It's December - and it's looking a lot like Christmas, especially at The Bedford by Martha Stewart, my new restaurant at the Paris Las Vegas.
If you've traveled to the Las Vegas area over the last few months, I hope you've stopped in for dinner. The 194-seat dining destination was inspired by my own 1925 farmhouse in Westchester, New York. The Bedford opened in August and I am so pleased with how it is doing. We've received many wonderful responses to the menu and the décor. Recently, we replaced our autumn harvest decorations with many holiday pieces from my own Collections available at Martha.com - my Champagne Trees, Garlands and Wreaths, my Nativity Set, my glistening Gold, Silver, and Jeweled ornaments, and so much more.
Here are some photos. I hope they inspire your own holiday decorating, enjoy.
This year, it’s been so much fun to decorate the restaurant using products from my Holiday Collections at Martha.com. Our team filled the rooms with so many beautiful trees, garlands, and ornaments. At the entrance, we hung festive Snowflake Ornaments in both large and small sizes and Jeweled Icicle Ornaments from my name.
Guests are greeted with shimmering wreaths of champagne gold adorned with big white satin ribbons. My LED Pre-Lit Champagne Tinsel Wreath is 30-inches wide with individual sprigs of greenery intertwined with gold tinsel and lights.
Nearby is my Pre-Lit Champagne Tinsel Tree. It’s available in three sizes – 5-feet, 6.5-feet, and 7.5-feet. We propped this one up on a table for all to see.
This is my Nativity Set – now in an elegant ceramic gold. It is comprised of 14-figurines, including three camels, two shepherds, two oxen, three wisemen, an in-keeper, Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus in a manger.
Around this monitor, we filled the glass wall with large 12-inch Round Petaled and Stellar Snowflakes. They make wonderful decorations – not just on a tree, but all around the home.
More snowflakes hang on the wall – feel free to use the architecture of a room to help provide new and creative decorating opportunities.
Beneath another mantel, we hung shiny Jeweled Icicle Ornaments along with my Champagne Garland. The Jeweled Icicles come in sets of 10 in a choice of gold or silver. On top of the mantel, my Flameless Tree Candles – shaped like full beautiful pine trees.
More wreaths and flocked trees decorate the tops of these cabinets. Don’t forget to consider higher surfaces to add your décor.
On this china cabinet, we hung my Jeweled Wreath Ornaments from the glass windows. These come in sets of six in both gold and silver.
We hung more ornaments from the sconces at The Bedford – light and shiny, these ornaments are simple yet stunning and can be hung from so many places.
Atop this flocked tree is my Jeweled Snowflake Tree Topper, which comes in gold or silver. Below are more of my Flameless Tree Candles with gold finishes. These candles also come in green. We put this tree in one of my Faux Bois Planters also available at Martha.com. These planters come in 9-inch, 14-inch and 19-inch sizes with raised feet and a drainage hole. Utilize items you already have at home and embellish them with holiday décor.
One can also top a tree using one of my 12-inch Round Petaled Snowflakes. When decorating, consider using consistent themed color palettes. At The Bedford this year, we used all gold, Champagne, and silver.
Christmas is just 24-days away, but there’s still time to order your decorations, so be sure to check out my Collections at Martha.com. I know you’ll love every one of them. And remember, if you’re in the Las Vegas area, make reservations at The Bedford by Martha Stewart. We’ll be offering special holiday menus for you and your family to enjoy over Christmas and New Year’s Eve!
It’s always so exciting to see photos from everyone's Thanksgiving Day celebrations.
It's a tradition! Every year, I send out an email to employees, business partners, and friends extending my very best wishes for a safe and lovely holiday. I also urge them to take pictures of their table settings and their feasts so I can share how others celebrate this special occasion. I am always thrilled to see the images and to read the many captions that accompany them. Several used my recipes for my Perfect Roast Turkey 101, my Pumpkin Spice Latté Cake, and my Mile-High Apple Pie.
Many of you also comment on how much you look forward to seeing our annual Thanksgiving gallery, so here it is - enjoy.
Photos start coming in the evening of Thanksgiving. It is always so nice to see how much colleagues and friends enjoy sharing their images. These first few are from two of my friends, Dr.Albert Knapp and his wife, Dr. Ruth Oratz.
It was a quiet holiday for the two of them at their Connecticut home after a month of traveling.
Dr. Oratz prepared their entire meal and took these wonderful closeup images. Here are some fresh vegetables before they are cooked.
Dr. Oratz also made everything using my recipes – these are the roasted Brussels sprouts.
And here is a photo of the roasted squash.
Their stuffing looks delicious.
And Thanksgiving is never complete without the cranberry sauce.
Dr. Oratz and Dr. Knapp filled their plates – I am sure more than once.
Dr. Oratz also sent this photo and captioned it “after the fact.”
This photo is from Marquee Brands Body Glove Graphic Designer, Alexa Samii. It’s her mother’s “Martha Stewart inspired” Thanksgiving table.
Here’s a view from the other side – a beautifully set table with all the traditional holiday dishes.
This photo came in from Aaron Wehner, EVP & Publisher at Clarkson Potter. He says “we hosted friends and smoked the turkey on the Weber. It was a lively, warm day for it in San Francisco. My 11-year-old daughter, Astrid, has been baking out of your “Cookie Perfection” book and has now mastered the chocolate chip-caramel cookies. She leveled up to Key Lime pie and made it fully on her own. It was amazing!” It looks terrific, Astrid!
My Operations Manager Stephanie Lofaro shares this Thanksgiving table photo – a bountiful holiday dinner at her father’s Longview Family Farm in Virginia.
Here is Stephanie’s dad, Stephen, and his wife, Gunda.
Janna Singer-Baefsky, digital archivist for Marquee Brands, spent Thanksgiving with her family in Connecticut. The menu was barbecued turkey legs, roast duck with leeks and apples, roasted carrots from the garden, roasted Brussels sprouts with crispy turkey bacon, mashed potatoes, gravy, chicken sausage stuffing, and a lime gelatin mold with finely chopped carrots, celery, and walnuts.
Dawn Dhawan, Marquee Brands VP Controller “made the famous Martha Stewart Turkey 101 for the family and it came out perfect!”
John Rice from my public relations firm, Magrino PR, and his husband Jimmy Hahn, hosted their family’s annual “Turkey Bowl” at their home on Long Island.
This photo is from our Marquee Brands Office Manager Francisco Sanchez. He spent the holiday at his mom’s home.
This is their turkey – it was so moist and flavorful.
The food was so good, everyone kept going back for more.
Anik Chaudhry, Marquee Brands Director of Business Intelligence, sent us photos from his mom’s annual Thanksgiving Dinner. This is her table set for 10.
And here is her family’s turkey – perfectly golden brown.
Her family also enjoyed all the traditional holiday dishes.
SVP of Marketing for Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse, Stella Cicarone, hosts Thanksgiving every year. This is her table setting.
And here is her turkey – she also used my Perfect Roast Turkey 101 recipe.
This pie photo is from Christina Park, Marquee Brands Director of Social Media. She captioned it: “Every Thanksgiving I like to make Martha’s Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake. It’s such an easy recipe and it’s especially great for coffee lovers like me since it incorporates espresso powder both in the cake and dusted on top. Everyone always ends up asking for the recipe!” Click on the highlighted link for my recipe.
Ryan Mesina is our VP of Creative Services. He shares the following photos of the desserts at his holiday gathering. “This image shows part of the dessert spread. I made the two pies, with Martha’s pâte brisée recipe, and the clementine cake, which is a NYT recipe and definitely a keeper. My niece Olivia made the pumpkin chai roll, also delicious, and my Auntie Mel made the cheesecake and mini pecan tarts.”
“Another dessert contribution from my niece – pumpkin cake balls shaped like…pumpkins! She made the cake with an extra butternut squash I bought for my pumpkin pie. The balls are then covered in fondant and she used a toothpick to make the grooves and shape the balls into pumpkins.”
“She always has cute ideas and is becoming quite the baker.”
Ryan made this dessert. “In recent years, I’ve started to dabble with Filipino desserts (that’s where my family is originally from). This is a taro rice cake called kalamay gabi (“kalamay” is the kind of dessert ie rice cake and “gabi” is the Filipino word for taro). It’s made with fresh taro, glutenous rice flour, coconut milk and brown sugar and is topped with latik, which is basically crispy fried coconut curds. It’s so delicious, not too sweet, and it can be made with different kinds of potatoes like cassava/yuca and ube.”
“This is another Filipino dessert I made called Sans Rival, or Without Rival. It’s similar to a French dacquoise – it’s made from cashew meringue layered with buttercream and chopped cashews. It’s so delicious.”
Sabrina Blaustein, Marquee Brands VP Brand Management for Ben Sherman & Bruno Magli, shared some of her photos. Sabrina spent her Thanksgiving at her boyfriend’s family home in Katonah, New York. “There was a new family member at the Maxmin-Reid Thanksgiving table this year… Bailey the Golden Retriever!”
Sabrina’s boyfriend’s mom, Gina, set a beautiful harvest table and served a hearty meal of “Turkey Day” favorites.
The star of the show was of course, the perfectly golden turkey.
Cheryl DuLong, who is in the back row far right of this photo, helps me care for Skylands, my home in Maine. She spent Thanksgiving in New York City with her son, Torrey, his fiancé Michaela, and their family. Also pictured here: Gerry, Torrey, Diane, Rosana, Sharon, Michelene, Michele, Michaela, and Jodi.
They set a lovely table at Torrey’s and Michaela’s new apartment.
Here is Cheryl mixing the ingredients for her traditional Pumpkin Charlotte.
They also prepared a charcuterie board to curb the “munchies” before their big meal.
Cheryl and the entire family had such a wonderful time together.
Their feast included my squash soup, seared scallops with roasted tomatoes and micro greens, turkey, short ribs, mashed potatoes, fingerling roasted potatoes, stuffing with cherries, and a bread pudding stuffing, Brussels sprouts, quinoa, lamb curry, and prui. the desserts included cherry pie, egg nog éclair, and pumpkin Charlotte.
Culinary Director, Jane Sweeney, shared the next few pictures. Here are her children Madeline, Betty, and Christopher.
And here is her table setting with a few of my Martha Stewart accents, such as the faux pumpkins. Be sure to check out lots of my holiday decorations on Martha.com.
Don’t forget Jane’s kids’ table! The kids picked out the centerpiece turkey made from a mum plant and pipe cleaners, silly turkey crowns and chocolate turkeys.
Her family also enjoyed Pomegranate Champagne Punch from Everyday Food. Jane’s brother and sister-in-law generously brought all the fixings (including fresh pomegranate seeds and the glasses) for this festive drink.
This is Jane’s husband, Mike Sweeney, holding the tray of cocktails.
And finally, the centerpiece of the meal, my Herb Roasted Turkey 101 to feed the group of 17.
My friend Christopher Spitzmiller came to my home for Thanksgiving. You may have seen his photo in yesterday’s blog. He brought a plate of delicious chocolate chip cookies. They were all devoured.
The recipe is from his book, “A Year at Clove Brook Farm: Gardening, Tending Flocks, Keeping Bees, Collecting Antiques, and Entertaining Friends” from Rizzoli. Christopher says, “the new addition is to add five or so bittersweet large Ghirardelli chips to the top of the dough balls before they go in the oven – a trick I learned from Sarah Carey.”
This is Helen Peparo’s holiday table. Helen is the Stable Manager at my farm – she helps me care for my horses, donkeys, and Fell pony. She used one of my stuffing recipes this year and said it was delicious.
Helen’s nephew Giovanni is holding and giving thanks for the butternut squash pie I made for Helen the day before. Every year, I make pies for everyone on my farm team to thank them for all the hard work they do all year long.
Marquee Brands Media Production Manager Arielle Zrihen spent the holiday with her boyfriend, Raphe Shankman, and his family in New Jersey. This is their full table of holiday dishes.
Our own Marquee Brands President of Media, Christian Martin, and his wife, Elizabeth, hosted Thanksgiving at their home in Sharon, Connecticut. Both their children joined them as well as their kids’ grandmothers, and two uncles. Here is their table set for nine.
The table was adorned with white plates and beautiful white flowers.
Calla lilies were part of the centerpiece.
As a starter, everyone enjoyed champagne with cranberry.
Christian and Elizabeth used my Turkey 101 recipe for the first time and say they will now make it a tradition. Here’s the bird dressed with cheesecloth ready for the oven.
Here is the turkey out of the oven – still covered…
… And here it is revealed – so golden and crispy.
Their feast also included Gruyère and pancetta stuffing, sweet potatoes and yellow potatoes with peas and onions, Brussels sprouts, salad, and cranberry sauce. Not shown – their carrot ginger soup and dessert which included apple pie and several pumpkin pies. It was a delicious day!
The family’s Labrador Retriever “Appa is a year and a half old and had to be in the backyard while we ate because he wanted his own seat at the table with a full plate of his own.” Not to worry – he got lots of leftovers.
Judy Morris, who has worked with me for 30-years, spent her Thanksgiving with family at her brother’s home here in Westchester, New York. Dave and his girlfriend, Ellie, hosted the gathering and Ellie was in charge of all the decorations. She used a woodland theme for the table.
Here is a photo of Kali Pulkkinen and Judy’s nephew, Jay. The mushrooms under the cloche in the foreground look so pretty.
Here is their lovely cheese board decorated with pumpkins and other fruits.
The centerpiece was so thoughtfully created with flowers and natural colored beads.
Votives softly lit the table and centerpiece.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, dueling turkeys, dueling carving – the two turkey carvers, John and David Morris, are hard at work. One turkey was smoked, and the other was roasted.
Here is the kids’ table – with Judy’s son Billy at the head. He’s growing fast – at 14, he may not be at the kids’ table much longer.
But look at the “kids'” table…
Judy made my Mile High Apple Pie. it was served à la mode, of course.
I love seeing all these photos. I hope you did also. And I hope you all enjoyed a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving with those near and dear. Happy holidays.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Thanksgiving is among my favorite occasions, and mine was perfect - celebrated at my Bedford, New York farm with close friends.
Every year, my holiday begins weeks before with careful planning and preparation. Outside, the gardens around my home are groomed. And inside, all my beautiful turkey decorations are taken out and displayed. This Thanksgiving, my long dining table in my Brown Room was set for 15. I, along with my sous chef Moises, cooked two large turkeys, which came from Mike's Organic in nearby Stamford, Connecticut. I also served traditional sides including scalloped potatoes with white truffle, Brussels sprouts, corn bread and cranberry gelatin made in my fanciful turkey molds, and more. And for dessert, I was proud to share a variety of beautifully decorated homemade pies.
In all, it was a most enjoyable holiday gathering, enjoy these photos.
Here I am on Thanksgiving Day with our perfectly roasted turkey and some of the pies I made the day before – all displayed for my guests to see when they arrive.
Here is the 18-foot long dining table in my Brown Room. It is set for 15 – my 14 guests and myself.
Whenever I entertain, I try to set the table so it is a little different every time. I work with my housekeeper, Enma, on choosing just the perfect combination of plates and linens. This year, we chose gold as the main color. I also like to mix in some plants from my greenhouse. This table looks very pretty.
Guests arrived right on time for my holiday dinner. Here’s my friend Christopher Spitzmiller – in his cheerful winter knit hat.
We started with warm gougères. A gougère in French cuisine is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough and mixed with cheese. The cheese is commonly grated Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler. These are always a big hit to serve before the main meal.
I also made carrot, leek, and butternut squash soup using carrots grown right here in my vegetable greenhouse.
Here is one of the cornbread turkeys fresh out of the oven and plated on an antique bread board. The turkey molds I use are five-cup molds from Nordic Ware available on Martha.com. They can be used for cornbread, cranberry sauce, or even cake.
We used the same molds to make these beautiful cranberry gelatin turkeys.
Everyone loves scalloped potatoes for Thanksgiving. I made this dish with white truffle.
My Perfect Roast Turkey 101 recipe, which is found on Martha.com, really creates a well bronzed and glistening bird. This turkey was stuffed with brioche bread, white bread, apples, and vegetables cooked in broth. The turkey is plated on a bed of herbs grown right here in my garden, with citrus and pomegranate slices.
This is my Roasted Spatchcocked Turkey. It was so moist. This is a great option when one wants the bird done quickly. When the turkey’s backbone is removed and the halves are flattened, the meat cooks in just about an hour.
Here is Moises – he did a fantastic job helping me make this wonderful holiday meal.
My handsome Emperor Han is always hoping for something to drop nearby.
And here’s my beautiful champion, Empress Qin, also eagerly waiting underfoot.
I was so pleased with all the pies I baked. I made 25-pies – most to give away to my hardworking staff – a tradition I do every year. The rest were saved for me and my friends to enjoy. Not one crumb was left over. This is a squash pie.
This is a squash crème brulée getting torched. I made two – and both went very quickly.
Chocolate Pecan Pie – made to perfection. This was also a popular favorite. Almost everyone on my crew requested chocolate pecan pie.
And here is a lemon curd pie topped with whipped cream.
I love taking out all the turkey decorations I have amassed over the years, including these dark amethyst turkey dishes. I have a large collection of turkeys. After all, I once lived on “Turkey Hill Road”.
More turkeys were displayed on this side table in my Brown Room.
Here are some gold turkeys in the servery – more than 110 came out for Thanksgiving this year.
I made some of these turkeys years back for a shoot. We casted numerous turkeys from a material called PermaStone, a lightweight, durable cement and then gently tinted them in various earth tones. They look so beautiful sitting on this counter.
I wish you all a very joyous holiday season. In my next blog, I will share photos from friends and colleagues – another tradition I enjoy every year! Stay tuned.
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