Claudine, Oui c'est Francais

good thing

Do you want a really easy way to mash up Avocado when you make guacamole?

Get one of these: a Pastry Blender.

Mostly used to cut butter into dry ingredients. But it works perfectly for mashing up these avocados

Only $11 at Williams Sonoma, so go get one...

what's for dinner?

I decided that since this is a blog devoted to my love of Martha that I will try to share a tidbit everyday (or almost everyday) about something Martha. Maybe a recipe or a craft or just a pearl of wisdom.

Tonight (and tomorrow night) we are having Martha's Chicken Pot Pie from her Favorite Comfort Foods cookbook. If you don't have this cookbook you should get it. I have made many things including the best ever Caesar Salad with the dressing from scratch, the only way it should be done and the 2nd best Mac & Cheese. Only 2nd to my Great-Grandma Mickey's (sorry Martha) I think she would understand.

It is soooo nummy and for two people we will be eating it for days. This time of year with so much work I like to pull out those little tricks.

Check out the recipe here... or below

Chicken Potpie

Serves 6

Use a little extra seasoning while preparing this potpie; the flavors mellow as it cooks. Topping a potpie is easy when you use your rolling pin to set the pastry crust over the filled baking dish. Be sure to chill the dough before and after rolling it out, then curl it around the pin, and unfurl to cover the pie. Tuck the overlapping edges of pastry inside the dish to create a thick, rustic rim of crust.

1 three-to four-pound chicken 4 cups Homemade Chicken Stock , or canned low-sodium chicken broth, skimmed of fat 1 large yellow onion, cut in half 2 dried bay leaves 1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns 1 small bunch fresh thyme 1 rib celery, cut into thirds 1 cup plus 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 1/4 teaspoons salt 8 tablespoons (1 stick) plus 7 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 large egg yolks 9 ounces red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces 12 pearl onions, peeled and cut lengthwise if large 1 medium leek, white and light-green parts only, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds and washed 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds 6 ounces button mushrooms, quartered if large 1 cup milk 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley Zest of 1 lemon 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon heavy cream 1.  Combine chicken, chicken stock, yellow onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, 3 thyme sprigs, and celery in a stockpot, and add enough water just to cover the chicken. Bring stock to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour. 2.  Pick enough thyme leaves to make 3 tablespoons. Combine 1 cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon thyme leaves in the bowl of a food processor, and set remaining 2 tablespoons thyme aside. Add 10 tablespoons chilled butter cut into small pieces, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. While the food processor is running, add 3 tablespoons ice water and 1 egg yolk, and process until the dough holds together. Turn dough onto plastic wrap, flatten into circle, and wrap well; refrigerate at least 1 hour. 3.  Drain chicken, and reserve the stock. Remove the skin from the chicken, and remove all the chicken from the carcass. Shred the chicken into bite-size strips, and set aside. Strain the stock, and set aside 2 cups. Reserve the remaining stock for another use. 4.  Preheat oven to 375º. Melt the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add red potatoes and pearl onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes begin to turn golden, 4 to 5 minutes. Add leeks, carrots, and mushrooms, and cook 4 to 5 minutes more. Add the remaining 5 tablespoons flour, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in reserved chicken stock and milk, and bring to a simmer. Cook until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes. Add reserved chicken pieces, parsley, remaining 2 tablespoons thyme, lemon zest, remaining 2 teaspoons salt, and the ground pepper; transfer to a large casserole dish. Set aside. 5.  Roll out the dough until it is 1/4 inch thick, and transfer to a baking sheet. Allow to chill 15 minutes. Make an egg wash: In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining yolk and heavy cream. Working quickly, place the dough over the top of the chicken mixture, and tuck extra dough around the edges. Cut slits on top to allow steam to escape. Brush with the egg wash, and place on a baking sheet. Bake until crust is golden, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve hot.

new couch

We were successful finding a new sofa today and cross our fingers that we get it in time. It takes 2 to 4 weeks but they are made in Oregon so we should get it pretty fast.

And we got a really nice dark brown leather chair, and it reclines, so John is pretty happy with that and he says that it will be "his" chair.... Now if I could only get rid of the horrible entertainment center I would be super happy.

We woke up to a really foggy morning that didn't burn off until around noon. But it was still pretty...

Hope to actually scrapbook today, and then get a extra hour of sleep tonight.

Don't forget to change your clocks.

week in review

my own little version of People/Newsweek magazine, here are my observations and a recap of the week...

Tom and Katie are getting married in November

George Clooney has been named the #1 Man's man....he is my #1 too...

Martha's boyfriend Charles Simonyi is training to go to space

Martha made a awesome Lady Baltimore cake with Amy Sedaris and they were so funny together.

Why was Gray's Anatomy a repeat last night?

Will Lost please get on with the story and when it goes off the air at the end of November until April... I think they are going to loose a lot of viewers.

Bill O'Reilly is on Oprah today..... Can I poke my eyes out now? If they weren't bad enough on their own.

NBC has refused to show ads for the new Dixie Chick documentary "Shut up and sing" just one more reason to not watch that channel. Is there anything on that network to watch? Law & Order and ER and that is about it

Rush Limbaugh...tsk tsk tsk.... the comments he made about Michael J. Fox. Seriously??? How can you live with yourself saying the things that you did?

And super exciting news is that the 2007 Tour de France route has been announced. It is shifted a week which really screws up my vacation schedule. This year starts in London. Can't wait to watch....

Martha's newest book "Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook" comes out on Tuesday. Mine is ready to go at Amazon.com

and finally a quote of the week:

"You can't call yourself a think tank when all your ideas are stupid " Bill Maher.

I would be in big trouble

If this store was in Portland I would be in big trouble. I love how they update their blog everyday with all the new goodness. Also look on the left hand side at all of the great new things coming out from the last convention.

I want these and all of the new Li'l Davis

and these

and these too

and this has my name written all over it

check all of these things out on that great website above..... This time I will make sure to give Andrea the heads up when I find them to purchase....

Nothing exciting here

Nothing exciting to report from my end here..... Still working a ton and unfortunately it stays that way until about June.

We went shopping for a new sofa and chair today, picked one out and the upholstery but then were told it would take at least 8 weeks and we want to have it before Thanksgiving. There was a lot of doubting on John's side of the upholstery and color, but he should know by now to leave that to me.... If not everything in this house would be blue.... So now we will look again next week and see if we can find one a little sooner. I would LOVE to have the Martha Stewart Signature collection but I don't think I could convince him of that.

I like this one from Martha's Opal Point collection, but not that color...

And I LOVE the slipper chair...

Nothing else too exciting. I need to start working on the menu for Thanksgiving. Maybe I will make Martha's new turkey this year, but last years Cranberry Glazed Turkey may be hard to beat...

Crafty weekend

I got some crafty things accomplished this weekend, all very different but still crafty.

Made these for my door of the Craft Corner, I refer to it as the CCC which is not what it is actually called. John likes to use the letter K instead of the letter C in things, like Krazy with a K, is one of his favorite expressions. So when he decided to name the back room, Claudine's Craft Corner, he spelled them all with a K. But some people might get the wrong idea if I call the back room the KKK. I can only imagine the google searches I would get with that one. So I picked up these letters at Target, they are Making Memories letters and covered each with my favorite things.

the first one is with my favorite big white Heidi Swapp letters and K&Co colored vellum with glitter

the second is with a Eiffel Tower stamp, french stamps and then silver swirls stamped on top

the third I painted Betty pink (from Heidi Swapp) and the edged with silver glitter and then I put the flourish I made a few weeks ago on  top of it....

And then hung on the door

Then I glittered a pumpkin a la Martha Stewart.

I have a few more to do but I love how it turned out and is super easy. Instead of brushing on the glue I used some craft glue that came in it's own dispenser and then rubbed it right on. I then sprinkled it with "autumn orange" glitter

LOVE IT!

  And last but not least I did this layout of a picture of my grandparents from 1964 when they went on a tour of a Japanese ship when it was in town. I am sure that was all my grandpa's idea. Aren't they the cutest things.

I used all sorts of stuff, scrapworks and chatterbox paper, scrapworks tabs, HS journaling spots, Anhata images and stamps and the new American Crafts felt flowers that I love, and ordered more of...

Circle Journal all done...

So happy that I have my circle journal back, unlike Andrea that had to negotiate with a terrorist to get hers back :)

My theme was "Good Things" based on of course the one and only Martha Stewart. My love for Martha and all she does is known by pretty much everybody in the world, including Martha. (I told her when I talked to her on the phone last year on her first ever live radio show) Back when Martha went through what I call the "dark period" there were a lot of mean things said about her in the media, and by some incredibly stupid people to my face. I got into a huge argument with somebody I work with and he has never forgot that.

So here it is;

The cover

inside intro pages, by me

 

my pages

Samantha's pages

Dana's pages

Shelly's pages

Andi's pages

Jack's pages

last but not least, Andrea's pages

Can't wait for January, I have my theme and everything! yipee

Bring it on

and I don't mean the movie either.

Since I have been literally working night and day sometimes I like to take a little break and surf the good 'ol net. So I am on 2 peas and I am looking at the message boards. I come across the NSBR, (non scrapbook related) and I find a post about North Korea, the bomb test and dealing with a madman (that was what they called it) I read through the posts and by the end my blood was boiling. I am not sure of the political leanings of somebody that may be reading this so I'm sorry if I offend you. 
But I let them have it, they were posting that we should just go in and 'Nuke em or even Assassinate him..... UM HELLO, do they know what that would do and how killing another leader is against the law? And then the comments about Bush....oh boy I'm getting worked up again!

So I posted on their thread "Am I the only democrat on this entire site? At least I know who elected this idiot. This place makes me sick. Nuke em? Do you realize that if you "Nuke" a country they will strike back and Nuke us? I'm sure my post will go over really well, but I could care less. I am too sick to my stomach to ever look at this site again"

When I told Andrea I did this her response was "What, did you really" My husband thought it was pretty good. After that I got quite a few responses, and my favorite was "Wasn't Truman a Democrat and he dropped a bomb"  My response: Yes he was but that was because of Pearl Harbor. She responded that the why didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was that Truman was a democrat.

So I had my own little lesson on who and what this country is made of. Now I can totally see why Bush was reelected and who elected him. Because there actually are people out there that believe that what is going on in the world and what we have created is the right thing to do.... It boggles my mind and I do not understand how people can think that.

I don't understand the argument that people make about Bush and Hurricane Katrina. There answer is that "Bush doesn't cause Hurricanes" HELLO you stupid fucking people! It's not the fact that it happened that is his screw up it is the reaction that he had after it happened. And yes, I do believe with Kanye West as well.

Ok, Lost is on, I need to step off my soap box and watch tv and keep working.

finally...

finally did some scrapping last night, I had to go to Andrea's to do it. We use to do this together when she got me started down this costly road, but since I now have so much stuff it needs it's own room...the CCC as it is known.  So this time I thought I would bring one of the three monthly kits I get every month, and in that I could have my own little challenge. I printed some pictures and loaded up a large tote and off I went. In the past it would 3 or 4 trips to and from the car to load and unload. This time just one! Andrea was a little shocked....

I was going to make the Martha Spaghetti Carbonara. But I also brought some Cambazzola cheese, sourdough baguette and Tiramisu... So I didn't make the pasta and we ate cheese! Really what else would you need, I ask you? 

So I got 2 pages done, pretty good for one night away from all of my things I think.

I LOVE the new sparkly letters used to spell Hank. They are new from K & Co and are called Twinkle Type. I will be using these a lot.