Like many crafty, nest-feathering women I know, I have a love-hate relationship with Martha Stewart. I kinda love the projects in her magazine. Even if I never do any of them, they look like things I would like to do if I had the time to rustle up some completely dried out tree stumps to turn into coffee tables, or the wherewithal to arrange a few hundred stems of delphinium and larkspur into a graduated color arrangement. No time for that sort of thing, but love to think I might someday.
Then--haaate!--capping off a snarky rant against a certain kind of cookout, this sentence: "And is there a sorrier state of affairs than the one summoned by the words margarita mix?" Here I have to confess that I'm a girl who squeezes her own citrus fruits whenever I make cocktails because it is SO yummy. But would I spurn a prefab cocktail if a cookout host handed me one with a smile? Hell, no! I drink and eat what's served to me, with gratitude and zero snarkiness! This particular article goes on to describe what is apparently the right kind of cookout, offering recipes for fresh peach margaritas, caviar dip, and lobster with drawn butter. I mean, please. Please! This is not a real standard! And this is why I continue to NOT subscribe to Martha's magazine (but do, occasionally, toss an issue into my grocery cart and hope that none of my friends spot me doing it).
Okay, more about what I love, though--a recipe for mac and cheese which hooked me when it mentioned breadcrumbs crisped up in pancetta fat as a topping. My mac and cheese is sadly lacking, so I gave it a whirl. One hour, half a pound of pancetta, one pound of pasta, and TWO POUNDS of FOUR DIFFERENT KINDS OF CHEESE later, I had before me the most sumptuous, kick-ass vat of mac and cheese EVER. I will never make this dish without a 2:1 cheese-to-pasta ratio again. A warning to those of you who eat at my house sometimes. Or perhaps it's a siren song.
I do love a cook who is unafraid to use plenty of the good stuff. All things in moderation, right? Including Martha.
Life as a stay-at-home mama in Southern suburbia.
About Me
- Sugarmama
- Staying at home with my three girls in Southern suburbia and getting my Laura Ingalls groove on whenever possible
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Crafty
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5 comments:
i'm completely with you on the love/hate thing with martha. the article you described is a great example of what irks me about the whole ms empire - especially when i put the words into her voice - which kind of drives me nuts, i gotta say.
BUT - i also must admit that i do occasionally buy an issue. i've found some great recipes and great crafty ideas that i might get to - one day. . .
finally - i am so looking forward to sampling your mac and cheese one of these days!! pancetta - yum!
most def, INCLUDING Martha!! she is sooooo....snooty. I always feel so inferior compared to her...but the mac and cheese?..I'll be right over! that sounds sooo good!!!!
and I will drink any kind of cocktail anyone hands me....I'm so not picky!!
As a girl who appreciates all things easy... I cannot get into Martha. She bugs me.
Yet I have seen things in her magazines or on her show that I think are cool.
Will you be posting this mac and cheese recipe?? (Please?)
A good cook out to me includes chicken, or steak, or ribs, and I don't care what to drink or eat, but give me a great tasting mac & cheese ANY day and I'll be happy!
YUM!
I am far from Martha. Can you send some of your mac n cheese though? Sounds yummy.
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