Martha A. Cheves's Blog, page 146

Let me Call you Sweetheart Blog Hop - Valentine's Day Dinner

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This is a freak of nature but I found this perfectly heart shaped potato in my bag of potatoes. That will never happen again! But even if you don't find a heart shaped potato, you can still make a nice inexpensive, romantic dinner for your sweety. For my meal I wanted a nice plate. I found this one at our pottery outlet and due to a slight defect it was on sale for $2.00. Perfect! I found the shell dish at the same store for $.50. Now what to put in them.

I baked my heart po...

Carrots and Heartburn

There have been many times that after eating dishes made with tomato sauce I've ended up with heartburn. Years ago my brother told me that someone told him to put diced carrots in dishes made with with a tomato base. The carrot seems to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes and it adds a little sweetness too. So the next time I made spaghetti sauce, I added small pieces of carrots to my sauce and mashed them up before serving the sauce. I didn't know how people would feel about having ca...

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies - Pulled

This recipe has been pulled from my site Martha's Recipes to be included in my cookbook Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts.

Creamy Chicken & Pasta

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This dish is so simple and has so many possibilities for changes. It would be wonderful made with shrimp. You can also make this with leftover chicken or pork. Of course you would eliminate the cooking of the chicken and add the chicken with the broth, cream cheese, etc. I think some French fried onions on top would be good too. These would be added when the final cheese is added. This is a fun dish to play with.

You can view the full recipe by going to Martha's Recipes

Pineapple Coconut Upside Down Cake

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When I was a kid my mom made Pineapple Upside down cakes and I loved them. I've tried making them like she did but never seem to get them just right. Then it hit me. The key is in the cast iron skillet! I decided to give it a try to see if I could copy the taste I remember as a kid. This was pretty close. This is what I did.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a cast iron skillet I cooked, over medium high heat (1 cake):

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup c...

Pizza Tortilla Rolls

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This idea came to me after purchasing a package of frozen pizza rolls. I won't mention the brand but I will say that the taste is great but the price I paid for just 3 is a little high. I knew there had to be a way to have something at least close to the same flavor but at a less expensive price. If you like thin crust pizza, you'll like my Pizza Tortilla Rolls.

These are simply made from tortillas, cheese, pepperoni and pizza sauce. I sprinkled the tortilla with cheese, added about 2 Tb...

Valentine's Day History

With Valentine's Day coming up, I thought I would give us all a little history lesson as to how this holiday came about.

February 14 was the day Rome honored Juno, the goddess of women and marriage. It was also the night before their spring festival called Feast of Lupercalia. On the eve of the festival, girls' names were put into a jar and boys reached in and chose a partner for the festival. These often lead to marriage.

When Claudius II was emperor, he ordered all the Roman military not t...

Applesauce Cake - Gone

I've removed Applesauce Cake from Martha's Recipes. If you didn't get it before now, you'll have to wait until my next cookbook Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts comes out.

Beans and Gas

This was sent to me by a friend and I couldn't help but share.

Beans and Gas

Beans have an unhappy reputation of creating an embarrassing byproduct of smelly gas. This gas which consists mainly of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, is the byproduct of bacteria in the intestine breaking down the complex carbohydrates in the beans. Here is a flatulence rating for beans from the highest gas-producing to the least:

1. soybeans
2. pink beans
3. black beans
4. pinto beans
5. small white beans
6. great northern...

Cherry Nut Cheese Pie - Pulled

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This is a good one that offers many changes. You can change the crust by changing the cookie, change the filling and even top with fresh fruit. BUT, it's been pulled for my next cookbook "Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts."