Obsessed with Martha Stewart

Review of 2009....Goals for 2010

 

I’ve had an eventful year to say the least. I moved from Brooklyn, New York to Richmond, Virginia to Blacksburg, Virginia. I’ve gone from a tiny kitchen to a HUGE kitchen. I got married to the most amazing (he really is) man on Halloween. I was hospitalized for 5 days the week before my wedding. The sweet, easy going lab mix that my husband and I adopted from the pound was unknowingly pregnant when we adopted her, and she had 7 puppies the day before our wedding. I went from providing therapy to teens with substance abuse and mental health problems to writing full-time. I definitely miss the teens that I worked with, but I absolutely love writing on a full-time basis.

There is one thing missing that I really wanted to happen by the end of the year – getting pregnant. However, my husband and I want to set up a good life for a new addition to our family, and we haven’t been able to focus on that. Our television is still sitting on top of an unpacked cardboard box in our living room, we still have a “wedding room” filled with wedding related items, our rental company refused to get the standing water out of our basement a few weeks ago even though it’s against the law not to do so, and we just received a $20,000 medical bill from my hospitalization. Yikes!

I don’t do New Year resolutions, because they just don’t stick. But I do set goals on a regular basis, and since so many people around me are making goals for the upcoming year, I’ve decided that I might as well, too. I realized that I haven’t done this project justice, so it’s time to start over. Even though I’ve baked lots of cupcakes and cookies and a few Martha Stewart meals since I started, I just didn’t have time to take on such a consuming project as trying to be more like Martha. But I’ve decided that it’s time to completely jump in. Since I haven’t gotten pregnant, that is definitely going to be a goal for this year –that gives me at least 9 months – probably more because we’re not going to start “trying” for at least another month or two. This year is going to be dedicated to Martha.

Before I have a child, I want to learn how to bake delicious cakes and pies, whip up dinners that will have my husband begging for more, make myself a priority (stress can significantly impact a pregnancy) and get my house clean and tidy. To learn how to do all of the above I’ll be turning to the one woman empire, Martha Stewart, for advice by reading her books and magazines and watching her television show. Therefore, I’m making it my goal to post at least five times per week on this blog to hold myself accountable.

I’m not just Martha obsessed – I’m also book obsessed. I can’t step foot into Barnes and Noble without purchasing at least two books or magazines, and that’s a stretch. It’s usually more like five or six books and one or two magazines. I’m not a shopaholic unless you put me in a bookstore and then it’s all over. My thoughtful father-in-law and his wife gave my husband and I two $50 gift certificates to Barnes and Noble, so my husband and I purchased a puppy training book recommended by our vet (our puppies are taking over our house and are going to be about 90 pounds each), I got a Nora Roberts book (I’m a sucker for romance novels) and two more novels. We had about $42 dollars left and I saw that the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook was reduced by 30%....It’s normally $40…..so I could have gotten a couple more novels including one I’ve been pining over for a couple months or I could get the baking handbook.

Since, I’m taking this goal seriously I decided I had to have the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. This amazing book is divided into six chapters: Simple Baked Goods, Cookies, Cakes, Pies Tarts Cobblers and Crisps, Yeasted Baked Goods, and Pastries. I’m going to split these chapters, so that I focus on one chapter for two months at a time. I’ll also be making lots of breakfasts, dinners, and desserts from Everyday Food and following the advice from Body and Soul. Also, I’ll be attempting to incorporate recipes and advice from The Martha Stewart Show.

I hope that you’ll come along for the ride….

My Adorable Puppies....

{this is Dubbya, the President - he was a little slow at first - we're keeping him and one other puppy from the group} 

.....are driving me to insanity. I love them with all my heart and I'm already preparing myself for when we have to give them away to nice homes who will take good care of them, but they stink. In the morning, my husband gets up 30 minutes early to clean out the room (thank goodness for a sun room with a tile floor) and feed them. Then I'm up to bat and have to "spot" clean the room on an hourly basis which means I remove the poop and wipe up the puppy pee. Then I mop the room before and after I feed them lunch. My husband or I (usually one of us while the other cooks dinner or picks up from dinner) feeds them again and cleans up. It's absolutely exhausting.

Not to mention, when they start to cry, I have to go check on them and cuddle the ones that are crying. This means that I'm waaaay behind on my cupcake making - daily cleaning - and writing which is my source of income at this point. What would Martha do?

Sweet Potato Cupcakes

 
Rating (1-10): 9.5

Difficulty (1-5): 4.5

I Looooooove sweet potato cupcakes. I usually eat 1 to 2 cupcakes from each batch that I make. I really try to eat them in moderation, so I don't gain the Martha 15* and there haven't been too many batches where I've had more. I send them with my husband to work, give some to my mother-in-law and anybody else who wants a sweet treat. This time I ate 1 to 2 cupcakes per day for four days in a row. I want to make these again for Christmas but I don't want to eat that many cupcakes over the Christmas holiday.

And they weren't so simple to make. You have to cook the sweet potatos in the oven for an hour, let them cool and scrape out the insides before you can make the batter. The hardest part was trying to get the mound of mini marshmallows to stay together long enough to put them in the broiler to get them nice and toasted. If I didn't have the help of my husband on this one, I would have been frustrated to say the least.

*The Martha 15 is the pounds you gain when you try to cook all of her fabulous desserts!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my husband's favorite holiday, because it's all about delicious food. This year I'm making a recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: Candied Yam Cupcakes and a yummy sweet potato casserole recipe from Paula Dean. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are taking care of the turkey and stuffing and we'll be heading over to their house to help finish the mashed potatoes, asparagus, and broccoli casserole. I'm also looking forward to trying pumpkin cheesecake made from fresh pumpkin made by my sister-in-law. Today is going to be a great day!!

Image from Martha Stewart

You-Won't-Be-Singe-For-Long Vodka Cream Pasta Sauce

This recipe came out of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals 2 cookbook, and it was absolutely delicious. I hope that I'll never be single again, because I just got married. Rachael decided upon this clever name, because a reader made this for her boyfriend and he proposed that night.

Even though this isn't a Martha Stewart recipe, I thought I would share a picture. It was just too good not to! We added freshly grated parmesan to the top - even though the recipe didn't call for it. Tonight we're making tacos - YUM.
 

Iced Pistachio Cupcakes

Rating (1-10): 8

Difficulty (1-5): 3

I was really unsure how these cupcakes were going to turn out. The thought of pistachio cupcakes, even though I love pistachios, didn't sit well with me. I always sample the batter when it's finished before I bake them, and this batter was sooooo good. In fact, my actual words were, "This batter is so good I want to bath in it." And my husband's response was, "That wasn't melodramatic." I would have rated these cupakes higher, but I accidentally over baked them. The timer on our oven isn't very loud and I was occupied with sweeping the kitchen floor and doing dishes. Even though they were baked a little longer than they were supposed to be, they still tasted really yummy.

The hard part was having to make a paste out of the pistachios and chopping up an additional cup of pistachios. The easy part was the icing - it took less than a minute.

Need to Clean

I really want to keep my home as clean as Martha would (I wish I could afford to have a cleaning service) but I just can't seem to catch up. Our adopted dog turned out to be pregnant and had 7 puppies the day before our wedding and we have been playing catch up ever since the wedding. Right now, our house is a wreck and it's making me a little crazy. Plus I've only written about one-third of our thank you notes and really want to send them out by the end of this weekend. Martha would definitely be disappointed. I wonder how she makes it work.

To make matters worse, our basement flooded yesterday and ruined a lot of personal items. Plus, I went to the doctor on Wednesday as a follow up after being hospitalized for 5 days the week of our wedding and was told that my energy level won't return to normal for 4 to 6 weeks. The doctor informed me that I need to rest and take it easy which is incredibly frustrating when you have a to do list with hundreds of items. I'm the type of person that likes to work really hard and when I feel sick I get really bummed out. Okay, I'm going to stop whining now, because my husband will be home in 30 minutes with pizza from Pizza Hut {I don't even want to know what Martha would say about that} and a movie for our date night. My goal is to get two more cupcake recipes completed by the end of the weekend!

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes

Rating (1-10): 7

Difficulty (1-5): 2

These cupcakes were super easy to make (especially since I got a Martha Stewart blue KitchenAid mixer from one of our wedding guests) and they were pretty good. I didn't give them a higher rating, because they just weren't as good as some of the others. If you like spice cake and want an easy spice cupcake, try this one. I couldn't find the recipe on the Martha Stewart website, so you've got to buy the cupcake book to get the recipe. I made fall cupcake toppers to jazz them up a little.

You might be wondering where I've been lately. Life basically got in the way. I got married a week ago, was hospitalized for five days the week before my wedding, and our adopted dog had seven puppies (we didn't know she was pregnant when we adopted her). I'm back and ready to become more like Martha, so stay tuned for regular posts.
 

Martha Stewart Season Premiere

I was such a happy girl today, because I got to watch the Martha Stewart season premiere while I worked on a wedding project. It made my day to see Martha's beautiful home in Skylands, watch Daniel Humm make roast chicken, and to watch the piping hot popovers come out of the pan. Yum. I wanted to jump through the computer screen to taste all the delicious looking foods. I was disappointed that there weren't any crafts on the first show, because that's usually my favorite part. Maybe tomorrow.

Streusel Cupcakes

Rating (1-10): 8

Difficulty (1-5): 2.8

These are the perfect cupcakes for breakfast...if you were to eat cupcakes in the morning. I loved how the sour cream made the cupcakes incredibly moist and the crumbly, and the streusel topping made them extra delicious. The reason I gave the cupcakes a 2.8 in difficulty (they really weren't that difficult) was due to the fact that you have to make the streusel topping and refrigerate it for 30 minutes before you can use it.

Most of you know that I recently moved to Blacksburg and had been living with my fiance and my parents in Richmond. My stepfather got used to having cupcakes on a weekly basis and has been going through cupcake withdrawal since we've been away. This past weekend my fiance and I ventured back to Richmond for my second dress fitting, and I made this weeks cupcakes there. My stepfather was extremely appreciative. It made my day to make him so happy. This is another recipe that I couldn't find on the Martha Stewart website - you need the book for it.