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

March newsletter coming out!

March 28, 2013 by Mary Frances 8 Comments

Just in time for Easter! Sign up for the March newsletter in the upper right hand corner of this blog for a fantastic, never before seen (here) recipe for roasted duck and some other suggestions for your holiday meal.

And just to brighten up this post, I’d like to share with you my lunch salad from yesterday. It’s some frisee with red leaf lettuce topped with tomatoes, tomatillos, radishes and a half of a leftover pork chop with some toasted pepito seeds on top. Red wine vinaigrette finishes it off and voila! This is a healthy, satisfying lunch that carries you through to dinner!

St. Patty’s Day!

March 18, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

How was it for you? I hope you all enjoyed the celebration and showed your Irish LOVE!

When I was growing up, my very best friend, Beth, was 100% Irish. And here I was, 100% Polish. While everyone was wearing some green with their school uniforms, my mother wouldn’t let me. No siree. I was not Irish. I should be proud to be Polish and wear red on St. Patty’s Day!

Yeah, she made me wear red.

But, for dinner, she gave in and always made corned beef and cabbage. So I kept up the tradition and made it for lunch yesterday while we were still with Zach and Agata in the country.

So now Agata (who is from Poland), looks at my platter and says, “It looks like Polish food.”

No wonder my mother made it!

Corned beef and cabbage on a plate with a hroshradish cream sauce from Mar 17, 2013.

I made this nifty horseradish cream sauce (mayo and sour cream) with a little lemon zest that was really nice and cut the salt from the beef.

Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

March 16, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

I have so much to write to you about. I’m really back logged. There is no lack of food or stories to share with you, just time to write and post them. And then there are some recipes that I really want to get to you now because they are cold weather dishes that are so yummy and while we still have it, before Spring descends upon us, I think you should have them available. But now I want to tell you about our lunch today. Our son Zach, with help from his lovely girlfriend, Agata, made it. Just look at this photo of chunky tomato soup and a two cheese (sharp cheddar and provolone) grilled cheese sandwich. This was so yummy!!! And this was something he wanted to make completely by himself with not a comment or an ounce of help from me. Of course I had to blow it and offer my two cents here and there and I was shooed out of the kitchen – he wanted no part of my advice as well as he should. He doesn’t need me, sad as I think it is, he is more than capable in the kitchen and for that I am so grateful. He never looked at a recipe. I did, before we went to the grocery store together. But he had his own ideas – damn good ones at that!

His tomato soup had onions, celery, (3 stalks), carrots, thyme, red pepper flakes and homemade chicken stock.

It was divine.

Lunch on Friday

March 9, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

Now look at this beauty. I have some leftover red leaf lettuce underneath the baby arugula, topped with grape tomatoes, red pepper and avocado slices. If I don’t have any leftover meat, I go for a half of an avocado. So rich and creamy – comforting – like mashed potatoes to me. And that’s my new favorite garnish on top, roasted and salted pepitas. My dressing is always a simple oil and vinegar combo I bring from home. For ease, I throw it all in a jar with a mason lid and shake it up. I can literally make this in two minutes. Here is my approximate recipe, because I really don’t measure anymore.

BASIC SALAD DRESSING

1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tbs. red wine or sherry or Champagne vinegar
scant 1/2 cup of olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a jar. Cover tightly and shake. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.

To healthy eating!!

Lunch with Nora

March 7, 2013 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

I was having lunch at the office today, by myself, in the conference room, reading this article by Nora Ephron that my friend Marie sent to me. Well, I was literally laughing so hard I was crying and not a sound was coming out!

Do you know that kind of hard, teary, unstoppable laugh? You can read the article here and you too can laugh your socks off. http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Nora-Ephron-on-Maintenance-Remembering-Nora-Ephron

I never met her … but I miss her. She was one great lady!

Ever since her book came out on I Feel Bad About my Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, I have been obsessed about my neck. I remember first hearing about this book on the radio, while I was in the shower, shaving my legs. They said she talks about you having to shave less as you get older and I thought, great! But then, I have to thank Nora for spending hundreds of dollars on special neck creams and doing awful looking neck exercises in front of the mirror at night before going to bed. I’m not sure if they’re doing anything, but I’m sure as hell putting in the effort.

Now on to my lunch. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about lunch. I actually like to and do bring my lunch to work everyday, including my husband’s, unless I have a lunch date set up with a client or a friend. Of course, many of our clients are friends, so that does double duty.

This all started with the great recession/ depression descending upon us several years ago now. I figured we could save at least 20 bucks a day for the two of us – that’s one hundred a week, four hundred a month! (I can do the math!) But now, I also love to intimately know what I’m putting in to my body. I care about that – and you should too. I love my lunches. They’re clean, healthy and delicious and I know everything about them because I made them. My husband usually has dinner leftovers – he calls it “gourmet fast food” and I love my salads. I think it’s very important to eat some raw food everyday. One probably gets more vitamins and minerals out of them that way, and seeds are good too – sunflower or pepita (remember Euell Gibbons?) are great as garnishes. I’ll tell you what – I feel great every day and have a tremendous amount of energy. And now here’s a funny thing. When my extended family is all together at my one brother’s house in Vermont and they’re all eating sandwiches, hot dogs, chips and dips, on the side, I make my own salad and you know what? They all drool over it, because it looks so delicious, and they’re eating crap. You choose!

I love warm meat on a salad – great protein and staying power to take you through the day. And when the warm meat juices mix with the cool lettuce and dressing, it’s nice. Here is red leaf lettuce, radishes, cucumber, red peppers, grape tomatoes, tomatillo wedges and warmed leftover rosemary roasted pork tenderloin with sauteed onions and apples.

Zucchini, fennel, red pepper and mint torta

January 23, 2013 by Mary Frances 8 Comments

Several of you asked for this recipe from our “Birthday Linner”. The truth is that my older son made it up, on the spot, based on vegetables that I had in the apartment, plus some herbs from our grocery store downstairs, which does not have a broad selection, particularly on a Sunday. He originally wanted some basil but they had none. He came back with a beautiful bunch of fresh mint instead. And, I just learned last night from my fellow cooking friend, Margaret, that mint is a relative of basil, so that was a very good choice indeed.

He meant to put in fresh grated Parmesan, but forgot. But as a dish in the middle of this many-course celebration, it did not need Parmesan. The clean tasting vegetables were a welcome interlude between the pasta with spinach and Pecorino Romano cheese and the very rich and super delicious short ribs with polenta.

This son is a big cook – he just gets in there and does things! Fearless and big, that’s what I call him. He says, “Thank you!”

Here’s a stab at his recipe.

ZUCCHINI, FENNEL, RED PEPPER AND MINT TORTA
3 zucchinis
1 and 1/2 fennel bulbs
2 large red peppers
3 – 4 tbs. olive oil
Salt
Pepper
½ bunch of fresh mint leaves

Broil red peppers, checking and turning until all skin is blackened. Using tongs, place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap until cool. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Slice zucchini and fennel on a mandoline, somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Using 1 or 2 tbs. of olive oil for each vegetable, toss separately in a bowl, with salt and pepper (test and taste for proper seasoning) and lay out each on separate baking sheets. Roast zucchini and fennel until crisp tender. Check in 20 minutes. The fennel will most likely take a little longer. This is why you keep them on separate baking sheets.

Peel the red pepper, core, remove the seeds and cut into 1 inch wide strips.
Layer the zucchini, fennel, red pepper and mint leaves in 10 inch round dish, repeating again until all is used up. Place a plate on top and weight it down to press ingredients together. We used a 28 oz. can of tomatoes with a large heavy mason jar of honey on top of the plate. Press for an hour or two. Then carefully slide the torta out, top side up, on a large round cake plate. Cut into pie wedge serving pieces and enjoy!

We used only two red peppers but three might be better. You could also add a layer of grated Parmesan cheese. We talked about that and then forget to do it.