Broccoli chowder

Last week, I put making Martha's broccoli cream soup on my to-do list. Then, a friend (Hi, Cori!) suggested I might like Lulu the Baker's cheesy vegetable chowder.   Both soups looked delicious, and I just couldn't decide which one to make....so I created my own soup by combining the two recipes.

Everybody wins! Especially me, because the result was absolutely delicious. 

For the most part, I stuck with Martha's recipe (minus the onion), and added shredded carrots, diced potatoes, and 1.5 cups of cheddar cheese as suggested by Lulu the Baker.  And because calories don't exist in my world, I increased the amount of heavy cream from Martha's recipe from 1/2 cup to 1 whole cup.  Calories?  What are those?   

Technique-wise, I definitely deviated from Martha's recipe:  I didn't run the soup through the food processor after cooking. Instead, I ran the broccoli through the food processor before adding it to the pot, making sure that all pieces were small-to-medium size and not completely pulverized.  I wanted this soup to be a meal by itself with chunks of vegetables, and that's exactly what it is. 

Note: the soup stores wonderfully in the fridge, so don't be afraid to make a big batch and have leftovers.  This mash-up recipe is incredibly easy to make and quite a satisfying meal.  Enjoy!

From Martha to me to you

I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year (sniff, sniff!) but if I were, I'd be using these awesome and free printables from Martha Stewart.  That she personally gave to me, because we are best friends.  And I told her, "Martha, these are just too cute! You should put these on your website so everyone can use them."

And Martha said, "Amanda, that is a brilliant idea!  You are always thinking of others. What would I do without you?"

And with that we both laughed and had another cocktail.  The next day, Martha put these printables on her website for everyone to enjoy.  YOU'RE WELCOME.*

These turkey place cards are so elegant.  Love these!  Though I'm not sure I'd invite anyone named "Kirk" to my Thanksgiving dinner. He just sounds shady, you know?

I love having crafts and activities for kids at holiday gatherings, and these adorable pilgrim hats and bonnets fit the bill.  Except that boy in the middle totally doesn't deserve his. Someone take that darling pilgrim hat away from him and give it to a kid who knows how to smile for a decent picture.

A fun game of turkey trivia is another great way to entertain the kids.  Martha has both the printable and the trivia questions on her website.  That woman thinks of everything!



Martha know how much I like chocolate, so she designed these candy bar wrappers that double as place cards.  That Martha! She knows me so well!**

You can find the whole set of Martha's free Thanksgiving printable place cards, activities, and decorations here. Enjoy!

*Disclaimer: that conversation never happened, except in my head. So it sort of happened, just not with the real Martha Stewart.
**Yet another disclaimer: This is probably mostly totally an untrue statement.  

Scarborough Fair turkey

My take on Martha's Roast Turkey with Herb Butter is actually a combination of Martha's preparation method, and suggested seasonings from a college friend. I call it Scarborough Fair Turkey, and here's how I do it:

Start with a brined turkey.  Melt/soften a stick of butter in the microwave.  Don't melt it completely.

Prepare the seasoning.  This is the bit I got from my college friend as she was raving about how her mother made their Thanksgiving turkey...the spices come from the lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair song: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.  College friend's mom threw marjoram in there as well, and that seems to work well in the herb combination.  I don't measure the seasoning, but I do include equal amounts of each.

Mix the butter with the herbs to create a thick paste. 

Scoop up the butter-herb paste and spread it under the turkey skin but over the meat.  It helps if you go in first without the seasonings to separate the skin from the meat.  Good times.

Actually, this part is gross and really messy. I don't like dealing with uncooked meat of any kind,but I get through it only because I know that at this point I am a few hours away from an amazing turkey.  It's totally worth it!

It's important to get the butter-herb paste all over.  It needs to go over the breast meat, legs, wings, etc. as well as in the chest cavity. 

As I mentioned, this process is really messy.  A lot of the butter-herb paste will go into the bird, but a lot remains on the hands. I "wipe" my hands off on the outside of the bird so I don't waste a bit of that Scarborough Fair goodness. 

Once the bird is herbed up, it goes in the oven according to basic roasting instructions (15-20 minutes for every pound of meat). 

I don't have a picture of the roasted turkey, because that would make too much sense.  You'll have to trust me when I say that this is so delicious, it is the only way I will prepare a Thanksgiving turkey now and forever.  I will swear to you, to all things Thanksgiving and to Martha Stewart herself that this spice combination and process makes a phenomenal turkey.  Are you making a turkey this year? Give this recipe and method a try...you won't be sorry! 

Martha in the news

I found this bit on CNN's entertainment page yesterday:  Martha Stewart Rides a Harley.  Motorcycles are not my thing, but maybe I'll relax a little when I'm 70 years old.

I'm glad to see that Martha was wearing the necessary safety gear and riding an American-made bike.   The last sentence of the article certainly made me sit up straight:  "Her ties to the biker community apparently aren’t new; there’s a 2005 thread on the Harley Davidson Forum titled “is Martha Stewart sexy??”"

Awesome!  Now I can add my love of Martha Stewart to the list of things that I have in common with the biker community:

1. The love of Martha Stewart

2. Hair that looks like it's been blowing around in the wind all day.

I might need to put some more work into this list. 

Simply ReMarthable

It's time to vote for your favorite Simply ReMarthable contest finalist!  The winner will be announced on the Martha Stewart Show on April 1.

Personally, I think the fortune cookie baby booties are darling so they are getting my vote.  And bonus! Your vote also doubles as an entry to win a big basket of Martha goodies--I see lots of crafts and cooking tools in the basket.  You can vote here. 

Branching out

Once I mastered regular white bread, I tried to make raisin bread and dinner rolls based on the recipes found in the bread machine instruction manual.

The raisin bread was tasty, but the machine didn't get all the raisins mixed in and many were clinging to the outside. 

I tried again, but instead of letting the machine mix the raisins in I tried to do that step by hand. I rolled out the dough, sprinkled more cinnamon on, and tried to evenly distribute the raisins.  Then I rolled up the loaf, let it rise and baked that sucker.

Can you see the cinnamon swirl pattern in the bread?  This method didn't really work--not enough raisins.  I'm going to keep trying, though, because we have some true raisin bread fans in this house.

Then I got really crazy and decided to make dinner rolls.  Again, I let the bread machine do the majority of the work.  The recipe instructions called for rolling the dough into special "dinner roll" shapes, but that sounded like a lot of extra time and effort to me, so instead I just plopped balls of dough on the cookie sheet and called it a day.

My laziness paid off though--the rolls were fine in their blobby shapes and tasted delicious!  Making the leap from bread to rolls was a cinch.  A tad messier, perhaps, but completely a cinch!

With the help of the bread machine, I can see myself making rolls at least once a week.  Each recipe yielded 16-18 rolls, and that is enough to get us through the week. 

No more dough out of a tube for me!  Now that I've mastered bread baking, I really feel so Martha-ish.  Martha-like?  Marthalicious?

Yes, that's it...I feel Marthalicious!  Happy Friday, everyone!

Bloggers' Night Out!

The BlogHer conference is in New York City this year, and the creative team at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is hosting a Bloggers' Night Out party tonight. 

And they invited me!

But, sadly, I can't go for the following reasons:

1. It's a Thursday night, and I work.  Believe or not, blogging is not my job.  I actually have a 9-5 gig where real, live people are subject to my crazy stories and random outbursts.  While they might appreciate a break from me, my job duties will not allow for a quick jaunt to NYC for a two-hour event.

2.  Little Guy and BabyGirl must be cared for.  Since that caregiver must have opposable thumbs, this leaves out Barley.  Actually, getting a babysitter wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I would miss them and I think they are still way too young to have mommy away overnight. 

3.  I got the invitation a week in advance, and no accompanying plane ticket.  Maybe it got lost on the internet? Plus, I really need more time to plan.  I'm just a planner, you know?

4.   See the last sentence of reason #2. 

5.  I don't have anything to wear.  Unless this event is all about denim capris and t-shirts, which I seriously doubt.

Lots of fellow Martha fanatics will be there, and I look forward to seeing all the pictures on their blogs.  Have fun, everyone!  Say "Hello" to Martha for me!

Happy birthday, Martha!

Today is Martha's birthday.  She is a stunning 69 years old.

To celebrate, Martha is coming over tonight for dinner and dessert.  Here's the menu:

Veggies and dill dip
Tex-mex casserole
Chocolate mint cake
Funky monkeys

I'm expecting her around 6pm.*  We're going to have a super fun time.  After dinner, we'll enjoy drinks as we stroll around the backyard dodging snakes and dirt piles, looking at my new fence and discussing tree care.  Then, we'll head back inside for a fun game of Scrabble.  I hear Martha is one mean Scrabble player. 

*That claim is obviously not based in reality.

Happy birthday, Martha!

Saint Martha

My friend Shannon finds the coolest things. Take a look at the garden/plant dec she got me.

Look closer...see what it says?

How about now?

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.  I need all the help I can get!

Thanks, Shannon! :)

The books are signed!

Recently I mentioned that Singer Sewing Company is giving away a copy of Martha's new book, The Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts every day in April.  They recently announced that thanks to Martha, each copy will be signed by the woman herself! 

To enter, simply become a Fan of Singer on facebook here, and/or become a follower of Singer on Twitter here. On each odd-numbered day, a winner will be chosen from the fans on facebook. On even-numbered days, they'll choose a name from their Twitter followers. You can find the official rules here.

Good luck and happy crafting!

April Fool's Day, again

This is from last April Fool's Day.  I'm reposting because, well, The Onion article is just too funny.  Enjoy!
*********************************************

I wonder what Martha does for April Fool's Day.

I'm coming up blank.

However, in the spirit of April Fool's Day, and in celebration of Martha, I present to you a delightful article from the Onion.

Martha Stewart Stalker Can Barely Keep Up

Enjoy!

Martha's cream scones

I made scones for the first time ever using Martha's cream scones recipe.  Here's what Martha's scones look like: 

Mmmmmm.  Just looking at the picture makes me want another.  Of course, with my batch, I added dried cranberries for some extra zing.

 
I used the food processor to mix the dough. 

My only complaint about the dough is that is was far stickier than I expected.  I added more sugar and flour in the mixing process, and a lot of flour was used on the work surface.

I used a 3" round cutter instead of two, and easily got eight scones from the recipe. 

They were delicious and reheated nicely in the microwave for the next day's breakfast.  I'm looking forward to making these just as the recipe states (without cranberries) and doing a cinnamon version.  Scone on!

Martha Stewart Clean Giveaway

Last Monday, I profiled Martha's new Martha Stewart Clean line.  Whole Living, a subsidiary of Martha Stewart Living, is hosting a daily giveaway of these products throughout the month of January.  They're giving away cleaning supplies, aprons, storage containers and more.

You can sign up for the giveaway here.  NOTE:  When you hit the "Enter" button for the contest, the first entry form it takes you to includes a trial subscription of Body & Soul magazine.  If you do not want to sign up for a subscription, be sure to click on the link above the entry form that specifically says you want to enter the content without trying a subscription. 

Apparently, the Martha Stewart Clean line is available at Home Depot as of January 8, though I haven't made it to my local HD to check it out. 

Martha's Peppermint Chocolate Cake

Several weeks ago, I mentioned incorporating Martha's peppermint chocolate cake into my Christmas menu.  Here's how her cake looks: 

I was able to make it for Christmas.  The Little Guy helped.  We made it the day before serving.

I poured the peppermint chocolate frosting on the day of.

I used crushed peppermint candies for garnish. 

Overall, I thought the cake was a bit dry.  Everyone seemed to like it though, and it was a great pairing for peppermint ice cream. 

The icing is out of this world though, and would be delicious poured over ice cream or used for hot chocolate or coffee.  I'm not giving up on this recipe, though, and I may give it another try around Valentine's Day. 

If you give this a try, please let me know how it goes!

Martha needs a new proofreader

Recently, I tried to make Martha's Peanut Butter Cookies from her Cookies book.  And I found a mistake in the instructions. 

Seriously.

Things started out well enough.  I got out all the ingredients, made the dough according to the instructions, and popped my cookies into the oven.   This is where things went wrong.  Horribly, horribly wrong.

Do you see what that says?  "Bake cookies...about 25 minutes."  Now, before I put the cookies into the oven, I thought that baking time sounded a bit long.  Most cookies of this nature only take 10-12 minutes to bake.

"Don't be silly," I told myself.  "This is a Martha recipe, and Martha would never steer you wrong."

Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next.  At the 15 minute mark, I had some overly crispy cookies. Some even had burned edges.  And before you even ask, my oven is calibrated just fine, thankyouverymuch.

That screaming you hear?  Yeah, that's me. 

I lost almost an entire round of cookies.  Because these cookies were for a family birthday party and there wasn't time to make another batch, I salvaged all the cookies I could by drizzling candy melts over the top.  That makes it look a little better, right?  And the candy coating offsets the extreme crispiness.

I will say that for the second round of cookies, I decreased the baking time to the standard 10-12 minutes and they turned out fine.  Very tasty, in fact. 

Because Martha is my idea of perfection, I'm going to blame this snafu on the staffer that wrote the recipe, or whoever was in charge of proofreading, or maybe the book publisher.  But I can't pin this on Martha herself.

(Alert: huge dramatization ahead)

Because if I did blame this on Martha, my world would fall apart.    And I just can't handle that right now.  Sniff. Sob. Sniff.

(Gratuitous dramatization over)

Admitting to myself that Martha made a mistake wouldn't be that bad, but it would lead me to question other beliefs and convictions I hold dear, such as the laws of gravity, the values of democracy and that Steel Magnolias is one of the best movies ever made.

(Personal note to Martha ahead)

Martha, you clearly need a new field editor and/or baker for your test kitchen.  This Martha-in-training is the perfect woman for the job.  You can count on me, Martha!  Call me!

Martha Monday!

Last Monday, I shared with you Martha's Cutest Cupcake contest, and how I have every intention of winning. I'm doing a take-off of Martha's beach and shark cupcakes, with a TMI twist, of course.


The cupcakes are made. I used a yellow cake mix, but added in a ton of coconut cream paste and shredded coconut. The icing is regular buttercream (one tub of white and one of blue) with coconut cream paste added in. I wanted a really coconutty cupcake, you know?

Below is my secret ingredient: Teddy Grahams. I'm going to crush them up with some graham crackers for the "sand" effect, but I'm also using them for something else...

Finally, the Wilton candy pens are my secret weapon. They'll go along with the secret use for the secret ingredient. With all these secrets, my kitchen is more locked down than Fort Knox. Seriously.

I have every intention of rocking this Cutest Cupcakes contest. I'll have pictures of the completed cupcakes up ASAP. If there's any delay, it's probably because someone was peeking in my kitchen window trying to learn my secrets and I had to crush them, TMI-style. I should probably get the garden hose and pepper spray ready. You can't be too careful with this kind of thing, you know?