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

Sauerkraut, Apple and String Cheese Salad

October 3, 2015 by Mary 17 Comments

There are salads and there are salads. I’m sure you all know I adore salads. I have one nearly everyday for lunch. And I know I’ve mentioned before my love for all of the Silver Palate cookbooks. Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins were really the first great multi-ethnic inspiration for American home cooks back in the early 80’s. (Of course Julia Child introduced us all to French cooking much earlier.) Their store on the Upper West Side in NYC provided a platform and they shared their great tasting, easy to follow recipes that were both different and delicious. Their recipes always worked. You could implicitly trust them for that. I found this Sauerkraut, Apple and String Cheese Salad recipe some months ago when I was planning Zach’s early birthday dinner before he left for Poland with his Fulbright. My husband and I thought it sounded so unusual and weird, we had to try it. We were game.

So I called Zach and described the recipe to him. He loves sauerkraut.

He said, “Eeeewww.”

OK, I still found it intriguing and made a mental note to make it some day. Again, Julee and Sheila’s recipes have never let me down.

So let’s think about this. Sauerkraut is simply pickled cabbage. They ask you to rinse and drain it, so hey, we’re moving now closer to coleslaw, right, with the sauerkraut people doing all the cutting. I like that! You combine the sauerkraut with matchsticks of Granny Smith apple, red onion and chopped cornichons – all good.

Then, you make a homemade mayo using grainy mustard – sounding better – right? Use the mayo to bind it together with the string cheese and some caraway seeds (always good with sauerkraut) and voila! This salad was DELICIOUS!!! Really different and total yum. It was hard to stop eating it!

And it was easy to make! It really came together very quickly. I did change a few things, so here is my adapted recipe.

They say this is great with a charcuterie board. I served it for dinner with some grilled chorizo and simple polenta (with no cheese added). It was so good!

SAUERKRAUT, APPLE AND STRING CHEESE SALAD – serves 6 – adapted from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins

2 egg yolks
2 Tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs. grainy mustard
¾ cup olive oil
¾ cup vegetable oil
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 lb. sauerkraut, rinsed and drained (only use bagged sauerkraut, no cans)
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and coarsely grated or sliced thin on a mandoline and then cut into matchsticks
1 small red onion, finely chopped
8 oz. Armenian string cheese, pulled apart into very small strings and cut into 3” lengths
6 cornichons, coarsely chopped
1 scant Tbs. caraway seeds
Cornichons, sliced lengthwise for garnish

Process the egg yolks, lemon juice and mustard in a food processor for 30 seconds. With the machine running pour in the olive oil and then the vegetable oil in a thin steady stream through the feed tube to make a thick mayonnaise. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Combine the sauerkraut, apple, onion, chopped cornichons and caraway seeds in a large bowl. Toss the salad thoroughly with enough mayonnaise to bind. (You will have about 3/4 of a cup left over which you can use on sandwiches or put a dab on some steamed asparagus or green beans. It will keep for 4 – 5 days on the top shelf of your refrigerator and it is delicious!) Cover the salad and refrigerate until cold.

Meanwhile, prepare your string cheese and let it come to room temperature, covered with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

When ready to serve, fold in the string cheese thoroughly. Garnish with the sliced cornichons. Serve with love and enjoy!!

Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken with Tarragon and Dijon Mustard

September 14, 2015 by Mary 37 Comments

This has become my favorite way to roast chicken. Remove the backbone, smash the breast down, add a few strategic cuts, which helps it cook quickly, makes it perfect for a weeknight dinner! I love this new marinade I made up to make this recipe – Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken with Tarragon and Dijon Mustard.

This all came to life because of the US Open going on right now. Years ago, when my husband and I were dating, he took me to the Open, my first time. There, we had a drink with a napkin that had a chicken recipe printed on it for Dijon Roasted Chicken. It was sponsored by the Dijon mustard people and I remember the recipe called for making a simple sauce of whisking together melted butter, Dijon mustard and dried tarragon (we didn’t have fresh readily available in those days) and brushed it on chicken pieces to roast in the oven.

I made that recipe over and over again. It was easy and delicious. And it made me feel like I was really cooking something!

So with the Open happening now, I was called back to it and came up with this recipe – truly delicious! And you can marinate this chicken for 1 – 3 days. The buttermilk and other flavors will just sink in more and make the chicken only more creamy and luscious.

But first, it’s important to start with a great chicken! Buy it from a local farm if you can. It may cost a tiny bit more but it’s so worth it.

Up here in Columbia County, NY, I think Charlie and Kim of Second Chance Farm have THE BEST chickens around. Theirs have meaty breasts yet the dark meat is not tough and they have 3.5 lbs. in size, which is what I like.

Now in my younger days, if I didn’t have the exact right ingredients for a recipe, I’d freak – and go get them or send my husband to get them or not make the recipe.

Stupid. Really stupid.

So if you don’t have red peppercorns, don’t fret, just use black peppercorns. Improvise and most importantly, have fun and cook with a positive loving attitude.

Try this recipe, be sure to make it with love to nourish your tummy and your soul. The best part of making recipes to marinate, is that you do the work beforehand and then the night of your dinner, it’s easy-peasy. Nice!!

BUTTERMILK MARINATED ROAST CHICKEN WITH TARRAGON AND DIJON MUSTARD – serves 4

1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
1 Tbs. red peppercorns, crushed (If you don’t have red peppercorns, use black, no worries)
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
11/2 cups buttermilk (I use Kate’s)
2 Tbs. peanut oil
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
1 Tbs. coarse sea salt
1 3.5 lbs. chicken, backbone cut out and butterflied.
1 Tbs. peanut or grapeseed oil
¼ cup dry white wine for deglazing (optional)

Wash and dry your chicken. Using kitchen shears, cut along each side of the chicken backbone and remove it. Turn the chicken breast side up and press on the breastbone to flatten the chicken.

Using a sharp knife, cut partway through both sides of the joint between the thighs and the drumsticks. Cut partway through both sides of the joint between the wings and the breast.

Crush your peppercorns by placing them in a small Ziploc bag and smashing them with a heavy bottle.

Place the dried chicken in a large Ziploc bag and add the remaining ingredients including the smashed peppercorns. Massage everything together to combine and refrigerate for 1 – 3 days. When you open your refrigerator during that time, massage the chicken and flip the bag over.

On the day you’re ready to cook, remove the chicken from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before.

Preheat the oven to 450°.

Set the chicken in a large skillet skin side up; spoon a little marinade on top and then grab the garlic, peppers and tarragon out of the marinade and spread on top of the chicken. Drizzle 1 Tbs. peanut or grapeseed oil all over the top of the chicken.

Set the skillet over high heat and cook the chicken until it starts to brown, 5 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast the chicken for 30 minutes, until the skin is browned and the chicken is cooked through.

Transfer the chicken to a cutting board or platter. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, deglaze your pan with the white wine. Boil for a few minutes on high heat stirring constantly until reduced in half. Pour the juices over the chicken, cut it into 8 pieces and serve.

Birthdays, Estate Sales and Limoges

August 30, 2015 by Mary 23 Comments

We are in Baltimore for the weekend. Today is my mother-in-law’s 96^th birthday.

I know, wow!

So we are staying at my sister-in-law’s house and I got up early to take a 5-mile walk. The car rides to get here and back are long so I have to make up for all the sedentary time we’ll have on the way home later tonight. On my walk, I saw this sign.

Do you ever have signs that call to you? Like you MUST go to this estate sale???

Same with fruit and vegetables calling to you at the market – buy me, no me, buy me!!

No?

Well I do.

So this sign called to me. I announced to my husband at breakfast that I just had to go.

Like we need another plate or glass. I know, but sometimes… that calling is strong.

Reluctantly, my husband takes me there – this is his town after all and low and behold – LOOK what I found!!

Eight, count ‘em, eight beautiful sweet Limoges china bowls for… are you ready??

I asked the girl how much. Clearly they were taking apart some relative’s house who had recently passed. I didn’t want to ask because then I’d get all weepy.

I had the stack of bowls in my hands – all eight of them. She carefully counted them and looked up and asked, “Uh, would $15.00 be ok?”

Gulp.

Yeaahhh!

To be cool, for a tiny bit, I continued looking through the rest of the house while she put them in a holding place.

Then I quickly I ran to the car to get the cash, gave her my $20.00 bill and while they had to search for the $5.00 change, I prayed no one would come and question the sale or turn a bowl over.

The transaction was made and I sauntered on back to the car, arms laden with my stack of bowls.

Success at the estate sale!!

There were actually two other German plates I thought were interesting. Should I go back and get them too or quit while I was ahead?

We decided on the latter and headed back to Ellen’s house. I couldn’t wait to tell her of my find. Ellen was flabbergasted – she loved them – she called her cousin Donna immediately and sent her a picture.

And then Ellen wanted to go back for the German plates. I was ambivalent. What if an aunt showed up there and knew what Limoges were? Or one of their distant cousins who knew something about china? Clearly the folks that were there did not know some things.

Ellen was persistent that I go back with her.

I changed my shirt and shoes to prevent recognition.

We drove there – it was 1:30 pm and the sign did say only until 1 and sure enough, they were all closed up.

I came home to just my bowls but they were quite enough.

I love the size – rather smallish and just perfect. Won’t they look great with gazpacho or even a scoop of chocolate mousse with a smattering of raspberries on the side? Maybe they are berry bowls and not soup bowls. I have to do some research.

My mother-in-law would love this story. She loved, loved, loved fine china and beautiful things. Over the years, she has given us lots of gorgeous china pieces. I will tell this story to her tonight but I’m not sure she will comprehend and she surely won’t be able to see them either.

My daddy always said, “It’s tough to get old, Mare!”

Super Quick Chicken and Summer Vegetables Stir-fry

August 24, 2015 by Mary 18 Comments

Super quick chicken and summer vegetable stir-fry in a white bowl.

This was my husband’s portion.

Deep into summer, the vegetables are overflowing at all local farmer’s markets and if you belong to a CSA, you can be sure you’re getting cabbage nearly every week now, right? And so how many coleslaw recipes can you possibly make? And St. Patrick’s Day is a way off.

Luckily, most of the local cabbages are small heads. They’re actually cute right? I think everything small is super cute.

So we had some friends over for dinner a couple of weeks ago and along with wines and dessert, they brought me a beautiful basket of veggies from their CSA and bingo, cabbage was in it and wouldn’t you know it, I had made coleslaw to serve that night at dinner, so I was definitely not going to make another coleslaw.

During the week, we seem to be coming home later and later from the office. I am not complaining as we have lots of exciting things cooking BUT, I do get home starving and I am not a particularly nice person when hungry. My blood sugar levels must go bonkers and I have got to eat quick or I am very crabby. My one son is also like me whereas our youngest is like my husband in that he can contain himself when hungry.

This dinner, this Super Quick Chicken and Summer Vegetables Stir-fry, I literally threw together in 25 minutes!!

Really.

No joke.

One thing I will point out though, is that my husband did shell the peanuts for me. But you could buy peanuts already shelled, we just always have a bowl of peanuts in the shell on our counter – to keep me from going crazy when I’m starving.

I have given you the specific vegetables I used, but you can use any combination of what you have on hand. Have fun and experiment with your mixture. Just make sure it’s colorful!

Chicken thighs are called for here because I love dark meat and thighs are very forgiving if you should cook them a tad too much. Just be sure to remove all fat before slicing into strips. Breasts would work as well, you’ll just be more careful about the cooking time.

Adding the V-8 juice at the end was a last minute idea of mine as a genius way to just get more flavors going on – and it worked! Is it necessary? – No.

Follow your own instincts and just remember, always cook with LOVE and happy thoughts. Your food will taste better! And this was DELISH!

SUPER QUICK CHICKEN AND SUMMER VEGETABLES STIR-FRY – serves 3 – 4

3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
11/2 Tbs. sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ cup dry vermouth
2 handfuls of sugar snap peas, strings removed
¾ of a large red pepper, cut into ¼” strips
½ of a small head of cabbage, cut into ¼” strips
2 Tbs. low sodium soy sauce
11/2 Tbs. of V-8 juice
Hot sesame oil for drizzling
¼ cup roasted peanuts, skins removed, roughly chopped
2 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
Steamed Basmati white rice

Prepare your rice according to the package directions. I cooked ½ cup of dry rice in 1 cup of water with a little salt. Start this cooking first as it must simmer for 15 – 20 minutes and sit for 5 minutes afterwards.

Wash and dry the chicken thighs. Remove all fat and cut into ½” strips. Warm the sesame oil on medium heat. Add the chicken and let that brown and cook stirring often while you prepare the other vegetables. After about 10 minutes, add the garlic and wine and raise the heat to let the wine flavor your meat and reduce to 2 Tbs.

Then add all the vegetables and the soy sauce and stir until the veggies are crisp tender and the chicken is done.

Drizzle on the V-8 juice and toss all to combine. Taste and see if it needs any salt and pepper. Mine did not.

Remove from heat. Portion out the steamed rice into shallow bowls and place the chicken vegetable stir-fry on top. Drizzle on a tiny bit of hot sesame oil, garnish with peanuts and scallions and serve with LOVE and chopsticks.

Easy Cheesy Sautéed Squash

August 19, 2015 by Mary 19 Comments

This is a time-tested recipe. My mother was a good cook. My husband, bless his heart, says that I am a much better cook than she was, but for her time, she was great!! I know you’ll LOVE this Easy Cheesy Sautéed Squash recipe.

My Mom always made fresh vegetables when possible but when I was growing up in the sixties and seventies, all the rage was convenience, with the newfangled canned and boxed foods that came out in the marketplace. Think, Suddenly Stuffing (whoever named that??), all the canned vegetables, and Dream Whip and Cool Whip. Think, how many chemicals can you possibly put into anything! Of course those were the days when we biked behind the mosquito killing trucks – probably agent orange blowing out – because we thought the smoke was cool.

In the mid seventies before I left to go to NYC for college, we did have fresh eggplant, always fresh asparagus, green beans and my mom grew lettuces, tomatoes, strawberries and peppers. We still had canned peas – yuk! When I met my future husband in New York, he had never eaten fresh eggplant. I couldn’t believe it!

My Mom always made this recipe with fresh zucchini and yellow squash. Cheesy gooey, comforting, my husband still asks for this today, nearly 39 years later from when he first had it.

EASY CHEESY SAUTEED SQUASH – serves 4

1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 Tbs. olive oil
1.5 lbs. zucchini and yellow squash – I used 1 Patty Pan, 1 yellow and 1 zucchini, each cut into 1/4” thick pieces
2 small – medium yellow onions, cut in ¼” thick rings,
Salt
Pepper, fresh ground
2.5 oz. NY state sharp Cheddar cheese (or any sharp Cheddar), cut in very thin slices
1/3 cup fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Warm the oil in a large skillet and melt the butter on medium heat. Saute the onions for 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 6 – 8 minutes until onions are softened.
Uncover, raise heat to medium, and add squash. Toss and sauté for 4 minutes. Season squash with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Meanwhile, grate your Parmigiano while the squash is cooking.

Reduce heat to low again, cover and cook for 4 minutes more until squash is crisp tender.

Uncover and turn off heat. Make sure the squash and onions are in an even layer in your skillet. Cover the top evenly with the slices of Cheddar and then sprinkle the Parmigiano over all.

Wipe dry the inside of your lid to remove all moisture. Cover the pan and let sit for 5 more minutes until all the cheeses melt.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!

Now I have a beef to talk about.

Does your husband like to wear raggedy shirts and pants that are so frayed and ripped you wonder when you’re washing them, why you’re even washing them at all or wasting money by spraying Shout or Oxyiclean on them because they really should just be thrown out?

My husband has several of these numbers. One sweatshirt is surely 24 years old. I know because I remember we had just bought our (expensive) house in NJ and he went to the Short Hills mall and bought this fancy hooded sweatshirt and I was like, why did you do that now? We lived there for 16 years and we’ve been back in NYC for over 8 years so the math is right.

The cuffs are so frayed, they’re completely split apart! It is pitiful. I threw it away once and he took it out of the trash. (I was guilty of that with cut-off jean shorts when I was about 15!)

Does this happen with your husband? Or wife? Drives me nuts!!!

Best, unique salad. Best, unique friends.

August 11, 2015 by Mary 25 Comments

My best blogger friend, (BBF) Maureen, of Orgasmic Chef, down under in Australia, has had vertigo and it makes me so sad. She was free from it for a little bit of time but it came back. That sort of thing is maddening.

I suffered from migraines for years after our youngest, Zach, was born and it was horrible until we figured out a low blood pressure pill that prevented them. It is just terrible to be in such a state.

Maureen now has our mutual blogger friend Bobbi Ann, from BAM’s Kitchen, somewhere in Asia, helping her out with tips on massage and nutrition. We’ve all never met but this is the blogging world and ain’t it grand!?!

And then my other blogger friend, Suzanne, from A Pug in the Kitchen just lost her dear, dear dog, Nando. It is so hard. But, Suzanne does live in Brooklyn and WE are going to meet for lunch in late August. I am so excited!!

Meanwhile, this is the longest span that I have not posted and I apologize. Just so, so much to do – all good – just crazy!

And this is THE best, unique salad. Or at least I think so. I hope you will too!

I had reconnected with an old friend (in person!) from our congregation in Summit, NJ. So nice to do that! And about 8 weeks ago, we had planned to have her and her husband over for dinner at our apartment in the city, at a time when both of their children (younger than ours) would be away.

As I went through the grocery store several nights before, I spotted what looked good, all in the category of what I loved, trying to create an amazing new salad in my head.

Here’s what I came up with: baby arugula (always a good start), topped with grilled radishes (done on the stovetop in a grill pan), fresh mango (that looked amazing!), mint leaves (I had in the fridge from my garden) and a smattering of sliced scallions, all drizzled with a champagne vinaigrette.

What do you think?

I thought, unusual, clean tasting (no cheese) and I always love the combination of warm and cool on a salad.

This was really magnificent, if I say so myself!

The sweet mango, which was perfectly ripe by the way, (her husband Steve, offered to cut it as he grew up in Thailand with a mango tree in their backyard, so he was pretty expert at those slippery things with the weird shaped pit), combined with bitter heat of the grilled radishes (I adore grilled radishes – unusual, easy and delicious – my kinda thing!) along with the burst of mint every so often coupled with the mild onion taste from the scallions, bedded with the bite of arugula and drizzled lightly with a champagne vinaigrette – it was all so yummy.

My kinda heaven. I’d take two of these over dessert any day!

Our friends loved it so much that she wrote that they immediately tried grilling radishes 2 days later.

This is simple, but again, it’s all about the quality of your ingredients. Make sure they’re the very best you can find or don’t make it all.

BEST UNIQUE ARUGULA SALAD WITH MANGO, MINT AND GRILLED RADISHES – serves 4

4 oz. baby arugula
8 good sized radishes, scrubbed, trimmed and cut in half
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into ¼” long strips
40 mint leaves
1 scallion, cleaned and thinly sliced, white and light green parts only

Champagne Vinaigrette:

1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tbs. Champagne vinegar
scant 1/2 cup of olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Place all vinaigrette ingredients in a jar. Cover tightly and shake. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. More salt will cut the tanginess of the vinegar.

Even though your package of baby arugula may say it’s been triple washed, I recommend you wash it again, spin it in a lettuce spinner and then spread it out on your clean counter to air dry. You never know who’s handled it with hands that haven’t been washed and people have gotten sick. So please, always take the time to do this. You can even do this the night before and store the greens in a Ziploc bag with a sheet of paper toweling to absorb the extra moisture that will form.

Toss the radishes with the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Heat your grill pan to medium high and grill the radishes until crisp tender with some nice grill marks. You’ll want to cover the pan for maybe 3 – 5 minutes in the middle of cooking them as they will produce a lot of smoke and using a lid will also quicken the process.

Place ¼ of the arugula on a salad plate, top with the mango strips and grilled radishes as shown in the photo. Drizzle about a tablespoon of dressing over all, garnish with the mint leaves and scallions and serve with love. Wait for rave reviews. So simple, so unusual and so delicious!