# 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!

# 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.

# 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. :)

# 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. :)

# 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.

# 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

# 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. :)

# 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!

# 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.

# 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 #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. :(

Project #9 Crispy Chocolate Marshmallow Treats

Also made specifically for a trip in the mail up to UVM, these were made for Stevie herself. I enjoy making bars to mail because they are less delicate than cookies. This recipe was also found in Everyday Food, man I love that magazine! These are as easy to make as regular rice crispy treats, but look soooo much fancier! And are sooo much more delicious! My only gripe (sorry Martha!) is that her bar recipes often are only for a 8 or 9 inch pan! What's up with that? Where's the love for the 9 X 14 in pan Martha? It makes more cookie bars, which only makes more people happier! I suppose I could take it upon myself to double the recipe....
Let me know how they are Stevie!

Project #8 Oatmeal Raisin Bars

I made these delicious Oatmeal Raisin Bars for my sister, Stevie's roommate Sydney. She is one of those rare breeds who doesn't enjoy chocolate! Complete freak right? Just kidding Syd, you know I love ya! She once requested Oatmeal Raisin Cookies be sent to UVM, so when I saw this recipe in Everyday Food I immediately thought of her. Thank god for you Syd, because otherwise I may have passed these by! And what a tragedy that would have been to have never had these delicious cookie bars in my life. That's how delicious I thought they were. I only had one, and Mark had one also, because the rest were for Syd, but that was enough to tell that they were the best ever! I hope you like them Syd! Enjoy (they should be arriving today!)!

# 010

Banana Bread!

This banana bread almost didn't make it into the oven, because the batter was so delicious, I wanted to eat the whole bowlful. Oh my.

The bread itself was pretty good, though I think I should've used bananas that were a bit more ripe, as I like my banana bread to taste a little more banana-y. Ben really liked it though, which was great. we ate it with breakfast for a few days - and no argument from him!


http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/banana-bread

Project #4 & #5 Devil's Food Cupcakes and Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting

Man, I must really love you Kara!

Made for my co-worker Kara's birthday, these cupcakes were a pain in the ass. I don't mean to be negative, but I am kinda frustrated with the way the frosting turned out. Also, it was Martha's idea to pair these two recipes, but in my opinion, this was way too much chocolate for one experience. I think the cupcakes would have been better off with a butter cream frosting.

I guess I should start my saying that when it comes to frosting from scratch, I am NEVER successful. In theory, it seems like it should be fairly easy to make. There is usually little to no cooking involved, just a whole lotta mixing. Seems so straight forward. I just don't know what happens, but every SINGLE time, I am disappointed with the final product. I should probably stop trying and leave frosting to the pros.

All in all, the cupcakes turned out edible. I did bring tiny paper cups and milk with me to work though, so my co-workers didn't go into diabetic shock.

# 007

Ginger Pumpkin Bread - Not a bad quick bread, though different from how I normally like my pumpkin breads - not at all nutmeg-y, or cinnamon-y, like pumpkin pie - which is weird that I like my pumpkin bread like this, because I don't like pumpkin pie! I went a little light on the ginger, because I was hoping to get Ben to eat this too (he's a huge fan of banana bread for breakfast)... I also skipped the optional icing glaze for this reason. This bread definitely tasted better the second day, and Gabe said the loaf he brought to work with him was devoured.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/ginger-pumpkin-bread

# 005 + 005.5

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue Frosting. Both from Martha's Cupcakes book. The cupcakes themselves were delicious, but I'm only counting the frosting as a half since it sort of failed... Meringue is sort of a pain in the ass, and I knew that... I heated the sugar and egg whites, and then let them do their thing with the KitchenAid. 25 minutes later, I thought they were ready... I added the butter, and everything looked alright. But when I added the pureed strawberry, it all fell apart. Quite literally. It looked like cottage cheese with strawberries mixed it. I wound up adding copious amounts of powdered sugar to get everything to come together. It tasted good, but I'm not sure what I did wrong. I'll try again sometime.














Don't judge... I had already had more than a few drinks at this point. It was my birthday! Cupcakes were enjoyed by all, and the ones I left behind (since these were made at Ashley's apartment) were apparently enjoyed by her coworkers at a staff meeting.

Project #2 Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes

My second project came from my beloved Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook. These delicious mini cheesecakes even include a mini crust in the form of a Oreo cookie on the bottom of each cupcake liner. Although I had to make 2 trips to the grocery store because I misread the recipe (calls for 2 POUNDS of cream cheese, not 2 packages, which at first glance, is what I saw) I would make these again. My co-workers loved them. Also pretty easy to make, I just hate waiting for ingredients to come to room temp...