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The birthday linner

January 17, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

The birthday cook-a-thon celebration for my husband was a huge success and just so much fun. We started cooking at noon and ate from 2:45 to 6:45 just in time to put Zach on a 7:10 train back to New Haven. So what do you call a leisurely meal like this that encompasses lunch and dinner? Linner!

While every dish was great, what was even more terrific was the time spent together, planning, chopping, sharing pots, debating, arguing, laughing and agreeing. My oldest son was upset at first with the look of the short ribs. He said they weren’t going to look pretty enough. Being a designer, that made me feel good – at least he learned something from me! We played games in between while watching football. And since one person did not have responsibility for the whole meal, there was time off for everyone. It was really a wonderful day of just being together.

Now for the food! Here’s the photo essay.

— Making a zucchini, red pepper and fennel torta

Onions sauteing for the short ribs

The short ribs, browned

Mozzeralla, tomato, baby arugula and olive oil salads on a burgandy rimmed plate from Pottery Barn.

The salads – mozzarella, tomato, baby arugula and olive oil

Linguine with olive oil, garlic and spinach topped with broiled breadcrumbs

The beautiful zucchini, red pepper, fennel and mint torta

The torta with red bell pepper, zucchini, fennel and mint.

The torta serving – so pretty!

Delicious short ribs with creamy polenta squares on an antique Wedgewood plate.

The main course – delicious short ribs with creamy polenta squares

The birthday dessert – beautiful warm, chocolate-filled pastries made by Agata, so yummy!

Birthdays and fennel compote

January 12, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

There is much excitement in our family today – emails, texts, phone calls, everything! Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday and our boys want to make him a huge Sunday lunch. The menu will be a surprise to him. At first we were going to celebrate tonight as Zach has to go back to Yale Sunday evening, but no, they wanted to keep it to the day and do a multi-course nice long lunch and each person is in charge of one course. Our oldest is organizing this. He is taking over the main course – short ribs with polenta garnished with fennel fronds. I have been assigned the pasta course, Zach is doing the salad and Agata is handling dessert. So we’re talking back and forth, determining the menu, recipes and food buying. I point out and ask, “Why are we having a pasta course if we’re having polenta with the main?” Our oldest says, “I want the pasta course too. I want this to be over the top. You know, this will be a long, paced out affair.” This is just like they do in Italy on a special Sunday. He did live there for six months.

So I have decided to make a Union Square Café recipe that is one of my all time faves. It is a little tricky and detailed at the end so it’s the perfect dish to make if I’m only responsible for it and not the whole rest of the meal too. It is Linguine with Spinach, Garlic and Olive Oil. This dish produces a whole lotta mmmmm’s and there are broiled bread crumbs on top – just a touch, not too much. I love crunchy bread crumbs on top of pasta.

So hopefully I’ll remember to take lots of pictures tomorrow to share with you what I know will be a fabulous meal. But meanwhile, I’d like to share with you our dinner last night. I made a Mark Bittman fennel tomato compote to put on some oven roasted cod and it was fantastic! I can see putting this on lots of things – steamed eggplant, pasta, chicken, swordfish, I could keep going.

A white Wedgewood dinner plate with oven roasted cod topped with a fennel tomato and olive compote, steamed coarse bulgar and a kale salad.

Our dinner – oven roasted cod topped with the fennel compote, steamed coarse bulgar and kale salad

Once again I changed the recipe so I’ll give you mine, and I forgot to add the parsley at the end, which would have been prettier, so that doesn’t show up in the pictures.

FENNEL COMPOTE WITH TOMATOES AND OLIVES – adapted from Mark Bittman
– serves 4

1/4 cup of olive oil
1 bulb fennel (or 2 smaller ones), trimmed and chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tbs. choppped thyme leaves
1 tbs. minced garlic
6 plum tomatoes, chopped (canned are fine, but drain excess liquid)
Heaping 1/2 cup big, plump olives, green or black or a combination, preferably unpitted
1/4 cup capers, optional
1/2 cup chopped parsley leaves, for garnish

Put the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the fennel and some salt and pepper, and without browning (adjust the heat as necessary), cook it down, stirring occasionally, until it’s quite soft, about 20 minutes. Add the thyme and garlic, and cook 1 minute, stirring.

Add the tomatoes, olives and capers, raise the heat a bit, and cook until the mixture is saucy, about 15 minutes. Serve as a side dish or to top a portion of cooked fish. Garnish with parsley.

Fresh fennel sauteing in olive oil in a Calphalon skillet

Sauteing the fennel

Fennel, tomato and olive compote in a pan.

The compote complete

Happy New Year to you!

January 7, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

These days after New Year’s Day last week have been so hectic. Good hectic – so maybe it’s foretelling of a great business year ahead!

We had a wonderful small dinner party on New Year’s Eve. Just six of us, with a couple of kids around through the soup course. My brother, Steve, and his wife, Trish, joined us along with our good friends, Margaret and Wayne. Steve brought along some Petrossian caviar (divine) and served it up on homemade blinis with a touch of crème fraiche – heaven! Our dinner started with a family favorite from the Zuni Café cookbook – asparagus & rice soup with pancetta and black pepper, paired with an excellent champagne – Georges Laval. I then served pan–roasted loin lamb chops with garlic and ginger together with a carrot, parsnip and tarragon puree with oven-roasted tiny Yukon gold potatoes. We finished with holiday cookies and tea and missed the ball dropping.

Then on New Year’s Day, after everyone woke up late, we had a traditional Polish breakfast with fresh Polish sausage, chrzan, scrambled eggs, homemade bread and fruit salad. The kids played St. Petersburg all afternoon and then we moved into our first dinner of the new year.

We started with artichokes simmered in a bath of water, lemon, crushed garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper and crushed juniper berries, with a mayo-Dijon dipping sauce. Our oldest then wanted to make a pasta course. He made this Mark Bittman recipe that was so easy and SO GOOD!! Watch the video here.
The pasta was delicate and toothy at the same time, so very satisfying and delicious! And really, it was easy. Making these large sheets – handkerchiefs as Mark calls them – adds further ease. The sauce was a simple fresh plum tomato sauce with a little olive oil, garlic and two anchovies, which adds big, big flavor. Topped with some grated Parmesan, this was one fine dish. I really encourage you to make this – it will not disappoint!

Our main course was a Melissa Clark recipe of pan–seared center cut pork chops that had been marinating in olive oil, mashed anchovies and minced garlic, along with some beautiful sautéed escarole, substituting her Swiss chard.

The anchovies were so good in that dinner, I continued with them through the week and shoved some under the skin of a chicken I roasted, along with some rosemary and roasted garlic. My husband and I loved it. Our youngest, not so much. I used six fillets on that chicken, maybe four would have been better to get the big flavor but not the recognizable fishy anchovy taste. I grew up on anchovies. My father loved them and used to serve them to us on saltines!! Talk about salt! And we loved them, so you know how big of a fan I am. (Of course in those days, the variety of crackers available today, just didn’t exist then.)

I hope that your New Year’s celebrations were wonderful and fun. Please write and let me know what you did.

Wishing you an awesome and inspiring New Year that is love-filled and delicious!

Christmas dinner 2012

December 29, 2012 by Mary Frances 15 Comments

I wish I could have shared this with you before Christmas, just like they do in the magazines. I hope now this may guide you and be helpful for New Year’s Eve or a New Year’s Day dinner party.

A big holiday like this requires a big presentation. Last year, I made a whole beef tenderloin. This year I did a crown roast of pork. Too big really for our party of eight, but I do have some big eaters, and one of my sons and one guest had four chops each! And then the leftovers were divine. I think I’ve already mentioned that I really enjoy and truly taste the nuances of a huge meal like this the next day, as leftovers. The busyness of working to get it all right, the timing and making sure each guest is happy, preoccupies me during the main meal. However, even I could tell, this was darn good!! Impressive and beautiful to boot!

But truly, the best part about a big celebration like this is that my whole family pitches in and we work together to pull it off. They helped to set up the bar area, chop herbs and clean vegetables and yes, even helped with the clean up in a major way. Our last guests left a little after midnight. Then all four of us worked to clean up and then we stayed up talking until 3 am! For my husband and me, spending time like this with our boys is the most precious of all.

One of our guests at our Passover celebration evened remarked about how well we all worked together as a family, to get the dinner on the table and make our guests feel comfortable. I feel proud that our boys have learned to entertain and that they enjoy sharing their love of good food. Serving and sharing love and food makes everyone happy – what could be better?

Here’s my whole menu:

– Straight up martinis with great olives for many of us at cocktail hour
– Homemade cheddar cheese straws – finally I found a stellar recipe for these from The New York Times – make ahead and they will keep for a while – recipe to come
– Texas smoked salmon tartare on blue corn chips
– Warm artichoke dip with red pepper, celery, fennel strips and crostini crackers
– Bowls of mixed olives, toasted corn nuts and lightly salted cashews

THE DINNER:
– Roasted butternut squash soup with bourbon, served with homemade Polish bread
– Crown roast of pork with fennel, sage, garlic and lemon
– Italian beans – the best – recipe to come!
– Sautéed apples in a little butter with cinnamon, nutmeg and a touch of lemon
– Roasted asparagus with olive oil and lemon zest

– Homemade Christmas cookies – all recipes are here on the blog plus special bakery cookies
– Fantastic coffee from our older son

I’m noticing here that it might seem as though I had a lot of lemon going on, but the meal did not taste that way at all. Everything worked together beautifully and was delicious!!
CROWN ROAST OF PORK WITH FENNEL, LEMON AND GARLIC – adapted from Melissa Clark and The New York Times
– serves 12 – 16

2 heaping tsp. fennel seeds
Rosemary leaves from 4 – 5 bushy sprigs
7 – 8 large cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup fresh sage leaves and tender sprigs
Lemon peel strips from 1 lemon – thinly peel the lemon with a vegetable peeler
2 tsp. fennel pollen (optional)
1 heaping tbs. plus 1 pinch coarse kosher salt
1 heaping tsp. cracked black pepper
7 tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 crown roast of pork (18 ribs)
4 large onions, peeled and sliced into ¼” slices

In small skillet, toast fennel seeds until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Place toasted fennel seeds, rosemary, garlic, sage, lemon peel, fennel pollen (if using) and all of the salt and pepper in a food processor. Pulse processor to chop everything up, then add olive oil slowly, and blend until the mixture becomes a paste, scraping down sides occasionally with a rubber spatula.

Wipe pork very dry with paper towels, then smear the herb paste all over the meat, making sure to coat the middle and the crevices on the sides of the chops.

Wrap in plastic wrap and let marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Bring the meat to room temperature for at least 1.5 hours before roasting.

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Put a thin film of olive oil in the bottom of your roasting pan and spread it around with your fingers. Place onion slices down to form a rack for your roast. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of the onions and salt and pepper them. Place your roast on top and roast for 20 minutes at 450 degrees, then turn heat down to 350 and continue roasting until meat registers 145 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours longer. Let rest 20 minutes before carving.
Starting at eight o’clock we enjoyed Cognac sugarplums, pecan crisps, Hello Dolly squares, cut-out sugar cookies, date bars and special bakery cookies that a guest brought. With a great cup of joe, this is a very nice way to end a big meal.

Broccoli and shiitake mushrooms

December 24, 2012 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

The countdown is here! Christmas is tomorrow. I made this fantastic side dish for dinner last night that was so rich and flavorful, definitely worthy of a holiday dinner, yet so simple. I know you’re all ready for tomorrow but the season is a week long, so try this out.

It’s a new way of preparing and cooking broccoli for me. You get to enjoy the tasty stems as well, in a coin-like shape. The sautéed broccoli combined with the full, rich, complex flavors of the mushrooms – it’s divine. Prepared in butter and olive oil, all you need additionally is salt, pepper and LOVE. Enjoy! Happy holidays!!

SAUTEED BROCCOLI WITH SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS
– serves 4 – 6

2 tbs. unsalted butter
1 tbs. olive oil
15 – 20 large shiitake mushrooms, wipe caps clean with a damp paper towel, trim off ends of stems, then remove stems completely and chop fine, slice caps into 3 or 4 sections
1 large head of broccoli, trim and peel stems with a vegetable peeler, slice into 1/4 -1/2” rounds, cut tops into small flowerettes
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Put butter and olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. The butter will sizzle. As soon as the foam begins to subside, add the broccoli and mushrooms, spreading them out evenly over the bottom of the pan and then do not touch the pan for 3 minutes. Then toss, shake, cover and cook until the vegetables are crisp tender or done to your desired liking. This should take 3 – 6 minutes more. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Holiday cookies

December 15, 2012 by Mary Frances 15 Comments

I am all about living in and enjoying the NOW. And now is the time to make holiday cookies. If you’ve been reading this blog from last year (thank you very much) you will know that there are five cookie recipes that I make every year.

When you do something like this, you’re making memories. Memories during the time you’re making them, to who stopped by for more or hoped some would be left at Eastertime (who are they kidding?), or notes we received after giving some as gifts. This is what life’s all about, isn’t it? Create the great times, which in turn create the memories.

This weekend we have guests, our dear friends Carl and Roger, and I’m hoping to enlist them in rolling cognac balls in sugar and helping with the Hello Dolly Squares. (I know, such a silly name!)

I hope you make some memories this weekend too!

Hello Dolly Squares

chocolate, pecan and cognac balls that are great holiday cookies

Cognac Sugarplums