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

Hearts of Palm on a Salad

November 2, 2013 by Mary 11 Comments

Hearts of palm salad as a first course on a glass plate.Hearts of palm. What the heck are they? I’ve always liked them. My father used to like them and served them on special occasions. I’m sure my parents thought they were exotic. They are canned – I don’t use very many canned items but this one has piqued my interest again. I have never seen them fresh but maybe they’re only sold fresh in more tropical areas. Remove them from the can, drain, and rinse. Only buy the full spears and slice. I think they add interest to a simple green salad and make it really different.

So I looked them up and found out that they are a vegetable harvested from the soft core of a palm tree! They are very low in cholesterol, a good source of protein, riboflavin and potassium, and a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper and manganese. Who knew? They’re even good for you!

Now this is the sad part. Many wild species of palm serve as sources for hearts of palm, including coconut palms, Acai palms, and sabal palms. Unfortunately, the harvesting process kills these trees, because they only have one stem, and extracting the inner core essentially destroys the plant. In response to this issue, several palms have been domesticated and bred specifically for production of this vegetable. These trees have multiple stems, allowing farmers to harvest the hearts while allowing the rest of the tree to live. Thank goodness!

But most importantly, this simple salad is really refreshing and delicious. I also used the roasted almonds I talked about a few posts back. I hope you LOVE it as much as my husband and I did!

HEARTS OF PALM ON A RED LEAF LETTUCE SALAD – serves 2 as a first course

1/3 of a head of red leaf lettuce, washed and spun dry
2/3 of a can of hearts of palm, drained, rinsed, patted dry and sliced
2 small tomatoes, cut in wedges
12 roasted and salted whole almonds, cut in half
Sherry vinaigrette

Arrange torn lettuce leaves on a salad plate. Place sliced hearts of palm in the middle. Arrange tomato wedges around the hearts of palm. Sprinkle chopped almonds on top. Drizzle on salad dressing. Serve immediately.

 

Filed Under: First Course, Salads Tagged With: first coarse salads, hearts of palm, red leaf lettuce, roasted almonds, sherry vinaigrette, simple salads

Get it Right spatulas

October 18, 2013 by Mary 8 Comments

Get It Right spatula in hot pin with packaging.Some time ago, the good folks at GIR sent me one of their spatulas to try out. I have so enjoyed using it but haven’t had time to write about it until now. This Get It Right spatula is totally made of one piece of seamless silicone, which makes it super easy to handle, plus they come in super bright nifty colors. They sent me a hot pink one.

I have this awful habit of leaving spatulas or other stirring equipment in the pot or skillet that I’m using them in. In the one cooking class I ever took at ICE (Institute of Culinary Education), the teacher yelled at me for doing this, and rightfully so. I know it’s not right! I think I do this because I am always rushing around, usually hungry and it’s late, trying to be a short order cook, plus I want to keep the stirring utensils separate from one another. Then, usually the handle will get hot while sitting in there and I’ll pick it up and low and behold, burn myself again!! I have many scars on my hands and lower arms from dumb moves such as this.
Get It Right spatula in a pan of red stemmed, organic dandelion greens with garlic.This spatula is great as a stirring and sauteing vegetables tool and, you’ll never get burnt even if you leave it in the pot. Here you can see me using it to make some sautéed organic red stemmed dandelion greens with garlic in olive oil. It looks great, right? This was the worst freaking vegetable dish I have made in a very long time. (You couldn’t chew them! I guess you have to braise them?) But, the stirring instrument was wonderful!

I have one caution about it. It is not flexible enough to really scrape a bowl of a luscious sauce. But as a cooking instrument, it works! And, I love the colors. A red one would be nice for LOVE, don’t you think?

Filed Under: Cookware and tools Tagged With: dandelion greens, Get It Right, hot pink spatulas, organic dandelion greens, red-stemmed, spatulas

Indian Feast

September 30, 2013 by Mary 24 Comments

I love to learn about other cultures and their food traditions. And I love Indian food! Our good friends, Sumantra (from Calcutta) and Indrani (from Delhi), threw a big Indian feast on Friday night. We were celebrating Sumantra’s son, Sourav, heading off to Oxford for a year abroad of studying economics and Sumantra’s mom, who has been visiting for the past 6 months, returning to Calcutta this coming week. Her name is Manisha.

When Indrani invited us, I naturally asked if I could bring anything and she’s so sweet, she said, no it was a working day for me so I shouldn’t be bothered about bringing anything, just bring myself and my husband. Ha! It was a working day for her too. She came home at 2 pm and here’s the spread she had ready at 7 pm. Isn’t it gorgeous?Indian feast - homemade with roasted goat, shrimp, paneer and vegetable patties.So from the top, going clockwise, we have an amazing roasted goat dish using Manisha’s recipe, a bean dish with wonderful complex layered flavors, terrific vegetable patties, dal, a delicious paneer, boxes of dessert cheese balls waiting for their presentation time, homemade chutney with dates, a shrimp dish and rice and peas in the middle.

Manisha Sen.

Manisha – she told me she likes big bindi dots!

Indrani is a great cook and she has often remarked about how Manisha is a really wonderful cook. So we were the lucky beneficiaries of both on Friday. Indrani used Manisha’s recipe for the goat, which was wicked good. And you can tell that Indrani instinctively cooks with LOVE, as everything was so delicious and their apartment was brimming with all good feelings. I ate more than I should have, but I’m not sorry!

Indian food is layered with complex flavors. Sometimes the spice kicks in on the back end. The ingredient list for any of the recipes is always long, yet the flavor payoff is great. And as Indrani says, the best part about cooking Indian food is that you can make everything ahead of time and just keep it warm in the oven until ready to serve.

This was quite a celebration of all good things and a wonderful party. A great time was had by all. But I forgot to take a picture of Indrani, Sumantra and Sourav. 🙁 Next time!!

Filed Under: Dinner, Fish, Meat Tagged With: Bengali food, chutney with dates, Indian feast, paneer, rice and peas, roasted goat, shrimp, vegetabel patties

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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