Martha Stewart’s Cookbook is complete!
Likely no one remembers, but I had a few cookbooks I was going to try to get through this year. One of them being Martha Stewart’s Dinner at Home. It had 52 full meals in it, and I thought that was the perfect project to tackle in one year.
However, finding out in March that I would have an additional creative endeavour taking up my the majority of my creative energy, I felt I should fast-track the cooking one, and I actually finished a few weeks ago.
As far as the book goes, I will say that I really like the full-meal menu. That just so works for me. Usually in the magazines I read and the majority of cookbooks I have, the recipes are divided by course. That’s fine, but it leaves the work of assembling the meal up to me. And sometimes pulling all the recipes together just doesn’t happen and our only green on the table is a salad. ~sigh~ So, with this book, there was a green already for me to make, and I didn’t have to think. The less I had to think these past few months, the better. Ahem.
A few of the meals didn’t work, or I just plain didn’t like them. Dates or figs (they are the same thing to me and I don’t like them) stuffed with goat cheese. Not for me, thanks.
However, most of the meals turned out beautifully and Colin and the kids ate them happily. Well, Colin will eat anything I make so the kids are the true test. I can’t think of one meal they pushed away.
The other bonus for me is that the book is arranged seasonally. Great for those who live in a seasonal climate. Wouldn’t have mattered so much when I lived in Florida.
There were a few recipes that stand out and I would definitely make again. What’s funny is that they are not all from the same menu. It works okay for making the favourite items again because in the back, MS has the recipes indexed by season, making it easy to pull a meal together without being as obsessed about working through the book recipe by recipe in order.
One of my children’s favourites was the spicy stuffed celery sticks which is just cream cheese and horseradish together and spread onto celery. It’s now an afternoon snack staple.
The salmon with creamy leeks was so good, we made it up at the cottage for a large crowd who liked it equally well. The amount of butter the salmon is cooked in is fairly incredible, which is likely why it’s so good.
The prosciutto-wrapped pork cutlets was another standout. Totally yummy. For vegetarians, the broiled black-pepper tofu was so good my kids asked for seconds and then asked if they could have it again the next night.
The rosemary yorkshire puddings was one of my favourites and one of the first times my yorkshire puddings have come out so well!
The desserts were lovely for the most part (and for desserts that are supposed to come together with the rest of the meal in about an hour). There were some ices and granitas that I couldn’t get enough of, particularly the one made with cherries.
The cherry compote over chocolate ice cream was so lovely and used store bought ice cream, so you could really have it any time, although I shouldn’t.
I would definitely recommend this book for those who like to cook and have patience (they don’t all come out in 60 minutes). If you like to be told what to do, it’s the book for you. It’s all put together nicely, taking all the guesswork out of what’s for dinner - the entire meal.
Enjoying the journey! Amanda
Add comment November 30th, 2010
