If you're still thinking of what to get that special someone on your list, shop my collections for great ideas - we have items for decorating, cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, and so much more.
With just two weeks to go before Christmas, it can be hard to come up with that perfect gift. My collections are filled with lots of innovative and meaningful options to delight all your family and friends. If you're sending family photos to loved ones, consider getting a Martha Stewart Mixbook. What about a gift basket from my collection at iGourmet - they offer several items in one for the baker, the foodie, the coffee drinker, etc. If you're looking for sweets, send one of my offerings from Goldbelly - there are lots of pastries, cakes, and even my banana pudding, have you tried it? Shop my bedding at Target, my eyewear at Amazon, and my tableware and entertaining gifts at Macy's. Plus, don't forget Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon. Our meal kits include Martha Classic Cookies for the month of December. I have something for everyone.
Among my favorite gifts this year are my new stainless steel cooking utensils — inspired by the cherished cooking utensils I use every day at home. Made from professional-grade 18/10 stainless steel, these tools are strong and beautifully designed – spoons, turners, whisks and my popular square ladle.
These are special House on the Hill cookie molds. These charming molds come attached with hooks, so they can hang on your tree when not being used for making cookies. Go to Martha.com and order some for yourself and give some to a baker on your list.
My photo products from Mixbook are a great way to share the most important moments of your life. Visit the web site for photo cards, books, and holiday greetings.
Does the gardener in your life have a proper bag for all those tools? To store those gardening essentials, we offer the Martha Stewart Heavy-Duty Canvas Garden Bag, with 6 Exterior 11-Inch Interior Pockets. Expertly stitched with premium-quality, heavyweight cotton canvas, this spacious bag can safely stash a variety of gardening essentials. It also has reinforced carrying handles and a sturdy shoulder strap – just the right size to tote around the yard, garage, or garden. Visit my shop on Amazon to see this and more.
A Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meal kit subscription is perfect for those who are always on the go. We offer 45+ recipes from five categories every week: Health & Diet, Vegetarian & Vegan, Meat & Fish, Under 40 Minutes, and Family-Friendly. Plus, the kits include Martha Classic Cookies for the month of December!
Have you tried my delicious Martha’s Chard from 19-Crimes? It’s so well-balanced and smooth. It will quickly become your favorite new wine. You can find it in stores now. “Work hard, play hard and drink Martha’s Chard.”
Stick Candles are hand-cast in sister studios located in Old Forge, New York, and Highlands, North Carolina, where the small family operation lovingly creates 100-percent beeswax candles fashioned after fallen twigs and branches. These candles come in a variety of colors and boast a 14-hour burn time. Find them on Martha.com
Help someone on your list face the winter elements in my cozy Classic Sherpa Jacket featuring plush fleece pile, a button front closure, loads of pockets and an adjustable drawcord extended-height collar. It comes in cream or black.
At Target, look for my Martha Stewart Bartlett Plaid Cotton Percale Quilt Set. The quilt features two different plaids on the face and reverse. It’s also made with 100-percent cotton percale fabric for layering on cooler nights. Pair this quilt with the gray Mariana Blanket and the White Emerson Duvet Cover from my collection to complete the look.
Recognize my Chocolate Gingerbread Giant Cookies? I call these “one a day” cookies, because they’re large enough to nibble all day long! These big, chewy, chocolatey cookies are the best of both worlds – loaded with chocolate and all the makings of picture-perfect gingerbread cookies!
I love using cake stands for more than just cakes. I use them stacked up to add texture to my buffet table and fill them with all sorts of treats. Find these on Martha.com.
There’s more tableware and entertaining gifts available in my Collections at Macy’s. If you’re hosting a holiday gathering this year, you’ll want to check out my tabletop servers, glasses, and bowls.
This is my Martha Stewart Living and Learning Kids’ Dollhouse Bookcase – constructed with a sloped roof to resemble the shape of a house as well as a multitude of storage spaces and solutions, including three fabric bin-fitted cubbies on the bottom row. Great for storing items or “playing house.”
Do you know… I also have a line of eyewear? This collection includes beautifully designed frames available in an assortment of styles, including rounds, ovals, squares, rectangles, cat eyes, and hybrids. These sunglasses include a comfortable and impact-resistant polycarbonate lens with a protective coating that shields and protects one’s eyes from the sun’s natural and harmful ultraviolet rays, even on cloudy days.
“Martha Stewart’s Cookie Perfection: 100+ Recipes to Take Your Sweet Treats to the Next Level” from Clarkson Potter is a must-have for any baker. I love this book – it makes all those favorite go-to cookies even better. “Cookie Perfection” introduces new flavors, textures, and techniques, and incorporates equipment that isn’t traditionally used for making cookies. We tried all sorts of new toppings, tested unusual flavor combinations, and made sure every single cookie was fun to make and above all – absolutely delicious. Be sure to add this to your gift giving or gift wish list!
To keep the stress levels low this busy season, get my Martha Stewart CBD Wellness Gummies from Canopy. They come in a medley of delicious flavors, but also come in oils, and gel-caps.
In my kitchens, I like to store pots on large overhead racks where they double as a wonderful displays – especially the copper. This is my Tri-Ply 7-Piece Copper Cookware Set. It’s made from durable copper with 18/10 stainless steel tri-ply construction that enables faster heat conductivity and excellent heat retention and temperature control – it’s perfect for any home chef.
And here’s my favorite banana pudding, made with plenty of bananas, cream, and Nilla Wafers! Order a pack of two sharable servings from Goldbelly and gift it to all the sweets lovers on your list, and maybe even yourself. See all these products and so many more on Martha.com. It’s time to get into the holiday spirit! Have a safe and wonderful season.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, the outdoor grounds crew is busy "burlapping" - a term we use for covering all my winter-sensitive boxwood with burlap.
I am a big supporter of "burlapping" shrubbery for the cold season. Burlap covers protect the tender branches from splaying and breaking under heavy ice and snow while shielding the foliage from strong winds. Burlap is also more effective than plastic because it allows air to circulate through the plants. It is a practice I've followed for many years, and I think it also provides a cozy and pretty look to the winter landscape. This week, the crew finished the biggest part of this project - my long Boxwood Allée.
Enjoy these photos.
I love boxwood, Buxus, and have hundreds of shrubs growing on my property. I use boxwood in borders and hedges, as privacy screens, as accent plants in my formal gardens, and of course in the long allée to my stable. Just before it gets really cold, my outdoor grounds crew begins the process of covering all the boxwood with burlap to protect them from the winter elements.
These pipes are made from rolled galvanized 16 gauge industrial tubing. They are part of the supplies needed for our protective burlap structures. Hundreds of ground stakes, purlin pipes, connectors, nuts, and bolts are used for the project – all parts originally made for greenhouse hoop houses. I knew they would be perfect for covering the big boxwood shrubs around the farm.
To start, pieces are placed along the allée in a production line process. A long piece of twine is used to ensure ground pipes are positioned straight along each side of the allée.
Ground pipes are installed every four feet along the allée. These hollow pipes will anchor the supports.
Then, taller pipes are inserted into the ground pipes.
Small pieces of wood are pounded into the ground next to each steel ground stake. These short wooden pieces provide points at which the burlap can be secured.
These are 10-foot wide bow sections – they will last quite a while and give the boxwood a lot of room to grow. Building the frame at least a foot taller than the majority of the boxwood protects any heavy snow from weighing down onto the tender foliage.
Here is what it looks like once the bow pieces are in place. The boxwood has grown quite a bit in the last couple of years.
These are called tension purlin brackets. They connect the center piping to the bow sections.
Pasang secures the center piece that supports the bow sections.
And then Domi fastens the center pipe to the bow section using the tension perlin brackets.
Here is how it looks once the perlin brackets and the pipe are secured. Any snow that accumulates on top of the finished structures will slide down the sides.
Meanwhile, Moises Fuentes, who helps me with both gardening and cooking here at the farm, grooms the shrubs with our STIHL HSA 26 Battery-Powered Garden Shears. The HSA 26 is lightweight with a rubberized handle for comfort and a secure grip. It is one of my favorite tools to use – so easy and so sharp. It also comes with its own roll-up case to store all its accessories.
The burlap gets reused from year to year whenever possible. When it is removed in spring, it is rolled up, labeled and then stored in the dry trailer barn until it is used again. The labels save so much time because these burlap covers are made to fit precisely over a specific section of the allée.
This burlap is still in great condition – it usually lasts three seasons. Here, Chhiring is positioning it perfectly over the burlap frames.
Even scraps of wood can be repurposed for various projects. Here, we cut wooden stakes into small strips. The strips are about six inches long – just long enough to accommodate two screws that will keep the burlap secure.
To make it taut, the burlap is pulled down and attached to the ground stakes using the strips and screws.
At the ends, Phurba pulls the burlap taut and begins sewing it closed.
To sew the burlap, we use these large embroidery needles. Every grounds crew member has a needle for sewing.
Various birds love to nest in the big bushes, so we always add a few holes for our avian friends.
From the end, one can see how much room the boxwood has under the burlap. This will allow for good air circulation during the season.
Here is one finished section of the Boxwood Allée. The burlap still allows the boxwood to “breathe”, and get sunlight, which is important even during the colder months.
Chhiring finishes sewing the burlap in the last section of Boxwood Allée. It is a time consuming job – the entire process takes about two weeks.
But here is the allée all finished. I’ve been “burlapping” for many years and find that this is really the most reliable way to protect my hedges and shrubs. Covering this allée with burlap gives me comfort that all will survive the winter unscathed. And it is so pretty to see all done. And this is just the beginning… the crew has already started “burlapping” another part of farm – wait and see where the “cover up” happens next.
Have you ever tried moussaka? This flavorful Greek dish features a rich tomato meat sauce layered with roasted eggplant and topped with a creamy béchamel - and, it's another great and interesting offering from Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon.
It’s always nice to try new and delicious meals right at home. You will love the variety of recipes we provide. Each Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon box contains a large recipe card that shows a photo of the finished dish on one side…
… And each of the main steps on the other, with more photos to help show how it is done. What’s also great – these recipe cards can be collected and saved for future use.
Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon delivers fresh, pre-portioned, and well-labeled ingredients. The first thing we do is take out all the ingredients, place them on the counter where everything is easy to see, and check what we have and what we may need. This recipe also calls for olive oil, salt, pepper, flour, one egg, garlic and milk – items one likely already has at home.
First, Elvira cuts the eggplant crosswise into 1/2-inch thick rounds.
Then she tosses the egplant rounds with 1/4-cup oil and seasons them with salt and pepper. Now they are ready to go into the oven and broiled for about 10-minutes until they are well-browned. These rounds are on a baking sheet. The recipe card also lists what tools are needed to complete the recipe.
Meanwhile, Elvira coarsely chops the onion – also provided in the box.
And she finely chops one tablespoon of garlic, which is approximately three cloves, but if you don’t love garlic, use less.
She also coarsely chops the parsley leaves and stems. Doing all the cutting at once makes the cooking process quick and efficient.
Next, Elvira finely grates all the Parmesan cheese using a long stainless steel grater.
Use kitchen shears to cut the tomatoes in the can, which makes it a little less messy.
This photo shows the top side of the eggplant done. Once one side is cooked, they are flipped drizzled with oil and broiled again for another five to 10-minutes.
In a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, Elvira starts cooking the beef, breaking up large pieces with the spoon.
She adds a pinch each of salt and pepper and cooks until well-browned – about five to seven minutes.
At this step, Elvira has removed any excess fat with a spoon and added the onions. Stirring occasionally, the mixture is cooked until the onions have softened and browned.
Elvira adds the tomatoes, garlic, spice blend, 1/4-cup water, salt and pepper – and then brings it to a simmer.
Once simmering, the heat is reduced to medium, and the meat is cooked until it thickens. Then Elvira stirs in the parsley and seasons with more salt and pepper if needed.
It’s time to cook the béchamel. Béchamel, or white sauce, is a cooked mixture of butter, flour, and milk. It is a French base sauce used in dishes to add a wonderfully creamy element. Elvira heats two tablespoons in a saucepan over medium-high heat and adds three tablespoons flour. This is cooked until golden and nutty.
Next, she slowly whisks in one cup of milk and brings it to a boil.
The mixture is removed from the heat and then Elvira adds one egg and half of the grated Parmesan and a pinch of the spice blend.
The meat sauce is now in a separate bowl. Elvira layers the eggplant on the skillet and tops it with half of the meat sauce.
Then she repeats – a second layer of eggplant and then another layer of meat sauce. Moussaka is known for having distinctive layers.
The béchamel is poured over the top and then sprinkled with the remaining Parmesan cheese.
Finally, it is broiled on the upper rack of the oven until the topping is browned – about three to four minutes.
The moussaka is taken out, topped with the remaining fresh parsley and ready to serve. Do you know… the word “moussaka” means cold or dipped in liquid – perhaps used because this dish is delicious served warm or cold. Be sure to visit Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon today and sign up!