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

Super Quick Broccoli Rabe and Pasta Recipe

July 10, 2016 by Mary 7 Comments

We all have our little tricks in the kitchen, right? And many of us have our secret ingredients we always turn to.

Mine, of course, is LOVE. Cooking with the intention of LOVE – loving the dish you’re making or knowing that when you serve the food, your family and friends will LOVE it and you will make them happy, that’s what turns me on. And that’s why I always cook with LOVE. I just want to make people happy. Nothing makes me happier than to hear little murmurs of delight from folks while eating my food.

Our youngest son, Zachary, whose birthday is today, said he knew my food always tasted so good because of the LOVE I put into it while cooking. One sister-in-law of mine told me years ago that I was good at picking recipes. But then she asked, why did my food always taste so good. She had made some of the same recipes. I guess Zachary had the answer.

So I was talking to a new colleague about our MARY’s secret ingredients culinary subscription box and he told me his “secret ingredient” was capers.

I also love capers and caperberries even more! Roasted, they become that crunchy burst of saltiness that I just love. Anchovies are another – throw them into a dish and they melt and add that wonderful umami flavor. Pancetta is also another good one.

Back to the box, our summer box is hitting mailboxes right now and as usual, it has a great curated collection of new products, some are ready to eat and with all of them, I’ve created a delicious recipe to make meals special for you and your family. There are still a few summer boxes left and you can pick one up here. If you use the code SAVE20 you can save 20% on a full year subscription – that’s 4 seasonal boxes for about $87.00! And remember, we are a proud supporter of the worldwide organization combatting hunger, Feed The Children, so a portion of your box purchase goes to support them.

Back to this Super Quick Broccoli Rabe and Pasta Recipe, this is a great dish for a meatless night. Meatless Monday is tomorrow! My proportion of broccoli rabe to the pasta is great – a lot more broccoli rabe and depending on how big your eaters are, this can serve 2 or 3 with just 8 oz. of pasta. This comes together so quickly, using the already near boiling water from the broccoli rabe to cook the pasta in. Bringing the broccoli rabe to almost boiling removes the bitterness and starts to work on tenderizing those stems.

Super Quick Broccoli Rabe and Pasta Recipe in 2 bowls.

I was debating if it needed cheese and it didn’t!

Make this tomorrow night to start your week quick. Make it with LOVE and enjoy!!

SUPER QUICK BROCCOLI RABE AND PASTA RECIPE – serves 2 – 3

I bunch of broccoli rabe, ends trimmed, cut into 2” pieces, and washed in a bath of water to remove all grit. Never
buy broccoli rabe that has blooming yellow flowers – that’s a message that it will be very bitter
1/2 lb. spaghetti or other dry pasta
3 Tbs. olive oil
7 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
5 anchovies, blotted dry of oil
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Coarse sea salt – for cooking pasta and broccoli rabe
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

In a large pasta pot, place the washed broccoli rabe. Fill the pot with water to be at least 2 inches above the broccoli rabe. Add in the salt and stir to combine. Place the pot on high heat.

Meanwhile, warm the 3 Tbs. olive oil in a large skillet on low heat, (large enough to hold the broccoli rabe and pasta too), add the garlic and stir. Do not let it brown.

When small bubbles appear around the edges of the pot with the broccoli rabe, remove the rabe with a slotted spoon into a colander over a bowl and let drain. Let the water in the pot come back to a full boil. When that happens, add the pasta and cook for 2 minutes less than the lower number on the package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, (be sure to stir every once in a while), put the broccoli rabe in the skillet with the garlic and raise heat to medium – medium-high. Cook a bit more, and toss. Add in the anchovies and keep tossing and cooking.

When the pasta is near the end of cooking, take a large coffee mug and scoop out some pasta water. Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the broccoli rabe, stirring with tongs to combine. Add about ¼ cup of pasta water, the crushed red pepper flakes and toss to finish cooking the pasta just to al dente and be sure the broccoli rabe stems are crisp tender. Taste to your liking with more salt and some fresh ground black pepper.

Serve in warm bowls with LOVE!

EXCITING TRAVEL NEWS!

I want to tell you, I’m so excited, we’re heading to Poland and Italy in 11/2 weeks!!! We will celebrate Zach’s birthday in Warsaw with his fiancée, Agata. They have big plans to take us all over including visiting local farmer’s markets and a day trip to Krakow. Then we will fly to Milano, 2 days there, then train to Arezzo in Tuscany for Bianca’s wedding. Bianca is sort of my surrogate daughter. She is the daughter of the family our oldest son lived with for his semester abroad during his university years. She and her fiancé have visited us in NYC often. But, it has been 10 years since both families have been together and Tiziana, the mother, has asked me to help her cook the Friday night family dinner before the wedding on Saturday! I am SO excited and honored!!! We have been emailing. I will shop with her in the morning for her cheeses and she has asked me to come up with ideas for dessert. I’m thinking of big pans of rhubarb and strawberry crisps. What do you think?

So get ready for some great fun stories and photography from Poland and Italy!!! Is there anything specific you’d like to see? Let me know…

Arugula, Roasted Beets and Scallion Salad – It’s all about the ingredients!

June 25, 2016 by Mary 24 Comments

I have said this many times and the French know it all too well – it’s all about the ingredients. The quality of the items you are working with to create your dish makes all the difference in the world. This arugula, roasted beets and scallion salad I made of “just picked that morning” produce was so simple, so delicious, it was to die for. I topped it with a fresh lemon juice dressing and it was a dancing fresh, total yum feel in your mouth. It doesn’t get much better than that!!

On our way up to the Hudson Valley yesterday, we were finally early enough to make it to the Farmer’s Market in Milan and Ethel of Red Hook Farm had just picked the arugula and pulled the beets in the morning. I am so tired of store bought arugula that has zero flavor, aren’t you? Those boxes of baby arugula look all pretty and nice but really, they are tasteless.

This arugula was the big leaf variety, light in texture and full of peppery punch, just the way arugula should be! Because the texture was so light, you could eat a lot of these luscious leaves. The beets grew long and skinny, as opposed to round huge things, so they roasted quickly in 40 minutes at 425 degrees. And the scallions were a bright spring onion flavor. All so fresh, so simple, so delicious, the way all food should be.

“It’s all about the ingredients” is exactly what we do with our MARY’s secret ingredients culinary boxes. We search the world for delicious simple healthy ingredients and products to make your cooking and eating spectacular and easy. All products are shelf stable, natural and good for you, and add that extra punch to make an ordinary meal extraordinary. Take this simple chicken breast recipe – with the addition of a little buttermilk marinating time, fresh rosemary, good quality grainy mustard and this Just Jan’s Tangerine Marmalade, you’ve got yourself a “company meal.” The Tangerine Marmalade was in our recent spring box.

The summer box is scheduled to ship out next week so place your order this weekend. Our surprise collection of completely new products will wow you, I guarantee. We have some super fun and delicious items in this box. Our belief of “it’s all about the ingredients” means that every one has to pass not only our taste test, but also our “good for your body” test, meaning made with all natural ingredients, nothing unpronounceable can ever be included. So order one now and get on the bandwagon to eat healthy delicious meals you can make at home simply and easily, and also help us in our mission to fight global hunger as we are a proud supporter of the worldwide organization, Feed The Children.

Now the rest of my meal yesterday sucked! I decided to try something new and…it didn’t work. 🙁 So I had some lamb cubes and a craving for pasta. With the grill here, I thought it would be interesting to brown the salted and peppered lamb on the grill – on a grill pan – make the tomato sauce on the stove top and then simmer the cubes in the sauce. Only I think I needed like 3 hours of simmer time to get those babies tender. I thought these were leg of lamb cubes but nope, it was lamb cubes for stew. To make things further worse, all I had here was white rice pasta – a pretty yucky combo with the tough meat.

Oh well, but the salad was magnificent!

Here’s what I did:

ARUGULA, ROASTED BEETS AND SCALLION SALAD – serves 2

2 bunches of farmstand large leaf arugula, trimmed, washed, spun dry and chilled
5 small beets, trimmed and scrubbed
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced

DRESSING:

½ tsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbs. lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place beets in the middle of a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle with 1 Tbs. olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Close up foil tightly to make a neat packet and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes until beets are tender and easily pierced with paring knife. Let cool a bit so you can handle and peel. Slice into ¼” slices.

For the dressing, whisk together the lemon juice and mustard. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in the olive oil in a slow steady stream to emulsify.

Toss together the arugula, beets and scallions. Drizzle on the salad dressing, just enough for your taste. Toss everything well and serve with LOVE.

Enjoy!

And buy a box! 🙂 They make awesome hostess and housewarming gifts. Everyone loves them!!

Roasted Sea Bass on a Radicchio Salad with Sugar Snap Peas & Apple

June 19, 2016 by Mary 18 Comments

With my mother-in-law’s passing, the inevitable clean up and division of “stuff” is happening. My husband and oldest son went back down to Baltimore this past week to pitch in and help Steve’s sister with the work of emptying her condo. Needing to leave early on Wednesday morning, our son came to our apartment to spend the night on Tuesday. Steve and I had several business networking events that evening so he offered to cook dinner.

Well we arrived home to a DINNER!!! A gourmet dinner and combination – this Roasted Sea Bass on a Radicchio Salad with Sugar Snap Peas & Apple – that I would have never thought of. He is fearless, creative and brilliant in his cooking and combinations. He is, I think, a better cook than me. Okay. That. Was. Hard. To say.

I had some sea bass fillets in the fridge and he found a head of radicchio, a bunch of herbs – parsley, cilantro, mint and dill, part of a jalapeño, some sugar snap peas and a Jazz apple. He made a beautiful salad of the radicchio, thinly sliced apple, a little fresh jalapeño, par boiled sugar snap peas and herbs with a lemon, olive oil, mustard, and worcestershire sauce dressing and the fish was marinating in a lemon, olive oil, herb mixture. He felt my refrigerator needed cleaning out so he went to work using things up.

When would I dream my son would chastise me on the condition of my vegetable drawers?

Never.

But it’s all good! And, he was right.

So the fish fillets, with the herb marinade piled on top, roasted in 425 degree oven for close to 20 minutes. Did you ever notice that sea bass fillets really expand and puff up in thickness, so the roasting takes longer than you would expect?

But then he did something unexpected, because he wanted the herbs to be crispy. When finished roasting, he flash broiled the fillets and got those herbs to have a nice crunch! I wouldn’t have thought of that. And, he served the fish on top of a big pile of the salad. Total delish!! And beautiful!

So I don’t really have his recipe but what I’ve outlined here is what he told me he did and here’s a picture of his delicious dish.

To all you young mothers out there, cook delicious meals, let your children see you do it, have them help. Then you too will reap the rewards later and have dinners like this cooked for you!! What goes around comes around. Do it with LOVE and you will be rewarded.

I can’t wait to see what he and his fiancée will cook up tonight for Steve’s Father’s Day Dinner.

Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful dads out there!!! Have an awesome day!

Oh Baby, Yukon Golds… Best Stovetop Recipe

June 12, 2016 by Mary 22 Comments

I don’t cook many carbs – as I’m constantly watching my weight. “Watching” is the key word. I am not on any diet to lose weight but I certainly don’t want to gain any more. So, I don’t cook many carbs. Particularly because we eat dinner so late – usually around 9 – I hate to admit – and my husband and I are just fine without. At first my husband would complain. Now he knows better. (training!)

But on this past Monday evening, we had our next-door neighbor, Marilyn, over for dinner. Marilyn is a pistol. She’s a retired bankruptcy attorney and she has a gorgeous terrace, belongs to several wine clubs, and doesn’t cook. We start these get-togethers at her apartment with some delicious wine on her terrace. She ordered up a spectacular day as well! Gorgeous blue sky with puffy clouds slowly moving, bees that didn’t sting and birds that came to visit. Perfect!

During the cocktail hour, I peeled and sliced garlic for the escarole while my onions were happily caramelizing on my stove next door. Marilyn loves rare calves liver and you can’t have liver without having onions, right? I had a strip steak for my husband and me.

You see Marilyn did a HUGE favor for us some months ago. Our refrigerator broke (again!! Don’t ever buy Jenn-Air appliances) and we were planning to spend a week in the country and I mentioned to her that now we were staying home to wait for the repair guy and it ruined our week. Marilyn offered to oversee the repair and stay with the guy in our apartment until it was finished, so we could still go on our little holiday. How awesome is that!??? And, the repair guy didn’t show up until 7 pm in the evening and didn’t finish until 10:30 at night!!! And she couldn’t figure out how to turn on our TV. So she just sat there. (I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the TV last night either. Aughhhh!!)

So I said, “Marilyn, let me make you your favorite dinner. What is it?”

And she said, “Liver and onions.”

I hate liver and onions.

My mother used to make us eat it at least once a month – for the iron – and she loved it. But my mother always cooked it way too much, I now know.

Marilyn likes hers rare and she requested it broiled. Well, I blew it the first time. It was too done.

So on Monday, I recreated her thank-you dinner and this time, I did it right. I sautéed it in butter, served it rare and never heard so many mmmm’s. She’s a sweetheart.

So being that we had company, I made the complete meal with a carb – these baby Yukon golds – and they were creamy, dreamy and totally delicious.

Here’s what I did. It’s a remake of a Jacques Pepin recipe.

BABY YUKON GOLDS – BEST STOVETOP RECIPE – serves 5 – 6

2 lbs. baby Yukon gold potatoes
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chicken stock
1.5 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. freshly chopped parsley leaves

Place the potatoes in a deep skillet and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover potatoes halfway with chicken stock, about 2 cups, add the butter and cover skillet with a lid. Cook the potatoes in the stock until almost tender, about 10 to 15 minutes, depending upon the size of the potatoes.

Remove the lid and allow the stock to evaporate, about another 5 minutes. Once the stock has evaporated pop each potato using a ladle or large spoon, creating a small crack in each, but do not smash. Allow the potatoes to brown on each side, about another 5 minutes. Remove the browned potatoes from the skillet and place onto a serving platter, garnish with the parsley.

Serve with LOVE.

Frosty cocktails and dinner salads – summertime is here!

June 6, 2016 by Mary 8 Comments

Frosty cocktails and dinner salads, summertime is here, right? Easy cooking and meals that come together quickly, that’s what we all want when it’s time to open the windows wide, as we’d really rather be outside.

My mother-in-law passed early Tuesday morning. We had the funeral in Baltimore on Thursday. She had lived a good long 96+ years. So on Wednesday night, our oldest son and his fiancée came over for dinner and spent the night so we could all drive to Baltimore together. Obviously I had not planned for four for dinner this week but here’s what I threw together. It was great for a hot summer, late night meal.

Fortunately I had defrosted a package of 4 chicken thighs with bone and skin. I had some baby spinach and romaine lettuce, potatoes, mini sweet peppers, radishes and tomatoes. I threw in some caperberries and lemon halves to roast with the potatoes and chicken. Over the finished salad, I drizzled a tiny bit of olive oil and with a squeeze of the roasted lemons – DELISH!!

The caperberries got crunchy – a nice and interesting little bit of salt crunch every once in a while. The potatoes, baby Yukon Gold, were creamy dreamy. And roasting the lemons at the high heat of 425 degrees made them almost sweet! You can just salt and pepper your chicken on both sides but I was also trying out a new possible product for the summer box, delicious and high in garlic content, so I will tell you to just add some garlic powder and sesame seeds on the thighs, in order to not ruin the surprise of this product in the upcoming summer box.

Here’s what I did.

DINNER SALAD WITH ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS, CAPERBERRIES AND ROASTED LEMONS – serves 4

4 chicken thighs with bone and skin
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Sesame seeds
5.5 oz. baby spinach leaves
3 – 4 romaine lettuce leaves, washed, dried and torn into bite size pieces
1.75 lbs. baby Yukon Gold potatoes – scrubbed, dried and cut into 2“ chunks
2 Tbs. olive oil, plus more to drizzle on finished salads
1/3 cup caperberries, drained
2 whole lemons, washed, dried and cut in half
8 radishes, scrubbed clean and dried, trim if greens are not nice
½ cup sugar snap peas, washed, strings removed, and cut on a diagonal into slices
3 tomatoes, washed, dried and each cut into 8 wedges
4 small sweet peppers – yellow, orange or red, washed, dried, split in half lengthwise, seeds removed
3 scallions, cleaned and sliced, white, light green and some dark green parts
Maldon salt
Fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss potatoes with 2 Tbs. olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast potatoes in the oven for 15 minutes. Then add the caperberries to the potatoes and toss and return to the oven for 20 – 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile, wash and dry chicken thighs, removing all fat and extra skin on the edges. Season both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder and sesame seeds, pressing them in to adhere. Place thighs on a rack on a rimmed baking sheet, add lemon halves in the corners of the baking sheet, cut side down and roast on the top shelf in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes.

Prepare all the other vegetables.

Distribute the spinach and romaine lettuce leaves evenly among four dinner plates. Place chicken thighs in the center and evenly distribute all the other vegetables around the chicken, putting one roasted lemon half on each plate and finishing with the scallions sprinkled all over. Drizzle olive oil on the vegetables in a circle around the chicken, and squeeze the lemon all around. Finish with some crushed Maldon salt and fresh ground pepper.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!! We paired this with an Alsace Riesling – perfect! (Steve – what do you think?)

Last weekend, I was also playing around with cocktails and another box item. More on that to come later after the summer box is shipped on June 25th. Here’s a photo to whet your appetite.

Barbecued Ribs or Santorini Grilled Chicken?

May 29, 2016 by Mary 12 Comments

BBQ ribs – perfect for this holiday weekend. Those are fiddlehead ferns garnishing the platter – they’re in season now!

If you’re thinking of ribs for today or tomorrow, I’ve got you covered with my great rib recipe here. People rave about this recipe and it’s so simple and easy. Or if pork is not your thing, how about a Santorini Grilled Chicken recipe that’s sure to please everyone as it’s stuffed with tomatoes, cheese and onions and oregano. And I’ve added on for you some salads too – one tomato and two potato. So fire up the grill, whip up the salads and enjoy this lovely long weekend with your family – and don’t forget to thank our fallen heroes for their service to our country, as that is what Memorial Day is all about.

Here’s a shot of my Dad’s cavalry hat from WWII. We proudly display it on the wall as a piece of art. (That pie in the back gives a hint of one of our products coming up in our summer box!)

These recipes are all reprise recipes so I’ll just show you the pictures, which all link back to the original post.

We are all out of sorts today. My mother-in-law is passing. She is 96 years old, almost 97, in August. She lived a good long life. I’ve dealt with a lot of passing of people close to me. My mom passed in 1995, my dad in ’98 (of a broken heart from losing my mom. He always thought he would go first.), and then we lost a brother to MS in 2000. All of these were sudden events and a surprise. This, with Steve’s mom is maddening. His sister is in Baltimore with her and has called in hospice. We are both on pins and needles.

Today I spent an hour tearing through the house looking for my reading glasses and then I went to wash my hands in the bathroom and looked up in the mirror – there they were on my chest – hanging from my necklace. Hope this isn’t a sign of things to come! Once I left my car keys at a greeting card store and then they closed and I couldn’t drive home! I was so engrossed in reading funny cards and laughing so hard, I got comfortable, sat on the carpeted floor and left my keys there too. That was a tough one to retrace. Then there was the time I left my keys in the freezer. Don’t ask.

Love your family more. Our time here is precious. Cook with abandon and always serve with LOVE!

Santorini Grilled Chicken

Greek Salad, salad with feta cheese tomatoes cucumbers greek

Tomato, cucumber and feta Greek salad

Best potato salad with fennel, parmigiano cheese, cippolini onions and piccholine olives.

Midwest potato salad in a white Le Crueset bowl garnished with parsley.

Or here’s a great mayonnaise-based potato salad – my Midwest Potato Salad – that was featured in the Tanglewood Cookbook!