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

SerendipiTea Holiday Cheer in Pancakes

December 27, 2014 by Mary 8 Comments

Tea in pancakes? Whoever heard of that? Well I tried it the other morning and it was just great!! Tea is so versatile, yet we tend to only think of it as a beverage. But tea can be used in so many ways. Brew it as a delicious marinade for chicken, bake it into cookies and yes, use it in pancake batter! So spread some more holiday cheer by using SerendipiTea Holiday Cheer in your pancakes! With cinnamon, cloves, ginger, mint and cardamom, this tea is a ready-made spice blend for creating a perfect breakfast to warm your soul in the morning!

The Company, SerendipiTea, is based on Long Island. They contacted us early in the year wanting to be in our winter box with these holiday teas, so we have been anxiously awaiting the chance to try them. We like this company because besides being nice people, they are committed to working closely with tea gardens, estates and specialists around the world, constantly adding to their knowledge and expertise on all facets of tea and its production. We should never stop learning!

Enjoy these pancakes with a little butter and warm maple syrup along with a cup of SerendipiTea’s Once Upon a Time tea with rooibos, vanilla and chocolate, and dream of good things for the coming year!! Enjoy!

SERENDIPITEA HOLIDAY CHEER IN PANCAKES – serves 2

1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk or milk
1 Tbs. plus 1/4 tsp. SeredipiTea Holiday Cheer Tea
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Butter and syrup to serve

Preheat the oven to 225°F. In a small saucepan, bring the milk and 1 Tbs. tea in a tea ball to gentle simmer. Remove from the heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar in a bowl. When the milk tea mixture is cool, remove the tea ball. Whisk the milk with the egg and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Add 1/4 teaspoon Holiday Cheer tea leaves. Stir until just combined. Let batter sit for 10 minutes.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat. Brush a thin layer of butter or oil on your pan. Drop the batter into the pan with a large spoon. Cook until tiny bubbles appear on the surface, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes. Keep the pancakes in the warm oven until you’re finished making all the pancakes. Enjoy warm with butter and syrup.

Red Snapper Wildwood Arbol Hot Sauce in Artichoke Dip

December 24, 2014 by Mary 3 Comments

Red Snapper Wildwood Arbol Sauce is great on anything! The McVea family has been making this sauce since 1895 and they say that this is their medium hot sauce but for me, this is hot! It’s much hotter than Tabasco. However, it has a ton of flavor! I recommend that you test it out and see how it fits on your intensity scale. I’ve been using about half the amount of Tabasco that I would normally use, and this is much better. Made from a Louisiana family recipe, this is a great way to add spice to your life! Perfect on eggs (pic) or in my crab cake recipe (link and photo) and it was really, really delicious in my famous artichoke dip. (My kids tell me it’s famous) Perfect for upcoming holiday parties, here’s the full recipe.

Truly, this sauce took my dip to a whole other level!!

ARTICHOKE DIP with RED SNAPPER WILDWOOD ARBOL SAUCE – serves 6 – 8

One 14oz. can of artichoke hearts, drained of juice
One small can of green chilies with the juice
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese, packed
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. Red Snapper Wildwood Arbol Sauce
Chopped fresh basil leaves

Take each artichoke heart in your hand, hold upside down, and squeeze the juice out. Then, place in the food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add all other ingredients and process until smooth. Place in an oven proof dish and bake at 350 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes, until browned around the edges and a little bubbly.

This dish tastes great but is not pretty so top it with some fresh chopped basil leaves.

Serve with LOVE along with crudités and pita chips or small dipping crackers.

Dutch’s Spirits Colonial Bitters Cod Fish Vegetable Stew

December 22, 2014 by Mary 4 Comments

The next item from our MARY’s secret ingredients winter box is this adorable set of 3 different bitters. What do you do with bitters? Make fantastic cocktails, of course! They have lots of recipes both on their website and in the box. However, I’ve used one of them – the Colonial bitters – as a finishing touch in this amazing fish stew! Try this Dutch’s Spirits Colonial Bitters Cod Fish Vegetable Stew on a cold winter’s night and everything will warm up, I guarantee!!

I love the packaging – particularly the hats! Dutch’s Spirits may be a new company, but they have a rich history. Their home – a distillery, farm and upcoming restaurant – was actually the former property of bootlegger and gangster, Dutch Schultz, until the Feds busted him during prohibition in 1932. Isn’t that so cool? The distillery was underground and had an extensive network of interconnected tunnels and bunkers to make the booze then move it out for sale. This property is literally five minutes away from our home upstate. We can’t wait until it opens to get the full tour!

Now, back to food. Try this stew. It is so good, so healthy and has a unique flavor from the bitters. Just add three dashes to each bowl righ before serving, mix around and voila! The Colonial bitters is made up of juniper, allspice, orange, cinnamon and lavender among other things so it goes beautifully with Herbs de Provence. It was a perfect combination!!

Dutch's Spirits Cod Fish Stew ingredients.

The vegetables in this stew.

DUTCH’S SPIRITS COD FISH VEGETABLE STEW WITH COLONIAL BITTERS – serves 4

2 cups fish broth
½ cup white wine
7 small Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and halved or quartered
4 carrots, scraped and cut into pieces
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into chunks
5 radishes, scrubbed and halved
3 plum tomatoes, cored and chopped
2 handfuls of sugar snap peas, strings removed
1 tsp. Herbs de Provence
1.5 lbs. fresh cod fish fillets, washed and paper towel dried
2 tsp. harissa
Chopped cilantro
12 dashes of Dutch’s Spirits Colonial Cocktail Bitters

Spread harissa all over the cod on one side and let sit for 20 – 30 minutes.

Place broth, wine, carrots and potatoes in a medium-sized skillet, and partially cover, then bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 6 minutes. Add herbs de Provence, radishes, parsnips and tomatoes. Partially cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Scrape some of the harissa off of the fish. Cut the fish into large chunks. Add the fish to the skillet and simmer for 3 minutes, gently turning in the skillet. Add the sugar snap peas and simmer for 3 more minutes. The sugar snap peas should still be crisp but the rest of the vegetables should be tender. The fish should be moist but opaque and flake into sections when gently separated with a fork.

Salt to taste. Portion out the stew and stir 3 drops of Colonial Cocktail bitters into each bowl. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with LOVE!

Maddy’s Sweet Shop Peppermint Chocolate Mousse Trifle

December 19, 2014 by Mary 6 Comments

Shortbread cookies, peppermint candies, chocolate mousse, and whipped cream, all in layers of scrumptiousness – what could be better? I made this Maddy’s Sweet Shop Peppermint Chocolate Trifle recipe with the fourth item in our MARY’s secret ingredients winter box, Maddy’s Sweet Peppermint Shortbread cookies. You could call it heaven in a glass!

First of all, these peppermint shortbread cookies are so good, people will ask you if they’re homemade! (say yes!) Dusted with powdered sugar and buttery rich, yet light, bet you can’t eat just one. Then, the chocolate mousse is a riff on an easy-to-make recipe I used to make a lot, years ago. However, if I were to make this trifle again, I think I’d use bittersweet chocolate instead of semi-sweet. I’d prefer the super-dark chocolate flavor rather than the added sugar. Whatever your preference, this trifle recipe is easy and keeps well. I ate my dessert over the course of 3 evenings, savoring every bite! The cookies didn’t even get soggy. This is a perfect dessert for a holiday meal. I hope you get a chance to make it and enjoy!

While I know this really isn’t a true trifle, I’m calling it that because it sounds fancier than just a layered dessert, don’t you think? I love Benedictine Liqueur, but you could easily substitute Grand Marnier, Triple Sec or even a wonderful, dark rum.

MADDY’S SWEET SHOP PEPPERMINT CHOCOLATE MOUSSE TRIFLE– serves 4

Make the Chocolate Mouse – serves 8 (you will have half of this leftover for another wonderful dessert!)

3/4 lb. semisweet chocolate or bittersweet if you prefer a darker, less sweet mousse
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup Benedictine Liqueur or Grand Marnier
2 egg yolks
1 cup of heavy cream, chilled
2 Tbs. sugar
4 egg whites
Pinch of salt

Cut the chocolate into chunks and melt in a heavy saucepan over very low heat, stirring; add the milk, then stir in the Benedictine Liqueur. Let cool to room temperature. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.

Beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff. Whip the cup of cream until thickened, then gradually beat in the sugar, beating until stiff. Gently fold the egg whites into one-half of the cream. Reserve the rest of the cream for use in layering the trifle. Cover and store in the refrigerator.

Stir about one third of the cream and egg white mixture thoroughly into the chocolate mixture. Then gently fold in the remaining cream and egg white mixture into the chocolate until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until set.

Assemble the trifle:
One 7 oz. package of Maddy’s Sweet Shop Sweet Peppermint shortbread cookies – cut all the cookies into chunks
One-half of the chocolate mousse from the above recipe
Remaining whipped cream

Take your prettiest clear glasses and alternate layers of chocolate mousse, cookies and whipped cream (make two layers) and then top the final whipped cream layer with a few more cookie pieces.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!!

MARY’s secret ingredients Giveaway Winners announced!

December 18, 2014 by Mary 3 Comments

To all of you who participated in my MARY’s secret ingredients Giveaway, thank you for making it a huge success! Everyone’s responses were just wonderful, and I’m so happy to announce our winners today.

A little background: I wanted to make sure that the winner was picked completely at random so I had Marie, my MSI Project Manager (and resident opera singer), input everyone’s names into this Random Name Picker. First, we chose our Grand Prize Winner who will receive a full year’s subscription to MARY’s secret ingredients, followed by our two runners-up who will each receive a Spring 2015 box!

And The Winners Are:

Grand Prize: Anne Maxfield!!!

Runners-up: Shaunie and Bill Bryan!

Congratulations Anne, I’m thrilled to be sending you a whole year of my specially curated ingredients. To Shaunie, and Bill, thank you so much for sharing your lovely holiday dishes, I’m delighted to be sending you each a Spring box.

Here are our winners’ favorite holiday dishes:

Anne cooks recipes to put into beautifully packed gifts with her friend. This year they made a wonderful Crunchy Granola (you can get the recipe on her blog here: http://wp.me/p2SJwY-1y). Shaunie makes her Great Aunt’s broccoli casserole recipe, and Bill make a special bison chili with 3 different kinds of beans!

Once again thank you to everyone who participated, including our international friends who shared with us even though they weren’t eligible to enter because we can’t ship outside the continental US, yet. You ALL are winners in my book!

Stay tuned for more recipes using the ingredients from my winter box!

Gran Luchito & Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken

December 17, 2014 by Mary 8 Comments

The next item from our winter box is the Gran Luchito Smoked Pepper Paste from Chelsea Market Baskets. (They also make the best holiday gift baskets!) The owner, David Porat, sent this to me months ago to try out. I immediately loved it and wanted it in a box, but it wasn’t available until just now. This little jar is packed with potent taste and should be invited in to everyone’s kitchen! It truly is an ingredient, not to be eaten right out of the jar as it is super strong. Mixing it with other things allows you to appreciate the full flavor of these rare smoked Mexican chillies that have all been ethically sourced – nice! I made this Gran Luchito & Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken recipe and it is so good!! (There are other recipes here as well.)

You may remember that my husband is not a fan of smoked things, but he LOVES this chicken. The paste also has a bit of agave and some garlic. This recipe is so easy with only four ingredients and again, it’s because the chilli paste is packed with flavor. Just plan ahead to marinate it for 2 days. This way, the chilli flavors really permeate the meat and the buttermilk makes it creamy and silky all at the same time. Do it on a Saturday and you’ve got yourself an easy dinner for a Monday evening. Make it with LOVE and it will overflow with extra deliciousness!

GRAN LUCHITO & BUTTERMILK MARINATED ROAST CHICKEN – serves 4

One 3.5 lb. whole chicken
1.5 cups of whole buttermilk – preferably Kate’s
1.5 Tbs. of Gran Luchito Smoked Chilli Paste
1 tsp. crushed Juniper berries

Two days before serving, wash and paper towel dry your chicken. Using poultry shears, cut along each side of the chicken backbone and remove it. Turn the chicken breast side up and press on the breastbone to flatten the chicken. Using a sharp knife, cut partway through both sides of the joint between the thighs and the drumsticks as well as cut partway through the joint between the wings and the breast. This will allow the chicken to cook much faster.

Combine the buttermilk, Gran Luchito and crushed juniper berries in a small bowl and whisk together. Pour this mixture in a ziplock bag and put your chicken in. Close the bag and distribute the marinade all over. Store in the refrigerator for two days, turning the bag over and rubbing the marinade in periodically.

On the day you’re serving the chicken, preheat the oven to 450°. Place the chicken with the marinade in a non-stick, ovenproof skillet. (I did this or you can drain it from the marinade as essentially it does make a mess in your skillet but it probably imparts more flavor this way. With the skillet being non-stick, it fortunately cleans up easily.)

Set the skillet over high heat and cook the chicken until it starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast the chicken for 30 minutes, until the skin is browned and the chicken is cooked through. Carefully remove the chicken from the skillet (remember the handle is piping hot so do not grab it unless you have a hotpad on!) and place on a platter. Let the chicken rest for 5 – 10 minutes. Cut it into 8 pieces and serve with LOVE.