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

Gourmet fast food

February 7, 2013 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

That’s what my husband calls my leftovers. While I really enjoy the process of cooking and find it a great way to unwind from the day, and I like the act of making up a great dish out of what I have on hand, working with the beautiful colors of the vegetables, herbs and spices. But when the week is busy, especially with evening work-related events, leftovers can be a lifesaver.

TIP: I only shop once a week – buying only what looks great in vegetables and figuring out what to make with them day by day. This is a time saver, and with the Internet you can always look up recipe ideas to match the ingredients you have on hand, or come back here to LOVE and check our recipe tab.

You can also make dishes that incorporate leftovers into a bigger meal – this is a way to quickly make a simple dish gourmet. I did this on last Friday night. I bought fresh catfish fillets, lightly coated them with flour, salt and pepper, and flash fried them in a little canola oil, and then topped them with the multi-use leftover fennel compote and it was fantastic!! To “freshen” the compote, I added in three chopped cherry tomatoes and tiny drizzle of olive oil, warmed it up in the microwave and a quick dinner was spectacular! TIP: I like to always have fresh tomatoes on hand and a few fresh herbs. With those, you can liven up any dish.
Here is our plate with a little steamed Jasmine rice and sautéed Swiss chard with garlic. Delish and quick!!

When your husband wakes up the next morning and is still talking about the dinner the night before, you know it was good.

This is the thing: the more you cook, the more accumulated resources you have at hand to continue to cook better and better!

Great Valentine’s Day and Super Bowl recipes

February 3, 2013 by Mary Frances 7 Comments

Our latest newsletter went out this past Thursday with two very special recipes, never before seen here and perfect for a Valentine’s Day dinner. If you haven’t signed up for it, you won’t receive it. But, you can sign up now, in the upper right hand column of this blog, and I will personally make sure you get one pronto.

Also, don’t forget, our LOVE the secret ingredient aprons make a great gift for any time of the year, reminding you to always cook with LOVE. When you do, everything will always taste better! If you order by February 5^th, you can still receive it in time for V-day!

And for the Super Bowl tonight, check out these recipes – Super Easy Nachos, Nacho Burgers, Artichoke dip, and my Bean Dip!

Enjoy!!– Nachos made fresh and easy

“Provence in Ancram”

January 30, 2013 by Mary Frances 26 Comments

This is not directly food related, but I have exciting news! One of my paintings, “Provence in Ancram,” (24″ x 30″) has been selected for the Columbia County Council on the Arts annual Juried Art Show at the Hudson Opera House (327 Warren Street, Hudson). The opening reception will be Saturday, Feb. 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. and I will be there! The show runs through March 25.

Zucchini, fennel, red pepper and mint torta

January 23, 2013 by Mary Frances 8 Comments

Several of you asked for this recipe from our “Birthday Linner”. The truth is that my older son made it up, on the spot, based on vegetables that I had in the apartment, plus some herbs from our grocery store downstairs, which does not have a broad selection, particularly on a Sunday. He originally wanted some basil but they had none. He came back with a beautiful bunch of fresh mint instead. And, I just learned last night from my fellow cooking friend, Margaret, that mint is a relative of basil, so that was a very good choice indeed.

He meant to put in fresh grated Parmesan, but forgot. But as a dish in the middle of this many-course celebration, it did not need Parmesan. The clean tasting vegetables were a welcome interlude between the pasta with spinach and Pecorino Romano cheese and the very rich and super delicious short ribs with polenta.

This son is a big cook – he just gets in there and does things! Fearless and big, that’s what I call him. He says, “Thank you!”

Here’s a stab at his recipe.

ZUCCHINI, FENNEL, RED PEPPER AND MINT TORTA
3 zucchinis
1 and 1/2 fennel bulbs
2 large red peppers
3 – 4 tbs. olive oil
Salt
Pepper
½ bunch of fresh mint leaves

Broil red peppers, checking and turning until all skin is blackened. Using tongs, place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap until cool. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Slice zucchini and fennel on a mandoline, somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Using 1 or 2 tbs. of olive oil for each vegetable, toss separately in a bowl, with salt and pepper (test and taste for proper seasoning) and lay out each on separate baking sheets. Roast zucchini and fennel until crisp tender. Check in 20 minutes. The fennel will most likely take a little longer. This is why you keep them on separate baking sheets.

Peel the red pepper, core, remove the seeds and cut into 1 inch wide strips.
Layer the zucchini, fennel, red pepper and mint leaves in 10 inch round dish, repeating again until all is used up. Place a plate on top and weight it down to press ingredients together. We used a 28 oz. can of tomatoes with a large heavy mason jar of honey on top of the plate. Press for an hour or two. Then carefully slide the torta out, top side up, on a large round cake plate. Cut into pie wedge serving pieces and enjoy!

We used only two red peppers but three might be better. You could also add a layer of grated Parmesan cheese. We talked about that and then forget to do it.

Aprons for sale!

January 18, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

Do you wear aprons? I do – all the time. I really don’t want to spend the time getting olive oil splatters out of my clothes. I also use the ends to dry my hands quickly and this one is extra long with room to do that. So I thought that maybe you’d like a LOVE-the secret ingredient apron too! It can remind us all to cook with LOVE! And with Valentine’s Day coming up, this could be the perfect little gift! It’s beautifully embroidered, 100% heavy-weight cotton twill fabric and of course, machine washable, with adjustable neck strap and two front pockets. Click on this link to order one now.

The birthday linner

January 17, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

The birthday cook-a-thon celebration for my husband was a huge success and just so much fun. We started cooking at noon and ate from 2:45 to 6:45 just in time to put Zach on a 7:10 train back to New Haven. So what do you call a leisurely meal like this that encompasses lunch and dinner? Linner!

While every dish was great, what was even more terrific was the time spent together, planning, chopping, sharing pots, debating, arguing, laughing and agreeing. My oldest son was upset at first with the look of the short ribs. He said they weren’t going to look pretty enough. Being a designer, that made me feel good – at least he learned something from me! We played games in between while watching football. And since one person did not have responsibility for the whole meal, there was time off for everyone. It was really a wonderful day of just being together.

Now for the food! Here’s the photo essay.

— Making a zucchini, red pepper and fennel torta

Onions sauteing for the short ribs

The short ribs, browned

Mozzeralla, tomato, baby arugula and olive oil salads on a burgandy rimmed plate from Pottery Barn.

The salads – mozzarella, tomato, baby arugula and olive oil

Linguine with olive oil, garlic and spinach topped with broiled breadcrumbs

The beautiful zucchini, red pepper, fennel and mint torta

The torta with red bell pepper, zucchini, fennel and mint.

The torta serving – so pretty!

Delicious short ribs with creamy polenta squares on an antique Wedgewood plate.

The main course – delicious short ribs with creamy polenta squares

The birthday dessert – beautiful warm, chocolate-filled pastries made by Agata, so yummy!

Birthdays and fennel compote

January 12, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

There is much excitement in our family today – emails, texts, phone calls, everything! Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday and our boys want to make him a huge Sunday lunch. The menu will be a surprise to him. At first we were going to celebrate tonight as Zach has to go back to Yale Sunday evening, but no, they wanted to keep it to the day and do a multi-course nice long lunch and each person is in charge of one course. Our oldest is organizing this. He is taking over the main course – short ribs with polenta garnished with fennel fronds. I have been assigned the pasta course, Zach is doing the salad and Agata is handling dessert. So we’re talking back and forth, determining the menu, recipes and food buying. I point out and ask, “Why are we having a pasta course if we’re having polenta with the main?” Our oldest says, “I want the pasta course too. I want this to be over the top. You know, this will be a long, paced out affair.” This is just like they do in Italy on a special Sunday. He did live there for six months.

So I have decided to make a Union Square Café recipe that is one of my all time faves. It is a little tricky and detailed at the end so it’s the perfect dish to make if I’m only responsible for it and not the whole rest of the meal too. It is Linguine with Spinach, Garlic and Olive Oil. This dish produces a whole lotta mmmmm’s and there are broiled bread crumbs on top – just a touch, not too much. I love crunchy bread crumbs on top of pasta.

So hopefully I’ll remember to take lots of pictures tomorrow to share with you what I know will be a fabulous meal. But meanwhile, I’d like to share with you our dinner last night. I made a Mark Bittman fennel tomato compote to put on some oven roasted cod and it was fantastic! I can see putting this on lots of things – steamed eggplant, pasta, chicken, swordfish, I could keep going.

A white Wedgewood dinner plate with oven roasted cod topped with a fennel tomato and olive compote, steamed coarse bulgar and a kale salad.

Our dinner – oven roasted cod topped with the fennel compote, steamed coarse bulgar and kale salad

Once again I changed the recipe so I’ll give you mine, and I forgot to add the parsley at the end, which would have been prettier, so that doesn’t show up in the pictures.

FENNEL COMPOTE WITH TOMATOES AND OLIVES – adapted from Mark Bittman
– serves 4

1/4 cup of olive oil
1 bulb fennel (or 2 smaller ones), trimmed and chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tbs. choppped thyme leaves
1 tbs. minced garlic
6 plum tomatoes, chopped (canned are fine, but drain excess liquid)
Heaping 1/2 cup big, plump olives, green or black or a combination, preferably unpitted
1/4 cup capers, optional
1/2 cup chopped parsley leaves, for garnish

Put the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the fennel and some salt and pepper, and without browning (adjust the heat as necessary), cook it down, stirring occasionally, until it’s quite soft, about 20 minutes. Add the thyme and garlic, and cook 1 minute, stirring.

Add the tomatoes, olives and capers, raise the heat a bit, and cook until the mixture is saucy, about 15 minutes. Serve as a side dish or to top a portion of cooked fish. Garnish with parsley.

Fresh fennel sauteing in olive oil in a Calphalon skillet

Sauteing the fennel

Fennel, tomato and olive compote in a pan.

The compote complete

Happy New Year to you!

January 7, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

These days after New Year’s Day last week have been so hectic. Good hectic – so maybe it’s foretelling of a great business year ahead!

We had a wonderful small dinner party on New Year’s Eve. Just six of us, with a couple of kids around through the soup course. My brother, Steve, and his wife, Trish, joined us along with our good friends, Margaret and Wayne. Steve brought along some Petrossian caviar (divine) and served it up on homemade blinis with a touch of crème fraiche – heaven! Our dinner started with a family favorite from the Zuni Café cookbook – asparagus & rice soup with pancetta and black pepper, paired with an excellent champagne – Georges Laval. I then served pan–roasted loin lamb chops with garlic and ginger together with a carrot, parsnip and tarragon puree with oven-roasted tiny Yukon gold potatoes. We finished with holiday cookies and tea and missed the ball dropping.

Then on New Year’s Day, after everyone woke up late, we had a traditional Polish breakfast with fresh Polish sausage, chrzan, scrambled eggs, homemade bread and fruit salad. The kids played St. Petersburg all afternoon and then we moved into our first dinner of the new year.

We started with artichokes simmered in a bath of water, lemon, crushed garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper and crushed juniper berries, with a mayo-Dijon dipping sauce. Our oldest then wanted to make a pasta course. He made this Mark Bittman recipe that was so easy and SO GOOD!! Watch the video here.
The pasta was delicate and toothy at the same time, so very satisfying and delicious! And really, it was easy. Making these large sheets – handkerchiefs as Mark calls them – adds further ease. The sauce was a simple fresh plum tomato sauce with a little olive oil, garlic and two anchovies, which adds big, big flavor. Topped with some grated Parmesan, this was one fine dish. I really encourage you to make this – it will not disappoint!

Our main course was a Melissa Clark recipe of pan–seared center cut pork chops that had been marinating in olive oil, mashed anchovies and minced garlic, along with some beautiful sautéed escarole, substituting her Swiss chard.

The anchovies were so good in that dinner, I continued with them through the week and shoved some under the skin of a chicken I roasted, along with some rosemary and roasted garlic. My husband and I loved it. Our youngest, not so much. I used six fillets on that chicken, maybe four would have been better to get the big flavor but not the recognizable fishy anchovy taste. I grew up on anchovies. My father loved them and used to serve them to us on saltines!! Talk about salt! And we loved them, so you know how big of a fan I am. (Of course in those days, the variety of crackers available today, just didn’t exist then.)

I hope that your New Year’s celebrations were wonderful and fun. Please write and let me know what you did.

Wishing you an awesome and inspiring New Year that is love-filled and delicious!

A great bean dip

December 31, 2012 by Mary Frances 21 Comments

We all need something to eat during cocktail hour, whether your cocktail is wine or a martini. I don’t want it to be fattening or filling, but it needs to be something. I am also a big protein fan. My body, as I was told by one doctor, needs a lot of protein, so I made up this clean tasting, protein-laden dip, with vegetables as the dipping device. This is great for any party, particularly New Year’s Eve!

MARY’S BEAN DIP

One 16 oz can of cannellini beans, drained, rinsed and drained
2 – 3 rounded tbs. hot horseradish, with juice drained, let your taste decide amount
3 tbs. olive oil
1/2 head of roasted garlic
1/2 of a lemon squeezed – add gradually and taste
1 tsp. ground cumin
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
3 tbs. chopped fresh parsley
Olive oil to drizzle on top
Cumin powder to sprinkle on top

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Take one head of garlic and slice the whole thing in half, horizontally. Place on aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Close up the two halves on top of one another and make a tight closed packet with the foil. Roast for 45 minutes to one hour until the garlic is soft and brown. (You can use the other half for many things – add to mashed potatoes, vegetables, anything!)

Place beans, horseradish, olive oil and squeeze 1/2 head of the garlic cloves into the bowl of a food processor and process until chunky. Add half of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and cumin and process again and taste. Add more lemon if you like and process until a nice smooth consistency. Use more olive oil if you need to, to make it smooth. Add the parsley at the very end and pulse just once or twice. You just want the parsley distributed throughout the dip. Alternatively, you can fold it in by hand.

Place in a bowl to serve, drizzle on more olive oil and sprinkle some more cumin on top.

Serve with fresh fennel, celery, red pepper, endive spears or any other fresh dipping vegetables you like.
You can’t have a more LOVING presentation than this! This hand bowl was a gift from our friends Carl and Roger – from the MoMA Design Store – isn’t it great?!!

Southern cheese straws!

December 30, 2012 by Mary Frances 11 Comments

Crisp, buttery, rich and cheesy, that’s what I want in a cheese straw. Many times I have made various recipes, only to be entirely disappointed. Once I tried a recipe that had puff pastry as the base. It was horrible! Not cheesy, but soggy, and as hard as I tried to crisp them up that Thanksgiving with a lot of LOVE, nothing would work. This recipe, however, fulfilled all my expectations. It must be loaded with calories, but to make just once a year and eat only one or two during cocktail hour shouldn’t hurt you. At least that’s my reasoning.

So as I was making these, they started coming out with a curled top. Hmm, I said, looks like a candy cane to me. So I went with it! Some are straight sticks and others are candy canes, perfect for the season. These would be great for your New Year’s Eve party. Enjoy!

SOUTHERN CHEESE STRAWS – adapted from The New York Times

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 lb. extra sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese, grate it cold first and then let it come to room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grate cheese.

In a food processor, pulse dry ingredients until combined, then add cheese and butter. Process until dough becomes smooth and has the texture of Play-Doh. (My piano teacher’s first husband invented Play-Doh – it was originally wallpaper paste!)

Shape the dough into a cylinder, wrap with plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator until ready to bake.

Bring dough to room temperature (if it has been in the refrigerator for some time) and pack it into a cookie press fitted with a star disk. Pipe long ribbons of dough across the baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat, about an inch apart. Then cut into six-inch lengths. Or make into candy cane shapes. Repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for about 13 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown. Store between sheets of parchment or wax paper in an airtight container or tin. Will keep for up to three weeks, if they last that long.