What did we learn from preparing a Martha Stewart recipe each week? Well, for one, that even when the recipes turned out less-than-perfect we held our own. The experience of trying made us stronger in the kitchen. Will we ever forget how to make caramel, fill a pastry bag, roll and fold a piping hot disk of fortune cookies? 

Sometimes we more than held our own, we made something delicious or fun. These are the recipes we've not only enjoyed, but have already made again. 

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Blueberry Crisp 

As it turns out this is one of the easiest Martha recipes we tried, and one of the most delicious. It tastes like a warm slice of blueberry pie. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream to accompany it, nothing could be better. When we made one for the 4th of July it was gone in minutes.  

Pot Roast and Summer Vacation 

This garlic lover's pot roast is an Emeril Lagasse recipe by way of The Martha Stewart Show. When the roast is done it is so tender we could cut it with a butter knife. The garlic inside the roast becomes sweet and mellow and delicious, mixing with the pan juices and the onions, carrots, and celery. The browned crust of the meat has absorbed the savory flavors of all the other ingredients. It is awesome. 

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Make Your Own Fortune Cookies 

Because it's fun to write your own fortunes, we overlook the burning fingertips this recipe can cause. We loved how these fortune cookies turned out -- so many practical uses too, birthdays, break-ups, bridal showers. Just be sure to grab a friend because, like square dancing, this recipe works best when you have a partner. 

 

Without further adieu, we bring you the worsts: 

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Honey-Glazed Beehive Cake 

In a perfect world, a complicated recipe plus great effort would equal an exceptional tasting cake. Oh, how Martha stripped us of this belief when we made this cake. The beehive cake pan is so cute and inviting, and yet the cake tasted like an adobe brick with honey on it. The texture was way too dense. Where did we go wrong?

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Curried Tomato Seafood Bouillabaisse  

The fish soup Martha calls bouillabaisse, we think it's just because she wants to sound Frenchy. Meh. 

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Apple, Leek and Butternut Gratin 

We made this Apple, Leek and Butternut Gratin back on November 23, 2009. We had high hopes for it. Could it be a new "must-have" Thanksgiving side dish? Nope. It was weak, mild, and plain. Martha why you got to be so bland? Pass the stuffing. 

That's where Martha comes in this week with Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Arugula. Also, we're hoping to make something whose leftovers we could take in our lunch. 

To make this dish, you begin by roasting the vegetables: 2 pints grape tomatoes, 4 garlic cloves (unpeeled), 3 shallots, and 2 Tablespoons fresh thyme leaves. Place them on a baking sheet and toss with extra-virgin olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Roast them in a 450 oven for 20-25 minutes. (We found the oven temperature a little too hot, our thyme was beginning to smoke, so we adjusted it to 380). 

Since the recipe calls for sheets of store-bought frozen phyllo dough it's pretty quick to throw together. 

After preheating the oven to 400 degrees, you combine ½ cup of chopped pecans, with 1/3 cup plain breadcrumbs, ¼ cup sugar and a ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon. 

 

The only requirement - we had to be able to make it with whatever ingredients we had on hand which happened to be bacon and eggs (and lucky for us some cheap Beaujolais). That's how we decided on Spinach, Egg, and Bacon Salad. 

You start by hard boiling 4 large eggs and cooking ¾ lb. of bacon until crisp. Next up, start on making the vinaigrette by combining one garlic clove peeled and minced, one small shallot finely chopped, juice of ½ lemon, and 1 ½ Tablespoons of sherry vinegar. Slowly whisk in ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, some chopped fresh parsley, salt and pepper to taste. (This recipe is for 8 servings so you can adjust as necessary). 

On most of these trips we would order up a big slice of chocolate cake. There were other choices, chocolate puddings and chocolate sorbets and chocolate brownies. But it was hard to veer from the classic slice of chocolate cake, because it is nearly perfect for an impromptu celebration, which is what these nights were really about. Chocolate cake makes us think of birthday cake and wishes and there's nothing quite like that. I mean while it's possible to think of a shop that only serves chocolate, it's hard to imagine anyone opening up a place serving only vanilla. It's just not the same. 

​This weekend we've decided to celebrate Labor Day. In an effort to find a chocolate cake like the one we ate on those nights, we turn to Martha. We're drawn to a recipe called, One Bowl Chocolate Cake because it can be made in one mixing bowl. What we are hoping is that it is easy enough to qualify as an anytime impromptu celebration cake -- a cake that is delicious, and chocolate-y. 

 

What to do? Martha Stewart to the rescue of course - wouldn't you know, she has a wonderful recipe on her site for a delicious lemon focaccia. The recipe was even contributed by Chris Bianco and is a staple of the Pane Bianco menu. In the shop a daily focaccia selection is served with any number of combinations of toppings onto this versatile canvas. We decide to add onions and cherry tomatoes (similar to one we've had in the store). 

To make the focaccia dough, take a large bowl and combine one package instant yeast with 2 ½ cups flour and 2 cups water; whisk and let stand for 15 minutes. 

This week the family got together for some evening swimming and low-key dinner so we decided to make these chocolate chip cookie bars for dessert. Like a giant chocolate chip cookie, these bars are buttery and surprisingly moist even though they firmly hold their shape (the better to eat in the pool, or in a lunch box).

In the late spring sunshine, as the days in the desert were just starting to get robustly hot we picked a bounty of delicious peaches, which resulted in us making this peach ice cream. But there were many peaches left over. So like any good Martha we took the ripe peaches and peeled, pitted and sliced them up. Then sprinkled them with sugar and lemon juice and stuck them in the freezer. 

Here it is time for school to start again, and we have pulled out the frozen peaches. This week is about new backpacks, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, new packs of crayons, lunchboxes, and for dessert peach cobbler. 

Some things could be counted on: bickering over who had to sit in the middle, their father's collection of prepared mixed tapes of jazz and classical music for the journey (this was pre iTunes), listening to the complete Star Wars recordings on cassette tape (recorded off the radio), and Grandma Mooney putting a pot roast on about five hours prior to their arrival. 

​The culmination of each road trip was arriving in North Carolina fuzzy headed, cooped up, sitting down to eat leathery slices of roast, and then falling dead asleep. 

Well, this is not that pot roast recipe -- but an ode to the memories of summer pot roast all the same. 

This is Garlic Lover's Pot Roast from The Martha Stewart Show (February 2009) though it is actually an Emeril Lagasse recipe.