Day Two Hundred Fourteen: Easy-To-Please Chicken Casserole

Over the weekend, Martha had a whole section on Casseroles and Pot Pies at MarthaStewart.com.  Casseroles totally remind my husband of his childhood, so I decided to make Martha's Chicken and Spinach Casserole for him.  I rarely make casseroles, but when I do, he totally loves him.

Bless him.  He's pretty easy to please sometimes.

If you like casseroles, this is a good one.  It's made with fresh spinach and rotisserie chicken.  You can even use old bread for the topping if you have it.  To my tastes, the flavor was pretty boring, but nothing that a few dashes of red pepper can't solve.  My kids actually ate some of this, even though all the food groups were fraternizing like crazy.  I used the super-hero technique to get them to eat the spinach.  (Think: Popeye.)

This isn't the most photogenic dish in the world, but here you go:

Photogenic awards aside, this was a crowd-pleaser...if your crowd is beyond the age where food-groups-touching-on-the-plate is a major issue.  (When do they grow out of this?)

Day Two Hundred Thirteen: Embarrassing Smoked Salmon Burgers

The other day I made a salmon dish that was pretty terrible.  I can't recommend the sauce, but the roasted salmon sans sauce was excellent.  I decided on Friday to use the leftovers to make Martha's Smoked Salmon Burgers with Grainy Mustard.   This recipe is sort of like a crab cake, but mixes in cooked salmon with smoked salmon, giving it an amazing depth of flavor.  It also calls for watercress, which has a nice spicy flavor.

FYI: Watercress is different from water chestnuts, commonly seen in Asian food.  Not that you would make that mistake like a certain someone I know (i.e. me).  Imagine me in the Asian food aisle looking for water chestnuts when I realize I'm actually looking for a different food item altogether...

:runs back to produce section in embarrassment:

My yummy Smoked Salmon Burgers:

Day Two Hundred Twelve: Super-Hero Pot Pies

Now that cooler weather is upon us, nothing sounds better than some comfort food.  I saw Martha's  Chicken Pot Pies with Puff Pastry on Thursday and had to try them.  I ate pot pies as a child, but mine were the pre-frozen packaged variety.  They took half the afternoon to cook and were all but tasteless to anyone over the age of ten.  (To be fair to my mother, pot pies are one of the few pre-packaged things I ate as a child.)

If you are like me and have a soft spot in your heart for pot pies, you'll be happy to know that this recipe only takes about thirty minutes to prep and only about ten minutes in the oven.  The puff pastry on the top is a nice touch, and looks gourmet...

Mine came out really pretty and were absolutely delicious.  My kids were skeptical about all that food-group fraternizing in one dish.  The puff pastry was as far as they got before they started asking serious questions.  (If my kids ask about a food, I always counter with some Super-Power that said food would provide, if we lived in a comic book.  i.e. carrots are good for vision, therefore they help you see in the dark.)

Them:  What is this orange stuff?
Me:      Carrots. They help you see in the dark.
Them:  What's this white stuff? :looking skeptical:
Me:        Potatoes.  They give you energy to run and jump all day faster than a cheetah.  Better than      Spiderman.

Them:   What is this??? :semi-disgusted:   

Me:        It's a parsnip.  It's sort of like a carrot...remember about seeing in the dark?

Them:    And this?

Me:        Chicken.  It's protein.  Helps you grow big muscles like Superman.

I don't always get very far with this technique, but it does work well from time to time.  This time, both kids ate about three bites before pronouncing that they were full.  I call it a victory.

Day Two Hundred Eleven: Don't-Try-This-At-Home Roasted Salmon

My husband is out of town on business, so yesterday I decided to make his less-than-favorite dish: anything-with-fish.  I made Martha's Roasted Salmon with White Wine Sauce.  It looks good and uses the one weed herb I consistently have growing:  chives.  (Seriously, the stuff won't die.)

This is one of Martha's really easy recipes.  Dish:  In case you haven't noticed, most of Martha's "easy recipes" have been great...but this isn't one of them.  The sauce is terrible.  Actually, it was so bad, I made it three times thinking I had certainly done something wrong.  I'm thinking there is a typo in the recipe.  I'm not sure what it is.  :not a professional chef: 

There is a copy editor somewhere who should be fired. 

At least it looks good.

Day Two Hundred Ten: Spaghetti Squash Con

Like most young children, my kids love pasta.  Especially plain pasta with butter.  :yawn:  They would eat pasta for every meal if I let them. When I saw Martha's recipe for Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Herbs, my Brilliant Evil-Genius Mind thought,

"I can make them think vegetables are pasta!" Hahahahahahahahahah!!!!  :evil genius laugh:

Did it work?!?!?  No.

But it should have.  I think my Brilliant Evil-Genius Plan went awry somewhere.  This is what happened:

I started with a spaghetti squash, cut in half, brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and BROWN SUGAR.  (Seriously, this recipe had something going for it.)

Cooked spaghetti squash:

I even let my son scrape the squash to make the "spaghetti" so he would believe me.

I had to use all my tom-foolery to make my daughter eat even two bites of this....and that was after I pulled out the coveted Pink-Princess spoon.  There is still a lot left:

Outcome:  Evil Genius Plan backfired.  But isn't that how all those Evil Genius Plans go?

:sigh:

Day Two Hundred Nine: Wheel of (Fortunately Easy) Cleaning

Fall Cleanup 2012 (Part II)

According to Martha, one should clean one's kitchen cabinets every week (MS Homekeeping Handbook, p. 42) and one's woodwork twice a year (MS Homekeeping Handbook, p. 544).  My schedule isn't quite so punctual.  I tend to complete this chore on more of an "as needed" basis, which boils down to whenever I get the enthusiasm to attack the chore, a.k.a. Not Often Enough.

Martha suggests using a soft, damp cloth or undiluted household cleaner for stronger stains.  I use these, which make the job easy:

 

They are brilliant and who doesn't love that bald guy?

I not only cleaned my cabinets, but also scrubbed the scuffs and fingerprints from the woodwork.  Note the before and after photos, which are really more impressive in person.  (Trust me.)
Before:

After:

 Before (Notice the coffee? tea? drips on the bottom of the cabinet):

 After:

Before (Grimy fingerprints): (The owners must have children.)

After:

I could give you a whole tour of the house, but really, it's not that exciting.  Except for me.  I'm stickin' ecstatic!!   :does a cartwheel:   My husband is out of town, but when he comes home I'm going to be showcasing my cleaning job like Vanna White.

Day Two Hundred Eight: Wall Washing Warning

Fall Cleanup 2012*  (Part One)

*Alternative title of this Blog entry and suggested campaign slogan.  For either side.  

When was the last time you vacuumed your walls?  That's not a typo and no, I have not lost my mind.  If you are anything like me, the answer is never.  I'm guessing that I'm probably in pretty good company since I've wracked my brain and cannot recall a single conversation with friends that included the phrase, "when I was vacuuming my walls..."

:thinking again:

Nope, never heard it.  That would have certainly got my attention.

Apparently, one is supposed to vacuum one's walls (and ceilings) once or twice a year.  (MS Homekeeping Handbook, p. 502.)  I'm way behind.  This is over and above dusting the cobwebs from the corners, too.

I noticed my walls on Saturday night after coming home from dinner out.  As I was walking upstairs, I noticed something on my wall.  Being much too tipsy tired to investigate at the time, I figured it was just a shadow cast by a streetlight.  I woke up the next morning and realized it was a very small dust bunny.

On my wall, people.

It was an eye-opener to say the least.  For a demonstration and your amusement, this is the Swiffer I used to wipe down my foyer.  I also vacuumed it but it's hard to take a photo of dirt in a vacuum.  (I imagine.  I didn't actually try.)

I'm pretty sure I have now eradicated all wall-dust-bunny refugees.  They are bad enough finding them under your bed...now on my walls too?

Be on the lookout.  I saw them headed your way.