Day 24 - Sautéed Pork Medallions and How to Make Pork Medallions

Just in case you might think I'm an observant Jew because of my Matzo Ball Soup from yesterday, today's meal ought to dispel any false impressions: Pork for Passover!

I've been eying this recipe for a while. It seemed simple yet delicious. And although I've been a bacon-lover all my life, I have very little experience with "the other white meat."

Buying a pork tenderloin feels like a sort of rite of passage. Pork tenderloin isn't something you pick up for the heck if it. Even a steak can be a casual supermarket buy. "I'll just throw it in a pan and see what happens." But when you buy a pork tenderloin, you'd better have some plans. Which I did.

How to Make Pork Medallions (p. 115)

First stop on the road to this dish is turning the tenderloin into medallions. There was a small amount of clean up involved, removing the "silver" skin-like stuff and trimming a bit of fat, but this meat is amazingly lean. Then, it's just about slicing and pounding, and this meat is so malleable that all one need do is smush it with one's palm between two pieces of plastic wrap. So easy, and sort of fun. Why haven't I ever tried this before?

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Sautéed Pork Medallions (p. 256)

Once started, the cooking of this dish happens rather quickly, so like a good little cook, I had all my tools and ingredients laid out, pre-measured, and ready to go. The spatter factor is a big issue when cooking the medallions (in olive oil). I'm guessing there's no way around it, so just embrace the mess and know that a complete stove-top clean-up is in your future.

The medallions cooked easily in two batches. I think my medallions might have been a little thicker than prescribed. (Martha suggests between 1/8 to 1/4 inch, and I'm guessing mine were closer to 1/3. Am I crazy or did they puff up in the refrigerator waiting to be used? I thought I had made them thinner...)

Once the pork is cooked, the sauce gets made. Into the pan goes butter, thinly sliced shallots, raisins, and diced apple. (Marcy was very impressed with my "perfect" dice.) Here's the part where I get confused, because this stuff often takes me longer than Martha thinks it should. I wonder if my heat levels are off. She thought the apple should get brown and tender in four minutes, and it took almost double that, with me raising the temperature bit by bit. I used a Fuji apple, which I've noticed takes quite a beating before it starts to break down, so that might be an explanation....

The pan deglazed so easily, maybe even too easily. I used my stainless steel stick pan, i.e. not a non-stick pan, so I thought I'd get some crazy bits, but turns out stainless steel isn't that sticky either. (Deglazing is using liquid to dissolve the browned bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan after cooking something, in this case, the pork. The bits are very flavorful, and you want to dissolve them and incorporate them into the sauce. Smart, right?)

Once the apples were cooked to my satisfaction, I added the brandy (again, took twice as long to reduce as Martha predicted) and then, the cream (also, twice as long to thicken), and finally it ended with the sage "ribbons" and the S+P 500 to taste.

Marcy, who is the least likely person to take to this dish, was really into it! As was I. It was delicious. Creamy, yet light. Sweet and savory, my favorite combination. Unlike my mother, I love meat dishes that incorporate fruit.

The pork was cooked just right, perfectly tender and slightly browned. And the sauce is a Martha special, in that it reveals itself in layers: the brandy a far-off but important note, the sage bright and dominant, the shallots tangy, the fruit sweet, and the cream smooth.

While I thoroughly enjoyed and devoured this dish, I don't think this will become a regular in my repertoire. Though it is delicious and light for a creamy dish, there's something in my DNA that still says cream sauce is a no-no. I am, however, interested in the possibilities of pork. And I'm looking forward to tackling the other pork recipes to come!

Jeff: A- half a grade off for confusion around the temperatures and thickening time
Martha: A

Until we eat again....

Day 23 - Matzo Ball Soup, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, and How to Cut up a Chicken

Happy Passover! It would be ridiculous not to take the opportunity to make Martha's Matzo Ball Soup on Passover, right? Meanwhile, though Jewish I am, religious I am not. So there is no seder to which to bring this soup, just a goyishe (i.e. gentile) boyfriend to feed. This is my first shot at Martha's Chicken Soup recipe, not to mention my first attempt at matzo balls from scratch. Wheee!

How to Cut up a Chicken (p. 110)

So remember my trip to Costco a couple of weekends ago? One of my purchases was a frozen chicken duo. And I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to use one. I didn't have enough time to defrost it the "right" way (in the fridge) or the patience to do it the "still OK" way (in a succession of cold water baths). I left it on the counter in the morning and hoped it would thaw in time. Which it didn't. When I went to cut it up, it was still a little icy in the middle, but not terrible.

The cutting-up-the-chicken tutorial is very good and very clear. It helps to have eaten enough chickens to know what the anatomy is, where the joints are, what the pieces look like when butchered professionally. In my excitement to finish the lesson, I ended up cutting it into too many pieces (I halved each breast when I should have left them whole). But I don't think that had any effect on the outcome. And this was good practice for the fried chicken I'm going to be making next week for Tracy and her kids!!

From an economical standpoint, knowing how to cut up a chicken is valuable because whole chickens have the lowest per pound price. It doesn't take that long, and it's so straightforward that I almost think I could do it without the instructions next time. Yet another empowering lesson from Martha Stewart. :-)

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Matzo Ball Soup (p. 46)

I'm not going to lie. This recipe involved pretty much every pot and bowl that I own. But hang in there. It's worth it!!

It starts out normal enough. Throw the chicken pieces and a variety of veggies and herbs into a big stock pot with water. (I threw in the giblets minus the liver and the whole back of the chicken too. I figured, why not?) Boil, then simmer until the pieces are cooked, which happens pretty quickly, between 7-15 minutes. Remove pieces now, so that the chicken isn't overcooked, take meat off the bone, and put bones back in. Simmer for another hour.

See, I never knew that you could overcook chicken in the pot. I thought that the longer it sat in there, the moister it would get. Strangely, the chicken meat I pulled off the bone seemed quite dry and flavorless. Was it that it had been frozen? Hmmm...

In the normal chicken soup recipe, this meat is reserved so it can be added back into the soup later, but Matzo Ball Soup doesn't include it. So while the soup was simmering, I decided to do something with it. To compensate for the dryness and flavorlessness, I turned it into a curry chicken salad, not a Martha recipe, a Jeff recipe, which involves mayo, curry powder, celery and raisins. FYI, I tried an Alice Waters olive oil mayo recipe for the chicken salad, and it just doesn't hold a candle to Martha's mayo.

Back to the soup:

Once the stock is done, you put it through a sieve. This is the step that always shocks me. All those vegetables getting thrown away! (I was raised in a house where you wasted nothing!) The truth is, those vegetables have been sapped of all goodness, so they are, in effect, garbage. But it feels like a crime to chuck all those beautiful chunks of carrot and parsnips and celery...

Now that you have clear broth, you can start making the matzo balls. The thing that makes these matzo balls magical is that the eggs get separated. The yolks go into a bowl with chicken fat, stock, parsley and matzo meal. And the egg whites get whipped hard (to stiff peaks) and then stirred into the matzo meal mixture, which gets refrigerated for 30 minutes. See, there's all this air puffed into the matzo balls! How brilliant is that?! We're so used to those dense, heavy, impenetrable matzo balls, but these are not even in the same galaxy!

Meanwhile, you have two pots on the stove, one is heating a watered-down, salted-up stock for cooking the matzo balls, the other is the soup broth, which is getting reheated with carrot "coins" added.

The matzo balls cook to perfection! Salty, flavorful, and brilliantly light! And the broth is a total work of art!! All those vegetables and bones and chicken leave behind the brightest, clearest flavors, honestly like nothing you've ever eaten. There was a sweetness to this broth that blew us away. (Parsnips? Carrots?) The carrot coins are so simple but so delicious, just barely tender. This simple-looking bowl of soup, which used every pot in my kitchen (Oy, the cleanup!) was the most delicious and complex taste sensation you can imagine. Heaven!

Who would have thought that a shiksa like Martha Stewart would have the quintessential recipe for Matzo Ball Soup?

There are two other chicken soup recipes to go, the original and a Spring Vegetables variation. I can't wait to make them!!

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Roasted Sweet Potatoes (p. 313)

Yup, still roasting vegetables. Again, a fabulous result. They browned perfectly, cut into spears. (Martha asked for wedges, but we didn't know what she meant so we went for spears.)

Jeff: A
Martha: A


FYI, I also roasted a chayote squash, one of my favorite vegetables, not mentioned in the book. The chayote is very watery, so it probably didn't need to be roasted as long as I roasted it (20 minutes). But like every vegetable I've used, it tastes great in the roaster!

Straight A's again!

What is the nice Jewish boy cooking tonight? Why, Pork Medallions, of course. :-)

Until we eat again...


FNBF said it was the best he'd ever had...






The chef and his Balls

Day 21 - Quinoa

I know, I know... after an entry so chock-full it couldn't even fit in the title space, today I make just Quinoa? Well, I still have leftovers to eat. And I wanted to make something! (Speaking of leftovers, those mashed potatoes were just as amazing the second time around. Not sure, but I think it must be the garlic or the potatoes themselves - I used too little butter and cream to be swept away by that.)

Quinoa (p. 413)

Does everyone know what Quinoa is? I got tight with Quinoa back during my vegetarian days in the 80's and 90's. Then we lost touch for a while but got reacquainted last year when I got parasites and went on some crazy diet that a homeopath prescribed (it didn't work - don't ask).

Quinoa is famous for being a "perfect" grain, in that it has the most complete protein of them all. If you haven't tried it, you should pick some up in the bulk section at your local health food store. It's cool just to experience a grain other than rice.

And quinoa is pretty unusual. First off, it looks like a little disk with a tiny ribbon around it. And then, it has a unique taste that would be difficult to describe. (The closest I could come is to say that it tastes like it definitely comes from the earth, like slightly bitter plant life.) By the way, it's pronounced keen-wah.

Just like millet, Martha's instructions diverge significantly from the package's cooking directions. The package wants me to use a 2:1 ratio, water to grain, boil first, then simmer for 12 minutes, remove from the heat and let steam for 15 minutes, then fluff and serve. Martha wants me to toast for 2 minutes, use a 1.5:1 ratio, and boil then simmer for 10-15 minutes and serve.

I love pitting Martha against the package - sort of like Iron Chef America or a Quinoa Throwdown.

First of all, toasting for two minutes doesn't seem to change much. I've toasted grains until they were seriously browned, and that you notice. Also, I'm used to making quinoa with chicken stock, so using just barely salted water is a switch.

After ten minutes of simmering, the quinoa isn't remotely absorbed. Even after 15 minutes, it's still pretty wet. Around 18 minutes, the quinoa was dry enough to eat, and I served it up, no steaming, no fluffing. And I have to say, it tasted pretty great! I don't know if it was the brief toasting, the pinch of salt, or the quinoa itself, but it was cooked very well and seemed unusually flavorful, even sharing a plate with such strong-flavored foods as a salmon burger and my killer mashed potatoes.

I'm going to have to call this one for Martha!

Jeff: A
Martha: A

Until we eat again...

Day 20 - Pan-Seared Strip Steak with Mustard Cream Sauce, Steamed Artichokes with Tarragon Butter, Mashed Potatoes, and Oven-Poached Garlic with Thyme

Again, my title was cut off by Blogspot's space limitation...

Officially, the title of this entry is:

Day 20 - Pan-Seared Strip Steak with Mustard Cream Sauce, Steamed Artichokes with Tarragon Butter, Mashed Potatoes, Oven-Poached Garlic with Thyme, Roasted Parsnips, and Roasted Turnips

It's exciting to knock out six things in one night, even if it means cooking like a chicken with my head cut off. :-)

I'm exaggerating. This wasn't even that hard. I'm definitely getting better at masterminding the overview. Even with FNBF's erratic and can-change-at-the-last-minute arrival times.

I'm going to describe these in the order I started cooking them.


Oven-Poached Garlic with Thyme (p. 306)

This was a last-minute addition, and luckily I had all the ingredients. I was conceiving a very crude version of mashed potatoes for this meal, a variation that Martha offers at the end of a recipe for a much more refined Potato Puree. In the puree recipe, the garlic gets boiled with the potatoes, but this oven poaching sounded much more flavorful! A whole head of garlic and sprigs of thyme poached in olive oil?? Please... that sounds amazing! And it is. The garlic slides out like toothpaste, and it's deluxe. And I got some flavored oil in the bargain!

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Steamed Artichokes with Tarragon Butter (p. 296)

I saw the piles of artichokes at Fairway again, and I thought, why not? Turns out, steaming them is a breeze. The artichoke prep that Martha prescribes is super-easy and effective. Then, you just pop them in the steamer, and when they're almost done, make some Tarragon Butter, and voilà! I think it's worth mentioning that these sat in the steamer a bit longer than Martha indicated. (I started them too early.) But there was no visible consequence. They seemed cooked just right.

My only questions is: Why a sprig of tarragon in the steamer water, Martha? Does that really make a difference?

Also, I must confess, I've never understood the allure of the artichoke. All that work, peeling off leaf after leaf (or are they called petals?). The heart is a nice reward, but by the time we got there, our butter was congealed.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Roasted Parsnips (p. 313)

I don't have a lot of experience with parsnips. I've put them in soups, knowing they'd somehow deepen the stock, but I'd never tasted one out in the open. What a nice surprise! They're rather sweet and delicious. FNBF described them as a cross between a sweet potato and a turnip. I'd throw carrot in there too. Great for roasting, by the way. I'll do this again for company, just to give people the experience of eating something unusual.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Roasted Turnips (p. 313)

These, on the other hand, were not my favorite, although FNBF gave them a thumbs up. There must not be as much natural sugar in these as in parsnips, as they were more in the bitter camp. If you like turnips, you will like them roasted, but I think I'm not a turnip lover. (However, I did LOVE the Glazed Turnips recipe from Day One.)

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Mashed Potatoes (p. 309)

These were amazing, if I may say so myself. As I said above, the recipe in the book is quite refined, involving peeling, pureeing, infusing cream with rosemary. And I WILL do that at some point. But for tonight, I wanted something more casual, more bistro. :-) So I left the skins on, I popped in some of that amazing oven-poached garlic, I mashed it with a fork and added a surprisingly small amount of cream and butter, and they were to-die. Who knew it was so easy to make mashed potatoes? Why would anyone ever buy flakes??

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Pan-Seared Strip Steak with Mustard Cream Sauce (p. 257)

First of all, there were no strip steaks at Fairway, so I asked the butcher there, and he directed me to the shell steaks saying they were the same thing. (A quick Google search confirms this.)

I don't eat steaks a lot, and I was using my cast-iron Emeril skillet for the first time (sorry, Martha), so I was very excited for this assignment. Worth noting: Butter gets melted in the skillet before the steaks go in. The steaks are handled with tongs (so as to avoid piercing them with a fork and losing juices, I'm guessing.) The steaks didn't seem to be getting cooked through on the second side, so I flipped them one extra time. I could have cooked them longer, but we were happy with our donenesses. (I'm pretty sure that's not a word, but you know what I mean.) The mustard cream sauce tasted great! No sign of the vermouth that makes up a large portion of it. Just great flavor, great texture from the cast-iron surface. Good stuff, Martha!!

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Wow, Martha and I both got straight A's today! :-)

Until we eat again...


FNBF with the bistro feast before him

Day 19 - I'm a star!

Some of you may have noticed that logo off to the right - the one that labels my blog as a member of The Friends of Martha Blog Network. Well, The FOMBN has just started a weekly feature which highlights one of the member blogs, and Jeff and Martha was chosen to be featured first!

Check out my e-interview with FOMBN founder, Kenn. Also, check out Kenn's cool blog, House Blend.

While I'm discussing The FOMBN, I also want to give props to another member blog, Martha and Me, by Brette Sember. She focuses on recipes and projects featured on Martha' s TV show and in Martha's magazines, and I've lost many an hour delving into her accounts of giving herself, her family, and her home a "Martha makeover."

FYI, I'm back from Florida, and my kitchen is up and running once more!

Until we eat again...

Day 18 - Steamed Fish en Papillote, Caper-Lemon Butter, Roasted Cauliflower, and Roasted Pineapple (Take Two)

Oh dear...

Did you ever notice that when you really want to impress someone, that's when things just crumble to pieces??

I'm here in Florida with my parents. I've made a really big deal about cooking for them. I loved the idea of having them as part of this project, even though my father doesn't quite know what it is I'm doing and my mother has yet to read this blog, despite several requests. (Are you reading this now, Mother?) After some not-so-gentle arm-twisting, my mother finally deigned to let me cook. (I say deigned not because she's such a big cook, but because she thinks if I cook, it's going to mean extra work for her, even though I promise to do the cleanup.) But I convinced her to play along, and she agreed to collect all (well, almost all) of the items on my shopping list.

And when the time came to really dazzle them...?

Of course, disaster.

Steamed Fish en Papillote (p. 215)

FYI, Steamed en Papillote means steamed in parchment paper, in this case with spinach, lemon, and caper-lemon butter.

The one item from my shopping list that my mother did not buy for me in advance was the fish for this recipe. Martha is very specific about what she wants here: firm-fleshed fish fillets (halibut, striped bass, salmon) 1.5 inches thick. No problem, I say, I'll fetch it once I'm there.

Some back story: My ticket to fly down here had me connecting through Charlotte. Given the big delay at Newark for Flight #1, it was unlikely I'd make my connection. And that would mean no cooking. (!!) Cut to me landing in Charlotte doing a Joan Cusack in Broadcast News-ian sprint from the far end of Concourse B to the far end of Concourse C, arriving at my second flight literally as they were closing the door. Very dramatic! I was not going to miss this meal!

My father picked me up in West Palm Beach, and off we went on a quest for 1.5 inch thick halibut/striped bass/salmon. I should probably mention here that I recently prepared a Martha magazine recipe that involved steaming striped bass in parchment, and it came out beautifully, so this was not foreign territory for me. I should also mention that salmon was never a real consideration for this meal. I mean... salmon? We eat salmon all the time, I'm not going to make just SALMON for my parents!

We started at a fish market. Eh. Next to Whole Foods. Double eh. We ended up at Publix's Green Market (their Whole Foods wannabe chain) - more eh! But at that point, I didn't think I could tax my father's patience any further. I knew I had to choose something there. The only thing that was even remotely thick was grouper, about one inch, which was not the end of the world because Martha had left instructions for how to deal with different size thicknesses, i.e. 8 minutes per inch.

I asked the fish guy if grouper was a firm-fleshed fish. And even though he unhesitatingly said yes, I still felt that I had to look it up online, so I got out my phone and did just that. A Google search confirmed that, indeed, grouper is a firm-fleshed fish. So I bought a big hunk of grouper.

Turns out grouper isn't just firm, it's diamonds. My beautiful little packets of fish in parchment were cooked for the "right" amount of time (10 minutes seemed appropriate for the just-more-than-an-inch-thick fish), and although the packets didn't puff up in the oven the way Martha said they would, I thought it would be worse to overcook the fish than to undercook. So out they came, onto the plates, and I cut into them, only to find that they were seriously undercooked. I mean, outRAGEously undercooked. Sushi, undercooked. Argh! So I put them all back in the oven, cute little packets now opened (i.e. ruined, steaming no longer possible), and I cooked them for another ten minutes before they were finally cooked through.

So much for impressing the parents....

Martha, why didn't you say: "halibut, striped bass, salmon, anything but grouper?" That's the last time I'm not listening to Martha, verbatim.

In the end, the fish tasted fine. The flavors were nice, not extraordinary, but nice. I went easy on the salt because I thought the capers would overpower, but they didn't, and it was undersalted. The spinach, which seemed so bulky when the packets were being made, all but disappeared once cooked. (Note to self: next time, overload the spinach.)

Jeff: D
Martha: A


Caper-Lemon Butter (p. 167)

This is another compound butter recipe which served as an ingredient in the fish packets above. I have to say, when I made this, the butter-to-additions ratio seemed off, so I added a little extra butter. There just seemed to be so much "filling" and no binder.

We couldn't find salt-packed capers, and these brined capers, which I thought would be crazy-salty, didn't deliver much salt. A little added salt in the butter might have done the trick.

This butter worked fine for this recipe, but I don't know that it would be useful in many other applications, unlike the herbed compound butter, which gave much pleasure in many different ways.

Jeff: A-
Martha: A-


Roasted Pineapple - Take Two (p. 487)

Success! The pineapple was sweet, the roasting pan did what it was supposed to do, everything worked! And I loved it. I think my parents did, too. It's a great dessert, half-healthy/half-naughty. And the flavors are super.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Roasted Cauliflower (p. 313)

Leaning on what I knew would definitely deliver, I roasted a ton of vegetables for my parents, including broccoli, shallots, asparagus, and a new one for the project, cauliflower. This is absolutely the easiest and most delicious way to handle vegetables! The only downside is the clean up, i.e. the greasy roasting pan or baking sheet. Otherwise, it's a great crowd pleaser, and it's hard to mess up. (I could have cooked the shallots longer, but otherwise, home run!)

Jeff: A-
Martha: A

In the end, my parents have agreed to let me cook again, pending their menu approval. Phew!

Until we eat again...


Mother and Father Blumenkrantz with their Papillotes!

Day 16 - Roasted Beets, Roasted Broccoli, Roasted Carrots, Roasted Shallots, Roasted Potatoes, and Millet

It's Roastapalooza!

Actually, it's another dinner with vegetable-craving Marcy, and I set out to make that Braised Spring Vegetables dish again, and again, I was thwarted. Fairway was chervil-less, and I was really looking forward to cooking with chervil, as I have never tasted it before (that I know of) and was curious. So instead of doing another unsuccessful Upper West Side market crawl for chervil or trying to substitute some other herb, I decided to improvise, which led me to this Roast Fest.


Roasted Beets (p. 313)

Martha has a pretty interesting technique for roasting beets. It involves wrapping them in parchment-lined foil and roasting at 450° for 1.25 hours. Then comes one of Martha's extra-special tips: let the beets cool for a bit, then slap on some gloves (so as not to stain your hands) and peel the skins off with paper towels. It totally works! And you'll be happy you're wearing gloves because those beets are still hot.

Now here's the thing... when beets have been roasted, steamed almost, in foil packets, with their skins removed afterwards, there's just no sign of roasting char or brownness left on them. And when I think of the wonderful roasted beets I've eaten, they've all been browned. These beets tasted fine, good even, but I was a little disappointed that they were so smooth. I'm still giving Martha an A for the amazing skin-peeling trick. That rocked.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Roasted Broccoli (p. 313)

This was definitely the hit of the evening. Marcy likened it to some kind of crazy candy. Addictive, salty, crunchy vegetable candy. Defying all sense of moderation, I roasted the whole head of broccoli, stems and all. And I'm so glad I did, because we tore through that whole thing, no problem. The florets got a little crispy, which made for a nice crunch, and then, between the salt, pepper, oil, and natural broccoli goodness, it just tasted incredible! A homerun!

Need to get your kids to eat more vegetables? Serve them roasted broccoli! They'll be hooked!

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Roasted Carrots (p. 313 Are you sensing a pattern here?)

Carrots roast up really well. Nothing much to say about this. They tasted great and looked beautiful.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Roasted Shallots (p. 313)

I happened to have a couple of these lying around, so I threw them in. What a treat! Marcy thought they tasted sweet. Again, nothing much to say but: Yum!

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Roasted Potatoes (p. 313)

These little red bliss babies got the standard tossing with salt, pepper, and olive oil, and I also added some bonus thyme. I didn't have high hopes for loving these, because I have a thing about potatoes. (If they're not burnt, crispy, fried, or covered with cheese, I'm usually not too interested.) These were cooked really well and tasted just right. But it wasn't until I had the brainstorm to bring out Monday's homemade mayonnaise that the potatoes started to become interesting to me. They were the perfect vehicle for the mayo's creamy, lemony sparkle.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Millet (p. 413)

I'm always interested when Martha's instructions differ from the package's instructions, and that was the case with this millet. The package says: rinse and cook for 40 minutes with 2 parts water to 1 part millet. Martha says: toast and cook for 15 minutes with 1.5 parts water to 1 part millet, then let steam for 10 minutes. Of course, I'm going with Martha's way, but I've cooked millet before, so I know how it comes out per the package directions.

Martha's millet definitely occurred to me as undercooked - there were millet seeds that hadn't even opened, maybe as many as half, which made for an interesting texture for millet... half fluffy, half crunchy. And maybe that's what her intent was. Marcy's a millet regular, and at first she was put off by it, I think, but ultimately she embraced the new texture, as did I.

Still, I think that the ideal place for me is somewhere in between Martha and the package.

Jeff: A
Martha: A-


Since I'm losing my kitchen and going away for the next few days, I went through my fridge looking for what else I could roast and came up with some green beans and scallions. There were no instructions for these, but I used some common sense regarding timings, and I have to say, they came out beautifully. Seems like anything can be tossed with salt, pepper, olive oil, and roasted and come out tasting great!

I'm off to Florida tomorrow! Get ready for Steamed Fish en Papillote in my parents' kitchen!

Until we eat again...


Marcy loves her veggies!