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

Cumin and Mustard Roasted Chicken with Fruit

November 8, 2014 by Mary 9 Comments

We had some friends over for dinner on Tuesday night. They were coming at 7 pm. I got home at 6:15. I thought that getting home so late might happen so I had set the table the night before and had planned an easy dinner of grilled Cauliflower Steaks with an herb salsa verde as a first course (divine), followed by roasted sumac chicken stuffed with fennel stalks and Parmesan cheese rinds, roasted baby Yukon Gold potatoes and roasted tomatoes with olive oil and Greek oregano. Simple, yet if done right, perfectly delicious and comforting after a full days work on an early fall evening. Paired with a Petit Syrah and we were set!

Grilled cauliflower steaks with an herb salsa verde – a great Food and Wine recipe

Now you all have seen my kitchen in our videos. It is a galley that is completely open to the living room. With a small gathering, our guests sit right across the counter from me while I’m cooking, and literally see everything. So all is going well until I start to open the organic chicken package only to discover that it’s not a whole chicken! It is chicken parts, and badly cut at that, yet they had put it together in the package to appear as a whole bird!! Well I was surprised, flustered, and of course, a little ticked off at my husband, as he picked out the meat that shopping trip. (I had to blame it on someone!) So now, in my head, I was scrambling, what was I to do? I was searching for something with great flavor to work with, quick, at that late hour. What did I have? No pancetta, which is a great way to add some big flavor in no time. There was no time to make a tomato sauce, no nice savory jams in the fridge. No mushrooms on hand and no time to caramelize onions. Really, my mind was racing while making small talk to my guests sitting right in front of me!

So I thought to start with a little butter and olive oil, instead of just the oil. Salt and pepper on the skin side, added a sprinkling of cumin on the other side. White wine is always good and then I smeared some Dijon mustard on top. Then I saw this box of dried fruit on the counter to the left of my stove. I had just bought it last week to serve with some lovely cheeses, but that never happened. So I thought, what the heck, let’s try this. I topped each chicken piece with slices of fruit – apricots, apples, peaches, pears and prunes, and then threw the whole thing in the oven for about 17 minutes and voila, it was divine! And the oven was hot – 450 degrees for that roast chicken that wasn’t to be – so the fruit got golden and beautiful and dinner was saved. This new recipe is good enough to share, good enough to repeat, and different too! The only thing was that the roasted tomatoes with oregano sort of no longer went with the other food – but they tasted good with the potatoes!

Has this sort of thing ever happened to you? Please share.

CUMIN AND MUSTARD ROASTED CHICKEN WITH FRUIT – serves 4

One whole organic chicken, backbone removed, cut into 8 pieces, extra skin and fat trimmed
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
Salt
Pepper, fresh ground
11/2 tsp. ground cumin
½ cup dry white wine
4 tsp. Dijon mustard
16 – 18 slices of mixed dried fruit – apricots, peaches, pears, apples and prunes
1 – 2 Tbs. Chopped Italian parsley for garnish

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Wash and dry the chicken pieces, all fat and extra skin trimmed off. Salt and pepper skin side.

Warm olive oil and butter on medium high heat. Swirl to combine and when butter stops sizzling, place the chicken in the skillet, seasoned side down to brown and crisp skin for 3 – 4 minutes. While that side is browning, season the top side with salt, pepper and cumin. After the first side is nicely browned, turn chicken pieces over and brown the other side for two minutes, then add the white wine and spread the mustard on top of each piece. Then place 2 pieces of dried fruit on top of each lightly mustard coated piece. Put 2 – 3 pieces of fruit on each of the breasts, depending on the size of the fruit. You want to essentially cover the top of the chicken.

Place the skillet in the oven and roast for 15 – 18 minutes. Check doneness with a thermometer – should be 160 – 165 degrees. Remove chicken pieces to a platter, keeping the fruit on top. Pour any juices left in the skillet on top of the chicken. Let rest for 10 minutes and sprinkle chopped parsley on top and serve with LOVE.

Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint

August 13, 2014 by Mary 38 Comments

I adore this salad. Nothing starts a summer meal better than this Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint! It’s great to start a lunch or dinner. It’s surprising, refreshing and scrumptious! I love how the black olives tease you to look like seeds but of course, you use a seedless watermelon. The olives are a delicious burst of salty goodness in contrast to the sweet watermelon. I started making this JACQUES PÉPIN recipe (I LOVE his recipes) when it first came out in the June, 2007 issue of Food and Wine magazine. The original recipe says this is for 12 servings but it really worked for just 10 people in our house. It’s easy and relatively fast to make. In the original recipe, Jacques tells you to use a watermelon baller and then throw in the remaining scraps but I prefer my salad to look more uniform so I just cut it into nice chunks. No matter how you cut it, my recommendation is to make this salad now, while the watermelons are ripe, sweet and juicy. Enjoy!

And, don’t forget to comment on my Calphalon Skillet Giveaway post for your chance to win one. This giveaway will end tomorrow, Thursday, at noon. Good luck!!!

WATERMELON SALAD WITH FETA AND MINT – Adapted from JACQUES PÉPIN – serves 10 – 12

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp.Tabasco
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
One 8-lb. seedless watermelon, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (10 cups), chilled
1/2 lb. feta cheese, crumbled (2 cups)
1 1/4 cups pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1 small sweet onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 cup coarsely chopped mint leaves

In a large bowl, whisk the oil, lemon juice, salt, Tabasco and pepper. Add the watermelon, feta, olives and onion and toss gently. Garnish with the mint and serve.

Community Spice Co. Scallops and Roast Chicken Recipes

July 7, 2014 by Mary 26 Comments

Janis Callon, Founder and CEO of the Community Spice Company, is out to save the world with flavor using heart healthy, low sodium, gluten free spices. Her goal is to get people to make slow food fast, using her spice combinations and in my opinion, she accomplishes this beautifully. A friend of hers who had a long tenure at Chez Panisse helped her develop the amazing flavors in her line. As a MARY’s secret ingredients box purchaser, you would have received one of these four blends: SNP 400, Mz. Curri, barbi Q, or ka Bobbii. (cute names, right?) I made scallops and roast chicken with two of her blends. Specifically I used Mz. Curri to make a roast chicken with a sauce that my husband said tasted like a complex, fine French sauce! It was so good! You can use any one of these spice rubs on a huge variety of meats, poultry, fish and even vegetables. Anything goes and it will taste great with CSC creations!

With Janis’s Save the World philosophy, when you make an online purchase, you get to decide which charity to support from a list of about 35 different ones they give assistance to. The charities range from food banks to national parks to Doctors Without Borders to Habitat for Humanity to the 911 Foundation. Visit their site for more info and even ways you can use her spices to raise funds for your kid’s school or club, which is a very nice idea.

On to my recipes!

SNP 400 SCALLOPS AND PANCETTA – serves 2 as a first course

4 scallops
2 – 3 tsp. SNP 400 rub from Community Spice Company
1/2 of a 1/4” thick slice of pancetta
3 tbs. dry white wine
1 tsp. unsalted butter
Thyme leaves

Wash and dry the scallops. Sprinkle and rub one side with the SNP 400 and pat down on the top of the scallops. Dice the pancetta into 1/4” pieces and sauté in a small skillet on medium-high heat. Push the pancetta off to the side in the skillet and saute the scallops, rub side down first, about 3 minutes. Turn the scallops over and sauté for one minute, then add the white wine and finish cooking for 2 more minutes or until scallops are just a bit firm and done. Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the butter. Pour sauce over scallops and garnish with the fresh thyme leaves. Serve with a slice of a good baguette so you can mop up the wonderful flavorful sauce, and be in heaven!

Roast chicken with a spice infused sauce with some asparagus risotto.

Mz. Curri roast chicken with some leftover asparagus risotto

MZ. CURRI ROAST CHICKEN – serves 4 – 5

1 3.75 lb. organic chicken
Fine grind sea salt
½ package Mz. Curri spice mix from Community Spice Company
1 – 2 parmesan cheese rinds
1/2 cup dry white wine
1.5 tsp. unsalted butter
2 tbs. chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with a cast iron skillet or heavy ovenproof skillet in the center of the oven. Thoroughly wash and dry your bird, inside and out. Salt the bird all over the outside and inside the cavity. Place the Mz. Curri mix in a bowl and sprinkle it generously all over the outside of the bird and sprinkle some on the inside as well. Place the parmesan cheese rinds inside the cavity.

When the pan and oven have preheated, take the pan out of the oven and leave a hot pad on the handle immediately so you don’t forget and grab it. Quickly put the bird in the pan, breast side up (it will not stick). Remember this pan is blazing hot so be careful.

Shove the hot pan with the chicken back into the oven and roast for 35 – 40 minutes, undisturbed. Test with a meat thermometer – it should reach 155 degrees. Remove the chicken immediately from the hot pan by grabbing the cavity with long tongs and let it rest on a platter, for at least 10 minutes before carving.

Meanwhile, deglaze the pan juices with ½ cup of dry white wine. Simmer briskly for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the butter and chopped parsley. Top the cut chicken pieces with the sauce.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!

Asparagus Risotto

June 8, 2014 by Mary 48 Comments

With spring finally here and beautiful asparagus plentiful, I always want to make this dish: Asparagus Risotto. Years ago I never liked risotto, I actually never wanted to try it. Soupy rice? No way. My mother used to make this Polish meal of a hot soup made with milk and rice (gag – I hated it), potato pancakes and applesauce. Oh I thought it was AWFUL!!! My father loved it and even one of my brothers, David, asked for the rice soup once for his birthday. Fortunately I had left town by then. So this is why I never ordered risotto in a restaurant, thinking it was too close to that soup. But no, not at all.

And then there are the asparagus stories in my family. My father loved, loved, LOVED asparagus. And in those days when I was young, it was really only available in the spring and early summer. But it was still relatively expensive and we were a family of eight with six kids. So my father would buy two to three bunches, and actually count the spears and divide by eight as to how many spears each person got. This ran between five and eight, depending on how expensive they were. We would always tease him as he counted, while lovingly serving them to each of us. He liked asparagus so much, he even liked the canned white stuff (gag).

My father never cooked much, but he always made the asparagus. He would take each spear, hold it at each end and bend it until it broke at the point of tenderness, all the while, explaining to me what he was doing. Breaking at the point of tenderness was so important to him. After washing, he would then pile them all up with the ends together forming a flat bottom, and tie up the bundle with white kitchen string.

Using the double boiler, he would fill the bottom pan with about an inch and a half of water and stand the bundle of asparagus upright in it and then take the top pan and turn it upside down, covering the top portion and tips. He would then steam them for about 8 – 10 minutes, testing the tenderness of the stems with a fork. When they were done, he would carefully lift out the whole bundle and place it in one of my mom’s square Pyrex pans, cut loose and remove the white string, and proceed to put probably too many pats of butter on top. He would move those pats around, making sure all spears were covered, from stem to tip, and then count to serve. This is how I grew up on asparagus!

But back to risotto, this recipe is based on combination of Mario Batali’s and Mark Bittman’s recipes and was first printed in The New York Times back in 2007. I have changed it a bit. It is a family favorite in our household, the kind of dish you can just sink right into – real comfort food – with the spring accent of asparagus. You can even throw in some peeled raw shrimp at the end, (stir until done) to dress it up even more if you’d like. Serve as a first course or with your meal as shown here with broiled lamb chops. I hope you like this. Maybe it will become a family favorite in your house too!

Asparagus Risotto – Adapted from Mario Batali and Mark Bittman – serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a side

1+ lbs. asparagus, no less than ¼” thick, snapped at the point of tenderness, washed and cut into one-inch-long pieces, tips reserved
5 to 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock, preferably homemade
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
Salt to taste
1/2 cup, heaping, grated Parmesan cheese.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add half the asparagus stalks and cook until quite soft, at least 5 minutes. Rinse quickly under cold water. Drain. Put cooked asparagus in a food processor and add just enough water to allow machine to puree until smooth; set aside.

Put stock in a medium saucepan over low heat. Put oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add onion, stirring occasionally until it softens, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is glossy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add white wine, stir, and let liquid bubble away. Add a large pinch of salt. Add warmed stock, 3/4 cup or so at a time, stirring occasionally. Each time the stock has just about evaporated, add more. You need to stir no more than occasionally. For example, stir after each addition of liquid and then once or twice more before that liquid evaporates.

After about 15 minutes, add remaining asparagus pieces and tips, continuing to add stock when necessary. In 5 minutes, begin tasting rice. You want it to be tender but with a bit of crunch; it could take as long as 30 minutes total to reach this stage. When it does, stir in the asparagus puree. Remove skillet from heat, add remaining butter and stir briskly. Add Parmesan and stir briskly, then taste and adjust seasoning. Risotto should be slightly soupy. Serve immediately.

Mother’s Day Dinner with Cornish Hens and Sauerkraut

May 28, 2014 by Mary 32 Comments

We have had a consistent thread running through our celebrations lately, and that is not celebrating on the exact day – but boy do we celebrate! We’ve got our own calendar going! We celebrated Easter Sunday on the Saturday before, Zach’s birthday (which is July 10^th – but he’ll be in Europe for the summer) on May 10^th and Mother’s Day for us was a week later as we had to travel to Boston for business on the actual holiday. My boys, with the help of one girlfriend, once again made a spectacular meal using recipes from Jamie Oliver, Mark Bittman, and the Chocolate Covered Katie blog. Not too shabby, right?! The standout main dish, unusual but terrific, was Bittman’s Cornish Hens and Sauerkraut recipe.

My boys always ask what I want and I promptly say, “Surprise me!” I like/love nearly everything except processed food and of course they’re not going to go there because after all, they were raised by me. When the older one texted me to ask if I had juniper berries at the apartment, I knew I was in for something great. I LOVE juniper berries – as I love my gin martinis on a Friday night!

They started with a Jaime Oliver roasted tomato bread soup. It was different (I can always count on that from them) and delicious but was supposed to have used day-old bread which may have been better to add a bit more substance instead of the bread being so fresh as to soak everything up. No matter – that was a texture issue – the taste was fabulous! And since I was really hungry, it was substantial and great! Here’s the recipe – cute name! http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/bread-and-tomato-soup-pappa-al-pomodoro

The next course (yes, we have courses!) was this amazing salad of really unusual ingredients – fennel, red onion, cucumber, radishes and oranges. Yes oranges! They provided a wonderful refreshing burst of flavor!

Here’s the complete recipe – they did not use the ice cubes.

INSALATA AMALFITANA Amalfi Salad – Adapted from Jamie’s Italy.

1 bulb of fennel, washed
1 red onion, peeled
1 cucumber
a large handful of radishes, washed
2 tablespoons good-quality herb or red wine vinegar
good-quality extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black peper
4 oranges, peeled, segmented, and seeds removed

Optional: a small handful of ice cubes

Remove the herb-like tops from the fennel and set them aside. Then trim the fennel at both ends and take off the outer layer. Split the fennel in half and slice lengthwise as finely as possible. Put into a large bowl. Remove both ends of the onion, then halve it and slice it as finely as possible. Slice the cucumber finely into disk shapes. Leave the stems on the radishes as a grip. Then slice a little bit out of the side of the radish so it will be stable on the counter. Slice as finely as possible into disks.

Throw a few ice cubes in the bowl and toss the salad with them for a few minutes. Jamie says that this makes the vegetables get crunchier. I’m not sure why it works, but it really does.

Remove the ice cubes. In a bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of good herb or red wine vinegar and about 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Mix well, and taste. If your oranges are super sweet, you may want some extra vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss the salad with the dressing, then add the orange segments with their juices. Sprinkle the reserved fennel tops over the salad right before serving.

And then we had the amazing main course of the Cornish hens with sauerkraut served with some sliced, crispy roasted Yukon gold potatoes.

CORNISH HENS AND SAUERKRAUT – By Mark Bittman
From the How to Cook Everything Essentials^® app

An elegant but straightforward dish and an excellent introduction to sauerkraut. But steer clear of the canned stuff; instead, look for a bottled brand that contains no more than cabbage, salt, and water. This preparation also works well with pheasant, chicken, and duck.

4 Cornish hens, about 1 pound each
4 slices bacon, diced, or 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds sauerkraut
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon juniper berries, crushed with the side of a knife
1 sprig fresh thyme or a pinch dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
Stock or water as needed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Remove the backbone of the hens by cutting along their length on each side. Separate breast and leg quarters. Cook the bacon over medium heat in a large, deep ovenproof skillet until crisp, about 10 minutes, or heat the oil until it shimmers. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add the hen pieces to the bacon fat or olive oil and brown them on all sides. Meanwhile, rinse the sauerkraut in a colander and heat the oven to 300°F.

When the bird is nicely browned, add the sauerkraut, cloves, juniper berries, thyme, bay leaf, and white wine to the skillet. Cook over medium heat until about half of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes; move the skillet into the oven.

Bake for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding liquid as needed to keep the sauerkraut just moist, until the legs are tender and the sauerkraut is slightly browned. Remove the skillet from the oven, then remove the cloves and bay leaf. Taste the sauce, adjust the seasoning, garnish with the bacon pieces (oops – they forgot that) and serve hot or warm.

And for dessert, they made this amazingly rich, decadent chocolate mousse topped with fresh raspberries and strawberries, that had this secret surprise ingredient that not one of us could guess – it was tofu!!! Yes tofu was used instead of cream. Can you imagine?

It was delicious – and no doubt a whole lot healthier for you!

Here it is from the Chocolate Covered Katie blog. She apparently specializes in healthy chocolate desserts. How cool is that?!

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/02/06/chocolate-chocolate-chocolate-mousse/

Chocolate mousse with raspberries and strawberries half eaten

I couldn’t eat the whole thing!

I know I’m lucky. Hope all you moms out there enjoyed a fantastic Mother’s Day, filled with LOVE too!

Smoked Tomato Soup with Nueske’s Sausages and Flathaus Cheese Straw Croutons

May 7, 2014 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

Here are two matches made in heaven to go with the first review of ingredients from our MARY’s secret ingredients box!

For those of you who ordered a box, I know you dug into the cheese straws as your first or second thing, right? They are great directly out of the box! Before discovering these, I was actually convinced that no one could make a cheese straw as good as the ones I made one Christmas, but I was promptly proven wrong by these cheese straws from Mississippi made by the husband and wife team at Flathaus. These are super! Full of cheddar, crisp and light, with a hint of chipotle, these are going to be a staple in my house.

Serve up a bowl of these Flathaus Cheese Straws with some delicious Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Landjaeger Sausages for a quick and terrific appetizer with cocktails. All you need is a pretty little bowl for the cheese straws and juice glass for the sausages. Cut the sausages in long strips and stand them upright in the glass for a handsome presentation. Stand back and watch your guests delight in these two taste treats!

And then I’d like for you to try this smoked tomato soup recipe with some of those lean Nueske’s sausages, diced, and topped with the Flathaus Cheddar Cheese Straws broken into a crouton size — ooh la la – isn’t this to die for? It’s brilliant! Popping with flavor layers and OMG moments, run to the kitchen and make this. If you didn’t get a box, go to these sites and order the sausages and cheese straws now!

SMOKED TOMATO SOUP – serves 6 to 8

13 vine ripened tomatoes, (or 16 plum) cored and tops sliced off
1/4 cup plus 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
2.25 cups diced leeks (white and light green parts), split in half, washed thoroughly & dried
1 heaping cup chopped yellow onions
1 cup dry red wine
2 thick slices diced smoked bacon, preferably no nitrates & remove and discard really fatty areas
5 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. fine sea salt
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Landjaeger Sausages, diced
12 Flathaus Cheddar Cheese Straws, each one broken into 3 pieces

Preheat the grill to medium. Arrange the tomatoes in an aluminum pan. Sprinkle the cut tops with 4 tablespoons of the olive oil, some salt and fresh ground pepper. Cover with heavy-duty aluminum foil and grill for 20 minutes. Remove from grill, uncover and cool for 15 minutes. Remove and discard the tomato skins.

Meanwhile, place 1/4 cup of the olive oil, as well as the leeks, onions, and bacon in a soup pot. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Crush or roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes and all the juices and olive oil from the roasting pan, wine, garlic, salt, vinegar, pepper, and cayenne to the pot. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.

Add the parsley. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup (or cool slightly and puree in a regular blender in small batches). Add the diced sausages and stir for 5 minutes to warm them up. Divide evenly among warm soup bowls and float cheddar cheese stick croutons on top. Serve immediately.

You have just entered heaven!