My Greatest Compliment Ever

The greatest complement I ever received is when someone told me that I was Martha Stuart and MacGyver all rolled up into one. Now, some people might not take that as a compliment, or at least they'd have to stop and think about it for minute.

Here's where the rational comes from. I'm a Family and Consumer Science teacher, specifically teaching foods. With that being said, just being compared to Martha Stewart would be the best complement anyone could hope for. Let's face it Martha knows it all. She can whip up anything in the kitchen, plan and decorate for the most elaborate party you've ever seen, and while doing all of that there's never a hair out of place. She's smart and witty.

I honestly think I could hold a candle to Martha, but I'm not sure about MacGyver. He could dig himself out of any pinch there was. I don't think I'm that resourceful, or that clever. However, a part of me is very thrifty, and another part of me is very environmentally aware. That means (much to my husband's dismay) that I don't throw anything away. If you walked into my house right now, you'd never believe it. Not a thing out of place. However, if you peeked into one of the closets, or under the beds, or in the garages, you'd have a completely different opinion of me. My motto: "You just might need it someday". I come by that naturally, by the way. There's a long list of "savers" in my family.

In the kitchen, it pays to be resourceful. You might be in the middle of making a beautiful cake, and your last pastry bag pops a seam. A heavy duty zipper bag to the rescue. One of my biggest problems around the holidays is not enough counter space. My ingenious father helped me with this one. Take a one inch thick piece of plywood, 8 inches by 5 feet, cover it with a pretty table cloth and you have yourself a temporary counter top at the end of your galley kitchen. (Now, if I could only keep my son's mastiff away from the chocolates.)

Most often, I complete these little MacGyver-isms without even thinking. It's second nature to me. However, if I had to tell you my most recent....not to mention favorite idea of all times...I'd have to tell you about the last time I made bread. As usual, I had procrastinated just a little, and I had to take bread to a dinner at a friend's house that evening. Since I didn't make the bread the night before, I got up a little early to get it started. No problem. Remember that I'm a Foods teacher, so I thought "Hey, I can start the bread at home and bake it when I get to work". Not many people have that privilege in life. I got the dough all made and ready for the first rising. My drive to work is about twenty minutes, and it's pretty darn cold outside. Not much chance for the dough to start rising....but wait...I have heated leather seats! That's right, twenty minutes on a heated seat works rather well, if I must say so myself. Worked like a charm! While we're on the topic of heated seats, they also work quite well transporting fish home from the pet store on a wintry day.

Just call me Martha MacGyver.