daniellewiley

Too true. But I'm having a challenge imagining any of them as regular Martha viewers. Holy Mother of Mercy. WTF? I'm one of those who thought Martha was tagged as a scapegoat, and while I'm not sure I'd want to be her girlfriend, I have admired her business sense and her ways with kitchen utensils. I imagine the ratings will start out ok this week, what with everyone excited about her being back. But after that? They'll either have to retool this thing fast or grab some paddles. ← Let me first say that I am shocked and amazed by my point of view here. It is so not like me to be on this side of a "controversy." But, really, it's fun to watch! And, I'll say again, I'm usually the first one to be offended by shows that are fake or overly scripted. (I wrote my college thesis on talk shows.) Also, I don't think they'll need paddles. Look at the Bobby Brown show. It's doing fabulously well, and watching Bobby and Whitney (ESPECIALLY Whitney) is like watching a train wreck. But, I'm not as mortified watching this show, and I really don't think the producers are twisting Martha's personality all that much. I think she's still a little uncomfortable with the audience, but that's to be expected. It's a new thing for her.

I should note that I've never really liked Martha's personna... until today!! I was expecting to hate her new show, but as I said above, I was very much amused. She did not seem at all apologetic or fake. Really, I felt like she had learned to be less stiff and formal. I thought she was funny. She was able to make fun of herself (never easy) and also joke around with David Spade (also not easy, I'm sure). Will you watch the show? I'm eager to hear what you think after you've seen it for yourself. (I can't believe I've written two posts today championing Martha Stewart! Too funny...)

Oops. I am interested to see what goodies come out of that kitchen, though. The marble countertops alone had me drooling. ← So far, nothing good. All stuff microwaved in plastic dishes today - ala prison. They even cored their apples for baked apples with PLASTIC KNIVES!! I must say, though, that I really enjoyed the show. I don't know if it was the back and forth between martha and david spade, or the fact that she was really making fun of herself, but I was amused and entertained the whole time. Hopefully, there will be some good food on in the future (not microwaved nachos made with dehydrated refried beans and cheese grated on a contraband sardine tin that she punched ragged holes in...), b/c I think the show itself was kind of funny. Oh, and as an off-topic aside, I was a little disturbed when she told viewers to let their children do the entire craft project on their own. The craft project involved an iron on the second to the highest setting. I won't be letting MY child do that anytime in the future!!

Speaking of Sesame Street, her website tells me that Elmo will be on today:

Brushed on a newton? SB ← I read this as "brushed on a newborn"

I saw this on Good Eats w/ Alton Brown and I've tried it myself. Try clamping your hand cranked pasta maker to an ironing board. Its the perfect length for the sheets of pasta. I just lay a bed sheet on the board before clamping so no flour remains to ruin my work shirts later. I also found that the clamp requires a thick surface so I used 1) folded newspaper or 2) small piece of wood. ← I love this idea!!!!!

Oh no! I just won one on eBay, and now I'm scared. my kitchen was a disaster today after making muffins - I'm sure pasta will be an adventure for sure!

That's pretty cool! Thanks!

Sam - how much flour, and how many yolks would you estimate for a pound of ricotta? Like many cooking tasks, after you've done it a while it becomes a "by feel" sort of thing. So I can't really say how much flour and egg yolks for a pound of ricotta. This is all the more true because regular supermarket ricotta has substantially more water content than the almost-as-thick-as-cream-cheese ricotta I'm using. If I had to guess, I'd say something like 1 pound of thick ricotta (drain the supermarket stuff overnight), plus two egg yolks, plus 2/3 cup flour. The idea is to add maybe half of the flour and stir the mixture a few times, and then add in just enough flour to make it come together as a light dough. Thanks - this is helpful! I plan to get the ricotta from a local Italian market that makes it fresh, daily. It's very thick and delicious.

Sam - how much flour, and how many yolks would you estimate for a pound of ricotta? I don't know if my forearms are hairy enough for this task - I hope they turn out!!!

I'm all for it! I have wanted to try Slkinsey's ricotta gnocchi for a while.

I agree! If you can find just one person to help you, I bet you can manage hosting it. I had Dylie on November 12, and hosted a 15 person Thanksgiving that year, thanks to some wonderful help from my sister-in-law. I was exhausted, but the food was fabulous. I don't know what we will do this year. My mother is pressuring me (understatement of the year) to come to her house, but my husband is miserable when we don't host it ourselves. And, my mom can't come to me, b/c my 93 year old grandmother can't come with her. Ack!

Yes! He came three weeks early, on August 7 - we are doing great. I'll have to check out that grocery - I can't wait to move back to Ann Arbor. I hated Steve's lunch when I went - Kang's is much better - let me know what you think when you make it there.

I'm allergic to fish, but love going out for vegetarian sushi, and thus was able to do so throughout my whole pregnancy. There are some really yummy vegetarian options out there, if you find a sushi chef willing to work with you. My husband loves chirashi sushi - the vegetarian doesn't really compare to that, but at least you'll have something! My favorites are: Spicy tofu maki (just like spicy tuna, but with "raw" or tempura fried tofu) Sweet potato tempura maki Sunshine roll (avocado, cucumber, lemon) OK, now I'm starving for sushi! We'll have to bring Dylan and the baby there this weekend! Incidentally, with Dylan, I stayed away from all the food no-no's. With Max, I ate Medium Rare beef, soft cheeses (even raw milk) and had a couple of glasses of wine throughout. I really missed the alcohol, but only broke down those two times. My husband brought beer to the hospital for me - that was a fun toast!

Impossible!! I've really enjoyed your blog, and the amount of detail. I feel like I've learned quite a bit about your neck of the woods!

Good luck Friday!! And don't worry about dessert mode - I did the same exact thing. You can just come join me on the Weight Watchers thread in a couple of weeks.

Congratulations!!!!! And nope - no way to do it. But, it should be better in about a month. I couldn't do steak the whole nine months!

Tammy - where is the Korean grocery? And which is your favorite bibimbop place - the one at Kerrytown? We love Kang's Coffee Break on South U. Our favorite Japanese restaurant here in Toledo (Kotobuki) is owned by a Korean, and they make an amazing bibimbop. They also have a bunch of other Korean dishes, though they aren't listed anywhere - I think they have them around just for staff meals.

I once made a very tasty turkey burger that had lemon zest and fresh mozzerella. It's a Michael Chiarello recipe. Heavy, but delicious. Click

You have to ask?? Go! Go! Go!

Chris - is there still the egg truck guy? I went to Vassar, and one weekend my friend Abby and I drove to Providence to visit a friend of hers at RISD. One of the guys we met took us over to the Brown campus at about 2am, and we had the most amazing egg sandwich from a truck. I can still remember sitting on a curb and eating it. Delicious. And, as Phaelon and JJ have pointed out, Vassar had really nothing comparable!

I think I started a thread on this last year - maybe we could merge them? Popular items for my 3.5 year old include: cold pizza for sure anything in her thermos - Annie-O's (she likes the Arthur ones), mac n' cheese, soup, leftover spaghetti pb&j, but with natural peanut butter and fruit only preserves hors d'oeuvres - I give her cheese, crackers, cornichons, olives, etc. She doesn't love meat sandwiches, but will eat up chicken salad if I put it in a tupperware and give her crackers for scooping. We've also done cold chicken legs and cold cuts rolled into little tubes. Almost every day she gets a yogurt and a container of fresh fruit. I like giving her the Stonyfield yogurt tubes - I keep them in the freezer and they are defrosted by lunch. Cut up veggies are great, but she insists on French Onion dip, which I don't always have prepared.

I did prepare a casserole already (per Therese's guidelines), but haven't cooked it yet - we'll be eating it tomorrow. And, I STILL have leftover cream cheese!! If it's still good (doubtful), I can try your recipe for Friday - sounds like something my daughter would adore.

I have a great mujadderah recipe from David Rosengarten - he made it on his Taste show in 1996, and I saved the printout. PM me if you'd like it - I probably can't post it due to copyright issues?? Or can I if I change the directions? It's super easy and delicious - I think the secret is in the allspice.

Thanks Pam!! These are great ideas.