Yesterday, while I was busy shooting segments around my Bedford, New York farm for my upcoming television show on Roku, my housekeeper, Elvira Rojas, cooked one of the Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meals I selected from this week's menu - Sweet Chili Beef Meatball Lettuce Wraps with Pepper & Snow Peas. It was excellent and just the perfect size lunch for two. Plus, just as promised on the recipe card, the entire dish was done in less than 40-minutes. Our delivery meal service features so many inspiring recipes and cooking ideas, and you can customize the menu and choose the recipes that best fit your busy lifestyle. If you haven’t yet tried Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon, please go to the web site for more information on how to subscribe.
Enjoy these photos.
Every Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon kit comes with a large recipe card complete with a photo of the finished dish on one side…
… And on the other side, all the how-to, step-by-step instructions and detailed photos to match. We work hard to make sure every Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meal kit recipe is time-saving, easy to make, and most of all delicious.
Everything is pre-portioned, well-packaged and labeled, so there’s absolutely no confusion in the kitchen. The kits are designed to feed two or four people. It’s a superior, money saving meal kit delivery system. And look at the produce – so fresh and ready-to-use.
For this recipe, the first step is to prep all the ingredients. We call this part of the process “mise en place,” a French term for having all the ingredients cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc. before cooking. Here, Elvira cuts the red pepper into thin strips and then cuts the strips in half crosswise.
Next, Elvira coarsely chops the peeled ginger. Because these meal kits can be modified to fit one’s personal taste, you can use a little less ginger or a little more. This recipe also calls for chopped garlic.
Elvira also trims the scallions, and then slices them. This meal only needs 2/3 of the scallions – the rest can be used for another dish.
Scallions, also known as spring onions or green onions, generally have a milder taste than most onions. Close relatives include shallots, leeks, and chives.
The snow peas are sliced lengthwise and placed on the side along with the other cut ingredients.
Next, the ground beef is placed into a bowl and sprinkled with the ginger-garlic mixture.
Elvira adds 1/4 cup panko. Panko is the dried breadcrumbs made without the crusts. The word panko is Japanese for “pan” meaning bread and “ko” meaning flour. Panko has a light, airy, and delicate texture that helps meat crisp as it cooks.
Then she adds the scallions, one egg, and salt. Our kits come with almost everything one needs to make the meals – all you need to supply is salt, pepper, olive oil and eggs.
Finally, Elvira kneads the mixture until everything is well-combined.
Next, Elvira forms 12 meatballs – she was able to make 14 – and places them all equally spaced on a lightly oiled baking sheet.
In a measuring cup, Elvira stirs together the tamari, Thai sweet chili sauce and two tablespoons water. It is so convenient to have just the right amount of ingredients included in the kit – no need to buy separate bottles for one recipe.
After heating two teaspoons of oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, Elvira starts to cook the peppers, stirring them until tender and lightly browned – just about five minutes.
She then adds the snow peas, remaining cut ginger and garlic, and half the remaining scallions. These continue to cook for another minute.
Meanwhile, Elvira cooks the meatballs in a 350-degree oven until the internal temperature is 155-degrees Fahrenheit – about 10-minutes.
Then she places them in the broiler until they are browned. One can also just broil the meatballs on the top rack of the oven and cook until browned.
The vegetables are now perfectly cooked.
The lettuce leaves are washed, dried, and separated.
Elvira adds the sauce to the skillet and brings it to a boil over high heat.
And then adds the meatballs and simmers, turning them over until heated through and completely coated with sauce. I wish you could smell them on this blog.
The lettuce leaves are positioned in one layer on a plate. Here, Elvira puts three meatballs on each lettuce leaf.
And then garnishes each serving with more scallions.
Two Sweet Chili Beef Meatball Lettuce Wraps with Pepper & Snow Peas for each – the perfect size for lunch after a busy morning of shooting. This meal is so easy to make and so delicious. I know it will become one of your favorites. Please order your Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meal kits right now! Just click on the highlighted links and enjoy our menu offerings! We’re adding more and more all the time! Enjoy the weekend!
Today in Westchester, New York, we're expecting abundant sunshine with temperatures in the mid-70s - more springlike than early fall, but autumn is definitely here, and if you live in an area where foliage changes with the seasons, you know how exciting and beautiful this time of year can be.
The changing leaves are already providing lots of color - red, orange, yellow, and brown can be seen in areas across the landscape. I've planted thousands of trees and shrubs at my farm, so it's a fantastic place to take in the season's changes and enjoy all it has to offer.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Here, the changing leaves haven’t quite peaked yet, but the fall foliage is already looking so pretty around the farm. Some trees change early, others late – usually from October to November in the Northeast.
My pin oaks, Quercus palustris, have done so well over the years. In fall, because of changes in the length of daylight and changes in temperature, leaves stop their food-making process. The chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to gold and orange colors come out and give the leaves part of their fall splendor.
The perimeter around my paddocks displays such wonderful shades of orange, yellow, amber, brown, and green. I love the layers of color created by the changing leaves. Although some autumn coloration occurs wherever deciduous trees are found, the most brightly colored foliage is seen in Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia, northern and western Europe, the Caucasus region near the Black Sea, Russia, eastern Asia, Argentina, Chile, southern Brazil, Korea, Japan, and New Zealand’s South Island. Here is my grove of American beech trees seen from across the pasture.
Another popular vantage point is this one looking down between the paddocks with the corn crib on the right and the changing sycamores and allèe of lindens.
Here’s a view through the woodland. Many of these trees are deciduous, meaning they tend to seasonally shed their leaves after showing off their brilliant fall colors.
Even the potted tree seedlings are changing. I have thousands of young trees potted up behind my stable. They are doing very well and will eventually be planted in the ground and added to the ever-evolving landscape at my farm.
The white pines in the distance are majestic. Seen from nearly every angle on this side of my farm, these trees stand tall in the changing landscape. Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, white pine, northern white pine, Weymouth pine, and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America.
These are the horse chestnuts, Aesuclus x carnea, at the foot of my Boxwood Allee in front of my stable. These trees are changing to yellowy-red for fall before the leaves all drop.
Here are the weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula, on one side of my “soccer field” where my grandson plays whenever he visits. I love these weeping hornbeams – the branches of these trees gracefully weep creating an umbrella of foliage that reaches the ground. The leaves are beginning to change – the foliage turns a bright yellowish color this time of year.
Up close, one can see the seed catkins hanging from the branches, holding about 10 to 30 seeds each.
This is a Japanese Stewartia, Stewartia pseudocamellia, just behind my gym building. Native to Japan, this tree is known not only for its brilliant shades of orange that emerge in fall, but also for its interesting exfoliating bark and delicate blooms. I love Stewartia trees – do you know why? Here’s a hint: it’s in the name.
These are my bald cypress trees that line one side of the carriage road to my Winter House. These too are just starting to change color. Bald Cypress trees, Taxodium distichum, shed needlelike leaves. In fact, they get the name “bald” cypress because they drop their leaves so early in the season. Their fall colors are tan, cinnamon, and fiery orange.
Not far is this striking burning bush shrub with fiery scarlet foliage just starting to show. This bush is as low-maintenance as it is dazzling, making it exceptionally easy to grow as either a single specimen plant or in a grouping.
Persian parrotia or Persian ironwood is a small upright tree or large, rounded, multi-stemmed shrub. It is related to witch-hazel. The oblong green leaves turn various shades of red, orange and yellow in the fall, often persisting into the winter months.
Here are the bright yellow branches of the American larch, Larix laricina, out in the pinetum. This tree is commonly called tamarack, eastern larch, American larch or hackmatack. This deciduous conifer will drop all these showy needles just as winter approaches.
These sugar maples above my tree peony garden bed also display gorgeous color in fall – the leaves turn vibrant shades of yellow, burnt orange, and red.
This maple is also beginning to transform for the season. This one is just across the carriage road from my tropical hoop house not far from the chicken yard.
Guests that come around this time of year often ask, “what are those flowers that look like crocus?” The common name for Colchicum is autumn crocus, but they are not true autumn crocus because there are many species of true crocus which are autumn blooming. Also, Colchicum flowers have six stamens while crocuses have only three. The colchicum are all blooming now.
Here is another colchicum. Colchicum is a member of the botanical family Colchicaceae and is native to West Asia, Europe, parts of the Mediterranean coast, down the East African coast to South Africa and the Western Cape. When the weather is mild, colchicum’s flowers begin to unfurl. Most Colchicum plants produce their flowers without any foliage. This is why these flowers were first known by the common name “naked boys.” In the Victorian era, they were also called “naked ladies.”
And look what else is starting to bloom here at the farm. This is just one of hundreds of saffron flowers planted by my friend and colleague Hannah Milman.
Planting is done in July, August and September either by hand or by machine. Harvesting comes at the end of October to mid-November, roughly eight weeks after planting.
And soon, my outdoor grounds crew will be busy blowing all the leaves. I’ll share more photos of the trees as they reach their peak fall colors. What does autumn look like where you live? Let me know in the comments section below.
After eight years of planning, the French luxury label Hermès is now open for business at its new flagship store in New York City.
Last week, I joined hundreds of others to celebrate the opening of Hermès Maison Madison - a 20,250-square-foot, five-floor store carrying the full range of Hermès products and collections. The celebration featured a tour of the space, a three-part musical commissioned for the event, food and drinks, followed by dancing at the former flagship, which was transformed into an all-orange speakeasy. It was definitely a fun and memorable party - leave it to Hermès.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
It was a beautiful evening for being out in New York City. This was my view looking west on 57th street in Manhattan. I posted this photo on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 – I hope you follow me.
In the window of the new Hermès flagship, one could see dozens of the iconic orange-hued boxes.
The store features a smooth and curved stone staircase. Kevin Sharkey, who took many of these photos, captured this image looking up all the way to the fifth floor. An adjacent 49-foot-high wall was decorated as a vertical gallery with paintings and equine themed photographs. Follow Kevin’s Instagram @seenbysharkey.
Looking down, there were beautiful speckled terrazzo floors.
Here is a view of the high ceilings and decorated curved walls.
The store is comprised of a series of salons, giving it a more intimate and special feeling for customers. Here I am in front of the beauty items on the first level. This floor also features jewelry, silk scarves, and Hermès perfume.
I stopped for a quick photo with Hermès VP of Press and Influence, Michael Carl.
There was a musical performance, “Love Around the Block,” where actors sang and danced while wrapping orange Hermès boxes through the store.
The first of the three-part show was performed indoors.
Actors performed in the aisles as guests toured the store’s clothing, accessories, furniture, and homewares.
The costumes were colorful and quite direct in its messaging.
On this wall, there was a scarf designed after artist Josef Albers’ “Interaction of Color: Homage to the Square” painting.
I admired this turkey scarf hanging nearby.
Colorful belts were also artfully displayed.
… Along with many cashmere blankets and throws. This front design is from their Parcours de Sangles Collection.
It matches this Parcours de Sangles pillow.
Here is another beautiful geometric blanket by Hermès.
After the first act of the performance, guests were instructed to head outdoors for Act II. Several streets were closed to traffic just for the event.
Several food trucks were on hand, offering an assortment of dinner bite options such as pizza, tacos, cheesecake, pies, pretzels, burgers, hot dogs, fries, dumplings and falafel – one can find all sorts of food in New York City.
The final act was held at the old Hermès location, which was turned into an all-orange nightclub for the evening. Here I am on the stairs of the former store. It was a fun event and a very interesting way to celebrate the store’s opening. The store officially opened for business this week, so plan a stop at Hermès Maison Madison the next time you’re in New York City.
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