Cookiecutter.com Ramblings

At the end of October of 2017, a producer from the PBS show called Martha Bakes called us up to ask if we would be interested in going to visit her farm in New York. Season 9 of Martha Bakes would be focusing on Cookies from Around the World. The producer thought it would be interesting if we could talk to Martha about making cookie cutters. Wow! Would we be interested in meeting THE Martha Stewart? Um, yes! We were in.

From that day forward, we quickly made arrangements with air flight, hotel accommodations, and renting a car. We mapped out the schedule, decided on what cookie cutter patterns we would take/ship, and finalized plans.

On Tuesday, Nov. 7th, we left Kansas City for the Big Apple! My favorite part of this trip was that our college aged daughter was able to go with me. What a perfect traveling partner! She loves to fly, I love to fly. She loves to shop, I love to shop. We had a great time together.

We decided to fly into the Westchester County airport in White Plains, New York. Although I am used to city driving, I am not used to BIG city driving. After considering what the drive would be like if we were to fly into an airport like LaGuardia, I quickly decided the county airport would be just fine. Driving around White Plains was similar to driving around Kansas City. We enjoyed our stay in the beautiful city of White Plains, NY. It was a very easy trip the next morning as we made the drive to Martha’s farm. What a beautiful country drive!

Our first day/night in New York, our first stop was the Fed Ex office. We picked up our cookie cutter patterns that we had shipped. Easy enough! For our first night on the town, we stayed close to our hotel. We did a little mall shopping and ate at our favorite chain restaurant that evening. We had plenty of time to get back to the hotel early and prepare for meeting Martha Stewart the next day.

That night, it finally hit me! My nerves started to take over. I started to think about what I was going to say. I was rehearsing the talking points that the producer had sent over to help me sound like I knew what I was talking about. I was also concerned I would sweat through my shirt while on camera! I practiced my talking points a few thousand times and finally managed to fall asleep. Here you may be wondering how I was able to get to sleep after all the turmoil I had in my head. It’s a gift, really. I have been blessed with the ability to turn off my head when it’s time for bed. I’m thankful!

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast at this great pancake place. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and both my daughter and I are breakfast eaters. Although we knew we had plenty of time to drive to Martha’s farm, we decided that we should go ahead and hit the road. You know the old saying: early is better than late. Because I had never made the drive, and did not know what “could” happen, it was better to kill time than have to make up time. We started on our journey. We stopped off at this great public park. The beautiful fall colored leaves grabbed our attention, so naturally, we took advantage of the opportunity and took some fun pictures. We probably took too many selfies, as you can see from the photos. Because we were still running early, we ended up having to make another stop along the way to kill more time. I was okay with that. Our second stop was at a nature sanctuary where a class was going on teaching elementary aged kids how to make a bat house. This stop off was interesting and loud.

Finally, the right amount of time had passed and we had arrived at our destination, Martha Stewart’s farm. Beautiful! We were escorted to the main house where we were greeted and we unpacked our patterns and supplies that would be used during the taping. One of Martha’s team members gave us a tour around her property. It was lovely to see all of her different gardens, chickens, and peacocks! Our tour guide reported that the rooster was very good at his job of crowing and would do it most of the day! We had a nice lunch with some other people who worked at Martha’s farm.

Now that I look back, I realize it was good that the production team had us show up earlier than when we were actually needed. I had plenty of time to relax, enjoy the scenery, and get to know some of her people. Interestingly, I learned that they do a whole season of taping in about 7-10 days. So while we were waiting for our turn, they were actually taping another segment. Can you just imagine all the energy and hard work they put in to get the season done? I imagine organization is the most important factor when it comes to producing Martha Bakes.

Taping time! When the morning taping was done, it was our turn. I started off by going inside and having a little make-over done. That was a lot of fun! It made me feel even more confident as the taping got closer. I just adored all of the production team members. They made us feel so comfortable. After make-up was done, it was then that I got mic’d up. It was almost show time! We went into the stage kitchen where we figured out where to stand and where to look. I say we, but mean me. My daughter was not in the taping, but got to sit in the side room while it took place.

When I was informed on how it would all proceed from there, Martha came in and we were introduced. She is a very professional lady. I could tell that this taping thing was old hat for her. I just tried to play it cool and remember my talking points without sounding like I was giving a speech. I really just had to follow her lead. She knew what needed to happen, so I had nothing to worry about. We talked about different kinds of cookie cutters, how many designs our company carries, and then I showed her how to bend a cookie cutter. Since she is fond of chickens, we had shipped a miniature chicken pattern for her show. She enjoyed making those. Many of you have seen our videos on Instagram of us making cookie cutters. Watching the process of making cookie cutters by hand is something that you just don’t think about. Every tin cookie cutter that we make has its own unique pattern.

All in all, it was a very fun day meeting Martha Stewart, her production team, and seeing her beautiful property. Kala and I were excited to receive an autographed cookbook from Martha before we left. Her production team also snapped a picture of us in the gorgeous kitchen. A memory that will last a lifetime!

Our fun continued later that day when we got back to the city. We had one more night to soak in the Big Apple, so we took the train to Grand Central Station. I would highly recommend taking the train anywhere in New York. It felt very safe, and I did not have to deal with the “big city” traffic. Our train left at 5:00 and we arrived around 5:30. Wow! Once we got to Grand Central Station, we hit the road walking to Times Square. So now it’s about 5:45, and there are tons of people! Talk about electric! If you have ever been to Manhattan, you know exactly what I mean. I tried really hard to snap a few pictures, and found that I would almost get run over by the crowd. As the night wore on and it got darker, you had no idea how late it was due to the electricity of people around you. I had felt that one other time in my life while in Las Vegas.

Because we had been told by many people, we had to stop and get some authentic NY pizza. We were starved by the time we found our first pizza place. You can see by the picture that this place had been around awhile, so it was destined to be good. I tell you what, it did not disappoint. Best pizza I had ever tasted.

We decided early that we would spread our calories out and partake of as many fun food things as we could. While in New York, enjoy the food. Our next stop was a hot dog cart. How many movies have you seen where people are always grabbing a hot dog from one of those? We could now say that we had. Again, tasted great! It could have been the atmosphere, or still being hungry, but it was delicious! We had plenty of energy for shopping now!

Shops, shops, and more shops! Yes, this appeared to be the capital of shopping. Kala and I had a certain amount of time to get our shopping done in order to catch our train back to White Plains. We got busy! You probably would have been entertained as we popped in all the interesting shops. Some souvenir shops, some regular shops. It’s funny when you get to a new place to shop, like Times Square, you feel as though you have never shopped a day in your life. It was as though it was the first time we had ever shopped! Again, atmosphere is everything. We had a blast!

So, it is 9:00ish, and we were starting to wear down. I’m not sure how many miles we walked that night, but I’m sure we burnt off all of our pizza and hot dog for sure. We had to wind our way back to Grand Central Station without getting lost. If you knew my daughter and I, and our challenge of directions, you might be concerned at this point. Let’s just say the nice officers of NY were very helpful as we maneuvered our way back to catch the train home.

The train ride back to White Plains took longer than it did going. It was interesting to see the different people getting on and off and imagining their stories. I enjoyed just sitting and relax knowing that our train stop would be coming, and I did not have to deal with traffic. After we made it back to our rental car, we used out GPS to navigate ourselves back to the hotel.

I think the hardest part of the trip was the return flight to Kansas City. We had to check into the Westchester airport at 4:30 a.m. That was tough! Early, dark, unfamiliar city. The GPS failed us pretty good that morning, but we still made it just in time.

So, it has been almost 7 months ago that we were there. Looking back, it was a super fun trip, and a memory maker for sure!

Hope you have enjoyed reading all about our Martha Bakes adventure!