Day Three Hundred Twenty Four: Will the Tuna Never End?

Believe it or not, Despite making grilled tuna and tuna melts, I still had enough leftover tuna to make Martha's Tuna Burgers.  (Will these leftovers never end?)

This recipe is a mix of tuna, mustard and spices.  Without something sticky to hold it together, one would expect it to fall apart at first opportunity.  Luckily, it sticks into proper burger-form when squished together.  Tuna-crisis averted.  An Asian-inspired slaw goes on top and takes this tuna burger from plain to fantastic.

These were super simple and incredibly tasty.  More importantly, this recipe finished those ever-lasting tuna leftovers.

Whew.

Day Three Hundred Twenty Three: Animal House Sugar Cookies

My three-year old daughter's class studied hibernation last week.  On Friday, they had a Hibernation Party and all the kids wore their pajamas and brought a stuffed animal to hibernate in a "Hibernation Station".  To add to the fun, I brought bear-shaped cookies for the kids.  I used Martha's Flower Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing recipes.  I needed 40 cookies for the party.  This recipe claims it makes 24 cookies.  (This is my nice way of questioning the counting abilities of the person who wrote this recipe.)  I only got about a 10 cookies out of this batch. Maybe it was because the bear-shaped cookie cutter was so large. :shrug:

 If you recall, sugar cookies are not my strong suit.  I am capable of rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies, but I have a major handicap when it comes to transferring said cookies intact onto a baking sheet.  They always end up slightly deformed. So needless to say, finishing ten cookies that still looked like bears took me quite some time.  That was a lot of work for only ten stupid cookies.

Undecorated cookie:

Confession: It is at this point that I went to my local supermarket and bought a box of sugar cookie mix.  I was being lazy, and was pressed for time.  It would be a cold day in hell before I would reproduce Martha's fabulous recipe three more times. I was ready to curse the day I bought that bear-shaped cookie cutter. After making about ten more cookies, I had to enlist my husband into buying more mix for these dang cookies.

It was this point that my husband's mother, the consummate baker, called our house.  And, of course, my husband tells her that we are making cookies from a box.  I was mortified.  Were she dead, I'm sure this sort of information would cause her to roll face down.  As it is, I could almost hear her mental scoff through the phone.

Box cookies, indeed.

I hope all of you, (and she) will forgive the transgression.  It is not one I hope to repeat.

At any rate, with the cookies finally (finally!) cooked, I was able to decorate them. Martha's icing recipe is fabulous.  It's runny enough that it smooths beautifully on a cookie.  (You have to use a thicker version for the outline.)  The meringue powder gives the icing a little sheen like you see on professionally-baked cookies.  These are my bears:

Bear Cookie outlined in black icing:

This one sort of looks like a horse:

An aardvark perhaps?  Not sure if aardvarks hibernate.

Completed cookies:

Those are little chocolate sprinkles on his bum.  (For a three-dimensional I'm-pretending-I-know-what-I'm-doing look.)

 The aardvark:

The cookies looked great and (since I'm the only one who tasted both) no one noticed that some of the cookies were from a box.  (Shhh.  It's our secret.)  Except for the mutant versions, I was excessively pleased with myself.

Maybe a little too pleased. :dancing around the living room:

Day Three Hundred and Twenty Two: Amazing Spicy Tuna Melt

Since I had a bunch of left over tuna, Tuesday I made Martha's Spicy Tuna Melt.  If you are like me and have never had a tuna melt, allow me to say:

You are missing out.  I feel like I've just discovered a new continent.  

This is such a delicious recipe.  Just mix tuna, salsa and mayonnaise and spoon it on bread.  Top with pepper jack cheese and put the whole thing under the broiler until the cheese melts.  

This is such a tasty, simple recipe, but good enough for company.  I'm going to serve it at my next opportunity.  My husband actually uttered the word, "divine'".

*

* Picture does not do the sandwich justice. 

Day Three Hundred Twenty One: Cupcake Collapse

Years ago I spotted Martha's Chrysanthemum Cupcakes and have wanted to try them ever since.

Martha's Chrysanthemum Cupcake

I never have made them....probably because the icing looks like such hard work, and because I did not have the proper icing tip to make the petals.  Last weekend, however, I became the proud new owner of one fancy curved icing tip:

Ta-Da!!!  So I ran home to make cupcakes.

These are plain vanilla cupcakes, but they are iced with Martha's Meringue Butter Cream, which is like crack for children and thirty-something mothers.

Best. Icing. Ever.

I've made this icing before (and here) and it never fails: each time people are licking their fingers and asking me where I bought the cake.  

If you don't follow the recipe to the LETTER, however, it doesn't turn out so hot. Hot being the operative word here:  I didn't allow the meringue mix to cool down entirely before adding the butter so my butter cream icing was a little runny.  So, instead of lovely perky petals, my flower looked like it needed to be watered:

It was truly a sad day, especially since I was pretty sure I was the Icing Queen after my previous successes.  

:dramatic sigh:

Does this mean I have to give up my sash and tiara? 

Day Three Hundred Twenty: Another Big Fish Story

My brother likes to fish.  As a consequence, I am sometimes the lucky recipient of some amazing fresh fish.  Since most of his angling is of the deep-sea variety, I end up with some rather large fish.  Recently he gave me some whole tuna, the circumference of which was about the size of my thigh, (which for perspective bears no resemblance to Gisele's thighs).

In other words, these were some huge tuna.  After cutting about seven tuna steaks, this piece was still left:

With all the tuna we decided to try Martha's Spicy Hoisin Marinade with some of it.  It's a nice Asian-inspired marinade and had pretty good flavor. (Martha says you can use this marinade for any kind of meat.  I think it would be great with beef.)  After the tuna marinated, my husband cooked the steaks on the grill.  It was a nice change of pace from plain ole' tuna with S & P.

Even after cooking these steaks for our family, we still had more tuna than an army could eat in a week.

Two words:  Tuna. Leftovers.

Day Three Hundred Nineteen: Drool-Worthy Wrap

On Saturday, I spent a relaxing day at home.  It was nice and boring after the buzz of the holidays/cleanup/return-to-school and my own month-long impersonation of a chicken running around with a missing head.

For lunch I made Martha's Chicken Salad and Havarti Cheese Wrap.  I've said it before, but wraps are highly under-rated.  This one is easy to throw together and the Havarti cheese is a great compliment to the chicken salad.  It's a little roll of creamy deliciousness.

:drool:

Day Three Hundred Eighteen: Berry Ugly Layer Cake

On the cover of Martha's Baking Handbook, there is a photo of her holding a scrumptious-looking cake. It's all layers of berries and cream... I don't care where your tastes run, this cake looks amazing.  It's like a supermodel among cakes.

In fact, If Heidi Klum were a cake, she would probably be this one:

This is Martha's Old-Fashioned Berry Layer Cake (Baking Handbook, p. 154), which is very similar to Martha's Strawberry Layer Cake, only this one is berry diversified. (Look at me, making a pun!)

When I read the recipe, I realized how ridiculously easy it is:  Just bake two cakes and cut each into two layers.  Spread each layer with cream and berries and that's it!

Just as I was mixing up the cake batter, however, my electricity went out.   Apparently, the electric company decided to turn off the electricity of everyone in a four-block radius, in the middle of the day.  It was sitcom timing. It would have been funny had I not been holding a large bowl of now-worthless cake batter.  Since I was pretty sure cooking the cake on a gas stove would be a Bad Thing, I pursued Plan B:  buy an undecorated cake and finish the recipe from there.

Plan B would have been an excellent plan, if I could have found an undecorated cake.  The closest thing I could find was an angel food cake-- the sort of cake made in the bundt pan. A.K.A. that pan with the hole in the middle.

My first mistake was buying the angel food cake with the hole in the middle.  My second mistake was allowing my three-year old daughter to help me cut layers into said cake.  Martha's cake looked like a supermodel.  Mine looked like the Ugly Duckling:

To add insult to injury, the hole in the middle of the cake and all the fruit and layers made the cake very unstable.  Once I cut into it, the entire thing began to lean like the Tower of Pisa.

Despite the scary looks, it was quite a delicious dessert.  My husband loved it.  I guess anything can be good if it's smothered in enough cream and fresh berries.

Day Three Hundred Seventeen: Chocolate + Chocolate + Chocolate = Good.

After my success with Martha's Double Chocolate Brownies, I decided to try her Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies. The chocolate cookie is made by mixing molten chocolate and cocoa powder into the batter.  Don't forget the chocolate chunks in the end.

I filled two cookie sheets with these cookies.  The first pan was perfectly cooked.  Those cookies were soft and chocolatey and delicious. While the second sheet was in the oven, I multi-tasked myself outside to take out the trash...where I forgot about the cookies in the oven and started chatting with my neighbor.  I only remembered about the cookies when my son poked his head out the front door to tell me that the smoke detectors did indeed work.

True story.

Day Three Hundred Sixteen: Double Chocolate Brownies

Most brownies are dry, hard things.  Consequently my will-power is stronger than Superman when I see a brownie.  A soft, fudgy brownie, however, is my Kryptonite.  When I saw Martha's recipe for Double Chocolate Brownies on Wednesday, I had to try it.

These. Brownies. Are. Amazing.  They are a little brown square of heaven.  I think it's because there is melted bittersweet chocolate mixed into into the batter.  After they're cooked, they have a slightly crispy crust and a fudgy inside.  

Frankly they are addicting.

My relatives may have to stage a Brownie Intervention.

Day Three Hundred Fifteen: After-Christmas Gingerbread

Before Christmas I made Gingerbread cookies for my kids.  They loved them.  In fact, they loved them so much, they have been asking for a repeat performance for weeks.  Instead of cookies, Tuesday I made Martha's Gingerbread Snacking Cake for them.

Gingerbread has a ridiculous amount of spices in it. This one has something called unsulfured molasses in it.  The grocery clerk was flummoxed on that one.  (I took some masochistic pleasure in it.)  This one is delicious and not too sweet.  Martha calls it a cake but it could be eaten for breakfast.  Think of it like banana or pumpkin bread.  It's sprinkled with a little powdered sugar.

Delicious.

My kids loved this.  Especially my one-year old who devoured more than her fair share after dinner on Tuesday.  If I'd caught it on camera, this is where I'd insert a photo of a child with food smeared all over her adorable little face.

Day Three Hundred Fourteen: Sensational Snapper

Martha has a whole section of Healthy Main Dishes.  Like any self-respecting woman who'd like to be a dress-size smaller, I've tried many of the dishes in this section, including Lemon-Rosemary Shrimp, Tuna, Herb-Crusted Salmon, Shrimp Salad, Spicy Cauliflower, along with some others. Yesterday I tried another recipe from this section:  Martha's Red Snapper with Citrus Salsa.

Bonus:  I got to use my almost-never-used steamer basket! I practically had to dust it off before I used it.

Steam the snapper in the bottom basket for about five minutes: 

...then add the spinach on the top basket for a couple of minutes until it wilts.  

The snapper is served over wilted spinach and topped with the salsa, which is a quick mix of a couple oranges, a lemon, a habanero pepper, herbs and spices.

The gorgeous (and delicious) product:

I loved this dish.  LOVED. I day-dreamed about it all day today.  Dinner (and the leftovers) could not come fast enough.

Day Three Hundred Thirteen: Easiest Side Salad

I'm always looking for interesting and easy side dishes.  Easy being the operative word here.  I hate spending ages on a main dish, then slaving over a side to go with it.  I confess:  I'm often serving a green side salad out of sheer laziness.  When I saw Martha's Cucumber and Sweet Onion Salad, I had to try it.

Chop up the cucumber, onion and dill. Mix all of it with olive oil, lemon juice, white wine vinegar... and you're done.

I don't know what's better:  this dish, the fact that it is so easy, or that it can be made in a single bowl.

Dishwashing is way over-rated.

Day Three Hundred Twelve: Chocolate Chip Heaven

Saturday, my kids begged for chocolate chip cookies.  I (rather quickly) capitulated and made Martha's Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies.

These are Ah-Mazing-ing. Incredible.  I can't decide which are better:  these or the Jaques Torre's Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies. The Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies are chock full of chocolate chips and are divine.  The Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies include sour cream in the batter.  They are incredibly soft and spectacular.

These are win-a-contest good. The next time you make chocolate chip cookies, try these. I will guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Day Three Hundred Eleven: Blueberry Muffins, Part II

A few days ago I tried Martha's Double-Blueberry Muffins.  It would have been a great recipe, but it includes corn meal in the batter and the course texture didn't fly with my family.  I thought it tasted like I mixed sand in the batter.  In order to redeem myself, Friday I tried Martha's Blueberry Muffins.  This recipe doesn't include corn meal in the batter and therefore tastes more like a lovely cake-y batter.

With my second attempt I learned that my one-year old loves blueberry muffins.  She shoves huge pieces into her mouth like a hungry little hippo.  Crumbs flying everywhere.  It's a beautiful (if slightly amusing) sight.

Day Three Hundred Ten: Skinny Beef Tacos

It seems like weight-loss is at the top of everyones's resolution list.  It's definitely on mine.  As a result, I'm trying to cook healthier dishes.  I thought Martha's Lighter Beef Tacos would be a nice start.  My family loves tacos and so this would be an easy sell.

It's not like I'm asking them to eat tofu.

This recipe is much like a regular taco recipe, expect Martha adds onions and bell peppers to the lean beef.  The result is an almost-hidden serving of veggies.  Add some shredded lettuce and salsa.  Skip the sour cream and cheese and you have a pretty healthy taco.

Surprisingly my husband loved these...even when he realized I had surreptitiously added veggies to his precious meat.

I'm like a culinary secret agent.  

Day Three Hundred Nine: Double-Blueberry Muffins

I've wanted to make Martha's Double-Blueberry Muffins for a while now.  They look delicious in her photo and there is something intriguing about a "double" blueberry muffin.  Are there two kinds of blueberries?  Are there double the amount of blueberries?  I had to find out.

This recipe is interesting because it includes flour and corn meal.  The final texture is....interesting.  It's course and almost like a cornbread.  The "double" portion of the recipe is that some of the blueberries are crushed and mixed into the batter.  It makes the batter look slightly grey, but don't worry.  Like Martha's photo, they look incredible.  Unfortunately, my husband was not shy in telling me he thought they were terrible.

He hated the texture, but I think some might like it.

:sigh:  How disappointing.

Day Three Hundred Eight: Organize Your Kitchen Cabinets

January always makes me want to get my house in order.  Right now, my kitchen cabinets are horrendous.  This is partly due to mediocre organization, and partly due to the fact that my one-year daughter thinks the cabinets are her own personal playground.  If the cabinets are her playground, the contents are a small stainless-steel toy store.  This is a photo of a fairly-organized cabinet, prior to toddler infestation.

I decided to take Martha's advice on Drawer Organization and install drawers and a lid organizer in my cabinets. This allows you to easily access those deep lower cabinets...without having to physically crawl inside.   My favorite store, the Container Store, sells these chrome roll-out drawers and lid holders.  This is my newly organized cabinet with drawers:

These drawers have been installed for a few days now.  I have to smile every time I open the cabinet.  It looks fabulous.  If you come over and all the doors of my cabinets are flung open, please don't question my sanity.  I'm simply reveling in my newfound cabinet organization.

p.s.  My daughter is in heaven.  Her favorite playground has new toys! At least the drawers make cleanup a cinch.

Day Three Hundred Seven: Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry

My husband loves Asian food, so Monday I used some sirloin steak to make Martha's Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry.  I love stir-fry recipes.  Despite having a mile-long list of ingredients, they are ridiculously easy to throw together.  This recipe doesn't even involve much cutting.  It was made even easier since my husband volunteered to pull together the ingredients.  :fist pump:

After marinating and quickly cooking the meat, just cook the broccoli and pour in the marinade to create a sauce.  And it's done:

No, really.  That's all.

Serve over rice and it's an amazing(ly easy) dinner. 

Day Three Hundred Six: Return of the Banana Bread

Months ago I had an epic banana bread disaster.  I made Martha's Banana Bread using a slightly smaller bread pan than the recipe suggested.  After much of the banana bread had escaped its pan, fell to the bottom of the oven and filled the house with smoke, I realized the importance of a correct-size pan. My house smelled like burned bananas for days.

Lesson #1:  If a specific-size pan is called for, use it.

After this disaster, I tried the same Banana Bead recipe again, using the correct pan.  I was determined that it was going to be delicious:  it has sour cream in it, for goodness sake!

Alas, my banana bread was lovely and moist, but nothing to get excited about. I kept searching for a great recipe.  I've found a few good ones, but kept coming back to this recipe.  Maybe the sour cream was calling my name. I don't know. 

So Sunday I gave the sour cream banana bread another try.  This is the last time, I swear.  I felt like I was taking back a worthless ex-boyfriend, actually.  I had pretty low expectations.

The good thing about this banana bread is that is comes together lighting fast.  Truly, it goes into the oven in less than twenty minutes.  And thanks to the sour cream, it is also very moist.  

The disappointing thing is that this recipe isn't that great.  It's always a little dense.  I'm not a true baker, but I know that baking soda causes baked goods to rise.  I'm wondering if there is not enough baking soda in this recipe, or if the baking soda in my pantry is suspect.  

I know I said I wouldn't, but I may have to try this recipe again...with new baking soda.  

Didn't I say something about a worthless ex-boyfriend? 

Day Three Hundred Five: Surprise! Jam Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Saturday was a cold, wet day at my house.  To entertain my kids, I made Martha's Jam Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.  These are filed under Martha's "Favorite Cupcakes" section, and now I know why. This is a simple (and delicious) upgrade to the basic cupcake. 

After making the cupcakes, cut a one-inch deep piece from the center.

 Fill with your favorite jam.  I used strawberry:

Then replace the cupcake center:

Top with chocolate frosting and you have a delicious jam-filled cupcake:

These are delicious; and, based on the elevation of my husband's eyebrows upon biting into this cupcake, the filling is a nice surprise.   

Day Three Hundred Four: (Not So) Super Sauces

I'd like to know how to make amazing sauces...I want to make the kinds of sauces I see television chefs whip up using the juices from a steak and dryer lint.

They are like the MacGyver of Food.

In an effort to engineer some sauce magic, I tried Martha's Sautéed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce.  It's really pretty simple.  The sauce is made by reducing chicken broth with the juices of the sautéed chicken.  After reducing, add cream, Dijon mustard, and tarragon.   This is my attempt.

I would have made a poor MacGyver because my sauce was mediocre.  Chicken stock, cream, Dijon mustard and tarragon did not turn into something amazing.

Maybe I should have added the dryer lint.

Day Three-Hundred Three: Sour Lime Squares for the Sweet

I have a friend who loves anything with lemon.  Or lime.  In fact, with all the sour stuff she eats, it's almost surprising she's so sweet.

As a thank-you for her sweet generosity, I made her Martha's Coconut-Key Lime Squares.  She loves lemon bars, so I thought she would also love these.  This recipe is a twist on the classic lemon bar:  it uses Key-limes instead of lemons and adds coconut and white chocolate to the crust.  

I think these are my favorite lemon (lime?) bars ever.  The lime is fantastic.  I will admit to a few changes, however.  First, I detest shaved coconut and didn't add it to the recipe.  Second, I didn't have quite enough white chocolate for the crust.  Even with these changes, these lime squares were delicious.

I will point out that the recipe says it makes 64 bars.  It's made in an eight-inch square pan.  How one can cut an eight-inch square pan of dessert into 64 bars is beyond me.  Perhaps Martha is also magic.

Day Three Hundred Two: What's Your Sign?

I have a kumquat tree that I've trained to grow flat on a fence.  The fancy term is espalier.  It means "I have a very small yard".  

Just kidding.  

At any rate, my little kumquat tree usually produces a cornucopia of kumquats.  This year it produced precisely four.  Four fruit the size of your your thumbnail.  

I was determined to make a dessert or possibly a garnish with my four kumquats. After finding them on the tree, I ran inside to grab my camera. When I returned, there were only two left.  My husband and son had each eaten one straight from the tree, completely destroying my grand kumquat plans.  

Two kumquats.  This one was saved from the clutches of my family:

Thankfully I found a recipe that uses only two kumquats:  Martha's Capricorn.  It's a rose Champagne cocktail. (I swear I don't have an obsession with Champagne cocktails).  You can make it for your favorite Capricorn.  Mine is my sister, Tracy.  She lives hundreds of miles away, but I know she'll be happy to know I had a drink in her honor.

It's a Champagne glass dipped in kumquat-laced sugar, filled with Rose Champagne and served with a slice of kumquat.

Delicious.

And it needed precisely two kumquats.

Day Three Hundred One: Cold-Weather Chowder

It was chilly at my house on New Year's Day.  The weather practically begged for soup.  I conceded and made Martha's Corn and Butternut Squash Chowder.  It's a super-easy recipe, especially when you happen to have a bag of peeled, seeded and cut butternut squash in the freezer.  :cheater:

Even if your freezer isn't stocked with frozen veggies, this soup is still simply good.  Just cook the veggies then add the broth and simmer.  When everything is tender, blend half the soup in a blender.  This makes the soup thick and "chowderey".  I think I just made that word up.

After I made this soup, I rescued my daughter a princess from an evil dragon, staged a Star Wars battle with my son Luke Skywalker, and repeatedly chased my one-year old a monkey up the stairs.

It was a very busy day.  

Day Three Hundred: Lucky Grapes

Can you believe three hundred days have passed?  It's been a blur, and I can hardly believe I'm nearly finished with this crazy long little project.

At any rate, Happy New Year!  I'm rather belated with my felicitations, but do forgive me.  I've been just a tad busy gaining ten pounds.

Or so it feels.

I did, however, have time to read up on all the Lucky Foods one is supposed to eat either at Midnight or on New Year's Day.  If you eat all these foods, you'll definitely gain ten pounds, if you haven't already.

:Puts Weight Watchers on Speed Dial:

One easy and low-calorie idea is Martha's Lucky Grapes.  In Spain, revelers mark the New Year by quickly eating a dozen grapes at midnight.  The fruits are a predictor of the year ahead:  each sweet grape represents a good month, each sour grape a not-so-lucky one.

Martha suggest skewering your grapes and serving them in a glass of champagne.  Hers looked like this:

Mine looked like this:

Now seriously, this is a pretty tall Champagne glass.  I'm not sure if Martha used miniature grapes or if her Champagne glass is like a Big Gulp, but my drink looked ridiculous.    

But all my grapes were sweet.

Day Two Hundred Ninety-Nine: Baked Apple (Not for) Dessert

While we were packing up to head home from our beach vacation, I realized we had a few uneaten apples.  Knowing they would only be thrown out, I decided to make Martha's Baked Apples.  I figured the apples were more likely to be eaten if they tasted like the inside of an apple pie. Martha suggests serving them with vanilla ice cream.  My imagination conjured grand dessert plans for the kids....

...who wouldn't touch these apples with a ten-foot pole.

Seriously.  Five children came to investigate the captivating smell coming from the kitchen, but none of them would dare try the apples.  I was baffled because the apples were tasty and clearly were a Pied Piper for any kid under ten.

I ended up serving the sliced apples to the adults as a side for grilled pork chops.  They were still excellent, even without the vanilla ice cream.

Day Two Hundred Ninety-Eight: Lemony Caramelized Brussels Sprouts

I have a friend who loves anything with lemon.  Sweet or savory, it doesn't matter. While we were at her beach house, I made her Martha's Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Lemon.

I don't cook Brussels Sprouts often, and I don't know why.  I usually walk right on by them in the grocery.  These are steamed slightly then allowed to caramelize until they turn a lovely golden color.  A squeeze of lemon over the top finishes the dish.

Really, really good.  Even if you aren't a lemon-adict.

Day Two Hundred Ninety-Seven: Open Champagne Sesame!

A few days before the New Year holiday, I saw a segment on one of those morning shows about How to Open a Bottle of Champagne.  Like opening a bottle of wine, champagne has it's own rules.  I've heard of a few, but I had to check with Martha for her Champagne-opening tips.  You'll want to read this, just to make sure you are Doing It Right.

Chill the champagne to 45 degrees before cutting and removing the foil. Wrap a towel around the bottle and hold the neck of the bottle while you secure the cork with your thumb.  Remove the wire cage.  (Martha suggests that it takes about six turns to remove the cage.  She's nothing if not thorough.)

While still holding the cork with one hand, and the bottom of the bottle with the other, tilt the bottle at a 45-degree angle (engineers, rejoice!)  Turn the bottle, not the cork, slowly and carefully.  Release the cork carefully and pour the Champagne.  I've heard it said that the Champagne shouldn't "Pop" open, but rather, it should sound like the "sigh of a woman".

There are so many comments I could make about that, I don't even know where to start.

Day Two Hundred Ninety-Six: Blue-Cheese and Walnut Spread

After Christmas, my family joined some friends in Florida.  We enjoyed beautiful weather and camaraderie until the New Year.  The most work we did all week was deciding what to cook (or which restaurant to patronize).  On Thursday we enjoyed a parents-night out, and I made Martha's Blue-Cheese and Walnut Spread as an appetizer.

Truly, an easier appetizer does not exist.  Mix walnuts, blue cheese and some cream cheese together for a delicious combo.  Martha suggest serving with apple or pear wedges.  I served it with crackers.  It was eaten so quickly I could hardly get a photo without a hand in it. 

Day Two Hundred Ninety-Five: Sorbet and Champagne Cocktail

Before Christmas, a good friend and owner of Scoop Sorbet brought me a pint of grapefruit-basil sorbet.  It's an unexpectedly delicious combination and I couldn't resist using it to make Martha's Sorbet and Champagne Cocktail.

This recipe is simply champagne poured over a scoop of sorbet. It's a refreshing alternative to the usual and I really enjoyed the slushy texture.  I'd like to suggest my friend's amazing, small batch sorbet was solely responsible for the result, but this recipe would probably be almost as good with any nice sorbet.  Martha suggest raspberry or passion fruit. If you have some grapefruit-basil sorbet lying around, that would work as well.