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

Father’s Day dinner

June 22, 2013 by Mary Frances 16 Comments

Well unlike Mother’s Day, our oldest had to do this one without his brother, as Zach is still in Vienna, learning German. Lucky for him, his lovely girlfriend offered to help and be part of the celebration!

The guest of honor requested Beef Wellington, and left the rest of the menu up to the team. They decided to go with the complete bill of fare of Tyler Florence’s Beef Wellington meal, posted on the Food Network site. It consists of The Ultimate Beef Wellington with Green Peppercorn Sauce, Roasted Potatoes with Fresh Herbs and Garlic, and Warm Wilted Greens.

Four or five years ago, I made this same Beef Wellington recipe for Steve’s birthday. Whenever he gets a chance to make a request, he goes for this dish. It is not hard, just a lot of work and very time consuming. But now to do Tyler’s whole meal is a lot! Complete with flaming skillets, they made every recipe and used chicory with garlic scapes for the wilted (winter) greens, which was brilliant! The honey combined with the balsamic vinegar and toasted walnuts was divine. And it was enough cooking of the chicory to just pour the hot liquids over the washed greens. (I was secretly concerned about that but I did a good job of keeping my mouth shut.) The potatoes were amazing. And the beef, well, the beef was divine! So good in fact, it really didn’t need any green peppercorn gravy.

They did an amazing job on the whole meal. It was delicious, beautiful and brimming with LOVE. For dessert, they made a Blackberry Raspberry Coconut Tarte, from Smitten Kitchen, that was buttery and rich. A delicious ending to the meal, while we all watched Mad Men, although we all agreed it needed more fruit than the recipe called for.

Steve was treated like a king, as well he should be, as he is a fantastic Dad!

Hope all you Dads out there enjoyed a magnificent Father’s Day too!!

Sanctuary T

June 16, 2013 by Mary Frances 12 Comments

The week before last I was invited to Sanctuary T, a restaurant on West Broadway here in NYC, for a tea service with other food bloggers. I let them know I couldn’t be there at 3pm due to an important client presentation, but I could get there at 4:45 or so, and would it still be going on? Yes, yes they said, please come. This is a restaurant and bar that serves breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. Whew – they seem never closed! They are known for their innovative approach to using tea as an inspiration and ingredient in their fine food and beverages.

Well my client meeting went even longer than expected and then I walked the wrong way getting out of the subway and arrived at the restaurant at 5:45. The official tea was, of course over, but they were oh so gracious and wanted to serve me anyway. I apologized and teasingly said it was way past tea time and time for cocktails!

They agreed and promptly served up a tea infused martini!! My kinda folks! Dawn Cameron is the owner and truly lovely and then I got to spend time with East, the manager of the restaurant. First off, it was a gorgeous day and they had all the doors wide open to the street. The “martini” was an Earl Grey infused gin with lavender infused angostura bitters and prosecco, served straight up. It was fantastic with the layering of flavors and much lighter in alcohol than a traditional martini. Perfect for a weeknight.

The tea service of sandwiches and sweets was beautiful, as you can see. My favorite was the garbanzo puree and kale chip and the traditional scone with roasted strawberries and clotted cream was to die for. There must have been 1000 calories in those few bites but no matter, I couldn’t stop eating it. The scone was so buttery, delicious and rich, it didn’t really need anything, yet I still put on the wonderful clotted cream and strawberries. I asked the chef how he roasted the berries but he wasn’t giving away any secrets. I was also excited to try the truffled egg salad but I couldn’t really taste or smell the truffle oil. And then the Nutella filled bomboloni was a little piece of heaven. I had the remaining sweets and sandwiches wrapped up to take home and share with my husband

After having a lovely conversation with East all through this, he suggested I try a real tea. I went for a tiramisu rooibos. They served it in a tall thermal sealed glass with a rock sugar stick – very pretty as you can see. See that little box there on the left – that’s their tea timer – each side has a different time for the different types of tea and the color of the sand tells you what’s what. Very clever. East said so many people love these custom hand made timers that most of them got stolen. Sad.

This is a lovely place – perfect for private bridal showers – which East said they do a lot of. I must bring Steve back for lunch or dinner. But taking a break in the afternoon for tea and little nibbles and sweets is truly a welcome pause from the fast-moving events of everyday life. We all function at such a hectic pace, I recommend you try this place out when you can.

We are in the country right now and will head back to the city soon. Since Zach is in Austria, our oldest and his girlfriend are cooking up a Father’s Day dinner for Steve. He has requested Beef Wellington. I made that dish once for Steve’s birthday several years back and I’m delighted that I’m not doing it tonight! It is labor intensive. I’ll report on our evening later this week.

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there!!

Fish broth

June 11, 2013 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

So in my last post I described the beautiful red snapper fillets that my son got from his fish monger in Brooklyn for our celebration dinner. But what I didn’t mention is that he also brought the whole fish carcass home too! The head and tail attached to the body bones of our fish. Two of them. Both large.

“C’mon Mom, make some fish broth! Roast these while the fish is roasting,” is what he said.

Crazy kid! (What did I create?)

So I dutifully did roast them, that night during dinner.

I’ve never made fish broth in my life but what could I do? I had to! The next day, I packed and carried those roasted carcasses up to the country house and made broth – with a little celery, white wine, leeks, parsley, bay leaf, cloves and thyme. I think I even threw in a few crushed juniper berries. (I love juniper berries – explains why I love gin!)

Here are the fishes swimming around again.
So my plan is to use this for a seafood paella. I’ve never made paella, but my good friend Margaret made a delicious shrimp paella a few weeks ago and that has inspired me and given me the courage to try. And usually they say you need a special pan, which I don’t have, but she made hers in a Dutch oven. I think I’ll give it a go and it should be great. The broth is tightly tucked away in the freezer for now.

Now I need to inform you that I did not win that beautiful shiny red Kitchen Aid. 🙁 Thank you all for your comments and engagement but Stephanie got 58 comments and I had 53. Just those five little comments short did me in. Well I hope Stephanie enjoys it, and has room for it on her countertop.

And, I forgot to mention, our May newsletter went out in the nick of time on the 31^st. You don’t get it unless you’ve signed up for it. If you sign up now – in the upper right hand corner – I’ll make sure that you get that issue as it’s got a great grilled asparagus recipe as well as a wonderful Greek chicken you can do on the grill or in the oven. Both are terrific recipes for all summer long.

Have a great week!!

Our celebration/bon voyage family dinner party

June 9, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

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

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

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

Here’s our salad to start – roasted golden and red beets on a bed of arugula topped with toasted walnuts, Gorgonzola cheese and a sherry vinaigrette. My husband picked a beautiful Pinot Noir to go with the whole dinner.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amazing tomato chicken braise

June 5, 2013 by Mary Frances 26 Comments

I made the most amazing dinner Monday night, if I might say so myself.

Back when I really started cooking, my youngest son (who inscribed the cookbook in the About section) would say to me, “Mom, repeat after me, ‘Yes, I really am a good cook.'” However, I often didn’t, and still don’t now, know what I’m going to cook on any given night — meaning I don’t use recipes and I haven’t necessarily bought things that make sense for one. I usually make up something that I am in the mood for on the subway ride home. I think you have to cook something that you like, something that gets you excited, because that’s part of imparting your love into the dish. Fortunately, my family is usually okay with this.

So on Monday, I had a whole chicken and was tired of making roast chicken. I also had 6 plum tomatoes that needed to be used and was in the mood for a tomato chicken stew over some light pasta. I thought it would be good.

My husband said, “Stew? It’s too hot for stew. I could eat roast chicken again.” Not me. So then I said, “Call it a braise. I have an idea and I think you’ll like it.” (He had seconds. And it was in the 70s and rainy on Monday.)

I started making it, determined to change his mind and make something he would love.

It was fantastic!! Light and packed with flavor and very clean tasting. Actually there is very little oil or fat in this dish. I must say that I also used my Le Creuset Dutch oven to cook this in and I do think that makes a difference. It is such a great pot and no one pays me to say that.

I hope you will give this a go, in whatever pot you have. You will not be disappointed.

FRESH TOMATO CHICKEN BRAISE – serves 4

1 tbs. olive oil
1 whole chicken, washed and thoroughly dried, backbone cut out (save for stock) and cut into 6 – 8 pieces, depending on if you want to cut the breasts in half
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 large onion, chopped
5 – 7 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot, scraped and chopped into 1/4” pieces
4 anchovy fillets, drained, patted dry and chopped
2 tbs. water
6 plum tomatoes
4 sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained and chopped
1 large sprig of fresh oregano
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 lb. thin fettucine
Pecorino Romano cheese for grating – optional

Trim all the fat from the chicken. Wash and dry your pieces thoroughly. Salt and pepper both sides to taste. Heat the oil on medium-high heat in a Dutch oven and place in chicken, skin side down. Brown on each side for 5 – 6 minutes, using a metal spatula to turn the chicken over, so you don’t lose the skin. Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a deep plate or pie plate, as juices will collect.

Add the onion, garlic, anchovies and carrot to the Dutch oven. Add 2 tbs. water and lower heat to low and cover, to sweat the vegetables and make them sweet. Scape up the bits from the bottom of the pan and stir. After about 5 – 7 minutes, they should have succumbed and become tender and rich.

Add your browned chicken back in and blanket with the chopped plum tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, thyme and oregano. Cover and on low heat, cook for 7 minutes, stir and turn chicken over, cover and cook for another 7 minutes until done. Remove from heat, covered and let sit for 5 – 7 minutes. Temperature on an instant read thermometer should read 155 – 160 degrees.

Meanwhile, cook dried fettucine in salted boiling water 1-2 minutes less than the package directions. Drain and toss with a little olive oil.

Serve the pasta topped with the chicken and the sauce. Pass the Pecorino Romano cheese and grater if you like. I did, my husband didn’t.

This dish was so very flavorful and clean tasting – rich and buttery tasting, yet no butter and very little olive oil or chicken fat to speak of – just delicious, full bodied, clean tasting richness. I know that doesn’t make sense – just trust me – this was very good! The fresh tomatoes were ripe and bright, anchovies always add a burst of flavor and the carrot sweetened it all. Not to mention the herbs were just cut from my garden upstate the day before. We are very lucky to have that, I know.

I served this with baby bok choy from Ethel’s garden, sautéed with a little olive oil, water, garlic, salt and pepper. Just delicious!

Whether you make this dish or your own concoction, make it with LOVE and it will taste amazing! Truly!

Now I digress. Very early this morning I had a dream about my youngest son. He was back to being three years old and had a large, terrible wound on his back with a scab, and it was in the shape of a heart! He didn’t mind it, unless you touched it. It was almost as if he didn’t know it was there, he was such a trouper. But I was so concerned for him. I felt so sorry. I wanted to keep sleeping and stay in the dream to make sure he was okay and not in pain. He seemed to know how he got it – some sort of scuffle with another kid – like he knew what he doing and was okay with the wound. Very weird.

Any dream interpreters out there?

Potato Salad Contest of Sorts – Help!

June 3, 2013 by Mary Frances 24 Comments

I need you!

I have this fabulous potato salad recipe but I called it “the best” only because it’s that good, not because I had tried enough to be sure it really was. But now I want to be sure.

Before the 4th of July, I am on a mission to find the BEST potato salad recipe out there. I’ll be testing recipes, but I need your help. If you have a fantastic potato salad recipe, please share a link to the recipe (or the recipe itself, or even just a list of the ingredients) in the comments. I’ll be making three of the most eye-catching, mouth-watering recipes we can find.

If you submit the “best” recipe, I’ll say thank you by sharing it (with your permission) here on the LOVE blog and by sending you a LOVE apron!

Now take a look at this!

The famous chef, Daniel Boulud is growing vegetables in planters on the Manhattan sidewalk on Duane Street, right outside of his restaurant, Bouley! How cool is that? There’s tomatoes, various lettuces, broccoli, Swiss chard, mint, dill, dandelion greens – amazing!! And beautiful.

I wonder if people passing by will try to pick the tomatoes?

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