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

Chimichurri-ed Wilted Endives with Walnuts

May 20, 2015 by Mary 16 Comments

I love endive. I think it’s so elegant. I remember when we traveled to Egypt in the early eighties around Christmas time, we didn’t dare eat any fruits or vegetables for fear of getting really sick due to their fertilization practices. Now I am a huge fan of vegetables and fruit. I typically eat a ton of each everyday, and after being there for about four days, I was not a happy camper. But on Christmas Eve, we were at a party and they had endive on the buffet table. My husband leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Mary, you can eat this. It’s from Belgium.” And I was in heaven!! This recipe of Chimichurri-ed Wilted Endives with Walnuts, using the Samba Flavor Chimichurri pack from our latest MSI spring box, covers all the bases – different, delicious, elegant and easy. Sautéing the endive mellows the bitterness. I love it being crisp and warm all at the same time. Making the Chimichurri with lemon juice and walnut oil makes it extra special, plus the addition of the chopped walnuts to finish it off, adds texture, flavor and contrast. Make this as a side dish and be prepared for rave reviews.

The SambaFlavor Chimichurri folks are very proud of their spice combination and they should be, as it’s all natural, gluten free and has no MSG. They wanted to create an easy way to replicate dishes from home, (South America) with this pre-made spice and herb combination. With a touch of red chili flakes, this little mix, made just the way they suggest, has a myriad of uses. Dress up some roasted fish, grilled meats, chicken, grilled eggplant or zucchini. I even used it on some boiled Yukon Gold potatoes for a quick warm potato salad and it was delish. Heck it’s probably even good on over-easy eggs. Experiment and have fun! There won’t be a lot that you can’t put it on to perk up any dish and make it more special.

CHIMMICHURRI-ED WILTED ENDIVES WITH WALNUTS – serves 3 – 6

3 good-size heads of Belgian endive, wiped clean with a wet paper towel, ends trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
1 Tbs. Olive oil

For the Chimichurri:
3 Tbs. Samba Flavor Chimichurri spice mix
3 Tbs. hot tap water
3 Tbs. lemon juice
6 Tbs. walnut oil, plus a little extra for drizzling
Extra chopped walnuts for garnish

Make the Chimichurri: Combine the Samba Flavor Chimichurri spice mix with the hot tap water and lemon juice and let it soak for 5 minutes. Whisk in the walnut oil.

Chop the walnuts.

Saute the endives: Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place endive halves in the skillet, cut side down. They should not be touching one another. Season with kosher salt and pepper and cover the pan loosely. Cook until golden brown on the cut side, about 5 minutes. Flip over and cook on other side, loosely covered, until crisp tender, about another 4 – 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and transfer the endives to a platter, cut side up. Spoon about a tablespoon of Chimichurri on each half. (you will not use all of it – keep remainder in the fridge and use on roasted fish, eggplant, eggs, anything!!) Top with chopped walnuts and drizzle a tiny bit of extra walnut oil on top. Serve with LOVE and enjoy!

The SambaFlavor Chimichurri Dry Mix was in our MARY’s secret ingredients spring box. The summer box will mail on June 25th.

Banana Nut Muffins with Loacker Chocolate Chucks

May 18, 2015 by Mary 26 Comments

This Loacker Cremkakao chocolate bar is super delicious all on it’s own. Loacker is a family owned business out of Italy and their factory is located at the foot of the Alps near the Austrian border. For 90 years they have been making a variety of light and crispy wafer cookies. In fact, they are the number one wafer cookie in the world! This is their first venture into the chocolate bar business and keeping true to their roots, they have incorporated a thin crispy wafer in the center of this decadent chocolate. (Isn’t that cool?) One bite and you’ll be looking for more, which will hopefully be available very soon as these bars are just being introduced into this country. You, spring box buyers, are the lucky ones to taste these first! Stay tuned for where you can buy more as I know you’ll be asking.

Meanwhile, I made these decadent Banana Nut Muffins with Loacker Chocolate Chunks for a Sunday morning treat. These were beyond delicious!!

BANANA NUT MUFFINS WITH LOACKER CHOCOLATE CHUNKS – makes 12 muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
11/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 Loacker 3.07 oz. Cremkakao chocolate bar, cut into smallish chunks

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs.

Smash the bananas and vanilla together.

Loacker Banana Nut muffins - chocolate cut up.

Your chocolate bar should look like this.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Add to creamed mixture, alternately adding the banana mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Fold in walnuts and chocolate pieces. Butter non-stick muffin cups or use paper liners; fill 12 cups with batter, distributing evenly. Bake at 350° for 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm with LOVE. Delizioso!!

The Loacker Cremkakao chocolate bar was in our MARY’s secret ingredients spring box. The summer box will mail on June 25th.

Veggie Pho – Gluten-Free!

May 16, 2015 by Mary 13 Comments

Savory Creations International, located in Northern California, is the company that makes this outstanding Veggie Pho. They make other pho’s too – chicken and beef – but I chose the vegetable one to include in our spring box because I thought it was so flavorful and I love the hint of cloves. This company supplies broths and demi glace for top chefs at very fine restaurants so they really know what they are doing, as all of their products are super delicious and just as good as homemade. Of course all of them are all natural, no MSG, naturally gluten-free with zero trans fats and come concentrated in these handy little packets where you dissolve each packet in 2 cups of hot water.

I made this Veggie Pho Gluten-Free and paired it with a grilled Provolone and tomato sandwich on whole grain bread (I know – I added glutens with the bread, but we are not sensitive to glutens!) for one of our weekly meatless meals and my husband asked me to make this dinner again. You know he usually complains about the one meatless meal per week but this one was a winner!

Pho is the Vietnamese national dish, typically consisting of rice noodles, onions, herbs, seasonings and thinly sliced beef or chicken in a clear broth.

I chose to keep this pho vegetarian as well as gluten-free, using white rice noodles and a variety of vegetables. Of course you can use any combination of vegetables or add a protein such as shrimp, chicken or pork. Anything works in this broth. It’s super easy and quick to have a satisfying meal to put on the table in a jiffy. And remember to make it with LOVE – for best results! 🙂

Here’s what I did:

VEGGIE PHO – GLUTEN-FREE – serves 3

3 packs of Savory Choice Veggie Pho
6 cups of hot water
5 oz. gluten-free white rice spaghetti
2 radishes, thinly sliced
2/3 of a head of Romaine lettuce heart, cut in 1/4” slices
1/4 of a head of radicchio, cut in 1/4” slices
One handful of sugar snap peas, strings removed
1/4 cup oil cured, pitted black olives
2 scallions, white and light green parts, cut in 1/4” slices
Dash of Sriracha sauce to taste

Set a medium sized pot of cold water on to boil. When it comes to a boil, season with coarse sea salt and cook the white rice spaghetti al dente. Drain and reserve.

Prepare all the vegetables. Dissolve the Veggie Pho in the 6 cups of hot water in a medium sized pot. Bring it to a simmer and add the sugar snap peas. Simmer for 2 -3 minutes, until crisp tender. Add the noodles, the rest of the vegetables and the olives. Remove from heat immediately as you want to keep the rest of the vegetables crisp and tasty – do not cook them. Ladle pho into serving bowls. Garnish with scallions and serve. Use the sauce as you please for an added kick!

PROVOLONE AND TOMATO GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES – serves 2

4 slices of whole grain bread
Unsalted butter
6 – 8 slices of Provolone cheese
1 tomato, cut in 6 slices
fresh ground pepper

Assemble sandwiches as shown, cheese topped with the tomato slices. Grind pepper over the tomatoes. Close the sandwiches and butter one side of the bread.

Melt some butter in a non-stick skillet on medium heat. Swirl the butter around to coat the bottom of the pan. Put the unbuttered side of the sandwich down and cook for about 5 minutes until bread is nicely browned. Flip sandwich over and toast the other side for 4 – 5 minutes.

Remove to a plate and cut in half diagonally to serve with the Veggie Pho. Enjoy!!

The Savory Choice Veggie Pho was in our MARY’s secret ingredients spring box. The summer box will mail on June 25th.

Subscription Box, Spring 2015 Revealed

May 14, 2015 by Mary 6 Comments

MARY’s secret ingredients subscription box, spring 2015, revealed!!

We had so much fun!! It is so interesting to research and find new companies and products, do the testing :), and then pick the best for you! This box has products from Italy and Scotland, spice mixes influenced by the foods of South America, a delicious new form of low calorie pasta that’s really made of vegetables but you’d never know it, an amazing kitchen tool, the BEST cheese straws and the most flavorful and wonderful tasting pho. If you ordered a box, you won’t be disappointed. And I’ve got some knockout recipes coming up, using all of these products as ingredients, giving all the ready-to-eat items a whole new usage.

In doing this, we hope to inspire you with new recipes to take the doldrums out of the daily question, “What’s for dinner?” Please email us any recipes you create using these products as we are planning on developing a community cookbook with the whole collection at the end of the year. Won’t that make a great holiday gift?

And by buying a box, you’ve just helped in our efforts and partnership with Feed The Children to eradicate worldwide childhood hunger. Thank you for joining in on our big hairy audacious goal.

Please take a look at our super cute video put together by our amazing team – it’s worth the one minute!! (who knew products could dance?)

Our June summer box ships on June 25th! You can order that here.

Chef’s Planet Cit-Trease

Chef’s Planet makes life in the kitchen easier by offering unique, cleverly designed gadgets to fit your active lifestyle. They are constantly thinking of new ways to make cooking simpler and more enjoyable! This clever tool makes it easy to remove citrus from the peel so you can enjoy fresh fruit cut up in a bowl or juiced in a juicer. Simply score the citrus in a complete rotation by placing the blade teeth at the edge of the peel. Continue rotating the citrus and move the Cit-Trease handle in a perpendicular position to the face of the fruit until it pulls away from the peel. Getting juiced was never so easy & healthy!

– Stainless steel blade will not rust or tarnish
– Great for preparing citrus and other “scoopable” foods like avocados and squash
– Dishwasher safe (top shelf)
– Patent pending

Chelsea Market Basket – Their founder’s passion for inspired specialty food and thoughtfully designed gifts led to the creation of Chelsea Market Baskets in 1993. Owner, David Porat continues to search the world for distinctly high quality, unique, innovative products with a certain indescribable charm. Chelsea Market Baskets aims to delight customers through their retail shop in NYC, mail order gift business and wholesale imports.

Reids of Caithness Oaties – Product of Scotland

Donald Reid started this family-run bakery located in Thurso, Scotland in 1966 using his grandmother’s over 100 year-old recipes. He uses the same locally grown oats from the same mills that his grandmother used to bake her delicious biscuits and cakes. The recipes are unchanged and their award winning, buttery, crisp cookies have stood the test of time. We can see why!

Delta Bred Cheese Straws

We are excited to share with you one of their most treasured family recipes. These cheese straws are made in small batches and use 100% real cheddar cheese. They are perfect for anyone looking for fine taste at fine times! Whether you enjoy your cheese straws with sweet tea or mint juleps, we can assure you will experience the mighty fine taste of Delta Bred!

Harvest Foods Shirataki Harvest Noodles Marinara

Made from Konjac Yam Root, this secret weight loss food enjoyed in Asia is now available to you in a vibrant marinara sauce of blended tomatoes, onions, basil and sea salt to delight your taste buds. Healthy and convenient, Shirataki Noodles are vegan and low calorie, making them perfect for anyone trying to be mindful of their weight.

Skinny and easy never tasted so good!

Loacker Cremkakao Chocolate Bar – Product of Italy

Nine – count ’em nine – bite-size pieces make up Loacker‘s velvety chocolate bar with cream-filled centers and their signature light and crispy wafers. They make them easy to break apart so each bar-within-the-bar is a treat unto itself to savor and linger over. Cremkakao is a milk chocolate bar.

So easy, yet at the same time, so hard to share.

Samba Flavor Chimichurri Dry Mix

This is your chimichurri on the go! Created with gourmet quality herbs and spices for the chimichurri lover, this is very easy to prepare. You can mix it with wine, vinegar or lemon juice and olive oil. Adjust to your preferred acidity and taste!

Enjoy the best flavors of South America!

Savory Choice Authentic Veggie Pho

Made with traditional flavors and aromatics, infused in a rich broth, this pho contains no artificial flavors or coloring and is made with natural ingredients. Add your choice of protein or veggies, cooked rice noodles and garnish with your choice of condiments to create the perfect pho dish in minutes. Each stick pouch of liquid broth concentrate is reconstituted with 2 cups (16 oz) of hot water.

Savor the homemade flavor!

Mother’s Day at Woman’s Day

May 8, 2015 by Mary 12 Comments

The week before last I received an invitation to a Mother’s Day brunch at Woman’s Day magazine corporate headquarters. I said “Yes!” Not really knowing what to expect, it was a delightful few hours this past Tuesday morning. They had invited about a dozen bloggers and we got to “play”.

Take a look at the cupcake I decorated to, ahem, “match” their cover cupcake. My bee looks a little distressed or crabby, don’t you think? I didn’t mean to make it look like that but the woman next to me accidentally hit my elbow while I was drawing on the face. Oh well! What was really fun was being able to meet some other bloggers in person. Previously we had only known each other through commenting.

The team at Woman’s Day is so impressive. These editors are top notch – all young, beautiful, super organized and as the Editor in Chief, Susan Spencer said, “they get it done!” The magazine is so deep with ideas on food, fashion, crafts and projects, books to read, you name it!

Do It Yourself (DIY) projects are very big with their readers, so another thing we learned is how to make your own salt or brown sugar body scrub. I’m a salt person myself so I made a lemongrass salt version. It’s so simple, it’s stupid and to think I spent all this money on scrubs from Bliss in the past and I could have made this in my kitchen? Who knew? Estee Lauder started in her kitchen and look where that got her!

So let me share this recipe with you. Make this and use it, as it won’t last too long. They say it will keep for about a month in a closed jar in a cool dark place. So all you moms out there should make this for yourselves and give yourself a spa day Mother’s Day!

Homemade Body Scrub – from Woman’s Day magazine

3 rounded Tbs. Kosher salt
2 Tbs. olive oil
5 – 6 drops of any essential oil – lemongrass, lavender, peppermint, you decide!

Place salt in a small clean glass jar. Drizzle in olive oil and stir with a wooden stick or chopstick. Add in the oil and stir again.

Store in a cool dark place and use within a month.

My boy are coming over to cook me a surprise dinner for Mother’s Day. (It’s my favorite holiday!) I can’t wait!!

Hope you all have an awesome day on Sunday!

Eggplant, Mozzarella and Oil-cured Black Olive Spaghetti

May 3, 2015 by Mary 25 Comments

I have been wanting to tell you about this dish for some time now and I thought I’d better get it to you before we get deep into grilling season. You know my husband is not fond of my one meatless meal per week, (although last week I snuck in two and he didn’t notice!) One night I threw together this dish and it was so satisfying, rich, delicious and different too! With the oil cured black olives and fresh fennel, each adding their own distinctive flavor, the sweet fresh tomatoes added at the end, along with the creaminess of the mozzarella, this is a recipe you will want to repeat. Give this eggplant, mozzarella and oil-cured black olive spaghetti dish a try and your meat lover will not complain. Mine asked me to make it again!

With this recipe, I also discovered some new things. I don’t know about you, but every time I cook eggplant, I feel like I run the risk of using way too much olive oil as the eggplant will absorb and absorb forever, if you know what I mean. So here, I used a reasonable amount for a whole pasta dish, 1/3 cup, but sautéed it on low heat covered, with the fennel, which also gave off some moisture. This made everything juicy and tender, needing no additional oil. I added the tomatoes at the very end, not to cook them into a sauce but to have them add their fresh burst of color and flavor. The 1/2 cup of pasta water is essential to make the sauce adhere to the noodle better. Did you know that that is true for all pastas?

The three small zebra striped eggplants seem sweeter to me. If you can’t find the zebra striped, use the small Italian solid purple eggplants. And do be sure to buy the best, fresh salted mozzarella you can find. Happy healthy eating!!

EGGPLANT, MOZZARELLA AND OIL-CURED BLACK OLIVE SPAGHETTI – serves 4 as a main course

3 small zebra striped eggplants, washed, trimmed and sliced lengthwise in half and then in 1/2 slices
1/2 of a large fennel bulb, cut into 1/4” thick slices, then in 1/2” pieces
1/3 cup olive oil
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 plum tomatoes, cored and chopped
Heaping 1/2 cup of oil cured, pitted, black olives (the wrinkled ones)
7 oz. mozzarella cheese, cut in 1/4” slices, then 1/4” strips, then cut each strip in half again
Course sea salt for pasta water
1/2 lb. spaghetti
1/2 cup pasta water

Fill a large pot with cold water and bring to a boil. Salt with the coarse sea salt and add the pasta. Cook till al dente. Remove and reserve at least 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile, warm the olive oil in a large skillet, add the eggplant and fennel and cook on low heat, covered while stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add the minced garlic, cover and cook another 15 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes and olives. Stir and cook for 5 minutes, uncovered.

Stir in your cooked pasta, pasta water and the cheese to combine and toss thoroughly to finish cooking your pasta.

Check seasonings – it may need some pepper but not much else. At least I didn’t need anything else, except to serve with LOVE!