Needs cheese. Definitely some cheese.

As you know, I have been working through my Martha cookbook. I was trying to do all of the Summer recipes. But, even though it's 90 here in South Florida, and I wore sandals today (to show off my new pedicure. OPI's Royal Rajah Ruby, thank you very much!), I have decided that it's now Fall. Summer had too many grilling recipes anyway, and in apartment land, grills are verboten. I know the proper use of them, but who knows what the jackasses upstairs would do with a hot charcoal grill when they were done cooking.

September! Back to school! FOOTBALL!!!!! GO STEELERS!!

What challenges does Martha have in store for the Fall? Some lamb, which I don't eat, and lots of lentils, which I am wary of due to this lentil "salad" we used to have at Thanksgiving, until everyone finally admitted they didn't really like it in the first place (I never ate it, so if I'm wrong about why you guys don't make it anymore, Jan, Kathy, Sharon... please correct me!).

So no lamb. No lentils. Just chicken. And mushrooms. And polenta—Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Oven-baked Polenta, to be precise.



You have to make the polenta and the chicken pretty much at the same time, so, being the queen of prep work that I am (thank you, Chris!!! XXOXOXOXOO), I did the chicken fixings before doing the polenta. Here is the mushroom part. One pound of mushrooms, wiped with a damp paper towel to clean them off, then sliced.



Then four garlic cloves, sliced in half (I assumed lengthwise), and 2 tbsp. of chopped fresh parsley. I got the curly kind, because Martha is amazingly non-specific. And chicken broth, at the ready for the chicken.



On to polenta. Because it's Martha, we don't use already made polenta. So here I go. From scratch. I whisked corn meal with water, salt and pepper.



Then bake it, covered, for 30 minutes at 425. Of course, my covered glass baking dish is still in Atlanta, where I hope Jenny is enjoying it. So I improvised with foil.



I sliced my chicken breasts in half to make cutlets, although, to be helpful, Martha could just say 8 chicken CUTLETS in the ingredients list. But, that would be too easy. So to fuck with us (Sorry, Dickie. Just the one f-bomb. I promise.) she says 4 boneless chicken breast halves. And then in the recipe, she refers to them as cutlets....confusing, but I cut them in half, lengthwise. If I'm wrong, Whatever, Martha! Sprinkle with salt and pepper.



I fired up my skillet with some olive oil and put the chicken in, a couple minutes on each side, then took them out.



That is NOT the same plate the raw chicken was on. I am not my father. I love him, but if you don't snap a "raw chicken plate" out of his hand after he puts stuff on the grill, he'll put the cooked food right back on it. I have a full set of that Corelle that I've had since college. It does not break. Believe me, I've tried. Actually, I lie. One of the bowls broke, and it didn't just break. It EXPLODED!

Back to dinner!!! Another tablespoon of olive oil into the skillet, and then in goes the garlic and the mushrooms. Stir it up, then cover to get some liquid out of the mushrooms. Uncover and stir. When the mushrooms are golden, you can add 1/2 cup of dry white wine. This is apparently "optional." Martha doesn't know me well. Wine is not "optional." That's like her tip about putting "leftover" wine into an ice cube tray to freeze for soups. I am still trying to figure out what "leftover" wine is.... Dry white wine. A bit for the mushrooms, and a bit for the chef.



Cook that down for about a minute or so, then add the chicken broth and the parsley. Cook that for 8-10 minutes. Then add the chicken back, lower the heat to a simmer and cover, 10-12 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.



BEEP goes the oven! Polenta!!! This is what it looks like when it comes out:



And this is what it looks like after you whisk in 1/4 cup of milk, 2 Tbsp. of butter and 1/4 tsp. marjoram. Not much different:



Huh. And the taste... huh... kind of... huh.... I scoop some out on a plate, and top it with a piece of chicken, and some of the mushrooms and sauce, along with some steamed asparagus (you need a green vegetable).



Better with the sauce, but the polenta is still kind of... blah. I am sure some variety of cheese would give it that something it's missing. Any suggestions??


The "All the Cheese You Need, and Then Some" playlist:
Fancy Yeah Yeah Yeahs (awesome start, this band is in heavy rotation in the Civic)
Another Spin Barenaked Ladies (I had time to kill, one day in Alaska. I walked around until I found the arts & crafts shop.)
Cupid's Got a Brand New Gun Michael Penn (It slithers like a viper and readies its attack)
Be Still My Beating Heart Sting (LOVE STING!!! I sink like a stone that's been thrown in the ocean My logic has drowned in a sea of emotion)
The Freshman The Verve Pipe (She a punk who rarely ever took advice)
You Are What You Are (Beautiful) Christina Aguilera
The State I'm In Louie Louie (Dig into your pop culture pit to figure out who this is. And I am still not embarrassed of anything on my iPod.)
Magic Carpet Ride Steppenwolf (oh yeah)
I Still Believe Brenda K. Starr (I told you there would be cheese.)
Fascination Street The Cure
One of Us ABBA
Closer to Me The Outfield
Last Dance Donna Summer (So let's dance the last dance toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!)
One More Chance Madonna
Red Bike Wendy & Lisa
Summer Rain Belinda Carlisle
What I am Edie Brickell and New Bohemians (Religion is a smile on a dog)
Planet Earth Duran Duran (I LOVE YOU SIMON!)
I Was Born TO Love You Queen
The Sound of Silence Simon & Garfunkel (such a beautiful song)
Vacation The Go-Gos (Can't seem to get my mind off of you...)
Hold Me Menudo (oh yeah. Menudo. When Ricky Martin was like 11. Cheese!!!!)
Homeward Bound Simon & Garfunkel (I will be, in 2 weeks!!! Bingo-town here I come!)
She Will be Loved Maroon 5
Hammer to Fall Queen (I love me some Freddie)
Dreaming Blondie (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this song!!!)
Fast Love George Michael (Stupid cupid keeps on calling, But I see nothing in his eyes)
Sunshine Paul Westerberg (He can't even run his own life, I'll be damned if he'll run mine.)

And because I love this song, here is Blondie singing it live in 2008!

Soup's ON!

Labor Day weekend! Yay! Growing up, that always meant everyone would come to our house, and a batch of clam chowder would be whipped up. Well, not whipped up. It takes a lot of work. And a lot of knives and cutting boards if you're making a full batch for a large group.

I am ambitious, but not THAT ambitious. I just made a half batch. It still involves A LOT of chopping (onions, green peppers and celery) and dicing (potatoes and carrots). But, as I have said before, I like the zen of chopping and listening to music. It's soothing for me.

Wake me when it's over!


So, this is my Grandpa Jack's recipe. We've been making it for so long, it's like second nature. I don't even need to look at the recipe as I go. He started out with salt pork to get some fat going in the bottom of the pan. I start with a little olive oil, and then toss the onions and peppers into my big red Le Creuset pot!



Aside from the veggies, here are the other ingredients: tomato juice, clam juice, chopped clams (I cheat and used canned. Like I said, again, I am ambitious, but not that ambitious), stewed tomatoes, caraway seeds and thyme. Hot sauce too, but that's still in the refrigerator.



Back to the onions and peppers... looking good...



So now, we add the clam juice (five bottles!):



Thrilling and fascinating. I know. Now, with the stewed tomatoes, they come out looking like this:



Way too big. So get out your kitchen sheers and give them some snips!



When the clam juice gets warm, add in the tomatoes and half the bottle of tomato juice. Heat that up. When it gets warm, add in the diced carrots and potatoes and the chopped celery and clams (drained, but not squeezed dry. I kind of just drain them a bit, but keep some of the juice in them). Add in the spices, too. It's pretty much to taste. I know what it's supposed to taste like, so I can add the caraway seeds and thyme until it's right. Add the hot sauce a few dashes at a time. I use Texas Pete, but whatever your favorite is works just fine.



Now you just keep it on low (right below a simmer) for a couple hours, until the carrots, celery and potatoes are done. Halfway through, you add in the "secret" ingredient. Family lore goes, an extra beer was opened once while the soup was cooking. Rather than waste it, it was poured into the soup. I don't know if it makes a difference in the flavor, but I can say that half a bottle (it is a half batch, after all) of the Frankenstein beer worked just fine.

When all the veggies are tender, get a bowl out and add a couple more dashes of Texas Pete to your serving! Enjoy!!!



LEFTOVERS!!!! And not just the soup, which tastes even better the next day. Leftover veggies. Leftover (extra) potatoes, celery and onion becomes potato salad:



And what to do with the extra tomato juice... hmm.... well, I guess, if you are so inclined, you can mix it with some more Texas Pete, celery salt, lime juice and Worcestershire sauce, oh and some vodka, to make a tasty Bloody Mary! (You can use an extra celery stick to stir, and to scoop out the olives as they get closer to the bottom of the glass.)



The you would think, with 2,127 songs on here, I'd get more of a variety playlist:
Tangled Maroon 5
Why Say Anything Nice? Barenaked Ladies (if you don't, come sit by me...)
I Remember Holding You Boys Club (fine '80s cheese)
Carry That Weight Paul McCartney (LIVE. The tour I saw in ATL with Kara and her parents. AWESOME show.)
You Belong to Me Patsy Cline (Who doesn't love Patsy??)
Mamma Mia ABBA (Here I go again...)
Don't Stop Believing Fucking Journey
End The Cure
99 Red Balloons Nena (I also have 99 Luft Balloons on here.)
Barbie Girl Aqua (Life in plastic, it's fantastic)
Hot Thing Prince
Blackbird Sarah McLaughlin (A Beatles cover, which I am usually against, but she does a really good job.)
Easy Silence Dixie Chicks (In the peaceful quiet you create for me, and the way you keep the world at bay for me.)
World on Fire Sarah McLaughlin (When I interviewed Art Garfunkel, he tipped his hat to Sarah's amazing talent.)
(Keep Feeling) Fascination Human League
Electric Blue Icehouse (Are you hiding somewhere behind those eyes)
Kiss the Bride Elton John (He did once. Kiss his bride. Denial, sometimes, is more than a river in Egypt.)
Walk On U2 (Love is not the easy thing, and the only baggage you can bring is all that you can't leave behind.) (I LOVE YOU BONO!)
Flowers in December Mazzy Star
Red Carpet Massacre Duran Duran
What Does Sex Mean to Me? Human Sexual Response (From the Threesome soundtrack)
Black & White Sarah McLaughlin
Nowhere Fast Fire Inc. (I think this is the song Diane Lane is "singing" when Willam Dafoe kidnaps her in Streets of Fire)
Something About the Way You Look Tonight Elton John
Beast of Burden Rolling Stones
Ruby Tuesday This was on a mix a friend made. I don't know who sings it, but it's not the Stones.
Sink or Swim Bad Lieutenant (A friend turned me on to this song a few weeks ago, and I love it! The lyrics are great, as is the music)
Something to Remember Madonna
Invincible Pat Benatar (Legend of Billie Jean!!!)
Stop Jamelia
Uncle John's Band Grateful Dead (Yeah. I know. I don't know how that got in there either.....)
I'm Still Standing Elton John