Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Crafts - Review

The release date is THIS Tuesday, March 31st! Anticipation is building in the crafting world for this first in a series of craft books from MSLO.

My friend Andrew received an advance copy of the book (who, me? Bitter? ) and wrote an excellent review on his blog, Martha Moments. Please take a look!

Martha Stewart Stationary Coming Spring 2009

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. today on Thursday, a full line of co-branded social stationery products with Crane & Co. Martha Stewart and her design team will create a line of beautiful, personalized invitation suites to be released this year, beginning with Martha Stewart Stationery™ Weddings in Spring 2009. The line will be available through Crane stationers equipped with Crane’s Personalized Design Studio—a proprietary stationery design system, via www.Crane.com, and other select online retailers such as www.finestationery.com.

The Martha Stewart Stationery Weddings collection will feature 24 invitation suites comprised of invitations, save-the-dates, and response cards in a range of styles designed to showcase Martha’s unique style and Crane’s timeless elegance. A distinctive selection of papers will include new calligraphic motifs and flourishes, decorative scrollwork, embroidery inspired designs, and hand-engraved details.

“I am delighted to share the Martha Stewart Stationery Weddings collection, crafted with master stationers Crane & Co.,” said Martha Stewart, founder of MSLO. “From the first save-the-date card mailed to the last thank-you note re¬ceived, a wedding creates a lovely paper suite. With so many choices for color, lettering styles, and motifs, a bride and groom can create a wedding invitation that will be a unique expression of themselves.”

The new stationery products further extend MSLO’s wedding franchise, which encompasses Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, extensive online content on www.marthastewartweddings.com, including a variety of online wedding-planning tools powered by WeddingWire, and wedding-related books such as Weddings by Martha Stewart and Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes.

“We are very excited to join forces with Martha Stewart and the brand she has built,” says Anita Brady, vice president and general manager of Crane’s Social and Business Stationery. “The Crane name has been synonymous with the finest stationery available through seven generations of Crane family and the brides they have served. This collaboration will ensure the next generation of brides is equally well served.”

Martha Stewart Stationery Weddings will include a complete range of accessories, such as wedding programs, place cards, menu cards, thank you cards and table accessories. Couples may customize their designs through engraving, thermography, letterpress, lithography, and foil-stamping. In addition, the collection features papers that are tree-free, 100% cotton or contain post-consumer recycled content, and are FSC or Green Seal certified.

In time for the 2009 holiday season, the company will release boxed and personalized Martha Stewart Stationery holiday cards.

Martha Receives Two Nominations for 2009 James Beard Award

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has been nominated in two categories for the 2009 James Beard Award.

Martha Stewart’s Cooking School, has been nominated in the General Cooking cookbook category and the afternoon radio program, Living Today on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112/XM 157 has been nominated in the audiocast/radio show category.

The James Beard Foundation Awards shine a spotlight on the best and brightest talent in the food and beverage industry.

Covering all aspects of the industry—from chefs and restaurateurs to cookbook authors and food journalists to restaurant designers and architects and more—the James Beard Foundation Awards are the highest honors for food and beverage professionals working in America. The awards are presented each spring at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Nominees and winners are fêted at a weekend of gala events in New York City that has become the social and gastronomic highlight of the year.

Established in 1990, the James Beard Foundation Awards are a program of the James Beard Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate, nurture, and preserve America’s culinary heritage and diversity in order to elevate our appreciation of the culinary arts.

Advertising in 1934

Last Christmas, my friend Mike sent me a copy of the December 1934 Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Just inside the front page there was an ad that caught my eye and quite frankly, tickled my funny bone!

So, you might be asking yourself, "so what is so funny about a widow with five children?" Well.. nothing really. But it's the mere fact that THIS was considered effective advertising for the day.

Mrs. Merle Brown (our featured widow) who is described as 'sensible' noted that it wasn't easy living on her $100.00 a month (Her husband left no insurance... she seems a bit bitter) and she couldn't afford 'baking failures.' So, skimp as she must, she wasn't about to give up Royal Baking Powder.

As Mrs. Brown says, "Good butter, eggs and milk cost too much to be trusted to cheap, doubtful baking powder."

Hmmm.. maybe it's true... everything old is new again?

A Simple Springtime Dinner

One of my favorite, easy to cook dinners has to be roasted vegetables with bow-tie pasta. The meal itself speaks of warmer days when we long for the gardens to come alive after their long winter naps.

Any of your favorite vegetables will work in this dish. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Place a pot of water on to boil (for the pasta) and begin preparing your vegetables. In our dinner this evening, we included zucchini squash, green peppers, red peppers, red onion, carrots, asparagus, mushrooms and a few grape tomatoes.

Toss all the sliced ingredients together in some olive oil and spread the vegetables out on a large baking sheet. Generously season with salt and pepper (Kosher and fresh ground, respectively). Roast in a hot oven until the vegetables take on a bit of color and become tender. Drain your pasta well. You don't want a lot of extra moisture on the pasta. Place the pasta in a large bowl (large enough to add the vegetables and toss).

When the vegetables are done, put them in the same bowl as the pasta, including the 'drippings' of olive oil and moisture from the veggies from the pan. To 'brighten' the taste, squeeze 2T of fresh lemon juice into the vegetable/pasta combo. Toss the pasta and vegetables together. Tonight, I added a bit of crumbled feta cheese, or you could use any cheese of your liking.

Serve with some good hearty crusty bread and a glass of your favorite wine. Dinner in about 30 minutes and it tastes even better the next day!

A Weekend Pleasure

Life seems to be increasingly stressful. (I realize that's not a profound statement...) As work stress and anxiety over the economy mount, I've decided it's time to take better care of myself. I'm not talking about the eating healthy/staying active routine; but rather the 'little' things in life that bring me a sense of calm. Those are the 'good things' in life.

For instance, on weekends, I will very often make a delicious Latte for myself. The ritual itself is calming.. carefully tamping down the espresso ground coffee, steaming the milk to a wonderful foamy consistency, carefully pouring in just the right amount of milk and froth.. the result, a stunning and beautiful cup of coffee that I can for a few moments just treasure. Using our jadeite coffee cups and saucers, (with coordinating blue napkins, of course) it makes a weekend coffee just a little more special. With that first steaming sip, I briefly close my eyes and tell myself, "you deserve this... enjoy it." And, I do.

In a fast paced world, it's essential to slow it down, take a step back, and do those 'good things' no matter how silly or unimportant they may seem to others. For me, the weekend Latte is one of those good things. A friend of mine said to me just this morning, "why not just run down to Starbucks?" He doesn't quite get it. The ritual of the brew, the smell of the espresso, the sound of the frothing milk, and the gentle noise of cup to saucer, is not something Starbucks can give me. It's just a little good thing for me, myself, and I. And, we deserve it.

Gardening Returns to the White House: That's a Good Thing

I was so happy to learn that President and Mrs. Obama are planning a rather large vegetable garden on the grounds of the White House. It's been decades since a vegetable garden has been part of the White House property.

First Lady, Michelle Obama got down and dirty with the help of 30 or so elementary school children, breaking ground on the new garden. In addition to providing fresh fruits and vegetables for the White House, the garden has an education component for the children who will be back to plant it, harvest it, and cook the harvest in the White House kitchen.

I'd love to see this garden project inspire others around the country to create their own growing spaces. Whether spaces are limited to a balcony of an apartment or as large as several acres of farm land, gardening is an excellent (and healthy!) way to reduce the family food budget while providing a great education for adults and children alike.

I recall several years ago, I grew so many tomato plants that I had to learn how to can tomatoes. I couldn't let them go to waste! Our neighbors also reaped the benefit of my numerous plantings. I think they had all the tomatoes they needed!

Now, vegetable gardening is kept to what we will use in a season. I have to tell you, there's nothing like going outdoors and picking your own salad, fresh herbs, and vegetables for dinner. The taste is unbelievable!

While people may not always agree with the policies of this administration, I think the Obama's deserve kudos for bringing gardens back to the White House.

Simply Stated

I'll keep this simple. I love this mug.
End of post.