Day Two Hundred and Sixty-Five: Prune Before You Trim

On Monday my husband and I took our kids to the nursery to choose Christmas trees.  We purchased five.  (Three of them are very small, so they almost don't count.)  After reading Martha's Tree Trimming Secrets, I was a little nervous to attempt one step:  pruning.  Martha suggests you prune out the excess branches on some trees to allow more room for ornaments.  The lighter branches are the ones she suggests removing.

I started at the top of our largest tree.

Allow me to make a few observations:

1)  It took about an hour to judiciously trim my tree to allow more room for ornaments.

2)  Since I so nervous about cutting anything, I trimmed maybe four (tiny) branches from the entire tree.

3)  In retrospect, I should have started at the bottom where any errors could have been easily hidden.

4) A large bow works wonders.

Day Two Hundred Sixty-Four: Hang Me Now

This week has been filled with Christmas decorating for me.  I've decked the halls and trimmed the tree all week.  Actually, make that trees, plural.  I have six.  Why I started putting Christmas trees in our bedrooms I will never know.  We started it when our son was born six years ago.  Now it's tradition and I can't get around it.  :such a sucker:

You may be wondering why I'm rushing to decorate.  Christmas isn't for weeks and it's not even December yet.  The push is because Saturday I'm hosting a Sip & See for a friend and her new baby girl and I'm pretty sure the guests don't want to sit on boxes of Christmas decorations I've just hauled down from the attic.

Probably not the most festive atmosphere.

So, when we returned home on Sunday from our Thanksgiving holiday, we pulled out the Christmas decorations and I started trimming the faux tree.  Since we have three ornament murderers kids living under our roof, I wanted to make sure all my lovely ornaments were secure.  Luckily for me, Martha has a tutorial on Tree-Trimming Secrets.  Namely, How to Hang Ornaments.

Now, I'm sure you've been hanging ornaments since your own mother let you hang up that awful thing you made in Kindergarten.  But you've probably been doing it All Wrong.

Martha suggests suspending ornaments from copper wire instead of the tiny hooks that we all use.  To make your own hangers, thread a five-inch piece of wire through the ornament loop, twist one end of the wire to secure the ornament, then wrap the other end around the branch until the ornament is secure.

This is Martha's lovely Visual For Idiots:

The drawing is so nice and neat, no?

Now I will be honest.  I tried this...for a while.  After the first dozen ornaments, I started getting a bit sloppy.  See photo below:  

After my fingertips started going numb, I gave up.

Calling all members of the O.C.D. Club:  this method is for you.

Day Two Hundred Sixty-Three: Acorn Squash Flop

While we were out of town for Thanksgiving, we celebrated my husband's birthday.  His idea of celebration was to grill steaks on the b-b-q for a dozen people in sub-zero weather.

I know.  I tell him he's weird all the time.

As part of the dinner, I made Martha's Roasted Acorn Squash Pasta with Kale and Almonds.  Since we had such a big group, I tripled it.  It turned out pretty tasty.  I've never cooked acorn squash or kale so it was a new experience.  I had to wrestle a large bush of kale, but I eventually got it all in the pot.

It squash part did not go well.

The recipe didn't call for you to peel the squash, but after it was roasted the skin was rather chewy and some pieces were straight-up hard.  My poor, sweet mother-in-law was actually nibbling the roasted squash off the skin.  I'm probably lucky she didn't lose a tooth. 

I'm pretty sure causing dental damage is not Good Thing.

Day Two Hundred Sixty-Two: Hot Buttered Rum

What do you make when you've spent the last two days eating?

A cocktail.

Since it was cold and snowy outside, I decided to make Martha's Hot Buttered Rum.  If you are unfamiliar with this concoction, it's a sweet cocktail, served warm.  I've had it before, but never actually made one from scratch.  If I had given it any thought, I would have assumed that the "hot butter" portion of the drink was only a buttery flavoring or similar.  Possibly a colorful nickname for a more sober (no pun intended) drink.

It's not.

The recipe is basically brown sugar mixed with a bunch of spices and a stick of butter.  Yes, a stick of butter.  Pour rum and hot water over the butter mixture and it's done.  "Hot Buttered Rum" is pretty much just that: hot, buttered, rum.

It's also hot, buttery deliciousness.  I would have drank about a dozen of them, but since I had made the first recipe, I knew each one was the equivalent of eating a couple tablespoons of butter.  One look at my hips made me re-think making more than one batch.

Oh, but I wanted to.


p.s. this is Martha's photo above.  For some reason, my computer did not like the photos I took of my own Hot Buttered Rum. :sigh:

Day Two Hundred Sixty-One: Hostess Gift for House Guests

Thanksgiving.  What a fun day.  I had the good fortune of getting up before dawn to pack my suitcases, drag my children out of bed and fight the other holiday revelers to the airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Yay!

Actually, the airport was pretty quiet at 6 a.m., so I can't complain too much. (But if you want to feel sorry for me, I will accept your sympathy.  I'm sure you were still snug in your warm bed at 6 a.m.)

We spent Thanksgiving and the following weekend with my lovely sister-in-law and her adorable family.  As a thank you for having my family invade her house for the weekend, I brought her a little hostess gift.  Martha suggests giving your hosts a Breakfast Kit complete with coffee, jam and a simple muffin mix.  It's a nice alternative to a bottle of wine and perfect for a weekend stay.  Since my hosts are not coffee people (and because I had limited space in my bag) I chose this little package of pumpkin bread mix and pecan-pumpkin butter.  The pumpkin bread is simple to make and will surely make a nice breakfast after the house is empty...

...And hopefully ensure that I receive another invitation.

Day Two Hundred Sixty: Clever Bottle Wrap

Last week was Thanksgiving and I had the good fortune of going to someone else's house for dinner.  Being a good dinner guest, I brought the obligatory bottle of wine.  I actually wanted to bring more than one bottle so I used Martha's Bottle Wrap idea to wrap them together in one adorable package.

Seriously? How cute is this?

Just take a piece of fabric and lay two bottles on their sides, bottoms facing each other.  Roll them both up in the fabric and tie at the top.  Decorate them with a couple pinecones you nicked from your friend Sybil's yard and you have a unique presentation of a not-so-unique gift.

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Nine: Secret Recipe Cookies

Okay, okay.  I've been busy the last week, but I promise to catch you up on all the fun Martha stuff I've been doing.

Last Tuesday my kids asked to make cookies, so I chose a new recipe from MarthaStewart.com: Jacques Torres's Secret Chocolate Cookie.  I don't know who Jacques Torres is, but apparently he's got one heck of a secret because this recipe is one of Martha's all-time favorites.

If that's not a endorsement, I don't know what is.

Just in case you don't have the opportunity to make these cookies, I'll let you in on Jacques's secret.

:looks left and right:

Two pounds of chocolate chips.  That's approximately three bags of chocolate chips, in case you were wondering.  That's a chocolate-chip-bonanza!

I overcooked mine a bit and they were a little too crispy for my liking.  But the fact that the cookie is approximately 70% chocolate chip made up for any crispy bits.

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Eight: Thanksgiving Turkey Napkins

We are headed out-of-town for Thanksgiving.  My husband's sweet sister is hosting so she'll be the one  slaving in the kitchen all day.  Frankly I feel a little useless.  And since I'm traveling across the country on Thanksgiving day, I can't even offer to bring anything.

Maybe I could fit a small bag of salad inside my carry-on.  

Just to get into the spirit of things though, I decided to try Martha's Turkey Napkin Fold.   It's a napkin! Shaped like a turkey!  How cute is that?  It's also pretty simple.  Don't get too excited though, and start planning your Thanksgiving table.

Each turkey takes three napkins to make.  So that's only 24 napkins for a table of eight people.

Not ridiculous at all.

Let me add that Martha's napkin fold looks like an anatomically correct bird.  Mine is more of an artistic representation:  

Thank goodness I'm not hosting Thanksgiving.

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Seven: It's a (Translucent) Wrap

I celebrated the birthday of a good friend on Monday.  I wanted to do something special in the wrapping-department so I decided to try Martha's Translucent Wrapping Paper.  Start by wrapping a present in brightly-colored wrapping paper.  Next, take a piece of tissue or glassine and make random folds in the paper like so:

Then wrap the present in the folded tissue to create something chic and interesting.  These are Martha's colorful gifts:

Gorgeous, aren't they?



This sad one is mine:

:yawn:

Not quite the pretty product I was expecting.  Luckily, the present inside was pretty cute.
:excellent gift-shopper:

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Six: Butternut Squash Soup

A few days ago I bought some butternut squash at the grocery.  It was already cut into little one-inch squares and it called to me from across the produce section:  Look at me!  I'm so bright and orange!

When I got it home, however, the package hid in the back of my refrigerator for days.  Saturday I rescued it from the back of the refrigerator and made Martha's Pureed Butternut Squash Soup.  Out of all the butternut squash soup recipes I've seen, this one is the simplest.  (Read: I didn't have to make a special trip to the grocery for ingredients.)  Five ingredients, half an hour and you're done.  As you might expect from a recipe with only five ingredients, it's not super flavorful, so make sure and add lots of pepper.  I added some cayenne.

If you are generous, this soup is mighty fine.

I planned to eat a few bowls of this throughout the weekend, but my husband ate it all on Saturday.  True story.  I had only one bowl before the Soup Bandit found it.

It was obviously better than I thought.

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Five: Leftover Beef Sandwich

Leftovers are such a dilemma at our house.  I'm always wondering what to do with half of a steak or two chicken drumsticks.  So leftovers often sit in our refrigerator until they go bad, or I get tired of looking at them in the refrigerator.

But Friday I took some leftover steak and made Martha's Open-Face Roast Beef Sandwich.  Okay...so it wasn't roast beef, it was New York Strip, but it's the same animal, so I think it counts.

This sandwich is all about the sauce, which is a mix of horseradish and sour cream.  It's so good you could eat it as a dip...Which is exactly what we did with the leftover sauce.

Did I say leftovers were a dilemma?

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Four: Yummy Goat Cheese-Stuffed Mushrooms

This week has been the Week of Appetizers.  I co-hosted a little party on Thursday night, so Thursday afternoon I made Martha's Goat Cheese-Stuffed Mushrooms.

Let me start by saying:  I love stuffed mushrooms.  Especially ones that are stuffed with cheese. So I jumped at the opportunity to try these.  But when I read the recipe, I was pretty sure the whole stuffing-of-the-mushroom part was going to be tedious and time-consuming.  I mean, you have to spoon cheese into each mushroom.  Then roll them each in breadcrumbs.

Shocker:  I made about seventy-five of these puppies in less than an hour.  

After I made them, I put them in the refrigerator until I was ready to throw them in the oven.  Warm them for about twenty minutes and you have a delicious appetizer.  Forgive the photo below.  My camera wasn't handy so I took this one with my trusty phone, just prior to serving:

I thought these were delicious...and I know our guests did as well.  I caught several people going back for seconds..and thirds.  (Yes, I saw that.) If you come to my house for the holidays you will definitely get the chance to try these. They are just too easy and good to make only once.  :no brainer:

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Three: Potential Parmesan Spirals

I chose to make Martha's Parmesan Spirals because the recipe indicated you could make them for a party a few days ahead and store them in an air-tight container.  So I made them Wednesday for a Thursday night party.

To make, just roll up store-bought puff pastry with parmesan and spices.    Bake for a few minutes and it's done.  It's almost too simple to mess up.

But I'm afraid I did.

I hate to tell you, but these adorable little appetizers weren't very good. :tear:  In fact, they were so dry that I didn't even bring them to the party.  The only air-tight container that these appetizers saw was the inside of my trashcan.   I'm pretty sure I did something wrong though, because these had a lot of potential.

Oops.  There will be a do-over.   At least they were really cute.

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Two: Almost-Spicy Asian Brittle

As part of the cocktail fundraiser I mentioned yesterday, I also made Martha's Spicy Asian Brittle.  Nuts are always something fun to snack on and I figured this would be a jazzy version of the usual bowl of mixed nuts.

It's a simple recipe and you can make it a few days ahead of a party.  Mix almonds, cashews, wasabi peas, sesame sticks, sesame seeds and red-pepper flakes with a soy-syrup mix you make.  Don't do what I did and forget the soy sauce and have to make the recipe twice.  (Yes, I did.)

If you make the recipe correctly the first time (or the second) the result is a nut mix that's a little spicy and sweet.  I think naming it "spicy" is a bit of a misnomer, though.  It's Asian inspired, but hardly spicy.  I'll probably make this again, but add way more red pepper...

...And remember to add all the ingredients on the first go.

Day Two Hundred Fifty-One: Glorious Gougeres

Last night I co-hosted a casual fundraiser for my son's school.  Every hostess contributed a little something and I offered to make some appetizers.  I chose several Martha recipes, but on Monday I was able to make Martha's Lemon-Parsley Gougeres and freeze them until Thursday.  In case you are like 99% of people and don't know:  a Gougere is a little savory puff pastry.  They remind me of the doughy bottom of a croissant.

In short, they are a little bite of heaven.

Martha's recipe is exceptionally good.  The lemon is balanced with a dose of cayenne pepper.  They are buttery and exceptionally good when served warm.

These are totally easy.  Try this at home and tell me I'm not right.

Day Two Hundred Fifty: Yummy Chopped Shrimp Salad

I usually steer clear of salad recipes that require you to make salad dressing.  I don't know why, but I am often intimidated by the ingredient list.   But the dressing for Martha's Chopped Salad with Shrimp and Lime-Buttermilk Dressing only has buttermilk, avocado, and lime zest.

Done.

You'll be happy that this recipe makes extra dressing because it's so good you may want to bathe in it.  Actually, I would like to pour it on everything from my morning eggs to my evening snack.

I would draw the line at dessert.

Day Two Hundred Forty-Nine: Cold-Weather Simple Soup

I love to eat soup when the weather turns cool.  Unfortunately the weather hasn't been cooperating where I live.  So Friday I gave Mother Nature the proverbial finger and made Martha's Tortilla Soup with Black Beans.  It's a super-easy recipe as long as you can work a can-opener.  Fortunately deft can-opener-wielding is one of my talents, and this recipe came off without a hitch.

Don't skimp on the chili powder.  This soup needs every last bit.

Take that Mother Nature.

Day Two Hundred Forty-Eight: Kicked-Up Steaks

My husband loves a simple steak, but sometimes I like to mix things up.  So Friday I made Martha's Steaks with Balsamic-Mustard Sauce.  The sauce is a balsamic glaze mixed with Dijon mustard.

**Warning**  don't get too close when you mix in the mustard.  It might singe the hair from inside your nose.

Uh, and it looks like chocolate sauce.

Once you get over those two things, the sauce is quite...kicky.  My husband and I quite liked it, but I doubt I'll make it again soon.

I have to give my nose hair a chance to regrow.

Day Two Hundred Forty-Seven: Fall Backwards Homekeeping

It's officially fall and that means time to whip out Martha's Fall Homekeeping list.  Apparently Miss Fall is a much less-demanding madam than Mrs. Spring...whose list is quite a bit longer.

Besides the obvious items (like switching out warm-weather bedding, clothing & rugs for cool-weather items), Martha also suggests one: clean gutters, outdoor furniture, scrub porch ceilings, walls, floors, decks, patios, the driveway, and walkways.

Wait:  the driveway?!?  Really?

Thankfully I don't have a proper driveway (thank you neighborhood alleyway), so I decided to scrub my porch yesterday.  I thought this would mean dusting some cobwebs and sweeping.  Little did I know the trim on my porch was covered in dirt and mildew:

:insert shudder:

To clean this mess, I had to make-friendly with the bleach, water and soap, which is quite a slippery combination.  I only fell once...and I'm pretty sure none of my neighbors noticed.

After expending much, much more elbow-grease than I was anticipating, my windows look like so:

:sigh of relief:

Unfortunately my gleaming white trim made the rockers on my front porch look pathetic, so I had to scrub those too.  Before:  

After:

Whew.  All done.  Now that it's all clean, I'm off to cast disapproving looks at people with dirty driveways.

Day Two Hundred Forty-Six: LIfe is Like A Bowl of Indian Stew

I love Indian food.  There's something very wholesome about it.  Every dish seems like it's cooked in one big pot peppered with goodness.  Buddha blessed.  Martha's Easiest Indian Stew not only looks good, but true to its name, is easy to make.  The main ingredients come from a can, so even you're the Forrest Gump of cookery, you could make this.  It's served over rice with a dash of yogurt....and is delicious.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Frankly, my children wouldn't touch this dish with a ten foot pole, but they did say it smelled good.

There's hope for them yet.  

Day Two Hundred Forty-Five: Veggie-Lover Spaghetti

I'm always looking for dinner recipes for my children...especially those that add veggies to the mix. I found Martha's Spaghetti with Peas and Zucchini and decided it was time to add zucchini to the mix.

Or "chew-kini" according to my daughter.

It's a pretty simple recipe and surprisingly good. The sauce is made with yogurt and is nice and creamy.

For the record:  my kids ate both the peas and the zucchini.  And asked for seconds.  Turns out the chew-kini is pretty darn kid-friendly.

:high five:

Day Two Hundred Forty-Four: Jelly Roll Up

My youngest daughter turned one-year old on Monday.  For her birthday I made Martha's Hazelnut-Raspberry Jelly Roll.  A jelly roll is basically a thin cake, topped with jelly and cream, and rolled into a tube.

Yes, rolled into a tube.  How do they do that?

Start by baking a very thin cake.  After it's cooked, but before it cools, roll the cake in a clean kitchen towel:

There's a cake in that towel. :promise:

After the cake cools, unroll, spread some jelly and cream, and roll it up (without the towel this time.) Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

This cake looks so fancy.  People think I worked so hard.  (Hah! Fooled those suckers!)  Best part: it was a good cake....although I think it would be hard to screw up a cake rolled in jelly, cream and powdered sugar. 

Day Two Hundred Forty-Three: Second-Chance Banana-Walnut Bread

I made Martha's secret-ingredient banana bread a while back and despite the secret-ingredient (sour cream!?!) it was just mediocre.  :sigh:  I was so disappointed.   I decided to try Martha's Banana-Walnut Loaf instead.  It doesn't have a secret ingredient but I'm all equal-opportunity at my house.

:so diplomatic:

Even without the secret ingredient, this banana bread was amazingly moist.  It's a winner.  I had a hard time getting a photo of it because my family kept stealing the piece I cut to photograph.

Just goes to show: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Day Two Hundred Forty-Two: Bloody Mary Mornings

A party isn't a party without popping a cork, unscrewing a cap, or mixing a cocktail.  Some parties begin before noon.  (So I've heard.)  On those days Martha's Bloody Mary is a nice addition.  Add Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, garlic and pepper to tomato juice and vodka and you can't go wrong.   Add some celery and it's practically a meal.

I enjoyed mine, and so did my fellow revelers.  Tailgating party, anyone?

Day Two Hundred Forty-One: Ready-For-The-Weekend Blackberry-Mint Juleps

T.G.I.F., people.  It's been a busy two weeks and I'm so ready for the weekend.  Beyond ready.  Like, need-a-drink-pronto ready.  Since it still feels like summer at my house, I decided to make Martha's Blackberry-Mint Julep.

You may remember that I have a fondness for mint juleps.  Flavored ones are beyond delicious.  I've decided you really can't go wrong mixing bourbon and mint. Throw in some fruit and a pinch of sugar and you're golden. 

Hello, weekend. I've missed you.

Day Two Hundred Forty: Chocolate Burn-Your-Thumbprints-Off Cookies

My son's birthday is Saturday and today we had a little celebration with his class. He wanted to serve cookies, so on Thursday we made Martha's Chocolate Thumbprints.  These were super to make with kids since they can help roll the cookies into small balls.  It's like playing with edible play-doh.  Just make sure nobody sneaks off with a handful of dough.  It will stick in your rugs.  Trust me.

Once the cookies are formed and cook for a few minutes, take them out of the oven and stick your thumb into the cookie to make the indentation.  I had never made these before so I was a little surprised when I nearly burned my thumb right off following these directions.  Seriously.  My kids were watching the process and when I was done asked me:  "Mom, what does 'Son-of-a-bunny' mean?  Who's bunny?"

Day Two Hundred Thirty-Nine: Appliance Manual for Dummies

Since we have three children we often utilize the services of a babysitter.  We will often feed our kids dinner and leave them with the babysitter and a bowl of popcorn watching the latest Disney movie.  The problem is only a Mensa member can operate our entertainment center, and we often return at night to our babysitter watching Cars on repeat.  So I decided to use Martha's idea of an Appliance Manual and make a manual for our entertainment center.  (Okay, so it's really just a sheet of paper, but there's a lot of information there.)  It's brilliant and I'm pretty sure a person of average intelligence can understand it.

Certainly the average babysitter.