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

LOVE apron travels to Paris!!

July 17, 2013 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Who knew our LOVE apron would go to Paris – one of my favorite food cities! Meet our dear friend Al Zdenek on one of his nine balconies in his Paris apartment. His partner Alain presented him with a LOVE apron for his birthday last week. (they make great birthday presents)

Al started out as a client for us and has become a great friend. He is the president of an incredibly successful wealth management firm. Trust me, if you want to be like Al, with fantastic apartments in NYC and Paris, leave your money with him to manage at Traust Sollus.

And to all you men out there asking for a men’s size in the apron, you can see that it truly is unisex. pretty Love the secret ingredient apron

I need your HELP!

July 15, 2013 by Mary Frances 11 Comments

Hello all! I’m in the running to win a three-day trip to San Francisco, and more importantly, a national ad campaign worth $15,000 for LOVE-the secret ingredient!

I would absolutely love your voting support for my story. Each person can vote once a day from today through July 21. Here is the link.

A massive THANK YOU in advance. Here is me sending you LOVE!

Midwest Potato Salad at Tanglewood!

July 11, 2013 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

So we had the potato salad competition and got lots of great recipes but surprisingly, none that really matched my original, traditional with a twist, potato salad recipe that I know is good, because every time I serve it, people ask me for the recipe. So I made this for last Friday night, as we were going to the opening night at Tanglewood and this recipe has become sort of a tradition for that picnic dinner. Usually, it is also the one time of the year that I make buttermilk fried chicken. But this year, since it was just Steve and me, I made this new recipe in the most recent edition of Food and Wine Magazine. It’s a marinated roasted chicken that can be served at room temperature, with a chimichurri sauce. It was delicious! For one chicken, of course use 1/3 of the ingredients, except for the garlic in the chimichurri – I used 2 large cloves.I love Tanglewood, so I will make whatever it takes to do the outing. If this potato salad makes my husband happy, okay! (there’s my husband)

Here is this mayonnaise based recipe, with some different instructions on how to handle the potatoes, making sure you chill it ahead of time, and yet let it come close to room temperature before you serve it.

MIDWEST POTATO SALAD – serves 8
2 lbs. Yukon Gold or farmstand potatoes
3/4 cup chopped onions
1 stalk celery, mandoline sliced
3/4 cup Hellmann’s mayonnaise
1 dill pickle, minced
3 cornichons, minced
1 pickled hot cherry pepper, stem and seeds removed, minced
1 tbs. white wine vinegar
2 tsp. Colman’s dry mustard
1 tsp. French grey or Kosher salt
1 tsp. Hungarian sweet paprika
20 grinds black pepper
1 hard boiled egg, minced

Wash and scrub potatoes. Place in a large pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Salt the water with coarse sea salt and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to a simmer, partially cover and check in 20 minutes. This will take 20-30 minutes and the potatoes should be tender when tested with a skewer, but not fall apart. Drain in a colander until cool enough to handle. This will take some time so be patient. You do not want to cut warm potatoes as they will fall apart and you do not want to put this dressing on warm potatoes.

Combine all other ingredients into your dressing. Do not peel the potatoes, cut them into 3/4” pieces and place in a pretty bowl. Distribute all the dressing, carefully folding it over with a spatula until evenly distributed. Chill at least one hour before serving and take out at least 1/2 hour before your meal, so it’s not so cold. This tastes even better the next day.
Our plate! That’s a sugar snap pea salad with poblano peppers and a balsamic vinaigrette.

Our neighbors behind us had this beautiful salad with grilled peaches and chicken on her garden lettuce. I commented on how pretty it was. My new friend, Jan gave me a big taste. She was so sweet and she said I made her day. I think she made mine. Her salad dressing was so interesting – one whole grilled peach (skinned and pitted) with some grainy mustard and olive oil – puree it all in a food processor. It was delicious!! The sweetness of the peaches offset the vinegar in the mustard, which was really a nice combination. Thank you Jan! That’s a great idea.There’s Jan in the mint green shirt – and some of the Tanglewood audience behind us.

Just look at this cute loving couple in front of us. This is the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing an All-Tchaikovsky Program – Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 5 – Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor, Joshua Bell, violin. It was magnificent!!

Figs wrapped in prosciutto

July 6, 2013 by Mary Frances 25 Comments

Figs are here!! I LOVE fresh figs. I get so excited when I see those compartmentalized boxes filled with the beautiful purple variety or the green, all lined up in neat little rows. If they are semi-soft – ripe, unblemished with a beautiful shape and stem, I’m pretty much in heaven.

That was the case a few days ago and I made the little first course you see below. This is not so much a recipe, but a suggestion of the combination of great ingredients to make a fantastic dish. Once again, this is all about the ingredients. If the figs are great, the prosciutto from Italy (de Parma) and very thinly sliced; the English Stilton, divine; the walnuts, super fresh and toasted; great quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar; then you are set to make something truly amazing! It’s easy and you always should have the good quality ingredients on hand as much as you can – you will use less of them, because they pack more flavor and they’re most likely better for you.

FIGS WRAPPED IN PROSCUITTO – serves 2

4 fresh purple or green figs, washed, dried, stemmed and cut in half
2 slices of prosciutto
2 thin slices of English Stilton cheese, crumbled
6 toasted walnut halves, chopped (Oven “toast” at 375 degrees in a cake pan for six to eight minutes – you will probably smell them, then take them out. Toast extra to have on hand for the next time or for green beans.)
Good quality, extra virgin olive oil
Good quality balsamic vinegar, preferable aged, but not necessary

For two plates, place 4 fig halves on each. Take the slice of prosciutto and tear into 4 pieces and wrap around each fig half. Sprinkle on the Stilton and chopped walnut pieces. Drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil (like a tsp. on each plate) and then drizzle with a tiny bit of vinegar too (a few drops). Serve immediately and listen to your guest tell you how much he/she LOVES you!Now, we have been upstate all week, taking a little R and R. Look at this beautiful martini my husband made me!! (my kind of R and R!)

Lamb burgers!!

July 4, 2013 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

This is my favorite kind of burger. Lamb. What’s yours?

We have a local farm here upstate, called Herondale Farm, where they sell the most fabulous lamb. It is all from free range, grass fed, organic, happy animals. It is so flavorful and delicious, that all you really need is some salt and pepper. It was started by a former Wall Street guy who made a lot of money in the 90’s and then wanted to get back to the earth. All of his meats are fantastic. They are also expensive. The ground lamb comes in at around $10.00 a pound. But because the meat is so flavorful, you do not need a lot to eat to be satisfied. One pound makes three good burgers.

THE BEST LAMB BURGERS – serves 3

1 lb. of ground lamb
Coarse salt or French grey salt
Fresh ground pepper

With any meat, take it out of the refrigerator early, before grilling. As my friend Christine, at Herondale Farms said, you NEVER want to throw a cold slab of meat on the grill as it will not cook properly. Think of it, it would be shocking to the meat!

I believe the secret to a great burger is to salt and pepper it lightly, mix and handle it very little, to form three patties. Then salt and pepper the outside, using coarse salt or preferably French grey salt. Grill to your desired doneness. We like medium rare.

It is also key to have some great rolls or bread to put this on. Toast the rolls on the grill or in your toaster. We dressed this burger with mayo and Dijon mustard, one slice of red onion, one slice of tomato and some leaf lettuce from my garden. It was heavenly!!

Serve this with a side salad of mixed leaf lettuces and tomatoes, sprinkled with some sliced scallions, chopped fresh thyme and basil and dressed with a sherry vinaigrette.

So simple, so quick and so very, very delicious.

Now go and enjoy the fireworks! Happy 4^th!!

Potato Salad Winner Announced!!

July 2, 2013 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Soon after Memorial Day, we set out to find the best potato salad recipe we could before the next big picnic holiday – the Fourth of July – this week! So I asked for my readers’ favorite recipes and had almost too many to choose from, in the best way. The submissions were about as varied as possible, and I recruited my team to vote for the top three.

Those top three were: the decadent and complex Salat Olivier from Misha, the bread-and-butter-pickle-sweetened Mom’s Potato Salad from Nicky, and Aunt Rose’s Potato Salad with anchovies from Nikki. Thank you to everyone who submitted a recipe. They were, quite frankly, all good!

Our team chose the last one as the big winner. It’s simple but really delicious, verging on a “classic” non-mayo potato salad recipe. It is a neat trick to take out the cooked egg yolks and combine them with the olive oil and herbs. That makes a kind of homemade, safe (because the yolks are cooked) mayonnaise. The anchovies give it that boost of flavor. (and you know I LOVE anchovies) It’s possible that people who are turned off by the idea of anchovies will still enjoy this recipe because there’s only one – but to be honest, I would add even more anchovies (3.5) and chives (1 tbs.).

Here is the recipe. Thank you, Nikki Landau!! Your prize, our wonderful LOVE apron, will be coming to you soon.

AUNT ROSE’S EGG AND POTATO SALAD RECIPE – serves 4

1. Boil 1 pound of yellow new potatoes in their skins. Peel and chill.
2. Hard boil 4 eggs. Peel and chill.

Dressing:
1. In a bowl put 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper.
2. Add 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar, 5 tbsp. light olive oil, 1 tsp. chopped chervil, 1 tsp. chopped chives, and 1 anchovy fillet, minced.

Remove yolks from the hard boiled eggs and crumble into dressing. Whisk to combine. Cut egg whites into pieces. Cut the potatoes into thin slices.

Fold everything together, mix well and serve chilled. It’s simple and very good! Yum!

Richart chocolate tasting!

June 28, 2013 by Mary Frances 19 Comments

Just recently, I had the good fortune to be contacted by Richart chocolates, wondering if I would be interested in meeting with them to do a chocolate and macaron tasting!

What?? Are you kidding? Do you think I even thought twice about that? Not on your life!

Hey – I really like this job!! I could do this all the time!

Our inspiration for the design of the marketing pieces below.

The funny thing is, they found this blog, liked what they saw, and contacted me out of the blue. What they didn’t know is that we have a long history with them. You see, we received one of their boxed set of truffles from a vendor as a holiday gift probably 15 years ago. We loved them! Not only were they delicious, they had these very interesting graphic designs on the top of each truffle representing the various flavors inside and they came in this box with three drawers. They were beautiful, wonderfully packaged and tasted great! Now you know my day job is brand design, which includes graphic and package design. At the time we received this gift, we were working on a brand design and marketing program for a very high-end wealth management firm. We drew inspiration from these designs on the chocolates to create cover designs for the marketing pieces for this firm, using several hits of black ink and varnish on black paper. To this day, this piece still looks exquisite, inspired by Richart chocolates!

So the week before last, Madeline Johnson (public relations), Michel Richart (second generation – he says his son is now his boss back in France) and Benjamin Auzimour (U.S. CEO) all came to visit with their treats.

First off, they still make amazing chocolates. These new ones have a liquid bubble center with different flavors such as roasted hazelnut, black and green teas, vanilla with a hint of peppermint, raspberry, citrus and rose caramel, orange with a hint of mint, and “far east market” of seven spices. This drop of flavor infusion bursts in your mouth (must be eaten in a single bite!) and then mingles with the textures of the ganache and the fragile crisp shell that holds the liquid. They’re a wonderful surprise to savor!

Now the macaroons are another story, some savory and some sweet and all so very interesting and delicious!! These are the flavors, in the order they are meant to be eaten: melon; strawberry; ”Marseille” with almond, lemon and star anise; lavender and olive oil; tomato, sweet bell pepper and basil; goat cheese and herbs from Garrigue. The Marseille (although I am not fond of the city) is a conflux of amazing and surprising flavors!!

And the goat cheese, as Caitlin said, she would actually search the city to find more of those.

But what is most amazing is that Michel (a lovely, lovely man) has come up with this whole multi-sensory tasting process, “QuintesSense™“ with steps to achieve a goal they call overall flavor. This is a method of tasting that involves all of our senses and reflects our memories and emotions as we share our knowledge and thoughts with every bite.

Step 1 is proper presentation. (you know I believe in this!) Foods should be well stored and the presentation should be maximized. The tasters have to concentrate a little, too, and be ready to taste. As Michel says, “To eat is an act that gives energy to our body, but to taste is to give energy to our soul.”

Amen!

Step 2 is knowing the background of what one is eating, down to the provenance of the ingredients, if known. Knowing the back-story for each ingredient helps you to know the final product. As a taster we have to be curious and to ask, says Michel.

Step 3 is sensory analysis. Every one of our five senses will talk to us and we have to learn this special language to understand. In Lyon, Richart has developed some tools to help with this, including a dictionary of words to express feelings.

Step 4 is listening to your heart. This is harder and they don’t have tools for this. You summon memories triggered by the tasting. “This reminds me of…” It’s an emotional analysis of the tasting experience.

It truly makes you slow down to really taste all the flavors and components. This way you have maximum enjoyment of the whole experience. None of just rushing to fill you up can occur.

And he is very clear that his mission in life is to give pleasure to his customers.

Isn’t that great?

You can find Richart chocolates and macarons online at http://www.richart-chocolates.com.

You should really seek these out!

Father’s Day dinner

June 22, 2013 by Mary Frances 16 Comments

Well unlike Mother’s Day, our oldest had to do this one without his brother, as Zach is still in Vienna, learning German. Lucky for him, his lovely girlfriend offered to help and be part of the celebration!

The guest of honor requested Beef Wellington, and left the rest of the menu up to the team. They decided to go with the complete bill of fare of Tyler Florence’s Beef Wellington meal, posted on the Food Network site. It consists of The Ultimate Beef Wellington with Green Peppercorn Sauce, Roasted Potatoes with Fresh Herbs and Garlic, and Warm Wilted Greens.

Four or five years ago, I made this same Beef Wellington recipe for Steve’s birthday. Whenever he gets a chance to make a request, he goes for this dish. It is not hard, just a lot of work and very time consuming. But now to do Tyler’s whole meal is a lot! Complete with flaming skillets, they made every recipe and used chicory with garlic scapes for the wilted (winter) greens, which was brilliant! The honey combined with the balsamic vinegar and toasted walnuts was divine. And it was enough cooking of the chicory to just pour the hot liquids over the washed greens. (I was secretly concerned about that but I did a good job of keeping my mouth shut.) The potatoes were amazing. And the beef, well, the beef was divine! So good in fact, it really didn’t need any green peppercorn gravy.

They did an amazing job on the whole meal. It was delicious, beautiful and brimming with LOVE. For dessert, they made a Blackberry Raspberry Coconut Tarte, from Smitten Kitchen, that was buttery and rich. A delicious ending to the meal, while we all watched Mad Men, although we all agreed it needed more fruit than the recipe called for.

Steve was treated like a king, as well he should be, as he is a fantastic Dad!

Hope all you Dads out there enjoyed a magnificent Father’s Day too!!

Sanctuary T

June 16, 2013 by Mary Frances 12 Comments

The week before last I was invited to Sanctuary T, a restaurant on West Broadway here in NYC, for a tea service with other food bloggers. I let them know I couldn’t be there at 3pm due to an important client presentation, but I could get there at 4:45 or so, and would it still be going on? Yes, yes they said, please come. This is a restaurant and bar that serves breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. Whew – they seem never closed! They are known for their innovative approach to using tea as an inspiration and ingredient in their fine food and beverages.

Well my client meeting went even longer than expected and then I walked the wrong way getting out of the subway and arrived at the restaurant at 5:45. The official tea was, of course over, but they were oh so gracious and wanted to serve me anyway. I apologized and teasingly said it was way past tea time and time for cocktails!

They agreed and promptly served up a tea infused martini!! My kinda folks! Dawn Cameron is the owner and truly lovely and then I got to spend time with East, the manager of the restaurant. First off, it was a gorgeous day and they had all the doors wide open to the street. The “martini” was an Earl Grey infused gin with lavender infused angostura bitters and prosecco, served straight up. It was fantastic with the layering of flavors and much lighter in alcohol than a traditional martini. Perfect for a weeknight.

The tea service of sandwiches and sweets was beautiful, as you can see. My favorite was the garbanzo puree and kale chip and the traditional scone with roasted strawberries and clotted cream was to die for. There must have been 1000 calories in those few bites but no matter, I couldn’t stop eating it. The scone was so buttery, delicious and rich, it didn’t really need anything, yet I still put on the wonderful clotted cream and strawberries. I asked the chef how he roasted the berries but he wasn’t giving away any secrets. I was also excited to try the truffled egg salad but I couldn’t really taste or smell the truffle oil. And then the Nutella filled bomboloni was a little piece of heaven. I had the remaining sweets and sandwiches wrapped up to take home and share with my husband

After having a lovely conversation with East all through this, he suggested I try a real tea. I went for a tiramisu rooibos. They served it in a tall thermal sealed glass with a rock sugar stick – very pretty as you can see. See that little box there on the left – that’s their tea timer – each side has a different time for the different types of tea and the color of the sand tells you what’s what. Very clever. East said so many people love these custom hand made timers that most of them got stolen. Sad.

This is a lovely place – perfect for private bridal showers – which East said they do a lot of. I must bring Steve back for lunch or dinner. But taking a break in the afternoon for tea and little nibbles and sweets is truly a welcome pause from the fast-moving events of everyday life. We all function at such a hectic pace, I recommend you try this place out when you can.

We are in the country right now and will head back to the city soon. Since Zach is in Austria, our oldest and his girlfriend are cooking up a Father’s Day dinner for Steve. He has requested Beef Wellington. I made that dish once for Steve’s birthday several years back and I’m delighted that I’m not doing it tonight! It is labor intensive. I’ll report on our evening later this week.

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there!!

Fish broth

June 11, 2013 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

So in my last post I described the beautiful red snapper fillets that my son got from his fish monger in Brooklyn for our celebration dinner. But what I didn’t mention is that he also brought the whole fish carcass home too! The head and tail attached to the body bones of our fish. Two of them. Both large.

“C’mon Mom, make some fish broth! Roast these while the fish is roasting,” is what he said.

Crazy kid! (What did I create?)

So I dutifully did roast them, that night during dinner.

I’ve never made fish broth in my life but what could I do? I had to! The next day, I packed and carried those roasted carcasses up to the country house and made broth – with a little celery, white wine, leeks, parsley, bay leaf, cloves and thyme. I think I even threw in a few crushed juniper berries. (I love juniper berries – explains why I love gin!)

Here are the fishes swimming around again.
So my plan is to use this for a seafood paella. I’ve never made paella, but my good friend Margaret made a delicious shrimp paella a few weeks ago and that has inspired me and given me the courage to try. And usually they say you need a special pan, which I don’t have, but she made hers in a Dutch oven. I think I’ll give it a go and it should be great. The broth is tightly tucked away in the freezer for now.

Now I need to inform you that I did not win that beautiful shiny red Kitchen Aid. 🙁 Thank you all for your comments and engagement but Stephanie got 58 comments and I had 53. Just those five little comments short did me in. Well I hope Stephanie enjoys it, and has room for it on her countertop.

And, I forgot to mention, our May newsletter went out in the nick of time on the 31^st. You don’t get it unless you’ve signed up for it. If you sign up now – in the upper right hand corner – I’ll make sure that you get that issue as it’s got a great grilled asparagus recipe as well as a wonderful Greek chicken you can do on the grill or in the oven. Both are terrific recipes for all summer long.

Have a great week!!