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

SOOM CHOCOLATE TAHINI CAKES

April 8, 2017 by Mary 6 Comments

These three sisters have got it all down pat. Their Soom tahini’s are to die for!

Really.

The Soom Company is made up of three sisters, Shelby, Jackie and Amy who worship the sesame seed, with good reason. It’s so good for you in so many ways, but let’s talk first about the taste. My husband hates things with tahini – but not with theirs! True story.

The three sisters decided to call the company Soom Foods because soom soom is sesame in Hebrew.

Tahini is a versatile “paste” made from sesame seeds, which are high in protein, calcium, omega-3, six fatty acids and antioxidants. Soom only uses sesame seeds from Ethiopia – the very best place for them. They produce and package their product in Israel and import it to sell in the US. The chocolate tahini is peanut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, kosher, no added oils… and only 10 grams of sugar! 

This Soom Chocolate Sesame Spread tastes so naughty, but it’s actually good for you! It’s like if Nutella had a soul, it would be Soom! The indulgence of chocolate with the nourishment of sesame.

So dig in and spread on ANYTHING.

Here it is on ice cream – so smooth, so yummy, so delicious.

Their website has lots of recipes using their regular tahini and the chocolate variety.

And then I made these cakes. So good…

Make with LOVE and enjoy!

SOOM CHOCOLATE TAHINI CAKES – serves 6

8 Tbs. unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pans
½ cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for pans
2 – 3 Tbs. toasted sesame seeds
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 pinches of salt
1/3 cup Soom Chocolate Sesame Spread
3 large eggs
¾ cup superfine sugar
Zest of 1 lime (optional)
Ice cream, for serving
Fresh mint for garnish

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Use extra butter to grease 6 half-cup muffin molds or similar, or use smaller molds. Dust molds with cocoa and sprinkle the sesame seeds in the bottom of each. Sift together remaining 1/2 cup cocoa with the flour and the salt. Set aside.

Melt 8 Tbs. butter in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, or in a small, heavy saucepan on very low heat. (Watch carefully if using a saucepan.) When almost completely melted, remove from heat and stir until smooth and all melted. Set aside.

Using an electric beater, whisk eggs. Add sugar and beat until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the Soom Chocolate Tahini on a low speed. Add in the cooled melted butter. Fold in the cocoa/flour mixture by hand with a spatula, until thoroughly combined.

Pour the batter into the molds and set molds on a baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake 12 to 14 minutes, less for smaller molds. A skewer or toothpick inserted in the middle should NOT come out clean. 12 minutes was perfect in my oven.

Cool for 20 minutes or more before unmolding. Dust tops with lime zest and serve with ice cream or just serve with ice cream and mint garnish. The center of the cake should be warm, wonderful, and gooey.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!!

The Spring 2017 MARY’s secret ingredients box revealed!

April 7, 2017 by Mary 2 Comments

Yes! Spring is officially here (even though I was still wearing gloves today) as our Spring 2017 MARY’s secret ingredients box revealed!

As always, we have unique products you’ve probably never heard of, but we think you need to know about as they are all natural, good for you and will make your ordinary dinnertime super extraordinary, easily, with my recipes coming up. And, we have this great theme going on with honey (so good) and sesame (open wide!).

Did you know that honey helps prevent cancer and heart disease, reduces ulcers and other gastrointestinal disorders, is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, reduces cough and throat irritation and even though it’s a sweetener, it helps regulate blood sugar?

And sesame seeds are one of the most ancient foods on earth. Full of protein, rich in oils, and high in linoleic and oleic acids. All good! That’s why we created this box for you!!

Here is our terrific fun video made by our super talented team.

Recipes to come using all of these awesome products and remember to always cook with LOVE and I guarantee your food will taste better!

CATSKILL PROVISIONS WHISKEY HONEY TRUFFLES

Combine New York honey, whiskey and chocolate and what have you got? THE most delicious chocolate truffle in the whole wide world!

Located in Long Eddy, New York, in a small northwestern corner of the Catskill Mountains, Catskill Provisions specializes in creating all natural food products and craft spirits from resources close at hand, including the finest raw wildflower honey.

Whiskey Honey Truffles — NY State handcrafted bittersweet chocolate truffles infused with our NY Honey Whiskey. Vanilla, salt, local butter and cream (all organic) join in this marriage for a decadent experience.

GET DRESSED SESAME SENSATION SALAD DRESSING

You know how you always wanted to recreate the delicious cold noodle dish from the Chinese restaurant? Well here you go – dress your noodles and lots of other things with this baby and slurp away!

Feel your best with Get Dressed,™ an all natural, vegan, kosher,  gluten-free and sugar-free line of specialty salad dressings. Gourmet “dresser,” Vanessa Miller designed each delicious dressing to double as a marinade to effortlessly elevate otherwise ordinary dishes. Suggested pairings on every label remove the guesswork and ensure speedy, mouthwatering meals. In addition to delighting tastebuds, each Get Dressed bottle cap contains a secret message, reminding dressers at home to seize the day and dress it your way.

Sesame Sensation is the first spicy tahini dressing on the market. It will elevate your taste buds and instantly make your dish into a gourmet meal!

JOSEPH JOSEPH SMART BAR

Joseph Joseph has done it again, melding form and function in the most beautiful way. You’ll LOVE washing your hands again and one wash will remove the disagreeable odors too.

Founded in 2003 by twin brothers Anthony and Richard, Joseph Joseph specialises in creating design-led products for the kitchen and home with a strong emphasis on form, functionality and quality. As one of the fastest growing companies in the worldwide homewares market, the brand has earned global recognition for its multi-award-winning designs.

SmartBar takes hand washing to a whole new level with its multi-layer approach to hygiene. Its sleek stainless-steel case not only looks good but also helps remove odour from fingers and hands by attracting the sulphur molecules deposited by foods such as garlic and onions. Unlike other stainless-steel soap bars though, smart bar can also be filled with liquid hand soap meaning you can have thoroughly clean and fragranced hands in one go. Simply fill the unit with liquid soap and then press the silicone button to dispense a small amount into your hands through the non-drip valve at the back of the product. For mess-free storage, smart bar even comes with its own silicone draining mat. Hand wash only.

SOOM CHOCOLATE SESAME SPREAD

This chocolate covered enchanted sesame seed spread will have you spreading it on everything, and then some. Move over Nutella – this is way better for you! This is like a spreadable chocolate covered halva bar!

Sister Entrepreneurs “We are a Philadelphia-based women-owned business of three Soom sisters – Shelby, Jackie and Amy – passionate about showcasing the delicious, nutritious and versatile qualities of tahini. Inspired by the unique flavor of Ethiopian sesame seeds, we are dedicated to popularizing tahini in the American market.”

Chocolate Soom — Why deny your sweet tooth? Peanut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, kosher, no added oils… and only 10 grams of sugar!  The indulgence of chocolate with the nourishment of sesame.

WILDER HONEY JALAPEÑO MUSTARD

A little sweet, a little spicy, a lot addictive. We bet you’ll be spreading this mustard on EVERYTHING!!

At Wilder Condiments, we love California. That’s why our mustards are made from here, from ingredients grown here – bringing bright and bold flavor to your favorite eats. We believe in beach cookouts, brown bag lunches, and good food tasting better.

Our mustards were a backyard project, mixed up between BBQ’s and beer brewing sessions by chef and owner, Isabel Freed. Based along the sunny surf swept coastline of Santa Cruz, our hometown inspires us – with good food in good company at the helm of everything we make.

Honey Jalapeño Mustard — The perfect blend of sweetness and spice. Made with sustainably grown California honey and jalapeños. Best enjoyed brushed over grilled chicken, with a crisp sav blanc in a picnic basket.

Buttermilk Challah French Toast

March 30, 2017 by Mary 7 Comments

I love French toast! It’s even better than pancakes for me. Did you know that this past Saturday was National Waffle Day? Me neither, until our totally on-the-ball, wonderful marketing associate, Abby, at MARY’s secret ingredients pointed it out, and that made me think of making French Toast too. But then I thought, how could I make French Toast even better? And I came up with this Buttermilk Challah French Toast recipe – and it was totally yummy!!

It’s less sweet. It sort of tastes like French Toast coated with crème fraiche. It’s a subtle sophisticated difference, but I really liked it. And it’s a whole lot better for you too as buttermilk is considerably lower in calories and fat content but high in calcium, Vitamin B12 and potassium as compared to regular milk. One cup of buttermilk may contain up to 99 calories while milk may contain up to 157 calories. Also, one cup of buttermilk typically has 2.2 grams of fat while the same amount of milk gives you 9 grams of fat. So there!

What makes your French Toast work?

I remember once being on location for a catalog and advertising photo shoot for several days and our crew of five folks spent three days together shooting slippers. Yes, slippers, for Dearfoams, and at one breakfast at the local diner, they had French Toast, but no powdered sugar in the kitchen. Bradley, the photographer looked at me and said, “So you need that to make it work for you?”

I thought that was such a funny yet very true way to put it.

And yes, I do need confectioner’s sugar with a tiny bit a melted butter, to make my French Toast work for me. Ever since I started eating leftover dinners, sliced turkey or only eggs for breakfast, as I need a lot of protein, I rarely make these sweet things. So it’s a good thing we had the sugar on hand, while my husband prefers maple syrup.

Here you go with this super simple recipe. Since there were only two of us, after I made it on Saturday and used just half of the batter, I covered the pie plate with Saran wrap and refrigerated it. The next morning on Sunday, I took the batter out and let it warm up at room temperature for about 20 minutes and then started soaking bread slices again to make a fresh batch of Buttermilk Challah French Toast. This was a way cool, super fast breakfast the second time around. And, it was just as good!!

Make with LOVE.

BUTTERMILK CHALLAH FRENCH TOAST – serves 4

1 loaf of challah bread
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup of real buttermilk (I use Kate’s)
Pinch of French grey or Kosher salt
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbs. unsalted butter

Slice the challah into generous ½” slices. Lightly beat eggs in a Pyrex pie plate. Add buttermilk, salt, vanilla and cinnamon and whisk to combine thoroughly.

Soak the bread slices in the egg buttermilk mixture, turning over several times to coat thoroughly.

Heat the butter in a large skillet until sizzling. Add dipped bread slices. Brown on each side for 2 – 3 minutes on medium-high heat. Watch it so it doesn’t brown too quickly because the inside needs to cook as well. You may need to add more butter to the skillet.

Serve with pure warmed maple syrup or a tiny swish of butter and powdered sugar.

Tuna Salad Sandwiches with Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish

March 22, 2017 by Mary 4 Comments

Tuna Salad is common enough, basic enough and simple enough, so why do you need a recipe? Because, this Tuna Salad is made with Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish and it is DELICIOUS!!

Take something as mundane as tuna salad and infuse it with life with this Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish and WOW!! It’s true, a few tablespoons of this and real flavor abounds. Besides, it’s healthy for you because horseradish is a true superfood, not to mention a sinus-clearing device. Chase the winter blues away, welcome spring and make this for lunch soon.

Because Matt Schmitt, a 4th generation Long Island farmer, plants the horseradish, nurtures it, knows that there are no chemicals to fertilize it, so it’s totally non-GMO and organic, harvests the root, scrubs them clean, peels them and grates them in his own converted garage/commercial kitchen, your can trust that this is pure stuff, the real deal.

I like a little hard-boiled egg in my salad. I think it adds some creaminess. You could leave it out if you’d like but I recommend it.

You know horseradish is a staple in all Slavic countries, where it’s cold and root vegetables rule. Horseradish is known to suppress the growth of tumors, has significant amounts of cancer-fighting compounds called glucosinolates and is chock full of iron, magnesium, calcium and anti-stress B vitamins. But you don’t even need to know all of those benefits – you just need to know it’s DELICIOUS!!

TUNA SALAD SANDWICHES WITH HOLY SCHMITT’S MUSTARD HORSERADISH – serves 4

2 cans, 5 oz. each, solid white tuna packed in water, drained and carefully flaked
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
¼ cup (scant) minced onions
5 Tbs. minced celery
4 Tbs. Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish
5 Tbs. mayonnaise
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
2 plum tomatoes, sliced
2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves, washed and air dried
8 slices of mutli-grain bread, toasted

Combine first 8 ingredients and fold together to combine. I really don’t like it when people mash up canned or jarred tuna. Fold it together with a rubber spatula so you will still have nice chunks of tuna.

Make your sandwich. Lay ½ handful of baby spinach leaves on one side of toasted bread. Put one quarter of the horseradish tuna salad on top, spreading evenly. Lay on top 3 slices of tomato. Top with other slice of bread. Cut in half. (My mother used to always cut diagonally – then my oldest son insisted on that for his school lunches – I did not do that here – sorry Mom.)

Dig in and ENJOY!!

Be the best tuna salad you ever had!

Going Through Everything – and Quick Pasta with a Sweet Sausage Bolognese

March 16, 2017 by Mary 4 Comments

This office move of going through everything after being in business for 38 years has been massive, to say the least. What a tumult of emotions I have been through! I found files where I had saved many keepsakes and thank you notes. I had no idea I had entertained so many people for lunch over the years, especially when we had our previous office for ten years, where we had a large terrace with a Hudson River view.

It was amazing to me that so many people wrote about it! Gathering around a table with food is what people remember. And the wine parties. And the birthday cakes. But after about 7 or 8 years there, the buildings started growing up all around, leaving us just a sliver of a river to see and creating a wind tunnel down 38^th Street to make it not so nice anymore.

Things change so. They can’t stay the same. And I feel a little like an outsider looking in now when I leave my home office for a meeting. Like I’m not part of the in-crowd work force anymore. Like I’m sneaking around.

My husband wanted to operate like this – virtually from the cloud – five years ago, but I resisted. Now, I pretty much like it. I’ll certainly save on make-up and even soap if I’m not careful because it is easy to roll from bed to desk and back again. But no, we must have some rules and we do have our weekly two meetings with our team members here.

Going through everything has sort made me feel like I’ve died already. You see, I saved all those things, thinking I would go through them right before I died. So I did it now. My friend Margaret said she still wouldn’t have thrown them away but I wanted to save that task from my boys. Lord knows I did it enough with my parents and then with Steve’s. I’m still washing his mother’s tablecloths and napkins from when she passed last May.

So needless to say, our meals have had to be super quick and easy for the weary hungry souls we’ve been. Once again, I have relied on some all natural, very flavorful sweet Italian sausage to give us the boost of flavor you can easily count on, as I did with the one-sheet-pan meal of sausage, potatoes and arugula.

I used a lot of red wine in this sauce, because I had an open bottle on the counter just begging to be put to use and I am in a “get rid of things” kind of mode. And adding the little bit of cream at the end smoothed out the ragged edges of the sauce, along with our emotions.

Make and serve with LOVE!

QUICK PASTA WITH SWEET SAUSAGE BOLOGNESE –serves 5 – 6

2 Tbs. coconut oil (better brain food!)
2 shallots, minced
1 lb. all natural sweet Italian sausages, meat removed from casings
1 28 oz. can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
¾ cup dry red wine
1 ½ tsp. dried Greek oregano
¼ tsp. red chili flakes
Salt to taste – French Grey or Kosher
Pepper – fresh ground to taste
2 Tbs. heavy cream
1 lb. good quality dried pasta (I used Sfoglini from our box!)
Coarse sea salt

Put a large pot of cold water on to boil for your pasta.

Warm the coconut oil over low heat. Add minced shallots and cover to let them sweat and sweeten for 10 minutes.

Uncover and raise heat to medium and add the sausage meat, breaking it up into small pieces, tossing it to brown all over. Once browned, add the tomatoes and their juice to the sausage and shallots, crushing the tomatoes with your hands as you’re adding them. Turn heat to medium-high to bring the sauce to brisk simmer/low boil. Add the wine, oregano, chili flakes and salt and pepper to taste. Stir sauce every so often and keep the brisk simmer/low boil going, along with the stirring. The sauce needs to thicken quite a bit.

When the pasta water comes to a boil, add enough coarse sea salt to make it taste like the ocean. Add your pasta and check at 2 minutes less than the least amount of time they tell you on the package. When pasta is al dente, save some pasta water and drain the pasta.

Your sauce should be thickened by now. Remove from heat and stir in 2 Tbs. of heavy cream. Combine the sauce with the pasta in a warm wide bowl. Add 1 Tbs. pasta water, to help the sauce cling better to the noodles. Toss and serve!

You could add grated cheese but I think it’s not necessary. This dish, with the wine and cream, is nice and rich just by itself. Enjoy!!!

If there are only two of you eating, cook only 8 oz. of pasta and use only half of the sauce. You could then freeze the sauce for another meal later in the month or refrigerate for up to 5 days and cook your pasta fresh again. Always better to have fresh pasta than to rewarm it.

Refreshing Winter Citrus Salad Recipe

March 5, 2017 by Mary 9 Comments

Tis the season for oranges to be plentiful and this Refreshing Winter Citrus Salad Recipe is just the thing to drown out the winter blues, wake up your tastebuds and start thinking about spring!

You know I love blood oranges and Cara Cara’s are so nice too as this salad combines both of them along with pink grapefruit, regular navel oranges, some celery for crunch and young escarole leaves for a touch of bitterness. The oil cured black olives add contrast and just the right amount of extra salt, while the thinly slivered red onions do their thing. This is DELICIOUS!!

We are rounding home stretch of moving and cleaning EVERYTHING out of our offices, reorganizing and repositioning the businesses, coming home dirty and dusty every night for the past week and this salad is just the thing that cleans our bodies and souls up before jumping into the shower and then bed. This is also the reason there has been a pause in my posts.

Of course you don’t have to be dirty and tired to enjoy this salad. It’s crisp and refreshing at any time. Beautiful to look at, with all the colors, it’s a feast for the eyes too. This is the kind of salad that’s so good, you just want to keep shoveling it in and mumbling mmm’s.

Please make sure you peel all of the citrus as described below, with a sharp knife. You don’t want any bitter pith coming in to ruin your dish. Make this now, with LOVE, while all the oranges are plentiful. Enjoy!!!

REFRESHING WINTER CITRUS SALAD RECIPE – serves 3 – 4

4 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. sherry vinegar
Salt and pepper
1 navel orange
2 blood oranges
2 Cara Cara oranges
1 small pink grapefruit
1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced
3 tender inside celery stalks, thinly sliced at an angle
Handful of black oil cured olives
½ small head of escarole, tender inside leaves
Large pinch of flaky Maldon sea salt

Whisk together olive oil and vinegar in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Wash and spin dry the escarole leaves. Wrap in paper toweling and chill in the refrigerator.

To remove the peel from all of the citrus fruit, use a small serrated or very sharp boning knife. First, cut off a thin slice of peel from the top and bottom of the orange, so it can sit flat on the cutting board. Next, take off the peel, cutting from top to bottom, following the curve of the fruit. Try to remove only the peel and white pith, not the flesh of the fruit. It should end up being perfectly spherical and naked.

Once peeled, carefully slice peeled citrus crosswise. Arrange escarole leaves on a large platter. Arrange all citrus slices in a random pattern on top of the escarole, letting them overlap a bit here and there. Scatter onion and celery over top. Dot the surface with olives.

Whisk vinaigrette again, and spoon evenly over the salad. Sprinkle lightly with flaky salt and serve with LOVE.

Enjoy!!!