# 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.

# 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

# 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.

# 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.

# 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!

# 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.

# 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!

#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

# 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.

# 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. :)

# 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!

# 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

# 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