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

Farmer’s Market green bean recipe

August 1, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

Green bean recipe with farm fresh beans, in a skillet with butter, ready to be cooked.

Delicious, skillet-cooked green bean recipe.

In addition to the terrific chicken we had last Friday and the leftovers for lunch this week, I would be remiss if I didn’t share this green bean recipe I made featuring Ethel and Tom’s glorious beans.

Just look at these beauties, which we had with the chicken. I used my old trusty skillet method and then topped them with some chopped fresh basil from my garden at the end. They were so darn delicious!! I highly recommend this green bean recipe when you want a healthy, beautiful, quick addition to your plate.

I also took a carton of their frying peppers, washed and tossed half of them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and Steve threw them on the grill. So very, very yummy.

Then they had (literally, and yes they know the Fourth of July is over) red, white and blue potatoes to sell! Since my husband has been following the “4 Minute Abs” diet (ha!), we are not eating anything white. So I bought the red potatoes. We could eat those!!

So on to the contest. As you could have guessed by now, I did not win. But I so appreciate all of your votes and efforts!! Thank you so much! It’s a pain to do it every day, I know. 373 people entered and the winner got 4000 votes. I was in the top 35 with about 400 votes. 🙁 Perhaps next time!

Grilled Farmer’s Market chicken with lemon ginger basting sauce

July 28, 2013 by Mary Frances 18 Comments

Our farmer friends, Ethel and Tom are taking things up a notch! Instead of selling out of their home, they are now at Farmer’s Markets on Fridays and Saturdays. The Friday one is at the Milan, NY Town Hall, complete with other vendors selling wines, cheeses and meats, all local, organic and free range. There’s even entertainment with a guitar player! The Friday night one stays open until 7 pm so if we can get out of the city by 5 pm and assuming there are no delays on the Taconic, we can get there in time.

The meat vendor, called Second Chance Farm (ha!), had fresh killed chickens. He said they were “harvested” Thursday night at 10 pm. (Isn’t that a lovely way to put it?) So we just had to buy one, along with 2 lbs. of ground lamb (one for dinner tonight), breakfast sausage, hot Italian sausage and 2 pork chops. We had the pork chops last night marinated in olive oil, garlic and anchovies and grilled. They were delicious!! So very clean tasting and flavorful.

But let me tell you about the chickens! They were all large and I chose the smallest one they had at 5.2 lbs. I cut the backbone out and broke the breast to “butterfly” it of sorts and therefore have it cook quicker. It cooked so quick – I don’t know if it was because it was so darn fresh or what – but it only took about 35 minutes on the grill at 425 degrees, direct heat. And, the dark meat even cooked quicker than the white meat, perhaps because the breasts were so big. So he just cut the leg and thigh pieces off and kept the whole breast on. Easy to do when it’s butterflied. I stuffed fresh sage and garlic slices under the skin, and topped it with salt and pepper. The basting sauce I made is really a remake of my lemon garlic sauce recipe for the Santorini chicken, changing it up and adding ginger. Here’s what I did:

GRILLED CHICKEN WITH SAGE AND GARLIC AND LEMON GINGER BASTING SAUCE – serves 6

One 5.2 lb chicken, washed, thoroughly dried with backbone cut out and breast flattened with your hand
4 full stems of fresh sage
4 larges cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
Fine sea salt
Fresh ground pepper

Stuff one stem of sage and one clove of garlic, sliced, under the skin in each of the breasts and thigh sections. Salt and pepper your birds all over on both sides. Spray your grill with oil. Grill at 425 degrees basting with the Lemon Ginger sauce, turning twice, until your instant read thermometer registers at 155 degrees. Let it rest for 10 – 15 minutes before carving.

LEMON/GINGER BASTING SAUCE

1.5 tbs. unsalted butter
1 tbs olive oil
1 bay leaf
5 tbs. finely minced onion
4 tbs. minced ginger
6 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 tbs. Dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp. light brown sugar
1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
10 grinds of black pepper
¾ tsp. Sriracha sauce
3 tbs. water

In a small saucepan, melt the butter in olive oil over low heat. Add bay leaf, ginger and onion, cover and sweat for 10 – 15 minutes. Check often, stir and do not let it brown, but you want it to be meltingly soft. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the water, stirring well. Raise heat to medium-high and whisk in water. Stir until mixture boils and then remove from heat. This can be made a couple of hours before you’re going to use it. Keep it at room temperature.

It was so flavorful and toothy – not tough – but not melting tender either. After all, these chickens walk and run. I have to say it was so fresh and clean tasting. This is the way we all should be eating and when you make it with LOVE, there’s no better way!

LOVE travels to our Potato Salad Winner in Alabama!

July 26, 2013 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

We’re traveling the world! Look at this great photo of Nikki Landau in our LOVE apron at her new house in Fairhope, Alabama!! Nikki Landau in a LOVE apron outside her home in Alabama with a large stone fireplace and pool in the background. (I like how the umbrella matches our logo!)

Congratulations Nikki for entering the winning potato salad recipe!! It’s the one with anchovies and is truly delicious. Aunt Rose would be proud.

Please send in pics of you in your LOVE apron, and we’ll feature you too!

Last of the lettuce and a beautiful pork roast

July 24, 2013 by Mary Frances 15 Comments

So you saw my beautiful bounty of lettuce last week. This past Sunday I went out to cut the lettuce again for the week and some animal ate it all!! Except for one plant leaning over the mint on the left, my crop was decimated! Gone!! Overnight! So frustrating. I had put down dried blood as a fertilizer and animal deterrent in the middle of May. I guess it had all worn off by now. Bummer!

But let me tell you about the gorgeous pork roast I made on Sunday night. First, I started marinating it on Saturday afternoon. I love marinades. Because you do the work the day before, the day you roast it becomes a breeze. This is very good for us because we like to stay late in the country on Sundays, till 5, so we give ourselves a full day there. That puts us back in the city at around 7 pm. But if your roast is ready to go in the oven, you can still have dinner on the table by 8:30, even with unpacking a weeks worth of groceries on top of everything.

I combined fresh herbs from my garden with garlic and olive oil, blanketing the roast overnight. Then I wrapped it with some locally raised and cured bacon with no nitrates (pork and pork, yum!) and set it on a bed of sliced onions, and we went to town! It was so delicious. And the leftovers warm nicely in the microwave, making a great lunch. This is super easy. Give it a go!

BACON-WRAPPED GARLIC AND HERB ROASTED PORK LOIN – serves 4

¼ cup of olive oil
9 large cloves of garlic, chopped
½ cup chopped sage, rosemary and mint leaves, combined
2 tsp. Kosher salt
½ tsp. fresh ground pepper
2 lbs. center cut pork loin roast
4 – 5 thick slices of bacon, grass fed, organic, nitrate-free
2 medium onions, sliced ¼” thick

Combine the olive oil, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rinse and pat dry your meat with paper towels. Spread herb mixture evenly all over the roast with a spatula and carefully slide the roast into a Ziplock bag. Seal, removing air and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Let the roast stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Arrange the onion slices in a rectangle in a roasting pan or large ovenproof skillet. Place the roast on top, fat side down, and then lay the bacon slices on top, probably wrapping them around would be better than my horizontal job. Either way, they’ll flavor the meat with amazing goodness and with the fat side down on the roast, this is actually healthier and more flavorful as long as your bacon is fairly lean.

Roast for 55 – 60 minutes, until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part registers 145 degrees. Lift the roast and onions to a platter or carving board (leaving the grease behind) and let rest for 10 – 15 minutes before serving. Slice in 1/4″ slices and enjoy!!

We started this meal with a kale salad and as you can see, I served the roast with some fresh tomatoes and couscous. Really yummy!

Provençal chicken and 2 dinners in 1!

July 20, 2013 by Mary Frances 21 Comments

While this heat wave we’ve been having here on the East coast has been trying, to say the least, I love this time of year, with the bounty from the garden, which will be ending soon. (The lettuce is about to bolt and this extreme heat is not helping.) Here’s the lettuce and nasturtiums I cut from my little garden last Sunday.
And here is our Tuesday night dinner.

This is how you can make a quick, easy and super delicious weeknight dinner. If you think a little bit ahead, it’s a breeze, you won’t heat up your kitchen, and it’s light and healthy. Perfect for this time of year and particularly during this heat wave.

On Sunday, before I went on an hour-long bike ride, I threw a bunch of golden beets in the oven to roast. Those guys cooked and I was out of the hot kitchen! Now you all probably know how to roast beets, but just in case, here a little recipe. Beets are a great vegetable because you get two in one!! You can roast the beets and then sauté the beet stems and greens in olive oil with garlic. I almost like the greens better than the beets, and you don’t have to cook them at the same time. Beets, refrigerated will keep a long time, the greens, not so much, so use those sooner rather than later and come back here soon to see how I used them in another layered vegetable dish that was loaded with fresh flavors. Some grocery stores are now even selling prepackaged beet greens. I prefer to get the real thing, attached to organically grown beets. Who knows what they put in those bags to make them last longer in the grocery stores.

ROASTED BEETS – serves 2 – 4

1 bunch of golden or red beets
1 Tbs. olive oil
Salt
Fresh ground pepper

Preheat your oven to 375 – 425 degrees. You can roast them anywhere in this range. I like to use 400 degrees. At the lower heat, they will just take longer to become tender.

Trim the beets from the greens, scrub with a vegetable brush and dry with a paper towel. Place in the center of a good-sized piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with the olive oil, season with salt and pepper and draw up the foil to seal and make a neat packet. Place the packet in an oven proof dish (because the beets may leak and make a mess in your oven) and roast for one hour. Remove, open packet and test. A skewer should pierce the beet easily and completely. If not, put back in for 10 more minutes or so.

Once done and cool enough to handle, peel the beets and use immediately or refrigerate in a covered container and use within four or five days. They rewarm easily in a microwave as well.
Here was our dinner on Sunday night, when I made Provençal chicken legs with oven roasted broccoli and mushrooms. This is easy too! I made four leg and thigh pieces for the two of us, so we could have the two dinners.

For the broccoli and mushrooms, toss those with two tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 375 degrees for 35 – 40 minutes while you’re roasting the chicken.

PROVENÇAL CHICKEN LEGS – serves 4 or 2 for two dinners

4 chicken leg and thigh pieces, with skin and bones
1 Tbs. each of chopped fresh thyme, sage, rosemary, and mint leaves
1 Tbs. fresh lavender flowers (optional) or 1.5 tsp. dried
Salt
Pepper
2 – 3 Tbs. olive oil
4 dried bay leaves
4 lemon slices, seeded

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Wash and dry your chicken legs. Mix together chopped fresh herbs with the lavender, salt and pepper to taste, and mix in 1 – 2 Tbs. of olive oil to moisten and make a paste. Carefully loosen the skin on the chicken on one side and place one bay leaf and one-quarter (about 1 Tbs.) of the herb mixture under the skin and spread around underneath. Make sure the skin is still attached in one or two places. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken.

Heat the remaining tbs. of olive oil in an ovenproof skillet on medium high heat. Place in chicken legs, skin side down, and brown for 5 minutes. When nicely browned, turn legs over and place one lemon slice on each leg. Place the skillet in the oven and roast for 30 – 35 minutes, or until the meat registers 160 degrees with an instant read thermometer. Let rest for 5 – 10 minutes before serving.

So we ate 2 of these on Sunday night and saved 2 for the weeknight dinner salad. The bay leaf is not edible so remove while eating.

DINNER SALAD FOR A WEEKNIGHT HEAT WAVE – serves 2

Tender lettuce – Bibb or mesclun or homegrown
4 golden beets, roasted
2 Tbs. toasted pine nuts – oven toast at 350 degrees for 6 – 8 minutes
Greek feta cheese
2 Provençal roasted chicken legs and thighs
2 nasturtiums (optional)
Sherry vinaigrette

Warm the chicken legs in a microwave for 1 -2 minutes, depending on how powerful your microwave is. Warm beets in the microwave for 1 minute. Cut each beet into 4 or 6 wedges, depending on the size of the beets. Place lettuce on a dinner plate. Place the chicken leg on top in the middle, pour any juices on top. Arrange the cut beets around the leg, as well some crumbled feta cheese and the toasted pine nuts. Drizzle on the sherry vinaigrette and serve right away. Enjoy!!! You will LOVE this!!

LOVE apron travels to Paris!!

July 17, 2013 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Who knew our LOVE apron would go to Paris – one of my favorite food cities! Meet our dear friend Al Zdenek on one of his nine balconies in his Paris apartment. His partner Alain presented him with a LOVE apron for his birthday last week. (they make great birthday presents)

Al started out as a client for us and has become a great friend. He is the president of an incredibly successful wealth management firm. Trust me, if you want to be like Al, with fantastic apartments in NYC and Paris, leave your money with him to manage at Traust Sollus.

And to all you men out there asking for a men’s size in the apron, you can see that it truly is unisex. pretty Love the secret ingredient apron

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