Martha Monday--Martha's Entertaining

I finally got my hands on Martha Stewart's Martha's Entertaining: A Year of Celebrations.  And it's amazing. 

Martha's Entertaining is an inside look at a year's worth of celebrations as planned, coordinated and executed by Martha Stewart.  All celebrations were authentic: they were done for that particular holiday/occasion, and nothing was staged.  What a refreshing change from the usual magazine schedule...for magazine layouts, they often shoot a feature or story 6-8 months in advance (such as a Christmas scene staged in the month of June). But for this book, the parties and soirees were real events hosted by Martha throughout the year.  Awesome!

The book is divided into times of day: Mornings, Afternoons and Evenings. Every single holiday was given its due, from Easter to Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas. Several dinner parties, cocktail hours, family breakfasts and picnics are also included, and formats ranged from very formal to completely relaxed.

Martha's Entertaining contains a ton of beautiful pictures about every aspect of each event: the food, guests, decorations, preparations, setting, etc. 

A large section at the end of the book contains recipes and how-to instructions.  No matter what you are planning, this book is sure to provide an invigorating dose of inspiration.

Have you seen this book? If so, what did you think?  I love the glimpse it gave into Martha's life.  Everything is so beautiful and it seems totally effortless to make it happen.  Though I know better--events are a ton of work, and Martha has an entire staff to do that work for her. 

Now, more so than ever, I want to live her life.  Or maybe be reincarnated as one of her dogs.  Either way, that's a win-win.

Resolute

So far, I'm sticking to my New Year's Resolution of trying new recipes...

...well, sort of.  We had lasagna on Wednesday. I've made lasagna before, but since it's not in my regular rotation (I make it once or twice a year, if even that) I'm counting it as a new recipe. It was delicious, easier to make than I remembered, and a nice change of pace for dinner.

But, I do need to branch out to truly new recipes, and I've been pouring over my cookbooks.  This is the stack on the family room end table that I peruse whenever I have a spare moment.  The tabs sticking out are marking the recipes I want to try:

And here's another shelf of cookbooks in the office:

This shelf is baking cookbooks only:

Of course, I have more cooking/baking books that don't fit on those shelves just laying around the house.  I want to go through all of them, try the recipes that sound good, and get rid of any that don't have something I can use. 

In addition to the usual cookbooks, I have years of back issues of magazines with valuable recipes.  Below are my office shelves dedicated to Martha Stewart publications (plus the Complete Chicken Cookbook which won't fit on the other cookbook shelf).  Some of the Martha Stewart books deal with crafts, organization and business, but I own a few cookbooks from her and I've kept every issue of Martha Stewart Living from 2005 on.  I've also kept every issue I've ever received of Everyday Food, which now amounts to a sizable collection of those. I need to go through each of these again and find recipes and meals that will work for my family. 

As if this weren't enough cookbooks and magazines, I also have 10+ years worth of Taste of Home back issues, as well as 10+ special Taste of Home publications (hardback books, recipe collections, etc.).  There's also two years of back issues of Better Homes and Gardens, and several binders worth of recipes, tips and ideas I've clipped from magazines over the last 14+ years. 

With all material for new dinner and meal ideas, I might need to change my resolution from trying two new dinner recipes a month to trying a new recipe twice a day.  And working out more. That, or investing in several new pairs of sweat pants. 

I'm leaning towards new sweat pants.