CHANNELING MARTHA STEWART

 

 

CHANNELING MARTHA STEWART

By:  Ilona Saari

 

Cocktails… I love them! (I am a food & drink columnist of the Ojai Quarterly magazine, after all.)  I love cocktail parties.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking cocktail parties you may have seen in classic, black&white “Thin Man” movies when martinis reigned, or those 1950’s cocktail parties featuring food fare centered around hors d’oeuvres of onion dip, pigs-in-a-blanket, deviled eggs, and numerous Kraft toppings on Ritz crackers, especially Kraft’s cheddar cheese.  Brie on sliced baguette?  What’s brie?  What’s baguette?  Can’t find those in a Piggly Wiggly or A&P back then.  Then there were the legendary party hostesses in that by-gone era such as Pearl Mesta and Elsa Maxwell who threw elegant soirees for royalty and the WASP 400 which were featured on the society pages with pictures laden with Beluga caviar on toast points. Toast points? 

The 50s transitioned into the 60s and 70s...  the culture began to change, but cocktail food fare remained stagnant, doomed to the dip dungeon.  As a Woodstock generation budding writer in NYC, I admired the wit of Nora Ephron and the writings of NY Times Vietnam war correspondent, Gloria Emerson (full disclosure, both were acquaintances of mine).  But then Martha Stewart raced across my admiration radar with a bountiful blip.  No, I never did jail time, (though I was paddy-wagoned twice in ’68 in Chicago), but before her stint in the slammer, Martha introduced America to a life and entertaining ‘style’ … not for those ladies who held grand cocktail and dinner parties for the glitterati, but for the average American woman (OK, men, too) who wanted to tastefully (literally and figuratively) host a memorable party at home on a middle-class budget.  Martha’s knowledge of home design, cooking, gardening and, yes, marketing still astounds me.  Why, you might ask?  Well, even if you don’t, I’ll tell you.

As much as I love going to parties, I love, love, love throwing parties!!!  For twenty years my husband and I (in NYC, later LA) threw an annual Oscar party for 20-30 people.  To feed the crowd cheaply (we’re both writers, need I say more?), I’d make big bowls of baked ziti and green leaf salads, with nibble sides like chips and cheese and crackers. This was pre-discovery of Martha.  But it was our annual Christmas Eve holiday party held for over two decades in LA that became a tradition for 30-50 of our friends and their families. That’s when I began to channel the marvelous Ms. Martha.  Gourmet and design on a budget.

My husband during our (well, his more than mine) TV/film careers in LA had morphed into an incredible cook at the time chefs were becoming household names.  Over the years, Richard did his own Martha-channeling and moved from making basic turkeys, honey-baked hams and simple salads, into French cassoulets, gourmet beef or turkey chilis, fancy pastas, and not so simple salads, all on a budget for our open house (I did my Martha-thing by decorating every room). I even started a blog honoring this culinary growth - but I digress...  When we left the freeways behind and escaped to Ojai, our first months in town were lonely… we hadn’t met too many people and the thought of spending the holiday season without our LA friends was depressing.  Had we met enough people to perhaps throw a little holiday cocktail party that would end early enough for folks to party hop elsewhere and take away my holiday doldrums?  We invited 20-25 people we sort of knew and two long-time L.A. friends who had trail-blazed our move to this stimulating people-populated valley paradise.  I decorated and Richard planned his cocktail food menu.  Much to our surprise, every invitee came and a new annual tradition was started.

Whether the weather be warm or cold, a hosting trick I learned from Ms. Martha is to always keep the bar separate from the food so guests don’t congregate in just one area…  so, if it’s not raining, I set up our self-help, full self-service bar (or wine bar – depending on our budget) outside, with the cocktail food arranged inside on the dining and coffee tables.  If you can’t put your bar outside, put it in another room or across the party room from the food.

Besides a crudités platter (now with brie and other “exotic” cheeses, meats, nuts and fancy olives), we have offered stuffed endive leaves, pate - not expensive French pate, but my family’s make it yourself, Pate Therese I've blogged about here a few years ago or for your vegetarian guests, this faux chopped ‘chicken liver’ spread, also in this blog, along with new and improved deviled eggs, truffled - and other budget finger choices, plus Richard’s poached whole salmon filet, served at room temp with his homemade champagne or dill sauce to be scooped onto toast points (yes, we’re now “on point”), and a delicious creamy dilled shrimp hors d’oeuvre to spear with a toothpick and pop in your mouth (recipe below).

 

 

 

Faux chicken pate 

 

Dill shrimp appetizer bowl 

Always re-inventing herself, I still check out Martha’s latest cooking/design advice and think it’s cool she’s teamed up with Snoop Dog, which opened up a whole new smorgasbord of “edibles.”

This holiday season, channel your inner Martha, my dears, during this most wonderful time of the year. Throw a budget friendly cocktail party – your friends and family will eat it up.

 

DILLED SHRIMP

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups of mayonnaise

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup dairy sour cream

1 large red onion thinly sliced

2 tablespoons dry dill

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 lbs. cooked medium shrimp

 

In a large bowl, mix mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar, sour cream, onion, dill and salt.  Stir in shrimp. 

Cover and refrigerate overnight. Stir once or as many times you want.  We’re not stir-free here…

Serve with tooth picks… along with other nibbles, or even a few of Snoop’s edibles.

THE TASTE OF AN ELECTION YEAR

 

THE TASTES OF AN ELECTION YEAR

 

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold...

Sing it, Nat (as in King Cole in the old Johnny Mercer classic)...

Those falling red and gold leaves, along with crisp cool air, bright blue skies, college football games, a flask of whiskey, and a crewneck sweater tied around my shoulders bring back many a college memory.  I love fall.

Still do, even though I now live in the Ojai Valley, where there’s little fall nip in the air or a need for sweaters over my shoulders, crewnecks or otherwise. But the heat does recede, some leaves do change color, and we have a pumpkin patch for the kids who trick or treat with glee. 

Fall is the prelude to the winter holiday season, beginning with the celebration of Thanksgiving where many families and friends across the country share a traditional festive meal of turkey, stuffing, string bean casserole, and all sorts of pies. At least in Norman Rockwell illustrations.

These early autumn days also bring the political election season featuring stump electioneering, endless TV commercials, telephone calls to “donate to whomever” and a zillion texts and emails to do the same.  $1.00, $2.00, $10.00 or $100.00 – whatever you can afford... reams of literature and flyers left in your mail box... televised and non-televised political rallies, town halls, campaign meetings, primaries and caucuses.  And folks hosting dinner parties for various candidates or causes.

And as we approach Nov. 3rd 2026, this year is no different. 

In 1988, Richard, my writer-director-producer (in Hollywood, everyone’s a hyphenate) and great cook husband (and the reason I branched and started writing about food, but I’m digressing...), and I belonged to a gourmet group in L.A.  It was a presidential election year and in October when it was our turn to host the group’s monthly dinner, we decided on an election ‘theme.’  As the host couple, we provided the entrée and drinks. 

With family roots in the south, Richard decided our entrée would be Brunswick Stew... a southern tradition where politicians would use a pot of stew, traditionally made with squirrel or rabbit (“Hi, I’m Larry, this is my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl,” with rifle and a string of dead squirrels in hand, come to mind for you Newhart fans - RIP) and local veggies like lima beans, corn and okra to lure folks to campaign rallies and the polls on election day. “Cast your ballot, stop by for stew.”

Why Brunswick Stew? I hadn’t a clue. As a “Yankee,” I’d never heard of Brunswick stew.  Lamb stew, beef stew, even fish stew, yes – but Brunswick stew, nope.  But I soon learned the answer - it was very cheap for working folk to make and could feed a crowd.  Add a jug or two of moonshine, and folks flocked to the rallies and polls.  We, of course, did not have moonshine, but bourbon gave us all a healthy shine.

Stew Backstory: Brunswick Stew also caused a war between the states. Not North against the South, but Virginia against Georgia, both fighting over who first invented this hearty c0ncoction. It was called “The Great Brunswick Stew War” and it’s been waging for over 100 years.

Brunswick, Georgia claims to be the birthplace of the very first Brunswick Stew. But, but, but Brunswick County, Virginia fiercely makes the same claim. If you do a little research, Brunswick, Georgia made its first stew in 1898, and Brunswick County’s stew was created in 1828, 70 years earlier.

As legend has it, Dr. Creed Haskins, a member of the Virginia state legislature, wanted a special dish for a political rally. Jimmy Matthews, an African American hunting camp cook (and most likely a slave), concocted a huge pot of stew made with squirrel and provided the recipe for the rally.  The stew, named after the county, went on to become one of the most beloved dishes at all of Virginia’s political events.

The recipe for the stew, which then became a Southern favorite, varies from state to state, family to family. Many Virginia recipes now lean more toward chicken or rabbit as their meat ingredient, whereas Georgia’s recipes are more the beef and pork variety. 

I love humorist Roy Blount, Jr.’s reported explanation of this beloved dish: 

“Brunswick Stew is what happens when small mammals carrying ears of corn fall into barbecue pits.”

From a zillion recipes for this election season stew, here are links to two - a classic Virginia Brunswick Stew recipe and an old-fashioned Georgia Brunswick Stew recipe:

https://food52.com/recipes/38861-classic-virginia-brunswick-stew

https://thehappierhomemaker.com/georgia-brunswick-stew/

If you’re reading this column before November 3^th, please remember to VOTE – then on November 4^th, stew on the results.