That's a quote from the book. I'm learning a lot about Martha that I had never known, so I'm finding the book very fascinating. I'll be sad when I'm done reading it.
What stands out is the fact that she is such a perfectionist, and that she's always been that way. Flowers have to be cut perfectly from the garden and arranged just so in a vase...snap peas have to be trimmed just right...tart crusts have to be a very specific shade of brown before they come out of the oven.
Perfectionism can be annoying, but it isn't always a bad thing. I'm a perfectionist and I drive myself batty because of it. Another quote from the book, by Martha's brother George: "But the quest for perfection can lead to insanity -- I drive myself crazy trying to make things be a certain way. It eats at you, and if you've got fifty things going on all at once that all have to be perfect, you can go over the edge really easily."
At the same time, my perfectionism motivates me. And it comes through the most in anything that I make with my hands. When I'm baking a batch of cookies or a loaf of bread, it has to be perfect. Not only does it have to taste incredible, it has to look delicious. I want people to look at the things that I bake and say, "That looks amazing. I can't resist it."
Martha sucks the marrow out of the simple pleasures in life. That's another thing I have in common with her. She's interested and creative and extremely attentive to detail. Another quote: "One of her special abilities is to spot and appreciate talent and beauty and zest in everyday people and things. When Martha makes a great find, she wants to share it with the world." Is that why I love taking pictures of the things that I bake? I mean, if a cherry pie comes out looking beautiful, great. But eventually, all that will be left is a pan of crumbs. It's just a pie, after all. But in my mind, it's a work of art. It's something that I made out of flour and butter and sugar and cherries and I turned it into something lovely. And few things give me more pleasure than knowing something that I made has been enjoyed thoroughly by others. If someone takes a bite of that pie and it makes him close his eyes and grin, then I've accomplished a goal.
To me, the whole process of baking is photo-worthy. Not only for the sake of documentation, but even moreso for the sake of the earthy, rustic beauty. Put me in a Borders store and I'll beeline for the cooking section to find the book that has the most gorgeous baking photos in it. Every now and then I take my "Martha Stewart Baking Handbook" off its stand and just feast my eyes on the photos in its pages.
So, in reading "Being Martha," I am finding it interesting and eye-opening to discover that I am like her in many ways. I don't garden like she does. I don't host 100-guest dinner parties like she does. And I definitely don't function on three hours of sleep like she does. But she appreciates and relishes the simple beauty of timeworn practices like baking a pie. And that is splendid.
On that note, here are some photos of the biscotti-baking process that I thoroughly enjoyed this past weekend. To many, there is nothing alluring or noteworthy about these pictures. But to me, they're amazing.
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