It's Christmas Eve. If you're traveling to see loved ones today, please be careful and safe. Here's another fun holiday memory - a festive party at my farm. This blog was originally posted on Dec. 21, 2019. Enjoy!
I love this time of year when everyone gathers together to celebrate the holidays.
Recently, I hosted my annual holiday party at my Bedford, New York farm. More than 200-guests wandered in and out of three buildings, each with a different and festive theme. My Winter House was where my friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin, and his talented team from PS Tailored Events, prepared and served a variety of delicious and savory dishes. Fancy sweets and eggnog were served in my Summer House, and the little Tenant House offered an array of beautiful and whimsical holiday cookies. Friends, family, and neighbors also enjoyed music from a jazz guitarist and photos with Santa! It was a cold late autumn day, but everyone had a most wonderful time!
Enjoy these photos.
Here I am with Douglas Friedman and Kevin Sharkey on this day of merriment and good cheer. See more fun selfies of the three of us by @DouglasFriedman on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48. And you can always find fun photos on Kevin’s Instagram page @seenbysharkey.
My home was filled with all kinds of trees. Here is a collection of bottle brush trees on the green marble table in my foyer – a woodland scene under my great falcon weathervane.
I love how the sun came through the window in this photo taken by @seenbysharkey.
My Green Room was decorated with gold and shades of green. On the right is one of two Chinese foo dogs given to me by Kevin. They’re perfect for this parlor.
I published this recipe for my special eggnog in my first book, “Entertaining” in 1982. It’s made with plenty of bourbon, cognac, dark rum, heavy cream – and this year, 96 eggs for 200 people.
All the eggs used for my eggnog came right from my hens here at the farm. A single eggnog recipe, by the way, calls for a dozen eggs, which can serve about 26-guests. My eggnog is always so popular – it is so rich it needs no accompaniment.
I used Marti Autentico Rum “Dorado” – a delicious quality rum with a lovely rich taste. https://www.martirum.com/
Guests arriving at my Winter House saw Moises, from PS Tailored Events, and these delicious fresh oysters on the terrace parterre – a perfect first stop at the party.
The oysters are from Norm Bloom – we ordered hundreds of delicious oysters, served on the half shell with cocktail sauce and mignonette. http://www.coppsislandoysters.com
My Winter House is where Chef Pierre Schaedelin @pstailoredevents and I prepared and served all our glorious savory foods. We pushed my kitchen counters together on one side, so we could serve the food buffet-style – it’s a wonderful solution for large gatherings.
Our shrimp and salmon came from True North, @truenorthseafood. We served the shrimp on cake stands in circular layers. http://www.truenorthseafood.com
These are mini blinis – traditional Russian pancakes, which are best served with a dab of creme fraiche and a spoonful of caviar. I published the recipe in “Martha Stewart’s Hors D’oeuvres: The Creation and Presentation of Fabulous Finger Food” in 1984.
We also had two hams from my friend, Pat LaFrieda. This is a 20-pound smoked ham. http://www.lafrieda.com
The ham was served with homemade biscuits, scones, horseradish sauce I made from horseradish grown here at the farm, and homemade mustard sauces.
The smoked chicken was displayed so nicely on this large platter. I smoked four four-pound chickens using my delicious smoked chicken recipe from my first hors d’oeuvres book. Everyone thought it was duck and every tidbit disappeared. This photo was taken just before the guests started eating.
For sweets, I made these gorgeous palmiers, also known as pig’s ears, palm hearts, or elephant ears. These are French pastries made in a palm leaf shape or a butterfly shape. My guests loved these so much, they were gone before I got to even taste one myself.
We also made a beautiful croquembouche – a French dessert consisting of choux pastry puffs filled with creme patissiere piled into a cone and bound with threads and threads of caramel. We topped ours with orchid flowers because we didn’t make enough puffs.
Also in my Brown Room – my precious Drabware manger set, which I made years ago. While Drabware tones vary from light coffee to dark olive, it took me a while to get this perfect hue – I love it. I fired and glazed all the pieces myself and then embellished it with palm trees imported from Germany.
Outside, Empress Qin, Emperor Han, Bete Noire, and Creme Brulee stand guard – picture perfect.
Here is a fun snapshot of television correspondent and Editor-at-Large at Ballantine Bantam Dell, Alina Cho @thealinacho, Douglas @DouglasFriedman, Sarah Carey @sarahcarey1, and Kevin @seenbysharkey outside on my terrace parterre.
And here he is, the jolly ol’ man himself – Santa Claus. Santa, played by Fernando Ferrari, wished everyone a Merry Christmas as they walked from house to house.
My Summer House was where guests could sit and share holiday stories and plans while eating sweets and sipping eggnog. It was decorated in lots of pink and silver.
The trees were decked in silver with silver ornaments – I love how everything glistens.
Alexis’s famous Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies went so fast. Her recipe is in my book, “Entertaining.” Unlike traditional recipes, this batter produces flat and crisp cookies. They are my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookies.
Another lit nativity scene sits on a side table in my Summer House. I got this one from Brazil.
Anduin Havens, her daughter, Harper, and her husband Cedric, stopped for this photo with Santa.
And here are my neighbors, Laura Blau, and her husband, Michael Citro.
All the outdoor decorations glimmered in the early evening light. My holiday party was from 3pm to 6pm, so everyone could enjoy the farm’s festive lights.
Guests were told not to miss the “Cookie House” – Alexis’s little Tenant House was filled with more sweet treats. We made about 2500-cookies in all. Molly Wenk @moll_doll23 and Jessie Damuck @jessdamuck baked cookies for four days. Many of the recipes are from my books and my web site at MarthaStewart.com. In this house, they were surrounded by whimsical woodland animals and miniature figurines – the children loved this house the best.
Because my grandchildren stay here when they visit, I love decorating the space for them with lots of stuffed toys.
Even the napkins had a woodland theme. The delicate machine embroidered napkins are from Coral & Tusk @coralandtusk in Brooklyn, New York.
And of course, there were candy canes – all our hard candies came from Hammond’s. http://www.hammondscandies.com/
And outside, my beautiful Christmas tree with 1000 lights. Everyone had such a great time at the party. Happy holidays to all of you.
While we're all busy getting ready for Christmas and gathering with family and friends, here's another encore blog I know you'll enjoy. Remember this one? It was originally posted on December 22, 2020.
It's just days before Christmas - I hope you're all in the holiday spirit.
If you follow me on Instagram @MarthaStewart48, you may have seen photos and a brief video showing some of the cookies I decorated for last week's one-hour virtual “tutorial” on cookie baking and decorating with my dear friend, Snoop Dogg. It was so much fun. More than 400-thousand viewers from around the world joined us for the LIVE Zoom corporate event for Salesforce. And the cookies were amazing - all beautifully made by Molly Wenk @moll_doll23, Julie Preis @bakerofblackrock, and Dani Boglivi-Fiori @sweetdanib here on the East Coast, and on the West Coast, by Jess Damuck @jessdamuck.
Enjoy these photos.
On this day I appeared LIVE from my Bedford, New York farm kitchen. My Winter House counter was filled with holiday decor and interesting cookies such as these two featuring me and my “Potluck Dinner Party” co-host, Snoop Dogg. The cookies were made by @bakerofblackrock.
This cookie shows a fun self portrait captioned: “There’s some ho, ho, hos in this house.”
Snoop’s cookie expertly depicts Snoop on a wreath dedicated to his love for – yes, smoking blunts.
On this end of the counter, more cookies – many of these baked and decorated by @sweetdaniB.
Some of the most memorable cookies were these fun cannabis leaves.
We also had whimsical elves and gingerbread figures. Remember my “4 Ds” when embellishing delicious sugar cookies – dipping, dripping, decorating and drying. I also have a fifth “D” – devouring.
One tip I shared with the group was to always have skewers on hand for the fine detailing on cookies. One can use skewers to fix piping or other decorating mistakes while the icing is still wet.
Here are some of the Christmas trees we made – some decorated with my own Martha Stewart CBD gummies – premium quality, hemp-derived wellness supplements – all made with flavor profiles inspired by some of my most popular recipes.
In “Martha Stewart’s Cookie Perfection” there are tons of tips and ideas to make all those favorite go-to cookies even better. It introduces new flavors, textures, and techniques, and incorporates equipment that isn’t traditionally used for making cookies.
These are my Flower-Embellished Wreath Cookies from the book – baked by @moll_doll23. These sugar cookies make such an elegant statement when dressed up with glaze and other candies, These include dragees and dots from my CBD gummies.
These are colored green and include finely chopped pistachios. In the recipe, we also use candied ginger, citrus and sugared flowers.
Snoop’s 2018 cookbook “From Crook to Cook” features OG soul food staples like Baked Mac & Cheese and Fried Bologna Sandwiches with Chips, and new takes on classic weeknight favorites such as Soft Flour Tacos and Easy Orange Chicken. It’s such a fun collection of recipes the entire family will love.
I decorated some cannabis leaves with red dots – a humorous take on holly.
And we couldn’t decorate cookies without adding some “Dogg Bones.”
Here I am posing with a box of my CBD Wellness Gummies. My line of CBD products is done in partnership with the world-leading diversified cannabis and hemp company, Canopy Growth Corporation. Some of the flavors include Meyer lemon, kumquat, and blood orange and others.
Snoop joined the event from his home in Los Angeles. Here he is decorating some of his cookies on-camera.
He decorated this full sheet of holiday stars with help from @JessDamuck who has also done lots of work for me here in New York.
And some charming basketball uniformed gingerbread players.
Snoop stopped to show us some of his decorated cookies during the broadcast – great job, Snoop.
It was such a great event. Later, we also took questions from the audience. I hope you are all enjoying these last few days before Christmas! Happy baking, and please stay safe.
I hope you're all ready for Christmas - it's just three days away. It's been another challenging year for us all, but brighter days are ahead. I hope you are able to enjoy this time with those near and dear. For the next couple of weeks, I'll be sharing a few of my favorite holiday memories from years past. This blog was originally posted one year ago on December 23, 2020. Enjoy this encore blog! If you're busy baking cookies and other treats, be sure to visit Martha.com for a scrumptious selection of recipes.
I hope you are all enjoying these last couple of days before Christmas despite pandemic guidelines to keep parties and other gatherings small and intimate.
This year, I wasn't able to have my annual holiday party at my Bedford, New York farm. I usually invite more than 200-guests for an open house through three buildings, each with a different and festive theme. Some of last year's party photos are in the December 2020 issue of my magazine "Martha Stewart Living" - I hope you have your copy; it's on newsstands now. Among the main features at the event - my elaborate gingerbread village and the thousands of cookies we baked and decorated for my guests.
Here are more photos from December 2019, enjoy.
Preparations for my annual holiday party start weeks in advance. During the week leading up to the party, I make two or three cookie doughs every night after work and then store them in the refrigerator. I made all the sugar cookie and gingerbread cookie doughs.
Last year, I gifted myself with this wonderful prepline countertop dough sheeter from Kitchenall. It is a commercial size machine, so it took up almost the entire counter, but it saved us so much time. The dough is placed on the conveyer belt and then passed through the machine – no rolling needed. It’s so amazing. And when it is done, it is flattened to a pre-programmed thickness.
Longtime “Living” contributor and author of the new book, “Fruit Cake: Recipes for the Curious Baker,” Jason Schreiber, helped me create a beautiful gingerbread village for the party. My Winter House kitchen was bustling with activity.
Jason pre-made all the templates using cardboard and labeled each piece with the structure name and building part.
Royal icing was used to secure all the pieces together. This is the back of a chimney ready to be placed onto a house.
Here is the inside of two walls – all carefully connected with delicious royal icing. Finished houses dry in the background.
T-Pins are used to hold the pieces together until they dry.
Then more icing is applied to support the roof.
Here I am using silver-leaf foil to decorate the the top of this roof. We worked late into the night, but it was so much fun.
Meanwhile, Jason tends to the piping details on this wall to the clock tower.
Down at my Maple Avenue House, Molly Wenk @moll_doll23 and Jessie Damuck @jessdamuck prepared the long list of cookies to make. Being very organized is crucial when making so many cookies.
Molly and Jessie spent four days baking and decorating cookies with me. I am fortunate to have several kitchen at the farm where we could use all the ovens to make stacks and stacks of cookies.
These cookies were just decorated and are ready to be displayed. In the center, crushed freeze-dried raspberries and pink peppercorns on icing-filled sugar cookies.
On the day of the party, guests were told not to miss the “Cookie House” – Alexis’s little Tenant House was filled with sweet treats. We made about 2500-cookies in all. Many of the recipes are from my books and my web site at MarthaStewart.com. In this house, they were surrounded by whimsical woodland animals and miniature cookie figurines – the children loved this house the best.
I made these gorgeous palmiers, also known as pig’s ears, palm hearts, or elephant ears. These are French pastries made in a palm leaf shape or a butterfly shape. My guests loved these so much, they were gone before I got to even taste one myself.
I love to incorporate natural elements whenever possible. Here in the woodland Christmas themed Tenant House, cut tree stumps hold stacks and stacks of cookies – Alexis’s brown-sugar chocolate chip cookies, four-ingedient sables bretons, bourbojn-spiked Noel nut balls, raspberry and apricot jam filled pecan linzers, and sugar cookie mushrooms.
We decorated sugar cookies in different colors – these in white, gold and silver.
Green royal icing and sanding sugar were applied in sections to add texture to these gingerbread trees.
And these sugar cookie wreaths were embellished with ground Sicilian pistachios and silver and gold dragees.
Some cookies were as small as coins while others spanned seven inches across – there was something for everyone. And guests were encouraged to take a bag home with them to enjoy later.
And then back in my Winter House Brown Room – the finished gingerbread village.
Small lights were used to illuminate every house.
The entire village scene includes outdoor elements as well – gingerbread boxwood and trees covered in snow.
The village filled an entire table. It was such a beautiful centerpiece – everyone loved it. I hope you are baking lots of beautiful cookies this holiday. No matter how small, every Christmas gathering can be special. See more photos from last year’s gathering in this December 2019 blog. Happy holidays.
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