Spring Scalloped Potatoes (Adapted)

Cooking Martha Stewart's entire easter lunch menu for 20 people, part 1 - prep day for all 10 recipes from the menu published in 1982

7 ingredients•Prep: 20 mins•Cook: 1 hr

Ryan Nordheimer•

April 7, 2026

A few weeks ago I bought Martha Stewart’s first cookbook Entertaining. Because it was published in 1982, I really had no idea what this book was about when I purchased it since it predates my birth by about a decade and a half. When I got into bed that night with Martha (in book form), I started flipping through the pages and my mouth dropped open. Agape. I was in utter shock, disbelief, and mesmerization. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I certainly did not expect the book to include menus such as:

Russian Buffet for Twenty-four…
Midnight Omelette Supper for Thirty…
A Country Pie Party for Fifty…
Sit-Down At-Home Wedding For One Hundred Seventy Five…

I actually started laughing out loud. This book is NUTS. Actually, Martha Stewart is nuts. The photos of her barbaqueing multiple pigs simulatenously for a Hawaiian luau. The concept of her catering her sister’s and her brother’s respective weddings. The idea of cooking omelettes for 30 people at 11pm accompanied by “rock, classical guitar, or flute concertos”. The photos and menus seem like they’ve been pulled out of a dream world, and yet Martha did them all. Probably many times over at that.

I read the whole book cover to cover. I finally got a sense of Martha’s origin story. See, I had already consumed every YouTube video I could find of Martha Stewart, re-runs of her many TV series and what have you. But nothing ever about her start, her beginnings in food, how she became a boss. Her waxings on cooking at home for others. Her crudite philosophy. Her catering strategies and style. With every page and menu I read, I became increasingly inspired. I went to sleep that night with my mind buzzing.

Naturally, I thought to myself: “I could do this”. I called my friend Christine the next day and she said: “We could do this.” I mean, some of the menus at least. Maybe the ones with fewer than 24 guests, to start.

(Martha with the book in question. This photo also features the ham and iced vodka I ended up making.)

Ingredients (7)

Heavy cream(2 ¼ cups)
Scallions(4, roughly chopped)
Garlic(2 cloves)
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Yukon potatoes(4 ½ lb, washed and thinly sliced)
Unsalted butter or scallion butter compound(6 Tbsp, at room temperature)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 °F.
Add cream (2 ¼ cups), scallions (4), garlic (2 cloves), 1 tsp kosher salt, and lots of pepper to a small saucepan.
Heat over medium-low until simmering.
Meanwhile, take 2 Tbsp of the butter and grease a large casserole dish.
Shingle your potatoes (4 ½ lb) in the dish, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.
The bottom layers don’t matter aesthetically, but make sure your top layer looks pretty.
Pour the cream evenly over top.
Dot the remaining butter on top of the potatoes.
Cover with foil.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Then uncover and increase oven temp to 400 °F.
Continue to bake until the potatoes are deeply golden, tender, and the cream has reduced and is burbling, another 30 to 40 minutes.