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Thinly sliced

November 16, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

On weekends, with guests over, appetizers are an important aspect of the evening in our house. It’s important to have things out to munch on – so you don’t get too drunk!

But it’s also important to not get filled up before your meal, and I don’t want things that are too fattening either. So, for instance, I almost always put out celery sticks or grapes as part of the offering.

My brother Steve and his wife Trish were over last weekend and they graciously supplied the appetizers. I just supplied the Greek cheese that is a favorite of Trish’s.

Here is board they put together. Notice how thinly Trish sliced the apple (a Honey Crisp of course) and pear. Makes it go a lot farther and is another good trick to get your fill but not eat too much. And it looks beautiful!

Steve did a neat trick with the Chorizo too in the little dish on the left. He sautéed the slices (removes some of the fat) and then deglazed the pan with red wine. Delicious! Hummus is in the middle bowl and low calorie endive spears make another great dipping tool.
Cheese, crackers, and vegetables appetizer on a wooden serving board.
I hope this provides some inspiration for you for your Thanksgiving appetizers. Make it pretty, simple, a bit healthy and delicious!

Filed Under: Appetizers Tagged With: Appetizers, carrots, celery, chorizo, endive, Greek cheese, hummus, red wine deglaze

A fantastic first course!

October 28, 2011 by Mary Frances 5 Comments

This is just so good! Easy and healthy too. Now you could ask your fish monger to do the cleaning but the last time I did that at Stew Leonard’s, he just made a mangled mess out of the cute little fish. My regular fish monger, the wonderful guys at Sea Breeze on 9th Ave and 40th St., won’t clean or filet them because they are just too small. But it’s so easy to do it yourself! So toughen your stomach and get going!

GRILLED SARDINES
– serves 2 as a first courseGrilled sardines on a brown plate.

4 whole sardines
4 thin slices of lemon, each cut in half
4 – 8 fresh thyme sprigs
olive oil
salt
pepper

Light a grill or preheat your broiler on high.

Start with freshest whole sardines with clear eyes. Wash each fish and with a sharp knife (always have your knives sharp), carefully slit the underside of the fish to remove the guts. You will be cutting 2/3’s of the way down the fish from under the head and not all the way to the tail and you’ll be cutting a tiny bit more that halfway into the fish’s body. Do this under running water and grab the innards out with your fingers and get the inside thoroughly clean. Pat thoroughly dry with a paper towel, inside and out. Rub olive oil on the outside of each fish, sprinkle with salt and pepper on one side, then sprinkle salt and pepper on the plate you’re going to use and place the unseasoned side of the oiled fish on the plate and rub around to salt and pepper the bottom side. (Isn’t that a neat  trick? I learned this at a cooking class/birthday party for my friend Deb at a fancy restaurant.) Cut each lemon slice in half and place in the cavity of the fish along with a spring or two of fresh thyme.

Grill or broil for approximately 2 minutes on each side. They’re ready when the tip of a knife flakes the thickest part easily, and the outside is nicely browned and crispy.

Filet the fish as you eat and enjoy!! Fish are actually more flavorful when cooked with the bones in. These are yummy! You can serve with more fresh lemon but we think using the juices from the grilled lemon is enough.

Filed Under: Appetizers, Fish Tagged With: Dinner, first course, fish, lemon, olive oil, pepper, salt, sardines, thyme

Weeknight entertaining

September 20, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Weeknight entertaining is easy to do if you plan a little bit ahead. We enjoy seeing our friends in the city during the week as we are usually in the country on the weekends. So on the weekend, I knew my good friend MB was coming for dinner on Monday night. On Saturday, I started marinating my chicken, I roasted and peeled my golden beets for the salad and toasted the walnuts. Easy. Here’s my menu:

APPETIZERS
A platter of sliced soprasetta, thin breadsticks, fresh fennel sticks, a little bowl of basil olive oil with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice, pistachio nuts, Siracha peas and a large square of Spanakopita from the Greek store, warmed and cut into four.

DINNER
Baby spinach salad with roasted golden beets, toasted walnuts, goat cheese and a sherry vinaigrette (wash and chill spinach, cut beets, arrange all, make vinaigrette & drizzle)
Buttermilk roast chicken on a white platter.Buttermilk roasted chicken (all your work was done on Saturday)
Corn on the cob (easy to roast in their husks, 350 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes)
Tomato, mozzerella and basil with olive oil, salt and pepper (easy – just wash, slice and arrange)

DESSERT
Baklava with fresh strawberries (wash and dry berries, cut store-bought Baklava)

I wanted this dinner to be casual, easy and serve some of the freshness that is left from the farms upstate. I’d say I succeeded! All 4 of us were content and happy. You may think why salad/salad with the beets and tomatoes but the beet salad was served as a first course and the tomatoes and mozzerella were served with the meal and it didn’t feet that way. Both were delicious. Besides, I didn’t want a plate with just corn and chicken on it for the main meal. This chicken is my son Zach’s favorite. Try it and you’ll know why. Those of you that have young teenagers at home can even put this in the oven for you when you’re on your way home from work. I used to instruct Zach to do this over the phone when we still lived in Jersey.

Filed Under: Appetizers, Desserts, Dinner, Poultry Tagged With: baklava, basil olive oil, butttermilk, corn on the cob, dinner menu, entertaining, fennel, goat cheese, golden beets, siracha peas, spanakopita, walnuts

It’s the little things

September 13, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

I was supposed to have lunch today with a new prospective client but she had to cancel so I had a lovely lunch with my husband – novel – at a wonderful Japanese restaurant on the East side of town. Most Japanese restaurants, at least in NYC, have a special lunch menu where you can choose soup or salad to start. And typical is the iceberg lettuce with a ginger sesame dressing, right? Well this place was particularly good, the sushi amazing. And the salad was curly green leaf lettuce, cut in 1/2″ wide ribbons, with one slice of cucumber cut in half, topped with the ginger sesame dressing and some sesame seeds sprinkled on top!

It was just a little thing but something different and surprising, and suddenly it made the salad special!

Think of how many little touches we can do to dishes to delight and surprise. It’s easy with the abundance of fresh herbs in the summer as a finishing touch but I’m going have to work on this for the coming winter.

More later.

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Filed Under: Appetizers Tagged With: dressings, salad, sesame

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