Martha's Fans Bring "Entertaining" to Life

To celebrate the republication of Martha's first book, Entertaining, I asked the members of the Martha Moments Facebook group in early October to submit photographs of something they had made from its pages. They more than delivered! What a talented group of individuals. It is worth noting, too, that they are not paid influencers. These are everyday Americans with an honest love of Martha's work who enjoy cooking and baking recipes from her books on a regular basis. Among the creations: croquembouche, a pear tart, cranberry and chocolate-pecan tartlets, carrot loaf, poached pears, classic apple pie, mile-high lemon meringue pie, buttermilk biscuits, applesauce spice cake, stuffed chicken breasts, chicken pojarski, various hors d'oeuvres, Martha's eggnog, vodka frozen in ice, and more! I'm so impressed. Below are photographs of their creations.

Anthony Picozzi made Martha's poached pears. A beautiful presentation, as always.

Bernie Wong and Dennis Landon made Martha's almond pear tart, cranberry tartlets and chocolate-pecan tartlets. Their guest, Nathan Schmidt, made Martha's carrot loaf during a fun afternoon of visiting and baking together.

Bernie's almond pear tart looks perfect. 

Dennis's tartlets displayed exactly as they were in the book on a heart-shaped copper tray. 

Nathan's carrot loaf looks so appetizing!

Justin Giannunzio also made Martha's carrot loaf and displayed it in much the same way as Nathan! (Neither of them knew the other was making the loaf as their submission - a fun coincidence). Justin displayed his first-edition copy of the book in the background, signed by Martha.

Jack McKee made Martha's classic apple pie and her mulled apple cider. Look at that perfect pie crust!

Kevin Link made the applesauce spice cake, which looks perfect on a Martha by Mail cake stand.

Kristina Kloss made one of Martha's classics: croquembouche! It looks fabulous on another Martha cake stand.

Laura Guisbert-Clark made the mile-high lemon meringue pie. Looks divine!

Alison Geradot made the kiwi tartlets in the book. Yum!

It was the buttermilk biscuits for Annamarie Pearson. They look so fluffy and perfect!

Todd Hall made Alexis's brown-sugar chocolate chip cookies from the book.

Not everyone chose to bake. Brian Utz always uses Entertaining as an inspiration when preparing curdite platters, paying attention to how the vegetables are prepared and arranged. One of his go-to Martha tips is using a hollowed-out cabbage to serve the dip!

Brian's dining table all set up for guests!

Another one of Brian's beautiful tables, laden with fruits and vegetables, inspired by Martha's lessons in presentation.

During holiday time, Trellis Smith and his partner Lucas always serve vodka frozen in a block of ice, decorated with lemons and cranberries - an Entertaining original.

They also serve Martha's famous eggnog! 

William Silveira and his partner Robert Ahlers made Martha's stuffed chicken breasts from the book.

They look scrumptious!

Megan Dunton endeavored to make several savory recipes from the book, including Martha's chicken pojarski, which she says was a big hit with her family. (Notice the Martha by Mail Danish Fern dish).

Megan also made almond-stuffed dates with bacon, which she says are hearty enough to serve as a small accompaniment or side dish to a main course, such as roast chicken.

Roquefort grapes are an unusual but delicious choice as an appetizer. 

The easiest recipe in the book, according to Megan, is the cottage cheese and dill dip. She says she will never have cottage cheese any other way!

For Kemp Harper and Kevin Boling, it is the style of Entertaining that influences their aesthetic at home, although they always enjoy making Martha's pumpkin soup and cranberry-currant sauce from the book each Thanksgiving. (You can read more about Kemp and Kevin in an earlier post).

As for me, well I've only ever made one recipe from the pages of Entertaining, and that's coeur a la creme, a pillowy, creamy confection using a heart-shaped mold - one that was given to me by my friends Bernie and Dennis. It floats on a little pond of raspberry sauce. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in this fun little assignment. It's encouraged me to look a little closer at the recipes in the book and pull out my apron!

Guest Blog: Reflections on Entertaining

Kemp Harper and his partner Kevin Boling live in a beautiful Colonial Revival home in Indiana. It has been featured in magazines, on social media and YouTube decor and interior design channels. Much of the home's renovation and redecoration was inspired by Martha's design aesthetic and philosophy. Below, Kemp reflects on how one book, Martha's first book, "Entertaining", influenced many of their design choices and their style of entertaining.

In celebration of the reissue of Martha Stewart's Entertaining, I wanted to share just how much this book has meant to us over the years. When we moved into our Colonial Revival home in 2016, Entertaining became a cherished guide that shaped the way we host and create beautiful moments with guests in our home.

Many of Kemp's table settings are influenced by Martha's aesthetic. Here he is posing in homage to the cover of the book, Entertaining. Notice the chairs?

It's a well-loved, well-worn book in our household, especially the Thanksgiving section, which we revisit  year after year for the pumpkin soup and the cranberry currant sauce. But beyond just the recipes, Martha was truly the inspiration for how we like to entertain. Thanks to her, we learned to embrace the idea of guiding our guests through different spaces, making each room a part of the experience. We start with hors d'oeuvres in the breakfast room, move on to cocktails in the library, and then serve the main course in the dining room. It's Martha's influence that taught us to make each corner of our home part of the celebration.

Kemp with his partner, Kevin, in their vegetable garden.

What makes our copy even more special is that we had the incredible privilege of having it signed by Martha Stewart herself at her Turkey Hill home, where the book was written, photographed and produced. It felt like bringing everything full circle - having this treasured book signed in the very place that shaped Martha's own journey was truly special to us. It's more than just a book to us; it's a piece of our home's story now.

During the warmer months, Kemp and Kevin frequently entertain outdoors, finding new spaces on their property to set up tables and dining areas, just as Martha does.

Be sure to follow Kemp on Instagram @thecolonial_on_park

"Entertaining" Revisited

Martha's iconic first book, Entertaining, is being reissued this fall in its exact original format. Below are some thoughts on the book and its legacy. 

I was six years old when “Entertaining” was first published. It was not a book in my parents’ library, and I didn’t get my first copy until I was in my early 20s – a first edition that was badly dogeared that had very clearly been enjoyed by someone else for years. I got a more pristine copy a few years later at a bookstore in Toronto. The woman who sold it to me smiled broadly when I paid for it, saying she too had the book at home and looked at it every year during the holidays. I still have both of my copies and I treasure them.

The book will be re-published on November 4th, 2025, in its exact original format. Order here.

Full disclosure: I have only made one recipe from this book (a pillowy, heart-shaped confection for Valentine’s Day called Coeur a la Crème) and yet it is very much a special part of my book collection. Entertaining is special because of its significance in the arc of Martha's career - her first book, the first time she put pen to paper to document a style of entertaining that was beloved by everyone she had worked with as a caterer but that had not yet reached the American reader. It is also special because of its uniqueness in the world of publishing. It was the first cookbook to use full-page colour photography and the first book that blended cookery with elements of lifestyle: inspiration for table settings, flower arrangements, gardening advice, and guidance for hosting a party at home, whether it was an intimate gathering for four to six or a special occasion for dozens of guests. 

What the book really represents to me, at its core, is imagination. Each page is filled with an inspiring display of Martha’s sense of wonder for the world around her; her curiosity about unusual ingredients, her ability to source inspiration for a dinner party from the pages of classic novels, her use of found objects and meaningful collectibles on her tables and place settings. To me, that’s what this book is about: wonderment, enthusiasm, curiosity and potential.

Martha’s critics always jibe that entertaining at home using Martha’s edicts is unattainable, unaffordable, impractical and not especially enjoyable. But they’re missing the point. I can’t count how many times Martha has said in her television specials or written in her books that her content is merely a guide, a presentation of ideas and possibilities meant to inspire the reader. In the introduction to the second edition of the book, printed in paperback in 1998 with an updated cover, she writes, “This book was planned as a guide – a reference, an inspiration, and a compilation of usable, delicious recipes for any size gathering.”

She has never assumed or expected that a reader will mimic every detail on every page, right down to the damask napkins and the pumpkin tureens - (but if they wanted to, they could!) She is presenting a concept of entertaining that requires effort and organization, yes, but also the specialness of individual expression and a certain level of thoughtfulness that any guest would appreciate.

The world presented in the pages of Entertaining is entirely Martha’s, and that is very much the point. If harnessing one’s individuality and personal expression in the art of entertaining is the lesson she wants to impart to the reader then, of course, Martha must demonstrate it herself. This is her way of entertaining.

In Martha’s case, the eggs used in the oeuffs-en-gelee were laid by her own hens. The apples in her homemade pies were grown in her orchard – an orchard she had planted herself years prior, after careful research about orchard plantation. The dishes on her tables are mismatched but perfectly curated – some expensive and rare, some more common, some inherited, some found at tag sales and flea markets. Martha took every lesson she had learned about the art of making a gathering of friends and family feel special (lessons she learned mostly through osmosis during her years as a caterer) and then documented them in this book so that others could take part in this dream.

In Entertaining, she made real the imagery she saw in her mind of crowded dessert buffets set upon layers of antique quilts draped over long oak tables. She executed the French-influenced menus she had developed as a caterer, narrowing and expanding them to include a few guests, a dozen - or several dozen. She found new spaces in her gardens and the rooms of her home to set up small dining tables, inspired by what was blooming that season, or how the view from a window in a particular room at a particular time of year seemed to be a little extra special. 

The grandeur and scale of the parties presented in the book is not meant to seem daunting, nor is it meant to be perfectly replicated by the host or hostess; the book is spectacle for the sake of inspiration, a warming fire to ignite one’s own spark to imagine beyond the ordinary – whatever that may look like to you.

The book will no doubt continue to inspire countless readers as they embark upon hosting their first gathering at home. Remember that the main lesson here is not about doing everything on a grand scale, it is about expressing yourself with imagination, thoughtfulness and individuality.

"Entertaining" Turns 40!

 Martha's landmark first book will turn 40 years old this week! Published in December of 1982, "Entertaining" was to become the foundation for all that Martha accomplished in the decades that followed, setting her course as America's leading arbiter of taste, home cookery and home keeping. 

It was Alan Mirkin, an executive at Random House, who convinced Martha that she was capable of writing a book about the subject of hosting parties. He had been a guest at many of Martha's catered affairs, as well as at her home for many of her parties. The two became friends. Martha took her book plan to Clarkson Potter who gave her the okay with Mirkin's backing, and production began in earnest with Martha documenting many of her catered events and private dinner parties at her home, Turkey Hill, in Westport, Connecticut, with recipes for the menus and photographs of the completed dishes. 

When it was suggested that the book be printed in black and white, Martha insisted that the beautiful photographs in the book (which were taken by her then husband Andrew Stewart and photographer Michael Skott) be published in colour.  Having underestimated Martha's appeal, the publisher initially printed only 20,000 copies, which immediately sold out, forcing Clarkson Potter to follow up with a second printing of 500,000 copies. Today, Entertaining is one of the bestselling cookbooks of all time, having sold well over one million copies. 

What makes it such a treasure is the scope of its vision. Martha's determination and imagination are on full display on every page, surrounded by imagery that documents the resplendent results of her efforts: tables dressed with quilts and then laden with cakes and desserts under towering flower arrangements, or a table set perfectly for a formal dinner party under a crystal chandelier by a roaring fire. In the early 1980s, Martha intuitively understood the ambitions of her peers to have a home filled with fine food and good friends. 

The book helped to introduce Martha to the American public and what followed, in addition to many more books, were television specials, a partnership with Kmart, a magazine, a weekly television series that later aired daily, and finally a company that produced not only content through all media but produced the products to support the lifestyle the company promoted. Entertaining was the first step in Martha becoming Martha. 

I'm happy to celebrate this book's 40th anniversary. Below are quotes from the book that illustrate Martha's intentions for the book and some of her advice for hosting. Enjoy!

"I hope this book will give people ideas, just as other people, stories, experience, and food itself have me ideas. It is not intended only for the culinary elite, who are working to refine their cuisine, but especially for all those people who regard cooking as "preparing meals", as drudgery or duty - and entertaining as an even greater worry. For them, I hope to show that there are many ways of entertaining and that each ultimately depends not on pomp or show or elaborate technique, but on thought, effort, and caring - much like friendship itself."

"Entertaining is an opportunity to be individualistic, to express your own ideas about what constitutes a good party. For one hostess, it might be a small and elegant dinner, with poached salmon; for others, a large and boisterous pasta buffet, make-your-own sandwiches and an old movie, omelets on the patio, or tempura in the kitchen. There are as many good formulas as there are personalities."

"My catering business began by chance. I had taught a cooking class for my daughter, Alexis, and her peers. Then, tentatively, I placed a single ad in the local papers offering my services as a caterer, only to find myself preparing blindly for a wedding for three hundred. The menu was a novice's - extravagant, demanding and unprofitable: hors d'oeuvres, homemade pates, cold cucumber soup, salmon mousses, chicken breasts chaud-froid, and homemade breads. Down by Long Island Sound, on a sweltering August afternoon in an unsheltered beach club in Darien, I stood by the buffet and watched the aspic melt off the oeufs en gelee, and the top tier of a basket-weave cake slip starboard. I eliminated the oeuffs and pushed the cake back into place. Nevertheless, it was a very good party, and I knew I was hooked."

"Think of how the colors of your food might contrast or complement your dishes; think, too, of how the colors work together on their own. Sometimes the size of the ingredients makes a statement. Carrots left whole and then aligned in a graceful diagonal on a plate have a different, interesting look. A stew appears dramatically hearty if you choose large mushrooms and whole vegetables (baby carrots, new potatoes) and cut the meat into two-inch cubes. A chicken salad composed of big chunks of white meat makes an extravagant statement, while the same ingredients finely julienned make a delicate one. A sweet spring lamb is more appropriately carved into several thin slices than one hefty slab. In assembling a plate, respect the integrity of and the nature of each element: don't be haphazard, don't crowd, for the results are worth the extra few moments of time."

"Any form of entertaining involves expanding a private world to include others. It calls for an extrovert's heart and an introvert's soul. It is essential that you consider your guests' inclinations and interests in the planning, but it is equally important that you follow your own instincts. Entertaining, like cooking, is a little selfish, because it really involves pleasing yourself, with a guestlist that will coalesce into your idea of harmony, with a menu orchestrated to your home and taste and budget, with decorations subject to your own eye. Given these considerations, it has to be pleasureful."

"When I was in grade school I used to organize all the birthday parties in our neighborhood, just for the fun of arranging little dramas. And as I read all the classics, what remained most vivid in my memory were the banquet scenes in Sir Walter Scott, the Roman punch dinners in Edith Wharton novels, and the country weekends in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Entertaining always seemed natural to me, a matter of taking something very appealing to me - a favorite dish, a holiday, an activity - and making it bigger, to include others."

Martha Moments Readers Share Their Thanksgiving Photos

This is becoming something of a tradition at Martha Moments; every year I love to share the Thanksgiving photos submitted by members of the Martha Moments Facebook Group. Martha's influence is always so evident. And, more often than not, Martha's recipes and ideas are used to make these celebrations extra special. This year, because of the pandemic, there were a lot of "Thanksgiving-for-two" submissions. While gathering family and friends is one of the best parts of Thanksgiving, I think there's something to be said for a more intimate setting; it begets a more reflective and thoughtful mood and allows for genuine connections with the people closest to us. Please enjoy these photos! I've divided them into three sections: Table Settings, Turkeys and Treats. I think you'll agree that Martha fans are pretty fabulous - but we already knew that!

TABLE SETTINGS:

Lisa Novakoski-Howard set a simple, modern table for two at her home in Washington DC. 

David Pantoja and his husband in Philadelphia enjoyed dinner for two as well. David used his Martha by Mail fine bone china, mixed with Spode. The place card is one of David's beautifully-decorated cookies.

It was dinner for two for Anthony Picozzi in Massachusetts, as well. He set a festive corner at his large dining table.

Bernie Wong and Dennis Landon in Wisconsin used plenty of their Martha by Mail items for their table, including a Jadeite cake stand, a damask table cloth and runner, candlesticks and dinnerware. They also included Martha's new ruffled cake stand, seen in the background, which is available at QVC. Dennis decided to use his Martha by Mail pumpkin molds to make pumpkin-shape loaves this year: they turned out beautifully! 

Christine set a colourful and festive-looking table.

Betsy Saxe-Verrico also set a vibrant and colourful table that looks extremely welcoming. 

Sharron Van Hooser Thompson let a colour palette of browns and rust tones guide her table setting this year.

Marie Cosgrove began her dinner with individual charcuterie boards - a very nice idea! Her centerpiece is made from foraged grasses and greens. 

Tim Obert and his partner Matt Obey set a table for seven, even though only the two of them were dining in person; they later did a Zoom call with family at the dining room table to make them feel included. Tim used his Spode Tradewinds pattern dinnerware for the occasion - a lovely shade of blue with a ship motif. 

Hayden Regina set a very nice table for his "quarantine crew" in Chicago.

It was an elegant table for two at the home of David Zisa.

Trellis Smith and his partner also enjoyed a quiet but tasteful setting for two.

Paul Collins and his husband in Virginia made a delicious-looking dinner at their table for two.

TURKEYS:

Meredith Ferris's turkey looked beautiful even before it went into the oven!

And here is the finished bird: looks perfect!

Todd Hall's turkey looks so scrumptious and festive on this Martha Stewart platter, decorated with kale, lemons and pomegranates.

John Roberts did a beautiful job with his bird: crispy skin, and tender and juicy on the inside.

TREATS:

Brian Utz made Martha's cranberry tart from the November 2020 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Lauren Walcott also made the cranberry tart but decorated it with sugared cranberries.

Lauren also made Martha's Brown-Butter Pecan Pie from the same November issue.

Steven Bednasz also made one of Martha's pecan-pie recipes.

Todd Hall made Martha's double-crust apple pie from her Entertaining book! 

Ken Puttbach made Martha's Pumpkin-Chocolate Tart from the November, 2003, issue of Martha Stewart Living. (Looks delicious!)

Julio Torrado made Martha's Pumpkin-Spice Snacking Cake from her latest book, Cake Perfection.

And while this dish is savory, it is a treat nonetheless! Maria Newcomer made the beautiful Garlic-Herb Dinner Roll Wreath from the December issue of Martha Stewart Living. It looks spectacular AND delicious! 

I hope you've enjoyed this gallery! I wasn't able to include every single photo that was submitted (there were so many) but I think these photos demonstrate a real commitment to the art of celebration and cookery - two art forms that Martha encourages us all to learn. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!