# 055, 056, 057 + 058

#055 - Corn Tortilla Chicken Tenders

#056 - Grilled Pizza - As in, pizza cooked on the grill, dough and all! Very delicious.

#057 - Stuffed Cabbage - Pretty good, even though they made me smell like someone's Polish grandma.

#058 - Apple Crisp - This one sort of feels like cheating, since it's basically the same way I've made apple crisp since I was, like, 15. Growing up, we only had a woodstove (and no, Laura Ingalls Wilder was not my neighbor), which was not exactly the most accurate and even way to bake. Apple crisp is a very forgiving baked good though, so it was something that I made regularly. And Martha's recipe is pretty similar to mine (which was from, I believe, The Joy of Cooking, which was basically the only cookbook my Mom had). Making it today though did make me realize that I need to permanently "borrow" my parent's apple peeler/slicer/corer doohicky!

From my google homepage

 

Who knew Martha was so punny!

# 051, 052, 053 + 054

#051 - Emeril's Sloppy Joes - Since Emeril and Martha are BFFs now, she has give him a monthly feature in EDF. I love Sloppy Joes, and these weren't bad. Not really toddler friendly though!

#052 - Beef and Snow Pea Stir Fry - I'm stupid and can't find the link for this one. Don't worry though, it wasn't that good! 

# 053 - Black Eyed Pea Salad - Martha wanted me to make this to go along with a pork tenderloin; we had it with turkey burgers. It was good, though the addition of avocados means it doesn't look so pretty the next day (if you have any leftovers).

# 054 - Sesame Chicken Salad - No recipe link for this yet, since it's in the most recent EDF. I kind of cheated since Martha wanted me to shred the chicken - but try telling a hungry toddler that! It was good though, nevertheless.

I have been slacking on my project because of vacation, but I'm back now! ANd I am also determined to do more craft projects and desserts, instead of just cooking Martha dinners all the time.

# 050

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes.

Also made for a cookout with friends! Another hit from Martha's Cupcakes book. I love peanut butter, so I figured these couldn't go wrong.

Annnd, I'm half-way there! I've actually done more than 50 Martha things, but just haven't gotten a chance to take pictures of all of them. Anyone have any suggestions for something fabulous for #100? I'll probably get there right around Christmas time, so take that into consideration. :)

# 049

Hummingbird Cupcakes.

After reading this book, I became enamored with the idea of hummingbird cakes. (As an aside, I love Sarah Addison Allen - all of her books have a sort of fun, magical quality about them)

Thankfully, Martha had a recipe for the cupcake version in her Cupcakes book. I made them, topped with cream cheese frosting, for a Memorial Day cookout at a neighbors house, and they were a hit! Even a neighbor who claimed to not like cake (odd!) thought that they were good - with all the stuff in the batter, they have more of a muffin-like consistency.

# 048

Corn Cakes with Crispy Ham.

Another EDF recipe. Fairly easy to make, but not at child-pleasing as I had hoped. Not bad tasting, though probably not something I would make again. The ham was good though!

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/corn-cakes-with-goat-cheese

# 047

Yogurt Waffles.

From a recent EDF. Yum! These were great, and other than having to let the batter sit for 15 minutes after mixing, very quick and easy to make. They tasted great with some yogurt and pure maple syrup on top.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/yogurt-waffles

# 046

Sticky Chicken Wings, from Everyday Food.

These were delicious. So delicious, in fact, that Gabe proclaimed he could eat them "all day, everyday", and that they were better than chicken from the Hangar, which, if you know Gabe and you know the Hangar, you will realize is saying a lot.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/sticky-chicken-wings

# 045

Fast Raspberry Scones.

Easy and delicious. Plus, they're small, so you can eat a bunch of them, and it's really just like eating one regular scone... or something like that. :)

# 044

Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya with Broiled Tomatoes

Made this as my Mother's Day dinner! It was quite yummy - even Ben seemed to love it. Could just be that he loves shrimp, sausage and broccoli though. Oh, and these sausages? Are totally delicious. Haven't met a flavor that I don't love.

# 043

Cranberry White Wine Spritzer

Another EDF cocktail. Pretty good, but also would've been better with ice! Our refrigerator is perfect, except for the lack of ice maker (and the fact that it tried to burn our house down...).

# 042

Pork Ragu

Made with some of the pork shoulder that I cooked up a couple weeks ago. Pretty yummy, though next time I will use regular mashed potatoes - the sweet potatoes imparted too much flavor of their own.

# 041

Tequila & Tonic with Lime

Everyone knows that Martha has a drinking problem, so I figured the cocktails that she has in EDF were worth a try!

I must admit, the first time I tried this I didn't make it myself. I was at a wedding, with open bar, and I probably had like 6 of them. They are yummy! I've always been a fan of the vodka and tonic, but these may trump it.

The one I made myself (and photographed) was pretty good, though we didn't have any ice. (Despite having like 2 dozen ice cube trays, from when I was making all of Ben's baby food)

# 040

Easy Pork Shoulder from EDF April 2010.

Not very exciting in and of itself, but it has been portioned up and frozen so that I can take it out to make yummy things like pulled pork sandwiches!

# 039

Brown Sugar Poundcake Cupcakes (with my own Strawberry Buttercream) from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book.

These cupcakes were yummy, though a bit dense, but I guess that's to be expected with POUND cake. I will definitely make them again, especially since my mom basically demanded that I make them the next time she visits. :)

# 037 + 038

Pork Milanese and Ricotta Dumplings, both from the May 2010 edition of EDF.

This was a super yummy meal, though a bit more time consuming that I like dinner to normally be - definitely good for a special occasion or something along those lines. The ricotta dumplings were especially yummy, and much easier than the stupid gnocchi I tried making a while ago.

# 036

White Bean & Tuna Salad from the May 2010 edition of EDF.

A quick, easy dinner that was very enjoyable, although not very photogenic...

# 035

Bean & Cheese Burritos from the "5 Meals for $50" feature in the April 2010 edition of EDF (Everyday Food).

Filling and cheap, and they didn't taste horrible.

#034

Tangy Chicken with Orzo Pilaf.

This is from the same "5 Meals for $50 or Less" feature as the egg catastrophe. Unlike the egg dish though, this was yummy! The only thing against it was that it was fairly labor intensive and time consuming - thankfully I had a toddler who was totally willing to watch a DVR'd episode of Sesame Street while I cooked.

The chicken and sauce were super yummy, and while the orzo was a bit bland, it was improved with the sauce. I will definitely make this again, though probably not until the weather cools off again - it involved a lot of standing over the stove and use of the oven, which is not a good thing when the weather warms up!

# 033

Baked Eggs and Tortillas in Creamy Tomato Sauce.

From the April 2010 issue of Everyday Food.

This was fairly gross. I was excited about it, because I like eggs, and tomato sauce, and corn tortillas and cheese. But together? Not so good. Enough so that we threw out what was leftover after choking down a little for dinner with copious amounts of hot sauce (for me) and ketchup (for Gabe) on it. Oh well!

Sorry for disappearing a for a while! Things have been busy, and making Martha dinners all the time was getting expensive, so I took a little break. Have no fear though, this week I am doing 5 Martha dinners (from the "5 for $50" in this months Everyday Food), plus Gabe and I have finally decided to get married (!!!) this fall, I believe (!!! again!), and since we're trying to do it on a budget, you can bet there will be a lot of crafting going on, from invitations to decorations.

I did recently purchase the new Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. While I haven't had a ton of time to look at it yet, it does seem to be really nicely designed and have a lot of great projects inside, plus a CD of patterns. There is one thing that really bothers me about it though.


The design on the spines of the books don't match. If you're doing a set of encyclopedias, and I saw Martha say on her show that there would be at least one more of these crafty books, wouldn't you want the spines to match so that they would look nice on someones bookcase? The first one was really nice, with the little picture, and then the text below it. Yet the new book has no picture, and the "Encyclopedia of..." font is even different!

When I was working in ad sales at the local newspaper, one of my big things was congruity, whether is be through just one ad or a whole campaign. Fonts, design, etc. I was pretty anal about it, and I find it really hard to believe that I am more anal than Martha Stewart, who I often think of as the queen of anal retentiveness.

It's not a huge deal, and doesn't ruin the book for me, but you would think with how detail oriented Martha is, this is something that shouldn't be so noticeable.

# 032

Applesauce Cake.


This is from the April 2010 issue of Everyday Food . I love Everyday Food. I have had a subscription for the past 4 years or so, and I have hoarded the cute little magazines. This new issue though has made me want to go back through them all... so many yummy recipes! And they're all fairly simple (unlike the stupid gnocchi or the 6 hour peanut butter cookies).

This cake was good and super simple (you do all the mixing in the pot that you make the applesauce in - no bowl to wash!), plus it was "healthy" enough that I didn't feel guilty giving some to Ben for breakfast the next morning - it had a lot less sugar than some muffins I've made.

My OTHER blog

I've been doing a lot of non-Martha crafting, and have decided to start posting that on my other blog, if anyone is interested!

http://jillydooodles.blogspot.com/

#031

Potato Gnocchi (aka, the ugliest gnocchi ever).

I love pasta. For a while, I was convinced that I really wanted this $180 pasta maker KitchenAid attachment from Williams Sonoma. Yeah, it's expensive, but I could MAKE MY OWN PASTA! It would practically pay for itself after like 300 pasta dinners!!! Making this stupid gnocchi has me glad that I didn't waste my money. For the type of cooking I usually do (ie., with a hungry toddler playing at my feet), an hours long process just isn't a good idea. The forming of the shapes part was the toughest part, and I gave up after making about a dozen of them (so maybe the pasta maker would be ok, since it makes the shapes for you! hmm...).

Taste-wise, they were sort of bland, which being pasta, was not surprising, I guess.

These are good to make if you have a couple of hours to kill. But I will be sticking to the $4 packages from the grocery store.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/potato-gnocchi

# 030

Light Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.

This cake officially marks my being finished with whole wheat flour for anything other than bread. I tried! Really, I did. I just don't enjoy the flavor it imparts to anything but bread. This cake wasn't horrible (and Gabe's dad and step-mom really seemed to enjoy it)... but if I want a pineapple upside-down cake, I want it to taste like a dessert, and this didn't. The fun part though? It was the first time I actually purchased and cut up a whole pineapple! Much easier than I had expected.

Link to Recipe

# NM2

Split Pea Soup.

Not a very appetizing photo, I know. But the soup is delicious, and so easy to make. Really. Even my mom, who is a self-proclaimed pea soup hater said that this soup wasn't too bad. And it's vegetarian!

8 cups water
1 16oz bag of dried spilt peas
5 carrots, diced
1/2 onion, diced

and the "secret" ingredient:
3 extra large Knorr vegetarian vegetable bouillon cubes

Sautee onion in a large pot with butter or oil until translucent. Add the 8 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the bouillon cubes and stir occasionally until they dissolve (because you don't want to happen upon a chunk of that flavor goodness when eating your soup).

Add peas, carrot and onion. Return to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Cook for approximately one and a quarter hours - you'll be able to tell when it's done. Make sure to stir occasionally. If you like your soup chunky, stir fairly vigorously every 3 minutes or so during the last 15 minutes of cooking. This will break down some of the peas, but not all of them. If you like smooth soup, you'll want to put it through a blender or food processor when it's done - or use an immersion blender if you're lucky enough to have one.

Then it's ready to eat! It makes a fair amount of soup, but it also freezes well. And you can add more water if you like your soup thinner.

# 029

Chocolate Piped Peanut Butter Cookies.

To me, these cookies are the quintessential example of a Martha recipe. She takes something that is common and usually simple, and takes it another step (aka, makes it harder).

Now if you look at Martha's recipe (here) with picture, and then look at my picture, you will notice a slight difference. Or a massive one. Other than the fact that I am still a horrible photographer, my cookies look a bit different. In my defense, I did make one sheet of cookies that looked like Martha's - pre-chocolate, anyway. But I forgot to rotate my pans in the oven, and those cookies go burned. Oops! But after doing it Martha's way, I was running out of time and patience (I have to do the majority of my baking when Ben is napping), so I just did one fork tine impression over the top. And with the chocolate piped into the tine indentations, I think they actually look pretty nice (upper-right hand corner of the picture). Only I became impatient again, and then just started drizzling the chocolate all over the cookies. They still looked delicious, just not as neat and tidy and anal retentive.

Good cookies, but can be done a lot easier and quicker than this recipe (I didn't even talk about having to chill and freeze the dough at 2 different times). Made for a neighbor who snow-blowed our driveway after we got almost 2 feet of snow last week. :)

# NM1

I am cranking along here, so I've decided to share some non-Martha recipes for some things that I really love to make and eat. The first notmartha project is my meatloaf, which is one of my favorite things.

The beauty about this recipe is that it isn't really a recipe, but more of a formula. Basic components:

- 1 package ground turkey (I think it's around 20 ounces)
- 1 egg
- 1 - 2 cups of some sort of grain - bread, stuffing mix, oats, rice (cooked), whatever. You could probably even use beans.
- 2 - 3 cups of chopped, sauteed (so that they don't make your meatloaf watery) vegetables. I most often use onions, peppers, mushrooms and carrots, but it's basically limitless. The nice part about this step is that it can be done ahead, and you can make the pieces as big or small as you want, even pureeing them if you're trying to hide their presence from picky kids.
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce or ketchup, or a mix of the two.
- anything else you want to throw in (cooked bacon and chunks of cheese are a yummy addition)

Mix it all together in a big bowl with your hands. Press into the pre-greased pan of your choice (loaf pan, round dish, square, whatever floats your boat), glaze top with additional BBQ sauce if you'd like, and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.

It's a good thing. :)

# 028 + bonus recipes

Sprinkle's Strawberry Frosting (from Martha), plus Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes (from here) and Maple Buttercream Frosting (from my head). Deliciousness all around! And the frosting was good and easy, even though my cousin Stephanie gave me a hard time about buying frozen strawberries - she didn't think that was a very Martha thing to do. But the store was out of fresh ones, and the recipe called for frozen anyway! HAH!

# 027

Beer-Braised Sausages with Warm Potato Salad.

This is out of the new (March 2010) Everyday Food magazine. I love sausage, beer, and potatoes, so I had to make it. It was pretty delicious, though next time I think I will use a spicier sausage, as the sweet italian they suggested was good, but didn't have quite the kick I really like. Ben also loves sausages (and anything spicy - the kid was eating Buffalo pretzel pieces earlier), so this will definitely be made again!

# 026

Baklava!

Being all brown, baklava is a bit hard to photograph attractively (plus I suck at taking pictures). So I played around with the macro feature on my camera, and took this close-up of all the nutty, buttery goodness.

As far as baklava goes, this was ok. I remember making it in the past, and the syrup that you pour over it had honey, and I liked it that way more... it had a deeper flavor to it. Not a bad recipe though, especially if you have fillo dough to get rid of!

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cinnamon-walnut-baklava

# 025

Molten Mocha Cakes.

Valentine's Day Dessert. <3

These were delicious, and I don't even really like chocolate desserts very much. Gabe does, and he requested that I make him one for breakfast, three for lunch, and three more for dinner. They were that good.

Plus? Super easy to make! Almost idiot proof.


Mmm... Molten.

# 024

Beef Wellington Tarts.

Valentine's Day Dinner. <3

I have been making Beef Wellington for Valentine's Day since Gabe & I have been together (four years now!). These tarts were good, but I think I prefer it the regular way, with everything all wrapped up in the puff pastry.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/beef-wellington-tarts

# 023

Felt Case.


Ooh, look, a craft! Finally! This craft has been a long time coming, and actually has quite the story behind it.

I originally wanted to make this scarf, which seemed really neat, and I had been interested in felting wool for a while. However, I do not own any wool sweaters, because I don't really like to wear wool. And wool sweaters are freaking impossible to find at thrift stores. Seriously. I had found one, ugly printed mans sweater, and was about to give up, when I found this nice red cardigan. I practically jumped for joy in the store (in fact, I said YAY!, and the woman next to me looked at me funny).

But sadly, the red one was the only one to be found. Not sufficient enough for the scarf. I bought it anyways though, and brought it home and felted it. I wish I had taken before and after pictures, because this sweater that started out being able to fit me looked like it would barely fit Ben when I was finished.

I found the idea for this pouch, which seemed like a good idea to me, since I'm always losing my black cell phone in the bottom of my massive black purse. It suggested using pinking shears for the edges, which I do not own, and apparently cost like 45 DOLLARS (!!!) at the store. For scissors! Holy wow! I knew that my mom had a pair that she probably never used though, so when we went to visit, I stole them. Actually, she gave them to me.

So, the pouch. It was actually very easy to make, and I added the button (which came off of the original sweater). And it definitely does make it easy to find my phone now! I have a bunch of felted wool left though, so if anyone else wants a cute little pouch, let me know!

http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/felt-cases

# 022

Farfalle with Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese.

Delicious dish, and very easy to make too! I used mini-farfalle (bow-tie pasta) to make it easier for Ben to eat. Gabe said it tasted like eating a really yummy bagel.

I would definitely make this again, and I think I would be good with some spinach and tomatoes mixed in as well.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/farfalle-with-smoked-salmon-and-cream-cheese

# 020 + 021

Herb Roasted Hen + Polenta Fries.

Truthfully, the chicken wasn't made much differently than I usually make roast chicken, though I did appreciate the suggestion to put the onions under the chicken, but still on the rack... I usually put them under the rack, resting on the bottom of the pan. I was nervous about the fennel (one of three things that I do not like; fennel, water chestnuts, and pine nuts.), but the flavor was subtle enough that I didn't really notice it (that and I still had a cold). The polenta fries were really yummy though, and definitely something I will make again.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/herb-roasted-hen-with-wild-arugula-salad + http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/ems-polenta-fries

# 019

Soy Glazed Salmon.

No, I did not take this picture. I thieved it from Martha's website, because I was sick when I made this, and didn't think to take a picture until I had started eating. And I really didn't think anyone would want to see a picture of some half-eaten fish.

This was decent, though not super flavorful, though that could be attributed to the cold I had, which made pretty much everything taste like not a whole lot. Ben liked it though, which probably had something to do with all the brown sugar in the marinade.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/soy-glazed-salmon

# 018

Mushroom Turnovers

I probably shouldn't count this one, since I screwed up and bought Filo dough, instead of the puff pastry that the recipe called for. However, I think that they are similar enough, that I'm not gonna make a big deal about it.

Plus, these were yummy! Definitely a better vegetarian alternative than the cabbage tarts. Gabe really liked his, and is taking the extra for lunch tomorrow. It didn't interest Ben too much, but he did have fun throwing the flakes of file dough all over the place (and I had fun cleaning them up after!).

And yes, those are canned green beans on my plate. They are my guilty pleasure. And how lame does that make me that my guilty pleasure is a vegetable?

Soo... anyone want to come over for a filo dough party? I have a lot left over! Maybe I'll see if Martha has a baklava recipe... Mmmmm...

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/mushroom-turnovers-with-sour-cream

# 016 & 017

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Seven Minute Frosting.

I made these delicious looking confections on a recent trip Ben & I took to Maine to see my parents. My dad loooooves cupcakes, and I like to make things that are different from the usual vanilla/vanilla combo. He has recently been enamored with some snickerdoodle cookies that my mom buys for him (I did not get my love of baking from her!), so I figured they were worth a shot.


The icing intimidated me at first, because of my last foray into a whipped egg white frosting, and I almost just did a plain vanilla buttercream (which I have mastered, I think), but I figured I had time, and someone to watch my child, so I would give it a shot.

And it worked! It came together just like Martha said it would, and the light, Fluff-like was a great accompaniment to the cinnamon-y cupcakes. I halved the recipe, since there were only 3.5 of us, and they were gone by the end of the next day (my dad especially really liked them!).

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes & Icing

Project #11 Broccoli Gratin

Project #10 Vanilla Pound Cake

I will start this post by saying I am NOT happy! Although this recipe was easy to make and I had every ingredient in my cupboards already, that is where the good news STOPS! I was trying to be nice to my husband because pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream is his favorite dessert. We had strawberries already (and blueberries as a matter of fact) and I was thinking it would be a wonderful treat and delicious dessert after a Martha dinner. NOPE! The pound cake was: hard, tasteless and dry! I really would like to blame this one on Martha...I feel I followed the recipe to the letter. If anyone out there thinks they can do better, try! Let me know! I would love to know if I did something tragically wrong and this could be delicious. Sorry Mark, no pound cake for you for dessert. :(