really don’t recommend cooking this at this temperature in a home.

Minted Carrots

Now for the results. The carrots were great. They are just roasted with some olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. When you dish them up, you add some thinly sliced mint.  Total thumbs up on this dish. I loved the mint.

Next up, the couscous. I am a fan of couscous, so I was excited about this. I did not add the olives, since no one in my house

Couscous

will eat them. I did like the apricots and pistachios in the dish. I felt the pistachios were not a very strong flavor though and hard to detect. Like an idiot, I forgot to add the lemon juice to this and that would have really given it a little kick which it needed, because it was kind of dry and flavorless.

Moroccan Chicken

Now for the chicken. It came out of the oven looking great, don’t you think? Very brown and lovely. I threw lemons on the baking sheet with it and they cooked up well too. As for taste – sigh. It didn’t wow me. Here’s the thing – I do not like fatty, mushy chicken skin. I love chicken skin if it is crisp and does not have nasty fat all over the back of it, so I removed the skin from my piece since it wasn’t anything resembling crisp. The chicken underneath tasted like, well like chicken. Not a lot of flavor there. I was taking my bite size pieces of chicken and rubbing them over the skin to pick up the spices, and also rubbing them over the roasted lemons to get some flavor. That did help and the spice combination was a nice one, as was the lemon flavor. The best way to eat this is with chicken and couscous on your fork together. I think I should have followed my first instinct, which was to use boneless, skinless breasts and cover them with the seasoning and cook them in the oven. Less smoke, more flavor and just easier.

If I made this again, I would marinate the chicken in the oil and spices for quite a while – maybe overnight. The flavors did not soak into the chicken at all and it really needed to. If they had, this might have been fantastic.

Martha made Moroccan-Spiced Chicken with Olive, Apricot, and Pistachio Couscous on her show, on Thursday (Jan 22). These recipes are also the February What’s for Dinner in Martha Stewart Living, along with Minted Carrots. I’ve made Moroccan chicken in the past (slightly different) and have always served it with a yogurt sauce, so this was … 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.

Hearty and yummy

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 →

So I bought all the major ingredients for Martha’s What’s for Dinner? (p. 208) from the Nov issue of Living (plus one additional side). My total came to about $25 for 4.

The menu was for pan-seared strip steak with mushrooms, white-cheddar grits, and collard greens with lemon. I did not make the dessert since we don’t eat dessert on week nights (ok, except for that 9 pm dish of ice cream which neither of us seems to be able to avoid, but I don’t even consider that dessert and that’s all I have to say about that!). I also made roasted acorn squash with rosemary (p. 221).

I had this one all planned out and was in the kitchen getting things organized when my son said to me, “What time are we leaving?” “Leaving for what?” I asked. “Hockey!” Holy flipping cows – I totally forgot it was hockey day since the kids were off from school. I was completely off schedule. Good thing he said something! This meant I had to get the meal partly cooked, rush out to hockey, sit there for an hour, then rush home and attempt to get it all on the table at a reasonable hour. Whew!

First, I got the squash ready for the oven. Not hard. Then I got the grits going by dumping them in the boiling water. Next I trimmed and cut up the collard greens and got those going. Then I had to shut it all off (but left the squash in the oven on a timer) to go to hockey.

Steak and mushrooms

When I got home, the squash was just about done. The grits needed some serious cooking and stirring. The greens were just about done. So I got going on the steak. I bought strip steaks, but very thin ones (trying to save a little money). I seared them in the pan pretty quickly then covered them on a platter. I had the mushrooms ready to

Grits

go in next. I sauteed those. By then the grits were ready (I added double the amount of cheese, plus some butter which the recipe did not call for). I then added chicken stock and Dijon mustard to the mushrooms to make a little sauce.

Miraculously, it was all ready. We sat down to eat. Mr. MarthaandMe

Yummy squash

and I took some of everything. The son (mini-Martha) took piles of steak and a tiny bit of grits. The daughter took tiny pieces of everything but the squash.

The verdict? Not so great. The steak was ok, but really we prefer our steak grilled (we have a Jenn-Air grill so grilling is possible year round).

Collard greens

The sauce was ok, but nothing to knock your socks off with. I like mushrooms, so those were good. No one liked the collard greens. They were a little bitter and peppery. I think that if I creamed them like I do with spinach they might be ok, but plain they were not exciting. The grits were not great. We are not a grits family and even with extra

The plate

cheese and butter, they were just plain and nothing really worth eating.

The real winner in this meal was the squash.  Somehow the butter, brown sugar and rosemary were just the right mix. I’ve never tried rosemary on a sweet squash like this and I have to say it was delicious. That recipe is a keeper. Not so much for the rest. So, Martha, I have to tell you that what’s for dinner wasn’t so great this month!

I have to say that at this point in this experiment I am more convinced than ever that there are some foods that are just not for me. Which is distressing since I consider myself adventurous and always eager to try new things.  I don’t know if Martha and I just have different palates or what, but her recipes are just not hitting it out of the park for me or my family. It’s interesting, because I’ve really long considered her a doyenne of good taste. I do have some Martha recipes that are fantastic, but in the past month of my intensive Martha lifestyle, I’m finding the things in the magazine are not doing it for me. Which is disappointing for me. I envisioned myself serving all these fabulous meals, and what I’m discovering is that the meals I was serving before were pretty darn fabulous!

So I bought all the major ingredients for Martha’s What’s for Dinner? (p. 208) from the Nov issue of Living (plus one additional side). My total came to about $25 for 4. The menu was for pan-seared strip steak with mushrooms, white-cheddar grits, and collard greens with lemon. I did not make the dessert since … Read more →

So I bought all the major ingredients for Martha’s What’s for Dinner? (p. 208) from the Nov issue of Living (plus one additional side). My total came to about $25 for 4.

The menu was for pan-seared strip steak with mushrooms, white-cheddar grits, and collard greens with lemon. I did not make the dessert since we don’t eat dessert on week nights (ok, except for that 9 pm dish of ice cream which neither of us seems to be able to avoid, but I don’t even consider that dessert and that’s all I have to say about that!). I also made roasted acorn squash with rosemary (p. 221).

I had this one all planned out and was in the kitchen getting things organized when my son said to me, “What time are we leaving?” “Leaving for what?” I asked. “Hockey!” Holy flipping cows – I totally forgot it was hockey day since the kids were off from school. I was completely off schedule. Good thing he said something! This meant I had to get the meal partly cooked, rush out to hockey, sit there for an hour, then rush home and attempt to get it all on the table at a reasonable hour. Whew!

First, I got the squash ready for the oven. Not hard. Then I got the grits going by dumping them in the boiling water. Next I trimmed and cut up the collard greens and got those going. Then I had to shut it all off (but left the squash in the oven on a timer) to go to hockey.

Steak and mushrooms

When I got home, the squash was just about done. The grits needed some serious cooking and stirring. The greens were just about done. So I got going on the steak. I bought strip steaks, but very thin ones (trying to save a little money). I seared them in the pan pretty quickly then covered them on a platter. I had the mushrooms ready to

Grits

go in next. I sauteed those. By then the grits were ready (I added double the amount of cheese, plus some butter which the recipe did not call for). I then added chicken stock and Dijon mustard to the mushrooms to make a little sauce.

Miraculously, it was all ready. We sat down to eat. Mr. MarthaandMe

Yummy squash

and I took some of everything. The son (mini-Martha) took piles of steak and a tiny bit of grits. The daughter took tiny pieces of everything but the squash.

The verdict? Not so great. The steak was ok, but really we prefer our steak grilled (we have a Jenn-Air grill so grilling is possible year round).

Collard greens

The sauce was ok, but nothing to knock your socks off with. I like mushrooms, so those were good. No one liked the collard greens. They were a little bitter and peppery. I think that if I creamed them like I do with spinach they might be ok, but plain they were not exciting. The grits were not great. We are not a grits family and even with extra

The plate

cheese and butter, they were just plain and nothing really worth eating.

The real winner in this meal was the squash.  Somehow the butter, brown sugar and rosemary were just the right mix. I’ve never tried rosemary on a sweet squash like this and I have to say it was delicious. That recipe is a keeper. Not so much for the rest. So, Martha, I have to tell you that what’s for dinner wasn’t so great this month!

I have to say that at this point in this experiment I am more convinced than ever that there are some foods that are just not for me. Which is distressing since I consider myself adventurous and always eager to try new things.  I don’t know if Martha and I just have different palates or what, but her recipes are just not hitting it out of the park for me or my family. It’s interesting, because I’ve really long considered her a doyenne of good taste. I do have some Martha recipes that are fantastic, but in the past month of my intensive Martha lifestyle, I’m finding the things in the magazine are not doing it for me. Which is disappointing for me. I envisioned myself serving all these fabulous meals, and what I’m discovering is that the meals I was serving before were pretty darn fabulous!

So I bought all the major ingredients for Martha’s What’s for Dinner? (p. 208) from the Nov issue of Living (plus one additional side). My total came to about $25 for 4. The menu was for pan-seared strip steak with mushrooms, white-cheddar grits, and collard greens with lemon. I did not make the dessert since … Read more →