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

Search Results for: pecan pie

Truly Southern Pecan Pie

by

Pecan pie is my all-time favorite dessert! My father was a correspondent banker for a large bank in St. Louis, and his territory was the Southeast area. He traveled all over doing business with smaller banks in the region. And as he became close friends with many of these folks, we used to visit them on family vacations.

I learned to water ski on Lake Norfork in Mountain Home, Arkansas at Powers and Louise Fowler’s weekend lake house. They had a really fast powerboat (Powers liked speed) as well as a pontoon party barge, (Louise loved a party). One time, when I was about 12 years old, for some reason, I was with my parents alone. None of my other 5 brothers were with us and we visited the Fowlers.

So my mom says, “Louise, you make the best pecan pie and it’s Mary’s favorite. I wondered if we could have your recipe.”

Mrs. Fowler said in her lovely Southern drawl, “Well honey, why don’t we just go and make Mary one right now, and of course you can have the recipe!”

Cocktail in hand, she got up, went straight into the kitchen and made me a pecan pie right then and there.

And I have been making them for years. These days I use less sugar and Karo syrup as I like things less sweet. If you like it really sweet, go with the full cup measurements.

MRS. FOWLER’S PECAN PIE
3 eggs beaten (take out early to be at room temperature)
1 scant cup of packed light brown sugar
1 scant cup of Karo light syrup (I know it’s not good for you – just close your eyes, just this once OR you can                                                          substitute 7/8’s of a cup of raw agave syrup)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs with a whisk, add in all remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 9” pie crust, which has not been pricked, but has been baked for 5 – 10 minutes, weighted with beans or rice in parchment paper.

Bake for 40 – 50 minutes. Test with a knife or toothpick in the middle – should come out clean and the center slightly set. Cool completely before cutting and serving. Bake this in the morning before your feast.

Serve with whipped cream sweetened with a touch of powdered sugar and some vanilla. I use 1/2 pint of heavy cream, 1 tbs. powdered sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla and beat until soft peaks form.

For me, this is the perfect ending to a Thanksgiving meal!

Pecan pie.

What a difference a pie makes…

by

So we had our friends Wayne and Margaret over for dinner last night and I decided to make a pecan pie (Mrs. Fowler’s recipe, of course – in an earlier post) for dessert, since I didn’t make one for Thanksgiving.

Margaret is a terrific, accomplished baker – she makes the greatest sticky buns and coconut cakes. But I’m telling you, make a pie from scratch and everyone loves you. First thing they said when they walked in the kitchen – “oh you made a pie!!”

As I was cutting the pie into eighths, after I had served the guys, Margaret puts her hand on mine (I didn’t know if this was going to be sexy or not – just kidding) and says, “Now cut this half in thirds.” I was floored and delighted that tiny Margaret wanted a bigger piece! While eating, she then proceeded to give me her mother’s secret for her pie crust and then asked to take another piece home! I loved it!

I used the recipe from my mother for my crust. Everyone thinks making a pie crust is a super big deal. It isn’t. You need to practice a little, follow instructions closely – this is baking – so it’s different from cooking as it’s much more exacting. But boy, do it, and everyone loves you!

We brought the two pieces home tonight (Steve had another piece before breakfast) and Zach was like, “Oh you made a pie!!!”

Here’s the recipe and hopefully some helpful photos.

BASIC PIE CRUST for Two 9” Single Crusts (cut in half for one bottom crust)
2 cups flour
1 scant tsp. salt
2/3 cup of Crisco or unsalted butter, cut into very small chunks
6 or less Tbs. ice water

Whisk together flour and salt. Cut in Crisco or butter until it forms “peas, “ using a fork or two knives or a pastry thingy. Sprinkle on ice water a tablespoon at a time, tossing lightly with a fork, or even better, with your hands, combining everything well after each addition. Press dough together and form 2 flattened rounds. Wrap each round in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour or two. Roll out quickly and lightly on a floured pastry cloth or floured board and then fold into thirds and place and shape into pie pan, fluting the edges as shown. Refrigerate overnight for a flakier crust, if you have time, or even for a couple of hours.

Line crust with parchment paper and fill with dried peas or beans. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, until lightly browned.

Carefully remove parchment filled with peas. Let cool for 15 minutes before filling. You’re a hero – you just made a crust from scratch!

Now Margaret says to take out 1/4 cup of the flour-salt mixture and mix it with 1/4 cup of ice water to make a slurry and then add that back in gradually to everything. I will try this the next time and see. Margaret has this German heritage and you know they know everything about making great pastries!

Unbaked pie crust

Unbaked pie crust

Unbaked pie crust with dried peas on a wooden cutting board.

Pie crust with dried peas

Partially baked pie crust on a white table.

Partially baked crust

Pecan pie.

Finished pecan pie

Hurricane Sandy, Halloween and New Features

by

Here in NYC, we are all trying our best to weather the most damaging storm. Personally and luckily, both of our homes are fine, no loss of electricity and no loss of trees upstate. But our office has had no power, so we’ve all been working from home or cafes that have electricity. We carry on, but our hearts and prayers go out to those who were closer to shorelines and not so lucky.

Sandy visited on Monday. The howling winds were so loud and scary that evening. It was such a helpless feeling just being in the middle of it. We woke up on Tuesday morning to an eerie quiet in our neighborhood. It was over, but the damage was massive.
Miniature pumpkinsAnd Halloween was last night, in a limited fashion here in NYC, with our major parade being cancelled. Halloween is also our wedding anniversary and I made the most marvelous veal chops for dinner! I’ll share that recipe later.

Meanwhile, with all the holidays coming, I wanted to tell you about our new feature on the right hand side of this blog, listing my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. From the ginger cranberry sauce, to the stuffing and pecan pie, it’s all there, easy to access, for you.

How’d it work out?

by

Thanksgiving roasted turkey.So how was your Thanksgiving? Ours was fantastic!  My family said our dinner was the best ever. But then they seem to say that every year I cook, so I guess I keep on improving? But truly, they’re still giving me compliments today so I guess it was really, really good!

I was particularly pleased this year with our appetizers. They were different and just the right touch, pre-feast. I made two recipes from Food and Wine magazine. One was for Texas smoked salmon tartare and grilled pancetta-wrapped mushrooms along with my artichoke dip. You can make the smoked salmon tartare and the artichoke dip the day before. I also had help. Agata made all of the mushrooms while I assembled the tartare on the chips with a cilantro leaf each. It was easy!

Texas smoked salmon tartare on blue corn chips as an appetizer from Food and Wine magazine.

Texas smoked salmon tartare on blue corn chips

Pancetta-wrapped grilled mushroom appetizer from Food and Wine magazine.-Pancetta-wrapped grilled mushrooms

My butternut squash soup was the best ever, I’m told. See this quick pic of the kids licking their bowls – seriously I did not ask them to do this for a photo op! This soup is based on David Waltuck’s recipe of Chanterelle fame, except that I have made my own revisions. One important one is that instead of cooking the squash by simmering it in the chicken broth, I oven roasted it at 425 degrees and then scooped it out of the skin to add to the broth and onions. Much tastier and you skip that difficult-to-peel step that makes your hands all wrinkly.Three kids licking their soup bowls clean

Oven-roasting butternut squash and sugar pumpkins

Oven-roasting squash and pumpkin

Pureed sugar pumpkin draining

Pumpkin puree draining

 
I also made two pies this year. One pecan and one pumpkin, from a fresh sugar pumpkin I roasted with the squash and then let it drain for several hours through four layers of cheesecloth. You need to do that to get all the water out and get to the true pumpkin flavor. The pie was so light and yummy!! Definitely give that a try.

Pumpkin pie with fresh roasted pumpkin and pecan garnish

– Super light pumpkin pie

The best Southern pecan pie from Mary Frances.

My pecan pie – Mrs. Fowler’s recipe

I hope you enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving, full of good family times, providing you with sweet memories to last the year through.

Three pumpkins at nightime - the end of Thanksgiving.

The end to a lovely day.

Gnocchi for a Birthday Party!

by

Homemade potato gnocchi with a simple red sauce in an antique china bowl, garnished with chopped chives.We celebrated my husband’s birthday last Sunday. The kids (our boys and their girlfriends) wanted to do an all day cook-a–thon again and my husband was delighted. As we did last year, we all made a different course while some of us created several dishes. Of course the food was great. With so much love and care going in to it, why wouldn’t it be! My boys are getting to be better cooks than me. And they correct me all the time on things. (I think I raised monsters.) But truly, the best part of this day, this party, is being all together, working in the kitchen and the banter that goes on. I LOVE it! My two courses were a pasta course and dessert. I made homemade gnocchi with a simple red sauce and pecan pie with whipped cream, which was Steve’s request.

Here’s a photo gallery of our afternoon and evening of celebration food.

Black olive tapenade with whole wheat Finn-crisp crackers.

Black olive tapenade with whole wheat Finn-crisp crackers

Chicken liver pate with toast.

Chicken liver pate with toast

Baby spinach salad with carrots and ginger miso dressing.

Baby spinach salad with carrots and ginger miso dressing

The birthday dinner table with the spinach salad.

The birthday dinner table with the spinach salad

Homemade potato gnocchi with a simple red sauce in an antique china bowl, garnished with chopped chives.

Potato gnocchi with a red sauce

Beef Wellington made with LOVE with a heart.

The main course – Beef Wellington made with LOVE with a heart

The main course plate - Beef Wellington, wilted escarole with a warm Balsamic dressing and crispy Yukon Gold potatoes.

The main course plate – Beef Wellington, wilted escarole with a warm Balsamic dressing and crispy Yukon Gold potatoes

Pecan pie, whipped cream and an amazing chocolate chip cookie topped with a little salt.

Pecan pie, (made with raw agave syrup instead of corn syrup) whipped cream and an amazing chocolate chip cookie topped with a little sea salt

And I really want to share this gnocchi recipe from Grace Parisi at Food and Wine magazine. This is the second time I have made this and it is so good and oh so very light. They came out like little delicate pillows. Two of the kids raced to the kitchen for seconds, of which there was little. This is really easy to make too. So give it a go and impress everyone. I served this with a simple red sauce with garlic, shallots and a couple of anchovies and garnished the dish with some fresh chopped chives. Basil or parsley would have been better but I already had some chives washed, dried and snipped so in they went. Serve with Parmesan or Romano cheese to grate fresh on top.

POTATO GNOCCHI – adapted from Grace Parisi at Food and Wine magazine – serves 6 as a first course

2 lbs. baking potatoes (about 4)
2 large egg yolks
Salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3 tbs. unsalted butter (optional) or a simple red sauce

Preheat the oven to 400°. Pierce the potatoes in 4 places with a fork. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour, until tender.

Halve the potatoes. Scoop the flesh into a ricer and rice the potatoes into a bowl. Stir in the egg yolks and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the 1/2 cup of flour; stir until a stiff dough forms. Knead the dough gently until smooth but slightly sticky.Homemade gnocchi being rolled out.
Homemade gnocchi being made - delicate little pillows.

Line a baking sheet or platter with wax paper and dust with flour. On a floured surface, cut the dough into 4 pieces, rolling each into a 3/4-inch-thick rope. Cut the ropes into 3/4-inch pieces. Roll each piece against the tines of a fork to make ridges; transfer to the baking sheet or platter.Homemade gnocchi ready to cook on a platter.

In a large, deep pot of simmering salted water, cook the gnocchi until they rise to the surface, then simmer for 2 minutes longer. Make a simple red sauce in a skillet and using a slotted spoon, add the gnocchi. Fold to coat all of them in the sauce. Serve immediately garnished with chopped chives and pass Parmesan or Romano to freshly grate on top.

Alternatively, in a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter. Using a slotted spoon, add the gnocchi to the butter. Season with salt and pepper and cook over high heat for 1 minute. Sprinkle with the cheese and serve.

MAKE AHEAD: The uncooked gnocchi pieces can be frozen on the prepared baking sheet, then transferred to a re-sealable plastic bag and frozen for up to 1 month. Boil without defrosting.

TIP: Save the baked potato shells. You can top them with a little grated cheese and warm up them to make a great little hors d’oeuvres on another evening or I like to warm a half up in the morning and put an over-easy egg on top for breakfast – delicious!!

One very happy birthday boy.

One very happy birthday boy!

 

 

 

Thanksgiving e-book is out!

by

ebook-Thanksgiving

Dear Food Loving Friends,

I did it. (the very famous line from Presumed Innocent – great movie!) But no, really, our Thanksgiving e-book is out! I wrote our first e-book on how to make a fantastic Thanksgiving meal. I have collected and put together my favorite 13 recipes, along with a process guide on how to get everything accomplished on the days leading up to the big day. This makes it easy for you. Understand that I have been making Thanksgiving dinners for quite some time now and this is a collection of my very best recipes. It was only last year, that I discovered the perfect side dish of Brussels Sprouts with a Fish Sauce Vinaigrette. Yes, really! I know it sounds weird but this dish works really well in the pairing with the other rich dishes that surround the turkey.

Of course, you don’t have to make every recipe that is there. Pick and choose to suit your taste. But in this book you’ll find the very best way to roast your bird to achieve moist, melt-in-your-mouth white meat that doesn’t even need gravy. But don’t worry, I give you the best giblet gravy to make as well, seasoned with thyme and the crushed roasted vegetables that formed the rack for roasting the bird. My appetizers are great too – light and just right and you won’t need a second oven to prepare them in, because I don’t have one at our country house, which is where we’ll be celebrating. My stuffing has become globally famous and the cranberry sauce is just sweet enough, punctuated with fresh ginger and orange zest. Believe me, I’ve tried dozens of different recipes for all of these dishes and in this book, I only present the ones that made it to stardom.

The process guide combats intimidation and will keep you organized and sane. (So will a glass of wine.) We’ve even included little check boxes for you to appreciate your accomplishments along the way. Of course, the book is beautifully designed by our team here at PM+CO, because that’s what I do in my day job.

Check it out here with a full listing of recipes. Please share your experiences with me. I welcome your input!

With LOVE,

Mary Frances

The Joys of Entertaining and of Being Entertained

by

So many people wrote to me that they were making my pecan pie recipe or my cranberry sauce or dressing for Thanksgiving! It’s so nice they let me know and it gives me such great joy to know that people are making my food all over the country and loving it! Actually, all over the world as our son, Zach and his fiancée, Agata, were in touch with me often from Warsaw, (thank goodness for Facetime!), as they made my whole Thanksgiving dinner from my book and entertained 11 people for dinner with only one guest being an American.

Zach, Agata and I chatted at length last Saturday, on my birthday, and they told me how much joy it gave them to see all their friends truly relishing every bite. Everyone just loved every part of their dinner, with even one of their guests getting up and sneaking the crumbs left in the pecan pie plate! How very happy it made them to see all of that!

Dining room table set for Thanksgiving dinner.Roasted turkey on a cutting board.That, to me, is the joy of entertaining and feeding people. That is what gives me so much pleasure.

Here are pictures of their table in Poland and their turkey.

Zach and Agata also said they didn’t know how I cooked Thanksgiving dinner every year, that it was SO much work. They remarked that the two of them were working together and that I did it pretty much by myself. Isn’t that so sweet? I do get help from my husband and honestly, I haven’t made it the last two years.

I wanted to share with you my big birthday celebration. Our oldest son, his wife, and my husband made a beautiful dinner and our friends, Anne and Frank, joined us. But before dinner, they sat me down on the sofa in front of the fire and played a video that they had made of my friends and family from all over the world, singing or wishing me a happy birthday!!! It was incredible and literally brought me to tears. Such an amazing, fun and super sweet gift!

Homemade pici pasta.For the dinner, they made homemade pici pasta with a parsley, sage, Parmagiano pesto, a beautiful half-leg of lamb on the grill with Julia Child’s mustard, garlic, soy marinade, and a delicious chocolate cake. That recipe was from Home Cooking with Jean-Georges cookbook, which I will share with you later.Pici pasta with a parsley, sage and Parmigiano pesto sauce.

Woman carving a medium rare half-leg of lamb.

Here I am, carving the lamb.

Awedge of chocolate cake with strawberries, a dallop of whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.

A beautiful birthday cake!

I know I am so lucky!!

As you get ready for the holidays, you may want to check out and download my holiday cookbook of small plates, savory and sweet. It’s free and yours for the taking.

Enjoy!!

Our holiday winter MARY’s secret ingredients box starts shipping tomorrow – Monday! Makes a great gift that will arrive in time for the holidays. And every purchase contributes to our partnership with Feed The Children. Maybe this can be the year we eradicate hunger. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Tarte Tatin

by

Most of you know me as not such a sweet person. I mean, I am nice, I think, but I do prefer savory over sweet any day of the week. So over the past 6 months, I have made this Tarte Tatin recipe about 8 times, trying to perfect it in order to make it worthy enough to share it with you!

Great for Thanksgiving!

I think this could be a terrific alternative to the pumpkin and/or pecan pie for Thanksgiving this Thursday. It is a little healthier approach, but only if you decide, because holidays are always a special time, and should be kept so, with traditions in your family.

If you do decide to make this on Thursday, you can easily start it while the turkey is still in the oven, then bake it while the turkey is resting, if you only have one oven.

Easy as pie!

I initially learned about Tarte Tatin about 35 years ago. I had one of my first big projects with American Express and I was art directing a large photo shoot for a series of billing enclosures – remember those lovely little 4-color ad inserts you got with your bill every month in those days? Well the photo stylist I had hired to find all the props and to be on the set to style, suddenly started talking about this Tarte Tatin she had made the night before at her boyfriend’s apartment. They had had a bunch of people over, drinking and partying and she just went into the kitchen to make this, easily, and of course, everyone loved it!

The apples cooking…

So, man, I was in. But her recipe had you make a Pâte Brisée as the crust, which is really just a French version of a pie crust with a lot more butter and here, I just used my pie crust recipe made with all butter, and added an extra tablespoon. I had an already-made crust in the freezer, which then makes this recipe super easy.

What struck me about her story is that, A.) this had to be super easy to make if she just went in and whipped it up, probably even after having a few drinks at that – similar to Louise Fowler making me a Pecan Pie and B.) what a great way to wow people and make them happy, similar to “Oh you made a pie!”

I have had her recipe all this time, but now, I created this even easier recipe with what I have here.

My Tarte Tatin recipe is super quick, just as long as you can peel apples fast, but do take the time to make sure the sugar caramelizes completely and if you have a pie crust already made, it’s money!!

Here you go!!

TARTE TATIN – serves 6 – 8

4 Tbs. butter
¾ – 1 cup of white sugar, depending on the sweetness of your apples
4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8th’s
Cinnamon – overall sprinkle
Nutmeg – overall grating of whole nutmeg
1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1 9” unbaked pie crust made with all butter plus an added 1 Tbs. of butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Coat a 10-inch cast iron skillet with the butter, melted. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the top of the butter.

Place apple pieces on top of the butter and sugar, rounded sides down, in a circular pattern. Do cram them all in the skillet!

Turn heat to medium-high and cook until sugar dissolves and begins to caramelize. Continue to cook until apples soften and caramel begins to brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Watch carefully and then remove from heat.

While the apples are caramelizing, sprinkle a work surface (preferably use a pastry cloth with a rolling pin cover) with 1 Tbs. flour and roll pie dough into an 11-inch circle.

Place crust on top of apples in the skillet and roll a rolling pin over the top to cut off the excess crust.

Bake in the preheated oven until crust is golden brown, about 20 – 23 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Do not allow it to cool any longer. Place a flat plate over the top of the pan and carefully invert to release the Tarte Tatin from the pan. Scrape any remaining apples stuck to the pan back on top of crust.

Serve with a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream and LOVE. Enjoy!!

Tarte Tatin ready to be served!

Chocolate Cake Recipe from Jean-Georges

by

Jean-Georges chocolate cake garnished with fresh raspberries and a tea light.
I realize I don’t post many sweet things. Not that I’m not sweet, mind you. 🙂 I am more of the savory type, loving salty things. But when I entertain, I do like to make a dessert, as long as it’s relatively quick and easy and this Chocolate Cake Recipe from Jean-Georges is simple and easy. It’s from his Home Cooking with Jean-Georges cookbook, which my sons gave me last year for my birthday – a signed copy – no less! The book is a collection of his favorite simple recipes.

Jean-Georges says his mother used to make this for him as an after-school treat. Nice treat! He also says it tastes even better after it sits for a day. We didn’t have a chance to try that as Margaret, our guest, took the last piece home, as her birthday was coming up and this gave us a chance to sing to her. (Maybe she can tell us.) The good thing about it is it’s nearly gluten free with only 1 tablespoon of flour and the rest being almond flour so even my sister-in-law Trish could eat it.

I used to bake all the time for my boys for their school box lunch. That was my Sunday afternoon activity – chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars, brownies, peanut butter cookies, snickerdoodles, and pecan bars – that were so sweet I couldn’t even eat them and those were their favorite! They were like a super, super sweet and buttery pecan pie. I LOVE pecan pie, but I could not stomach these things. Now that they’ve grown up, they do agree with me.

When I was a little girl, about 12 years old, one summer my mother gave me the responsibility to plan and make dessert every night of the week. I grew up in the Midwest – St. Louis suburbs – where in those days, dessert was mandatory. It could be as simple as Jello with Cool Whip (yuck) – which was a newfangled thing then – or more complicated like a pie. This taught me about planning and a lot about making desserts. Mom did a good thing!
A wedge of chocolate cake with strawberries, a dallop of whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.This is the same cake recipe that our daughter-in-law made for my birthday a few weeks ago. She garnished it with strawberries and the dusting of cocoa powder on the whipped cream was a nice touch. I garnished it with some raspberries and very slightly sweetened whipped cream. Lacking birthday candles, I used a tea light for Margaret’s birthday celebration. You know, you use what you’ve got. I also did not have a fluted tart pan or springform pan so I just used a regular 8” round layer cake pan and it came out fine.

Here is the recipe and don’t forget to add your LOVE when making. 🙂

CHOCOLATE CAKE – serves 6 – from Home Cooking with Jean-Georges cookbook

4 Tbs. unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
1 Tbs. all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
3 large eggs separated
1 tsp. granulated sugar
3½ oz. bittersweet chocolate, preferably Valrhona 66% cacao, chopped
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ cup almond flour
Dutch-process cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8” round fluted tart pan with a removable bottom or a springform pan or an 8” round layer cake pan, tapping out excess flour.

Whisk the egg whites with the granulated sugar until medium-stiff peaks form.

Meanwhile, fill a medium saucepan with an inch of water and bring to a simmer. Combine the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over the simmering water. Melt, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan.

Beat 1 yolk into the chocolate mixture to temper it. Beat in the remaining yolks, then beat in the confectioners’ sugar, almond flour and all-purpose flour until well mixed.

Add a third of the whipped whites to the chocolate mixture and mix well to loosen it. Then gently fold in the remaining whites just until combined. Jean-Georges chocolate cake batter in a cake pan.Pour into the prepared pan and gently spread evenly.

Bake until puffed and a knife comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto the rack. Let cool completely. Carefully flip the cake right side up. Dust with cocoa powder. Garnish with slightly sweetened whipped cream and raspberries or strawberries.

Enjoy!!

Shop

MARY’s secret ingredients

MARY’s secret ingredients is a limited edition culinary surprise box containing new, unique, gourmet products and a small kitchen tool. Every season, a limited number of themed boxes will be filled with lovely surprises to inspire your cooking and delivered right to your door.

In each box you’ll find mouth-watering sweet and savory products, as well as Mary’s favorite tips and tricks for creating delicious meals. On this blog, Mary shares recipes to inspire, using ingredients from the boxes.

Buy here.

Secrets for a great THANKSGIVING you will LOVE eCookbook

Love_Ad_thanksgiving_book_ad

Secrets for a Great Thanksgiving You Will LOVE – eCookbook for $2.99

Thanksgiving is a beautiful time of year. It’s about good food, loved ones and spending time enjoying both. It’s my favorite holiday in every way! But let’s be honest: cooking a feast is no small feat. I say that a glass of wine helps, but so does my time-perfected Thanksgiving planner — a step by step guide you’ll find inside these pages to help keep you happy and sane in the days leading up to the big meal. You will also find these 13 delicious tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipes:

  • Pancetta-Wrapped Mushrooms
  • Smoked Salmon Tartare on Blue Corn Chips
  • Artichoke Dip
  • Butternut Squash & Bourbon Soup
  • Cornbread Sausage Stuffing with Apples and Pecans
  • Best Roast Turkey Ever with Giblet Gravy
  • Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup and Ginger
  • Cranberry Ginger Sauce
  • Momofuku’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Fish Sauce Vinaigrette
  • Basic Pie Crust
  • Mrs. Fowler’s Pecan Pie
  • Whipped Cream
  • Pumpkin Pie

Get it here.
Get the Kindle version here.

Secrets for HOLIDAY SMALL PLATES Savory & Sweet! eCookbook

Love_Ad_Holiday_book_ad

Secrets for Holiday Small Plates Savory & Sweet! – eCookbook for $2.99.

The winter holidays are lovely. We celebrate with glitter, lights and all things cheery, and focus on what’s important — getting together with friends and family over good food and drink. If you are hosting, what you serve need not be elaborate, just delicious. This collection of ten small plate recipes, savory and sweet, will help your holiday entertaining to be stress free:

Savory
– Southern Cheese Straws
– Mary’s Bean Dip
– Roasted Whole Almonds with Sea Salt
– Feta with Black Olives
– Parmesan, Dates, Prosciutto and Roasted Almonds

Sweet
– Cognac Sugarplums
– Hello Dolly Squares
– Best Brownies
– Date Bars
– Lemon Bars on Brown Butter Shortbread

Get it here.

Pie Crusts with Lard and Other Thanksgiving Meal Questions

by

I trust that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful holiday – all about being together, with great food. What could be better? No worrying about presents or decorations, the focus is on food. With the major snowstorm we had all day on Wednesday, our electricity kept blinking, but still going, so the bread got baked without a hitch. I make my grandmother’s recipe for Polish bread every holiday.Homemade bread cut with two slices. This year, unfortunately I forgot to bring the recipe, but Zach’s girlfriend is from Poland and her family makes a similar bread recipe! Together, from our collective memories, we pieced together the ingredients and process and it turned out great! (Lucky!!!) Our other son, his girlfriend and her father all arrived safely early afternoon on Thanksgiving, and Agata made us another guest outside!Snowman with a skirt. 

So I have a question for all of you. Knowing that hydrogenated vegetable oil is not good for you, as it essentially never leaves your body, this year I decided to use lard in my pie crust recipe. I had to special order it from our little local grocery store. I made the dough the day before so it was fully chilled. It handled absolutely beautifully in rolling it out. I then even had time to chill the formed crust again before baking. However, my beautiful crimped sides all fell during baking. Pumpkin pie half cut.

You can see that here. What did I do wrong? Should I have used half lard and half butter? Pecan pie with a flakey pie crust.

But here you can see how flakey it was on the pecan pie. Yum!

Meanwhile, the fresh pumpkin extracted with the hammer and screwdriver produced the BEST pumpkin pie – epic – as our oldest said!

Then the next thing I want to ask you is what do you do for your green vegetable at the big meal? In my book and at our last two Thanksgiving celebrations, I did this Brussels sprouts recipe with a fish sauce – from Momofuku and published at Food 52. My husband and I liked this but as my friend Judy said, it’s an acquired taste. So my boys vetoed that recipe out of the meal this year. I replaced it with sugar snap peas (blanched for one minute) with red pepper strips tossed with a sherry vinaigrette and topped with nitrate-free, all natural bacon bits.

My theory was that this would be a great refreshing dish, a counterpoint to the richness of the dressing, turkey and gravy with the crunch of the just blanched snap peas, and the sherry vinaigrette would be a nice contrast to the maple glazed sweet potatoes. A cool, salad-like dish to be clean and different on the plate, right?

Wrong. I hated it. To me, it broke up the whole warmth of the entire meal. So what do you do? Please share!

Thanksgiving in Tuscany

by

Thanksgiving in Tuscany_Bianca's Post of the carving, the plate, the 2077 Amarone, the turkey.Last Saturday, I made (with a lot of help) Thanksgiving dinner at my friends Tiziana and Andreas’ house, in Tuscany, as they have a very large dining table, for 13 Italian friends, including my son and daughter-in-law from Poland.

Here is a video from the appetizer part of the evening.

Thanksgiving in Tuscany with Tiziana's table.And Tiziana’s beautiful table.

It was so great! They were all very excited and appreciative to eat and be a part of this truly American meal!!! Please take a look at all the pictures, and especially this video where my son Zach wheels out the huge turkey. It was 7.8 kilos – over 17 lbs. At the last minute, we all realized that there was no room on the table to carve the turkey and the platter was so huge and heavy with the bird on it, so Tiziana says, “let’s wheel it out” and is wiping off this cart that I never even realized she had! Zach wheels it in to the clapping and cheering of “TACCHINO!!!!”

It was thrilling and hilarious all at the same time!! 

To make this meal happen here was quite a lot of work as well as nervousness involved on my part. The stakes were pretty high. People were traveling in from Roma, Milano and Berlin. I was cooking with unfamiliar things in a kitchen I had never cooked in before. I made all of my recipes in my Thanksgiving book, but to get all of the ingredients and convert from pounds to kilos and translate the spices and EVERYTHING – I must admit – it was quite a feat. And, you can’t buy things here too early because the fresh fruits and vegetables do not last as long as they do in the States. Either we put preservatives on everything and they don’t, or the refrigeration systems here are not as good, or both.

It literally took me about 4 days to shop and find everything, and some things could never be found here in Arezzo. Fresh cranberries and pecan halves were an example, but luckily I discovered that beforehand and Zach and Agata “imported” them from Poland. The so-called “sweet potatoes” they have here, are nothing like ours so I’ll have to correct that somehow for the next time, as that was the only thing that was not so good. Perhaps we’ll have to import those from Poland next time too.

Poor Zach had to make many trips back to my house for ingredients I had forgotten to bring to Tiziana’s house. The vanilla extract, that I had to search for high and low at stores here, (it’s different from ours, by the way, it’s thicker), never made it into the pecan pie as I had forgotten it and Zach couldn’t make in time to bring it over and the pie had to go into the oven and be out, so the turkey could get in.

I made the pie crust first and I guess I was still a little sleepy. I was able to borrow measuring cups from Cristina’s kitchen, but I left the one cup measure in my dishwasher and thought the ½ cup measure I had brought with me was the one cup measure so the pie crust had only half the amount of flour that it should have had!! AUGHHH!!!

They were very buttery!!

So needless to say, I was a nervous wreck. And, the turkey was done 1.5 hours before planned! But it was a DELICIOUS bird. Through Chef Franco here and my friends, I’ve made friends with Marcello the butcher who thinks I’m just the funny Americana. He speaks no English and my Italian now, even with lessons, is poco. He calls Chef Franco or Tiziana to find out what I really want, but he always gives me the best and also moves me up in the line in his shop, much to the ire of the other Italian women, and offers tastes of things to me – which is not often done here.

Bianca, Tiziana’s daughter, likes to drink martini’s and I love them too but I would not normally have one before such a big dinner but by the time cocktail hour started at 7:30 and I had been working since 8:30 am and 4 days before, I said, “what the hell – let’s have one!”

Thanksgiving in Tuscany - my gift from my son in NYC and his wife.So between starting with martinis and the gorgeous bottle of 2007 Amarone (that has a very high alcohol content) that Franco (another Franco) brought, along with a lovely bottle of Vin Santo from Andrea, by the end of the evening, I was notably smashed – and then they surprised me with singing Happy Birthday right after midnight and a lovely gift, and flowers, and candied chestnuts, and I also received a surprise delivery of extremely gorgeous flowers and chocolates from my son and daughter-in-law in NYC. It was crazy good!!

So you can see it was quite an amazing day!!!

The dinner, I must admit, was spectacular. Zach said, “Best turkey ever!!” Marcello outdid himself. And, EVERYTHING else tasted amazing because the ingredients here are SO, SO GOOD!!! Everything! So Agata said, no matter where we are living in the future, we should always have Thanksgiving here in Tuscany!!

I agree!!

The apples and sausage and bread in the stuffing, the oranges from Napoli in the cranberries, even the cranberries from Poland, the baby butternut squashes for the soup were so, so sweet – it was all so amazing!!

Again, I don’t know what we have done to our food supply in the US, but here, everything tastes SO GOOD!!!! And of course, I added a lot of LOVE!!

I hope you enjoy these crazy pictures and videos!

Kale & Farro Salad with Spicy Butternut Squash, Broccoli, Radishes & Cashews

by

Kale and farro salad with spicy butternut squash, broccoli, radishes and cashews in two white bowls.There are so many snack boxes out there — Graze, Love With Food, Snack Nation and Nature Box to name a few. I went to a food conference last Saturday called Founder Made, where numerous new food product founders participated. A lot of discussion was had about how millennials eat, much of it revolving around snacking. And Graze was there touting their “healthy” snacks. 

Well I’m here to tell you that while their snacks may not be fried potato chips – they are “healthier” than that – but they are high in calories and sugar just the same. And if you eat three well-balanced meals, you should have no need to snack at all. Come on – one of their snacks was pecan pie pecans – that’s full of sugar and super fattening! That is not a healthy snack.  

So the millennials will be overweight and even more detrimental, not understand the value of eating right, balanced meals in the first place. This is like the “low fat” craze of the 80’s – total hogwash!

So what we aim to do with MARY’s secret ingredients is to introduce you to new healthy products that will easily turn a ho-hum ordinary meal into a special gourmet “company” meal. We want to show you how to create fantastic dishes, super easily, with the new healthy products we have curated for you. It might be a new flavored natural jam or a condiment that can be used on steamed vegetables to create a sauce that gives it a wow factor, or creating a unique marinade with tea or how to make a spectacular sauce for grilled fish. Suddenly, “ordinary” moves to “extraordinary” with a few simple moves utilizing our new natural products. And you will know EXACTLY that what you’re putting into your body is good for you, wholesome and will make you feel terrific!!! And we want to eradicate hunger with our partnership with Feed The Children.

All good things!

The spring box shipped last week and I’m excited to share with you the recipes for those new products starting later this week.

I found this today on The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation site – one of my faves:

The first wealth is health. – RALPH WALDO EMERSON

When you regard your life as a trust, you realize that the first resource you have to take care of is your own body. This can be startling. Even your body is not really your own. It belongs to life, and it is your responsibility to take care of it. You cannot afford to do anything that injures your body, because the body is the instrument you need for selfless action. That is the fine print of the trust agreement: when we smoke, when we overeat, when we don’t get enough exercise, we are violating the terms of the trust.

If you want to live life at its fullest, you will want to do everything possible to keep your body in vibrant health in order to give back to life a little of what it has given you.

So on to my recipe of this Kale & Farro Salad with Spicy Butternut Squash, Broccoli, Radishes & Cashews, which was super delicious!

I always think of butternut squash as a winter vegetable so I want to tell you about this dish I made up the other night before spring really gets here, even though it should be here already. All of us on the East coast are still wearing scarves and winter coats. It’s crazy!

This was totally yummy with a lot of ying and yang – cool and hot, spicy and not, crispy and soft textures – a beautiful symphony of flavors and a very satisfying vegetarian dish. Make it tonight – with LOVE – and all will be right in the world.

Promise.

Kale and farro salad with spicy butternut squash, broccoli, radishes and cashews in one white bowl.KALE & FARRO SALAD WITH SPICY BUTTERNUT SQUASH, BROCCOLI, RADISHES & CASHEWS – serves 4

4 oz. chopped kale leaves
1 cup farro, cooked
1 small butternut squash, cut in generous ½” squares
1 large onion, cut in ½” squares
2 Tbs. coconut oil
3 Tbs. spice rub* (recipe below – also great for pulled pork)
1 bunch of organic broccoli
1/3 cup chopped roasted, salted cashews
4 thinly sliced radishes
Olive oil for drizzling
2 wedges of lemon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

*SPICE RUB RECIPE:

1½ Tbs. sweet paprika
½ Tbs. garlic powder
½ Tbs. brown sugar
½ Tbs. dry mustard (Coleman’s)
1½ Tbs. coarse sea salt

Mix the paprika, garlic power, brown sugar, dry mustard, and salt together in a small bowl. 

This makes more than you need and is also great to rub on a pork butt to make pulled pork. Double it if you’d like to have some extra on hand. Keep in a tightly closed container

Combine the squash and onions with the coconut oil and spice mix on a rimmed baking sheet. Toss all to combine and roast in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes until tender. Toss at the halfway point, at about the 20 minute mark.

Meanwhile, cover the farro with about 3 inches of cold water. Salt with a little coarse sea salt and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 30 – 40 minutes. Taste test with a fork for tenderness. It should be a bit chewy. Strain in a fine mesh colander when done.

Wash all the kale in a lettuce spinner, removing any large stems. Spread on a clean counter to air dry, then chill in a paper towel lined plastic bag in the refrigerator.

Wash and peel stems of the broccoli. Cut each stem into 4 or 5 smaller stems and steam for about 10 minutes, until bright green and crisp tender. When done, remove the steamer of broccoli from the pot so it can air dry a bit.

Wash and trim the radishes. Using a hand mandolin, slice into very thin slices.

Coarsely chop the cashews.

Everything should be done all around the same time, so now you’re ready to assemble!

Line low flat bowls with the kale leaves. Place ¼ of the cooked farro in the middle, with the kale forming a ridge around the edge. Place a scoop of the butternut squash on top of the farro.

Chop the steamed broccoli into 2” lengths, leaving the flowerets intact and place them around the edge of the farro. Tuck in sliced radishes in four places around the bowl as shown.

Place chopped cashews on top of the squash. Drizzle some olive oil on the kale edge of the bowl, and follow that with a squeeze of lemon juice around that same kale edge.

Serve with LOVE, a Vouvray and enjoy!!!

Recipes

A
Almonds, roasted
Almond joy after-dinner drink with honey whiskey truffles
Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream
Artichoke dip
Artichoke dip, with Red Snapper Wildwood Arbol hot sauce
Arugula salad with mango, mint and grilled radishes, best unique 
Asparagus Risotto
Asparagus with basil and maple, sea salt pumpkin seeds – Superseedz
Aunt Rose’s egg and potato salad with anchovies
Avocado, blood orange, and baby kale salad
Avocado, watercress and pineapple salad

B
Baby artichokes and arugula salad with parmigiano
Baby kale, avocado, and blood orange salad
Baby kale salad topped with fried catfish, sauteed radishes, and Japanese turnips
Bacon-wrapped garlic and herb roasted pork loin
Bacon wrapped walnut dates
Bacon, lettuce, tomato (BLT) sandwich
Bacon, the best way to cook
Baked catfish in a Parmesan and quinoa chip crust
Baked, crispy chicken wings with Roquefort dressing – POURfect Products
Baked eggplant, Eggplant Tomato Layered Yum! with Greek oregano
Baltimore Old Bay hard shell crabs
Banana nut muffins with Loacker chocolate chunks
Basic pie crust
Bass, roasted with shallots, fennel and persimmons
Basting sauce, lemon garlic
Bean dip, Mary’s
Beef brisket, marinated
 Beef Stroganoff,Thomas Keller’s
Beef tenderloin, bacon wrapped
Beef tenderloin, garlic with horseradish sauce
Beef Wellington
Beets and tangerines on a bed of arugula
Beets, Indian spiced and roasted
Beef stew
Beef ragout, spicy
Best barbecued ribs
Best unique arugula salad with mango, mint and grilled radishes
Blueberry Buckle Cake
Blueberry Pie
Braised duck with red wine and prunes
Breakfast sausage patties
Breakfast sausage patties with shiitake mushroom
Black mission fig clafoutis
Black mission fig fruit salad
Blood orange, avocado, and baby kale salad
Blood orange, endive and golden beet salad
Blueberry crisp with an oatmeal topping
Braised chicken thighs with marinated artichokes
Broccoli and shiitake mushrooms
Broccoli rabe and pasta, super quick
Broccoli, roasted with radishes
Broccoli roasted with spring onions, with feta and bread crumbs
Broccoli with dijon butter sauce and crunchy chia seed strips (Carrie Mae’s Kitchen)
Broth, fish
Broth, vegetable
Brownies
Brownies w/ KIND Bar chunks
Bruce Cost Ginger Ale spice cake
Brussels sprouts, roasted with fish sauce vinaigrette. From Food52
Bucatini with eggplant, fresh tomatoes, spinach and feta
Burgers, lamb
Burgers, nacho
Burgers, turkey
Buttermilk biscuits
Buttermilk and blueberry gluten-free shortcakes with PS Seasoning
Buttermilk challah french toast
Buttermilk marinated roast chicken with tarragon and dijon mustard
Buttery sautéed green beans

C
Cabbage, napa, oven roasted and sauteed vegetables
Cake, pear and brown sugar
Canned and oven dried tomatoes
Carrot and parsnip puree
Carrot ginger soup
Catfish, baked in a Parmesan and quinoa chip crust
Catfish crusted with Sir Kensington’s Dijonnaise
Catfish fillets
Catfish, fried, over baby kale salad with sauteed radishes and Japanese turnips
Catfish, roasted with tomatoes and horseradish
Cauliflower and potatoes, mashed
Cauliflower, roasted with cumin and tomatoes
Cheese straw cornbread
Cheese straws, Southern
Cheesy sauteed squash
Chelsea Market Baskets Oatie Bites fruit crisp Chicken & pepper kababs
Chicken and sauteed summer vegetables
Chicken breasts roasted on tomatoes and fennel
Chicken breasts, tea and honey marinated
Chicken breasts with grainy mustard, jalapeno & lime
Chicken breasts with shiitake mushrooms
Chicken breasts with Just Jan’s tangerine marmalade
Chicken, buttermilk roast
Chicken goulash with biscuit dumplings
Chicken, grilled with lemon ginger basting sauce
Chicken, pineapple habanero jerk grilled, over salad
Chicken, provencal legs
Chicken, quick roasted
Chicken, roasted sumac
Chicken, Santorini grilled
Chicken, sesame braised in a pot with shiitake, daikon and ginger
Chicken stock
Chicken thighs, braised with marinated artichokes
Chicken thighs, Chenin Blanc braised, with parsnips and sage
Chicken thighs, roasted with arugula and potatoes
Chicken thighs, sauteed with bacon, shallots, and dry white wine
Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic using Joseph Joseph SmartBar
Chicory salad
Chiffon pie with luxury lemon curd and strawberries (English Provender)
Chili chocolate pork chops with Apple Aplenty
Chili, spicy chicken
Chimichurri-ed wilted endives with walnuts
Chinese 5 Spice Duck Legs with Lingonberries (Felix Jams)
Chipz Happen Cinnful Sweet Heat Ice Cream Sandwiches
Chocolate cake from Jean-Georges
Chocolate cake, silky
Chocolate cake, made-in-the-pan
Chocolate mousse trifle, peppermint
Chocolate souffle
Chocolate tahini cakes
Christmas cookies, rolled
Chrzan
Clafoutis, black mission fig
Cocoa spice rub
Cocktail, Almond joy with Catskill Provisions truffles
Cocktail, Mary’s Pimm’s
Cocktail, vodka, Gordon’s gin, Lillet and lemon
Coconut macaroons (with a Quadratini surprise)
Cod, oven roasted with fennel compote
Cod fish stew, with vegetables and Dutch’s Spirits Colonial Bitters
Coffee Cake with pecans, olive oil, and Benedictine (Magisso Cake Server)
Cognac sugarplums
Corn on the cob, the very best way to cook
Cornbread, cheese straws
Cornbread sausage stuffing with apples and pecans
Corned beef dinner, St. Patricks Day
Cornish hens, mustard teriyaki
Cornish hens, split, on stuffing
Cornish hens, with sauerkraut (Mark Bittman)
Crab cakes with chipotle mayonnaise
Crabs, hard shell
Crabs, soft shell
Cranberry ginger sauce
Cranberry walnut muffins
Crispy baked yukon gold potatoes
Crostini appetizer with roasted grapes
Crown roast of pork with fennel, sage, garlic and lemon
Cuban avocado, watercress and pineapple salad
Cumin and mustard roasted chicken with fruit
Cumin, lamb, and eggplant pasta
Curried, chilled zucchini soup with Apple Garnish
Curry and sesame crusted salmon

D
Date bars
Dates, bacon wrapped walnut
Date stuffed, garlic herb crusted pork loin roast
Dijon pork chops with herbs and grapes
Dijonnaise crusted catfish with veggies
Dinner salad with chicken thighs, caperberries and roasted lemons
Dip, artichoke
Dip, artichoke with Red Snapper Wildwood Arbol hot sauce
Dip, bean
Dressing, lemon anchovy
Drink made with vodka, Gordon’s gin, Lillet and lemon
Duck braised with red wine and prunes
Dutch’s Spirits Colonial Bitters cod fish vegetable stew

E
Easy Friday night shrimp salad
Egg and potato salad with anchovies
Eggplant parmigiano
Eggplant lasagna with no pasta
Eggplant, Mozzarella and Oil-cured Black Olive Spaghetti
Eggplant stuffed with Garlicky Lamb using Joseph Joseph Garlic Rocker
Eggplant tarts, Tuscan
Eggplant Tomato Layered Yum! with Greek oregano
Endives, chimichurri-ed, wilted with walnuts
Endive, blood orange, and golden beet salad
Escarole, Currants, Pine Nuts and Garlic

F
Farmer’s Market green beans
Farmer’s Market grilled chicken with lemon ginger basting sauce
Farmer’s Market pasta with sausages and pecorino romano cheese
Farro Salad with Rayzyn’s
Feta, radishes, watercress, and mint toasts appetizer
Fettuccine with garlic, roasted eggplant, sauteed broccoli rabe, fresh plum tomatoes
Fettuccine with salmon and sugar snap peas
Fennel compote with tomatoes and olives
Fiddlehead ferns
Fig, black mission clafoutis
Figs wrapped in prosciutto
Fillets of sole with sorrel
Fish broth
Fish sauce vinaigrette
Fish stew, cod with vegetables and Dutch’s Spirits Colonial Bitters
Fish stew, quick and easy
Flatbeans with truffle zest (Sabatino Tartufi)
Flounder in red sauce over pasta
Flounder Fillet with Garam Masala, Avocado, Coconut Oil and Mayo
Freekeh salad
French toast-buttermilk challah
French toast                                                                                                                                                       
Fried catfish atop a baby kale salad with sautéed radishes and Japanese turnips
Fried green tomatoes
Frisee with croutons and spicy olives
Frisee salad with persimmons and pomegranates
Fruit crisp, Chelsea Market Baskets Oatie Bites
Fruit salad with black mission figs, mango, red grapes and banana

G
Garam masala pork chops with mushrooms
Garlic beef tenderloin with horseradish sauce
Garlic chicken with anchovy lemon sauce
Garlic Hummus
Gazpacho, with sunny gold tomatoes and avocado
Gazpacho shots in 100 cups a day vessels
German chocolate cake topping                                                                                                                               
Get Dressed sesame sensation roasted eggplant noodles 
Ginger ale spice cake 
Gnocchi with shrimp and snow peas
Gnocchi, homemade
Golden and red beets on arugula with toasted walnuts, Gorgonzola, and sherry vinaigrette
Golden beet, blood orange, and endive salad
Goulash, chicken with biscuit dumplings
Gran Luchito & buttermilk marinated roast chicken
Greek salad
Green beans, buttery sautéed
Green beans, oven roasted
Green beans, skillet cooked
Green beans with shiitake mushrooms
Grilled eggplant, prosciutto, mozzarella, basil, and tomato sandwich
Grilled farmer’s market chicken with lemon ginger basting sauce
Grilled sardines
Grilled shrimp appetizer
Grilled pancetta-wrapped mushrooms

H
Harmonian orange glazed olive oil cake
Halloumi with Griddled Vegetables
Hearts of palm salad
Hard shell crabs
Hello Dolly squares
Herbed Sea Bass
Herbed, roasted fillet of sole (Gustus Vitae)
Holiday Cocktail with Stash MerryMint Organic Green Tea
Homemade body scrub
Hummus, best recipe

I
Ice Cream Sandwiches, Chipz Happen Cinnful Sweet Heat 
Indian spiced roast beets
Insalata Amalfitina (Jamie Oliver)

J
Jerk grilled chicken, pineapple habanero, over salad

K
Kababs, chicken & pepper
Kale and farro salad topped with spicy butternut squash, broccoli, radishes, and cashews
Kale salad topped with fried catfish, sauteed radishes, and Japanese turnips
Kale salad with dried cranberries, pine nuts and parmesan
Kale with ginger and carrots
KIND bar brownies

L
Lamb and veal meatballs
Lamb burgers
Lamb daube
Lamb ragu
Lamb Stew
Lasagna, vegetable with no pasta
Lemon anchovy dressing
Lemon bars, on browned butter shortbread
Lemon garlic basting sauce
Lemon sole roasted with leeks and tomatoes

M
Macaroons, coconut (with a Quadratini surprise)
Maddy’s Sweet Shop peppermint chocolate mousse trifle
Made-in-the-pan chocolate cake
Maricel E. Presilla’s Cuban avocado, watercress, and pineapple salad
Marinated beef brisket
Mashed potatoes and cauliflower
Memorial Day potato salad
Midwest potato salad
Mint toasts with feta, radishes, and watercress
Mrs. Fowler’s pecan pie
Muffins, banana nut with Loacker chocolate chunks
Muffins, cranberry walnut
Mushrooms, grilled pancetta-wrapped
Mushrooms, sauteed
Mushrooms, shiitake, with broccoli
Mustard teriyaki Cornish hens
Mustard roasted chicken with Nuts Over Fish topping
Mz. Curri roast chicken

N
Nacho burgers
Nachos made fresh and easy
Napa cabbage, oven roasted and sauteed vegetables
New Year’s crostini appetizer with roasted grapes
North African bean stew with barley and winter squash

O
Olive oil cake, Harmonian orange glazed
Omelette made with Spinach Dip Mix
Omelette of spinach and honey bbq chicken jerky (Chef’s Cut)
Orecchiette with shrimp and broccoli rabe
Oven dried and “canned” tomatoes
Oven roasted and sautéed mixed vegetables
Oven roasted green beans

P
Paczki
Pancakes made with SerendipiTea Holiday Cheer tea
Pancetta-wrapped grilled mushrooms
Parmesan and quinoa chip crusted catfish
Parmigiano, eggplant
Parsnip and carrot puree
Pasta with broccoli rabe and chicken sausage
Pasta with creamy lamb ragu and mint
Pasta with cumin, lamb, and eggplant
Pasta with flounder in a red sauce
Pasta with fresh tomato sauce
Pasta with salmon and broccoli
Pasta with sausages and Pecorino Romano cheese
Pasta with shrimp – and no garlic!
Pasta with slow roasted tomatoes, broccoli rabe, tuna and olives
Pasta with Sweet Sausage Bolognese
Pasta with tuna dinner
Pasta with Tuscan duck sauce
Patty pan squash, roasted, with fennel, green peppers and tomatoes
Pea soup, Sophia’s country split
Pear and brown sugar upside down cake
Pecan crisps
Pecan pie, Mrs. Fowler’s
Peppermint chocolate mousse trifle, using Maddy’s Sweet Shop “Lil’ Maddies”
Peppers, stuffed, Sunday night
Persimmon, pomegranate, and frisee salad
Persimmon, arugula, and fennel salad
Pesto
Pho, veggie, gluten-free
Pie, blueberry
Pie crust, basic
Pie, light pumpkin
Pie, pecan, Mrs. Fowler’s
Pimm’s cocktail
Pineapple habanero jerk grilled chicken over salad
Polenta
Pomarola sauce, Nonna’s authentic recipe
Pomegranate, parmesan, and chicory salad with nuts
Porchetta pork roast
Pork chop spice rub
Pork chops with caramelized red onion chutney, apples, and sweet peppers (English Provender)
Pork chops with chili, chocolate, and Apple Aplenty
Pork chops with dijon, herbs, & grapes
Pork chops with garam masala, mushrooms
Pork chops with peaches, sweet onions and shallots
Pork, crown roast with fennel, lemon and garlic
Pork loin, bacon-wrapped, garlic and herb roasted
Pork loin roast, date-stuffed, garlic herb crusted
Pork roast, red wine braised with apples and thyme
Pork roast, with fennel, sage, garlic and lemon (crown roast)
Pork sausage patties with lemon zest
Potato gnocchi
Potato salad, egg and anchovies
Potato salad, Memorial Day
Potato salad, Midwest
Potatoes and cauliflower, mashed
Potatoes, crispy baked yukon gold
Potatoes Mary
Prosciutto-wrapped figs
Provencal chicken legs
Provencal lamb daube
Provencal turkey burgers
Pumpkin pie, light
Puree, parsnip and carrot

Q
Quick and easy homemade waffles
Quick roasted chicken
Quinoa chip & Parmesan crusted catfish
Quinoa, vegetable, Zach’s recipe

R
Ragout, spicy beef
Ragu, lamb
Red and Golden beets on a bed of arugula with toasted walnuts, Gorgonzola, and sherry vinaigrette
Red snapper
Red Snapper Wildwood Arbol hot sauce in artichoke dip
Red wine braised pork roast with apples and thyme
Ribs, best barbecued
Risotto, asparagus
Roasted striped bass with shallots, fennel and persimmons
Roasted beets
Roasted broccoli with radishes
Roasted butternut squash with crispy sage leaves
Roasted butternut squash and red onion dip with Za’atar (Home Cook’s Pantry)
Roasted catfish with tomatoes and horseradish
Roasted cauliflower with cumin and tomatoes
Roast chicken, marinated in buttermilk with Gran Luchito smoked pepper paste
Roast chicken, prepared with Mz. Curri spice
Roasted chicken, cumin and mustard with fruit
Roasted chicken, quick
Roasted chicken breasts on tomatoes and fennel 
Roasted eggplant noodles
Roasted grapes on crostini appetizer
Roasted lemon sole with leeks and tomatoes
Roasted pompano with Falksalt Citron
Roasted sea bass with honey jalapeño mustard and leeks
Roasted squash and radicchio salad with buttermilk dressing
Roast turkey
Roasted vegetable broth
Roasted vegetable soup
Roasted vegetables with prosciutto
Roasted zucchini with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Rolled Christmas cookies

S
Salad dressing, lemon anchovy
Salad dressing, Dijon mustard and Sherry vinegar
Salad dressing, basic
Salad, arugula and baby artichokes with parmigiano
Salad, arugula, beets, and tangerines
Salad, blood orange, avocado, and baby kale
Salad, chicory
Salad, endive, blood orange, and golden beet 
Salad, freekeh
Salad, frisee with persimmons and pomegranates
Salad, Greek
Salad, Insalata Amalfitina (Jamie Oliver)
Salad, kale with dried cranberries, pine nuts and parmesan
Salad, Maricel e. Presilla’s Cuban avocado, watercress, and pineapple
Salad, mozzarella, tomato, baby arugula, and olive oil
Salad of arugula, roasted beets, and scallion
Salad, potato
Salad, red and golden beets, toasted walnuts, Gorgonzola, and sherry vinaigrette
Salad, shrimp
Salad, sirloin steak
Salad, spinach with dates and almonds
Salad, vegetarian delight (warm eggplant, zucchini, tomato, pepper, baby spinach)
Salad, watermelon with feta and mint
Salmon with blueberries
Salmon casserole, best recipe
Salmon, curry and sesame crusted
Salmon with mango tomato salsa
Salmon, roasted
Salmon pasta with broccoli
Salmon with fettucine and sugar snap peas
Sandwich, bacon, lettuce, tomato (BLT)
Sandwich, grilled eggplant, prosciutto, mozzarella, basil, and tomato
Sandwich, grilled eggplant, prosciutto, tomato and arugula (Joseph Joseph)
Santorini grilled chicken
Sardines, grilled
Sauce, cranberry ginger
Sauce, lemon garlic basting
Sauce, sorrel
Sauerkraut, Apple and String Cheese Salad
Sausage patties, breakfast
Sausage patties with shiitake mushroom 
Sausage, potato and arugula
Sautéed chicken thighs with bacon, shallots and dry white wine
Sautéed shrimp with kale, turnips and red peppers
Sauteed zucchini, with onions and radishes, topped with feta & oil cured Moroccan olives
Sea Bass, roasted, on a radicchio salad with sugar snap peas and apple
SerendipiTea Holiday Cheer pancakes
Sesame braised chicken in a pot with shiitake, daikon and ginger
Scallops, sauteed with pancetta
Sesame curry crusted salmon
Shiitake mushrooms with broccoli
Shirataki Harvest Noodles Marinara with Grilled Chicken
Shortbread cookies infused with The Tea Spot Meditative Mind tea
Shrimp Appetizer, Grilled
Side-dish, kale with ginger and carrots
Side-dish, snow peas with ginger, garlic, shallots, lemon, and mint
Sirloin steak salad
Shrimp salad, easy Friday night
Shrimp, spicy Goan
Shrimp Stir-fry with Asparagus
Skillet buttermilk biscuits
Smoked salmon tartare on blue corn chips
Smoked Tomato Soup
Smouldered shrimp and tomato appetizer
Snow peas with ginger, garlic, shallots, lemon, and mint
Soft shell crabs
Sole fillet with sorrel
Sole, roasted with leeks and tomatoes
Soom chocolate tahini cakes
Sorrel pesto
Sorrel and potato soup with bacon and MOM’s Popped Lotus Seeds
Sorrel sauce
Souffle, chocolate
Soup, carrot ginger
Soup, gazpacho
Soup, roasted vegetable
Soup, smoked tomato with Nueske’s sausages and Flathaus cheese straw croutons
Soup, split pea
Southern cheese straws
Spaghetti squash with roasted eggplant, fresh zucchini, capers and italian tuna
Spice cake, made with Bruce Cost Ginger Ale
Spicy beef ragout
Spicy chicken chili
Spice rub for pork chops
Spinach dip mix omelette
Spinach salad with dates and almonds
Squash with Tamarind concentrate
Stew of beans, barley, winter squash and North African spices
Stew, beef
Stew, cod fish with vegetables and Dutch’s Spirits Colonial Bitters
Stew, veal with rosemary and lemon
Stir-fry, shrimp with asparagus
Striped bass with shallots, fennel and persimmons
Stuffed peppers
Sugarplums, cognac
Swordfish, boiled with parsley pesto

T
Tartare, Texas smoked salmon
Tea and honey marinated chicken breasts
Toasts, feta, radishes, watercress & mint
Tonnato
Tomato chicken braise
Tomatoes, fried green
Tomatoes, oven dried and canned
Tomatoes Nicoise 
Tuna Salad Sandwiches with Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish
Torta, zucchini, fennel, red pepper, and mint
Turkey burgers
Turkey leftovers with butternut squash, asparagus, and persimmons
Turkey, roasted
Turnips, oven roasted and sauteed vegetables
Tuscan Bean Soup with Sfoglini Spaccatelli Pasta
Tyler Florence’s Beef Wellington Meal

V
Vanilla pots de Creme
Veal and Lamb meatballs
Veal Chops, braised with honey and grapes
Veal stew with rosemary and lemon
Vegetable Broth
Vegetables, mixed, oven roasted with warm beans and baby spinach
Vegetable lasagna with no pasta
Vegetable pho spring soup – Savory Choice
Vegetarian Delight
Veggie pho – gluten free
Vinaigrette, quick and easy

W
Waffles, quick and easy
Watermelon salad with feta and mint
Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard with leeks on roasted sea bass

Y
Yams (candied) for Thanksgiving
Yukon Gold potatoes, best stovetop recipe

Z
Zucchini, roasted with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Zucchini, sauteed with onions and radishes, topped with feta and oil-cured Moroccan olives

Easter 2015, New Beginnings and Bacon Wrapped Walnut Dates

by

Toasting white wine at Easter dinner 2015.Isn’t this what Easter is all about – new beginnings?

So I‘ve been slightly slammed lately, trying to get MSI off the ground, keeping PM+CO going, (cause that’s where we make money to pay the mortgage, rent and salaries) and just trying to balance it all to be able to sleep at night – which hasn’t been easy. So this past weekend, we got to go up to the country for the first time in four weeks! I cannot tell you how blessed we are to have this very simple place that is so very different from the city. I have my little painting studio there and I was working on a very abstracted landscape and got to go back to its simplicity and wow – that felt SO good! Even when we could drive up there, I had been away from the studio for so long because the snow was so deep, I wouldn’t have been able to open the doors. So I walked in last Saturday and really had to take a step back to try to remember what it was I was trying to achieve in my work.

I put it together and happily continued on for hours – and it felt SO good!! New beginnings – springtime – eh?!

Here is a snippet of our Peaster celebration! (Passover and Easter). We started with my husband’s delicious matzo bowl soup with one son’s homemade sourdough bread, followed by Barbecued Fresh Ham with an Ancho Fig Compote – both recipes from an April, 2001 issue of Food and Wine magazine – served with Parsley Buttered Egg Noodles, and Sesame Soy Sauteed Asparagus. Dessert was two gorgeous pies with whipped cream and of course, some chocolate eggs and jelly beans too!
Easter Sunday with antique toys on the dining room table.

We were privileged to have one girlfriend with her Mom and stepdad, one nephew, and one close friend of one son with his mom visiting from Turkey and the four of us. We made ten in total. It was wonderful and really, my boys take over. One makes drinks and one dotes on me to not get too stressed. They both help serve (because they just think I’m not capable?) One made the fantastic loaf of sourdough bread that we served with the matzo ball soup and the other acted as my sous chef earlier in the day. Honestly, I AM amazed. They know so much. I only wish my own mother was still alive to see this. My mother loved to bake breads. She unfortunately rarely had enough time when we were all home (6 kids) and then when she did have time, no one was home to eat it all! And here I have a son who has a sourdough starter (my Mom’s dream) and makes bread all the time!! He was making another loaf just yesterday morning. And this is a time consuming thing, particularly if you don’t have a big six hour dedicated time block. But he makes it work with his schedule. He’s figured out how to do it in stages, interrupted by all of his activities and it works!

Sourdough bread with an amazing crust.

Here is the sourdough with an amazing crust!!

To you younger moms out there, this is proof that it really does pay off to cook and serve healthy meals at home. The one girlfriend said at Easter, “Oh well god forbid, if I even TRY to throw out the chicken bones, I get yelled at – gotta make broth!”

And I’m sitting there thinking, I don’t make broth with every chicken…. 

I hope you all had a great holiday celebration – whatever you celebrate – it’s just important you get together and CELEBRATE!! EVERYTHING!!

Serving bacon wrapped walnut stuffed dates.Take a look at this fantastic, simple appetizer that everyone loved. I’m sorry that this photograph is not great but here I am holding a plate of these Bacon Wrapped Walnut Stuffed Dates, and talking to one of our guests, while licking my fingers!j

Carving a barbecued fresh ham.

My big beautiful barbecued fresh ham!

Big bowl of parsley buttered egg noodles.

A big bowl of comforting, parsley buttered egg noodles. Who doesn’t love that?

Beautiful pecan and blueberry pies for Easter dessert.

Kate’s beautiful pecan and blueberry pies.

These are amazing – make them and you’ll see! 

BACON WRAPPED WALNUT DATES – serves 10

20 large Medjool dates, slit the long way but not cut all the way through, and pitted
20 walnut halves
10 slices of thin sliced bacon, cut in half

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Stuff a walnut in the middle of each date, close and wrap with 1/2 of a slice of bacon, having the ends meet underneath the date. Arrange on a small broiler pan with a rack so grease can drip down. 

Roast for 12 – 17 minutes, until the bacon is done. Let cool 5  – 10 minutes as they are much too hot straight out of the oven. Serve with LOVE and a toothpick inserted in each one, plus plenty of napkins. Delish!!

Best Blueberry Pie – Mary’s Version

by

It’s blueberry season and I had been having a craving for this Best Blueberry Pie– it’s the pie by Rose Levy Beranbaum from Food 52. Only now I have remade the recipe – Best Blueberry Pie – Mary’s Version!

The weekend before last, I was invited to my new friend Maria’s house in Bayville, NY. Her home is smack dab right on the water, the beautiful Long Island Sound. It is just gorgeous! Maria is also a recent widow like me, and has a terrific group of great friends who get together on a regular basis. They are all foodies and wine snobs, so I fit right in.

For a dinner party at her friends’ house we were tasked with bringing dessert. Maria suggested to go buy something but since it was cloudy, non-beach weather on Saturday, I suggested I make something. And I must say, this new version of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Blueberry Pie was spectacular! Everyone LOVED it – calling it the perfect dessert, not too sweet, the crust was so flakey, so many positive comments, even on the next day. I always think that if people are still remembering and talking about your food the next day, then you’ve made a real hit! 

This is a masterpiece pie to look at and eat. In reality, the berries glisten like jewels and I just love the fresh pop of taste with the uncooked berries.

Truth be told, this pie was made under distressed conditions in that Maria is not a baker. She did not have a pastry cutter or cloth or rolling pin cover and her pie plate was particularly deep.

This pie crust is a pretty big deviation from my normal, Mom’s pie crust recipe. But this is the ONE to keep! And I made my recipe so much easier than Rose Levy Beranbaum’s.

YOUR LOVE AS ONE OF YOUR INGREDIENTS

Remember it is always about the quality of the ingredients you use, along with the amount of LOVE you put in.

Here, I used Plugra unsalted butter, the best blueberries you can find, freshest lemons and even homemade vanilla that her friend, Glenn, had made. 

For the crust, the two phases of refrigeration in the recipe are very important. These cold portions will help to produce a very flakey crust so please do not skip them.

The gorgeous fried chicken and celeriac salad.

The fried chicken dinner with broccoli rabe and a celeriac salad was all too delicious. Not only was I over-served on great Nebbiolo wines but I over-served myself on the chicken too! So good.

It was super fun to be in a different area – Long Island – to me is like another state. On Friday night we met up with the mutual friend who had introduced Maria and me, for a long dinner at a local restaurant. On Saturday morning, we met up with that same friend and her group of friends for a hike through this beautiful wooded area that used to hold all of the Gold Coast mansions with everyone’s dogs (Maria has two). One of the friends is Italian so Maria and I got to practice our ISL – Italian as a second language. So fun!

SUCH HAPPY MEMORIES

Saturday night was the fabulous dinner party. Her friends were so warm and welcoming. Most of them came over to Maria’s house on Sunday, bringing a beautiful brunch. It was a glorious beach day on Sunday, all of us full and happy, sipping on beers, tequila or Bloody Mary’s, lying in front of the LI Sound just enjoying each other and the beauty. This reminded me of my younger days, pre-children, when Steve and I would visit friends in the Hamptons, enjoying a hungover Sunday sweating it out in the sun. So now I am creating new memories.

Best blueberry pie with blackberries, two pieces with vanilla ice cream.
Here is a pic from the first time I made this – with ice cream and some added blackberries.

The recipe:

BEST BLUEBERRY PIE – MARY’S VERSION – serves 8

PIE CRUST – for a 9” pie

8 TBS. unsalted very cold Plugra butter 
1 1/3 cups bleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
3 TBS. ice water
1½ tsp. cider vinegar
1 TBS. egg white, lightly beaten

Toss the flour and salt together with a fork in a medium sized bowl.

Cut the cold butter into very small chunks by cutting the stick lengthwise into 4 quarters and then slice those quarters into ¼” pieces.

Put all of the butter into the flour mixture and using your fingers on both hands, mix and mash the butter and flour together until no chunks of butter are visible. It all has to be incorporated together otherwise you will get butter holes in your crust.

Then sprinkle on the vinegar and toss together with a fork. Sprinkle on a tablespoon of ice water, (one tablespoon at a time), toss with a fork, and repeat with the remaining two tablespoons. Your dough will now hold together and may seem a bit too wet but trust me, it is ok. 

Form the dough into a thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 – 2 hours or overnight. This dough can also be frozen for 3 months for future use if you want to make a double recipe.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and  if necessary, allow it to sit for about 10 minutes until soft enough to roll out. On a floured surface – pastry cloth or parchment paper – with a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to ⅛” thick and fit into your 9” pie pan, crimping the edges as shown in the photo.

Refrigerate the pie crust shell for at least one hour, with a maximum of 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Line the pie crust shell with parchment paper and weigh it down with dried beans or rice, trimming the corners of the extra parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes, checking at 10 minutes to rotate the pan so one side does not get too brown (as mine did). At the 20 minute mark, lift up and remove the parchment and beans or rice. Then with a fork, lightly prick the crust all over the sides and bottom to prevent it from bubbling up. Do not prick hard and all the way through as you do not want to create holes.

Place the crust back into the oven to lightly brown completely, baking for 5 – 10 minutes more. Check it at the 3 minute mark. It should be a pale golden brown all over.

Remove the crust and cool on a rack for 3 minutes. 

Separate the egg yolk from the egg white and lightly whisk the white with a fork. Brush the inside of the pie crust with the egg white. This will keep it from getting soggy with the blueberries.

FOR THE BLUEBERRY FILLING

4 – 5 cups blueberries, rinsed and dried. Save a handful for garnish.
2 TBS. cornstarch
2 TBS. water
½ cup sugar
½ cup water
1 TBS. lemon juice
Good pinch of salt
2 cups whipped heavy cream, lightly sweetened with 1 TBS. powdered sugar and 1 TBS. vanilla extract

Combine 1 cup of blueberries with ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water in a medium sized pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 3 – 6 minutes until the berries pop and it becomes nice and liquidy and starts to thicken, stirring constantly.

Meanwhile, whisk together the cornstarch and water.

Have your fresh lemon juice ready.

Whisk in the cornstarch and water mixture, the lemon juice and salt. Simmer for a minute until the mixture becomes translucent. Immediately off heat, fold in the remaining blueberries, being sure to cover all berries with the jammy mixture.

Spoon into the pie crust, gently spreading the mixture all over.

Let the pie set at room temperature for at least 2 hours before cutting.

Just before serving whip the cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla and gently spread in a small circle on top, in the center of the pie. Garnish with the saved handful of berries as shown in the picture.

Enjoy!!


Best Blueberry Pie!

by

Blueberry pie whole pie from Sept 3, 2013We are coming on the end of the season but I think there’s still time for you to try this blueberry pie. You must – this is a real keeper. It is the best blueberry pie recipe I’ve ever come across. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to baking the whole thing completely again. This is all freshness and goodness retained in the berries. Deliciousness to the hilt!!

As you’ve probably figured out by now, I’m not the typical dessert lover. I prefer savory things when given the choice, but I do love fresh fruit pies. I didn’t get a chance to make a peach one this year. Maybe this coming weekend.

In this blueberry pie recipe, you cook only some of the blueberries to make a sort of glaze, to bind all the fresh ones together. When you do this, your fresh berries glisten like jewels. So pretty! One addition I may do next time is to add a little fresh grated nutmeg to the glaze.

I found this method at Food 52 and the recipe is here. It is Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Fresh Blueberry Pie. I also added a cup of blackberries for additional interest. It is not necessary but they did add textural delight – a nice little surprise and burst of flavor in your mouth. I did not make Rose’s crust. I opted to make my own and you can find it on this post. My crust is not buttery as hers is. Hers might be better. You decide. I did use my friend Margaret’s method of making the slurry first. It really does turn out a flakier crust. Thank you Margaret!!

I baked my crust a little too long. As you can see, it is a bit brown, but no matter, it was still so very yummy. Definitely brush the egg white on it to keep it crisp. They say to serve with whipped cream but I prefer a little dab of vanilla ice cream.Best blueberry pie with blackberries, two pieces with vanilla ice cream.

One note of warning, because this is so very fresh and sweet, the fruit flies LOVE it, so eat it fast! Enjoy! And thanks to Rose Levy Beranbaum!

 

Easy Ice Cream Pie with Power O’s Crust

by

A pie crust that is actually good for you?

Impossible?!

Well, no.

Power O's chocolate cereal.Not if it’s made with Power O’s this super unusual, delicious cereal that’s made with beans!

This is the fifth item in our MARY’s secret ingredients summer box and really so unique, so smart and so delicious! I was told by a doctor years ago that the first thing I should put into my body in the morning was protein. So I usually eat meat but cereal is really a more normal breakfast food. So here, with Power O’s you can have both!

Beans are comparable to meat when it comes to calories, says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, a registered dietitian at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Wellness Institute in Chicago and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. But they really shine in terms of fiber and water content, two ingredients that make you feel fuller, faster. Adding beans to your diet helps cut calories without feeling deprived.

Our diets tend to be seriously skimpy when it comes to fiber (the average American consumes just 15 grams daily), to the detriment of both our hearts and our waistlines. The recommended amount for a daily dose of fiber is 21 to 25 grams per day for adult women (30 to 38 grams for adult men). Meat, on the other hand, contains no fiber at all.

This difference in fiber content means that meat is digested fairly quickly, whereas beans are digested slowly, keeping you satisfied longer. Plus, beans are low in sugar, which prevents insulin in the bloodstream from spiking and causing hunger. When you substitute beans for meat in your diet, you get the added bonus of a decrease in saturated fat, says Blatner.

So maybe with this recipe I negated part of the goodness by adding ice cream, OR you could say that this is my attempt to make an ice cream dessert healthy!

This company, Love Grown Foods, was started by a husband and wife team, Alex and Maddy. I met them last year at the Fancy Foods Show and their philosophy completely matches mine. They said, “We started Love Grown Foods to put healthier foods on the shelves, because we are passionate about making delicious and nutritious foods available to everyone. We are also committed to educating kids, parents, and teachers about the importance of eating healthy. We are here to change the way people think about food, eat food, and ultimately buy food. Join us on our journey as we SPREAD the LOVE!”

This is exactly what I’m hoping to do with this blog and with MARY’s secret ingredients.

 “Nuff said.” Eat your beans this way!

Ice Cream Pie with Power O's Crust topped with blueberries and strawberries.EASY ICE CREAM PIE WITH POWER O’s CRUST – serves 8 

4.4 oz. Power O’s, honey or chocolate, crushed
Pinch of French Grey or Kosher salt
7 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbs. all natural chocolate sauce
2 pints of all natural vanilla ice cream
Strawberries
Blueberries
Aged pomegranate balsamic vinegar, (optional), for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Crush the cereal into fine crumbs with a rolling pin. Place in a bowl. Melt the butter and pour over the crushed Power O’s. When the warm butter hit the chocolate Power O’s, the chocolate smell was intoxicating – proof that they’re using real, high quality ingredients – as opposed to making this crust with processed food graham crackers – YUK!

Chocolate Power O's pie crust with a chocolate sauce lining.Chocolate Power O's cereal pie crust.

Mix the cereal crumbs and butter well. Pour into a 9″ pie plate and distribute and press in evenly all around forming the crust, being careful not to make any area too thick, particularly where the sides meet the bottom of the pan.

Bake the crust on the middle rack in the oven for about 8 minutes. Let cool completely before filling.

Drizzle the chocolate sauce on the bottom of the crust.

Spoon the 2 pints of ice cream evenly all around in the crust. Do this quickly so you don’t have melting along the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until ready to serve.

Ice Cream Pie with Power O's crust - piece of pie.

Just before serving decorate the top with blueberries and strawberries as shown. I did this for July 4th – very patriotic!

Cut with a knife dipped in hot tap water, drizzle each piece with aged pomegranate balsamic vinegar (optional) and serve. This vinegar was a very nice, surprising touch!

And as a little reminder, our fall box ships on September 25th and it’s going to be also full of great unusual products! The supply is limited so best to order now before we run out.

The all time family favorite

by

We LOVE this cookie!!! It is work, but it is worth it! For melt in your mouth pecan heaven, this is the cookie for you. There is not much sugar in the dough, hence the double rolling in powdered sugar. Many cultures have variations of this cookie and they may change the nut to almonds or walnuts, but we love pecans. And the finger shape is a bit more elegant than a fat ball as some folks do.

Unbaked pecan crisps on baking sheet.

My mom always made a double batch and it was never enough for all 8 of us. I make a double batch for just the 4 of us, so you can imagine. Mom would enlist my brother Mark and me to help her with the rolling in powdered sugar. Our trick was to purposely break them while rolling – so they were no good and we just had to eat them. That was believable to her, especially in the first rolling while they’re still warm. But she caught on and would just giggle under her breath, unless we started “breaking” too many!

This is the single recipe. I hope it will become your family favorite too!

Baked pecan crisps on cooking sheet.

Baked cookies cooling for 5 minutes

PECAN CRISPS
¾ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup of pecan halves, ground in a food processor
2 cups flour
¼ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter very well. Add sugar gradually and beat well. Add vanilla. Sift the flour and salt together and then stir in the ground pecans and add this mixture gradually to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly. The dough may be crumbly but gather it together with your hands and the warmth from your palms and all the butter in the dough will enable it to hold together.

Pecan crisps.

Finished pecan crisps

Gently squeeze it. Shape dough into finger lengths. Place on greased or Siltpat lined baking sheets about 1” apart. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Then while still warm, roll in sifted powdered sugar. Cool cookies on rack and then roll again in the sugar until they have taken all that they can hold.

A Salt Problem and Pumpkin Woes

by

Our youngest passed his orals for his Ph.D at Yale! YAY!!!!

So we wanted to celebrate with everyone, both boys and their girls. I wanted to make a special meal, filled with Zach’s favorites for last night (Sunday dinner) – starting with crab cakes with a chipotle mayo and then an herb crusted rack of lamb, farro with olive oil, sherry vinegar and parsley, and roasted asparagus.

Well, I had a salt problem. I followed a new recipe for the lamb that had me salting the meat and adding salt to the breadcrumb mixture too. As I was doing it, I was like, uh, (in my mind) this is too much salt, but with all the commotion of everyone being home and in the kitchen with me, I soldiered on, talking and following the recipe instructions. WRONG!!! And at such expense with the meat ($68.00), to screw it up with too much salt! I should have known better, as I was questioning myself while doing it. One should always trust your intuition, right? And as all you cooks out there know, with a meal like this, if people aren’t ooing and ahhing, there’s something wrong. My husband was sweet and said it was cooked perfectly. My boys were honest and the girls liked it, but one was sick so taste buds were off. I felt SO bad! I ruined what could have been a spectacular meal! Made me weepy and sad. I hate salt problems!!!

So that’s the sad part – but always being the optimist – here’s the funny part of the weekend.

Cutting a pie pumpkin with a hammer and screwdriver.

Take a look at my husband helping me cut open my pie pumpkin to roast. Pie pumpkin cutting tools.Yes, that’s right, after numerous knives, we tried the saw from his tool chest. When that didn’t work we went to a screwdriver with a hammer and worked our way around the pumpkin. Pie pumpkin shell after roasting.After I roasted it and removed the pulp, you could have used the skin as a helmet, it was that hard. Maybe they did use these as head protectors for battle a long, long time ago. Meanwhile this pulp is flavorful and not at all watery. It actually has a little bit of the texture of spaghetti squash. I will puree it on Wednesday in order to bake the pumpkin pie on Thursday morning and let you know how it comes out. Have you all ever had a pie pumpkin like this? It’s a first for me!

Pages

Blog
About
Recipes
Tips and Tools
International Love
Love Notes
Shop
Mary's secret ingredients

PAGES

About
Recipes
Tips and Tools
International Love
Love Notes
  • LOVE - the secret ingredient
  • 305 Broadway
  • Suite 210
  • New York NY 10007
  • Map & Directions


  • LOVE - the secret ingredient