Read an Excerpt

Introduction

My one hundredth book is here! It was so very, very exciting to be writing this. It seems like not so long ago that I was working on my first book, Entertaining. My then-husband, Andy, and our daughter, Alexis, flew to Utah to ski while I remained home at Turkey Hill Road in Westport, Connecticut, to put the finishing touches on that book. It was 1981. This year, the family—Alexis and her two children, Jude and Truman—went to Japan to ski and sightsee while I stayed home to focus on Martha: The Cookbook.

Over the course of a year, I compiled one hundred recipes that I am sure will appeal to many of you. I worked with an excellent team to photograph deliciously prepared food, cooked and styled elegantly in my home in Bedford, New York, using the very best available ingredients, much of it from my gardens. One of our most talented designers laid out the book and the typography, and I am absolutely thrilled with the results of our hard work.

It was not an easy task to choose just a hundred recipes from the thousands created over the years. I wanted to include some breakfast and brunch dishes, soups and salads, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinners, garden sides, and desserts. Every night, I remembered yet another dish I thought should be added and had to restrain myself. Without a doubt, I knew I wanted to include some treasured family recipes that my mother, as a matriarch of a family of eight, made regularly. Big Martha, as she was affectionately known, appeared on my shows about forty times, demonstrating her cooking techniques—she was always a fan favorite! Then there are those everyday dishes that I eat consistently; those delicious ones that I serve my friends when entertaining; and those truly spectacular recipes I reserve for special events. I have turned to each and every one of these recipes over the years, again and again, and I hope you will, too. Also sprinkled throughout the book, within each chapter, I have included photos from my archives that are dear to me and shared stories related to them. It has been fun recalling my first trip to Paris, when Julia Child and Jacques Pépin were on my show, and making pasta with Alexis.

Please enjoy the recipes we have featured and treat yourself, your family, and your friends to a little taste of my favorites—and do not forget to start compiling your own list of favorites to hand down to your loved ones.

Martha Stewart