My Thanksgiving at the Farm 2021
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was perfect - celebrated at my Bedford, New York farm with family and close friends.
Every year, my holiday begins with careful planning and preparation. This Thanksgiving, my dining tables were set for 16 adults and children. We cooked three large turkeys - one that was raised right here, one from Mike's Organic in nearby Stamford, Connecticut, and one D'Artagnan. The turkeys were cooked using my tried and true Perfect Roast Turkey 101 recipe and stuffed three different ways: fruits and nuts, herbed corn bread, and vegetarian. And of course, we had all the traditional sides including mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes Anna, Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce made in my fanciful turkey molds, and more. For dessert, a variety of beautiful pies I baked the day before and a delicious jello dessert made by my daughter, Alexis, and my granddaughter, Jude.
In all, it was a most enjoyable holiday gathering - enjoy these photos, and please see more on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.
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- Whenever I entertain, I try to set the table so it is a little different every time. I work with my housekeeper, Enma, on choosing just the perfect combination of plates and linens. Here, we used decorative blue Staffordshire turkey plates with light blue linen napkins on green leaf placemats.
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- Here is my long 18-foot table all set for the all-important Thanksgiving meal. One tip is to always be prepared for extra guests just in case someone decides to bring another along – it does happen.
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- In the same room, I also set a children’s table of four; however, the kids wanted to sit at the adults table, so they all moved their plates over and joined us.
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- I love taking out all the turkey decorations I have amassed over the years, including these dark amethyst turkey dishes. I have a large collection of turkeys. After all, I once lived on “Turkey Hill Road”.
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- My Operations Manager, Stephanie Lofaro, made lovely place cards. We cut around each name and whimsical turkey illustration and then placed them next to each plate in the Brown Room.
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- Every year, I like to cook three turkeys. This year’s birds were all about 20-pounds each and each very well-shaped. Here they are all covered with cheesecloth and ready for the oven.
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- This is one of my large turkey plates – a Staffordshire turkey platter, brilliantly-colored. Do you know… these decorative bird platters have been in production for more than 100 years? That’s right, when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving official back in 1863, English potters seized the opportunity to target the growing American market by producing turkey-themed dinner plates and platters. I have collected many platters and plates over the years.
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- Here’s another amazing platter from Meissen – a town of approximately 30,000 just northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of the famous Meissen porcelain.
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- And I love this blue and white illustrated platter – it’s English, I believe. To save time, take the serving dishes out the day before and label them with the food it will hold. I served all the dishes on one of my long kitchen counters in the kitchen – everyone helps themselves and then sits down in my large dining room.
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- And here’s my dear Empress Tang coming out to see all the activity.
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- Here I am with one of the perfectly roasted turkeys.
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- Each turkey was stuffed differently and plated on beds of herbs grown right here in my gardens. I am so fortunate to have fresh herbs growing all year long.
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- This turkey was plated with citrus and pomegranate.
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- My Perfect Roast Turkey 101 recipe, which is found on Martha.com, really creates a well bronzed and glistening bird. See my video on TikTok @MarthaStewart.
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- We also prepared potatoes Anna using sweet potatoes. But don’t worry, we had a big bowl of mashed potatoes too. The mashed potatoes were made using my mother’s recipe, which incorporates cream cheese for a rich and delicious taste.
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- This is a bowl of fresh pomegranate seeds from the big pomegranate fruits I received from our friends at POM Wonderful.
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- Here is one of the cornbread turkeys fresh out of the oven. The turkey molds I use are five-cup turkey molds from Nordic Ware. They can be used for cornbread, cranberry sauce, or even cake. I’m glad we made several cornbread turkeys – they went very quickly.
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- We used similar molds to make these beautiful cranberry turkeys.
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- One of my guests brought some delicious cheese crackers and Macadamia nuts. On the right, a bowl of roasted pecans.
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- My daughter and granddaughter made this gorgeous jello dessert using purple-grape jello, white grape jello, and pomegranate jello – all held together with a creamy blancmange, a sweet dessert popular throughout Europe and made with milk or cream and sugar thickened with rice flour, gelatin, and corn starch.
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- Here is my plate filled with scrumptious Thanksgiving foods. Everyone walked away with a full plate – and then went back for seconds, and some even thirds.
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- And here is my piece of jello – so creamy, so light, and so flavorful.
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- I was so pleased with all the pies I baked. If you saw my Thanksgiving Day blog, you know I made 22-pies – most to give away to my hardworking staff – a tradition I do every year. I saved three to share with my friends and family. Not one crumb was left over. I hope you all had a warm and memorable holiday with your loved ones.
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