Learning From Martha Stewart

I could learn something from Martha Stewart. I’ve been taping her shows on our DVR and my time to watch them is on Sundays. In the show I watched this morning she and a staff member prepared some really interesting and yummy looking oven baked pork chops. I enjoyed seeing them use Panko breadcrumbs because I’ve been sort of clueless about that particular product and how they prepared them for use by tossing with a couple of teaspoons of oil and then toasting in the oven. I don’t remember the particulars about the recipe, but then, they posted it on their blog and it’s also in their latest edition of the Martha Stewart Everyday Cooking magazine.

The other thing that really interested me is that it was all really upbeat. If anybody has room to complain I’d think it would be Martha, but she’s got manners like my mother tried to teach me and that is to not let them see you cry. I mean, I’m not exactly a Martha watcher, so I can’t say that I’m glued to the media for any little mention of her, but she did spend time in prison. And, from all I’ve seen she has re-entered public life pretty well. So, I do admire her for that.

What brought this up are all the thrown away blog entries I’ve made over the last few weeks. I’ll write and write and it’s all crap. It’s mostly me complaining and whining and I suppose if you can’t give yourself room to bitch and moan you’re not being fair to yourself. But, I had real misgivings about posting it all online. Not that anybody closely involved would be reading any of it. They’re just not really interested and over the years I’ve come to feel pretty confident that my cover wouldn’t be blown because of that. It’s just that it didn’t feel right to do it. And, then I looked at my statistics yesterday. I'd like to see an increase in my return traffic at all my sites. So, my mind has been running along those lines and it occurred to me this morning that I may have been complaining too much of late.

Nobody likes to listen to somebody complain a lot. So, it’s the new me. Ta Da!

Here’s something else I picked up from watching the show. I was really impressed at the variety included on the show. It wasn’t all interviewing. It was helping. It was addressing issues that are common and constantly with us. Like how to shop for the best use of your money. And, another interesting thing was how to attend to everyday and sometimes emergency first aid for our animals. The bit about calming the cats by putting a clamp on the back of their neck that mimics a mother cat picking up a baby kitten. The kitten could be wiggling all over the place but the minute the mother cat picks her up by the scruff of her neck the kitten goes limp. It's sort of like the Vulcan death grip Spock used to use on the bad guys on Star Trek. I thought any binder clip we had in the house would be too tight, so I went and found a little plastic clothes pin and tested it out on Shelby. It didn’t bother her a bit. She just lay there quietly. So, I’ll remember that tip the next time we have to give a pill to one of the cats. Also, blowing on their snout the second you push the pill down their throat makes them lick their nose and Bob’s your uncle…they’ve swallowed the pill.

Anyway, I think with variety, with an upbeat approach and a desire to help other people I could make my own blogs and website better. And, although that wasn’t the content of her show it’s what I really learned today from Martha Stewart.