Does it Count as Tackling Something Semi-Ridiculous if Working From a Recipe From Real Simple Magazine?

Well, I'm counting it. 1. because it still involved doing something I'd never done before, which is make pizza from frozen pizza dough. AND 2. because I'm driving cross country in two days, so cut me some slack, please. Thanks!

Real Simple's version:

my version:

It all started with four balls of frozen pizza dough, which had to thaw for 6 hours.

Matt enjoyed tossing the thawed dough in the air to the tune of "So you want to make a pizza, yum, yum, yum!" You guys know that one? I didn't.

We forgot to take pictures of the rolling-out process, but here is one of Matt's knife skillzz.
Italian food is pretty.

I wish I had a digital recorder so that you could click on this and hear that pizza song. Yum Yum YUMMMMMMM.

COMING SOON: pictures of something that is going to change the face of Bon Appétempt as we know it.

Medium Étempt: Bon Appétit's Panang Tofu Curry

It's amazing how many of Bon Appétit's main dishes are meat-based. And when I saw this one, it was just like in the pre-blog days when I wasn't seeing recipes in terms of the final picture match up. Back then, I just wanted to eat some delicious food. BUT, of course I still have to do the final picture match up because that's still really fun. I mean, I'm having fun right now.

their version:

my version:

(I really don't know why my color is so off. Too much turmeric?)

I started off with one smile of produce, substituting limes for the kaffir lime leaves the recipe called for.

There's not too much to show as far as this recipe's process, which was basically just chopping things and adding them to a pan, so let me take this time to show you the weird baby pepper that was inside of my red pepper:

Weird, right? I mean, it's green, too. Do red peppers start out green or is this just some freaky pepper that I could've sold on ebay for one million dollars?

I must say that before I added the red and white elements, it was looking sort of gross.

All in all though, this was a tasty, inexpensive meal that fed my roommate and I for days. For this latter fact alone, it would go under the label of success.

Martha Stewart, This Wasn't Fair.

When I saw the below cover of Martha Stewart Living, it was love at first sight. I have to make those eggs, I thought.

So, I read through the instructions, I disregarded the part about blowing the innards out and opted for hard-boiling, all 18 of them, (despite my dislike of buying tools) I bought Martha Stewart brand decoupage glue, I had friends over to help me hand-cut those ridiculously tricky little paper silhouettes from Martha's template online because I wasn't going to buy the bunny and egg Martha Stewart craft punches, which retail for 10 dollars each. And well, here are the results. First, of course, Martha's version:

And, ugh, mine:

So maybe things started to go wrong in the dyeing stage. I used the Paas kit because I grew up with Paas and I like using those little tablets and the wire egg-dropper even though it doesn't really work. But I couldn't get the colors deep enough or even close to Martha's colors, especially that pea green color. How did you get that color, craft editors at Martha Stewart? (Honestly, I think they spray-painted them.)

Things got much worse at the decoupage stage even though they started out looking only mildly unsuccessful.

But see in the background the M.S. template I printed out? The silhouettes are light blue. Well, the directions say to transfer those images to a different sheet of paper, but it didn't say that if you cut them straight from the template, that your eggs will end up looking like total failures...

I wanted the white side of the paper to show, but the glue was causing the blue color to creep in. Eventually, we learned that the blue side needed to be face up if they were going to look like anything resembling Easter in the slightest.

The prettiest thing to come out of all of this was the paper towel we used to soak up excess dye:

I think I'm going to need some time to heal before I attempt another Martha craft, but I think everyone at the Pesach/Easter party appreciated (or appreciated making fun of) my efforts.

A Trio of Macaroons: Happy Pesach!

So, I don't know about you guys, but I had a Martha Stewart weekend. First up was the trio of macaroons: plain, chocolate chunk, and chocolate. Now, I don't want to brag, but I think this might be my closest picture to date. Of course, you can be the judge.

Here's Martha's version:
and here is mine:
OK, just kidding. Here is mine:

Not bad, right?

My one failing was that I couldn't get mine as tightly packed as Martha's. I believe the reasons behind this were twofold.

1. the recipe calls for you to run your hands under cold water before beginning to shape them with your hands and placing them on the baking sheet, but I only did that once, and what I realized by my 3rd batch was that you were supposed to do that each and every time you shaped them.

And 2. my unsweetened coconut wasn't as finely shredded:

So the first two batches came out much flatter and looser:


But the last batch, where I rinsed my hands before each and every shaping, came out much better.

mmm... Happy Pesach everyone!

p.s. UP NEXT: Martha's Easter Eggs Cover...