Martha Mondays: 6/6

Sassy Suppers has chosen popsicles for next week. That sounds very refreshing in this heat wave!

Martha Mondays: Quick Breads

Megan’s Cookin’ chose this week’s project and after several of you suggested having a general category where you pick your own, we went with the ability to choose your own project from the list of quick breads. I made Carrot Tea Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Very simple to put together. I enjoyed this, but I think I expected it to be a bit more carrot-y and moist like carrot cake. It was good for a tea cake, but honestly the frosting was what made it so good. Without it, it would be sort of blah. What did everyone else make?

Corn, Avocado, and Cilantro Salad

Since this week’s Martha Mondays was a corn recipe, I bought enough to also make this recipe from June Living. You grill 4 ears of corn for 15 minutes. Cut the corn off the cobs and toss with 1 sliced avocado, 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, 1 tbsp lime juice, and 1/2 tsp coarse salt. This was really fantastic. I love grilled corn and the other flavors in this dish are among my favorites too. I grilled some meat along with this and put the corn on as soon as I turned the grill on, so it was done first and I had time to assemble the salad. I’ll be making this one again.

Martha Mondays: 5/30

Megan’s Cookin’ chose quick breads for next week’s project. I usually try to just isolate one recipe for Martha Mondays, but thought we would give this a try giving people the option of choosing the one they want. Megan is going to make the coconut pineapple one.

I also just realized Monday is a holiday, or I would have skipped it for our projects. I’ll probably make mine later this week and bring to a holiday get together over the weekend.

Martha Mondays: Sauteed Corn, Bacon, and Scallions

Steak and Potato Kinda Gurl picked Corn, Bacon and Scallions for today’s project. You can’t go wrong with bacon. This tasted great , but I would probably not make it often because of all the bacon fat. It was really easy to make though and the corn and scallions looked great together. Did you make this?

Martha Mondays 5/23

Steak and Potato Kinda Gurl has chosen Sauteed Corn, Bacon, and Scallions for next week. Can’t wait to try it!

Martha Mondays: Danish

I chose this week’s project, Poppy Seed Danishes with Cherry Cream Cheese Filling. This recipe is from May Martha Stewart Living. I used strawberry jam instead of cherry. I had some trouble with the folding. I probably should have stuck my dough in the fridge, but scraping it off the counter and doing that was just too much work. I thought these were really good, but they were a bit big and doughy, so if I made it again, I would roll it out thinner to make more. That’s my only criticism, otherwise they were a hit here. I thought they were pretty and had a very nice flavor. I liked the cream cheese with the poppy seeds and the strawberry jam was just great. I had to bake mine longer than the recipe said, but I almost always have to do that! My oven must not be calibrated correctly.  I’ve never made a danish before, so this was a new one for me! How did this turn out for everyone else?

She Crab Soup

I had the windfall of having a can of crab and decided to make this recipe which I’ve adapted from Johnnie Gabriel’s Cooking in the South.

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

2 cups skim milk

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

pepper

zest of 1 lemon

1/2 tbsp salt

2 cups lump crabmeat

1 shallot, peeled with ends cut off

1/4 tsp mace

2 tbsp cooking sherry

Melt the butter then whisk in the flour and cook until it is light brown. Whisk in milk, cream, pepper, zest, salt, crab, sherry, and mace. Add the shallot. Bring to a light boil, stirring often. Reduce heat to low and simmer 15-20 min. Remove shallot. Serve.

I loved this soup so, so much. It was creamy and crabby and fabulous. But no one else in my house would eat it!!! DudeMartha was not home, Teen Martha announced she hates soup and would only eat a crab soup if it was very, very thick. Mr. MarthaAndMe lost big points by eating some and saying it was good but he just didn’t want any more. Which left me with a big container of leftovers which I ate for lunch for days afterwards. Their loss I guess.

Martha Mondays: 5/16

It’s my turn to pick for next week’s Martha Mondays, so I’m going to go with Poppy-Seed Danishes with Cherry-Cream Cheese Filling. I’ll tell you now, I’m pretty sure I’m going to use strawberry instead of cherry!

Here’s the schedule going forward. Let me know if your date does not work for you. And, as always, anyone is welcome to join, just leave a comment or send an email and I’ll add you to the list.

5/23 Steak and Potato Kinda Gurl

5/30 Megan’s Cookin

6/6 Sassy Suppers

6/13 Perfecting Pru

6/20 Tiny Skillet

6/27 Sweet Almond Tree

7/4 off (holiday weekend)

7/11 Bizzy Bakes

7/18 MarthaAndMe

Martha Mondays: Grilled Mozzarella Sandwiches

Bizzy Bakes chose today’s project, grilled mozzarella sandwiches. What did you think? It was easy enough to make. My family said the bread tasted like French toast. My mozzarella did not melt completely, so I didn’t like that aspect. It was something different, but didn’t quite do it for me.