HOLIDAY ENTERTAINING WITH MARTHA STEWART (TV)
Summary
This televised holiday special, the first from arts & crafts guru Martha Stewart, features festive cooking and decorating tips.
In this installment, Stewart prepares to host a Thanksgiving dinner for two dozen friends and family in her 1805 farmhouse kitchen, where she displays various festive molds and centerpieces. Stewart offers a brief tour of her home, including the "poor man's rug" stencil on the floor and husband Andrew Stewart's heirloom chandelier. She also displays a dinner table set for eight for a pre-holiday meal. Stewart then prepares a variety of dishes, including an Italian plum chutney, stored in canning jars, various forms of stuffing, and a 24-pound turkey stuffed with a "mosaic" of sage and roasted for several hours.
Next, Stewart visits a cranberry bog near Plymouth, Massachusetts, where she assists in harvesting four acres of berries with the help of a water wheel machine. Back at home, she prepares a cranberry cassis beverage with sugar and white wine, then allowing it to chill for three weeks before serving. Next, she prepares an unusual turkey that is draped in decorative puff pastry and glazed with an eggs and cream mixture before being browned in the oven. Following this, Stewart makes a "potatoes anna," an inverted pie-like dish filled with seasoned slices of potato and squash. After making a steamed "salad" of baby vegetables drizzled with a mustard sauce, Stewart sets the table with vintage 19th-century plates in a deliberate color scheme, reminding viewers not to leave the non-food-related preparation tasks to the last minute before an event.
Stewart visits her outdoor smokehouse, where she leaves several small turkeys to smoke overnight while also preparing several pheasants on a covered grill. Next up is a classic sweet potato pie, topped with "botanically correct" puff pastry decorations shaped like sweet potato plant leaves, as well as a classic pumpkin pie and a slightly less common grape pie. Stewart also serves some Brussel sprouts, fresh from her garden, in a brown butter, and then creates a soup tureen from an enormous pumpkin. Her guests soon arrive and admire the many dishes, including the unique pastry-covered turkey, the many pies and the cranberry cordial. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WGBH Boston, MA
- DATE: November 30, 1999 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:50
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:91777
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: She Made It Collection (Martha Stewart); Public affairs/Documentaries; Cooking; Holidays; Decorative arts
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV, 1986
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Butterball turkeys
- TV - Commercials - Pepperidge Farm products
- TV - Commercials - Sterling Vineyards wines
CREDITS
- Christopher Gilbert … Executive Producer, Director
- Robert Roche … Associate Producer
- Martha Stewart … Host
- Andrew Stewart