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

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!!

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Almonds and Orange Blossom Sauce

January 25, 2017 by Mary 6 Comments

Two sorries here – we updated our site and this post got deleted so I am posting it again as many of you have written that you would like to make the recipe. And, there is no way I can post without you receiving it by email again. 🙁 Here’s the original post:

Sorry I have been out of touch. It has been quite a week and the following was written last Sunday night/early Monday morning.

It is 2:50 am and I am in the hospital emergency room with my husband. He fell getting out of a hot salt water and baking soda tub soak and cut his head badly enough to need stitches. 🙁 This happened around 11 pm.

I’m wondering why isn’t any of the support staff who work in this hospital at this time of night happy? They chose this job and I know it’s the middle of the night but this is their shift, right? I mean like, shouldn’t they be prepared for it? – unlike me at this moment.

Looks like we’ll be lucky to get out of here at 5:30 am. Emergency rooms are just no fun. No smiling faces and waiting, waiting, waiting.

However, the doctors have all been very nice.

Hospitals, architecturally and visually, seem to be so poorly designed and outfitted. To get a chair to be able to sit next to my husband’s bed was quite an ordeal. Why don’t they have chairs available? Yet they make room for chairs that are all connected as one complete unit in a large waiting room area, that sits completely empty. Well who would want to be out there if your loved one is in an emergency situation? You want to be right by his side. And who picks these wall colors or floor patterns? Or the lighting?

Really. I see a huge opportunity for architects and interior designers to make these places function much more efficiently, look and feel a whole lot more cheerful and therefore the people who work here and visit would have a much healthier, happier attitude. This emergency room reminds me of all of the TSA security checkpoints in airports. They all still look like makeshift operations, no accounting for process in the design, expecting old folks to balance on one leg to take a shoe off or put one on. I mean really, we’ve had these checkpoints now for 16 years!

And the gloves!! No longer latex because of too many allergies – they are now made of nitrile – whatever that is – but probably neither one is biodegradable so I fear the whole earth will be covered in this substance and nothing will be able to breathe!! Yikes! One doctor alone says he goes through more than 50 pairs a shift!

Thank you for allowing this little rant of mine. Writing this on my phone has helped to calm me down in this situation, while my husband gets stitched up. The plastic surgeon is doing a beautiful job!!

And fortunately we are fortified! We had a great dinner! We started with a Caesar salad, followed by a riff on an Ottolenghi leg of lamb recipe, (I added more garlic and replaced the thyme with rosemary) with roasted potatoes and blanched snow peas with a sherry vinaigrette. Cut-out Christmas cookies finished the meal while watching Blacklist. Seemed to be a lovely evening…

We never know our next steps, do we? That is why we should always eat well, be joyful and enjoy every moment in the moment!
Ottolenghi grilled leg of lamb recipe with red peppers and cilantro garnish.

GRILLED LEG OF LAMB WITH ALMONDS AND ORANGE BLOSSOM SAUCE – serves 6 – adapted from Ottolenghi

1/2 leg of lamb, deboned and trimmed (2.75 – 3 lbs.)
1.5 red peppers, seeds removed and cut into ¾” thick strips
2 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Marinade:
7 garlic cloves, crushed
Grated zest of 2 lemons
6 Tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs. rosemary leaves, chopped
6 Tbs. olive oil

Sauce:
7 Tbs. olive oil
6 oz. whole almonds
Grated zest of 1 lemon
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
½ tsp orange blossom water
2 Tbs. mint, finely chopped
2 Tbs. coriander leaves, finely chopped

The recipe says this looks fantastic when served on a large platter over a bed of fresh parsley – leaves and stalks. You can sear the meat, grill the peppers and make the sauce (without the herbs) – all in advance, then finish the meat and add the herbs to the sauce at the very last minute. I did not do this but sounds like a good idea!

Because a deboned leg of lamb is always different thicknesses, this way of sectioning the lamb into more uniform pieces is a really brilliant way to cook it!

Start with the marinade. In a large bowl combine the garlic, lemon zest and juice, the chopped rosemary leaves, olive oil, 1½ teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper and stir well. Cut the lamb into 4 or 5 even pieces in thickness and add to the marinade. Use your hands to massage the marinade into the meat. Put in the fridge and leave to marinate for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Take the lamb out of the fridge at least an hour before cooking.

Place a large ridged griddle pan on high heat. Drizzle the peppers with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and ¼ teaspoon of salt and place on the grill. Cook for about 7 minutes, turning once, until charred on all sides. Set aside to cool.

Put the lamb pieces on the hot grill and cook for 2 – 3 minutes on each side or until charred all over and starting to caramelize. Transfer onto a roasting tray and put in the hot oven for 4 minutes. The meat should reach a rare to medium stage by then (leave a few minutes longer if you like it well cooked). Check by pressing against the meat. The less the “give” the more it is cooked. If you aren’t sure, just make a small incision to check for the color or use a thermometer and it should be at 120 degrees for rare to medium rare. Once the lamb is cooked, remove it from the oven and leave it to rest for 5 – 10 minutes on a cutting board or platter.

Meanwhile make the sauce. Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a small pan and add the almonds. Cook for 3 – 4 minutes stirring continuously until the nuts are golden brown and evenly cooked. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little in a shallow bowl to stop the cooking. Place the nuts in a food processor and roughly crush. Mix in the lemon zest and juice, honey, orange blossom water, ½ teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of pepper and the remaining olive oil. Mix well and set aside.

When you are ready to serve, carve the lamb into 1/3″ thick slices and arrange it on a platter along with the peppers. Add the freshly chopped herbs to the sauce and spoon on top. Garnish with cilantro leaves. Serve any of the remaining sauce on the side.

Serve with LOVE. Total DELISH!!

Warm Farro Salad with RayZyn’s

December 31, 2016 by Mary 22 Comments

Imagine raisins that have more antioxidants than wine!! Not that I’m giving up my wine but we could always use more antioxidants to combat all the diseases out there. These Wine RayZyn’s are a crunchy superfood in three flavors – ChardonayZyn, MerlayZyn, and CabernayZyn are really simply dried wine grapes. If you got our MARY’s secret ingredients winter box, you received two of the three flavors.

They’re delicious and super crunchy. A little different than you’d expect, the crunch comes from the seeds and the seeds have more antioxidants than the rest of the dried grape, so crunch away!!

I made this warm farro salad with the RayZyns, (any flavor will work), some sautéed onions and radishes. I’m calling this a salad because of the radishes but believe me, this was delicious and comforting, even on a cold winter night. Finishing it with the sherry vinegar adds just the right amount of acid to tie the sweet, from the RayZyns, with the savory, from the onions and radishes, together, while the lovely farro adds its own soft chewy texture. The butter at the end is a good addition as well, to tie it all together.

And don’t worry about serving this warm salad to your kids, there’s no alcohol in these RayZyn’s and they’re non GMO, all natural, and vegan!

Make this to go with any protein. You’ll be delighted.

WARM FARRO SALAD WITH RAYZYN’S – serves 4

1 cup farro
1 tsp. coarse sea salt
3 cups water
2 Tbs. olive oil, divided
1 small onion or shallot, minced
1 anchovy fillet, drained and patted dry
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
3 radishes, chopped
1/2 cup RayZyns, any flavor, finely chopped
Fine grind sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 Tbs. sherry vinegar

Warm farro salad with RayZyn's ingredients on a wooden cutting board. Combine farro, water and 1 tsp. coarse sea salt in a small pot. Being to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Test after 15 minutes. The texture of the farro should be tender and chewy, a little al dente. And the farro should always be covered with water while cooking. This will take 15 – 30 minutes of cooking time.

Meanwhile, as the farro is cooking, in a small skillet, warm 1 Tbs. olive oil on low heat and add the minced onion or shallot and the anchovy. Cover and let cook on low heat for 10 minutes to soften and sweeten the onion, and melt the anchovy, stirring occasionally.

Uncover and add the chopped radishes and cook for just 3 minutes on medium high heat. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the 1 Tbs. of butter. Swirl it around to melt the butter off heat, but keep the skillet in a warm place.

Finely chopped RayZyn's with three radishes on a cutting board. Finely chop the RayZyn’s, any flavor will be delicious.

Drain the farro when done. Shake the colander and stir the grains to remove any extra water. Lay the farro out on one-half of a clean linen or cotton towel and cover with the other half of the towel to mop up any extra water from the farro.

In a warm bowl, combine the farro, the radishes and onion mixture, the finely chopped RayZyns, plus 1 Tbs. good olive oil and sprinkle the sherry vinegar over all. Toss to combine well and taste for salt and pepper. It may not need any salt.

Serve immediately, with LOVE!

Chinese 5 Spice Duck Legs with Lingonberries

December 24, 2016 by Mary 12 Comments

I was first introduced to lingonberries at the Red Rooster restaurant in my home neighborhood. President Obama frequented it often, making getting home those nights a bit of a nightmare – no train stops near there!

Marcus Samuelsson, the chef and owner of the Red Rooster, was raised in Sweden. At his restaurant, they serve lingonberries with Swedish meatballs and that dish is super delicious!

But the thing is, lingonberries are great with SO many things!! They add the right amount of tart with just the right amount of sweet – a perfect combination.

In Sweden, I learned that most Swedes pick their own lingonberries and make their own jams. And this brand, Felix, in our MARY’s secret ingredients winter box, is a Swedish favorite so you know it has to be good! But you know it has to be good because we chose it to be in our box, as we only allow the best and purest products to go in.

Often, on Saturdays and Sundays, I buckle down and make dinners to have easily during the busy work week. I like to make duck legs as they’re easy to do, quick to warm up during the week, a little different, and we LOVE them! So make this super simple recipe of Chinese 5 Spice Duck Legs with Lingonberries – it just takes a bit of time, but then you’ll be able to serve a restaurant worthy meal, during the week! How cool is that?

And the Felix Lingonberries look so festive – perfect for this time of year!

CHINESE 5 SPICE DUCK LEGS WITH FELIX LINGONBERRIES – serves 2

2 duck legs, washed, patted dry and trimmed of excess fat (save to render if you wish)
Sea salt, fine grind
1 tsp. Chinese 5 Spice, divided into ¼ tsps.
Felix Lingonberries to sauce on top

Season duck legs on each side with salt and ¼ tsp. of Chinese 5 spice. Rub it in on the meat evenly. Ideally, let the legs sit out on the counter for 1 hour.

Place legs skin side down in a cold non-stick skillet and turn heat to medium. When the legs start to sizzle, cover the pan and turn heat to low and cook undisturbed for about 60 – 65 minutes (check once to be sure legs aren’t burning); the skin should be golden/dark brown. Turn and cook until duck is very tender, another 20 – 25 minutes.

Serve the legs on a bed of jasmine rice sauced with the Lingonberries and LOVE. Total yumminess!

If you are serving these on another night, warm them in the microwave on high for 30 seconds to get the interior meat warm and then place in a skillet on low, warming on both sides and getting the skin crispy again, until hot all the way through.

Regarding the leftover fat from the legs, you can render it in a skillet on low, while your duck legs are cooking and drain and save the fat in a container in the fridge. It will keep for several months. Using a little bit of this fat in place of olive oil for roasting or sautéing anything adds a nice rich flavor. I even used some to make my pie crust this past Thanksgiving and it was delicious and much better for you than using Crisco. I used half butter and half duck fat.

Enjoy!!

And Happy Holidays to all!!!

Tuscan Bean Soup with Sfoglini Spaccatelli Pasta

December 17, 2016 by Mary 6 Comments

Tuscan Bean Soup with Sfoglini Spaccatelli Pasta is a recipe based on one from my Tuscan cookbook. I have been wanting to make this soup since the summer when I received the book from my friend Cristina while in Arezzo on that wonderful trip. This Tuscan Bean Soup with Sfoglini Spaccatelli Pasta is so comforting and this pasta is to die for.

Really.

It is made with Organic Durum Semolina flour and water. That’s it! And it is so delicious, really like homemade. My husband could eat this pasta every night so if the good folks at Sfoglini in Brooklyn, NY want to send me a case of this stuff, bring it on!

The pasta shape is Spaccatelli and is sometimes referred to as Strozzapreti or “priest collars.” It resembles a rolled-up scroll or towel, smooth and tight. Legend has it that the name refers to how annoyed Italian men became at seeing their wives labor over cooking extravagant meals for the local clergy. Ha! This two inch strand of tubular pasta is a great substitute for ziti or macaroni in any dish and is superb with a chunky meat sauce as the shape envelops the sauce into the curved folds.

Rather than a chunky sauce that you can make on your own, I opted to highlight this pasta in this luscious bean soup. Plan ahead as you have to soak the beans overnight before cooking, but this is well worth it. This soup is so Tuscan, so comforting, and so perfect on a cold winter night.

I suppose you could use drained and rinsed canned beans but cooking the real thing is so much better. And it’s not much effort. It’s just time. So give this a go!

TUSCAN BEAN SOUP WITH SFOGLINI SPACCATELLI PASTA – serves 8

8 oz. Sfoglini Spaccatelli Pasta
1 lb. dried cannellini beans
8 oz. of ripe or canned tomatoes, crushed
8 cups of vegetable stock
3 cloves of garlic and 1 clove of chopped garlic
1 onion, chopped
3 sage leaves
Chili pepper flakes
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Rinse and cover the beans with 3 inches of cold water and soak overnight. The next day, rinse, drain and cover with 1½ inches of fresh cold water. Add 3 wholes cloves of garlic and sage leaves and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook for 1.5 – 2 hours, partially covered, until very tender, making sure the beans are always covered with water. Add salt to taste when done.

Puree the beans in a blender with some of the water until you achieve a smooth puree.

In another saucepan, sauté the finely chopped onion and garlic in a little oil. Add the tomatoes and chili pepper flakes and cook for 10 minutes.

Add the bean puree and hot broth. Add salt to taste and bring to a simmer.

Fill a separate large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add coarse sea salt and the Sfoglini Spaccatelli Pasta and cook for 4 minutes. Drain and add to the soup, stirring for 1 minute to combine and to let the pasta finish cooking. Taste the pasta to be sure it is done. It should be al dente.

Ladle the soup in bowls, drizzle with olive oil and top with fresh ground pepper and serve with LOVE.

Enjoy!!!

There are a few boxes left with this special pasta and you can buy a winter subscription box here and receive all of the great products. Remember better pantries make better meals!

Additionally your purchase helps in our partnership with Feed The Children. No one should go hungry.

The Joys of Entertaining and of Being Entertained

December 4, 2016 by Mary 11 Comments

So many people wrote to me that they were making my pecan pie recipe or my cranberry sauce or dressing for Thanksgiving! It’s so nice they let me know and it gives me such great joy to know that people are making my food all over the country and loving it! Actually, all over the world as our son, Zach and his fiancée, Agata, were in touch with me often from Warsaw, (thank goodness for Facetime!), as they made my whole Thanksgiving dinner from my book and entertained 11 people for dinner with only one guest being an American.

Zach, Agata and I chatted at length last Saturday, on my birthday, and they told me how much joy it gave them to see all their friends truly relishing every bite. Everyone just loved every part of their dinner, with even one of their guests getting up and sneaking the crumbs left in the pecan pie plate! How very happy it made them to see all of that!

That, to me, is the joy of entertaining and feeding people. That is what gives me so much pleasure.

Here are pictures of their table in Poland and their turkey.

Zach and Agata also said they didn’t know how I cooked Thanksgiving dinner every year, that it was SO much work. They remarked that the two of them were working together and that I did it pretty much by myself. Isn’t that so sweet? I do get help from my husband and honestly, I haven’t made it the last two years.

I wanted to share with you my big birthday celebration. Our oldest son, his wife, and my husband made a beautiful dinner and our friends, Anne and Frank, joined us. But before dinner, they sat me down on the sofa in front of the fire and played a video that they had made of my friends and family from all over the world, singing or wishing me a happy birthday!!! It was incredible and literally brought me to tears. Such an amazing, fun and super sweet gift!

For the dinner, they made homemade pici pasta with a parsley, sage, Parmagiano pesto, a beautiful half-leg of lamb on the grill with Julia Child’s mustard, garlic, soy marinade, and a delicious chocolate cake. That recipe was from Home Cooking with Jean-Georges cookbook, which I will share with you later.

Woman carving a medium rare half-leg of lamb.

Here I am, carving the lamb.

Awedge of chocolate cake with strawberries, a dallop of whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.

A beautiful birthday cake!

I know I am so lucky!!

As you get ready for the holidays, you may want to check out and download my holiday cookbook of small plates, savory and sweet. It’s free and yours for the taking.