Product Description

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/22/2005

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59103 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2005-10-11
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 498 minutes

Amazon.com
Martha's Holidays is a very pleasant and warmly entertaining, three-disc set bursting with ideas for celebratory meals, decorating, partying, handmade gifts, and thoughtful gift-wrapping to get one through a busy Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. Start with Martha's Classic Thanksgiving for great ideas about traditional and novel ways to cook a turkey, including a "black-lacquered" recipe that might shock guests when the bird exits the oven (it has a coal-black exterior) but proves undamaged and delicious. Stewart's stuffing recipes can make one weak in the knees, especially a dish that starts with cornbread and fruit, and another that commences with apricots and prunes soaking in bourbon. (The latter could be the only stuffing recipe in history involving macadamia nuts.) There's good stuff on side dishes and desserts, too (be prepared for the cranberry-pistachio biscotti), and there are imaginative chapters on settings, centerpieces, and kids' crafts.

Martha's Homemade Holidays begin with four amazing possibilities for Christmas dinner, including one for standing rib roast and Yorkshire pudding (the segment welcomes renowned chef Anne Willan), another for seafood salad (with calamari, mussels, and lobster), the third a baccala ravioli dish that could be too good to be true (both the seafood salad and ravioli come courtesy of chef Mario Batali), and the last a duck-and-pomegranate meal (by chef Dan Silverman) that thoughtfully reduces the fowl's typical fattiness. Desserts include the basics on making chocolate truffles and gingerbread people, while decorating hints accentuate the simple and colorful. A section on Hanukkah is devoted to making embossed bags full of candy, and a dish called zalabia that has its origins in 165 B.C.

Martha's New Year Celebration has loads of fun with appetizers, including a shrimp cocktail made simply and with good ingredients, and an antipasto platter that could feed a small army. The grilled curried shrimp looks irresistible, and there's a helpful chapter on bar snacks, including how to make fabulous-looking pretzel sticks with varied toppings. The "Party Drinks and Cocktails" section includes essential info on chilling champagne, but Martha also delights in concocting White Cosmopolitans (white cranberry juice and ice-cold vodka), Passion Fruit Champagne (pour the bubbly right over a spoonful of the fruit's pulp), and Snakebites (hard cider and ale). Lots of party fun for the whole family, including a confetti trick sure to delight, newspaper party hats, kids' bubble-jumping (a likely hit), and balloon decorating. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Your holidays are set!!!
You'll be officially good to go with these DVD gems that cover the holidays from Thanksgiving way into the New Year. Martha took 3 of the busiest holidays and gives you one idea after another on how to make it festive, beautiful, and as always, delicious.

The quality of all of her DVD's is per her usual superb standards to digital transfer, with the colors pure, and the sound clear. Many of these are from her former TV show format, so with the quiet backdrop, and occasional soft music to set the mood, she gives you slow and steady direction to master all of her idea's. There are many printable recipes and plenty of information that you can download, so whether you have a computer or not, you can have all the notes you want, or need, to accomplish your desires.

The three disc set comes each in its own separate jacket, then placed within a holiday box. The back of each jacket has the listing of what is contained within that DVD so you have your index right at your fingertips. The DVD's are as such:

Disc One: CLASSIC THANSKGIVING

Turkey 5 Ways: turkey, stuffing and gravy 101/ deep-fried turkey/ rotisserie turkey/ black-lacquered turkey/ boned, rolled, and tied turkey.

Best Stuffings: cornbread, Challah, and fruit stuffing/ fruit and nut stuffing/ low-country stuffing/ sweet and savory stuffing/ stuffing 101

Favorite Side Dishes: brussels sprouts with lemon vinaigrette/ cauliflower with brown butter and roasted hazelnuts/ mom's creamed spinach/ garlic horseradish mashed potatoes/ Native American succotash

Special Desserts: Alexis' sweet potato pie/ cranberry pistachio biscotti/ pumpkin souffle/ individual rustic apple tarts/ perfect pecan pie

Table Settings and Decorations: gourd candles/ leaf-print tablecloth/ cornucopia tabel setting/ branch napkin rings/ 6 napkin-folding ideas/ harvest mantel/ thanskgiving table setting/ edible centerpieces/ etc

Kids Thanksgiving crafts: cornhusks dolls/ paper place mats/ pinecone turkeys/ silhouette kids table

Special Features: how to carve a turkey/ classic turkey platter presentation/ cranberry bog field trip/ 10 helpful how-to demonstrations/ thanksgiving planner/ printable recipes and instructions/ raffia cornucopia/ 6 gravy tips/ turkey trivia place card/ thanksgiving clip-art place cards/ etc


Disc Two: HOMEMADE HOLIDAY

Holiday Baking: chocolate truffles 101/ gingerbread people/ meringue mushrooms/ birch de Noel

Holiday Decorating: simple winter decorating/ making a wreath/ice votives/ spiced pinecones/ pearl tree topper/ elegant table settings/ etc

Handmade Ornaments: millinery fruit ornaments/ fumdrop ornaments/ clothespin ornaments/ origami ornaments/ ribbon candy ornaments

Christmas Dinner: standing rib roast w/ Yorkshire pudding/ seafood salad/ baccala ravioli/ duck breast with pomegranate walnut sauce

Hanukkah: Hanukkah gelt bags/ martha's potatoe pancakes/ zalabia

Gift-wrapping Ideas: gift wrap supplies and storage/ bubble print wrapping paper/ chenille bump ribbon/ rickrack cards

Handmade Gifts: velvet frame/ polar fleece hats/ button necklace/ magnetic chalkboard/ candy wreath teachers gift

Special Features: classic eggnog/ collecting Christmas ornaments/ sliegh bells/ candy kitchens/ planners/ marshmallow snowflakes (what a blast!)/ cookie glossary and recipes/ etc

Disc Three: NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Hor d' Oeuvres: shrimp cocktail/ antipasto for a large crowd/ cheese bites/ grilled curried shrimp/ bar snakcs/ stuffed mushrooms/ fig hor d'oevures/ seafood bloody marys/ mini quiches/ baked brie

Drinks and Cocktails: how to chill champagne/ Dom Perignon/ white cosmopolitans/ flavored fruit vodka/ passion fruit champagne/ cranberry sparkler/ snakebite

Party Fun: kids bubble jumping/ newspaper party hats/ noisemaker balloons and placecards/ well-wishing party hats/ confetti tricks

Decorations: New Years Eve flowers/ sparkling table runner and dessert buffet/ hor d'oeuvres platter presentation

Special features: printable recipes and instructions/ bar essentials checklist/ dessert buffet recipes

So there you go; all you need for a great holiday from November to January!! All the best from our friend Martha to us!!

Fabulous Gift For My Holiday Entertaining
As a Martha Stewart follower since my first days of entertaining while at Harvard University in the Dean's Office (1972), I have maintained my entire collection of Martha's catering and entertaining books, as well as her beautiful magazines. Now with the introduction of her new Holiday collection DVD sets - so beautifully photographed and complimentary to her elegant style - I am ready for my Holiday entertaining.

Welcome back, Martha!

Graciously - Mrs. Meg McDonough, Sarasota, Florida

Fun viewing and learning
This is wonderful, very fun to watch and a great resource for the Martha Stewart fans! I only wish they had added more recipes and fewer craft ideas, although the whole thing is definitely very enjoyable!