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

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!!

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 23 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!

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