Martha’s Maple Granola Recipe

It’s time for Martha Monday!

This weeks recipe was chosen by MaryAnn of Stirring It Up With Meg and she choose Martha’s Maple Granola. What a great choice!

This stuff is delicious.

I’m mean serious delicious.

I wasn’t big on granola, except for maybe a little on my breakfast yogurt, but this is a real treat. An addiction if you must know. It makes me excited for breakfast.

It’s a good thing!

Martha’s Maple Granola

(printable Recipe)

• 3 Cups rolled oats
• 1 cup dried unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup pecans or walnuts, quartered
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon course sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all ingredients except raisins. Spread granola in an even layer on rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes for 40 minutes.Add raisins and bake till toasted, about 10 minutes more. Let cool completely.

Recipe for Pumpkin Pie Spiced Chocolate Truffles

Pumpkin Pie Spiced Chocolate Truffles

and Martha Monday’s Luminaries!

 

I’ve made many truffles before, like my Cinnamon Chipotle Truffles, Eggnog Truffles, and Coconut Truffles, but I was looking for something a little different. So I tried some Pumpkin Pie Spiced Chocolate Truffles to serve at an upcoming dinner party that I’m throwing. I wanted something to serve with a red wine or a port, so I used dark chocolate for these gems.

 

 I used a  bar of 70% cocoa  Artesian dark chocolate  that I got in my goodie bag from Scharffen Berger when I went to the Blogher conference in Sanfrancisco. I can’t think of a nicer way to use this delicious chocolate.

I added pumpkin pie spice to my ganache and I got a little bit of an oily residue. I just gave it a little stir a couple times as it was cooling, and it did just fine.

 

They scooped easily and then I put them in the refrigerator to chill.

 

These chocolate transfer sheets were my inspiration to make these truffles and I used them for the decorations. They turned out beautiful (in a homemade kind of way!), tasty, and perfect for sharing with a few friends. I cant wait to see what my people think of these.

 

Now for my Martha Monday Project!

 Luminaries!

These turned out so cute and were so easy!

 Brette from Martha and Me choose this weeks Martha Monday project. She gave us our choice between pot stickers and/or  Halloween Luminaries.

I picked Luminaries! But I cheated a little bit. I didn't make them according to the directions. I decided to use paper bags instead of cutting out Martha’s template. I cut out little windows in my bags and taped printed vellum sheets to the inside of the bags. Using both gold and white vellum sheets, I got the clip art from Martha Stewart. A small candle or a battery operated tea light makes them glow.

I’m going to line my deck with these for my party next weekend.

They will set the mood for truffles and red wine under the Harvest Moon! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie Spice Chocolate Truffles

(Printable Recipe)

Makes 16 truffles

Ganache:

• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream*
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 8 oz dipping chocolate wafers

Bring cream just to a boil. Turn off heat and chocolate. Let sit without stirring for 5 minutes. Stir till smooth. Add pumpkin pie spice. Let cool, stirring every 15 minutes till almost set. Scoop into balls. refrigerate till firm.

Melt chocolate wafers. Dip truffles in chocolate.

Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe

 I first heard of Sticky Toffee Pudding when it was the winning flavor of a Haagen Dazs ice cream contest back in 2006. I had to give the winner a try, and I fell in love with it immediately. Since then, I have bought Sticky Toffee Sauce and Sticky Toffee Cheese, but now was the time to try the real thing!

 

This weeks Martha Monday project was picked by Lorraine of Sweet Lorraine Bake Shop.

She choose Martha Stewart’s Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding!

In classic English style, a cake that is soaked with a rich buttery sauce is often called a pudding.  This easy recipe is  a sponge cake that is made with finely chopped dates. After baking, you poke holes all over and pour a warm sticky ooey gooey toffee sauce all over the warm cake. Then the cake soaks up the rich buttery sauce.  It’s bliss!

It also makes plenty of sauce so you’ll have more to pour on top. It’s also great on ice cream!

This Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding was everything I wanted it to be. And more!

Easy Sticky Toffee Pudding

By Martha Stewart

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

Serves 10

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
• 8 ounces pitted dates, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan; set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine dates and 1/2 cup boiling water; set aside to soften, at least 10 minutes. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt to combine; set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add date mixture, flour mixture, and vanilla; mix just until moistened.
4. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 55 to 65 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare toffee sauce.
5. Remove cake from oven; cool in pan 5 minutes. To ensure it will come out easily later, carefully invert hot cake then return it, right side up, to pan. Using a toothpick, poke holes all over cake. Pour about 1 cup warm sauce over cake; let absorb at least 20 minutes.

Toffee Sauce

Ingredients

• 16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, heavy cream, light-brown sugar, and salt. Heat over low, stirring, until sugar has dissolved, about 2 minutes. Simmer mixture over medium heat until reduced to about 2 1/2 cups, 8 to 12 minutes. If desired, reheat sauce over low before serving.

Check Out These Puddings!

David Lebovitz made Warm Sticky Toffee Pudding

Greedy Gourmet’s Sticky Toffee Pudding

Peabody’s Sticky Toffee Pudding

Chocolate and Zucchini's  Sticky Toffee Pudding

Don’t Forget Delicious! also made Sticky Toffee Pudding

Use Real Butter made a Sticky Toffee Pudding too!

Martha Monday: Warm Vanilla Apple Cider Recipe

In the Sierra Foot Hills, about an hours drive outside Sacramento, is a place known as Apple Hill. Come here on any Autumn day and you’ll find  about 50 ranchers sharing not only their  many varieties of apples, but apple pie, apple strudel, apple jelly, and apple bread.

You’ll also find pumpkins and crafts,  music and pony rides, wineries, and pure unprocessed apple juice. That’s the kind that would make this Vanilla Cider perfect! Fresh, farm picked, unprocessed apple cider. But I haven’t made it to Apple Hill this year, YET! So I picked up a bottle from the grocery store to make this perfect seasonal treat. Warm Vanilla Cider by Martha Stewart!

I love to make cider in the crockpot too. Perfect for days like Thanksgiving or Christmas, the crockpot keeps it warm all day and it’s ready for drinking when your family and friends are. Or how about having a nice warm drink when you get back from apple picking? The crockpot and this recipe can help!

The Honeyed Walnuts were a great addition to this. I loved the flavor of the sweet from the honey and the salty from the course sea salt. It would also make a perfect sprinkling on top of  a salad, with lets say, apple slices?

Warm Vanilla Cider

By Martha Stewart

Printable Recipe

6 Cups fresh apple cider
2 TBSP packed brown sugar
2 whole nutmeg seeds
1 Vanilla Bean-split and scraped
6 0z Bourbon (optional)
Whipped Cream
Honeyed Walnuts
In a medium saucepan, combine ingredients. Gently simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and discard solids. Divide among 6 heatproof glasses and top with with a dollop of whipped cream and a few honey walnuts.

Honeyed Walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine 1 cup walnuts with 3 TBSP honey and a pinch of course sea salt in a bowl. Toss to coat and spread on a parchment lined baking tray. Bake tossing occasionally until toasted, about 15 minutes Let cool.

Makes 6 cup.
Time: 15 minutes.

I’m feeling so Martha!

I had seen some pompoms on Jennie's blog Tuffet and she had made them for hanging above the baby’s crib. She did them in pastel colors and said they were easy and the baby loved them. They were very cute. You can check her's out here. I kind of had them in the back of mind after that, I thought they would be cute for a Fall inspired party I’m having in October. I also thought what a cute idea this would be for Halloween. All done in orange, black and purple, they could be hung up out of the way. Creating a very festive mood indeed!

So when I was asked to pick this weeks craft idea for Martha Monday, I jumped at these pompoms. From Martha Stewart Weddings, this was the perfect time to make these for my party! One thing I can cross off my already long list of things to do before then. And you know, truth be told, I would procrastinate and never get these made other wise. You know what I mean?

I really wanted colors like burnt orange, brown, and tan, all those really pretty Fall colors. So I went to Michaels and found the tissue paper. Two problems right off the bat. Not the colors I wanted and not the right size tissue. Martha said 20x30 inch tissue. All Michaels had was 20x20inch. (Sigh). . This left a few gaps in mine. but I fluffed them together and hung them up, and they were fine.

I did however, wire two pompoms together and they did have a flat side. When hung flat side up, it was not a problem. They are really forgiving like that.

This was an easy, cheap, and fun project. I made mine while sitting and watching T.V. My daughter wants to hang these on her wall.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for 20x30 inch Fall inspired colored tissue paper! For complete instructions, click here.

. Now I want to show you my cupboards. I was forever having a mess in my cupboards. I buy a lot of stuff from bulk and I had plastic bags of things I couldn’t even remember what they were. So I went in search of some containers for my different things. You know, things like polenta, rice, and couscous. So I made the rounds to price containers and WOW. Have you priced that kind of thing lately? I even went to Ross’s and T.J. Max and couldn’t find what I wanted. Even if I did, I probably couldn’t have afforded it..

So I bought a dozen quart canning jars and I LOVE them! Everything matches, is clearly labeled and makes me smile. All that for less then $8.00. What’s in my jars?

• oatmeal
• coconut
• chocolate chips
• mini chocolate chips
• Kosher salt
• Splenda sugar
• Splenda brown sugar
• Couscous
• Jasmine rice
• polenta
• Quinoa
• Panko crumbs
• Vanilla Beans (smaller jar)

These jars keep freshness in and any kind of bugs out! I can see at a glance if I need something and replenish accordingly. This really worked for me and my wallet!

Jam Exchange and Martha Mondays

You know I have the best intentions. I plan to get things done. I have oodles to bake, events to enter, Pictures to upload. E-mails to answer, Facebook to update and tweets to tweet. I'm a busy lady. But usually, life has a habit of getting in the way of my plans. School started and my teen entered high school. We had clothes shopping, and the supply list to get, and all the things that you have to get done so the world wont stop revolving.
Ahhh, the life of a teen.

And school starting means I go back to work.

That's why I'm late telling you about

1. The jam exchange

2. Martha Monday.

OK, OK, ... I'm getting to it!

First the jam!

I received my jam from Stephanie's Jam exchange and I was so delighted. I got it from Christie of the The Sandwich Hoss . She sent me 4 half pint jars of jam.

Two were Strawberry Plum and,
one was Blueberry Peach,

and one was...

Peach Jam with Orange and Ginger

You can see the first thought that came to mind.

Brie and jam!

Brie with Peach Jam with Orange and Ginger!

*Heaven*

Thank you Christie! I'm going to have to make this stuff. (Here is another dose of that good intention stuff. But I'm gonna make it! Someday. (Sigh)) It would be a great gift. In a basket with a wheel of Brie and some crackers. I know I would love to receive a gift like that!

And now:

Martha Monday!


What is Martha Monday you ask?

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. That's it! Just Martha Loving people. This was the brainchild of Brette from Martha and Me.
This weeks project was to make Old World Map Coaster. I wasn't particularly fond of the old world idea so I went with a fall pattern.

I thought they turned out cute but I still have a few more layers of modPodge to add. I love the inspirational words on them. They also aren't in all there glory because the light was not good. But you get the idea.

I also bought a big wooden K (for Kellie) and a big wooden M (for Megan) that I'm also going to Decoupage. I'll show you when they get done.

On another Martha Monday.

So... stay tuned, OK?

Instructions: You need paper maps (and if you don’t have any you could print some online, or use any other decorated or patterned paper you have), cutting mat, round cork coasters, craft knife, foam paintbrush and ModPodge.

Put the map on the cutting board, face down and cut it out by tracing the coasters with the knife. Brush the ModPodge on one side of the coaster and stick the map onto it. Smooth the map to get rid of bubbles. Put more ModPodge on top of the map and on the sides, brushing it to smooth it out. Let it dry.