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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Our celebration/bon voyage family dinner party

June 9, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

I have been wanting to tell you about this for some time now. The Friday of Memorial Day weekend, we decided to throw an impromptu dinner party with just our family. We suddenly realized we had so much to celebrate! Our oldest is loving his new job, his girlfriend was leaving for Kuala Lumpur the next day to give a presentation during a convention there, our youngest, Zach was leaving for Vienna on Sunday to study German for six weeks and then vacation in Poland and Eastern Europe. Agata, his Polish girlfriend, just became a US citizen that week and her birthday was the next day! So we definitely needed a party, right?

So rather than going to the country on Friday afternoon, we stayed in the city and went grocery shopping. Everyone pitched in and after arriving home at 6:30 pm with the groceries, we had a full three course dinner to sit down to at 8:30 and we even had appetizers before. While we shopped, Zach and Agata set the table and sliced gobs of garlic for the mushrooms and the tatsoi. I wanted to do red snapper fillets and my fish market was too busy to deliver to me so I asked my Brooklynite son if he could hook up with his fish monger. He didn’t call to answer – he just texted me this picture!Fish monger filleted a whole Red Snapper in Brooklyn, NY.

We started with a leftover hummus dip that I had made earlier in the week and a wonderful store bought artichoke dip with vegetable dipping sticks and some crostini. The girls put together the pancetta wrapped mushrooms and I grilled those in a grill pan while the beets were roasting, rice was steaming, arugula and tatsoi were being washed. Corn nuts and toasted almonds rounded out the cocktail hour.Pancetta wrapped mushrooms that have been stuffed with garlic and grilled.

Roasted red and golden beets on a bed of arugula with toasted walnuts, gorgonzola and a sherry vinaigrette.Here’s our salad to start – roasted golden and red beets on a bed of arugula topped with toasted walnuts, Gorgonzola cheese and a sherry vinaigrette. My husband picked a beautiful Pinot Noir to go with the whole dinner.Roasted red snapper fillet with tomatoes, baby artichoke hearts, olive oil and oregano with steamed parsley buttered rice and garlic sauteed tatsoi on a burgandy rimmed plate.

Our main course was red snapper fillets topped with olive oil, salt and pepper, a little dried Greek oregano, sliced plum tomatoes and thawed frozen baby artichoke halves, all oven roasted. I finished the fish with a drizzle of O & CO Olive Oil with Lemon and served it with steamed Jasmine rice on which I had drizzled some melted unsalted butter with chopped parsley. Everyone oohed and awed at the rice. (Sometimes just a little bit of good butter suddenly makes it special.)

And the sautéed tatsoi with olive oil and garlic was a huge hit. I found that at this little farmers market by my office, right outside of the mayor’s building, City Hall. I’m sure it was just picked that morning in New Jersey. The greens were amazing! And of course the fish was so fresh and so delicious! It could have stood on its own with just olive oil and salt and pepper.Bowl of vanilla ice cream with Swedish butter cookies spread with Nutella.

Dessert had to be simple – Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream with Swedish butter cookies spread with Nutella. Simple, but really good! (Who doesn’t like Nutella?)

Many toasts were had and we all sang the Star Spangled Banner to Agata, which put her in tears. She and her mom are so happy to be citizens and they can even still keep their Polish passports. God Bless America followed while we all cleaned up. Sing-a–longs are just so much fun! It was a wonderful LOVE filled party.

P. S. Everyone arrived safely to their destinations, thank Goodness.

I share this story with you to encourage you to not let a spur of the moment reason to celebrate pass you by because of some silly justification, such as that you hadn’t planned it. We all need to celebrate these special moments in life. Dinners don’t always have to be a big deal with numerous recipes. All of this I just made up on the fly (when you cook a lot, this is easy to do; if you don’t, check back with me and I’ll keep sharing my secrets) and I used some good store bought items (the dip, the frozen artichokes, the whole dessert). The quality of your ingredients do matter – the fish was so darn fresh, and good quality olive oil and finishing butter also matter, along with super fresh vegetables. With these you can have a feast, made simple, as long as it’s made with LOVE. The real point is about getting people together to celebrate the good times, the accomplishments, the travel, whatever is on your plate (no pun intended). Sure, you could even order up food, but if you make it yourself, you also get the bonus time of everyone working and being together in the kitchen. Why is it that even with large parties, everyone always ends up in the kitchen? Because kitchen parties are always the best, because that’s where the real co-creation happens!

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  • Figs wrapped with proscuitto topped with Stilton, toasted walnuts, olive oil and balsamic vinegar on a white plate.Figs wrapped in prosciutto
  • Arugula salad with avocado, grape tomatoes, red pepper and roasted pepitas.Lunch on Friday
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Filed Under: Dinner, Fish Tagged With: baby arugula, gorgonzola cheese, Jasmine rice with parsley butter, Nutella, O & CO olive oil with lemon, red snapper fillets, roasted red and yellow beets, sherry vinaigrette, Swedish butter cookies, tatsoi, toasted walnuts

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Comments

  1. Merry Sheils says

    June 9, 2013 at 6:55 PM

    So inspiring!! Love the blog!

    Typos courtesy of iPhone!

    Thanks much Merrysheils@gmail.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/merrysheils 917-597-6363

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 9, 2013 at 7:17 PM

      Thanks Merry!! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Donna Shapiro says

    June 9, 2013 at 8:05 PM

    Yummy!

    Sent from my iPad

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:24 PM

      Yes!! 🙂

      Reply
  3. apuginthekitchen says

    June 9, 2013 at 8:16 PM

    So many reasons to celebrate and what a glorious feast. Everything looks amazing!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:35 PM

      🙂 Thank you!!

      Reply
  4. tinywhitecottage says

    June 9, 2013 at 9:07 PM

    How fun! And I agree about impromptu gatherings! Your dinner looks so delicious. Especially liking the mushrooms!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:25 PM

      The mushrooms are super easy and so delicious – do try them!

      Reply
  5. Maureen | Orgasmic Chef says

    June 10, 2013 at 7:58 AM

    Now THAT’S a family dinner 🙂 I’d love to have my kids around.

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:27 PM

      Thanks Maureen!!! I know – I’m sorry your kids aren’t around you way down under! 🙁

      Reply
  6. MARIE says

    June 10, 2013 at 11:02 AM

    So enjoyed hearing about your delicious celebration. I could feel the LOVE! Thank you for reminding us to find reasons to celebrate.
    BTW I made your Veggie Lasagna and it was fabulous. I was generous with the breadcrumb because we like that. Served it with chicken as a leftover too. I urge all to try!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:28 PM

      🙂 So happy!!!

      Reply
  7. abrooke65 says

    June 10, 2013 at 11:04 AM

    This is beautiful. Everytime you cook with one of your sons it looks absolutely incredible!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:28 PM

      🙂 Thank you!!! (I think they’re both surpassing me!)

      Reply
  8. ChgoJohn says

    June 10, 2013 at 11:07 AM

    Wasn’t that something? Such a great little party and to think it was organized on the spur of the moment. Well done!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:30 PM

      Thanks!! You’re sweet!

      Reply
  9. Margaret Brown says

    June 10, 2013 at 11:13 AM

    As a friend of hers I can say that one of the secret ingredients in MF’s cooking is that while she does it, she is focused on the task at hand, which is bringing love to her friends and family. Love gets translated into chopping, sharing thoughts, listening, laughing and being an all-around creator of feasts for the taste buds and the soul. All the ways that she does this (as in this example) in two hours she is generous enough to share with us all, giving us ideas for sharing in such a loving way, whether we are in New York City or places with less access to fresh, high quality ingredients. We all can bring love in very specific ways to our feasts, celebrations and daily fare. Thanks, MF.

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:33 PM

      🙂 🙂 🙂 Thank you Margaret!! You’ve got it right in your last sentence!

      Reply
  10. chef mimi says

    June 10, 2013 at 11:36 AM

    You are absolutely right miss Mary Frances! And isn’t it nice having intelligent and successful children?!!! Congratulations to everybody, and to you!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 10, 2013 at 10:34 PM

      LOL! Thanks Chef Mimi – you must have intelligent and successful children too!

      Reply
  11. yummychunklet says

    June 11, 2013 at 10:41 PM

    Great looking dinner!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 11, 2013 at 11:12 PM

      Thank you!!

      Reply
  12. Lucinda Ames says

    June 12, 2013 at 7:07 AM

    I totaly agree! Never pass on an opportunity to celebrate. Have the attitude of gratitude as one of our wonderful nuns at St. Vincent’s says. This inspires me to have a get together. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 12, 2013 at 6:50 PM

      Oh I’m so glad – go for it!!

      Reply
  13. redrice57 says

    June 12, 2013 at 11:58 AM

    A really good piece…enjoyed it very much and very true.

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 12, 2013 at 6:45 PM

      Thank you!! 🙂

      Reply
  14. Sunday's Child (trying to be full of grace). says

    June 12, 2013 at 2:51 PM

    I love that you celebrate family. Every single time I stop by, I leave smiling with a warmed heart.
    Thank you for sharing such goodness!

    Reply
    • Mary Frances says

      June 12, 2013 at 6:47 PM

      Awww – You’re so sweet! Thank you!

      Reply

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