865 Freed Martha

My cooking may be a bit slip-shod and borrowed from my Mom's recipe box of the 1950s, but I'm a big fan of Martha Stewart's products even if I've only read one of her magazines (the first issue). Sheets, bedspreads, towels, rugs, and kitchen utensils are all well designed and made.

Now she's getting out of prison. Some men are still complaining that she hasn't admitted to a crime, even though she's done the time. Could be that in addition to beingsmart, talented, successful and providing a lot of quality for value, she's also innocent. All those guys who were wrong about her stock (jumped 40% from the low last fall) are also wrong about her. See WaPo for a less than flattering story.

From the Alderson, West Virginia prison Martha wrote her staff about foraging for wild greens on the grounds, decorating the chapel for a memorial service, and cooking impromtu recipes in the microwave with whatever the commissary had for sale. She read voraciously with the new found time she had, taught yoga, crocheted gifts, cast and painted ceramics from old molds she found, and played cards and scrabble (as reported in the latest issue of Living). This lady knows how to make lemon-ade from even dried up lemons.

You go girl! And welcome back.

Note: Last March I started my blog about premiere issues with a few paragraphs about Martha:

"The reasons people give for starting a new journal are wonderful, and that will probably end up being my focus, rather than ISSN or editor or publisher or cost. For instance, I have the "Preview Issue" of Martha Stewart Living, Winter 1990, published in the fall of 1989 for the coming holiday season. She quotes Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th century writer: For at the end of the day, no matter who we are or what we do, we want to go home. Our philosophy was nicely stated by Samuel Johnson a couple of hundred years ago: "To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition."

The issue is filled with wonderful recipes, projects, and decorating ideas. I don't think she ever changed her plan (I also don't think she is guilty, but that's another blog. The pages are drying out a bit, so I have to be careful when I open to the stencils of stars and moon to be carefully removed to spray paint a table cloth. I smile when I see the photo of the golden threads of spun sugar on cups made of brandy snaps holding black currant icecream topped with caramel syrup. Ah, Martha, nobody does it like you!