Martha Monday: Iced Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies

This week's Martha Monday project (selected by yours truly) was Iced Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies. I wouldn't say I'm a "fan" of oatmeal cookies (I'm really a chocolate chip girl) but I wanted to make a cookie that I don't make every day, was relatively easy, didn't require waiting time for dough to chill, would travel well to/from a cookie exchange, and that my kids would like. Oh yeah, tasting good would be a good thing also. This cookie fits all those criteria. Yay! The maple sugar frosting was the clencher.

The only changes I made to the recipe was that I subbed 1/4 cup of the regular flour with whole wheat flour (I like to sneak in a little extra fiber for the family wherever I can), and I used regular unsweetened applesauce instead of chunky (grocery store didn't have it). Everyone in the family loved them without frosting (they couldn't wait for them to cool before they tried em) and with frosting. But they definitely preferred the frosted version. So do you think they're Santa worthy...I do!

Martha Mondays: Picture Frame Ornaments

This week's Martha Mondays project was to make a picture frame ornament using heavy craft paper, glitter and glue. Here's how mine turned out. . .

Making glitter ornaments is messy but fun!

I mixed green and silver glitter for this side and red and silver for the other.

I didn't have a recent photo of both my kids together so I put one on each side. I'll just flip it around from time to time.

You can see how much glitter fell off when I cut the opening in the back and curled the edges of the paper. But it's still pretty and sparkly on my tree.

The next Martha Mondays pick is mine and I selected Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies.

Since the holidays and cookie exchanges are coming up soon, I decided to choose a cookie for our next activity. There were several recipes I was on the fence about, but I decided on one that didn’t require any wait time for dough to chill, one that would travel well, and one that my kids would like to eat. I hope you all have fun making these. I’ve never made them before so I hope they taste good.

Martha Monday - "Roast Chicken with Plums" . . . better late than never!

The idea behind Martha Mondays is that anyone who would like to participate in the weekly challenge could do so either on Monday, Tuesday or really whenever they can get around to it and then they can post their results on their blog or on the Martha Monday web site. But the cool thing about actually doing it on Monday is that you get that warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you and a bunch of other fellow "Martha Monday-ers" are doing the same thing on the same day. Frankly, I was just grateful to get this week's challenge in before the week was over. Here's how my "Roast Chicken with Plums" turned out. . .

Here are the plums in their pre-cooked state covered in honey. I couldn't find small plums so I bought 6 regular sized plums and pitted and quartered them prior to roasting.

The finished dish. The dark striping across the skin is from the honey I drizzled over it prior to roasting.

All pretty and plated up next to a dried cranberry and candied pecan-garnished salad.

And the piste de résistance... the plums were the hit of the dinner!

Martha Mondays: Grilled Vanilla Peaches

This was the first assignment for Martha Mondays. I used white peaches (I thought I was buying yellow ones) for my recipe. They taste just as good but are not quite as pretty. I love the look of contrasting foods. But once the peaches were covered in ooey gooey cinnamon sauce, there was a good measure of color contrast there with the vanilla ice cream.

It was in the high 90's here today around dinner time so I decided to alter the recipe a bit and "grilled" my peaches in the oven instead of on the barbeque. They were so tastey. Cameron had two helpings. Sierra thought they were a little sweet for her taste. Jason hasn't tried them yet. He was at the mall getting an Orange Julius while I was making dessert. I'm sure he'll try a bowl before he goes to bed though.

I washed and peeled the peaches (I used 6)

Here are my peaches (in the lemon/oil liquid) in a 9x13 pan.

Again I veered from the recipe and quartered my peaches.

Yummy cinnamon/brown sugar sauce

Sauce drizzled all over the peaches

Covered with foil and ready to pop into a 425 oven for 15 minutes

De-lish!

Martha Monday Assignment for 8/17/09: Map Coasters!

I'm Playing "Martha Mondays"

I've decided to expand my culinary/crafting skills by joining Martha Mondays (hosted by Brette at Martha and Me). I found out about it from Belle over at Muse in the Kitchen, who signed up herself and her husband Ward (he's the cook in the family) for the challenge. Shhh...she hasn't told him yet.

From Martha and Me: "Martha Mondays is a group of bloggers, Martha fans, home cooks, crafters, and people who want to cook or craft more who have joined together to cook or craft the same Martha dish or project. To get things started, I’ll choose a Martha recipe or craft (which must be from a current issue of Living or Everyday Food, The Martha Stewart Show or available on her site) and post a link (or page number in the mag if it’s not up on her site yet — if you don’t have the recipe or instructions for that week, just email me and I’ll send them to you – posting them on the web is a violation of Martha’s copyright). Everyone will then make the the dish or craft on the next Monday and post photos, comments or blog it within the following week. The idea is we will all be doing one project together on the same day, so there will be a kind of solidarity in this – plus we’ll get to see how everyone’s dish or craft turned out."

This week's assignment (8/10/09): Grilled Vanilla Peaches!