I am re-watching “Martha Stewart Living” and I have more questions than answers!

What I’ve always liked about her is that when she’s cooking or baking anything, she’s always in there with her spatula, getting every last bit of mixture.

She leaves nothing in the mixing bowls. I do this as well. It bothers me that some tv chefs and cooks leave half the stuff in the bowl!

I guess it comes from more humble beginnings and not wanting to leave anything behind.

I especially like Martha's episodes with Joan Rivers. They have an amazing chemistry.

Matzo Latkes with Joan Rivers - Martha Stewart

I was so happy when I found this on Roku!

I don’t know about favorite episodes, but I really like the early stuff when she would go to tag sales in a pick up truck.

There is a lot of good information in these.

My favorite episode was one of her 'Prime Time' holiday specials she did at the time, for Easter (I believe for a couple of years she did a prime time special for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter on CBS). Anyhow, this particular episode had her cooking with her special guest Aretha Franklin (a respected cook, herself) and they were making a traditional Easter ham dinner.

As Martha Stewart is chopping away at the vegetables, Franklin is babbling away at how this ham recipe was passed down in her family for years. Stewart is watching through the corner of her eye as Franklin seasons the ham with God knows what (I remember a bag of sugar was involved). Then Franklin pulls out 2 - 2! - two liter bottles of cream soda, and pours them over the ham, causing Stewart's eyes to bug out on camera. My teeth were hurting watching this. This poor ham was swimming in cream soda.

"Isn't that an awful lot of cream soda for the ham ?" she asked politely, on behalf of everyone watching. Franklin mumbled something to shut her up, and continued spooning up the cream soda at the bottom of the roasting pan and pouring it over the ham, saying this is how 'her daddy used to make it'. Later, they had a 'ready to eat' dinner at the end of the show, and poor Stewart had to 'choke down' a forkful of ham for the camera. I felt so bad for her.

The Miss Piggy ones are the best ones

Martha is fascinating because her schtick is super uptight and WASPY.

But she was also always openly frugal and prided herself on being hard-working.

She in fact grew up in a Catholic family that was poor at times.

Anyway, rich bitches nowadays seem to pride themselves on being as useless and wasteful as possible.

It’s charming to see Martha’s pride in hard work and frugality even after she became a billionaire.

I always enjoyed when she had 'Big Martha' on her show. She gave off 'Mommie Dearest' vibes.

Yeah, big Martha was not warm and fuzzy!

Martha— despite being beautiful and working in a “female” industry— is wired like a man. A workaholic who derives most of her meaning in life from her work.

She does seem to really love her cats, chickens, and goats, though.

My ex used to watch every Sunday when it was just a 30 minute weekly show. I still remember both the opening and closing themes. Despite being a Jersey girl, the show was dripping with her adopted New England aesthetic at the time.

My aunt has attended events that she’s been at twice. I forget the details of her stories, but essentially she really hates soda. I think one was at a film screening or something and she was angry and judgmental over someone coming in with a can of soda. Something like that.

I had a coworker whose father-in-law was a well-know upholsterer in CT. He did a lot of work for celebrities in Greenwich CT as well as in NYC / The Hamptons. My coworker used to tell us stories about how Martha used to send him chairs. loveseats, fainting couches and sofas she would pick up at yard sales and junk shops which were worth nothing (they weren't antiques - just older and beaten up) , and he would refurbish and reupholster the items she sent (and charge her dearly for them). On average, it would take him about a week or so to finish one piece (depending on size). She wouldn't even care what fabric he chose - she would just say to him 'something with blue and white for this' or 'something with emerald green in it' for this. She never complained about his work, nor the fabric patterns he chose - he had a great eye.

She would then turn around and feature them on her show months later, and show before / after pictures to the audience. She would claim they were antiques which she found 'on the side of the road', she took them home, she refurbished them and reupholstered them herself. Of course, none of the photos or videos showed her doing any work on the pieces - just her standing next to the item in the 'before' and 'after' photos - and she would claim she had gotten them done over a weekend...and YOU CAN, TOO! It's easy.

Thousands of housewives actually believed her.

r6 I also respect that about Martha. She's always worked her ass off and has tried to be as good as she possibly can be, setting high standards for herself. So many rich people are such lazy cunts, but Martha's always been about hard work and skills.

I just love her. I especially love “older” Martha. She’s fucking hilarious, giving everyone the side-eye.

On her new gardening show, some barky straight guy wandered onto the show and started trying to act all alpha. I thought she was going to kill him! It was fabulous!

I’ve most enjoyed the reruns hosted by my stand-in whom I cloned from the cells of two of the indentured maintenance workers living permanently (unbeknownst to them, still…) on my main property.

I love this woman because she's worked her ass off and has a true sense of humor about the world and, more importantly, herself.

We are not so enamored.

I have much affection for her from the time of her early TV series.

Every cook prattles on about assembling good ingredients, but Stewart would tell you exactly the one she preferred and give a smart summation of why.

She would use a beautiful mixing bowl and explain who manufactured it and when it was made and why it was perfect for the task at hand. These things were rarely expensive, but she imbued an importance to mundane objects. If you are going to store leftovers, find something better than a Chinese takeout soup container. If you're going to have something on your desk to hold pens, choose well: not a drinking glass or a stupid gift mug, but maybe a beautiful repurposed San Marzano tomato can or a Regency French bonze spill vase meant to extinguish splinters of wood used to light candles 200 years ago. The value was in having beautiful, thoughtful things not cheap tawdry plastic shit. And this thinking permeated everything, to give a bit of thought to bettering things, whether objects or cooking methods or a way to transfer a potted plant.

Clearly most people give not a bit if thought to anything about their surroundings or the tools of everyday life, but for those who do ...there was a kindred spirit in Stewart.

And like a lot of people, Stewart could be a little brittle or prickly around people, but the words flowed beautifully when she spoke of how to make a chicken coop or cut different sorts of flowers to make them last longer.

Find the show where Martha was cooking with Diddy and she came on to him. Repeatedly. He gently side-stepped it and did not seem surprised.

I think Martha and Diddy fucked.

In the late '90s/early '00s, I remember seeing Martha stepping into a Puff Daddy party via a magazine's party pages.

And I thought that was great branding for her — loosening up, appealing to the youth.

But today I wonder: Was it a freak-off?

I get a 5% sex freak vibe from Martha. That bit about making out with a random stranger in a cathedral on her honeymoon was wild . (It’s in her Netflix doc.)

R20- Martha apparently likes the BBC 🍆

Such a cute tv ad where Martha mentions her love for dirt as she sells Miracle-Gro. Looking forward to the news of her being 6 ft. under dirt.

[quote]Looking forward to the news of her being 6 ft. under dirt.

Why, r23?

She's the best Polish-American since Stephanie Powers! I still haven't been able to master her Easter babka recipe though. Not sure where I keep going wrong. The taste is good but the consistency is never even throughout.

Unlike many celebrities, she's never tried to embellish or outright lie about where she came from. She's always been very up-front about her working class New Jersey Polish roots.

I’m sure she colors those gray roots.