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

Community Spice Co. Scallops and Roast Chicken Recipes

July 7, 2014 by Mary 26 Comments

Janis Callon, Founder and CEO of the Community Spice Company, is out to save the world with flavor using heart healthy, low sodium, gluten free spices. Her goal is to get people to make slow food fast, using her spice combinations and in my opinion, she accomplishes this beautifully. A friend of hers who had a long tenure at Chez Panisse helped her develop the amazing flavors in her line. As a MARY’s secret ingredients box purchaser, you would have received one of these four blends: SNP 400, Mz. Curri, barbi Q, or ka Bobbii. (cute names, right?) I made scallops and roast chicken with two of her blends. Specifically I used Mz. Curri to make a roast chicken with a sauce that my husband said tasted like a complex, fine French sauce! It was so good! You can use any one of these spice rubs on a huge variety of meats, poultry, fish and even vegetables. Anything goes and it will taste great with CSC creations!

With Janis’s Save the World philosophy, when you make an online purchase, you get to decide which charity to support from a list of about 35 different ones they give assistance to. The charities range from food banks to national parks to Doctors Without Borders to Habitat for Humanity to the 911 Foundation. Visit their site for more info and even ways you can use her spices to raise funds for your kid’s school or club, which is a very nice idea.

On to my recipes!

SNP 400 SCALLOPS AND PANCETTA – serves 2 as a first course

4 scallops
2 – 3 tsp. SNP 400 rub from Community Spice Company
1/2 of a 1/4” thick slice of pancetta
3 tbs. dry white wine
1 tsp. unsalted butter
Thyme leaves

Wash and dry the scallops. Sprinkle and rub one side with the SNP 400 and pat down on the top of the scallops. Dice the pancetta into 1/4” pieces and sauté in a small skillet on medium-high heat. Push the pancetta off to the side in the skillet and saute the scallops, rub side down first, about 3 minutes. Turn the scallops over and sauté for one minute, then add the white wine and finish cooking for 2 more minutes or until scallops are just a bit firm and done. Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the butter. Pour sauce over scallops and garnish with the fresh thyme leaves. Serve with a slice of a good baguette so you can mop up the wonderful flavorful sauce, and be in heaven!

Roast chicken with a spice infused sauce with some asparagus risotto.

Mz. Curri roast chicken with some leftover asparagus risotto

MZ. CURRI ROAST CHICKEN – serves 4 – 5

1 3.75 lb. organic chicken
Fine grind sea salt
½ package Mz. Curri spice mix from Community Spice Company
1 – 2 parmesan cheese rinds
1/2 cup dry white wine
1.5 tsp. unsalted butter
2 tbs. chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with a cast iron skillet or heavy ovenproof skillet in the center of the oven. Thoroughly wash and dry your bird, inside and out. Salt the bird all over the outside and inside the cavity. Place the Mz. Curri mix in a bowl and sprinkle it generously all over the outside of the bird and sprinkle some on the inside as well. Place the parmesan cheese rinds inside the cavity.

When the pan and oven have preheated, take the pan out of the oven and leave a hot pad on the handle immediately so you don’t forget and grab it. Quickly put the bird in the pan, breast side up (it will not stick). Remember this pan is blazing hot so be careful.

Shove the hot pan with the chicken back into the oven and roast for 35 – 40 minutes, undisturbed. Test with a meat thermometer – it should reach 155 degrees. Remove the chicken immediately from the hot pan by grabbing the cavity with long tongs and let it rest on a platter, for at least 10 minutes before carving.

Meanwhile, deglaze the pan juices with ½ cup of dry white wine. Simmer briskly for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the butter and chopped parsley. Top the cut chicken pieces with the sauce.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!

Chicken & Pepper Kababs with Zukali Cilantro Pineapple Salsa

July 4, 2014 by Mary 22 Comments

Happy July 4th! May you all enjoy a wonderful holiday. The dish below makes for an easy BBQ so you can enjoy the fireworks!

The Zukali Cilantro Pineapple Salsa is so tasty and versatile. It is not too spicy, just a great flavor of roasted peppers and cilantro with a hint of pineapple! As the owner Cesar told me, he loves entertaining and always made these great, different salsas. He was encouraged to go retail with them by his friends. Luckily, he owns a graphic design firm in real life, enabling him to create beautiful packaging. But the goods inside are lovely!

In one of the first uses, I served it plain with the Simply7 Sea Salt Quinoa Chips – a delicious, no-brainer combo from the box!

Then I marinated boneless, skinless chicken breast chunks in it for 30 – 60 minutes, (3/4 cup of salsa worked for 5 chicken breasts), skewered those babies with some red and yellow pepper chunks (peppers in the salsa and fresh peppers – nice!) and Steve, my husband, grilled them perfectly, about 3 – 4 minutes per side on high heat on a preheated grill pan.

See how pretty they look!!!

Serve them topped with a bit more of fresh from the jar salsa (not the stuff you marinated in), add grilled Yukon Gold potatoes and a nice veggie (sauteed baby bok choy here) and you have a company meal. Delicious, juicy and flavorful! Thank you Cesar!

I also used it to top some simple roasted salmon to make a not so simple entrée. I imagine this would be great on eggs too!

And for those of you who have mates who don’t like fruits with meats or mains (I’m talking you, Margaret), this is not fruity or sweet at all. There is a tiny hint of pineapple but it’s mostly slightly smoky peppers and cilantro and just all goodness. Cesar makes many flavors. You can check out his website. He’s the real deal.

Our Gluten-Free summer MARY’s secret ingredients Box!

July 2, 2014 by Mary 10 Comments

Our summer MARY’s secret ingredients box was mailed last Wednesday, so all of you who ordered should have received it by now. We love these products and as it turns out, they are ALL gluten-free, even the toaster oven liner! And a big thank you to all of you for supporting our mission to eradicate worldwide hunger, as your purchase helps to support Feed The Children.

We have great items to eat and drink, just as they are, at any of your upcoming picnics or BBQ’s, and as I did with the spring box, I will provide inspiration and recipes using all of the ingredients here on this blog over the next two weeks, so please stay tuned.

Check out the video below of our lovely Marie opening a box to the Frank Sinatra tune of HOW ABOUT YOU.

LOVE, Mary

Or you can check it out on youtube here.

ZUKALI MEXICAN GOURMET Big taste, small beginnings. Zukali Mexican Gourmet was born out of a passion for making food and salsas at cookouts with friends and family in their hometown of McKinney, Texas. At Zukali, flavor is foremost.

Cilantro Pineapple Salsa: Inspired by tacos al pastor, this tangy love story of cilantro & pineapple is sure to arouse your tastebuds. We roast fresh peppers over an open flame, we toss in pineapple, and steep it all in a special blend of spices to bathe your mouth in salsa bliss.

COMMUNITY SPICE COMPANY Community Spice Company was founded by nurse Janis Callon in 2010. She comes from a family of foodies. Her father, Stanley, was an executive with Del Monte and her mother, Donna, was a registered dietician. Distressed by the poor quality and the outrageously salty spice blends typically found in the stores, she became adamant to make a healthy low sodium flavored spice blend line that used premium ingredients with realistic labeling for serving sizes.

barbi Q: A perky spice blend that is Community Spice Company’s signature flavor! It is fun, friendly, and the life of the party. Perfect on steak, salmon, ribs, burgers, chicken and home fries.

ka Bobbii: Light and luscious. Lemony with a stimulating twist.
Perfect pick up to fish, chicken, couscous, lentils, & quinoa.

SNP 400: Flexible blend with national appeal. Fantastic with roast chicken, burgers, soups & chili.

mz. Curri: Exotic and confident. This blend takes no prisoners nor will you! Great on veggies, chicken, pork, prawns, fish and onions!

SIMPLY7 The idea behind Simply7 was born because most of the food you are eating everyday is made with ingredients that most people don’t recognize and can’t even pronounce. Simply7 decided to make sure that every ingredient in their products is not only natural but is SIMPLE. Everyone should be able to identify the raw vegetable, fruit, grain, or legume used as ingredients in their products.

Sea Salt Quinoa Chips: All of Simply7 Quinoa Chip flavors are designed to deliver all the flavor and nutrients of the ancient super grain, quinoa. Sea salt is our “original” flavor and truly brings out the slightly nutty flavor of quinoa. You might expect sea salt to be similar to the flavors of other basic salted snacks but it is so much more. The unique flavor of quinoa and the light dusting of sea salt makes for a snacking experience that will keep you reaching for more.

CHEF’S PLANET Chef’s Planet makes life in the kitchen easier. It also offers other innovative, problem-solving kitchenware. They believe you can balance cooking with a busy life, so they are constantly thinking of new ways to make cooking simpler and more enjoyable!

What exactly is an ovenliner? Well, it’s a time saver. A drip and crumb catcher. No need to use chemical cleaners. Chef’s Planet toaster-ovenliner can be easily trimmed to fit on the rack. And, best yet, it’s MADE IN THE USA!

JAXN’S TWICE-BAKED POTATO STIX® The Bodacious Food Company, committed to providing fresh, great tasting premium baked products, created Jaxn’s Twice-Baked Potato Stix® in 2009 as their gluten free and all natural baked snack. Jaxn’s introduces a new, unique concept in better-for-you snacking.

Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper: Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper is a perfect duo of century-old flavors. Experience our snack’s robust blend of cracked pepper and natural sea salt. We sprinkle our flavorsome spice recipe on each twice-baked stix, providing “ingredient conscious” snacks bite-after-bite. Bye bye fries!

BRUCE COST GINGER ALE Bruce Cost Ginger Ale was founded in 2010 by Bruce Cost, author of an award-winning cookbook, a chef and a ginger lover. The original recipe was first created as part of a medicinal dinner. Several years later, after amassing a cult following for the beverage, Cost began bottling it with his partners, entrepreneurs Joseph and Terry Tang. In 2014, Bruce Cost Ginger Ale opened its very own factory, bringing the brewing process to Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Ginger Ale Original: Proud descendent of the first soft drink, Bruce Cost Ginger Ale is delicious, sparking and rich with whole ginger. Made with only fresh ginger (no extracts or oils) and pure cane sugar, this is a fundamentally simple, delicious and spicy beverage. Unfiltered with rich ginger particles, it provides iron and a little vitamin C as well as refreshment. MADE IN BROOKLYN

CLEAN, LEAN AND SEXY Clean, Lean and Sexy was inspired by a mother’s mission to transform her daughter’s health. Suzie Carpenter, a Certified Nutrition and Peak Health Coach founded Clean, Lean and Sexy to provide great-tasting whole food energy products in the form of simple, gluten-free healthy snacks.

Coconut Cashew All Natural Whole Food Energy Bar: Healthy snacks without hidden ingredients are hard to find. Clean, Lean and Sexy Whole Food Energy Bars are made with only pure, all natural, recognizable ingredients; and they taste great! They are made with real coconut and without gluten, corn, soy or dairy ingredients. There are also no processed sugars or artificial sweeteners. Indulge, enjoy and be free (now that’s sexy)! It’s a No Grainer!

2 COUPONS

Please note: Mortar and pestle are a part of MARY’s secret ingredients trademark and are not items included in the box.

Sweet and Sour Coleslaw

July 1, 2014 by Mary 18 Comments

This recipe is SWEET! It’s both super easy and super delicious! You will LOVE it and get compliments to boot!

The day after I served it, requests for the recipe came rolling in. This Sweet and Sour Coleslaw is a terrific accompaniment to the Amazing BBQ Ribs and Grilled Potato Salad with Scallions recipes that I just published in the June newsletter. If you are not signed up for that, you can do so now by clicking on the blue box on the right hand side here. That will take you to a page to sign up, and I’ll make sure you get one.

This recipe is from a cookbook that was a gift to me from our lovely Bianca, who was visiting from Italy by way of South Carolina, it is a find! Her Italian boyfriend is working for a company based down there and she was visiting him before coming to visit us in NYC. She said she wanted to bring me a little bit of the South so she picked out this Farm Fresh Southern Cooking cookbook, by Tammy Algood. I had never heard of Tammy, but so far I’ve made about eight recipes from this book and they’ve all been terrific! All of them are relatively quick, easy and super delicious! And yes, of course I’ve made changes – just a little though.

I figure that people from the South know coleslaw and from this recipe, they really do. It is perfect for your upcoming July 4^th celebrations. And don’t forget to let me know if you want to receive the newsletter for the best ribs and a really different potato salad recipe.

SWEET AND SOUR COLESLAW – serves 8
(adapted from Tammy Algood and her Farm Fresh Southern Cooking cookbook)

1 medium head of cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp. firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 rounded tsp. dry mustard
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. celery seeds

Remove the 2 – 3 outer leaves from the cabbage, wash and dry with a paper towel. Cut into quarters, and shred on a mandoline, avoiding the core. (I love to munch of the core while making this – something my mother used to do, giving me a piece, while I watched her shred.)

Place the shredded cabbage in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the white sugar and drizzle with honey. Do not stir.

In a small saucepan, over medium–high heat, combine the brown sugar, salt, dry mustard, oil, vinegar and seeds. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Let cool for 15 minutes. Pour over coleslaw, tossing and mixing well. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

Delish!

MSI summer box and foodies

June 26, 2014 by Mary 26 Comments

Here’s our super happy FedEx man picking up our boxes under Marie’s watchful eye.

Our summer MARY’s secret ingredients (MSI) boxes sold out last week, way before our closing date of yesterday when they all shipped. They are on their way to all of you who ordered. We’re so excited about this box! It’s got great summer treats and I will be posting more wonderful recipes and ideas to use the products, making your BBQ and summer party days ahead a breeze. It turns out that this box is also gluten-free for those of you concerned with this area of your intake, but you would never know it, as everything is so delicious!

I read an editorial by Mark Bittman in the The New York Times yesterday. He was talking about the use of the word “foodies” and how it makes him cringe. How about you? Does it make you cringe too? Are you a “foodie” in search of the next hot restaurant? Or do you like to cook at home to be able to know exactly what you’re putting into your body? Or are you concerned about changing our eating habits or our whole society on the way food is produced, transported and eaten? He brings up some really valid points on all of this.

And then there was this other article I read just last week about how everyone is beating the drum about only eating local, farmer’s market food and really, that’s a very nice idea but you can’t feed a country our size this way. So they were suggesting using a combination of technology (think Wylie Dufresne or new versions of freeze dried) and local, to go way beyond the Alice Waters philosophy.

All are good ideas in my book. Anything that gets us back in the kitchen and makes us fully aware, to want to know what we’re putting into this delicate machine that is our bodies, is a great idea.

Which brings us back to our MSI box. Our whole concept here is to showcase new natural, good-for-you products that will surprise and inspire you and your cooking with fresh ideas to feed your body and keep it healthy. And if you cook with LOVE, you feed your soul too! Happy eating!!!

Feta, radishes, watercress and mint toasts

June 21, 2014 by Mary 35 Comments

I always struggle with appetizers. I think I’m not good at them and I think I repeat things too much. I always want to make something different, but it has to be easy. You know how it is, you read all these great sounding recipes and you want to make them all and then the day of, or mid-way through your party menu, you realize, uh oh, this is just too much! You’ve been there? Well this simple recipe of feta, radishes, watercress and mint toasts is really perfect! It’s different, delicious, has wonderful fresh bursts of flavor, and a contrast of textures with the crunchiness of the radishes, the creaminess of the feta, the chewiness of the peasant bread, and then there’s that surprise burst of mint that is so refreshing. And most importantly, it’s easy. Is it hard to tell I like this?

In talking about the mint, which is my addition to the original Food & Wine recipe, don’t put any more than three leaves on each serving. I always keep in mind an article by April Bloomfield (of John Dory Oyster Bar, The Breslin and Spotted Pig restaurant fame) from a few years ago. She said these surprise bursts of flavors, whether it’s a perfectly toasted, spicy warm nut or a wonderful cube of pancetta, should be scattered judiciously in a dish so that you search for them and feel elated and satiated when you’ve discovered the little gem again.

I made this recipe as a starter to a lunch that reconnected me to my dear friend, Joan, and her whole family. We hadn’t seen each other in 30 years! She was one of my bridesmaids. She came in from St. Louis, her sister and mother from Nashville and her brother and his partner live just 20 minutes from us in upstate NY, which we didn’t know before. It was a wonderful reunion on a beautiful sunny Saturday in late April, the kind where you just can’t talk fast enough, you have so much to catch up on. It’s so fantastic to reunite with old friends. Even though you have so much to talk about, you can still speak in shorthand, because of the history you have. Isn’t that just so nice?

Feta radishes watercress and mint toasts serving on a plate.

It’s so pretty, isn’t it? Now if only the watercress could be blue, you would have the perfect July 4th dish with this! (just kidding)

FETA, RADISHES, WATERCRESS AND MINT TOASTS – serve 8

½ bunch watercress, thick stems discarded
16 – 24 fresh mint leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Four 1/2-inch-thick slices of peasant bread, sliced in half
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
3 – 5 radishes, thinly sliced (use a hand mandoline)
4 oz. French feta cheese, at room temperature

Heat a cast-iron grill pan or two large skillets. Brush the bread with 1/4 cup of olive oil and grill over high heat, turning once, until toasted. Spread the feta on top of the toasts, distribute radish slices, top with watercress and two to three mint leaves on each. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle very lightly with salt and fresh ground pepper and serve.