Pinched Orange Macaroons with Martha

It’s now 10:41 and I just hosed a chicken thigh, rice, potatoes and a slice of pumpkin pie faster than I’ve ever eaten anything in my life.  Wait.  I take that back.  Right after I had Madeline, I got into my hospital room around 9:30 pm and I hadn’t eaten anything all day.  My nurse scrounged up some crackers, cheese and ginger ale.  And I inhaled that maybe a smidge faster than I just ate my very late dinner.  I later told the nurse that it was the best crackers and cheese I had ever eaten.  And I wasn’t kidding.

So I left the house this morning, heading into the city to hang with Martha Stewart.  We had to be outside the studio in line at 12:30, so no time for lunch.  The taping started at 2 pm and we ended up getting out at about 3:30.  She made three different types of cookies, and we got bottled water.  Torture.  I loved the whole experience, but a cookie on the way out would have been monumental.  Sarah and I made our way over to 42nd street for the PRSA conference and camped out at Muldoon’s until it was due to start.  We managed to eat veggie burgers while we were waiting, but that was all we had eaten all day.  To say I was starving by the time I got home tonight would have been an understatement.  Good thing The Husband cooked!

Ok, so back to Martha…

Her warm-up guy, Joey Kola, is so perfect for the job.  He is hysterically funny.  He met us in the holding room before we were led into the taping area, and then stayed with us during the whole episode, cuing us at various intervals.  The episode we attended will air on Monday and will be kicking off a Cookies Week for Martha, so if you’re into baking and gearing up for the Christmas baking season, next week is for you.  She had two guests on, and the first was Jennifer Esposito.  She was wearing the cutest vintage Thierry Mugler bubble-type skirt ever, and she is as beautiful in person as she is on screen.  You may remember her from Spin City and the movie Crash, and she’s now on Samantha Who? with Christina Applegate.  She was also in a show a year or two ago that was about four sisters, and she played the oldest.  I loved the now-canceled show, and it’s been driving me crazy all day trying to remember the name of it.  She made these chocolate filled, walnut shaped cookies with Martha.

Then a bit later, Martha was joined by the pastry chef from Four Seasons restaurant, Patrick (last name escapes me and every time Joey said it, he said it differently so it apparently escaped him too).  When you eat there, you get a plate of assorted cookies at the end of the meal, and Martha’s favorite of the assortment are these Pinched Orange Macaroons.  She said that the only reason she invited him on the show was to get the recipe for the cookies, and as soon as it goes up on her website when the episode airs next week, I’m grabbing it.  They were very easy to make and sound delicious.

It was interesting to watch all the behind-the-scenes stuff and see Martha have a little fun.  When she’s taping, there are 12 staff members standing a few feet in front of her … camera men, stage manager, assistant et al.  As soon as she stops for a break, everyone swoops in to change out food items, fix her hair and roll a lint brush over her.  I’m sure by now none of that fazes her, but I’d hate everyone buzzing around me like that.  During the one hour taping, there were a few moments where she cracked a few jokes, and it was fun to see another side of her.  During the segment with Patrick, she mentioned that the Four Seasons restaurant is a great place to hunt for a husband, and at the end of the segment she said that even though she now had the recipe for her favorite cookie, she would still keep coming back to the restaurant to hunt for a husband.

So all in all, a fun experience and I would totally do it again.  After Martha, we went over to the PRSA meeting and got to meet and mingle with some 100 PR agents and discuss how to best pitch to mom media and what makes a good and bad pitch.  We had a chance to reconnect with a number of agents that we’ve dealt with on The Voice of Mom, so it was fun to put faces with e-mail addresses, and make new contacts as well.  Also on the panel were the moms behind Mom in the City, Savvy Mommy, Mom Central and Mom Trends.  It ended up being a great experience for all.

And that is the end of that.  Tomorrow is a new day and Thursday already … time to get back into the kitchen and do some cooking.  Until then…

P.S. If you click on the pictures, it will show you a larger size. Her set was gorgeous!

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