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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!

Carrot Ginger Soup – Perfect to Start New Year’s Eve Dinner

December 31, 2013 by Mary 26 Comments

Carrot ginger soup chunks cooking in a blue Le Creuset pot.Carrot ginger soup finished in a Le Creuset pot.Having to cook “clean” – low fat – for my son has forced me to get creative and explore new territory I might not otherwise have tried, and this Carrot Ginger Soup is one of those dishes.

I made this to start our Christmas dinner and it was so good that I’m making it again today to start our New Year’s Eve dinner tonight. I think it will be perfect. Our kids have all gone back to Manhattan and we are having dear friends and my brother and his wife for an intimate dinner party here in the country.

My brother is bringing caviar and champagne (I’m so excited!) as well as the red wine for dinner. (He is our expert wine pairer for this blog and has even started his own blog, www.wineandfoodpairings.net, so check it out when you have a chance.) Margaret is bringing an appetizer and I want to do a lovely but simple dinner that will allow me to be out of the kitchen and in front of the fire, partying!

So we will start with this clean tasting and delicious soup. I plan to garnishing it with a little chopped cilantro and a few toasted pepita seeds. The original recipe is from the Hay Day Country Market Cookbook and I have made it many times in the past. Prior to this trauma with our son, I would have made this with chicken broth, using 4 tbs. of butter and garnished it with crème fraiche. See how low fat it became with 2 tbs. of butter, 1 tbs. of olive oil, vegetable broth and no crème fraiche? And, no loss of flavor to boot, I think we all should be eating this way! So much better for you.

I also only used 1 ounce of fresh ginger as we wanted it mellow on the spice for Zach. If you want it spicier, use 2 ounces. We are going to splurge on the main course with spice grilled rib steaks, BUT I’m pairing them with steamed snow pea pods with shiitake mushrooms and only the mushrooms will have a bit of butter, and potatoes Anna with only a tablespoon of butter, because I make it in a skillet on the stove top. Christmas cookies for dessert, along with some fresh blackberries and mango sorbet for my gluten-free sister-in-law, will finish off this year.

What do you plan to make?

Happy New Year to you all – wishing you great health, peace, wealth and LOVE!!

GINGER CARROT SOUP – serves 6

1 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 – 2 oz. piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 lbs. of fresh carrots, scrubbed and chopped into 1” pieces
1 cup of dry white wine
5 cups of vegetable stock – homemade or low sodium boxed
½ tsp. salt or to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish
Toasted and salted pepita seeds for garnish

Warm the olive oil and melt the butter in it. Add the minced ginger and sauté on low heat for about 3 minutes until fragrant. Do not brown. Add the carrots and stir for 1 – 2 minutes. Add the wine and turn heat to medium high. Let the wine come to a simmer, after 1 or 2 minutes add the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, partially covered and cook until the carrots are very soft, about 30 – 45  minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for at least 10 minutes, longer is even better.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot, garnished with chopped cilantro and a few toasted and salted pepita seeds, if desired.

 

Filed Under: Desserts, Dinner Tagged With: Carrot Ginger Soup, carrots, first course suggestions for New Year's Eve, ginger, low calorie soups, New Year's Eve Dinner, vegetarian soups

What’s Most Important

December 28, 2013 by Mary 24 Comments

I have been totally preoccupied, which explains my recent radio silence. Our youngest son has encountered some serious health problems involving his digestive system, which has been accompanied by numerous trips to the hospital. Talk about being frightened out of my wits, many sleepless nights and feeling utterly helpless. They have figured out a way to stabilize things and he is now pretty okay pain-wise but this has been quite a journey into unfamiliar territory for our family. When they say that all that really matters is good health, it is so true. It is without a doubt, what’s most important.

He went for a week without consuming anything orally. Not even water. He was hooked up to an IV of course, but nothing to digest to give all of his organs a rest. He lost a lot of weight.

He can now eat gingerly, trying tiny bits of things as we go along, with everything being very low fat. So obviously, this is a new way of cooking for me. Starting with clear broths (only vegetable stock, not even chicken) and steamed rice, we are graduating to skinless, boneless chicken breasts, plain steamed carrots and green beans and trying to figure out ingenious ways to do everything with little or no butter or oil. Now I’ve never been a fan of using a lot of butter but this is a heightened awareness, and you know what? I think I like this super clean way of cooking and eating. This forces you to really stretch and consider ingredients that will add the most flavor and interest. And I’m finding this particularly enjoyable and a welcome respite in the midst of this fattening, rich holiday season. There’s a silver lining in everything!

So here’s the vegetable broth I made. I remembered that roasting vegetables at a high heat always coaxes the most flavor out of them so I just put a very light film of peanut oil on a large baking sheet, laid out all the veggies and roasted them at 425° for 15 – 20 minutes, before creating the broth with white wine and water on the stove top. It was so rich and flavorful, hard to believe it was just vegetables. Here’s the recipe.Vegetable stock veggies on a baking sheet.

ROASTED VEGETABLE BROTH – makes 10 cups

Peanut oil
2 plum tomatoes, cut in half, lengthwise
4 leeks, white parts only, cut in half and carefully washed
4 cremini or baby bella mushrooms, stems trimmed and cut in half
4 carrots, scrubbed, cut in half lengthwise and into 3 inch pieces
4 celery stalks, cut in half lengthwise and into 3 inch pieces
1 red pepper, seeds and membrane removed, cut in half
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 cup of dry white wine
1 tsp. Kosher salt
½ tsp. fennel seeds
15 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
10 cups of water
3 parsley sprigs
5 thyme sprigs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put a little peanut oil on a paper towel and slick the surface of a large rimmed cookie sheet. Lay out all your vegetables as shown in the photo and roast for 15 – 20 minutes on the top shelf of your oven. You should be able to smell them and have coaxed some liquid out of them. The leeks and red pepper should also be a little browned on the bottom.

Scrape all the vegetables and their juices into a stock pot and place on medium high heat. Add the cup of white wine and reduce to ½ cup. Add the 10 cups of water, the salt, fennel seeds, peppercorns, bay leaf, parsley and thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer partially covered for 90 minutes.

Let cool. Strain broth and store in clean containers in refrigerator or freezer.Vegetable stock in a Le Creuset Dutch oven.

 

Filed Under: Vegetables Tagged With: clear broths, roasted vegetable broth, roasted vegetables, vegetable broth

New Holiday Small Plates e-Cookbook is Out!

December 18, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

Holiday e-Cookbook is out!Hot off the press (or oven), our new holiday small plates e-cookbook is out: Secrets for Holiday Small Plates, Savory and Sweet. Since small plates are all the rage, I wanted to put together this collection of ten really great recipes. This is a perfect little cookbook for an easy cocktail party and makes an awesome stocking stuffer gift!

After all, the holidays should be about getting together, having time to relax, visiting with friends and relatives, and enjoying your own party. These recipes will allow you to do that, eliminating the stress. You can see all the recipes if you click on the ad on the right side of this blog. The cookbook is a 30 page, interactive downloadable PDF that will work on your tablet, phone or computer. And I must say, it is beautifully designed by our wonderful designers here.

So make your party stress free and you will enjoy more!

And please let me know how you like it.

With LOVE, Mary Frances

Filed Under: Appetizers, Desserts, Products for sale Tagged With: Christmas appetizers, Christmas cookies, cocktail party e-cookbook, holiday cookies, holiday small plates, savory plates for the holidays, sweets for the holidays

Sauteed Zucchini with Onions and Radishes, topped with Feta and Oil-cured Moroccan Olives

December 15, 2013 by Mary Frances 26 Comments

More and more people are asking me for vegetable recipes. For myself, I am forever on the quest to find new and interesting combinations. With the holidays coming and all the rich food that is starting to show up at parties, I thought a new and unusual vegetable dish could do everybody a little good. I had this beautiful bunch of multicolored radishes, some zucchini and a sweet Spanish onion. So I put together this dish, Sauteed Zucchini with Onions and Radishes, topped with Feta and Oil-cured Moroccan Olives.

Radishes are usually eaten cold and crisp, by themselves, with a touch of salt or used as dipping instrument. But ever since Mark Bittman published an article several years ago on grilling radishes in the summer, I have been eating them grilled or sautéed. I love them cooked! Now when you grill them, the smokey taste addition is wonderful, but they lose their color and do not look so pretty. They sort of look like anemic radishes. But, when you sauté them, they somehow hold their color better. Or at least these radishes did.Raw zucchini, multi-colored radishes and a sweet Spanish onion on a black granite countertop.

These multi-colored radishes in my fridge needed to be used, along with the zucchini. My mother used to make a dish of sautéed onions and zucchini topped with grated parmesan and sharp cheddar cheese. My husband still asks for that dish every so often, so I know the combo of onions, zucchini and cheese is good. But I had some feta that needed to be used and then these oil-cured Moroccan olives were hanging around too and the dish needed a punctuation of color. So there you have it. That’s how I created this dish – really using my skillet as a palette as I do when I paint.

I think you will LOVE this!Sauteed zucchini with onions and radishes topped with feta cheese and oil-cured Moroccan olives.

SAUTEED ZUCCHINI WITH ONIONS AND RADISHES, TOPPED WITH FETA AND OIL-CURED MOROCCAN OLIVES – serves 4 – 5

3 medium zucchini – washed and thickly sliced in 1/4” slices
1 sweet Spanish onion – peeled and trimmed and sliced into 1/4” slices
6 multi-colored or red radishes – washed, trimmed and quartered
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. unsalted butter
Salt
Pepper
1/4 – 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup of pitted oil-cured Moroccan olives

Warm the oil in a large skillet on medium heat, add the butter to melt. Add the sliced onions, cover and stir often, cooking for 10 – 15 minutes. Add the zucchini and radishes and toss until crisp tender. Lower heat to low. Season very lightly with salt and pepper. (remember the feta and olives are salty) Sprinkle the feta cheese and olives on top. Cover for 3 – 5 minutes to warm the cheese and olives. Serve right away using a large pancake turner to pick up a section and keep it pretty. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Dinner, Sides, Vegetables Tagged With: cooked radishes, feta cheese, grilled radishes, Mark Bittman, oil-cured Moroccan olives, sauteed radishes, sauteed zucchini with onions and radishes

Guest Post: ‘Don’t Eat Anything With a Face’

December 6, 2013 by Mary 8 Comments

Hello everyone! My name is Sophie Johnson, and I am posting on Mary’s behalf.

Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of representing The Daily Meal and LOVE- the secret ingredient at a fascinating event at the Kaufman Center in New York City. I would like to share my experience with all of you. Feel free to contribute your own thoughts!

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The award-winning debate series, Intelligence Squared U.S., concluded its fall season with ‘Don’t Eat Anything With a Face”, moderated by ABC News correspondent, John Donvan.

The debate was centered on physical, psychological, environmental, and moral impacts caused by the American consumption of animal protein.

Not surprisingly, the topic ignited a strong reaction from vegans and omnivores alike. The program’s chairman, Robert Rosenkranz, announced to audience members that the online response prior to the debate was so great that the Intelligence Squared website was unable to handle the massive increase in traffic. None of their previous events have ever sparked so much interest.

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What made the public feel so strongly about something as basic as food? Rosenkranz speculated that it was because our dietary choices have become a form of branding.

Choosing to buy organic and locally grown foods, or to only consume a plant-based diet is part of our identity that broadcasts our personal values to the rest of the world. For example, being a vegan implies that you value your own health and the well being of other species and the environment. However, is it possible to be ecological, ethical, and health conscious while still consuming meat? The debate’s four panelists sought to answer that very question.

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In his opening argument, Dr. Neal Bernard, M.D. testified to the negative effects that animal products have on our health. He grew up in a family where meat, specifically red meat, was present at just about every meal. In his early twenties, he was dissecting a cadaver when his instructor pointed out a hard substance lining the cadaver’s blood vessels. “There’s your morning sausage,” said the teacher.

Since then, Dr. Barnard has devoted his practice to the study of how a person’s diet affects body weight, chronic pain, and diabetes. He cited cases where patients suffering from type-two diabetes were cured simply by switching to a strictly plant-based regimen. He went on to say that other studies imply that people who consume meat have a greater risk of Alzheimer’s and even cancer.

Countering Dr. Barnard’s argument, Chris Masterjohn, Ph. D., a Nutritional Sciences Researcher and blogger for The Daily Lipid, cited his own personal experience. Masterjohn lived as a vegan for several years and developed several health problems including lethargy, irritability, anxiety, and tooth decay during that time. He claims many fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, essential to bone, dental, and even psychological health are most efficiently obtained by eating meat. Masterjohn suggests that the maladies Dr. Barnard attributes to meat are actually the result of modernized food processing as supported by the research of dentist and nutrition advocate, Weston Price. Beginning in the 1920s, Price studied how dental health of people living in developed areas differed from those living in less modernized surroundings. He found that the developed areas had a far greater rate of tooth decay, which Price attributed to a diet of refined grains and sugar. Masterjohns concluded that a simple, unprocessed, well-balanced diet would not carry any of the negative effects Barnard presented.

Gene Baur, the president and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary, an organization that rescues animals from commercial farms. He was most concerned with the ethical aspect of the debate. Baur stated, referring to our ability to gain nutrients from plant-sources rather than ‘murdering’ animals, “If we can live well without causing harm, why wouldn’t we do it?”. He added that whenever animals are raised for consumption, no matter how humanely, there is always exploitation.

Joel Salatin, a third-generation alternative farmer, disagreed with Baur. Salatin expressed his deep love, compassion, and respect for the animals he raises. He also argued that environmental integrity depends on the cycle of life. Plants feed prey which feed predators, which die and decompose to provide nutrients for the plants. Everything that lives must die.

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Both sides of the debate could agree that large-scale commercial farming was a dangerous industry, and presented data on the nutritional quality and ethical considerations that were lacking in modern food productions.

‘Don’t Eat Anything With a Face’ was a lively discussion with emotions running high for both parties. However, it would appear from this debate that the information on health defects relating to the consumption of free-range, grass-fed, ‘happy’ animals as part of a balanced diet is still unclear at this point.

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That said, it would suggest from Salatin’s use of the word ‘dressing’ instead of ‘slaughtering’ when referring to an animal’s final moments, that even he feels some guilt about it. So, health concerns aside, will meat-eaters ever be able to feel like their brand identity is as morally intact as their vegan counterparts? Perhaps not.

What do you think?

– Sophie

Photos by Samuel LaHoz

Filed Under: Meat, Travel, Vegetables Tagged With: Chris Masterjohn, Debate, Don't Eat Anything With a Face, Ethics, Gene Baur, Health, Intelligence Squared, Joel Salatin, John Donovan, Neal Bernard, The Daily Meal, vegan

An Amazing Birthday!

December 4, 2013 by Mary 24 Comments

There are birthdays and then there are BIRTHDAYS!!

This was a BIRTHDAY!! and not even a milestone year.Four young adults cooking in a kitchen

First of all, all four of them (my two sons and their girlfriends) planned, shopped and made the complete dinner, fire in the fireplace, and Polish style entertainment, plus an awesome gift this past Saturday.

I got a KITCHENAID!!!!
Mary Frances totally surprised, receiving her KitchenAid gift.
A beautiful blue one that looks so pretty sitting on my counter upstate.

Remember when I was trying to win one? Well I have a confession to make. I have a white one but we keep it in the NYC apartment and then when I want to bake upstate, we haul it up and then haul it back. So I wanted to win one to be able to have it in both places.  I know it’s a bit spoiled but hey, I do like to use it. So now, no more of that. I have a big beautiful blue one sitting on the counter there. Yipee!!

The way they gave it to me was so great. I had come in from working in my studio while all of them were in the kitchen cooking and they said, “ Mom, your birthday present is here in the kitchen, you just have to find it.” At first, I walked right near it but with all of the commotion going on, I didn’t notice because they put it in the place where my white one was all through the holiday. Then when I saw the beautiful blue machine, I literally screamed! What nice, thoughtful kids!! I am so, so lucky.

And here’s what they made for dinner.
Roasted eggplant salsa with Parmesan pita chips with a straight-up martini.

Roasted eggplant salsa, Asian style, served with Parmesan pita chips and my martini!
Pernil finished on the grill on a board ready to serve.

Pernil – Puerto Rican style pork shoulder, slow roasted in the oven and finished on the grill.
Dinner plate with peril, sautéed kale and Swiss chard with Jasmine rice and black eyed peas.

Jasmine rice with saffron, black eyed peas, (from dried), onions and green peppers along with sauteed Swiss chard and kale in olive oil with garlic and white wine.
Homemade shortbread cookies topped with Polish hazelnut chocolate chunks.

Shortbread cookies with Polish chocolate hazelnut chunks on top.

EVERYTHING was sooooo delicious!!!

After appetizers and cocktails we had their entertainment portion of the evening. We celebrated the Feast of St. Andrew  – Andrzejki  – as it is called in Polish. Always celebrated on November 29 or the 30th,  depending on what region in Poland you are from as it is either celebrated on the day or the eve. You melt wax and pour it through a hollow key handle into a bowl of cold water. The wax solidifies while you douse some more water on it. You then take the wax shape that forms and look at its shadow and interpret it. It is a prediction for the upcoming year. Mine was my face, Steve’s face in glasses and Australia. Steve’s was emu – an animal native to Australia.
Feast of St. Andrew celebration from Poland. Birthday celebration - wax of me from Nov 30, 2013 Birthday celebration - Australia from Nov 30, 2013

Maureen!!! – here we come!!!

These kids did so much work to make an awesome birthday celebration for me. Besides planning the menu, shopping and cooking, they went to ten places to find the keys with holes in the handle and finally found them in an antique store in Millerton.

Here are all of our wax shapes.

Wax shapes and keys for the feast of St. Andrew celebration.

It is great to be loved!

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat Tagged With: Australia, eggplant salsa, Feast of St. Andrew, pernil, Polish celebrations, pork shoulder roast, rice and black-eyed peas, shortbread cookies

Your Thanksgiving Celebration

November 30, 2013 by Mary 16 Comments

I hope your Thanksgiving celebration was filled with LOVE and a smashing success! We all have so much to be thankful for. Please tell me what was your favorite part or dish.

We were lucky enough to have both of our boys home and got to have both girlfriends with us too. It is so about being together, cooking together and even cleaning up together. I come from a very large family – six kids – and when my parents were still alive and we all came home (to St. Louis) with our spouses or mates, it was absolute mayhem – all in a good way. Everyone was doing something from building a fire, to arguing about the music being played, to making a new cocktail for everyone, to complaining that someone doesn’t do any work but just supervises, to figuring out where to put all the food and wine, and I remember my mother just shaking her head and trying to continue to move through everyone to do her cooking. Although we have only two boys, we created the same thing! At one point on Thursday, I looked at my husband, right before dinner and I was like, OMG, we created a mini version of my family all over again. It’s a good thing but it really made me laugh – it can even happen with just two kids!Thanksgiving turkey, beautifully roasted and garnished with parsley and lady apples.

My turkey was too big – 19.5 lbs. I had asked our farmer for a 16 – 17 lb. bird but somehow he had something larger in mind and just those 2 – 3 extra pounds made a difference. I have no doubt we will eat all the leftovers but when it’s that big, the legs are really tough on these free range birds. The thigh dark meat was delicious but the legs, not so much. It looked gorgeous! And some of the outer white meat was a wee bit dry in order to cook the whole thing through. So I think the 17 lb. mark is the max. If you need more, buy two smaller birds.

For those of you who purchased my e-cookbook and made some or all of the recipes, I hope you found it helpful. Please send me any comments to make it even better for next year.Small bites made up of gouda cheese cubes with radishes, green pepper, olives,  yellow pepper and cherry tomatoes on toothpicks

My birthday was Tuesday and my younger son and his girlfriend were at our house upstate, greeting us when we arrived with appetizers and dinner prepared. I told you I was lucky and had a lot to be thankful for! For appetizers, we had local gouda cheese cubes with olives, radishes and cherry tomatoes. Dinner was braised chicken legs, with tomatoes, onions, garlic and olives served with a crusty baguette to mop up all of the delicious sauce, and some roasted zucchini. They were so sweet and you have no idea how special it was to arrive to a warm glowing, terrific smelling house with dinner all ready! And it was really yummy!Braised chicken legs with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and olives on slices of a French baguette and roasted zucchini on a brown pottery plate.

Tonight, all four of them are cooking up my “real birthday feast. “ They won’t tell me what they’re doing and I was told to vacate the premises. They have plied me with some hot rum apple punch and I am out in my art studio staying out of the way. They say it will be a complete meal with appetizers, dinner, dessert and even entertainment! Stay tuned and I will let you know what happens.

I hope you all continue your celebrations and have a great rest of the weekend!

 

 

Filed Under: Appetizers, Dinner, Poultry Tagged With: appetizers on toothpicks, beautiful roasted turkey, birthday celebrations, braised chicken legs with tomatoes, garlic, olives, onions, Thanksgiving turkey

Roasted Butternut Squash with Crispy Sage Leaves

November 24, 2013 by Mary 17 Comments

Butternut squash with crispy sage leaves in a white serving bowl.

I love butternut squash. I will be serving a butternut squash and bourbon soup for Thanksgiving as a first course. That recipe, is of course in my e-cookbook. (That soup is bowl-licking good. In fact, I just finished making it for Thursday – delish!) But this past week, I made one of my favorite recipes for a side dish – Roasted Butternut Squash with Crispy Sage Leaves. You roast the squash with onions, put on some good honey three quarters of the way into the roasting period and then top it with some browned butter and crispy sage leaves. It’s the perfect fall dish!

This past week, The New York Times dining section talked about how you must have something orange on your table for the Thanksgiving feast. I have my sweet potatoes with maple syrup and ginger, but you could easily have this dish too, if you’re making a different soup, as you wouldn’t want to repeat the vegetable in the meal.

Here’s my recipe to make and serve with LOVE.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH WITH CRISPY SAGE LEAVES – serves 6

One butternut squash – 2.75 – 3 lbs. – peeled, seeded and cut into 1” chunks
One large yellow onion, cut into 1” chunks
2 tbs. olive oil
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
2 tbs. honey
4 tbs. butter
36 large fresh sage leaves, washed and thoroughly dry

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine squash and onion on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle on the olive oil, sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste. Toss all together thoroughly and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Take pan out and toss again. Drizzle on honey and return the pan to the oven for 10 – 15 minutes more, until the squash is fork tender.

When squash is nearly done, melt the butter in small skillet or saucepan until really hot. Throw in the dry sage leaves and stir until butter is browned and leaves colored a bit.

Transfer squash to shallow bowl, so you have more surface area on top. Drizzle on the browned butter and distribute the crispy sage leaves. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

 

Filed Under: Sides, Vegetables Tagged With: browned butter, crispy sage leaves, honey, perfect fall dish, roasted butternut squash, Thanksgiving side dishes

Our Thanksgiving e-cookbook is now available on Amazon

November 19, 2013 by Mary 2 Comments

Thanksgiving recipes and process in an e-book format, beautifully designed to give you a magnificent feast.I wanted to let you know that our Thanksgiving e-cookbook is now available on Amazon. Download your copy and let it help make your life easier next week!

The book is already receiving rave reviews for its fantastic scheduling help (planning is an essential part of stress-free cooking!) and of course the scrumptious recipes. It is also beautiful to look at thanks to our wonderful designers here.

My family is very excited for Thanksgiving!! Everyone is coming from different places and at different times, but we will all be upstate by Wednesday evening. Everyone wants to contribute and help. Such excitement. There will be just six of us – both of our boys and we’re lucky to have both of their girlfriends too. One celebrated Thanksgiving four times already with different relatives and the other one’s family, (being natives of Poland), does not really celebrate this holiday. We are so lucky that we get to have them!

This past weekend, we had our neighbors from down the road over for dinner. We just met them. Ronny and Cathy are the owners of Ronnybrook Farm, along with Ronny’s brother. If you live here on the East coast, you may know them for their super creamy, fantastic ice cream, chocolate milk that is to die for, yogurt, regular milk and now eggnog, at this time of year. They brought us some ice cream and eggnog. I love eggnog but never buy it as it’s really very fattening. But hey, now that it’s in my fridge and was a gift, I have to have a little, right? My father loved eggnog around the holidays. He liked it both straight or spiked with a bit of bourbon but he always sprinkled some nutmeg on top. Isn’t it funny how all of these food memories are so fresh to me. I must have been destined to write this blog and share food stories.

For dessert for Ronny and Kathy, I made an apple crisp. A perfect dessert for this time of year and perfect a la mode! (I knew they were bringing ice cream.)  Apple crisp just out of the oven.

Apple crisps are easy to make, and warmed up with a little ice cream it’s a bit of heaven!

With working so hard to launch the e-cookbook last week, I have Thanksgiving fully on the brain. I’m starting to really think about all the things I’m grateful for: Time together with my family. New and old friends. Being able to show these people how much I love them with food. Being cooked for by some of the very talented people in my life. You, my dear readers. And even eggnog! A lamb looking earnestly at the camera.

There is one more thing too. Remember adorable Domino? We saw him over the weekend and he is growing up so fast! Notice his horns are two different sizes. Ethel says he keeps bashing them, but they do grow back.A beautiful lamb.

He’s so cute. He hangs out with her two dogs and wants to be petted like them too. Only he won’t chase the tennis balls!

Filed Under: Products for sale Tagged With: apple crisp, best eggnog, Domino the baby lamb, how to cook a Thanksgiving meal, lamb, Ronnybrook Farm, scheduling for a feast, Thanksgiving cookbook, Thanksgiving recipes

Thanksgiving e-book is out!

November 13, 2013 by Mary 12 Comments

ebook-Thanksgiving

Dear Food Loving Friends,

I did it. (the very famous line from Presumed Innocent – great movie!) But no, really, our Thanksgiving e-book is out! I wrote our first e-book on how to make a fantastic Thanksgiving meal. I have collected and put together my favorite 13 recipes, along with a process guide on how to get everything accomplished on the days leading up to the big day. This makes it easy for you. Understand that I have been making Thanksgiving dinners for quite some time now and this is a collection of my very best recipes. It was only last year, that I discovered the perfect side dish of Brussels Sprouts with a Fish Sauce Vinaigrette. Yes, really! I know it sounds weird but this dish works really well in the pairing with the other rich dishes that surround the turkey.

Of course, you don’t have to make every recipe that is there. Pick and choose to suit your taste. But in this book you’ll find the very best way to roast your bird to achieve moist, melt-in-your-mouth white meat that doesn’t even need gravy. But don’t worry, I give you the best giblet gravy to make as well, seasoned with thyme and the crushed roasted vegetables that formed the rack for roasting the bird. My appetizers are great too – light and just right and you won’t need a second oven to prepare them in, because I don’t have one at our country house, which is where we’ll be celebrating. My stuffing has become globally famous and the cranberry sauce is just sweet enough, punctuated with fresh ginger and orange zest. Believe me, I’ve tried dozens of different recipes for all of these dishes and in this book, I only present the ones that made it to stardom.

The process guide combats intimidation and will keep you organized and sane. (So will a glass of wine.) We’ve even included little check boxes for you to appreciate your accomplishments along the way. Of course, the book is beautifully designed by our team here at PM+CO, because that’s what I do in my day job.

Check it out here with a full listing of recipes. Please share your experiences with me. I welcome your input!

With LOVE,

Mary Frances

Filed Under: Products for sale Tagged With: best dressing, best giblet gravy, best pecan pie, best stuffing, best Thanksgiving recipes, best turkey, getting everything done on Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving process guide

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