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

Fillets of sole with sorrel

May 30, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

I did something really terrific last night. (at least I thought it was!) You should know that sorrel is one of my favorite herbs. It’s lemony and light and so interesting and surprising. I had some fresh sorrel I had just cut from my garden upstate on Monday, that I wanted to use and some fillets of sole. We got home late and hungry. Before it got so late, I had in my mind to roast the fish and make a sorrel sauce. You know, with garlic and olive oil and maybe a touch of cream, but it was late and we were starving, so I came up with this idea. Lazy, I suppose, but a beautiful concept. I remembered this dish I used to make all the time with sorrel when the kids were young. It was sautéed chicken, with lots of onions, and then you throw in the sorrel on top, cover it and it melts. It’s not a pretty dish because the greens turn dark, but it tastes fabulous.

So I thought what if I reversed that and put the sorrel on the bottom of the fish, having it melt underneath? Genius – don’t you think?! You wouldn’t see it then but still get all the flavor, having it form a simple sauce.

So that’s what I did – and here’s our green and white meal. But it was really, really yummy!! I served the fish with sautéed mustard greens with garlic and steamed Jasmine rice topped with chopped parsley.
FILLETS OF SOLE WITH SORREL
– serves 2

2 sole fillets, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels
2 handfuls of washed sorrel
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Chopped fresh chives

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slick a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Arrange 2 handfuls of sorrel in the shape of your fish fillet. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil on the sorrel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place your fish fillet on top, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Roast for 10 – 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. Figure on 10 minutes for an inch of thickness, measured in the thickest area of your fish.

When done, carefully remove the fish with the sorrel leaves distributed on the bottom and garnish with chopped fresh chives.

This is the beauty of having super fresh ingredients, combined with LOVE, to make a fabulous, healthy meal in no time at all.

Enjoy!!

Memorial Day Melange

May 26, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

It is Memorial Day weekend, the beginning of summer. It is 45 degrees with gale like winds here in upstate New York. It is way too windy for a bike ride, besides we’re all wearing winter coats.

My husband is about to build a fire, waiting for me to open the flue (my job as he somehow messes up the closure when he does it.) And oh no, we haven’t screwed up the environment?!? And why do we call Memorial Day a holiday? Okay, so it is a day off from work but really, we should all keep in mind what this day is about and remember all of those lost or maimed in the name of defending our country for freedom for all of us.

This week has been so hectic with the test kitchen tours and then the champagne breakfast on Friday, not to mention we had a dinner party Friday night (more on that later) and then came upstate yesterday, having dinner with our dear friends Margaret and Wayne. Margaret made a wonderful eggplant starter with spinach, pine nuts and cheddar cheese and a fantastic shrimp and chorizo paella. They had a fire too! Lovely evening!! The Friday morning champagne brunch was a wonderful place to meet all kinds of people in the food business, not just bloggers, hosted by XO – they own The Knot, The Nest and The Bump. I got to have further conversation with Anna Curran from Cookbook Create (they create custom cookbooks!) and learned more about The Daily Meal, who are the wonderful folks giving away the Kitchen Aid mixer! Meanwhile Kitchen Aid is really pumping up the design aspect of all their products. I just saw this ad today in the May issue of Elle Décor. (I am always dreaming of refurnishing my house.) That mixer would sure look great sitting on my countertop here in the country!

So I wanted to share with you some tidbits I learned on our kitchen tours. Did you know that there are 25,000 food bloggers in the United States alone? So we all have to support one another! Did you know that Bon Appetit tests their recipes 4 to 6 — and sometimes even 12 — times before publishing them? They really want to ensure success for the home cook.

Even for cooks with access to just basic ingredients, they want to know if that recipe will turn out for them in a good way. So nice of them! They prepared for us a wonderful ginger lime drink. You make a simple syrup with fresh ginger. Let it cool, add fresh limes and some lime juice along with seltzer or club soda and you have the most refreshing drink – for when summer does get here!

And then lastly, here’s me with Amanda Hesser from Food 52. It is her New York Times cookbook that my sons gave me, and Zach wrote in, that became the inspiration for starting this blog. It’s in the About section. She is looking at my LOVE card as I just told her the story of this blog. Photo courtesy of claywilliamsphoto.com

Test kitchen tours!

May 23, 2013 by Mary Frances 60 Comments

Yesterday was such an interesting, exhilarating and exhausting day!!

I enjoyed a day of touring test kitchens as part of Internet Week here, as a guest of Anna Curran from Cookbook Create, a site where you can make custom cookbooks. (Great gift idea, right?) We visited the kitchens of Bon Appetit, The Daily Meal and Food 52. Each one made us a little something special to eat, and we even had wine at The Daily Meal!

All of them were so helpful and sharing of information. We were 13 bloggers chosen for this day, and lucky ones at that. It was all good fun and useful information, plus I met some great new fellow bloggers!

These are the lovely ladies I spent the day with: Alejandra from Always Order Dessert, Amie from The Healthy Apple, Caroline from Taste, Love, & Nourish, Carrie from Poet in the Pantry, Diana from Appetite for China, Daina from The Hungry Fan, Heidi from Brooklyn Allergy Mom, Jennifer from Savory Simple, Jen from Champagne Problems, Kimberly from Mom in the City, Lisa from Nutcase Crunch, Melinda from Kitchen Tested, and Sloane from Allergic Girl.

Here are some pics from the day.

We started at Bon Appetit! They served a delicious fresh ginger, lime and seltzer drink with horseradish deviled eggs – yummy!

At The Daily Meal they served us a fava bean, spinach, garlic and onion tasting. So pretty!

The Daily Meal is giving away this fabulous Kitchen Aid!! I wonder who will win this shiny beautiful tool. I would LOVE it!! (so nice of them to do this!)

Food 52’s new kitchen in their new space with antique wooden shelves and walnut cutting top.

The girls at Food 52 serving us English Pea Soup with a garlic cream and slivered ramps.

Everyday dinners

May 21, 2013 by Mary Frances 15 Comments

We had guests this weekend up in the country. Had a great deal of fun catching up, eating and drinking with long time friends. Of course I tried to make a special dinner but I also tried to balance it, making something not too complicated as I wanted to able to spend time with the party and my kitchen upstate is a separate room, not open to the living and dining room as it is in the city. Not sure I really succeeded at that as I still did spend quite a bit of time cooking.

They loved what I made! (I’ll tell you all about that menu later this week with wine pairings.) Said it was better or equal to any restaurant meal and oh, by the way, when was I going to open my own restaurant? Well, that’s not something that interests me. We have talked about perhaps opening an exclusive “supper club” type of place, that might be open once or twice a month, in our home – as a way to have fun and meet new, interesting people upstate – but not a restaurant. Then the conversation went to, do you cook every night? And yes, I cook almost every single night. In fact, when we have leftovers, while I enjoy the speed of getting that meal on the table, I have to tell you, I miss the cooking process those nights. Once you get into the habit of doing it, it’s easy, and I enjoy it, no matter what time I get home.

Sesame curry crusted salmon with steamed broccoli and tomato cucumber salad on a white Wedgewood plate.

Sesame curry crusted salmon with steamed broccoli and tomato cucumber and avocado salad with fresh chives.

Just take a look at these quick, easy meals for weeknights – super simple and super easy. And don’t they look much better and are certainly cheaper than anything you could ever get from ordering up?

Lamb ragu with Girelle in a bowl with grated Romano cheese and cracked black pepper.

Lamb ragu with grated Pecorino Romano cheese, parsley and cracked black pepper

Roasted zucchini with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Really, all of these meals took 45 minutes to maybe an hour to make. Plus, if you’re cooking, you KNOW what you’re eating, particularly in terms of fat, salt and calories. Feed your body with healthy food, prepared with love and you will feel better. I promise.

Sauteed chicken thighs with bacon, shallots and dry white wine, steamed Jasmine rice and sauteed baby bok choy with garlic

Everyday dinners, roasted salmon, steamed Jasmine rice with parsley and roasted asparagus on a white Wedgewood plate.

Roasted salmon, steamed Jasmine rice with parsley and roasted asparagus with lemon and olive oil

Epic Mother’s Day dinner

May 16, 2013 by Mary Frances 36 Comments

I am still basking in the glow – of being treated like a queen! My boys made me the most amazing dinner on Sunday night. My mouth is still open in awe. Recipes were made that I wouldn’t even attempt. The whole meal, including cocktails, wine and dessert, planned to perfection, made and served with love.

I am so, so lucky.

When I arrived home, I was greeted with hugs and flowers and told to shower. Zach said I definitely smelled like a bike ride. (nice!) I’m sure I did.

After the bath, perfectly chilled martini glasses appeared, with all the proper frost, and Vespers were poured. A drink made with vodka, Gordon’s gin, Lillet and lemon. Divine.

Here is our first course – a drop dead gorgeous presentation!! (They even pulled out the sterling!) This is a recipe from Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry cookbook. I have looked at that book and decided the recipes were too much work and too precious for my style, yet my oldest son uses it a lot! He made a homemade poaching liquid and poached the shrimp, leaving them in the liquid overnight. (so this was a two day affair) Then split them, serving them on the edge of the fork with a small mound of avocado, red onion and cucumber deliciousness. A small bite, perfect with the Vesper. The shrimp were so yummy, infused with flavor from the poaching liquid and sublime in texture. Really, this amount of time spent, I have to admit, is worth it. They tasted similar to the amazing poached salmon at Aquavit, a 4 star Swedish restaurant here in NYC.

Next course was a homemade spicy gazpacho, again, the recipe from the French Laundry, pureed moments before and served in a small glass, with a glass of Vouvray, one of my favorite wines and perfect with the soup. The soup sparkled with freshness, a riot of flavor in your mouth, with the perfect amount of kick from the jalapenos.

Now for the main course, it was potato crusted halibut served with a skillet ratatouille. It was amazing!!! Zach said he watched a video on Food Network on how to coat the fish with the potatoes and that it really took the two of them to do it, needing 3 or 4 hands, and boy did they do it properly. They were beautiful, as you can see! The fish was then sautéed in olive oil that he had infused with garlic, fennel seeds, bay leaves, fresh thyme and lemon zest from a whole lemon. It was so delicious! Crispy and moist all at the same time.

The skillet ratatouille was spectacular – the fresh flavors all melding together – it was really, really yummy. This recipe was from Food and Wine. We had the leftovers for lunch yesterday and it was still spectacular!

And now for dessert. They even did dessert!! Well, sort of. My oldest son’s girlfriend was so sweet, she made a really beautiful and delicious pear upside down cake on Saturday night, the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Yes, you know it had a lot of butter in it and it was darn good!!! Just look at this beautiful cake!

This whole meal was so impressive, beautiful, fun and scrumptious. Really, as good as the finest restaurant, I’m sure because it was also made with so much love on all sides. And I love seeing them work together in the kitchen, they’re so darn cute! (One of them even said it was nice to have quality time with his brother.)

We ended our evening together watching MadMen, a very perfect day with my boys and husband.

I hope all you moms out there had a fabulous Mother’s Day, I’m sure filled with LOVE as well!!

Baby artichokes and Mother’s Day!

May 12, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there!! This is my favorite holiday! Milk it for all it’s worth. I like to think of it as Mother’s Day WEEKEND! Yesterday we saw Gatsby at the movies. It is one of my favorite novels, having read it at least three times. The movie was just great, full of glitz and glamour, I could not stop grinning from ear to ear during all of the party scenes, wishing I could have been there. Steve made me breakfast this morning, (not in bed – that’s gross), complete with roses and a hysterical card. I got to garden and go bike riding. And my boys are making me a surprise dinner tonight in the city! I can’t wait!

But first, let me tell you about our dinner salad last night because it is the season for all these rare and young things! Ramps, fiddlehead ferns and now baby artichokes. At my stores, they sell them by the dozen, boxed. With just the two of us, that makes it challenging to use. So last week, I made salads with them raw and thinly sliced on a mandoline. Then I steamed some, like you would a regular sized artichoke and then the rest were now several days old and 2 kids came home for dinner by surprise last Thursday. The artichokes were not fresh enough to serve raw, so I decided to slice them up and sauté them with my baby bok choy and garlic. They were delicious!!
So last night, I just went straight to that method and put them on top of an arugula salad, with a fresh lemon juice and olive oil dressing and some slices of Parmigiano reggiano. Delish!! The lovely woody, warm, tender artichokes on top of the cool crisp arugula, combined with the Parmigiano and lemon and olive oil – so simple – yet different and delicious!! It is always about the quality of the ingredients in any dish but particularly in something as simple as this. Because it is so simple, each ingredient can shine. And if something is not the greatest quality, it will scream out too. So use the best you can.

The thing about baby artichokes that kills me is that you have to throw so much away to get to the tenderness inside. I guess that’s my depression era mother rising up in me again. Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom!

SAUTEED BABY ARTICHOKES AND ARUGULA SALAD WITH PARMIGIANO
– serves 2

4 baby artichokes
½ tbs. unsalted butter
salt
pepper
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice or more to use on the artichokes to prevent browning
1 bunch of arugula
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler
2 tbs. fresh lemon juice
½ tsp. Dijon mustard
Scant ½ cup olive oil

Wash and spin dry the arugula and chill in the refrigerator. Make the dressing by combining the mustard, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Slice your cheese and cover with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

Wash the baby artichokes and remove all the outer leaves, peel the stems, and cut off about 1” from the top. Slice each one in half and then slice each half in 3 or 4 slices. Work quickly and drizzle a little lemon juice on, to prevent them from turning dark, which they will do rather quickly.

Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and add sliced artichokes. Saute until tender and golden brown, using a cover for the pan to produce some steam and moisture, stirring often. This will take 10 – 15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and remove when fork tender.

Distribute your washed arugula on two salad plates. You probably won’t use it all.

Scatter the artichokes over the plated arugula, along with the slices of cheese. Drizzle on some dressing and serve immediately. You will have dressing left over which will keep in the refrigerator.

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