Our Martha & Marley Spoon meal kits are delicious, nutritious and save so much time in the kitchen!
Yesterday, while I was in Colorado for the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, my personal executive assistant, Shqipe Lulanaj, tested another Martha & Marley Spoon meal kit - Pan Roasted Gnocchi, with Yellow Squash, Almonds & Basil. It was a big hit, and just as promised on the recipe card, the entire dish was cooked in 30-minutes. Our delivery service features so many inspiring recipes and cooking ideas and you can customize your menu and choose the recipes that best fit your busy lifestyle. If you haven’t yet tried Martha & Marley Spoon, just go to the web site by clicking anywhere on this highlighted link for more information on how to subscribe.
Enjoy these photos.
The box arrives at your door just like all our meal-kit deliveries – complete with fresh pre-portioned ingredients.
Everything is 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, time-saving meal-kit delivery system.
The 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.
For this recipe, the first step is to prep the squash. The squash is grated using the largest holes on this grater, but a food processor with a shredding attachment also works.
The grated squash is then placed into a colander to drain while the other ingredients are prepared.
The colander can be left in the sink or over a bowl for easy drainage.
One head of garlic is included with the kit. Each of the segments is a garlic clove and there are about 10 to 16 cloves in one head.
One large clove or enough for one teaspoon of garlic is finely chopped.
The almonds are coarsely chopped. Almonds are a great way to add healthy fats, fiber, protein, magnesium and vitamin E to a meal. Almonds help to lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels and reduce blood pressure. They can also reduce hunger and promote weight loss.
And the Parmesan cheese is coarsely grated.
The squash is then hand-squeezed of any excess moisture.
Two tablespoons are heated in a medium saucepan.
And then the squash and garlic are added and cooked for about 10 to 12 minutes until the squash is very soft and beginning to break down. Everyone loves cooking with my Beech Wood Spoon from my collection at Macy’s – it’s sturdy to use but gentle on non-stick surfaces. https://mcys.co/2KjGWMH
Next, while the squash is cooking, the gnocchi is placed in a single layer in another pan. These are thick, small, soft dough dumplings with potato. Remember, Martha & Marley spoon pre-measures everything, and provides enough food for even the hungriest of eaters. The gnocchi is cooked without stirring until well browned and crisp on one side.
The spinach and half the basil leaves are now added to the pan with the butter and cooked until the spinach is wilted.
This only takes one to two minutes – look how fresh and delicious it looks.
Here, the squash is added to combine and then it is removed from the heat and sprinkled with half of the grated Parmesan.
Shqipe garnishes the plate with more Parmesan and some basil leaves on top.
And it’s ready to serve for lunch or dinner. Pan-Roasted Gnocchi with Yellow Squash, Almonds & Basil is an easy, flavorful meal that you and your family will love. Order your Martha & Marley Spoon meal kits right now! Just click on the highlighted links above and enjoy our menu offerings! We’re adding more and more all the time! Enjoy the weekend!
There’s so much to see and learn at The New York Botanical Garden - I always try to attend their events and visit their exhibits.
Last week, after a long day at QVC, I went to The New York Botanical Garden for their annual Conservatory Ball. More than 550 guests were in attendance. The evening celebrated Chairman Emerita Maureen Chilton and her nine-years of service as NYBG’s Board Chairman. The affair also raised more than two million dollars to benefit the Children’s Education and Plant Research and Conservation Programs at NYBG. But first, since I arrived about an hour early, I had enough time to walk through some of the gardens, including the blooming Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden - one of the most popular NYBG destinations this time of year, when more than 650-varieties of roses are in peak bloom - they were all so beautiful.
Enjoy these photos.
This is NYBG’s landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. It is so pretty any time of day. The Conservatory is the nation’s largest Victorian glasshouse. The Palm Court, with its spectacular 90-foot dome and dramatic reflecting pool, is often used for receptions and other gatherings. (Photo courtesy of Battalion PR)
The NYBG is a 250-acre site with verdant landscapes and more than one-million living plants. I took this photo as we drove past the Library Building in the distance.
This is the Ruth Rea Howell Vegetable Garden – the centerpiece of the NYBG’s Edible Academy, a state-of-the-art educational facility featuring hands-on activities and innovative programs that help children, families, teachers, and the general public learn about growing and preparing vegetables, fruit, and herbs.
We also passed this flowering Cornus kousa, a small deciduous tree in the family Cornaceae. You may know it by one of its other common names – kousa dogwood, Chinese dogwood, Korean dogwood, and Japanese dogwood.
And then we came upon the beautiful Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. The David Austin rose ‘Leander’ greets visitors at the gate with its robust and fragrant rosette shaped blooms and its delightful raspberry scent.
The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden was restored and completed in 1988 in honor of Peggy Rockefeller who loved to garden and felt strongly about conservation.
At the center gazebo – ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ and ‘Awakening’ roses. I also have a few ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ rose plants in my flower cutting garden. It has beautiful little flowers held in large, open sprays of pale pink. ‘Awakening’ produces fragrant, old fashioned, three-and-a-half-inch fully quartered blooms of soft, silvery pink with a fresh, sweet fragrance.
Here is a closer look at the gazebo with all its beautiful roses in bloom.
There are blooming roses everywhere making this one of the most visited spots at NYBG from May to October. In the foreground, low growing ‘Peach Drift’, and the red climbing rose is ‘Winner’s Circle’.
Here is a view across the beds of some modern-day roses that require little or no spraying. Some of them include ‘Wedding Bells’, ‘Karl Ploberger’, and ‘Soeur Emmanuelle’.
‘Soeur Emmanuelle’ is a pink and lilac colored rose with strong, anise-lavender fragrance. It has large, very full cupped blooms which show off lots of petals throughout the season.
‘Mother of Pearl’ has an almost perfect flower shape. It is very hardy and disease resistant and was selected as the “Best Shrub Rose” by Birds & Blooms in 2014.
‘Divine Miss M’ is a luscious white rose with a little vanilla fragrance, named after singer Bette Midler to honor her work as founder of the New York Restoration Society.
‘Garden Delight’ has a yellow center with vivid pink edges that deepen with exposure to sunlight. The blooms grow in clusters and are old-fashioned, large and double in form.
‘In Your Eyes’ is a gorgeous new shrub rose that produces luxuriant clusters of three to five roses on its full, rounded form. Blooms start out a creamy yellow color accented by a red eye, maturing to soft lavender-pink with a rich purple eye. A delightful fruity fragrance accompanies these beautiful flowers.
‘Dark Desire’ has a nearly black bud that opens to a violet, red bloom. It has an enticing, strong perfume of apricot, geranium, honey, lemon, myrrh, and rose.
‘Celestial Night’ is deep plum purple in color with strong disease resistance and incredible flowering. Full blooms have a cupped and quartered, old-fashioned form that makes a stunning presentation both on the bushy plants and in a vase.
And look who it is next to ‘Celestial Night’ – the “Rock Star of Roses” himself, Stephen Scanniello. What a great surprise.
After seeing the Rose Garden, we were off to the Conservatory for the Ball. Here I am in the Palm Court in front of the dome and reflecting pool.
The black-tie event began with an hour of cocktails outside where guests were invited to see the exhibition “Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx.” (Photo courtesy of Battalion PR)
The exhibit is the first-ever to combine a horticultural tribute to Brazilian artist, landscape architect, and plant explorer, Burle Marx, and his design work, with a curated gallery of his paintings, drawings, and textiles. Here is his sculptural waterfall. (Photo courtesy of Battalion PR)
After cocktails, we were all directed to go into the Conservatory tent for dinner. (Photo by Angela Pham/BFA)
The tables were dressed in beautiful spring colors and seasonal flowers. (Photo by Angela Pham/BFA)
Here is the centerpiece at our table with gorgeous shades of pink roses. (Photo by Angela Pham/BFA)
Here is Chairman Emerita, Maureen Chilton, as she took to the podium to thank everyone for celebrating her nine-years of service as Chairman of the NYBG Board. (Photo by Angela Pham/BFA)
Here is a photograph of NYBG President, Carrie Rebora Barratt, Maureen, and current NYBG Chairman of the Board, J. Barclay Collins II. (Photo by Angela Pham/BFA)
Dinner included flavorful fish and salad. (Photo by Angela Pham/BFA)
And a tasty, light berry dessert. (Photo by Angela Pham/BFA)
It was another fun evening at The New York Botanical Garden. Please visit the NYBG the next time you’re in the NYC area. “Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx” is a magnificent exhibit and runs through Sunday, September 29th.
The gardens at my Bedford, New York farm are so very lush and green - it’s the perfect time for a garden tour.
As many of you know, every now and then I agree to small, guided walks around my property. This week, I welcomed members from our neighboring Katonah Elementary School, and a group from the Elizabeth Park Conservancy in West Hartford, Connecticut. I greeted both groups and gave them a brief history of my farm before leaving for a full day of meetings and events in New York City. When I am not able to lead these tours myself, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, guides guests through the various gardens, groves, and allees - showing them all that is blooming at the time.
Enjoy these photos.
Here I am with both groups before the tour began. Also joining this tour is Stephen Scanniello, rosarian for the Elizabeth Park Conservancy, president of the Heritage Rose Foundation, and curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. He is also best known for transforming the Cranford Rose Garden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden into one of today’s most acclaimed rose gardens. We’ve known each other for many years. I was so happy he could come by and look at all the gorgeous roses in bloom.
Ryan started the tour at the main greenhouse and two of my newest garden beds – filled with hostas and gorgeous white lilies, and bordered at the front with lush, green boxwood.
They walked through my flower cutting garden, which is finally starting to come together – it is looking more and more like my flower garden at my Turkey Hill home in Westport, Connecticut, except much, much larger – there are so many beautiful flowers blooming.
There are numerous types of dianthus – most have pink, red, or white flowers with notched petals.
Also in my flower cutting garden are beautiful irises in a variety of colors.
I have many roses in my flower garden. Some of them were transferred here from my home in East Hampton. I am so happy with how well they’re doing. In the last couple years, I’ve added to this collection of roses – David Austin roses and various varieties from Northland Rosarium. This arbor is filled with the rambling rose, ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’.
They are beautiful, little, rosette-shaped flowers held in large, open sprays of pale pink with a wonderfully strong musky fragrance. I have a few of these prolific roses around this space.
Under the arbor, we also have sweet-smelling wisteria – a high-climbing vine that blooms vigorously in spring with large, drooping clusters of fragrant lilac or bluish-purple flowers.
More roses grow around the perimeter of the fence – they’re all bursting with blooms.
The peonies are still up – I hope they are still flowering where you are. These peonies are in shades of peach and pink.
Outside the flower cutting garden, beautiful Aruncus dioicus, commonly called goat’s beard. It is a tall, erect, bushy, clump-forming plant typically growing four to six feet high which features pinnately compound, dark green foliage and showy, plume-like spikes of tiny, cream colored flowers.
In front of the flower cutting garden is one end of the long and winding clematis pergola. The gardens here transform several times a year. Now, some of the lily stems are already about four-feet tall. During this time, it is the bold green of all the foliage that stands out. In mid to late July, the bright orange tiger lilies come to life.
This Schubertii Allium blooms in late spring to early summer. It features up to 100 purple florets on 16 to 18-inch stems that radiate from ball-shaped umbels – so eye-catching.
The group also passed what I used to call the “party lawn”, where I set-up outdoor games, such as croquet and cornhole, during summer. Now I call it the soccer field. My grandson, Truman, is obsessed with soccer, and if you look closely, I put up a regulation soccer goal net at the other end of the field, where he and his friends love to play.
The tour then walked under the growing canopy of these majestic pin oaks, Quercus palustris – large full, ovate shaped trees with a growth rate of 24-inches or more per year. The pin oak is one of the faster-growing oak trees, and these specimens are thriving.
Adjacent to the pin oak allee is my large Equipment Barn topped with three of these old finials I purchased years ago – they are so perfect for this structure. My Equipment Barn is used for storing all our work vehicles and machinery, such as the tractor and Hi-Lo.
We’ve had a lot of rain in the Northeast this spring, which has done wonders for all the greenery – everything is so bold in color and full of life, including these weeping willows, which are located at one end of my evolving pinetum. These trees have sweeping, low branches and shady rounded canopies.
Here is my grove of American beech trees – always so beautiful in every season.
Next on the tour was the great Boxwood Allee. Ryan walked the group down the allee, stopping at various points to show plantings and structures, and to answer any questions.
The boxwood is looking so green. I just started using TopBuxus Health Mix, which prevents the fungal disease called box blight, and is available on Amazon. The pine needles under the boxwood also helps keep disease at a minimum.
The group also stopped at the vegetable garden. Here are Jude’s growing crops – everything is doing so well. She will love harvesting all these delicious vegetables.
On the opposite side of the garden, we planted our tomatoes. We always cover the beds with thick, black plastic to make them neat, tidy, and free from weeds.
Next door, in “coop #1”, our brooder of baby chicks and a peachick. Soon, I will show you our newest additions to the flock.
This collection of rose bushes is planted in the lilac allee just past my chicken coops and near my tennis court. It is filled with various shades of pink, fragrant rose blooms.
Close to the end of each tour, I always plan a small break for guests to enjoy refreshments and the sweeping views of the farm from my terrace parterre. Here are some members from the Elizabeth Park Conservancy. The weather on this day was just perfect – 70s and sunny.
And here is Ryan with members of the Katonah Elementary School PTO. On the far left is Samantha Holcman, its co-president.
The group got to see some of the beautiful clematis blooming around each granite upright along the pergola. There are several different varieties planted, but each pair of posts supports the same kind, and all in sparkling shades of lavender, blue and purple.
This time of year, I also love to display various tropicals around the farm – this one in a Martha Stewart Square Planter with False Bottom from my collection at QVC. Made out of fiber resin, these planters are so durable, light and easy to use inside or out. https://www.qvc.com/Martha-Stewart-17%22-Square-Planter-with-False-Bottom.product.M57677.html?sc=NAVLIST
And here is the old corn crib – original to the farm. Everyone loves to take photos of it nestled between the trees near the antique fencing along the paddock. What a lovely morning for a tour, and such gorgeous views of the farm this season. See more of photos of my vibrant plants and flowers on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.
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