More from Martha

Last night we had Beans with Skillet-Toasted Corn and Tomatoes from the July 2009 Martha Stewart Living. It said to serve it on a piece of lettuce but I am not a fan of lettuce unless it is strictly in a salad. I don't like it on sandwiches or with other non-salad things. I know, it is strange. When I was in high school the cafeteria served sub sandwiches with lots of shredded lettuce on them. I always scraped the lettuce off but sometimes little pieces would hide under the meat or cheese but I would always taste it. It was gross. Anyhow, this was great just on its own. We had leftover naan so we had it on the side. It was delicious - the boys cleared their bowls (both last night and today at lunch when we had it again). I think it would be a good salad to serve in a wrap or pita. We will definitely have this again.

Tonight we had a thrown together pumpkin soup. I was going to make beans for dinner but I kept putting it off until it was too late. So, because of that and the fact that today was grocery day we needed a last-minute meal from things we have around the house. I used a large (29 ounce) can of pumpkin, milk, cream, water, garlic, thyme, marjoram, parsley, and cayenne pepper. I didn't measure anything, I just threw it together in the saucepan and heated it up until it tasted pretty good. We topped it with some homemade croûtons, sour cream, and fresh chives. It was quite good, especially for how last minute it was. If you have never made your own homemade croûtons you should. They are very easy to do and taste much better than anything you can buy at the store. Cut bread into bite-sized cubes (I like to cut the heels of our bread and toss them in the freezer until I have a good amount then make a batch of croûtons with them (just grab them out and let them thaw for about an hour or until they are no longer frozen)). Place the cubes in a large bowl. Pour oil onto croûtons (you want them coated but not saturated). Season as desired. Stir. Our favorite seasoning is garlic parmesean, just sprinkle the oiled bread with garlic powder and grated parmesean cheese (we eat them as a snack). Tonight I just used garlic powder and parsley. After they are seasoned, pour the bread cubes onto a baking sheet and spread out to a single layer (if they are overlapping they won't dry out as fast and will therefore be chewy). Bake at 350 degrees for 10-20 minutes. Check them periodically to be sure they don't burn. Let cool (if they are too hot they will wilt your lettuce).

In other news, the bagels we made worked out quite nicely. It was a lot of fun to roll them into rings with my 6-year old. We ate them for breakfast the next morning and they really tasted like bagels. This first batch was just plain wheat but I would like to try adding fruit (blueberry bagels are my absolute favorite bagel) or garlic for bagel sandwiches. Start to finish they took less than an hour to make. Very easy.