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

Crystal Lake in Barton, Vermont

August 23, 2014 by Mary 32 Comments

Our visit to my brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Trish, at their vacation home on Crystal Lake in Barton, Vermont was filled with great food, amazing wine and wonderful times to create lasting memories. We picked up our youngest son, Zach and his girlfriend, Agata, arriving from Germany, at the airport last week on Thursday and headed straight up north. Barton is a quiet village with a population of 720, near the Canadian border. This makes for a marked contrast to the hustle and bustle of our daily lives in NYC. We have been going up there for 34 years now and not much has changed. Crystal Lake is aptly named. It is very crystal clear.

Steve and Trish are the most amazing hosts. They planned every meal to perfection along with delicious pairings of wine. (you may remember that Steve has a wine and food pairing blog – www.wineandfoodpairings.net) We were joined by their friends, Dana and Richard. (They are the owners of the beautiful Bernese mountain dog, Otis.) Richard was celebrating a birthday last Saturday, and he brought some fantastic champagne, French Chardonnays plus a magnum of Tensley Syrah from CA and a 1977 port! Both Richard and Steve have full wine cellars. Richard said that since it was his birthday, he picked very special bottles he had been saving and felt like a kid in his own candy store. We got to be the lucky beneficiaries!

We arrived home this past Wednesday, relaxed, refreshed, and happy. We all ate and drank too much – but I’m not sorry. Here are some visual highlights so you can take a vicarious tour of our little vaca. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy drinking all the delicious wine.

We are a cooking family! Here’s Trish’s agile hands on the mandolin cutting raw zucchini into pasta-like strips to make Jenny Ross’s zucchini pasta with lemon pistachio pesto recipe from Jenny’s cookbook, Raw Basics. Jenny has the restaurant 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa, CA, where everything is served at 118 degrees or less. It was delicious!! Totally raw and totally healthy.

Here’s my brother, Steve completing his fresh tomatoes and basil side, with balsamic vinegar pearls or as he likes to call them, balsamic caviar. This is made with the Molecular Gastronomy Kit by Cuisine R-evolution. To make them you put a tall glass of vegetable oil in the freezer for 30 minutes. Combine agar-agar with balsamic and bring to boil. Fill a pipette (dropper) with this mixture and then slowly drip the liquid from the pipette into the cold oil. The pearls will form and then you use a sieve to remove pearls from the oil, rinse with water and serve. Pretty cool, eh?

Zach and Agata helping themselves to my brother’s famous grilled baby back ribs. What a beautiful meal with a gorgeous wine pairing!! The Williams Selyem vineyard is one of my brother’s favorites, and mine too!

Having just come back from spending the summer in Europe, Zach and Agata wanted to make some traditional food for us for lunch – borscht and pierogi.

Here’s Zach’s Ukrainian style borscht, which was delicious and oh so healthy with homemade chicken broth. (I liked it with a small dollop of sour cream.) They brought back a bottle of wine from Georgia to give to my brother. They said they knew that it was a little like bringing sand to the beach, but did you know that Georgia has some of the oldest wine producing regions on earth? I surely didn’t.

The pierogi ready to boil. Agata made 71 of them!! Aren’t they beautiful?

The finished pierogi with a bacon onion topping. Delish!!

The starting point of my 10 mile bike ride around neighboring Lake Willoughby.

Waterfalls along the way.

Steve and Steve (my husband and brother) out for an afternoon cruise. You can see just how clear the water is.

Always a highlight of a Vermont visit is the weather permitting, early evening cocktail cruise. Here’s our appetizer tray for one evening – homemade kale chips, jalapeño hummus, vegetable dipping sticks and lightly salted cashews.

My husband enjoying the cruise. Notice the “S” on his hat – so he doesn’t forget his name is Steve! (Actually it’s from Summit, NJ baseball when our boys played.)

Now you’ll notice I have no mention of my meal made there, as my Provencial chicken got quite the blackened treatment from a fire on the grill. Although it still tasted good and seconds were had, it was not something to share in a photograph.

I hope you all have been able to fit in relaxing vacation time this summer as well. School is starting soon!

Best Gazpacho Recipe

August 19, 2014 by Mary 37 Comments

When I was young, I hated tomatoes. Can you believe it? How could anyone hate tomatoes? I don’t know, I’m guessing it was a whole texture issue. My mother used to grow them and I hated the smell of the plants too. Now, that smell just makes me swoon over the deliciousness that I know is coming from a plant like that. Loving tomatoes like I do now, you’d think I’d love gazpacho, BUT I can’t stand gazpacho that just tastes like you’re eating salsa. Like, excuse me but can I have chips instead of a spoon? That type of gazpacho can be so thick it can almost make you gag. Are you in agreement with me here? Now this is the best gazpacho recipe! It’s fast, easy and healthy to boot. Made with super sweet sunny gold tomatoes, it’s practically just pure pureed tomatoes, topped with some luscious avocado chunks and you have summer in a bowl!

Make this now while those sunny golds are flooding the farmers market stands and avocados are perfectly ripe and plentiful. This is super simple and so delicious. I hope you enjoy it just as much as we do. The basis of this recipe came from the August issue of Food and Wine magazine, but I have changed it up a bit – less water than they originally call for (who wants to dilute the sweetness of these tomatoes?) and more spice by including the seeds from the jalapeño. But a big thank you to Justin Chapple and Food and Wine for providing the inspiration and foundation of this wonderful summer starter dish!

GOLDEN GAZPACHO WITH AVOCADO – serves 4 – adapted from Justin Chapple and Food and Wine magazine

2 pounds yellow or orange cherry tomatoes
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 of a jalapeño, minced, with seeds
2 Tbs. water
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 avocado, diced

In a food processor, puree the tomatoes, crushed garlic and jalapeño with 2 Tbs. of water. With the machine on, gradually add the olive oil until incorporated. Transfer to a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes. Ladle the gazpacho into bowls, top with diced avocado, and serve with LOVE. The gazpacho can be made ahead and refrigerated overnight.

Winner of our Calphalon Skillet Giveaway!

August 16, 2014 by Mary 4 Comments

I’m so excited to tell you that the winner of our Calphalon Skillet Giveaway is Erin Friedman in sunny California!!! Your beautiful non-stick skillet is on its way to you right now and I know you’re just going to LOVE it. I love mine, and the fact that clean up is a breeze because it’s dishwasher safe is an added bonus! And the non- stick surface is so good, you can use way less oil or butter in cooking.

Here is Erin’s comment:

Our chickens are going all-out lately, so it’s (once again) Eggs for Dinner. I sauté mushrooms, onions, peppers and spinach in a little olive oil and butter until soft and wonderful. Crack a couple eggs on top and cover until the eggs are set. Easy and delicious. And cheap.

Doesn’t that sound delicious? We wish Erin lots of good use with this skillet. Make many happy meals in it and remember, to always cook with LOVE and your food will definitely taste better!

In all the comments, we had lots of great dishes mentioned that people love to cook in skillets. We numbered all of them and tossed them in a hat for a random drawing, and Erin was the lucky winner. Congratulations Erin and thank you all for entering and sharing your favorites!!!

We are at Crystal Lake, Vermont right now at my brother’s house enjoying a little R & R with great food, wine and company. Meet my waking companion today, Otis, a beautiful Bernese Mountain dog who is the sweetest thing! We walked/ran to Pageant Park and back, which is 2.4 miles up and down a mountain and at one point he decided he needed a rest and just stopped and laid down in the path. A dog after my own heart!

Stay tuned for the best gazpacho recipe coming up – a perfect way to use all the tomatoes coming in to the farmers market stands right now!

Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint

August 13, 2014 by Mary 38 Comments

I adore this salad. Nothing starts a summer meal better than this Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint! It’s great to start a lunch or dinner. It’s surprising, refreshing and scrumptious! I love how the black olives tease you to look like seeds but of course, you use a seedless watermelon. The olives are a delicious burst of salty goodness in contrast to the sweet watermelon. I started making this JACQUES PÉPIN recipe (I LOVE his recipes) when it first came out in the June, 2007 issue of Food and Wine magazine. The original recipe says this is for 12 servings but it really worked for just 10 people in our house. It’s easy and relatively fast to make. In the original recipe, Jacques tells you to use a watermelon baller and then throw in the remaining scraps but I prefer my salad to look more uniform so I just cut it into nice chunks. No matter how you cut it, my recommendation is to make this salad now, while the watermelons are ripe, sweet and juicy. Enjoy!

And, don’t forget to comment on my Calphalon Skillet Giveaway post for your chance to win one. This giveaway will end tomorrow, Thursday, at noon. Good luck!!!

WATERMELON SALAD WITH FETA AND MINT – Adapted from JACQUES PÉPIN – serves 10 – 12

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp.Tabasco
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
One 8-lb. seedless watermelon, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (10 cups), chilled
1/2 lb. feta cheese, crumbled (2 cups)
1 1/4 cups pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1 small sweet onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 cup coarsely chopped mint leaves

In a large bowl, whisk the oil, lemon juice, salt, Tabasco and pepper. Add the watermelon, feta, olives and onion and toss gently. Garnish with the mint and serve.

Calphalon Skillet Giveaway!

August 7, 2014 by Mary 36 Comments

Calphalon was the cookware I chose for my bridal registry — some 33 years ago!!! (yikes!) I still have and use every single pan I received as a gift – about eight different ones. So, when the Calphalon people asked me to review their new, non-stick, 13” deep skillet with a beautiful glass lid (I love glass lids – so you can see what the heck is going on in there – besides, they’re pretty), I said, “Sure!”. I also added in that I could do a Calphalon Skillet Giveaway so that one of you, lucky readers, would be able to share in my joy of cooking! A major selling point with this skillet is that it is dishwasher safe, something my husband loves, since that’s his job. That’s our agreement. I cook, he cleans. (Thank the good Lord!)

I wanted to put the skillet through its paces. First – basic – browning chicken skin. Last Friday night, I made this chicken breast recipe that Steve picked out from a food magazine. Of course I had to make it my own. I just can’t help myself. I know interior designers who have to rearrange hotel rooms or who just can’t help but to fluff and rearrange pillows. I am like that with recipes. This recipe didn’t call for any browning, but how can you not do that with chicken breasts that have skin on? Besides, I wanted to render that fat out and get some crispness going. You can see the beautiful job the skillet did in just 5 minutes. The recipe, eh – was just okay. It wasn’t worthy enough to share with you as it used too much butter and was too sweet from the maple syrup.

Next was making my garlic soft and golden to sauté with kale from my garden. It was beautiful and my kale with just garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper turned out amazingly delicious! This skillet is so non-stick that rather than using my customary 2 tablespoons of olive oil, I only used one!

Here, with the kale in it, you can see just how large the skillet is. This amount of kale fed five people and there’s ample room for more.

My final test was last night. I fried catfish (again – second time this summer!) with a simple breading of only Old Bay and flour, no egg or cornmeal this time. (I am on this Old Bay kick – it’s so good and makes it so easy to add a lot of flavor.) To me, frying is the ultimate test of a skillet.

The catfish turned out beautiful and delicious! It was crisp, nicely browned, with moist fish inside, and it took no time for the oil to heat up.

This skillet is great for everything so it will be great for fast, one-skillet meals with an easy clean-up to boot!

What is your favorite one-dish meal to cook in a skillet? Comment and answer below to be entered into a random drawing to win one of these beautiful, 13 inch, non-stick, dishwasher safe, Calphalon skillets! Good luck!!!

THE RULES
One entry per person, please.

Shout out your favorite one-skillet meal.

Winners will be announced next Thursday.

Calphalon will mail the skillet directly to you.

Giveaway sponsored by LOVE – the secret ingredient.

Salmon with Mango Tomato Salsa

August 2, 2014 by Mary 38 Comments

Salmon with mango tomato salsa served with parsley buttered boiled potatoes and roasted broccoli.

So I’ve been on this sweet and savory kick. (We loved the pork chops with grapes.) Just the other night I wanted a quick meal again. Quick, because I’m always starving when I get home from work at night and my husband says I get very mean when I’m hungry. (he’s right 🙁 ) I had a beautiful piece of salmon and a mango. I love these little yellow mangoes. Here’s one that’s really ripe but I wanted to show it to you because I think these are so much more flavorful than the large red and green ones. I put together this dish of roasted Salmon with Mango Tomato Salsa in a jiffy, and it was so delicious, so fresh tasting and so very yummy!

I’ve done mango salsas before but never with tomato, but being on this sweet and savory bent gave me the go-ahead to do this. (Like I need permission for myself?) Mango, tomato, jalapeno, olive oil, lime and cilantro – a beautiful combination!

Then to quickly season and cook the salmon, I turned to Old Bay – for the first time on salmon and it was perfect! My husband is from Baltimore, the home of Old Bay. I always have some around, just in case we get the urge to steam hard-shelled crabs, a family favorite. But you know, I thought I should be using it more than once or twice a year and so here we are with this delicious salmon dish!

Here’s the recipe – light and bursting with freshness – perfect for a late evening summer meal. It was another “can you make this again?” request from my husband, and I wanted to share it with you. And please remember to make it with LOVE as it will always taste better!

SALMON WITH MANGO TOMATO SALSA – serves 2

1 14 oz. piece of center cut salmon fillet, washed and patted dried
1 rounded tsp. Dijon mustard
Sprinkling of Old Bay seasoning
1 tbs. olive oil

Salsa

1 small orange mango, peeled and diced into 1/4″ pieces
4 cherry tomatoes cut into 1/4” dice
1/2 of a jalepeno, minced with seeds
1/2 lime, juiced
1 tbs. olive oil
Fine sea salt
Pepper
2 tbs. chopped cilantro

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Make the salsa: Toss together the mango, tomatoes and jalapeno. (omit the seeds if you’d like less heat) Drizzle on lime juice and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Fold in the cilantro to combine everything. Taste to correct seasoning, if necessary. Let flavors meld while you make the salmon.

For the salmon: Smear the top of the salmon fillet with the mustard and sprinkle on Old Bay. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick, ovenproof skillet over moderately high heat. Place the salmon in, seasoned side down for 3 minutes. Then carefully turn over and place the pan in the oven to roast for 7 – 10 minutes, depending on how well done you like your salmon and if the salmon is super cold or not. Transfer to a platter. Cut into 2 pieces and serve topped with the salsa. Enjoy!