One Of The First Things Martha Stewart Cooked While In Prison

Martha Stewart's time in prison has always been a tough subject for the domestic entrepreneur, with Stewart previously telling former Today anchor Katie Couric that it was a "horrible experience." Even former inmate Evie Litwok claimed in a piece for Talk Poverty that, despite everyone at Alderson Federal Prison Camp being required to perform kitchen duty for their first three months, Stewart specifically asked to work in the kitchen and was turned down. Litwok suspected this was a way to deprive her of any joy she might find in prison; instead, Stewart had to mop floors and clean the warden's toilet.

Luckily, Stewart still managed to make tasty food, even after being denied access to the kitchen. She gave one of her first creations to fellow inmate Meg Phipps as a gift. "I received a note from Martha, she suggested we meet," Phipps recalled in Episode 4 of "The Many Lives of Martha Stewart." She elaborated, "She also sent that note with a baked apple. That meant she'd already tackled the idea of cooking in your dorm room or cottage by using the microwave and what resources you could find."

While no one expected Stewart to whip up an apple pie in prison, it's impressive that she managed to create a baked apple with caramel and cinnamon without kitchen access. But then again, from someone who allegedly picked crab apples from the prison grounds to make jam, this might not be a surprise.

Martha Stewart has asserted that while in prison, she avoided eating the cafeteria food as much as possible. "Some of the food was dated, like, three years prior expiration. If it was 2001, the food was expired in 1999," she shared with Daily Mail. "I mean, you would not want to eat that food." Even her lawyer confirmed to NBC News that Stewart concocted microwave-friendly recipes with items she bought from the prison commissary.

For Meg Phipps, however, the question of where Stewart acquired the caramel and cinnamon for her apple remained. She speculated that they came from the cafeteria Stewart so despised. Taking food from the cafeteria wasn't allowed, but another former inmate and friend of Stewart, Susan Spry, admitted in the episode that it was a common occurrence. "Everybody smuggled food out of the kitchen. What else are you going to make in the microwave unless it's smuggled food?" she said.

Like Stewart, Spry avoided most of the cafeteria food, but when she snuck something from the kitchen, it wasn't always for her. "I'd run to the kitchen, smuggle my food out," said Spry, explaining that she'd hide the food under her arm or in a sock and often surprise Stewart with her haul. "Martha appreciated the vegetables."