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

Jenkins Jellies Guava Brava & Hell Fire Jellies

October 13, 2015 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

When actress Hillary Danner had an overabundance of peppers in her organic garden in LA, what did she do? Make jellies silly!! Made in small batches, with no preservatives, artificial flavorings or colorings, these Jenkins Jellies Guava Brava and Hell Fires Jellies are sweet, hot and delicious!! Hillary teamed with longtime friend Maria Newman and concocted these spicy gems.

Loved by many famous chefs, Mario Batali described it perfectly when he said, “… it dances right on the edge of spicy and sweet in a delicious tango of provocation and pleasure.”

He likes them with cheeses and warm bread. I used both of them as a glaze on roasted fish to make a super special, easy and quick weeknight dinner. This will taste more time consuming than it is as both jellies add a ton of flavor in a jiffy!!

As I write this post, I am flying home on a plane from Florida and this quote from Mario made me laugh! “One warning…. it is highly addictive and I would like to suggest 3 ounce packages so that we may improve the airline meals we suffer as we flit about “

Take a look at this video of me turning this gorgeous piece of salmon into pure deliciousness with the Guava Brava.

JENKINS JELLIES GAUVA BRAVA ROASTED SALMON – serves 3 – 4

1 Tbs. grapeseed oil
1.5 lbs center cut salmon fillet
French Grey or Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1.5 Tbs. Jenkins Jellies Guava Brava

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Wash and dry the salmon and season with salt and pepper. Spread the mustard on top. Spread the Guava Brava on top of the mustard.

Heat oil in skillet until nearly smoking. Sear salmon in skillet skin side down for 3 minutes.

Place skillet in oven for fish to roast for 8 -10 minutes.

Carefully remove fish from the skillet – use a hot pad on the handle – (too many times I have grabbed that) – and remove the fish, cut into serving pieces, serve with LOVE and enjoy!!

I served this with some blanched sugar snap peas tossed with some toasted pecans, orange pepper, one chopped tomatillo and a champagne vinaigrette.

This next recipe used the Hell Fire jelly. Again, this was easy peasy and so totally delicious. I made this with Basa and Tilapia, and really, I imagine any fish will work, so you get to choose.

Combining the jelly with butter was a splendid way to make a glaze which then got me thinking that this glaze would also work on butternut or acorn squash for a kick!

And then with the holidays coming, I see cheddar cheese coins with a dab of either jelly in my future. It would be amazing!

Experiment, have fun and have a party – invite your friends over and share the goodness!!

JENKINS JELLIES HOT BASA – NOVA! – serves 3

3 fillets of Basa
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1.5 Tbs. Jenkins Jellies Hell Fire jelly
French Grey or Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Olive oil to slick the pan
Fresh lemon wedges

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Wash and dry your fish fillets.

Oil slick a small rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle the baking sheet with some salt and pepper. This will season the underside of the fish – clever eh? Place the fish on the pan.

Melt the butter in a butter-warming saucepan. Add the jelly and use a small whisk to combine.

Brush this glaze on the fish fillets being sure to spread out the wonderful bits of pepper.

Sprinkle the top of the fish with a little crushed French Grey salt.

Roast for approximately 12 minutes until done.

Serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon. You will LOVE this!!

Smoked Tomato Soup with Nueske’s Sausages and Flathaus Cheese Straw Croutons

May 7, 2014 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

Here are two matches made in heaven to go with the first review of ingredients from our MARY’s secret ingredients box!

For those of you who ordered a box, I know you dug into the cheese straws as your first or second thing, right? They are great directly out of the box! Before discovering these, I was actually convinced that no one could make a cheese straw as good as the ones I made one Christmas, but I was promptly proven wrong by these cheese straws from Mississippi made by the husband and wife team at Flathaus. These are super! Full of cheddar, crisp and light, with a hint of chipotle, these are going to be a staple in my house.

Serve up a bowl of these Flathaus Cheese Straws with some delicious Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Landjaeger Sausages for a quick and terrific appetizer with cocktails. All you need is a pretty little bowl for the cheese straws and juice glass for the sausages. Cut the sausages in long strips and stand them upright in the glass for a handsome presentation. Stand back and watch your guests delight in these two taste treats!

And then I’d like for you to try this smoked tomato soup recipe with some of those lean Nueske’s sausages, diced, and topped with the Flathaus Cheddar Cheese Straws broken into a crouton size — ooh la la – isn’t this to die for? It’s brilliant! Popping with flavor layers and OMG moments, run to the kitchen and make this. If you didn’t get a box, go to these sites and order the sausages and cheese straws now!

SMOKED TOMATO SOUP – serves 6 to 8

13 vine ripened tomatoes, (or 16 plum) cored and tops sliced off
1/4 cup plus 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
2.25 cups diced leeks (white and light green parts), split in half, washed thoroughly & dried
1 heaping cup chopped yellow onions
1 cup dry red wine
2 thick slices diced smoked bacon, preferably no nitrates & remove and discard really fatty areas
5 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. fine sea salt
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Landjaeger Sausages, diced
12 Flathaus Cheddar Cheese Straws, each one broken into 3 pieces

Preheat the grill to medium. Arrange the tomatoes in an aluminum pan. Sprinkle the cut tops with 4 tablespoons of the olive oil, some salt and fresh ground pepper. Cover with heavy-duty aluminum foil and grill for 20 minutes. Remove from grill, uncover and cool for 15 minutes. Remove and discard the tomato skins.

Meanwhile, place 1/4 cup of the olive oil, as well as the leeks, onions, and bacon in a soup pot. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Crush or roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes and all the juices and olive oil from the roasting pan, wine, garlic, salt, vinegar, pepper, and cayenne to the pot. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.

Add the parsley. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup (or cool slightly and puree in a regular blender in small batches). Add the diced sausages and stir for 5 minutes to warm them up. Divide evenly among warm soup bowls and float cheddar cheese stick croutons on top. Serve immediately.

You have just entered heaven!

New Holiday Small Plates e-Cookbook is Out!

December 18, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

Hot off the press (or oven), our new holiday small plates e-cookbook is out: Secrets for Holiday Small Plates, Savory and Sweet. Since small plates are all the rage, I wanted to put together this collection of ten really great recipes. This is a perfect little cookbook for an easy cocktail party and makes an awesome stocking stuffer gift!

After all, the holidays should be about getting together, having time to relax, visiting with friends and relatives, and enjoying your own party. These recipes will allow you to do that, eliminating the stress. You can see all the recipes if you click on the ad on the right side of this blog. The cookbook is a 30 page, interactive downloadable PDF that will work on your tablet, phone or computer. And I must say, it is beautifully designed by our wonderful designers here.

So make your party stress free and you will enjoy more!

And please let me know how you like it.

With LOVE, Mary Frances

Sauteed Zucchini with Onions and Radishes, topped with Feta and Oil-cured Moroccan Olives

December 15, 2013 by Mary Frances 26 Comments

More and more people are asking me for vegetable recipes. For myself, I am forever on the quest to find new and interesting combinations. With the holidays coming and all the rich food that is starting to show up at parties, I thought a new and unusual vegetable dish could do everybody a little good. I had this beautiful bunch of multicolored radishes, some zucchini and a sweet Spanish onion. So I put together this dish, Sauteed Zucchini with Onions and Radishes, topped with Feta and Oil-cured Moroccan Olives.

Radishes are usually eaten cold and crisp, by themselves, with a touch of salt or used as dipping instrument. But ever since Mark Bittman published an article several years ago on grilling radishes in the summer, I have been eating them grilled or sautéed. I love them cooked! Now when you grill them, the smokey taste addition is wonderful, but they lose their color and do not look so pretty. They sort of look like anemic radishes. But, when you sauté them, they somehow hold their color better. Or at least these radishes did.

These multi-colored radishes in my fridge needed to be used, along with the zucchini. My mother used to make a dish of sautéed onions and zucchini topped with grated parmesan and sharp cheddar cheese. My husband still asks for that dish every so often, so I know the combo of onions, zucchini and cheese is good. But I had some feta that needed to be used and then these oil-cured Moroccan olives were hanging around too and the dish needed a punctuation of color. So there you have it. That’s how I created this dish – really using my skillet as a palette as I do when I paint.

I think you will LOVE this!

SAUTEED ZUCCHINI WITH ONIONS AND RADISHES, TOPPED WITH FETA AND OIL-CURED MOROCCAN OLIVES – serves 4 – 5

3 medium zucchini – washed and thickly sliced in 1/4” slices
1 sweet Spanish onion – peeled and trimmed and sliced into 1/4” slices
6 multi-colored or red radishes – washed, trimmed and quartered
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. unsalted butter
Salt
Pepper
1/4 – 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup of pitted oil-cured Moroccan olives

Warm the oil in a large skillet on medium heat, add the butter to melt. Add the sliced onions, cover and stir often, cooking for 10 – 15 minutes. Add the zucchini and radishes and toss until crisp tender. Lower heat to low. Season very lightly with salt and pepper. (remember the feta and olives are salty) Sprinkle the feta cheese and olives on top. Cover for 3 – 5 minutes to warm the cheese and olives. Serve right away using a large pancake turner to pick up a section and keep it pretty. Enjoy!

Made-in-the-Pan Chocolate Cake

October 30, 2013 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

This past weekend, I made two desserts, as I was having two dinner parties. Our friends were coming to dinner on Saturday night in the country and both boys and their girlfriends were coming to dinner on Sunday in the city. Additionally, my husband was going to visit his 94-year-old mother in Baltimore on Monday and needed to take sweets to her. It’s what she craves and I aim to please. So on Saturday I made both desserts.

One was a favorite Christmas cookie in our family that I just cut into larger squares for dessert. Our boys were saying, “Mommm, a little early don’t you think?” And then one of the girlfriends said at the dinner table, “OMG, these are so good, I could eat these until I vomit!” Now how’s that for a compliment? She said she ate two for breakfast the next morning and then wanted the recipe. That was for the Hello Dolly Squares. And then the other dessert I made was this amazing recipe from Mollie Katzen for her Made-in-the-Pan Chocolate Cake. I heard her speak a few weeks ago at a Hudson Union Society event and someone in the audience brought up this recipe, which she then talked about and read aloud.

It is so quick, easy and truly amazing that it works. It is even vegan!!! – which I personally don’t care about, but if you do, then this is for you!

The key is to mix the dry ingredients incredibly well with a whisk. Use a clear glass pan and pick it up to inspect the bottom and sides to make sure you don’t see any globs of white flour or dark cocoa still lingering around. Then when you add the liquids, slowly stir and whisk and scrape and scrape and whisk until all is combined and smooth. No lumps allowed!! Simple, delicious, and no extra bowls to clean. This is a super moist cake that tastes like a lot more work. You can pull this off with ease on any weeknight for surprise guests. Just make sure you always have cocoa around.

MADE-IN-THE-PAN CHOCOLATE CAKE – serves 9

1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup water
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cider vinegar or white vinegar

Preheat oven to 325°F. Have ready an 8-inch-square glass baking pan. Put flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and baking soda into the pan. Mix it together thoroughly with a whisk and spatula making sure all is blended together and no white flour clumps are visible. Lift up the pan and check to make sure all is blended on the bottom and especially in the corners.

Add water, oil, vanilla extract and vinegar. Stir slowly with a whisk in small circles to blend. As it becomes a batter, mash, scrape, and stir with whisk and spatula until smooth, particularly scraping and blending from the corners of the pan.

Scrape the sides with a rubber spatula, and spread it evenly. Clean the edges, then bake for 30 minutes.

Cool completely in the pan, on a rack. Dust with some powdered sugar (there is no need for frosting) and cut into squares.

I served it with LOVE, a dollop of ice cream and a few raspberries for a really pretty and super easy dessert.

Nuts!! – specifically almonds

October 22, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

I LOVE nuts! And no wonder, I just learned that almonds are a symbol of LOVE and happiness! The early Romans showered newlyweds with almonds as a fertility charm and the nut was a symbol of good luck for centuries throughout southern Europe. I once even heard that if you eat 6 raw almonds before drinking, you won’t get a hangover.

Do you think that could work?

Nuts in general got a really bad rap some years ago. We all knew that they were delicious and fatty but luckily, we’ve discovered that this fat is good for you and is even known to lower blood LDL cholesterol levels. An ounce of almonds gives you 35% of your daily allowance of vitamin E, which is a powerful antioxidant to keep you healthy all winter. They also have other vitamins and minerals, are cholesterol free and a good source of fiber – all good stuff!

Recently, I’ve been toasting raw almonds in peanut oil and fine sea salt. Everyone I serve them to is like, OMG – where’d you get these?

So I know this is a stupid simple thing to do, but I thought I’d share it as it has received such high praise from everyone. Now that the holiday season is coming upon us, a nice cute little jar of these roasted almonds would make an awesome hostess gift. After all, years and years ago, gifts of almonds represented happiness, romance, good health and fortune. Not bad, eh?

These are great during cocktail hour or chop some up and throw them on a salad or oatmeal. They don’t take long to make at all and you will LOVE them!

Just be sure to check you’ve toasted them all the way through by cutting them in half and seeing if the brownish roasting effort reach the center of the nut.
ROASTED WHOLE ALMONDS WITH SEA SALT

1.5 cups of raw whole almonds
2 tbs. peanut oil
Sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss almonds with peanut oil and season with sea salt. Roast in the oven for a total of 13 minutes. Toss at 6 minutes so that browning is even. Check at 12 minutes by cutting an almond in half and making sure it is toasted inside. When done, remove pan from the oven and salt them again with the fine sea salt and let cool in the pan. Toss again and taste for the proper salt level. Store in a tightly covered container. Enjoy!!