Keeping on my lunch kick, today I did Martha’s Chicken Salad Sandwich from page 19 of her All-American section.

Martha’s recipe called for toasted white bread, but since I still had some lovely fresh pumpernickel left from the day before I used that instead.  When I looked at the picture I realized that my egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches looked a lot alike.  I guess that’s the thing with these traditional salad sandwiches, they kinda look alike, and let’s face it, if you don’t use a recipe with lots of different spices and herbs they can be a little bland.  But Martha’s recipes are anything but bland!  This chicken salad has a nice kick of tarragon and the sweetness of apples.  I also added some raisins to the mix to sweeten it up just a little bit more and add some additional texture.

American food is a vast melting pot of different cultures and flavors.  Chicken salad is one of those old fashioned lunch staples that we take for granted.  But some of the best American food is the least pretentious.  When it comes to a lunch like this, all you need is some chicken, mayonnaise and bread to use as a blank canvas that you can create your own masterpiece upon.  Think outside the salt and pepper box.  What are your favorite spices?  Do you like a little heat?  Then go ahead and add some cayenne pepper or even a dash of sriracha.  Are you craving curry? Shake some in and go to town!  You can even add some chopped up nuts and make it crunchy.

A simple lunch need not be a boring one.  All you need is a little imagination and a good collection of your favorite spices in your pantry to make every meal sublime.

Today I did something a little different for the Me n’ Martha Project – a lunch with Alexis’ Egg Salad Sandwich from the All-American section on page 18.

Egg salad can’t be beat as a simple comfort food.  Once mayonnaise became mass-produced at the turn of the 19th century, egg, tuna and chicken salads became staples of the American lunch menu.  All of these salads also have the advantage of being very amenable to the use of different spices to suit the taste of whoever is making them.  For this recipe, which comes from Martha’s daughter, Alexis, it’s the curry and mustard powder that gives it a delightful edge that elevates it above the typical egg salad.  I also enjoyed replacing lettuce with radicchio for some extra sharpness and a nice crunch.  Jeff thought that it was the best egg salad he ever had!  He says that a lot these days as I work my way through Martha’s American Food and I never get tired of hearing it.

I realized that I’ve done so many different things over the past 78 days of living la vida Martha — main courses, decadent desserts and even a lot of tasty little appetizers, but I’ve been lacking in good lunch options.  I’m going to start concentrating more on lunch, because as we all learn to live on tighter budgets, having more delicious options to pack for lunch instead of paying to eat substandard fast food out, is certainly a good thing!

Tonight I made a much loved appetizer with Martha’s Stuffed Mushrooms from page 233 of the Midwest.

One great thing about stuffed mushrooms is that they can be stuffed with just about anything your imagination can come up with and they’re almost sure to taste great!  Martha has two variations, one with sausage and one that’s vegetarian.  I did the one with sausage but I used the spicy instead of the sweet variety.  I just like a little heat in almost everything, but that’s my thing, these would be delicious however you make them.

I really enjoyed these stuffed mushrooms.  The fresh oregano really added a wonderful layer of flavor to them.  The thing about fresh herbs is that sometimes they’re just there for decoration and don’t bring anything interesting to the party.  I don’t like using herbs as mere garnishment.  I want every ingredient to shine and work in harmony with the whole dish.  This stuffed mushroom recipe certainly brought the big flavors, but they didn’t fight each other at all.  I love when bold and assertive flavors get together and elevate food to a new level.

Whether you’re having a big party or a small get together you should serve Martha’s stuffed mushrooms and watch how fast they disappear from the tray!

Tonight I traveled to the west and made Martha’s Roasted Chicken With Garlic and Lemon from page 383.

I’ve been looking forward to trying this for a while because I love roasted chicken!  This was a different way of making a chicken for me.  My usual style is to sear the chicken on a blazing hot cast iron pan with a little oil until the skin is golden brown and crispy.  After the chicken is browned I place it in its roasting pan with some liquid, usually a strong ale and cover it with a lid. I put it in a very hot oven of about 450° – 500° for 15 minutes. Then I lower it to 350° and take the lid off after about 45 minutes and let it cook until it’s done, basting every half hour.  When it’s finished I use the liquid to make a gravy.  This all sounds very complicated, but it’s easier than it sounds and it always comes out juicy, tender and delicious.

I was intrigued by Martha’s more straight forward way of roasting a chicken.  You need to start by roasting whole bulbs of garlic until they’re caramelized and fragrant.  Oh, the scent of that roasted garlic makes your whole home smell heavenly! Then you squeeze the garlic out of their bulb and make a compound butter that you spread all over your chicken and under the skin.  You stuff the cavity with lemon and herbs, season with salt and pepper and cook at 350° until it’s done, between 1 – 2 hours depending on the size of your chicken, basting occasionally.

So how were the results? Amazing!  The skin was crisp with a subtle garlic flavor and the meat was so tender and had lovely hints of lemon and herbs.  I really liked the roasted garlic.  You can use these roasted garlic bulbs for so many things!  Try spreading it on toast instead of butter.  Not only is it healthier, but it’s sweeter and more satisfying.

As for how it compares to my typical way of doing a whole chicken, well, both have merits.  I like the crispy sear I get from working the chicken in a pan before putting it in the oven.  I do think this recipe rendered the chicken meat more buttery and melt-in-your-mouth tender.  I think next time I’ll try combining both our styles and tweak it until it’s perfect.  My favorite thing about cooking is coming up with new ways of doing things and trying them again and again until you know it just couldn’t get any better!

Yesterday I took a Martha Project break to celebrate Jeff’s birthday.  He really wanted a big, juicy steak with baked potatoes for dinner.  He also craved a root beer float for dessert.  Hey, the birthday boy gets to choose his dinner!  Tonight, keeping with the celebratory mood, I made a party favorite with Martha’s Pecan Cheese Balls from page 230 of the Midwest.

Before I do a blog post, I always try to look up some history and/or fun facts about the dish I’m making.  This has made me an expert on all sorts of strange and useless food trivia.  Did you know that April 17th is National Cheese Ball Day?  No, neither did I!  There are so many fun and quirky food holidays that I never knew about.  I think there should be paid days off to celebrate them, don’t you?

Cheese balls are great for any holiday celebration or even for a small cocktail party.  Don’t spend your hard earned money buying them from specialty stores since making your own is so easy and tastes even better.  These cheese balls are delicious, with just a touch of tang from the dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce.  The crunchy pecans provide the perfect textural contrast to the creamy cheese.

Martha gives several variations that you can try so you can have a different cheese ball for every occasion or serve them all at one party to satisfy different tastes.  Since Jeff and I are a party of two this evening, I made a smaller version and instead of crackers I cut some bread rounds and toasted them in a pan with some butter.  But if you’re having a party, make sure to serve them with a variety of crackers and they’re sure to be a hit!

So after two days of desserts I needed to lighten up a little today and do a healthy salad.  I decided that Martha’s Endive and Pear Salad With Oregon Blue Cheese and Hazelnuts sounded like a very interesting combination.  There was just one problem, I couldn’t find endive!  But if you know me, you should know that I’m up for that kind of challenge, so I used radicchio in place of the endive.

Here’s something to keep in mind when you need to substitute — what is the flavor profile you’re going for?  It’s generally a good rule to balance one flavor with another contrasting flavor.  The balance need not be 50/50, but if you’re making something bitter, it tends to taste better if you add a touch of something sweet to keep the bitter taste from becoming overwhelming to the taste buds.  My grandmother always added a little sugar to her tomato sauce.  I still carry on that tradition, and I know some people consider that offensive, because a good tomato should have its own sweetness.  But I personally find that tablespoon of sugar to a large pot of tomato sauce cuts the harsher, more acidic quality of the tomatoes and ultimately brings out best in the sauce.  It’s just like salt, when used in moderation it brings out the flavor of food. When it’s overused it overwhelms and takes over as the dominant flavor.  The key is finding the right flavor combinations to bring full expression to whatever it is you’re cooking and make it come alive.

With this salad, in lieu of having endive I chose radicchio because both are bitter.  Of course it tastes different, but in going with something bitter I could still create the proper balance of flavor.  This salad combines a lot of strong flavors — the bitterness of the radicchio and hazelnuts, the sweetness of the pears and the sharpness of the blue cheese along with a sweet and sour vinaigrette dressing.  The beauty of this salad is the way these different flavors and textures bring out the best in each other and create something harmonious.  There’s nothing “flat” about a salad like this.  And the result is a truly delicious and satisfying salad with a great deal of depth.

Salad is healthy, but it doesn’t need to be deprivational.  Try this or one of Martha’s other unique and exciting salads and say goodbye to boring lettuce and tomato salads for good!

After doing a dainty little hazelnut cookie dessert yesterday, today I did a decadent cake with a taste as big as the Lone Star State with Martha’s Texas Sheet Cake from page 329.

Like many American treats, the origins of the Texas Sheet Cake is hard to pin down.  It likely made it’s debut in the late 1950s, and some have credited Lady Bird Johnson with its creation.  All we know for sure is that it came out of Texas and it’s delicious! Wherever its origins, it has quite the following.  Just Google “Texas Sheet Cake” and 905,000 pages will appear! It’s the quintessential American chocolate cake, and almost everyone thinks their way is the “right” way to make it.  But while I might try making this with some variations, such as adding strong coffee instead of water to make a mocha cake, Martha’s recipe is just about perfect.

Jeff and I ate this with a big scoop of butter pecan ice cream for a cake à la mode — the perfect compliment for this pecan topped chocolate cake.  As for the taste, well, what can I say?  Rich, moist and full of chocolatey goodness, this is a sinfully scrumptious dessert!

Today I made a simple and elegant dessert, Hazelnut Cookies from the West on page 405.

When most Americans think of hazelnuts, what comes to mind are things like hazelnut flavored coffee and hazelnut chocolate spreads, like Nutella.  Hazelnuts are a very common dessert ingredient in Europe, but much less so here.  I suspect that part of this has to do with them being harder to find than more common nuts like walnuts and pecans.  Also, if you buy them whole, they’re a bit more difficult to work with since you need to remove the skins.  I would highly recommend to people who enjoy hazelnut “flavored” foods and beverages that you try the real thing.  They have a unique taste that’s a little bit bitter, but also rich and balanced with a subtle sweetness.  Hazelnuts are also very healthy, loaded with vitamins and good fats that actually help lower bad cholesterol.  We’re such a fat-phobic nation that we have a hard time eating anything with a high fat content.  But certain nuts, and fruits like avocados, are rich with heart-healthy fats that are nothing like the fat content of a donut (not that donuts aren’t incredibly delicious, they’re just not very good for you!)

Martha’s hazelnut cookies are very easy to make, requiring only 5 ingredients!  They bake up with a crunchy shell covering a buttery, soft cookie.  These cookies would be perfect to serve at a luncheon or a brunch with some strong coffee as a nice alternative to a richer, more elaborate dessert.  Your company will find them delicious and sophisticated and you’ll love how much extra time you have to spend with your guests by making such a simple dessert!

I’m sure the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Martha Stewart are Sloppy Joes, right? Um, no, probably not.  In fact I’ll bet you’ve never used the words “Sloppy Joes” and “Martha Stewart” in the same sentence…it’s hard to wrap your mind around our Domestic Goddess being associated with this low-brow, down-home comfort food, isn’t it?  But here I am making Martha’s Sloppy Joes from the Midwest section on page 241!

Now I strongly suspect that Sloppy Joes are not a regular item on Martha’s entertaining menu.  But that’s why the book isn’t called “Martha’s Favorite Things To Eat,” it’s called Martha’s American Food because it pay homage to our nation’s food history, and lets face it, Sloppy Joes are about as American as it gets!

I used to eat these a lot when I was a little kid.  My grandmother was a big fan of Manwich Sloppy Joe Sauce and used to whip these up for lunch quite a bit when I was on summer vacation from school.  Kids really love Sloppy Joes and they’re both easy to make and economical.  But I actually hadn’t had one in ages, it’s just one of those things that fell of my radar, perhaps because it doesn’t seem like “grown-up” food.

This was really quite a treat!  I forgot how tasty a good Sloppy Joe sandwich can be and they’re even better when you make your own sauce.  This is the kind of recipe that you can play around with to suit your own taste.  I added some diced, fire roasted tomatoes, a little red wine, a dash of sriracha and even a pinch of cinnamon to my sauce.  It’s very similar to a barbecue sauce, but not quite as thick and it doesn’t need to simmer as long.  The whole thing only took about 15 minutes to make.  I always enjoy finding new ways to make a quick and tasty meal.

Martha’s Sloppy Joes were a fun and nostalgic dish for me to re-discover after all these years.  Whether you’re feeding a bunch of hungry kids or just want a simple, yummy little meal that’s easy to put together, you can’t go wrong with Sloppy Joes!

Tonight I made a New Orleans classic — Martha’s Chicken and Andouille Gumbo from page 172.

I should tell you that Jeff is The Gumbo King!  Ever since he had a delicious bowl of gumbo at  Emeril Lagasse’s Orlando restaurant about 10 years ago, he’s been obsessed with making the perfect gumbo.  This was my first time taking over as the gumbo chef in the family and Jeff leaves big shoes to fill in that department!  So I’ll give you his review — he said it rivals his best gumbos!  Success!!!

Martha’s recipe requires making a dark roux, which is not that easy because you need to keep it from burning and, like all roux, you need to keep it from becoming a clumpy mess.  The trick to making a perfect roux is to never leave the pot or stop stirring it until it’s done!  So what do you do if the phone rings?  You ignore it and keep stirring the roux.  How about if the doorbell rings?  You ignore it and keep stirring the roux.  You hear the sweet siren song of an ice cream truck right outside your door, beckoning you to run out and buy a giant soft serve cone with sprinkles?  I know it takes a lot of will power but you must ignore it and keep stirring!  You get the idea  — the roux must be your only priority!

The only thing I added was a little bit of ocra on top that I deep fried in cornmeal for a little bit of textural contrast.  This was a perfectly delicious taste of New Orleans and even my Gumbo King hubby agreed!