I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Here's to a prosperous and healthy New Year ahead.
Just before Christmas, I hosted a very special gathering for my entire staff at my Bedford, New York farm. My employees work so hard during the year - caring for the property and my many pets and gardens, and helping me prepare for all the meetings, shoots, and other events. I took everyone to La Bastide by Andrea Calstier and Cenadou Bistrot, a quaint new establishment featuring two French restaurants owned by Chef Andrea Calstier and his wife Elena Oliver. We all enjoyed a buffet of delicious hors d'ouevres including tuna tartare with avocado and yuzu, Compté filled gougères, chickpea panisses with smoked espelette pepper coulis, truffle croque-monsieur, and garden salads. For sweets, we had Madeleine cookies, choux, chocolates, and other treats. It was a most enjoyable party.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
These two French restaurants are housed in the same building. Cenadou serves traditional French dishes while La Bastide offers a more formal tasting menu for fine dining. Cenadou, the 50-seat French bistro is upstairs and La Bastide, which seats 12 is downstairs – both with beautiful views of the property’s landscape.
Both restaurants feature open kitchens and local, seasonal cuisine.
To start, we had a buffet of hors d’oeuvres including tuna tartare with avocado and yuzu. Tuna tartare is a dish made with raw tuna cut into small pieces or cubes that are usually served in a bowl. The Asian flavors such as ginger, soy, chile, and lime juice are added to highlight the taste of the tuna. Each was topped with a slice of yuzu – a citrus fruit that is tart and fragrant, closely resembling grapefruit, with overtones of mandarin orange.
This is chickpea panisse with smoked espelette peppers coulis. Panisses, or chickpea flour fries, are a popular street snack from the south of France.
I took many snapshots. Here I am with my crew foreman, Chhiring Sherpa. He has been working with me at the farm for more than 22-years.
This is the garden salad – so fresh and light. It was a big favorite.
Gougères are baked savory choux pastries made with cheese. The cheese in these is Compté. Comté is a French cheese made from unpasteurized cow’s milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France bordering Switzerland. It is classified as an Alpine cheese.
And these are mini truffle croque-monsieurs. A croque-monsieur is a hot sandwich made with ham and cheese.
This photo is of me, Pete Sherpa and Fernando Ferrari.
I also gave away grab-bag gifts. Every one selected a number out of a container and then chose their own present.
Here is Elvira – she got one of the early numbers. I think she is very happy with her choice.
In this photo – Fernando, my longtime driver Andres Velastegui, and Phurba Sherpa.
We had several cocktails – Sancha with tequila, lemon verbena, cucumber, lime, spicy homemade tincture; Nougat with vodka, beet juice, elderflower, lemon, cremant de bourgogne; Voyeur with bourbon, dark maple syrup, orange and lemon juice, and angostura bitters.
We also enjoyed white wine and other cocktails.
From my security detail – Tommy Spasiano and Patrick Tierney.
Here are Jimmy Oliveros, Juan Londoño, and Helen Peparo – my stable team.
Here I am with my longtime driver, Carlos “Uno” Villamil.
The dessert table was filled with cookies and other sweets.
We had pâte à choux filled with sweet pastry cream and decorated with a tiny piece of edible gold leaf.
Is a Madeleine a cake or a cookie? Technically, they are small butter cakes; however, because of their shape and size they’re often referred to as cookies – very small sponge cake cookies with a distinctive shell-like shape.
My operations manager, Matt Krack, loves to cook and bake. He brought in these delectable cookies to share – spiced chocolate ganache sandwich cookies and his Aunt Stella’s cuccidati.
We also had chocolate…
… and peanut brittle. Everyone took treats home.
Here are Patrick and my head gardener, Ryan McCallister.
Here, my gardener Brian O’Kelly, Claudia Lieto-McKenna my special projects manager, and Ryan take a “selfie.”
This is Cesar Felix. He takes care of all my birds – the chickens, Guinea hens, turkeys, peafowl, geese, and now pheasants.
Another quick photo – Brenda Pinto, Carlos “dos” Restrepo, and Elvira, from my housekeeping and housecleaning crew.
And here I am with the owners, chef Andrea Calstier and his wife Elena Oliver. Thank you so much for a lovely evening. If you’re in the Westchester, New York area, I encourage you to try to La Bastide by Andrea Calstier and Cenadou Bistrot – you will love them both.
Happy New Year! May 2024 be a wonderful year for us all. Here's a fun post from January 30, 2021.
Why not have a delicious steamed egg for breakfast?
So many of my readers and viewers ask me how to make the perfect steamed egg - when the white of the egg is firm, and the yolk is silky, creamy, and liquid gold. Steamed eggs, soft-boiled eggs, and hard-boiled eggs are all great with toast, or as an addition to salads, or even alone as a quick snack. My eggs are as fresh as can be - they come straight from my chicken coops every day. Eggs are also very nutritious. A large egg contains about six-grams of protein, plus other nutrients, including vitamin D and choline. And, best of all, making the perfect egg is so easy.
Here are some photos and my step-by-step method for steamed eggs, enjoy.
As many of you know, I’ve long enjoyed raising chickens. I began raising chickens many years ago, primarily for their delicious fresh eggs. And I use a lot of them. Aside from enjoying one or two myself on any given day, I share them with my daughter and grandchildren, I cook flavorful dishes such as frittatas for guests and my crew at the farm, and I use many eggs for various cooking shoots. Here is a bowl of fresh eggs on my kitchen counter. When hens lay eggs, they have a natural coating called the “bloom” that helps keep out bacteria. Washing eggs can drive some bacteria in through the pores of the shell, so I don’t wash them before cooking. I always just wipe them with a warm damp cloth to get rid of any dirt and place them in this giant bowl.
I have about 200-chickens down in my poultry yard. They’re all beautiful birds. I I’ve grown fond of caring for them, and learning about their many different breeds and varieties.
Here’s a hen sitting in her nesting box – I wonder if she’s sitting on an egg? In general, hens become mature enough to lay eggs around six months of age, though this varies slightly by breed. Healthy hens are able to lay an egg about once a day.
To steam the perfect egg, one needs a saucepan with a lid and a steamer.
These stainless steel expandable steamer baskets are easy to find. This is my Martha Stewart steamer basket from Macy’s. The flaps collapse or open to fit various pots and pans.
Just fill the pot to the bottom of the steamer basket – about an inch-and-a-half.
Then place the saucepan on the stove and turn it on high to boil.
While waiting, select your eggs. I chose six large eggs. I do not refrigerate my eggs. Freshly laid eggs can be left at room temperature for at least a month.
The water is just about boiling. A covered pot boils faster than an uncovered one because the cooling presence of the room’s atmosphere is greatly diminished. And notice, the lid is askew on top of the pot – just so it doesn’t boil-over.
I’m using a large spoon to carefully move the eggs into the pot.
I keep a crock near my stove filled with tasting spoons – large spoons intended to lift out about a 1/2 tablespoon of liquid from a pan or pot for sampling. I also keep some tasting forks close at hand.
Place the eggs carefully into the steamer – six is enough for one layer of eggs in this pot. Try not to stack the eggs if possible.
Set the timer to four-and-a-half minutes.
Place the lid properly on the pot and wait.
Remove the eggs as soon as the timer goes off. Remember, these are large eggs, but depending on the size of the eggs and how one likes them, this time may need some adjusting.
To serve eggs in their shells, I use the edge of a serrated knife to cut off the top.
Look at that beautiful gold color – it’s perfect. Egg yolks range in color from pale yellow to deep orange. The color of an egg’s yolk depends upon the hen’s diet. The darker color of a yolk indicates the hen is fed foods high in carotenoids or antioxidants, which are natural pigments found in greens. My chickens are fed the best scraps including organic vegetables from my gardens.
Add a little salt and pepper and it’s ready to eat.
To serve out of the shell, hold the egg over a small bowl, tap around center with a knife, gently pull the shell apart, and then scoop out the egg with a small spoon.
Here’s another egg with its creamy egg yolk pouring out into the bowl – made to perfection. Minutes really make a difference, but after doing this a few times, one will find their perfectly cooked egg.
Here are the two eggs in the bowl. Again, I added just a little salt and pepper to taste.
Steamed eggs for breakfast – so easy to make and so flavorful and healthy too. Don’t you just one one now? Enjoy.
Here's another encore blog. Remember this one? It was originally posted on December 22, 2020.
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.
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