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

Best Pancakes on a Great Griddle!

June 14, 2014 by Mary 40 Comments

Well they say that summer is here – heh heh – I wore a silk shawl and a raincoat on Thursday. Did you hear that – a COAT – in mid-June. Who ever heard of such a thing! But truly, it is the grilling season and the good folks at Wilton Armetale wanted to send me a griddle to try out. I said, “SURE, I know that brand well!” When my husband and I got married some 33 years ago (eee gads!), we received so many Wilton Armetale pieces – several different sizes of platters, bowls, and other serving dishes. At the time, we had never heard of them. (what did we know?) They must have had a marketing initiative and became all the rage. They were pretty – looked like pewter but no need to polish. We still use those same pieces today.

So now, I guess they figured out that the material is a great conductor of heat and are positioning this griddle as a “cook and serve” piece. For cooking it is terrific, but I personally don’t see the need to bring a hot grill pan to the table. No matter, this is an excellent griddle. I love the size – it spans two burners so you can cook six big pancakes at a time! Which is exactly what I did the first time out. You can also use this on your outdoor grill for things like asparagus and other vegetables. The smooth surface is a nice alternative rather than having grill marks, when you don’t want them.

I’d like to share with you this pancake recipe from AllRecipes.com. I looked for an easy one as I’m not about to be whipping egg whites and folding them in on a Sunday morning, as my brother Steve does. He LOVES making breakfast, and we get to be the lucky receivers/eaters when we are all together. I love to eat a great breakfast without spending too much time making it and then get on with the day filled with an already too big list of things I need to do on a weekend, if you know what I mean. This recipe produced super light and fluffy cakes – give it a go tomorrow morning and let me know how it works for you!

My mother always served us our pancakes with melted butter and warmed maple syrup. She would say, “Well how can you put a cold pat of butter on your pancakes – it’ll take some time to melt and then everything will get cold. You need warm melted butter and warm syrup – not cold syrup from the refrigerator.”

I know, we were spoiled, and I have kept up that tradition. 🙂

GOOD OLD FASHIONED PANCAKES – serves 4 – adapted from AllRecipes.com (they say this serves 8, but I think not)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tbs. white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tbs. butter, melted

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg and combine with the milk and melted butter. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the liquid mixture; mix until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes to let the baking powder activate.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Asparagus Risotto

June 8, 2014 by Mary 48 Comments

With spring finally here and beautiful asparagus plentiful, I always want to make this dish: Asparagus Risotto. Years ago I never liked risotto, I actually never wanted to try it. Soupy rice? No way. My mother used to make this Polish meal of a hot soup made with milk and rice (gag – I hated it), potato pancakes and applesauce. Oh I thought it was AWFUL!!! My father loved it and even one of my brothers, David, asked for the rice soup once for his birthday. Fortunately I had left town by then. So this is why I never ordered risotto in a restaurant, thinking it was too close to that soup. But no, not at all.

And then there are the asparagus stories in my family. My father loved, loved, LOVED asparagus. And in those days when I was young, it was really only available in the spring and early summer. But it was still relatively expensive and we were a family of eight with six kids. So my father would buy two to three bunches, and actually count the spears and divide by eight as to how many spears each person got. This ran between five and eight, depending on how expensive they were. We would always tease him as he counted, while lovingly serving them to each of us. He liked asparagus so much, he even liked the canned white stuff (gag).

My father never cooked much, but he always made the asparagus. He would take each spear, hold it at each end and bend it until it broke at the point of tenderness, all the while, explaining to me what he was doing. Breaking at the point of tenderness was so important to him. After washing, he would then pile them all up with the ends together forming a flat bottom, and tie up the bundle with white kitchen string.

Using the double boiler, he would fill the bottom pan with about an inch and a half of water and stand the bundle of asparagus upright in it and then take the top pan and turn it upside down, covering the top portion and tips. He would then steam them for about 8 – 10 minutes, testing the tenderness of the stems with a fork. When they were done, he would carefully lift out the whole bundle and place it in one of my mom’s square Pyrex pans, cut loose and remove the white string, and proceed to put probably too many pats of butter on top. He would move those pats around, making sure all spears were covered, from stem to tip, and then count to serve. This is how I grew up on asparagus!

But back to risotto, this recipe is based on combination of Mario Batali’s and Mark Bittman’s recipes and was first printed in The New York Times back in 2007. I have changed it a bit. It is a family favorite in our household, the kind of dish you can just sink right into – real comfort food – with the spring accent of asparagus. You can even throw in some peeled raw shrimp at the end, (stir until done) to dress it up even more if you’d like. Serve as a first course or with your meal as shown here with broiled lamb chops. I hope you like this. Maybe it will become a family favorite in your house too!

Asparagus Risotto – Adapted from Mario Batali and Mark Bittman – serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a side

1+ lbs. asparagus, no less than ¼” thick, snapped at the point of tenderness, washed and cut into one-inch-long pieces, tips reserved
5 to 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock, preferably homemade
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
Salt to taste
1/2 cup, heaping, grated Parmesan cheese.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add half the asparagus stalks and cook until quite soft, at least 5 minutes. Rinse quickly under cold water. Drain. Put cooked asparagus in a food processor and add just enough water to allow machine to puree until smooth; set aside.

Put stock in a medium saucepan over low heat. Put oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add onion, stirring occasionally until it softens, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is glossy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add white wine, stir, and let liquid bubble away. Add a large pinch of salt. Add warmed stock, 3/4 cup or so at a time, stirring occasionally. Each time the stock has just about evaporated, add more. You need to stir no more than occasionally. For example, stir after each addition of liquid and then once or twice more before that liquid evaporates.

After about 15 minutes, add remaining asparagus pieces and tips, continuing to add stock when necessary. In 5 minutes, begin tasting rice. You want it to be tender but with a bit of crunch; it could take as long as 30 minutes total to reach this stage. When it does, stir in the asparagus puree. Remove skillet from heat, add remaining butter and stir briskly. Add Parmesan and stir briskly, then taste and adjust seasoning. Risotto should be slightly soupy. Serve immediately.

Fried Catfish atop a Baby Kale Salad with Sautéed Radishes and Japanese Turnips

June 3, 2014 by Mary 38 Comments

I am not a fried food fan. First of all, it’s fattening, (I am always wanting to lose 5 lbs.) and of course too much of it is not good for you. However, usually once a year I make fried chicken for a dinner picnic and I also adore fried catfish. Must be the Missouri in me.

Actually one of my most memorable meals was a just-caught fried catfish in Missouri at Pere Marquette Lodge. My parents were celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary and flew everyone home and treated us all to a weekend at the resort. We used to go there for a quick vacation when we were kids so a reunion back there was memorable. And we did all the same things, except with our own kids – horseback riding, shuffleboard, playing the giant chess game, and swimming – and the best fried catfish dinner that tasted so good after all that outdoor activity. So last Friday night, I almost replicated the catfish, but served it as a dinner salad as Fried Catfish atop a Baby Kale Salad with Sautéed Radishes and Japanese Turnips. It was so good!!! The only thing it lacked was the just-caught freshness of the fish. It was very fresh, and it was very good, but not just-caught, if you know what I mean. That’s different and unless you’ve had it, you just don’t know. Everyone should have a just-caught cooked fish on their bucket list, because it can’t be beat!

This is not a particularly quick dinner. I made this on a Friday night when there’s more time. Make sure your oil is hot enough – a bit of flour as a test should really sizzle. This insures that your fish doesn’t absorb any or very little of the oil. Use canola oil as opposed to olive oil as you can get it hotter without smoking. Intellectually, I tried to balance the fried aspect with the healthy raw baby kale and you can opt to use the radishes and turnips raw but I like a little bit of warmth to mix in with the cool greens. And my radishes had been around for a week so I needed to liven them up. Feel free to work with any combination of vegetables to suit your taste, but this was a good one.

Now I understand and hear from other sources that a lot of you have been making my recipes and I want to hear from you! I know a lot of people read food blogs to be inspired but never actually make the recipes. So if you’re making them and have success, please let me know. If you have problems, please let me know, because that means I’m not doing my job. And I want to do my job, which is to help you cook healthier food easier, with LOVE, in order to live a life with boundless energy.

FRIED CATFISH ATOP A BABY KALE SALAD WITH SAUTEED RADISHES AND JAPANESE TURNIPS – serves 2

4 oz. baby kale, washed, air dried and chilled
1 bunch of Japanese white turnips, scrubbed, sliced and chopped
8 breakfast radishes, scrubbed and sliced (or regular radishes)
1 tbs. unsalted butter
3 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced
16 cherry and sunny gold tomatoes, washed and sliced in half
2 catfish fillets
½ cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup breadcrumbs – throw day-old or even older slices of a baguette or other bread in your food processor and process to make crumbs
Canola oil – enough to cover the bottom of your skillet about 1/8 inch deep
Sherry vinaigrette

Have all your vegetables ready for the salad. Make your dressing.

Melt the butter in a small skillet. Add the radishes and the turnips and sauté until golden brown as shown here.

Set out three shallow pans right near your stove-top. Left to right, with your stove on the right should be your flour, the beaten eggs and the breadcrumbs.

Wash and dry the catfish fillets. Salt and pepper one side with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Heat the canola oil until shimmering. It should be enough to cover the bottom of your skillet by about 1/8” deep. Cover the fish fillets lightly in flour and shake off. Dip in the beaten eggs and let drain and then cover in breadcrumbs and fry for 3 – 4 minutes on each side until fish flakes and you have a nice golden brown crust.

Assemble your salad arranging baby kale leaves on the bottom, distribute the scallions, warm radishes and turnips along with the tomatoes, and drizzle salad dressing over all.

When the fish is done, remove to a platter covered with paper towels and let it rest there for a minute. Then place the fish fillet on top and dig in! Serve with LOVE and enjoy!

Mother’s Day Dinner with Cornish Hens and Sauerkraut

May 28, 2014 by Mary 32 Comments

We have had a consistent thread running through our celebrations lately, and that is not celebrating on the exact day – but boy do we celebrate! We’ve got our own calendar going! We celebrated Easter Sunday on the Saturday before, Zach’s birthday (which is July 10^th – but he’ll be in Europe for the summer) on May 10^th and Mother’s Day for us was a week later as we had to travel to Boston for business on the actual holiday. My boys, with the help of one girlfriend, once again made a spectacular meal using recipes from Jamie Oliver, Mark Bittman, and the Chocolate Covered Katie blog. Not too shabby, right?! The standout main dish, unusual but terrific, was Bittman’s Cornish Hens and Sauerkraut recipe.

My boys always ask what I want and I promptly say, “Surprise me!” I like/love nearly everything except processed food and of course they’re not going to go there because after all, they were raised by me. When the older one texted me to ask if I had juniper berries at the apartment, I knew I was in for something great. I LOVE juniper berries – as I love my gin martinis on a Friday night!

They started with a Jaime Oliver roasted tomato bread soup. It was different (I can always count on that from them) and delicious but was supposed to have used day-old bread which may have been better to add a bit more substance instead of the bread being so fresh as to soak everything up. No matter – that was a texture issue – the taste was fabulous! And since I was really hungry, it was substantial and great! Here’s the recipe – cute name! http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/bread-and-tomato-soup-pappa-al-pomodoro

The next course (yes, we have courses!) was this amazing salad of really unusual ingredients – fennel, red onion, cucumber, radishes and oranges. Yes oranges! They provided a wonderful refreshing burst of flavor!

Here’s the complete recipe – they did not use the ice cubes.

INSALATA AMALFITANA Amalfi Salad – Adapted from Jamie’s Italy.

1 bulb of fennel, washed
1 red onion, peeled
1 cucumber
a large handful of radishes, washed
2 tablespoons good-quality herb or red wine vinegar
good-quality extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black peper
4 oranges, peeled, segmented, and seeds removed

Optional: a small handful of ice cubes

Remove the herb-like tops from the fennel and set them aside. Then trim the fennel at both ends and take off the outer layer. Split the fennel in half and slice lengthwise as finely as possible. Put into a large bowl. Remove both ends of the onion, then halve it and slice it as finely as possible. Slice the cucumber finely into disk shapes. Leave the stems on the radishes as a grip. Then slice a little bit out of the side of the radish so it will be stable on the counter. Slice as finely as possible into disks.

Throw a few ice cubes in the bowl and toss the salad with them for a few minutes. Jamie says that this makes the vegetables get crunchier. I’m not sure why it works, but it really does.

Remove the ice cubes. In a bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of good herb or red wine vinegar and about 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Mix well, and taste. If your oranges are super sweet, you may want some extra vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss the salad with the dressing, then add the orange segments with their juices. Sprinkle the reserved fennel tops over the salad right before serving.

And then we had the amazing main course of the Cornish hens with sauerkraut served with some sliced, crispy roasted Yukon gold potatoes.

CORNISH HENS AND SAUERKRAUT – By Mark Bittman
From the How to Cook Everything Essentials^® app

An elegant but straightforward dish and an excellent introduction to sauerkraut. But steer clear of the canned stuff; instead, look for a bottled brand that contains no more than cabbage, salt, and water. This preparation also works well with pheasant, chicken, and duck.

4 Cornish hens, about 1 pound each
4 slices bacon, diced, or 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds sauerkraut
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon juniper berries, crushed with the side of a knife
1 sprig fresh thyme or a pinch dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
Stock or water as needed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Remove the backbone of the hens by cutting along their length on each side. Separate breast and leg quarters. Cook the bacon over medium heat in a large, deep ovenproof skillet until crisp, about 10 minutes, or heat the oil until it shimmers. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add the hen pieces to the bacon fat or olive oil and brown them on all sides. Meanwhile, rinse the sauerkraut in a colander and heat the oven to 300°F.

When the bird is nicely browned, add the sauerkraut, cloves, juniper berries, thyme, bay leaf, and white wine to the skillet. Cook over medium heat until about half of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes; move the skillet into the oven.

Bake for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding liquid as needed to keep the sauerkraut just moist, until the legs are tender and the sauerkraut is slightly browned. Remove the skillet from the oven, then remove the cloves and bay leaf. Taste the sauce, adjust the seasoning, garnish with the bacon pieces (oops – they forgot that) and serve hot or warm.

And for dessert, they made this amazingly rich, decadent chocolate mousse topped with fresh raspberries and strawberries, that had this secret surprise ingredient that not one of us could guess – it was tofu!!! Yes tofu was used instead of cream. Can you imagine?

It was delicious – and no doubt a whole lot healthier for you!

Here it is from the Chocolate Covered Katie blog. She apparently specializes in healthy chocolate desserts. How cool is that?!

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/02/06/chocolate-chocolate-chocolate-mousse/

Chocolate mousse with raspberries and strawberries half eaten

I couldn’t eat the whole thing!

I know I’m lucky. Hope all you moms out there enjoyed a fantastic Mother’s Day, filled with LOVE too!

Coconut Macaroons with a Quadratini Surprise

May 18, 2014 by Mary 34 Comments

Our last item in MARY’s secret ingredients spring box is the hazelnut or dark chocolate Loacker Quadratini, the number one wafer cookie in Italy. Now this cookie is so good, it really doesn’t need anything but you and your mouth. Many of you have written on your social pages that this cookie package was the first thing you dug into and most likely polished off the full bag in one sitting. It’s easy to do. They are great, of course with ice cream or even crushed on top of yogurt, ice cream or sorbet. So honestly, I was stumped to come up with something more to enhance these cute little squares until I came up with this idea – Coconut Macaroons with a Quadratini Surprise!

We were having our dear friends, Maria and Joey, over for dinner last night and these Coconut Macaroons with a Quadratini Surprise were our dessert, along with some blood orange and lemon sorbet, garnished with a strawberry. I really wasn’t sure if this recipe idea was going to work, but amazingly, it did!! The Quadratini still held their crunch and with the surprise chocolate or hazelnut burst, they were awesome! Needless to say, this dessert was memorable. We all ate too many and talked about it this morning (they spent the night – and it’s always a good sign when you talk about a dish again in the morning) but nothing that a brisk walk or gym workout wouldn’t take off today.

For those of you who didn’t receive the spring box, you can certainly make these cookies without the Quadratini surprise, although I highly recommend this inner delight! Much better than just coconut throughout. Here’s the recipe.

COCONUT MACAROONS WITH A QUADRATINI SURPRISE – makes 20 – 22 cookies

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
20 -22 Loacker Quadratini Dark Chocolate or Hazelnut cookies

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whip the egg whites and salt on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until they make medium-firm peaks. Carefully fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture.

Drop 1 teaspoon of the batter onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper, place a Quadratini wafer cookie in the middle and cover with another teaspoon of cookie dough to cover up the inner cookie completely, especially on the sides. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and serve.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy all the compliments!

Spicy Brined Chicken and Pork

May 14, 2014 by Mary 24 Comments

The wonderful bottle of brine from Sweetwater Spice Company, included in the MARY’s secret ingredients spring box, makes for a super easy way to tenderize and flavor meats. You would have either received the Tres Chilies Fajita Bath or the Pineapple Habanero Jerk BBQ Bath Brine. Both of these flavors are great to make spicy brined chicken and pork or even seafood. If you didn’t order a spring box, you can click on their ad on the right rail here and go directly to their website and order some bottles.

We have received amazing positive and enthusiastic comments and reviews on the box. Such excitement! You can see those reviews here:

http://subscriptionboxmania.weebly.com/1/post/2014/05/marys-secret-ingredients-april-2014.html
http://www.hangingoffthewire.com/2014/05/marys-secret-ingredients-box-may-2014.html
http://www.subscriptionboxmom.com/2014/05/marys-secret-ingredients.html
http://shouldibuythisbox.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/marys-secret-ingredient-spring-2014/
http://2littlerosebuds.com/2014/05/06/marys-secret-ingredients-msi-culinary-box-review-discount-code/
http://www.ramblingsofasuburbanmom.com/2014/05/spring-2014-marys-secret-ingredients-review/
http://modernmommyfiles.com/2014/05/marys-secret-ingredients-box-may-2104/

Best of all, sales of boxes help to feed hungry children worldwide as 10% of our annual profits will be donated to Feed The Children. Because of these great reviews, the summer box is selling fast, as well as the other seasons too, so if you want to get in on the fun, place your order now. Use the promo code 4LOVE when checking out for $4.00 off for a total cost of $21.95.

Using the Austin, Texas, Sweetwater Spice Company brines, I created this wonderful dinner salad by marinating skinless, boneless chicken breasts in the Pineapple Habanero Jerk Brine and then grilling them. The beauty of this product is that the brining time (30 minutes) is quick and the results produce really juicy flavorful meat. This is not a sweet dish, don’t let the pineapple in the name fool you. It is spicy with just a hint of pineapple on the back end. Here’s the recipe, super easy – use any leftover vegetables you have or grill some fresh.

PINEAPPLE HABANERO JERK GRILLED CHICKEN ON A SALAD – serves 4

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, washed, dried and trimmed of all fat
Sweetwater Spice Company Pineapple Habanero Jerk BBQ Bath Brine – follow instructions on the bottle to dilute the brine and marinate for 30 minutes or more. Do not strain the spices and add on unless you like things super firey hot!
Boston lettuce, washed and air dried
Radicchio leaves, washed and air dried
2 vine ripened tomatoes, cored and washed
16 asparagus spears, washed and trimmed of woody stem parts
1/2 lb. okra, washed and tops trimmed
2 tbs. olive oil
Vidalia or other sweet onion, very thinly sliced
Croutons – homemade preferably
Sherry vinaigrette salad dressing

Marinate chicken in the brine for 30 minutes or more – up to 2 hours.

Wash and dry the lettuce and radicchio. Toss asparagus and okra in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cut the tomatoes into wedges. Make the salad dressing. Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry. Discard brine. Grill the chicken until just done. Let rest for 5 -10 minutes before slicing on an angle. While the chicken is resting, grill the vegetables until nicely done.

Arrange the lettuce and radicchio on the plates. Place the grilled vegetables, tomatoes and the sliced onions on the sides, leaving the center area clear for the chicken. Slice the chicken breasts and place in the middle. Scatter croutons on top. Drizzle dressing overall to taste. Serve with LOVE.

Enjoy!

Just look at how juicy that chicken is!

I also used the Tres Chilies Fajita Bath to brine big thick pork chops and they turned out divine! I brined them for 3 hours and grilled them – really wonderful!