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

Joseph Joseph SmartBar with Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

April 23, 2017 by Mary 18 Comments

You know, I cook so much and wash my hands all the time but there are still some smells that never seem to leave my hands. Do you know what I’m talking about?

I am a garlic lover so I don’t mind that smell much, but other people? Well that’s a different story. Then there’s the smell from a dishrag that SOME people consistently leave in a pile in the sink, NOT squeezing it out, like, ahem, my husband, ALL the time. It’s that gross, germy foul smell from not having rinsed, squeezed and hung up the dishrag!!! How many times do I have to ask why, and always his response is, “But I’m not finished yet! I was going to do it.”

Blahhh!!!

But now that we have the Joseph Joseph SmartBar, I can remove that foul smelling unsqueezed dishrag smell with one hand wash, easily! You see you fill this nifty stainless steel container/bar with liquid hand soap and depress a little silicone button on the bottom to release some soap while washing your hands with the stainless steel bar. The stainless steel helps remove strong odors from your hands by attracting the sulphur molecules deposited by germy rags or garlic or onions.

Genius, right?

But let’s talk about this genius Joseph Joseph SmartBar by giving you an amazing recipe, instead of talking about stinky dishrags. So here is my version of the famous James Beard recipe from long ago, of Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic.

And use the Joseph Joseph SmartBar while making the Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic recipe to rid your hands of the garlic smell!

CHICKEN WITH 40 CLOVES OF GARLIC using the Joseph Joseph SmartBar to wash all the odors away! – serves 4

4 ribs of celery, coarsely chopped
2 medium-size onions, coarsely chopped
6 sprigs of parsley
2 Tbs. coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1 whole 3.5 lb. chicken, trimmed of fat, washed and dried with paper toweling
2 Tbs. olive oil
½ cup dry vermouth
1½ tsp. Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
40 cloves garlic, unpeeled – about 2 heads
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
Additional parsley, roughly chopped for garnish
French bread for serving

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cover the bottom of a heavy 6-quart Dutch oven (I used my Le Creuset) with the celery and onions and distribute the parsley, rosemary and mustard in dollops, on top. Pour the vermouth over everything. Brush the chicken (or use your fingers) distributing the oil all over, coating all sides evenly and place in the casserole on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a few gratings of nutmeg. Tuck the garlic cloves in all around.

Cover the top of the casserole with the lid or tightly cover with aluminum foil to create an airtight seal. Bake for 45 – 50 minutes without removing the cover. Check for doneness – should be 155 – 160 degrees. When done, set the oven on broil and return the casserole to the oven for 3 – 4 minutes to brown the skin, watching it carefully and turning the pot to get an even browning. When nicely browned, let the chicken sit in the hot pot on your cool stovetop for 10 minutes.

While the chicken is on the stovetop, switch the oven down to 350 degrees, wait 5 minutes, and then place your bread in the oven to warm for about 10 minutes.

After the chicken has sat in the pot for 10 minutes, place it on a platter and let sit for 5 more minutes while you warm up the vegetables and the sauce, covered, for 5 minutes. Move the pot off heat and swirl in 1 Tbs. unsalted butter into the sauce. Pour the sauce and vegetables over the whole chicken on a platter and garnish with the roughly chopped parsley.

Serve the chicken along with the vegetables and juices with slices of the heated crispy baguette or French bread. Squeeze the garlic from the root end of the clove and spread on the bread, while dipping in the sauce.

So yummy and satisfying, it’s a perfect, easy Sunday night dinner. Make and serve with LOVE. Enjoy!!

And wash your hands with the Joseph Joseph SmartBar, from our spring MARY’s secret ingredients box! We are all sold out so order your summer box now if you don’t want to miss out on our next batch of cool new products. The summer box starts shipping on June 25th.

Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard with Leeks on Roasted Sea Bass

April 14, 2017 by Mary 4 Comments

So first I must tell you – this Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard is something else! The taste is pure wow – sweet, spicy, strong! It is the epitome of what honey jalapeño mustard should be. Imagine those three tastes coming at your taste buds, on the attack! Pure yum! I couldn’t wait to use this in one of my recipes.

Wilder’s mustards began as a backyard project, concocted between BBQ and beer brewing sessions by chef and owner Isabel Freed. Based along the sunny, surf swept coastline of Santa Cruz, CA, her hometown is her inspiration. Good food and good company are at the helm of everything she makes.

This honey jalapeño mustard is the perfect blend of sweetness and spice made with sustainably grown California jalapeños and honey. Isabel says, “It’s best enjoyed brushed over grilled chicken, with a crisp sauv blanc in a picnic basket.”

I beg to differ as I have found so very many great ways to use it, whether it’s straight out of the jar and tossed with some lightly sautéed vegetables or roasted mellow with some fish as I’ve done here.

Wilder Condiments HoneyJalapeño Mustard tossed with sauteed baby bok choy and garlic.

Sauteed baby bok choy with olive oil and garlic and tossed with 2 Tbs. Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeno Mustard.

Don’t think of it as just mustard. It’s a wonderful condiment/dressing/topping to use in so many ways. And yes, you can also use it in a salad dressing for an added sweet and spicy tang.

Isabel says that good food and good company are at the helm of everything they make. This is exactly our philosophy of everything we deem worthy to put into our MARY’s secret ingredients

boxes. So with this spring box, we are getting you ready for all of your summer backyard BBQ’s!

But meanwhile, try it on this delicious roasted fish. I used a sea bass fillet, but you can use really any fillet. I’d bet it’d be just great on swordfish, but my local fish store uptown doesn’t always have that. For a super fresh, company-worthy meal, make this tonight, on this special Good Friday!

WILDER CONDIMENTS HONEY JALAPENO MUSTARD WITH LEEKS ON ROASTED SEA BASS – serves 4

2 Tbs. olive oil, divided
1 large leek, white and light green parts only, cleaned, split in half lengthwise and sliced
1.5 lbs. sea bass fillet
2 Tbs. Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard
Salt – preferably finely ground French grey
Pepper, fresh ground

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Slick one Tbs. olive oil on top, in the shape of the fish. Spread the sliced leeks down on top of the olive oil in the shape of the fish.

Wash and pat dry the fish. Spread the 2 Tbs. Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard on the backside of the fillet and place mustard side down on top of the sliced leeks.

Smear the top side of the fish with the 1 remaining Tbs. of olive oil. Spread it around with your fingers and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Roast for about 20 minutes or plan on 10 minutes per one inch of thickness of the thickest part of the fish and leeks, until the fish is completely done, white throughout and a tiny bit flakey. Sea bass is a dense fish so check it with a knife and fork.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!!

Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles

April 10, 2017 by Mary 13 Comments

Don’t you wish you had a go-to recipe for a cool meal you could make ahead and serve either hot or cold to your guests? Well, let me tell you about my Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles recipe with the wonderful Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Dressing & Marinade. This dressing & marinade is so rich and flavorful, it is so much more than a salad dressing! I was able to make this amazing main course dish in practically no time, because “dresser”/owner/creator Vanessa Miller has done all the work for you. Full of garlic, sesame and red chili spice, this is a dream to work with and makes a delicious spicy vegan meal!

Vanessa was a NYC school teacher who loved to entertain large groups of friends and family in her Manhattan apartment, much like her Tunisian mother did when she was growing up here. At those gatherings, Vanessa would fill a buffet table with tons of food and many different salad dressings. Her friends raved and encouraged her to go public with them. So she quit her teaching job, pooled all her resources and started Get Dressed Salads!! Now, she has five flavors and is working on expanding her distribution.

Her husband, a commercial real estate broker, happened to bring one of his clients to our space, as we were moving out of our offices and noticed our boxes – and that’s how we met! He’s a sweetheart, always on the lookout for placement of his wife’s products.

This recipe of Get Dressed Sesame Sensation Roasted Eggplant Noodles is just perfect for a complete meatless meal. Buy smaller eggplants that are super fresh and firm and chop into the 1/2” cubes and roast for only the 15 minutes as you don’t want them to be mushy. I only added the red pepper to roast for 5 minutes because I wanted that to be a bit crisp. You could also add matchsticks of seedless cucumbers as a topping if you’d like, along with the chopped peanuts, scallions and cilantro.

I served this warm when I first made it, but eating the leftovers cold is just as yummy, maybe even better, so you could make this a day ahead and relax the day you’re serving.

Make this soon, with LOVE! It’s so easy!

GET DRESSED SESAME SENSATION ROASTED EGGPLANT NOODLES – serves 6

1 lb. eggplant – 2 small ones are better than 1 large, chopped into 1/2” cubes
1 red pepper, cut into ½” squares
1 cup of Get Dressed Sesame Sensation, divided
1 Tbs. low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
3 scallions, thinly sliced
½ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
¼ cup roughly chopped cilantro
1 lime, cut into wedges
1 lb. spaghettini
Coarse sea salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta.

Cut the eggplant into ½” cubes and toss with ½ cup of Get Dressed Sesame Sensation salad dressing in a bowl. Let marinate at room temperature for 20 – 30 minutes while you prepare the red pepper squares, shell and chop the peanuts, wash and chop the cilantro and slice the scallions.

Turn the marinated eggplant out onto a parchment covered rimmed baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10 minutes. At the 10-minute mark, add the red pepper squares to the eggplant, tossing to mix and coat with the dressing and then roast both for 5 more minutes. The eggplant should be crisp tender and the red pepper should be slightly crisp.

While the vegetables are still roasting, salt the boiling pasta water, generously with coarse sea salt to taste like the ocean. Cook the pasta. Start testing at 2 minutes less than the least amount of time stated on the package.

Meanwhile, pour the remaining ½ cup of dressing in a wide pasta bowl. Add in the soy sauce and two vinegars and whisk together.

Drain the cooked al dente pasta and add to the sauce in the bowl along with the roasted eggplant and red pepper, scraping all the juices off of the parchment, tossing with tongs to coat thoroughly.

Serve in wide soup bowls, topped with the chopped scallions, peanuts and cilantro, with a squeeze of fresh lime over all. The lime is so great! Just the right spark of acid.

Enjoy!!

Going Through Everything – and Quick Pasta with a Sweet Sausage Bolognese

March 16, 2017 by Mary 4 Comments

This office move of going through everything after being in business for 38 years has been massive, to say the least. What a tumult of emotions I have been through! I found files where I had saved many keepsakes and thank you notes. I had no idea I had entertained so many people for lunch over the years, especially when we had our previous office for ten years, where we had a large terrace with a Hudson River view.

It was amazing to me that so many people wrote about it! Gathering around a table with food is what people remember. And the wine parties. And the birthday cakes. But after about 7 or 8 years there, the buildings started growing up all around, leaving us just a sliver of a river to see and creating a wind tunnel down 38^th Street to make it not so nice anymore.

Things change so. They can’t stay the same. And I feel a little like an outsider looking in now when I leave my home office for a meeting. Like I’m not part of the in-crowd work force anymore. Like I’m sneaking around.

My husband wanted to operate like this – virtually from the cloud – five years ago, but I resisted. Now, I pretty much like it. I’ll certainly save on make-up and even soap if I’m not careful because it is easy to roll from bed to desk and back again. But no, we must have some rules and we do have our weekly two meetings with our team members here.

Going through everything has sort made me feel like I’ve died already. You see, I saved all those things, thinking I would go through them right before I died. So I did it now. My friend Margaret said she still wouldn’t have thrown them away but I wanted to save that task from my boys. Lord knows I did it enough with my parents and then with Steve’s. I’m still washing his mother’s tablecloths and napkins from when she passed last May.

So needless to say, our meals have had to be super quick and easy for the weary hungry souls we’ve been. Once again, I have relied on some all natural, very flavorful sweet Italian sausage to give us the boost of flavor you can easily count on, as I did with the one-sheet-pan meal of sausage, potatoes and arugula.

I used a lot of red wine in this sauce, because I had an open bottle on the counter just begging to be put to use and I am in a “get rid of things” kind of mode. And adding the little bit of cream at the end smoothed out the ragged edges of the sauce, along with our emotions.

Make and serve with LOVE!

QUICK PASTA WITH SWEET SAUSAGE BOLOGNESE –serves 5 – 6

2 Tbs. coconut oil (better brain food!)
2 shallots, minced
1 lb. all natural sweet Italian sausages, meat removed from casings
1 28 oz. can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
¾ cup dry red wine
1 ½ tsp. dried Greek oregano
¼ tsp. red chili flakes
Salt to taste – French Grey or Kosher
Pepper – fresh ground to taste
2 Tbs. heavy cream
1 lb. good quality dried pasta (I used Sfoglini from our box!)
Coarse sea salt

Put a large pot of cold water on to boil for your pasta.

Warm the coconut oil over low heat. Add minced shallots and cover to let them sweat and sweeten for 10 minutes.

Uncover and raise heat to medium and add the sausage meat, breaking it up into small pieces, tossing it to brown all over. Once browned, add the tomatoes and their juice to the sausage and shallots, crushing the tomatoes with your hands as you’re adding them. Turn heat to medium-high to bring the sauce to brisk simmer/low boil. Add the wine, oregano, chili flakes and salt and pepper to taste. Stir sauce every so often and keep the brisk simmer/low boil going, along with the stirring. The sauce needs to thicken quite a bit.

When the pasta water comes to a boil, add enough coarse sea salt to make it taste like the ocean. Add your pasta and check at 2 minutes less than the least amount of time they tell you on the package. When pasta is al dente, save some pasta water and drain the pasta.

Your sauce should be thickened by now. Remove from heat and stir in 2 Tbs. of heavy cream. Combine the sauce with the pasta in a warm wide bowl. Add 1 Tbs. pasta water, to help the sauce cling better to the noodles. Toss and serve!

You could add grated cheese but I think it’s not necessary. This dish, with the wine and cream, is nice and rich just by itself. Enjoy!!!

If there are only two of you eating, cook only 8 oz. of pasta and use only half of the sauce. You could then freeze the sauce for another meal later in the month or refrigerate for up to 5 days and cook your pasta fresh again. Always better to have fresh pasta than to rewarm it.

Super Quick Sausage, Potato & Arugula Recipe

February 21, 2017 by Mary 20 Comments

We are on total overload moving our offices to be virtual. That translates into getting rid of 38 years worth of sample work, documents, furniture, books and everything, by the end of February. So time is of the essence to me these days and this Super Quick Sausage, Potato & Arugula Recipe has been a real lifesaver for us. It’s speedy to make, beautiful to serve and delicious!

Why this is great! It’s always great to use sausage in a dish as a real time saver because if you can buy really good homemade, all natural Italian sausage, it is already full of herbs, spices and flavor. You could even mix hot and sweet sausage, but in this recipe, I do prefer all sweet. The three different kinds of potatoes add interest in flavor and texture and of course I always love arugula. But try to get the real thing here – the bunches of big leaf arugula – as opposed to the clamshell packages of baby arugula that, to me, really don’t have any flavor any more. I want the real thing, with the spicy bite!

I first made this in January, on the day we had to take Zach to the airport for his flight back to Warsaw. Of course, in my usual bad style, I arrived home late and had planned to make this dish. But it came together so quickly, it didn’t matter that I was late. We still ate in plenty of time and got him to the airport early.

The original recipe was in Food and Wine magazine, but I have changed it, adding a bit more meat and less potatoes. I have also made it exactly like the magazine recipe but I prefer it my way.

SUPER QUICK SAUSAGE, POTATO & ARUGULA RECIPE – serves 4

1 large red potato, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch wedges
1 large baking potato, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
10 medium unpeeled shallots, halved
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
French Grey or Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 3/4 pounds sweet Italian sausage, cut into 3-inch lengths
One 8-ounce bunch of arugula, stemmed and chopped
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 425°. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss all of the potatoes with the shallots and the 1/3 cup of olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are lightly browned.

Brush the sausage with olive oil and add to the baking sheet. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes longer, until the potatoes are tender and the sausage is cooked through.

Line a large platter with the arugula. Transfer everything on the baking sheet on top of the arugula. Sprinkle lemon juice over all evenly. Serve with LOVE.

Roasted Salmon with Dijon Mustard and Beet Horseradish

February 3, 2017 by Mary 8 Comments

The headline on the latest Food and Wine magazine reads Eat Smarter, Live Longer, only I made a typo at first and wrote, Eat Smarter, Love Longer. That works too! In that vein, I invite you to try this latest recipe of mine, Roasted Salmon with Dijon Mustard and Beet Horseradish, that uses the superfood, Holy Schmitt’s Beet Horseradish, from our friends at the Schmitt’s family farm on Long Island.

Pairing their beet horseradish with salmon was an unlikely combination but I thought the colors would be spectacular and I was not wrong! This would be a perfect, easy and tasty dish to serve on Valentine’s Day!

My family has a beloved recipe of beets with horseradish. We call it Chrzan which I’ve since learned from my smart-alecky son who now speaks fluent Polish, chrzan is really only the horseradish. If you want to mention the beets, you say Ćwikła z Chrzanem. (And the phonetic spelling for chrzan is [h-shan] and Ćwikła z Chrzanem is [ch-vee-qua -z- [h-shan]-em.)

I know! Polish is hard and there is no V in the alphabet!

So horseradish is a true ancient superfood plus a super easy way to add huge flavor. The word horseradish goes back to the 1590’s in English. It combines the word horse (formerly used in a figurative sense to mean strong or coarse) and the word radish. Horseradish contains significant amounts of cancer-fighting compounds called glucosinolates which boost the liver function and suppress the growth of tumors. It’s a phenomenal source of iron and magnesium for energy production, calcium for healthy teeth and bones, and has a whole bunch of anti-stress B vitamins.

When you roast with horseradish, it almost becomes sweet. It definitely does not stay super hot. It’s a super easy way to add some deliciousness to your fish!

Matt Schmitt is the 4th generation farmer in Riverhead, Long Island. He converted one-half of a garage to be a commercial kitchen, grows 15 acres of the horseradish root and uses his German grandfather’s recipe to make the jarred variety. And right out of the jar, it is Holy Schmitt’s HOT!!

But I’m really delighted with this recipe. Super simple, nourishing, healthy and so tasty and different!

ROASTED SALMON WITH DIJON MUSTARD AND BEET HORSERADISH – serves 3 – 4

1.5 lbs. center cut salmon fillet
Olive oil
Salt – preferably French Grey
Pepper, fresh ground
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
2 Tbs. Holy Schmitt’s beet horseradish, drained

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place a rack in the top position.

Wash and pat dry fish with paper toweling. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and put a thin film of oil down the size of your fish. Season the top side of the salmon with salt and pepper. Spread the Dijon mustard evenly on top. Then distribute the beet horseradish over the mustard coated fish.

Roast for 13 – 15 minutes for medium – medium rare cooked fish. Remove to a platter and cut into 3 – 4 serving pieces. Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!