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

Lamb burgers!!

July 4, 2013 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

This is my favorite kind of burger. Lamb. What’s yours?

We have a local farm here upstate, called Herondale Farm, where they sell the most fabulous lamb. It is all from free range, grass fed, organic, happy animals. It is so flavorful and delicious, that all you really need is some salt and pepper. It was started by a former Wall Street guy who made a lot of money in the 90’s and then wanted to get back to the earth. All of his meats are fantastic. They are also expensive. The ground lamb comes in at around $10.00 a pound. But because the meat is so flavorful, you do not need a lot to eat to be satisfied. One pound makes three good burgers.

THE BEST LAMB BURGERS – serves 3

1 lb. of ground lamb
Coarse salt or French grey salt
Fresh ground pepper

With any meat, take it out of the refrigerator early, before grilling. As my friend Christine, at Herondale Farms said, you NEVER want to throw a cold slab of meat on the grill as it will not cook properly. Think of it, it would be shocking to the meat!

I believe the secret to a great burger is to salt and pepper it lightly, mix and handle it very little, to form three patties. Then salt and pepper the outside, using coarse salt or preferably French grey salt. Grill to your desired doneness. We like medium rare.

It is also key to have some great rolls or bread to put this on. Toast the rolls on the grill or in your toaster. We dressed this burger with mayo and Dijon mustard, one slice of red onion, one slice of tomato and some leaf lettuce from my garden. It was heavenly!!

Serve this with a side salad of mixed leaf lettuces and tomatoes, sprinkled with some sliced scallions, chopped fresh thyme and basil and dressed with a sherry vinaigrette.

So simple, so quick and so very, very delicious.

Now go and enjoy the fireworks! Happy 4^th!!

Potato Salad Winner Announced!!

July 2, 2013 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Soon after Memorial Day, we set out to find the best potato salad recipe we could before the next big picnic holiday – the Fourth of July – this week! So I asked for my readers’ favorite recipes and had almost too many to choose from, in the best way. The submissions were about as varied as possible, and I recruited my team to vote for the top three.

Those top three were: the decadent and complex Salat Olivier from Misha, the bread-and-butter-pickle-sweetened Mom’s Potato Salad from Nicky, and Aunt Rose’s Potato Salad with anchovies from Nikki. Thank you to everyone who submitted a recipe. They were, quite frankly, all good!

Our team chose the last one as the big winner. It’s simple but really delicious, verging on a “classic” non-mayo potato salad recipe. It is a neat trick to take out the cooked egg yolks and combine them with the olive oil and herbs. That makes a kind of homemade, safe (because the yolks are cooked) mayonnaise. The anchovies give it that boost of flavor. (and you know I LOVE anchovies) It’s possible that people who are turned off by the idea of anchovies will still enjoy this recipe because there’s only one – but to be honest, I would add even more anchovies (3.5) and chives (1 tbs.).

Here is the recipe. Thank you, Nikki Landau!! Your prize, our wonderful LOVE apron, will be coming to you soon.

AUNT ROSE’S EGG AND POTATO SALAD RECIPE – serves 4

1. Boil 1 pound of yellow new potatoes in their skins. Peel and chill.
2. Hard boil 4 eggs. Peel and chill.

Dressing:
1. In a bowl put 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper.
2. Add 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar, 5 tbsp. light olive oil, 1 tsp. chopped chervil, 1 tsp. chopped chives, and 1 anchovy fillet, minced.

Remove yolks from the hard boiled eggs and crumble into dressing. Whisk to combine. Cut egg whites into pieces. Cut the potatoes into thin slices.

Fold everything together, mix well and serve chilled. It’s simple and very good! Yum!

Baby artichokes and Mother’s Day!

May 12, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there!! This is my favorite holiday! Milk it for all it’s worth. I like to think of it as Mother’s Day WEEKEND! Yesterday we saw Gatsby at the movies. It is one of my favorite novels, having read it at least three times. The movie was just great, full of glitz and glamour, I could not stop grinning from ear to ear during all of the party scenes, wishing I could have been there. Steve made me breakfast this morning, (not in bed – that’s gross), complete with roses and a hysterical card. I got to garden and go bike riding. And my boys are making me a surprise dinner tonight in the city! I can’t wait!

But first, let me tell you about our dinner salad last night because it is the season for all these rare and young things! Ramps, fiddlehead ferns and now baby artichokes. At my stores, they sell them by the dozen, boxed. With just the two of us, that makes it challenging to use. So last week, I made salads with them raw and thinly sliced on a mandoline. Then I steamed some, like you would a regular sized artichoke and then the rest were now several days old and 2 kids came home for dinner by surprise last Thursday. The artichokes were not fresh enough to serve raw, so I decided to slice them up and sauté them with my baby bok choy and garlic. They were delicious!!
So last night, I just went straight to that method and put them on top of an arugula salad, with a fresh lemon juice and olive oil dressing and some slices of Parmigiano reggiano. Delish!! The lovely woody, warm, tender artichokes on top of the cool crisp arugula, combined with the Parmigiano and lemon and olive oil – so simple – yet different and delicious!! It is always about the quality of the ingredients in any dish but particularly in something as simple as this. Because it is so simple, each ingredient can shine. And if something is not the greatest quality, it will scream out too. So use the best you can.

The thing about baby artichokes that kills me is that you have to throw so much away to get to the tenderness inside. I guess that’s my depression era mother rising up in me again. Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom!

SAUTEED BABY ARTICHOKES AND ARUGULA SALAD WITH PARMIGIANO
– serves 2

4 baby artichokes
½ tbs. unsalted butter
salt
pepper
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice or more to use on the artichokes to prevent browning
1 bunch of arugula
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler
2 tbs. fresh lemon juice
½ tsp. Dijon mustard
Scant ½ cup olive oil

Wash and spin dry the arugula and chill in the refrigerator. Make the dressing by combining the mustard, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Slice your cheese and cover with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

Wash the baby artichokes and remove all the outer leaves, peel the stems, and cut off about 1” from the top. Slice each one in half and then slice each half in 3 or 4 slices. Work quickly and drizzle a little lemon juice on, to prevent them from turning dark, which they will do rather quickly.

Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and add sliced artichokes. Saute until tender and golden brown, using a cover for the pan to produce some steam and moisture, stirring often. This will take 10 – 15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and remove when fork tender.

Distribute your washed arugula on two salad plates. You probably won’t use it all.

Scatter the artichokes over the plated arugula, along with the slices of cheese. Drizzle on some dressing and serve immediately. You will have dressing left over which will keep in the refrigerator.

Ramps!

April 13, 2013 by Mary Frances 16 Comments

Today, we stopped by our farmer friends, Ethel and Tom, to buy some honey and eggs and he had just come back from digging up some ramps and offered me some.

Awesome! This season is so short and I seemed to have remembered seeing the stem part at farmers markets but I think I was confusing it with garlic scapes. The leaves are so very tasty. They taste both garlicky and oniony. They are actually a relative of the leek and signify that Spring has arrived! I’m going to chop them up and put some in my baby kale salad tonight that we’re having with a broiled skirt steak. I’ll throw the rest in some scrambled eggs in the morning. He said many people make pesto with the leaves as well. That would be darn good but I don’t have enough to do that.

Tom said I could use the leaves and part of the stem and then plant the roots back in the ground to come up next year! I did just that!

Funny, in a little research, I learned that ramps are a part of the Allium family, and I just planted some of those beautiful tall purple spherical flowers last Fall and they are just coming up. So I planted these ramps nearby. After all, you’ve got to keep the family together, right?

My purple Allium coming up!

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.