Martha Stewart, Me, & My Melon Head Children

I have always been a Martha Stewart fan. I first came across the Great Martha on PBS in the late 80s-she had a holiday special that was so over the top ambitious. It made my future husband and I howl with laughter at the absurdity of the meal. On some level, though, I wanted to live in Marthaville. Martha didn't just make the Thanksgiving turkey-she wrapped it in puff pastry. She stuck her whole arm in another bird to separate the meat from the skin, and then shoved sage leaves in so the leaf patterns would be visible when roasted.Of course, the sage served the dual purpose of seasoning the bird as well. The pastry leaves on top of the pie were, as she put it, "botanically correct". The pheasant was smoked in a smokehouse built by her brother somewhere on the grounds of Turkey Hill. Her extensive collection of glass turkeys served as table decorations. I could never be like Martha, but I wanted to take some small piece of her and apply it to my world. When I started to plan my wedding in the 90s, I purchased the huge "Martha Stewart Weddings" book and pored over every photograph, invitation, menu and flower arrangement, attempting to construct a wedding befitting a Marthaphile. I took the book to my florist, Joseph, when it came time to pick centerpieces and my bouquet. He immediately announced, "Martha Stewart should be slain!". Joseph tried to explain to me that the beautiful bouquets featured would never withstand the hours they would sit out at a wedding. He showed me how I would end up swinging my flowers as I walked if they were hand-wrapped in ribbon the Martha way. My wedding was beautiful-the Joseph way. My favorite memory was walking up to his shop the day before, and seeing all of my hydrangeas, lining his windows. A few still survive in gardens to this day, almost 20 years later. Now back to Martha. I am still in awe of her, and her ability to spot trends, embellish, craft, create, cook, and reinvent. But yet, she is still "so Martha". Martha loves Beacon's glues. If you read her tutorials, we are all over them. Fabri Tac is a biggie. Sometimes she will refer to it as just "fabric glue", but it's our bottle that is sitting on Martha's crafting table. She has her own line of everything, yet uses our stuff. You can only imagine how happy that makes me. So last week, a Facebook friend alerted me to a recent Martha television show where Martha and Kathie Lee Gifford made animal party hats, using Beacon's Fabri Tac. Cool! I figured I would post the wonderful party hat tutorial to our Facebook page. If I waited a few days, the video would be up and I could add a link. Well I have finally arrived at the point of my story. 1. Measure the child's head, and choose a honeydew melon that has the same circumference. Place melon in a shallow bowl to keep it steady, and lightly coat with petroleum jelly. In order to make a hat, I have to purchase honeydew melons?? Let me get this straight-first I have to measure my kid's head. Then I have to take a trip to the grocery store with my trusty tape measure, and start checking the circumference of the melons? AND find one that is the same as my kid's melon head? Perhaps a ball-or a big bowl-or a balloon-might work? Oh no-honeydew melon is the only way to go. And then I have to grease the thing up with vaseline. I can just picture the slippery melon flying out of my hands and sailing across the room, shattering Grandma's prized vase in the process. Will people actually do that? Do Martha lovers make a shopping list and run right out to the market to do her craft specifically as written? Or do they do the quickie version, like me? That's what I love about Martha. I like to watch her, listen to her, and then take her ideas and dumb them down for the less ambitious like me. I could never be Martha, but I respect the heck out of her. I hope when her legion of fans get down to the Fabri Tac on her tutorials, they head on over to their local sewing or craft store and buy our glue. They can skip the melon.

Blueberry Buckle

Summer here in Jersey. Not quite time for my beloved tomatoes-I must wait until late July for cherry tomatoes, August for the big guys. Then corn.

In the meantime, here's a year-round favorite that is especially wonderful with local blueberries. I had to do some googling for the derivation of Blueberry "Buckle" and I'm glad I did. The top "crust" is supposed to "buckle"-hence the name. And for all these years I thought I was doing something wrong.

The original recipe, from The California Heritage Cookbook, Pasadena, CA, didn't have enough buckle in the buckle for me. I changed it up a bit and now I am happy with the cake to buckle ratio. Feel free to cut the crumb topping recipe down if you think it's too much.

BLUEBERRY BUCKLE

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk (slightly less if it's low-fat)
2 cups fresh blueberries
Pinch of salt

CRUMB TOPPING

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter -cut up if cold (softened is fine too)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan. Glass is great if you have it, as you can check for doneness.

In a large bowl cream butter & sugar until fluffy. Blend egg into creamed mixture. In separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder & salt. Add flour mixture alternately with milk to the creamed mixture, beating after each addition. Gently fold blueberries into the batter.

To prepare crumb topping: In a small bowl, mix sugar, flour and cinnamon. Using pastry blender or your hands, mix topping until it resembles coarse meal. It isn't rocket science. Different sized crumbs are fine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with crumb topping. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Place on rack to cool.

Serve warm as a coffee cake, or cooled with ice cream or whipped cream.

I got this recipe years ago from Gourmet Magazine. It is simple to make, but a pain in the neck. Worth it? Absolutely. You can't bang out 100 cookies in 20 minutes with this one. You have to brown butter, which becomes easier once you do it a couple of times and you know what you are looking for. When you make the dough, you have to let it sit for a while to age before you proceed. But you can't refrigerate it. You must shape each half of the cookie inside the bowl of a spoon-and the dough is crumbly as all get-out. Once the cookie is baked, you then have to heat preserves (of course I prefer to use a mixture of cherry and strawberry), and put them through a sieve to remove the solids. Then you assemble-the preserves make the cookie a bit slippery and you have to watch that they stay together while they set up. THEN you should wait a few days for the flavors to blend before you eat them. You go through all this trouble for 30 cookies. I still make them a couple of times a year. I triple the recipe for Christmas, and I must admit I hate spoon cookie day in December. Yet I continue to make them, and their followers anxiously await their delivery.

Spoon Cookies

Gourmet | December 2005

Adapted from Celia Barbour

2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt, slightly rounded
1/3 cup fruit preserves (your choice)

Special equipment: a deep-bowled teaspoon (not a measuring spoon)

Make dough:

Fill kitchen sink with about 2 inches of cold water. Melt butter in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until butter turns golden with a nutlike fragrance and flecks on bottom of pan turn a rich caramel brown, 10 to 12 minutes. (Butter will initially foam, then dissipate. A thicker foam will appear and cover the surface just before butter begins to brown; stir more frequently toward end of cooking.) Place pan in sink to stop cooking, then cool, stirring frequently, until butter starts to look opaque, about 4 minutes. Remove pan from sink and stir in sugar and vanilla.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and stir into butter mixture until a dough forms. Shape into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and let stand at cool room temperature 1 to 2 hours (to allow flavors to develop).

Form and bake cookies:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F.

Press a piece of dough into bowl of teaspoon, flattening top, then slide out and place, flat side down, on an ungreased baking sheet. (Dough will feel crumbly, but will become cohesive when pressed.) Continue forming cookies and arranging on sheet. Bake cookies until just pale golden, 8 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on sheet on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to rack and cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Assemble cookies:

While cookies cool, heat preserves in a small saucepan over low heat until just runny, then pour through a sieve into a small bowl, pressing hard on solids, and cool completely.

Spread the flat side of a cookie with a thin layer of preserves. Sandwich with flat side of another cookie. Continue with remaining cookies and preserves, then let stand until set, about 45 minutes. Transfer cookies to an airtight container and wait 2 days before eating.

Baked French Toast

I have been making this recipe for years. It's my go-to for brunch, as you prepare it the night before. It feeds an army, and you can change it up-add cinnamon, raisins, fruit, use challah or raisin bread. It tastes great microwaved as leftovers too.

Baked French Toast, Angel of the Sea, Cape May, NJ

Ingredients

1 loaf firm bread

8 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup maple syrup

10 eggs

1-1/2 cups half & half

8 Tablespoons melted butter

Cube bread and layer half in a 13 x 9-inch pan. Cut the cream cheese into small pieces and scatter it across the bread. Cover with remaining bread cubes. Mix the eggs, half & half, syrup, and melted butter together. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes. Press the bread cubes down to absorb the mixture. Refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes. Serve with syrup, jelly, or powdered sugar.

Serves: 6

Notes: It feeds more than 6, unless they are ravenous. I have found that it requires more than one loaf of bread if you are using Pepperidge Farm or the like. It puffs up in the pan-make sure your pan is deep, and use a sheet pan underneath just in case.

Grilled Quesadillas

My husband Steve is a big Food Network fan. I just want to eat the food. There was an early co-hosted show called "Grillin' and Chillin'" with Bobby Flay and Jack McDavid. I liked Jack. I miss Jack.

On this show, or perhaps one of Bobby's subsequent shows, he made a grilled quesadilla that tasted as great as it looked. We have been making them ever since. Here's the easy basic recipe:

To make 2 large quesadillas:

6 large flour tortillas
Barbecue sauce
Olive Oil
Grated Monterey Jack Cheese
Chopped Scallions
Grilled Chicken, sliced fairly thin(you can use barbecue sauce while grilling

Brush a tortilla with olive oil and turn it over. This side will go on grill. Brush the up side of tortilla with a little barbecue sauce, to the edges. Just paint it, don't slather. Top with grilled chicken-place it all around tortilla. You do not have to cover completely. Top with Monterey Jack and some chopped scallions. It should not be too thick.

Place another tortilla on top of this, and repeat with the barbecue sauce, chicken, Jack cheese and scallion. Place another tortilla on top, and brush top with olive oil. Done with one quesadilla prep.

Repeat all with second group of tortillas. Heat grill on low and place quesadilla directly on grill grate. Wait until you see bottom cheese starting to melt and there are grill marks on tortilla. Flip with tongs, or two spatulas if you are nervous. Heat other side until quesadilla appears done. You can also move quesadilla a half turn while grilling to get cross hatched grill marks.

When done, remove from grill and top with sour cream and salsa fresca. Cut into 8 wedges.

Recipe is great for leftover steak or veggies, and pesto can be used in place of barbecue sauce. Create your own quesadilla.

Margaritas on the Rocks

Adapted from Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen

2 and 1/2 cups silver tequila

1/2 cup Grand Marnier

1 and 3/4 cups fresh squeezed lime juice

1 cup simple syrup (see note below)

2 cups water

grated zest of 4 limes

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for a few hours for flavors to blend. Strain into serving pitcher. Serve with lime wedges in glasses rimmed with salt, if desired.

Note: To make simple syrup, combine 1 cup water with 1 cup sugar and boil until sugar is dissolved, approx. 3 minutes.

BEST. MARGARITAS. EVER.