Be sure to tune-in tomorrow, Wednesday, October 18th, at 12am ET and 3pm ET when I launch my new Gourmet Foods Collection on QVC!
I'm so thrilled and so proud of what we've developed in this collection. My first food products include a delicious turkey and sides, which comes just in time for your Thanksgiving holiday - it will be "Today's Special Value" during tomorrow's broadcast. The day's shows will also feature my mouthwatering tomato tarts, delectable chocolates and my flavorful brie en croute - a holiday baked brie treat with dried fruits and nuts inside a golden puff pastry crust. And on Sunday, October 22nd, I'll share one of America's favorite small bites, pigs in a blanket.
It’s never too early to start planning for the holidays - they'll be here before you know it. I'll continue to share my product offerings in food, fashion, skincare, and garden in the coming weeks. Below are more dates and times for some of my upcoming QVC appearances. Follow me on my Twitter page @MarthaStewart and on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 for any updates and links to additional information. Enjoy these photos.
Schedule of QVC appearances:
Wednesday, October 18th at 12am ET and 3pm ET
Sunday, October 22nd at 12pm ET - Gourmet Foods
Monday, October 30th at 5pm ET and 10pm ET - Fashion
November 10th at 9pm ET - Skin Care
This special Thanksgiving dinner includes a ready-to-make meal with a four-pound turkey breast paired with two holiday side dishes. It’s perfect for those smaller intimate gatherings of up to eight people.
You get two sides of your choice. Remember my mom’s mashed potatoes? These mashed potatoes are Big Martha’s recipe, made with Russet potatoes, whole milk, cream cheese, butter and heavy cream.
This cherry stuffing is another big favorite. It is made with chunks of crusty white bread crumbs, blended with butter, chicken broth, freshly chopped onion and celery, lots of herbs, and sweet tart dried cherries.
This mac and cheese is among the most popular recipes on my web site. It is made with four different cheeses – sharp white cheddar, gruyere, fontina, and parmigiano, blended with real butter and milk, a hint of onion and cayenne pepper, all mixed with elbow macaroni noodles.
And this classic creamed spinach is something that was often served on my family’s holiday menu growing up. It is made with chopped spinach, butter, whole milk, and sour cream, and topped with a panko bread crumb, butter, and gruyere cheese – so very delicious.
I am also launching these warm and savory tomato tarts. They’re made with roasted tomatoes, garlic and fontina cheese and garnished with fresh basil.
These tomato tarts are made out of an all-butter flaky crust and all 100-percent ingredients – ready for all your entertaining needs.
And the holidays wouldn’t be complete with some of my delicious chocolates. I am offering these chocolate assortment gift boxes – sea salt toffee bark, peppermint bark and pecan nut clusters.
These chocolates arrive in a two-pound collection of sweet and salty chocolates nestled in ready for gifting red boxes – each tied with a red ribbon and tag.
This brie en croute is sure to be a big hit. Made with a puffed pastry, baked until all the cheese is deliciously melty and filled with dried fruits and nuts.
Once it is cut open, it’s easy to see all the delicious, warm cheese inside.
It comes ready to bake in this freshly and flaky crust.
And remember all those “pigs in a blanket” hors d’oeuvres we served at the launch of my QVC Colletions party last month? I’ll be featuring these on Sunday, October 22nd on QVC as part of my Gourmet Holiday Show. (Photo by Sam Deitch for BFA.com)
Everyone loves pigs in a blanket – they’re perfect for any party, big or small.
They are made with all-butter puffed pastry and all-beef frank sausages.
Get them in a combination of flavors – cheddar with sesame seeds, plain with poppy seeds, and caramelized onion. I love every one! Serve them with your own sauces and watch them go – they’re so, so delicious.
And of course, you can always order my latest book, “Martha Stewart’s Slow Cooker: 110 Recipes for Flavorful, Foolproof, Dishes, Plus Test-Kitchen Tips and Strategies”. Don’t forget to tune-in to QVC tomorrow, October 18th! https://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewarts-Slow-Cooker-Strategies/dp/0307954684
Restoring and maintaining a healthy landscape is a lot of work.
Last week at Skylands, my home in Seal Harbor, Maine, the outdoor grounds crew took to the woodlands to restore some old carriage roads that had not been used in many years. Any moss in the area was transplanted, roads were regraded, and felled trees and branches were removed and chipped.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
I always feel badly when trees are cut down, but they do not live forever, and occasionally they need to be removed in order to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Here you can see the rut road and cut down trees and branches that have been neatly piled up on the side of the road.
Some of these carriage roads had not been used in more than 40-years, and I decided it was time to regrade them, and clear them, so the roads could be put to use again.
All along the one mile of road, piles of felled trees, branches and other debris were prepared to be chipped and returned to the ground as mulch.
Chris and Carlos, with heavy duty gloves, goggles and ear protectors, carefully put the wood through the chipper.
A wood chipper is a machine used for reducing tree limbs and smaller trunks. Some of the logs were quite large.
Many of these trees had died, or were in the process of dying, and it was more prudent to remove the trees, so they didn’t become safety hazards.
Once the wood is chipped, the chips come out through a chute and into the back of our dump truck.
The truck fills up quickly with the chipped wood.
Here is a closer look at the output from our wood chipper – it makes very small wood chip pieces which work great on these roads and in the gardens, where they can block the sun and help keep the soil cool.
Here is an inside view of the mouth of the chipper. The chipper is incredibly strong and the teeth inside do a great job.
Storms, and old age, all contribute to the ever changing appearance of a woodland. There are many brambles, weeds, vines, and useless seedlings growing in all the woods. These must be cleared from time to time, so there is room to plant and cultivate seedling trees that will be more beneficial.
Here are some of the smaller branches going through the chipper.
Once the dump truck is full, it is positioned on a section of bare carriage road. Rick and Chris unload some of the chips and spread it across the area.
This chore is quite arduous, but the team works very efficiently.
Rick and Chris spread the chips with heavy duty rakes to make the layer neat and evenly distributed.
After each section of road is covered, the process starts again.
More felled trees are fed through the chipper to create wood chips.
And then the wood chips are unloaded and spread across each 12-foot wide section of carriage road.
Here is a finished section of road. The layer of chips will decompose and add nutrients back to the soil. It is a great way to “give back” to the environment and to preserve the beautiful woods of Skylands.
Autumn in Maine signals several important maintenance chores at my home, Skylands.
Because winters can be rather harsh in the Northeast, I pay very close attention to the preparations made before the season’s arrival. This includes the meticulous care of the landscape, and the carriage roads that meander through the woods. Danish landscape architect, Jens Jensen, designed the grounds at Skylands for the home’s original owner, Edsel Ford, in 1925. Not only was the main house constructed out of pink granite, but the driveways and all the carriage roads were laid with the same finely crushed stone.
To preserve the pink granite gravel, which is very common on Mount Desert Island, I make sure it is removed and stored before winter every year, and then sifted and cleaned in spring before it is laid on the roads for the summer season. My outdoor grounds crew at Skylands took on the task of removing the stone this week. Here are some photos showing this fall process - enjoy.
My main circular driveway and all the many roads at Skylands are covered in this crushed pink granite. Every year, all the gravel is collected and put away using a very systematic process.
This crushed pink granite is distinct to Mount Desert Island. It is a pink coarse-grained hornblende granite that contains the mineral, biotite.
Here is a closer look at the pink gravel – I find it so beautiful. Each of the carriage roads is 12-feet across, and is covered with at least a couple inches of the crushed stone.
The foliage looks so pretty when the driveway is covered in pink. The process of picking up all the gravel along the mile of carriage road is a big task. Along all the carriage roads, the gravel is blown to the center – first on one side…
And then the other. Here you can see the gravel pile begin to narrow. Underneath the crushed pink granite is pure carriage road – built using layers of crushed rock, and several inches of crown for proper drainage that are perfect for horse-drawn carriage rides, bicycling and walking.
To help the process, Mike and Wendy go over the road in our all-terrain-vehicle with a special attachment that brushes the gravel like a broom.
The attachment includes a large bristle brush and a protective shield, so debris doesn’t fly up while in use. It helps get the caked in pink gravel pebbles off hard to reach areas of the carriage roads.
Wendy holds onto the special attachment, while Mike drives the vehicle. The cardboard keeps the pebbles from flying up into the wheels.
It takes quite a bit of time to go over all the roads, but it is well-worth the effort to preserve the precious gravel.
Here are Wendy and Mike turning another curve and pushing the gravel further into the center of the road. All the crew members at Skylands, and at my Bedford, New York farm wear proper safety equipment at all times.
Here, the pink gravel is all gathered in the center and ready for the next phase of the process.
Once all the pink gravel is moved to center, a tractor with a front end loader attached, drives slowly down the road scooping up the gravel.
This shows why it is so crucial to move all the gravel into the center of the carriage road in a neat and tidy pile. The process is very streamlined.
Here is our new Ford dump truck – ready to transport the heavy crushed stone.
Mike and Rick continue down every road to ensure all the gravel is blown to the center on both sides. This makes the process of collecting it much easier.
Here is another very neat and tidy line of pink gravel waiting to be removed. I like to do this process before too many of the leaves start to fall, so leaf debris doesn’t get mixed in with the gravel. This also helps when the gravel is cleaned and redistributed in the spring.
Collecting the stone every year also helps conserve the supply – I usually get more gravel every couple of years instead of annually.
As the tractor picks up the gravel, the dump truck moves slowly in front. And, as the front end loader fills up, it empties load after load of gravel into the truck.These Ford commercial grade dump truck vehicles are great – they can haul tons of stone.
I also love my John Deere tractor – it helps with countless tasks around Skylands and my New York farm. https://www.deere.com/
Rick and Mike follow closely and blow any extraneous pink gravel back into the center, where it can be collected on another pass.
Here is the compost area where the gravel is stored for the winter.
The gravel is dumped into neat pile on one side of the space. In spring, the pink gravel will be sifted, washed and then laid down on the roads once again.
This is what my carriage roads look like as each load of crushed pink gravel is picked up. These roads are ready for the winter season ahead.
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