Entertaining

A guide to entertaining includes three hundred original recipes, and offers tips on cocktail and dinner parties, holiday buffets, breakfasts, and wedding receptions for groups ranging from two to two hundred.

In this exquisite and very personal book, Martha Stewart welcomes you into her world, where she entertains in the expressive and beautiful style that she has made so famous. Whether a simple blueberry breakfast on a Sunday morning in Maine or a more lavish holiday dinner at Bedford, each of the gatherings is equally memorable, for what Martha cherishes above all is spending time and sharing delicious food with her family and friends. “A meal of substantial finger foods with ingenious cocktails, a sit-down formal dinner, a buffet supper, or something more relaxed such as a backyard barbecue—each is a welcome and inviting way to entertain,” writes Martha. Featuring elegant and casual affairs held throughout the year and a diverse collection of enticing recipes, Martha’s Entertaining shows us—in the broadest and most lovely fashion—what it really means to entertain and host today. From an afternoon Easter egg hunt for children to a festive Halloween dinner held inside her horse stable; from a sophisticated cocktail party on a friend’s yacht in New York Harbor to a spring garden fête amid the most glorious beds of peonies, Martha’s parties offer a glimpse inside her beautiful homes. Each is unforgettable and endlessly inspiring. All of the events feature menus and stories for dreaming and planning, as well as delicious yet approachable recipes: Tomato and Gruyère Toasts, Mini Crab Cakes with Tarragon Tartar Sauce, Tiny Tuna Burgers, Leek and Porcini Risotto, Wild-Mushroom Lasagna, Braised Short Ribs, Roast Turkey Breast with Sage Butter, Rhubarb Crumbles, Blueberry Jam Tartlets, and Chocolate Honey Ice Cream with Butterscotch Sauce, plus some of Martha’s favorite drinks, including Pomegranate Cosmopolitans and Honeydew Mojitos. Mix and match the recipes to create your own distinctive occasion. Set among Martha’s dining rooms, kitchens, gardens, and patios, this is her most intimate book yet, a new classic for hosts and home cooks of every generation.

Entertaining at Home presents gatherings in the homes of leading tastemakers from the worlds of interior design, architecture, culinary arts, and society--including Lynn Wyatt, Suzanne Kasler, and Julia Reed, among others--who show readers how best to entertain with flair and finesse. Leading party aficionados share their successful strategies for delighting family and friends, offering their personal viewpoints and providing behind-the-scenes details that go into creating memorable occasions. They offer their approaches to arranging flowers, setting the table, selecting menus, stocking the pantry, compiling killer playlists, and purchasing the perfect hostess gift. Included are a variety of easy-to-master delectable recipes, such as bacon-wrapped pretzels, seafood chowder, spicy gazpacho, and refreshing sangrias. From a summer social in New Orleans and a lively luncheon in Texas to a lavish winter smorgasbord holiday dinner in Washington, D.C., the hosts offer a myriad of inspirational ideas. Whether it's an elegant table set with Leontine Linens or Pinot Grigio served in colorful cups and paired with potato chips and caviar, this book is a visual trove of festive get-togethers in beautiful residences. Lavishly photographed, it is the essential new go-to entertaining guide

In Comfortable Entertaining, Nathalie Dupree has written the book that gives us permission-at long last-to entertain in a less-than-perfect world. A much-loved cookbook and television personality, Dupree has thrown parties on rooftops and in tiny apartments, planned galas for hundreds, and put on last-minute get-togethers. Comfortable Entertaining is the book that shows us how to do what Dupree does best-create spontaneous hospitality and great food. This full-range cookbook and entertaining guide features twenty-six full menus, from holiday classics to an eye-popping formal dinner party for eight, from soup parties and brunches to more casual meals and salad lunches. Dupree displays colorful and attractive napkin and tablecloth arrangements, explains how to seat feuding guests, and tells us what to do when dinner burns to a crisp minutes before the guests arrive (order out!). Illustrated throughout with color photographs and packed with 250 life-is-not-perfect recipes, Comfortable Entertaining is as friendly, inspiring, and down-to-earth as a cookbook can get.

Not Your Mother's guide to recipes for today's entertaining.

That the history and curiosities of Ale and Beer should fill a bulky volume, may be a sub­ject for surprise to the un­think­ing read­er; and that sur­prise will probably be intens­i­fied, on his learning that great dif­fi­cul­ty has been ex­perienced in keep­ing this book within reason­able limits, and at the same time doing any­thing like jus­tice to the subject. Since the dawn of our history Barley-wine has been the “naturall drinke” for an “Englysshe man,” and has had no un­im­por­tant in­flu­ence on English life and man­ners. It is, there­fore, somewhat curious that up to the present, among the thousands of books published annually, no comp­re­hen­sive work on the antiquities of ale and beer has found place. Some years ago this strange neglect of so excellent a theme was observed by the late John Greville Fennell, best known as a contributor to The Field, and who, like “John of the Dale,” was a “lover of ale.” With him probably originated the idea of filling this void in our literature. As occasion offered he made extracts from works bearing on the subject, and in time amassed a considerable amount of material, which was, however, devoid of arrangement. Old age overtaking him before he was able to commence writing his proposed book, he asked me to undertake that which from failing health he was unable to accomplish. To this I assented, and at the end of some months had prepared a complete scheme of the book, with the materials for each chapter carefully grouped. That arrangement, for which I am responsible, has, with a few slight modifications, been carefully adhered to. The work did not then proceed further, as to carry out my scheme a large amount of additional matter, from sources not then available, was required. A few months later my friend was taken seriously ill, and, finding his end approaching, directed that on his decease all papers connected with the book should be placed at my disposal. His death seems to render a statement of our respective shares in the book desirable. When able to resume work on the book, with the object of hastening its publication, I obtained the assistance of my friend, Mr. J. M. D——. By the collection of fresh matter, in amplification of that already arranged, and the addition of several new features, we have considerably increased the scope of the work, and, it is to be hoped, added to its attractiveness. To my friend’s researches in the City of London and other Records is due the bringing to light of many curious facts, so far as I am aware, never before noticed. He has also rendered me great assistance in those portions of the book in which the antiquities of the subject are specially treated. The illustrations have been in most part taken from rare old works. As any smoothing away of defects in such relics of the past would be deemed by many an offence against the antiquarian code of morality, they have been reproduced in exact fac-simile, and will no doubt appeal to those interested in the art of the early engraver, and amuse many with their quaintness. As aptly terminating the chapter devoted to an account of the medicinal qualities of ale and beer, I have ventured to enter upon a short consideration of the leading teetotal arguments. In extending their denunciations to ale and beer drinkers, the total abstainers are, in my opinion, working a very grievous injury on the labouring classes, who for centuries have found the greatest benefit from the use of malt liquors. Barley-broth should be looked upon as the temperance drink of the people or, in other words, the drink of the temperate.