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

Nuts!! – specifically almonds

October 22, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

I LOVE nuts! And no wonder, I just learned that almonds are a symbol of LOVE and happiness! The early Romans showered newlyweds with almonds as a fertility charm and the nut was a symbol of good luck for centuries throughout southern Europe. I once even heard that if you eat 6 raw almonds before drinking, you won’t get a hangover.

Do you think that could work?

Nuts in general got a really bad rap some years ago. We all knew that they were delicious and fatty but luckily, we’ve discovered that this fat is good for you and is even known to lower blood LDL cholesterol levels. An ounce of almonds gives you 35% of your daily allowance of vitamin E, which is a powerful antioxidant to keep you healthy all winter. They also have other vitamins and minerals, are cholesterol free and a good source of fiber – all good stuff!

Recently, I’ve been toasting raw almonds in peanut oil and fine sea salt. Everyone I serve them to is like, OMG – where’d you get these?

So I know this is a stupid simple thing to do, but I thought I’d share it as it has received such high praise from everyone. Now that the holiday season is coming upon us, a nice cute little jar of these roasted almonds would make an awesome hostess gift. After all, years and years ago, gifts of almonds represented happiness, romance, good health and fortune. Not bad, eh?

These are great during cocktail hour or chop some up and throw them on a salad or oatmeal. They don’t take long to make at all and you will LOVE them!

Just be sure to check you’ve toasted them all the way through by cutting them in half and seeing if the brownish roasting effort reach the center of the nut.
ROASTED WHOLE ALMONDS WITH SEA SALT

1.5 cups of raw whole almonds
2 tbs. peanut oil
Sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss almonds with peanut oil and season with sea salt. Roast in the oven for a total of 13 minutes. Toss at 6 minutes so that browning is even. Check at 12 minutes by cutting an almond in half and making sure it is toasted inside. When done, remove pan from the oven and salt them again with the fine sea salt and let cool in the pan. Toss again and taste for the proper salt level. Store in a tightly covered container. Enjoy!!

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!)

Zakuska!

March 3, 2013 by Mary Frances 15 Comments

Okay, so here is a question:

What is a zakuska? (zuh-KOOS-kuh)

Tick tock tick tock tick tock….

HMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

an hors d’oeuvre!

This Russian word for a snack, zakuska, entered the lexicon in the mid 1880’s as a derivative of kusát meaning “to bite.”

So you can invite all your guests for a little zakuska and drinks, the next time they come over.

(Now why is it that both words for something to eat with a drink are from a different language?)

Here’s a quick pic my friend Judy snapped of the bean dip she made recently for a birthday celebration. A great zakuska!

Please share with me your pictures of dishes you make from the recipes here – I’d be delighted to publish!

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

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.