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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!

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September 1, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Roasted cauliflower with cumin and tomatoes in a green bowl.

Cumin roasted cauliflower and tomatoes

We’ve gotten lots of responses to “what’s your favorite spice?” What came back? Mint, rosemary, cinnamon, curry, saffron and cumin. Cumin was hands down the winner, receiving the most votes.

Cumin is so versatile. You can use the plain seeds, toasted seeds or the seeds finely ground into a powder. I love to sprinkle ground cumin on cauliflower before roasting it. When sprinkled on store-bought hummus, with a little drizzle of olive oil, that hummus perks right up. People will think it’s homemade, but it’s just adding a little love to a store bought brand! Cumin works on pork, yummy on grilled skirt or hanger steak and chicken. I have never tried it on fish but you know, I think it’d be great on roasted tilapia fillets. One reader wrote that her husband even sprinkles it on his eggs and omelets! Recently I made a steamed rice recipe with cumin, mustard seeds and butternut squash and it was heavenly! I love the smell of it roasting and steaming. I’ll have to share that recipe later.

Our lovely Project Manager, Caitlin, told me about the favorite Mother Goose nursery rhyme that her parents rewrote for her and her 3 sisters, because they were all girls. (I LOVED hearing this story coming from a family of five boys and me!) Here it is.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, bakers’ women
Bake me a cake with spices and cumin
Pat it and roll it and mark it with a “C”
And put it in the oven for baby and me!

Isn’t that great?

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: cauliflower roasted with cumin, cinnamon, cumin, curry, mint, mustard seeds, rosemary, saffron

Oven dried and “canned” tomatoes

August 24, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Tomatoes oven dried in jars.

Oven dried tomatoes in olive oil with fresh herbs and garlic

Tomato jar tops with thyme.

My “canned” tomatoes with thyme. CORRECTION – don’t put the thyme in unless you’ve boiled it with the tomatoes – just washed fresh thyme could contaminate

 

Tomato jars ready for storage.

Summer – ready for storage – IN THE FREEZER, SINCE I ADDED THE FRESH THYME

So here’s what I did with the eleven pounds of tomatoes. I made 2 batches of oven dried tomatoes, which my whole family adores. They are very slowly oven dried which brings out intense flavor and sweetness. Drenched in olive oil with crushed fresh garlic and herbs they will keep for a month in the refrigerator – ha – if they should last so long!

What do you do with these? Eat them as they are, as a side with dinner or chop them up and throw in pasta for a quick sauce. Serve with broccoli rabe, sautéed scallops and lemon for a fantastic main course or throw on a pizza. Don’t worry, you will think of a myriad of ways to use them. Just make them and you won’t be sorry. And they’re so easy, all you need is time, 6 – 7 hours and you’re set. The basis of this recipe is from the Union Square Café cookbook.

The “canned” are simply the fresh San Marzano tomatoes, washed, cored and roughly chopped, cooked until the liquid boils and jarred with sprigs of fresh thyme. Ethel encouraged me to do them like this – naked – so I would have choices in the winter to do whatever I wanted with them. I couldn’t resist adding the thyme sprigs from my garden. Besides, it looks so pretty, doesn’t it? I processed these jars for 10 minutes in boiling water. UPDATE: I FOUND OUT THAT THE FRESH, JUST WASHED THYME COULD CONTAMINATE THE TOMATOES, SO DON’T ADD THE THYME AT ALL OR BOIL IT WITH THE TOMATOES.

OVEN DRIED TOMATOES
2 lbs. ripe plum tomatoes or San Marzano
1 tsp. kosher salt
5 garlic cloves, crushed
3-4 thyme sprigs
2 rosemary sprigs
1 sage sprig
Olive oil to cover – can be as much as 2 cups

Wash, core and halve the tomatoes lengthwise. Sprinkle each half with the salt and let sit for one hour. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Bake in the oven for 5 – 6 hours. (5 works for me but it depends on your oven). They should be dried but still slightly plump. Let cool. Layer tomatoes, garlic and herbs in a clean glass jar. Cover with olive oil. Store in the refrigerator. Enjoy!!

Salted tomatoes on baking sheets.

Salted tomatoes waiting to go into the oven

Filed Under: Sides, Vegetables Tagged With: canning tomatoes, crushed garlic, olive oil, oven dried tomaotoes, plum tomatoes, rosemary, sage, San Marzano tomatoes, thyme, tomatoes, Union Square Cafe cookbook

Your favorite spice right now?

August 22, 2012 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

I’ve had so much fun writing a monthly spice column for www.Spice4Life.co.za based in Cape Town, South Africa, an “everything” site about life and all the good things it holds. I contribute an article each month about my favorite spice for their impressive audience of 2.9 million monthly visitors.

Since I was invited to contribute at the beginning of the year, with a debut on Valentine’s Day (how fitting for LOVE!) I’ve written about ginger, garlic, garam masala, sumac and now basil. Is there a spice you can’t get enough of as the days start to turn cooler? I’m not saying that summer is over, but this week is definitely not as hot as last.

Please help me choose my next Spice 4 Life topic. Your favorite spice right now? Shout it out!

Ginger spice.

Ginger

 

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: Cape Town, guest blogging, roast chicken, South Africa, spice, Spice4Life

Eleven pounds of tomatoes!

August 19, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Eleven pounds of tomatoes.
I have my work cut out for me today. Ethel (our farmer friend) convinced me to buy 11 pounds of her San Marzano tomatoes yesterday – and I did! So I am busy canning some and slowly oven drying the rest. I will give you those recipes later this week. Meanwhile the tomato smell is literally intoxicating, it smells so good. We will have this summer tomato freshness through some of the winter, but right now, I gotta get back to work!

My basil is also sky high – got to make pesto tonight!

Filed Under: Dinner, Vegetables Tagged With: basil, canning, canning tomatoes, pesto, San Marzano tomatoes, Slow oven roasted tomatoes, tomatoes

Blueberries!

August 17, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Locally grown blueberries in cartons.They’re here now locally in abundance! And boy, are they delicious this year!! Sprinkle them on oatmeal, toss in your fruit salad, make sauces for duck, pork and salmon or just eat them! I have already made two pies and one blueberry crisp. They supposedly are a true brain food, full of antioxidants to combat all the other toxic things we do to our bodies. My good friend, Margaret, makes sure to eat lots of them year round but right now they are local, sweet and yummy.

Melissa Clark, in the New York Times, recently published a recipe of a blueberry sauce on salmon. This is on fresh, expensive wild King salmon. You can find the recipe here: Salmon With Agrodolce Blueberries. I made the full recipe for only a pound of salmon for the two of us and saved the rest of the sauce for pork chops on another night. To our tastes, this sauce was just okay on the salmon (which would have been just fine by itself), but amazing on the pork chops. You decide. And the crisp is easy as can be with an oatmeal topping. That recipe is here.

Blueberry crisp with an oatmeal topping.

Blueberry Crisp – with an oatmeal topping

Filed Under: Desserts, Dinner, Fish, Meat Tagged With: blueberries, blueberry crisp, Melissa Clark, pork chops with blueberry sauce, salmon, salmon with blueberry sauce, The New York Times

Julia & Eric

August 15, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Today would be Julia Child’s 100th birthday!! Happy Birthday to the great chef and instigator of the whole foodie movement that is so prevalent today. There are several articles about her in the Times this morning, one recalling favorite recipes of hers. I have my favorites too – her soy, garlic, rosemary, mustard sauce for a leg of lamb can’t be beat. It is my go-to lamb roast recipe. Leeks braised with a parchment paper cover as a side dish is a really simple dish that seems oh-so-elegant and impressive. I always refer to her for the way she sauteed mushrooms and, of course, boeuf bourguignon. She taught me to smash garlic cloves to remove the skin, but more importantly, she taught my mother the fine art of cooking, which she then passed on to me.

Last night we took our boys out for dinner at Le Bernardin to celebrate our youngest starting on his PhD at Yale next week. My husband and I have not been there in years and yes, it was still so very lovely with superb service. We saw Eric Ripert but unfortunately we did not get to speak. The depth and combination of flavors he achieves with each dish is unique and truly delights the palate. It was a very special evening. We stayed and chatted late into the night.

Here was my third course lobster dish with a stuffed squash blossom – really super delicious. Much to the chagrin of my boys, yes, I snapped these photos.Le Bernardin lobster on a white plate.

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: 100th birthday, beef bourguignon, dessert, Eric Ripert, Julia Child, Le Bernardin, leg of lamb, lobster, mustard sauce, seafood, stuffed squash blossoms, The New York Times

Summer pleasures!!

August 12, 2012 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

There’s nothing better than a meal of hard shell crabs, corn on the cob and a cold beer on a hot summer night. Throw in a little coleslaw, make sure you have plenty of newspapers and you are set for a real treat! Since my husband is from Baltimore, this is a must at least one summer night in our household.

Hard shell crabs and beer on a metal platter.

This was our dinner last night and the crabs were heavy, meaty and delicious! Just follow the instructions on the back of the Old Bay can. Make sure your blue crabs are alive to start, wash them in the sink using long tongs, as they will bite. Create a steamer rack in a large soup pot, (I use a store bought aluminum pan, upside down and punched with holes), fill with about 2″ of half water and half cider vinegar, (or you could use plain old white vinegar), put the live crabs in, layer by layer sprinkle heavily with Old Bay, cover and steam for 30 minutes and voila – get ready to work for the succulent crab meat. It is worth it!

(Now, what in the world are we going to do when we finally give up getting the Times every morning in paper format?)

Filed Under: Dinner, Fish Tagged With: Baltimore, beer, blue crabs, cider vinegar, coleslaw, corn on the cob, hot summer nights, Maryland, newspapers, NY Times, Old Bay seasoning, steamed crabs, summer pleasures, white vinegar

Summer cocktails

August 10, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Pimm's cocktail.

I love cocktails! I usually like basic strong stuff. I grew up with this big family of males and somehow I thought I needed to show them that I could drink too. I will never forget when my oldest brother, John, (12 years older), found out I was going to college in NYC at Parsons, and at the next family party asked me what I was drinking. When I replied, “Rum and Coke,” he spewed out his drink and said, “Kid come over here. Let me pour you a Scotch. You can’t go to NYC and ask for a rum and Coke! They’ll laugh you right out of there!!”

Since then, I learned to love a simple single malt Scotch on the rocks (not too many rocks and not too hard to love) or a super cold straight up martini. I like gin or vodka, depending on how I feel. But as I’ve gotten older, I need things lighter.

So this summer, I’ve discovered Pimm’s! It’s lighter but you can still make a drink with a kick – after all, why do we drink when we drink? And it’s different and refreshing for the summer. Gin based, the recipe is a secret, as it says on the bottle. It’s some kind of berry mixture with a little nice bitterness, but no cough syrup flavor like Campari. It’s nice! Try it and tell me what you think. Now I’m not a sweet person (although many people tell me I’m sweet, ha!), I don’t particularly like sweet things, but if you do, add some simple syrup to this recipe and you’ll be just fine.

With love, enjoy!

Mary’s Pimm’s cocktail

1.5 oz. Pimm’s
1.5 oz. gin – preferably Hendrick’s
1 oz. Pellegrino
I tall sprig of mint
Additional mint for garnish
Squeeze of fresh lime (optional)

Pour the Pimm’s, gin, and Pellegrino over ice in a cocktail shaker. Add in the mint sprig. Cover and shake vigorously, longer than you think you should. Now I realize you’re shaking out all of the carbonation out of the Pellegrino, but I don’t like those bubbles anyway. Pour into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with additional mint and a squeeze of fresh lime if you like. Sip and relax!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: Campari, Coke, Hendrick's gin, lime juice, mint, Pellegrino, Pimm's, relaxation, rum, Scotch, simple syrup, single malt Scotch, summer cocktails, vodka

Remembering Harriet

August 7, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Her outlook on life was always positive. If my kids broke something or something didn’t turn out the way I wanted it too, she’d loudly say, “NEVERMIND, it’ll all work out.” Or, “Nevermind, it’s replaceable.” Her attitude was: move on, no big deal, don’t dwell on it. She was right!

She had a wonderful way of decorating all of her homes, little funny things all over. She always had a small lamp on the kitchen counter with a beautiful simple glass jar full of honey underneath it. First of all, having a low light source in your kitchen is different and provides such warmth. I made sure to have that in my little temporary apartment. And then, having the light above the honey made it absolutely glow. In her den in the large NJ home, she placed a chair and footstool, smack dab in the middle of the room, sideways in front of the fireplace and facing the view of the city. A bold positioning that made perfect sense, but definitely quirky – definitely Harriet!

Dish cloths with clothes hanging scenes, clothespins to close chip bags, stores of tipsy olives for her vodkas, these things completed her kitchen. She drank her vodkas out of Simon Pearce glasses in every house. We liked them so much, we made sure to get some for us for our country house. One burner on her stove would never light the normal way. She’d take a skillet and give it one hard bang and voila, it would light. She loved to put an apron on me and then arrange a dish towel through the waist tie a certain way – her way – which she insisted was best.

And one of the best things she taught me and said over and over again while we were moving back into the city, “Don’t second guess yourself, Mary.” I keep hearing her saying that to me often.

We are in Vermont now, vacationing with my two brothers and their wives. My brother Steve has a beautiful home overlooking Crystal Lake. Harriet loved her big old house in Dorset. We have so many happy memories from there, skiing in the winter and relaxing in the summer.

Love you Harriet and miss you.

Ancram Backyard painting

Harriet’s favorite painting that I did

The loons on our cocktail cruise on Crystal Lake, Vermont.

The loons on our cocktail cruise on Crystal Lake, Vermont.

 

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: decorating, hanging clothes, hanging sheets, Harriet, honey, lamps in the kitchen, lighting, quirky, saying goodby, Simon Pearce, tipsy olives, Vermont, vodka

How do you say good-bye?

August 1, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Her name is Harriet and I met her at our Unitarian Church in Summit, NJ. She became my piano teacher and really, my second mother. Think of a mother you could choose, and who chose you. Very different. She taught me how to play piano at a very late age, but sometimes our piano lessons involved nothing more about the piano than sitting close to one another in front of it. She would point out life lessons I was learning, listen to my troubles or my triumphs, and give me courage and encouragement to keep on doing what I was doing. At the time we met, our boys were seven and ten. She knew intimately our life, our help, our trials and tribulations. We went through her husband’s passing early on. Her first husband invented Play Dough, her second husband invented the Air Cast. She never lacked money, drove a stick shift 700 series BMW in those days and had two grand pianos, back to back in her living room. She raised seven kids, four of her own and three of her second husband’s.

When you choose someone to be in your life as a second parent, it is so very different. She saw me for what I am – not for what my mother wanted me to be (to stay in St. Louis nearby and have lunch and go shopping with her on Saturdays. Yuck.)

She had a huge home in Summit overlooking NYC, one in Vermont and one in Nantucket. We spent time in all of them – she was so generous. When I told her I was thinking of moving back to the city, she understood ALL that that entailed. In the middle of our move, she came over and insisted that all of our furniture for the yet to be found country house, would not go to storage at Westy’s but would go to her house until we found a place. She kept it for a year and still has a few items, five and a half years later.

She taught me to never throw away a roast duck carcass but to make duck soup (yummy), the benefits of hanging your wash out to dry (her favorite thing to do) and pointed out when I was doing things right by my kids and when I needed to do something different (not pointing out something wrong, as my own mother might do). There was a time when we were in our little temporary apartment, before moving in to NYC, that she was over for dinner every Sunday night. Such fun we had in this little dinky kitchen. She had her chair, watching me cook, and all was well. She loved my food. She once said that she would bet that my boys would always live close to us, partly because of my cooking. I sure hope she’s right.

A mutual friend once remarked that Harriet could party like a high schooler, and she could. She loved Grey Goose on the rocks, several small drinks throughout the evening, and never liked wine. She was a true party girl and full of life wisdom.

We just saw each other in early May, partied like old times, cooked her a big dinner, spent the night, and she was fine. She was 82. In late June she was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer, Waldenström Macroglobulinemia, plus leukemia. This was zapping her strength and also affecting her cognitive abilities due to her blood thickening. Her natural children moved her up to a hospice house in Vermont. I had been in touch by phone and we planned to go up there this Sunday. I learned yesterday evening that she passed on Monday morning. I am so very sad. As soon as I heard, I could do nothing but go to the piano and try to play through tears. I’m so very disappointed we did not get to see her one last time.

stairway-to-heaven-cropped

Yesterday morning, while walking to catch a bus on upper Fifth Avenue, I saw this brownstone stoop. I thought it looked like a stairway to heaven for Harriet. I did not know then that she was gone.

 

 

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: cooking, country houses, entertaining, Harriet, love, luekemia, parents who chose you, parents you chose, Sunday night dinners, Waldenström Macroglobulinemia

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Mary Frances

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