Queen of the Craft Room!!!

But don't take MY word for it... Martha Stewart told me so!

Okay, so really it was marthastewart.com that told me I was queen of the craft room, but I'm taking it! Here's a little quiz to test your craft IQ. Here's what they told me....

All hail to the queen -- or king -- of the craft room! Your crafts knowledge is supreme!

Martha vs. Maxine

My friend Angie sent me this email today and I figured I'd share it with all of you! =D (I know, really, I don't blog for ages and when I finally get around to blogging THIS is what I give you?! Sorry... ) I thought it was worth a laugh.


And just to let you know which one I am, I just finished loading the dishwasher and one of Ellie's sippy cup lids was particularly stuck. What did I do? Why, I reached for my (cute black and white polkadot) rubber dishwashing gloves, of course! =D

Are you Martha or Maxine?

Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of an ice cream cone to prevent ice cream drips.


Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for Pete's sake! You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it, anyway!



To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.


Buy Hungry Jack mashed potato mix. Keeps in the pantry for up to a year.



When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.


Go to the bakery! Heck, they'll even decorate it for you!


If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato and it will absorb the excess salt for an instant 'fix-me-up.'


If you over-salt a dish while you are cooking, that's too bad. Please recite with me the real woman's motto: 'I made it, you will eat it and I don't care how bad it tastes!'



Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.


Celery? Never heard of it!



Brush some beaten egg white over pie crust before baking to yield a beautiful glossy finish.


The Mrs. Smith frozen pie directions do not include brushing egg whites over the crust, so I don't.



Cure for headaches: take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.


Take a lime, mix it with tequila, chill and drink! All your pains go away!


If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex dish washing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.


Go ask that very cute neighbor if he can open it for you.



Don't throw out all that leftover wine. Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.


Leftover wine??????????? HELLO!!!!!!!

So there you have it. Which are you? Martha or Maxine?

What's for dinner??

I took a little advice from Martha tonight and made one of her dishes for dinner. Now, for as much inspiration as I have gotten from Martha, it's rarely in the cooking department. She tends to make things that don't appeal to my tastes or the amount of time and effort I care to put forth in my meal preparation. But yesterday I got a HUMONGOUS stack of old Martha Stewart Living magazines from Freecycle and I pulled out the February ones to read now. There are tear-out recipe cards in them, so I took a peek and thought the "Mediterranean Chicken" from January 2005 sounded good. And that's what we had for dinner tonight. It was wonderful!!

Though she had other side dishes listed, I opted to serve the chicken on a bed of spinach. Then Leif got the brilliant idea to wrap it all up in a tortilla with some feta ... Mmmm! I pulled out my cast iron skillet for this one and I will be sure to make it again. Here's how it's done (my way... I had to alter it a bit since I don't like capers!):

1 /2 pint grape tomatoes
16 black olives
2 T. (garlic infused*) olive oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1. Preheat oven to 475*. Toss tomatoes, olives, and 1 T. olive oil together in a bowl and set aside.
2. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over high heat until hot. Add 1 T. oil and heat until hot. Place chicken in skillet and cook until deep golden brown, about 4 minutes. Turn chicken over. Add tomato mixture to the skillet.
3. Transfer skillet to oven. Roast until chicken is cooked through and tomatoes have softened, about 18 minutes.

It's pretty easy, doesn't use weird ingredients, and tastes amazing! And it's relatively healthy. My version (just what you see above, not counting the spinach or tortilla) has 320 calories and 20 grams of fat. The fat comes from olive oil and olives, so it's "good" fat. Oh, and did I mention that it tastes great, too??

*To make the garlic infused olive oil, fill a container with olive oil and drop a few cloves of garlic in. Let it sit for a few days and you'll have really good garlic flavored olive oil!