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

Tanglewood!

July 1, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

I love going to Tanglewood. Before we had our upstate house, I had always dreamed of being able to be close by to there to do exactly what we did last Saturday. I love the setting, I love the whole picnic dinner, I love the music. Diana Krall was playing and she was fantastic! So last weekend, two of my brothers and their wives joined us at our upstate house, which is not far from Tanglewood. (My dream came true!) On Saturday afternoon, I fried up two and a half chickens, made a fabulous potato salad (if I can say so myself) along with a tomato and peach salad and some brownies. My sister-in-laws filled in with a wonderful vegetable slaw, a selections of cheeses, nuts and grapes. Add some fantastic bottles of wine from my brothers and we were all set!!

We were so set, that I forgot to take pictures of all the food and our plates!!

But here’s the evening – and what was left of the buttermilk fried chicken.

Two of my brothers at Tanglewood

This was full of buttermilk fried chicken

This is what was left.

The remains of the dinner

The scene!

Elegant couple with candlelit picnic dinner at Tanglewood.

This elegant couple gladly posed for me. Notice the silver candlesticks and flowers. The guy told me he chose his shirt on purpose to match!

Diana playing.

I need to talk to you of what I have learned of the importance of voice – and what Diana Krall has taught me. She is so soft, so mellow, soooo sexy with that contralto voice of hers. She could almost say anything to you and you would agree. If you got mad at your husband with her voice, he’d just have to kiss you and do anything you wanted. Seriously.
I think we don’t pay enough attention to our voice and the strength of it – and we should. So pay attention to not only what you say but how you say it. It makes a huge difference.

An early summer delight!

June 29, 2012 by Mary Frances 1 Comment

It’s the season for soft shell crabs, a personal favorite of mine. After a true Seinfeld episode with Felix from the fish store calling numerous times and yelling at me, I finally got my order delivered. I have to say, it was worth the abuse.

What I did was so stupid simple and so very good, my husband is still talking about them today. That’s the sign of a really good meal – the memorable factor!

Here’s what I did.

SOFT SHELL CRABS
– serves 2

4 cleaned, washed and dried soft shell crabs
Organic buttermilk to cover the crabs
2 tbs. canola oil
1.5 tbs. unsalted butter
Flour to lightly dredge in on a flat plate
Fresh snipped chives to garnish
Lemon wedges

Have your fishmonger clean your crabs before you bring them home. (Put up with the abuse.) Place crabs in a narrow deep bowl to stack them and cover with buttermilk and let them sit for 15-25minutes, turning them once in the middle of the time. Heat the oil until very hot and add the butter. When the butter foam subsides, lift a crab out to drain the buttermilk and dredge lightly in the flour to cover and place in the hot pan. Once all the crabs are in, place a heavier, preferable cast iron skillet, on top of them to weight them down and cook for 3 minutes. Remove the top skillet and turn the crabs over and cook for another 3 minutes, no weight on top this time.

Lift them from the pan, sprinkle chopped chives on top and serve with fresh lemon wedges.

Delish!!! (Notice they didn’t even need any salt or pepper – I think the organic buttermilk was important and of course the quality of the crabs.)

A Tribute to Nora Ephron, 1941-2012

June 27, 2012 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

I am so sad. I didn’t even know she was sick. And she was so young, only 71.

Why do I feel so bad about the passing of someone who I never even met?

Because she had a way of making me feel like I knew her well. She shared so many intimacies and made fun of them – made the best out of them.

I first “met” Nora in Heartburn. I remembering reading the book in the 80s and thinking how clever that she intertwined recipes throughout – what a neat idea. I took note of that for the future. And here I am now, a visual artist, writing a blog and writing recipes! In the movie, when she has her second son and her husband gives her a beautiful sapphire ring after she just delivered the baby, (course he was guilty as hell, having an affair), I thought wow, as I was pregnant with our second child. I wonder if my husband will give me a fancy piece of jewelry. Ha! No jewelry and he thought I could get home from Lenox Hill by myself in a taxi with the baby and 20 flower arrangements. But my husband wasn’t having an affair. (At least I don’t think so.)

This is the thing, with Nora, you felt like you had so much in common. (I actually met Meryl Streep at our local organic farm store upstate last summer. Until we watched Heartburn that night, I had forgotten that Meryl was in the movie, playing the real life Nora!)

She was raised Jewish. I was raised Catholic. She wrote Love Loss and What I Wore. I would write Love, Loss and What I Ate!

When I moved back to NYC in 2007, I remember hearing about her book, I Feel Bad About my Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. Since that came out, I have been religious about putting on neck cream every single day, and she’s right about having to shave your legs less as you get older. I think about that in the shower every morning. And she doesn’t even know how much she’s influenced me! How many others like me are out there?

Recently, I read an interview with Nora in the NY Times Magazine and she said that she was so glad that she no longer had to worry about financial things – that she was thankful that was out of the way. I hope to get to that place soon too.

Rest in peace Nora. We will all miss your wit and insights.

For Nora – our Rhodie bush in the country

Father’s Day!

June 19, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Hope all you Dads out there had a great day!! Because our youngest left on Friday for a seven week vacation in Poland and Eastern Europe, our Father’s Day came early. They surprised my husband on Thursday evening, He came home from work to a beautifully set dining room table and both boys busy in the kitchen. I made cocktails for all and we had a grand time.

Here’s what they made. They started with a salad of arugula, topped with thinly sliced radishes and carrots, followed with avocado and a white wine and olive oil vinagrette. The meal was scaloppini of veal poached in a homemade vegetable broth with tarragon, dill and parsley, (a Mark Bittman recipe), served over parboiled broccoli rabe that was then flash broiled, and finished with a tossing of olive oil and chopped garlic, with mandoline sliced potatoes, coated in clarified butter and baked, (a French Laundry recipe). I am not making this up. They did it all and it was amazing and delicious!!!

Mark Bittman's recipe of veal poached in vegetable broth on red and white plates.

Father’s Day finished plates

Zach’s quinoa vegetable dish

June 16, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

This was the dish my youngest made for me as part of my Mother’s Day dinner. I figured I’d better get this to you before Father’s Day!

While I loved their meal, what I love most is watching the two boys cook. They discuss, they gossip, they argue, and then they break into a dance. They are so funny. They planned the meal together and then each was responsible for certain dishes, as opposed to one being the chef and the other being the sous chef. This dish Zach made up while the older one was a Mark Bittman devotee that night.

I hope you enjoy it!

ZACH’S QUINOA VEGETABLE DISH
5 cups of chicken stock (preferably homemade)
3 zucchinis
3 large carrots, peeled
1 onion
Olive oil
2 cups of quinoa
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the zucchini and carrots, slicing them thinly, and set them aside. Chop the onion fine as well.

In a large pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil, add the onions, and cover. Let them simmer, break down and become sweet. While those are cooking, put 4 cups of chicken broth in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. When that boils add the 2 cups of quinoa, turn down the heat, stir and cover; let simmer on low heat for about 12-14 minutes. But don’t forget to stir your onions and check on them!
When your onions look good, add the carrots and final cup of broth. Turn up the heat and let the carrots cook in the boiling broth uncovered. After much of the broth is gone, turn down the heat to a simmer, add the zucchini, and cover the pan. When the zucchini is cooked down, after about 5-7 minutes, add your cooked quinoa and stir. Salt and pepper to taste, but be careful, some store-bought chicken stocks can be salty!

Hudson Valley

June 11, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

My bike ride yesterday was so lovely. I keep saying that the Hudson Valley is just so, so pretty. The light here is so spectacular. No wonder all the artists and painters congregated here.

I have several routes that I go on for my rides. This particular one is about 8 miles and takes in numerous horse farms. Spectacular pieces of property and interestingly enough, the horses and cows all came to their fences to say hello to me as I was riding by yesterday!

Here are just a few shots for your pleasure.

Corn just starting to grow in cornfield.

The corn is just starting to grow!