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!)!

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.

# 002

Candied Citrus Peels! I'm not really sure what prompted me to start this project, other than maybe the overabundance of grapefruits in my basement. I like citrus fruit, don't get me wrong, but I can't eat a grapefruit for breakfast everyday. I needed something else to do with them!



The first step to this whole process (and believe me, it was a process) was to peel the grapefruits. The grapefruit on the left was actually done the Martha way; I scored the skin into sections, peeled the sections off with my fingers, then cut them into smaller pieces, and removed the majority of the pith with a knife. I did two grapefruit this way and it was a huge pain in the ass. So for the third one, I got out my trusty fruit & veggie peeler. The peels were much less uniform, but the step went so much quicker.
















Boiling the peels in water, two times... to get rid of some of the bitterness, I suppose?


Martha, was your daughter neglected as a child? Some of this stuff you do takes massive amounts of time... I had to let my son completely empty the contents of my pantry and strew everything around the kitchen floor to get this done!













Then we boil the peels in a simple syrup for an hour. I used this time to put everything back in my pantry, minus one jar of grape jelly, which was Ben's friend for the rest of the day (and miraculously didn't get broken!).
















After they have enjoyed their sugary hot tub for long enough, they get laid out on racks to dry. Or in my case, just one rack. I have plently of these things, but didn't want to have to try to scrub hardened sugar off of more than one of them. Martha would probably be pissed at me... I'm sure that she has a room of racks that are devoted only to drying her candied citrus peels... and minions to come in and wash them afterwards. Not me though, I just crammed them all on to one rack (with some butcher's paper underneath, to protect my counter).















Once they're dry, shake them up with some sugar... and then try to figure out what you're going to do with them. Martha nicely provides some gift packaging ideas on her website, but I wouldn't give these to anyone unless you were positive that they would really like them. They're too much of a pain in the butt to risk someone just throwing them away. I actually wound up eating most of mine... they got better after a couple days in the fridge (where they will keep for up to 2 weeks).



http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/candied-citrus-peels

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...