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

Roasted Butternut Squash with Crispy Sage Leaves

November 24, 2013 by Mary 17 Comments

I love butternut squash. I will be serving a butternut squash and bourbon soup for Thanksgiving as a first course. That recipe, is of course in my e-cookbook. (That soup is bowl-licking good. In fact, I just finished making it for Thursday – delish!) But this past week, I made one of my favorite recipes for a side dish – Roasted Butternut Squash with Crispy Sage Leaves. You roast the squash with onions, put on some good honey three quarters of the way into the roasting period and then top it with some browned butter and crispy sage leaves. It’s the perfect fall dish!

This past week, The New York Times dining section talked about how you must have something orange on your table for the Thanksgiving feast. I have my sweet potatoes with maple syrup and ginger, but you could easily have this dish too, if you’re making a different soup, as you wouldn’t want to repeat the vegetable in the meal.

Here’s my recipe to make and serve with LOVE.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH WITH CRISPY SAGE LEAVES – serves 6

One butternut squash – 2.75 – 3 lbs. – peeled, seeded and cut into 1” chunks
One large yellow onion, cut into 1” chunks
2 tbs. olive oil
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
2 tbs. honey
4 tbs. butter
36 large fresh sage leaves, washed and thoroughly dry

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine squash and onion on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle on the olive oil, sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste. Toss all together thoroughly and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Take pan out and toss again. Drizzle on honey and return the pan to the oven for 10 – 15 minutes more, until the squash is fork tender.

When squash is nearly done, melt the butter in small skillet or saucepan until really hot. Throw in the dry sage leaves and stir until butter is browned and leaves colored a bit.

Transfer squash to shallow bowl, so you have more surface area on top. Drizzle on the browned butter and distribute the crispy sage leaves. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Sauteed kale with roasted delicata squash

November 11, 2013 by Mary 20 Comments

Last Sunday night, we had dinner at our older son’s home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I must admit, I kind of invited us. Well, I wanted to see them and he is not fond of traveling way uptown to our apartment on a Sunday night so what’s a mom to do? He and his girlfriend put out an amazing spread.We started with a first course of pasta with a beautiful Arrabbiata Sauce sauce topped with parmigiano. This kid lived in Italy for six months and of course the dish was perfect. The pasta was cooked perfectly; the sauce was the perfect consistency. The spice and the blending was sublime. He knows what he’s doing. The main course was roasted chicken with herbs, sauce au jus, and sautéed kale tossed with roasted delicata squash, which was very different and terrific. His roasted chicken was perfect, as to be expected. He’s got that down. But the vegetable dish was really, really lovely. Unexpected, and a perfect autumn dish. The combo was unique – a sweet and slightly spicy blend. And healthy to boot!

His girlfriend gave me the skinny the next morning.

SAUTEED KALE WITH ROASTED DELICATA SQUASH – serves 4

1 delicata squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds removed and cut into slices
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Cinnamon
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1 bunch kale, washed, stemmed and cut into 1” strips
Hot pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss squash and rosemary sprigs in 1 – 2 tbs. olive oil and spread out on a baking sheet. Sprinkle on salt, pepper and cinnamon and roast for 15 – 20 minutes until fork tender.

Heat 2 tbs. olive oil in a skillet on medium to medium-high heat. Toss kale, for 2 minutes. Cover the pan for about 3 more minutes. Sprinkle on salt, fresh ground black pepper and hot pepper flakes. Toss until tender.

Add the squash to the skillet and toss to combine. Serve immediately. Enjoy!!

Now his girlfriend is also an expert dessert maker. Just look at this beautiful chocolate wonderfulness we had for dessert.We are soooo lucky!!

Iranian Jeweled Rice at the LongHouse Food Revival

September 14, 2013 by Mary Frances 16 Comments

My adventure at the LongHouse Food Revival last weekend was very interesting. It was different than what I expected based on the topic title – The Saffron Diaspora. Just a bit of time was spent on saffron and the saffron martinis I was so excited about turned out to be made with a homemade moonshine of 140 proof!! So only a tiny sip was given out, as it should have been. It wasn’t a pretty color but there were two versions, flavored with peaches and cinnamon. I preferred the cinnamon, as the peach flavored one was too sweet.

What was inspiring and the best part of the entire weekend was the ability to meet lots of new foodies in all different areas of the profession and to be able to have intimate conversations with them.

I was fortunate to have some private conversations with chef and well-known Persian cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij, as she made her very famous Iranian Jeweled Rice. Isn’t this dish just so pretty? It’s very tasty too! I loved the explosions of candied orange rind with the crunch of almonds and pistachios and the tartness of the barberries (or you could use dried cranberries).

This is a labor-intensive dish and remember, in any Persian rice dish, the grains should be separate and long. It is traditionally made for Iranian wedding celebrations and the glistening pops of color truly look like jewels on your plate — orange peel, carrots and saffron for gold, barberries for rubies, pistachios for emeralds and almonds for pearls.

When we visited India several years ago, I brought home rice as it tastes so different and wonderful there. The same was true with Najmieh’s saffron rice. She said she has friends bring back bags for her. To make this without the direct import of rice, I suggest using Basmati white rice.

Najmieh gave me the scoop on saffron. She said you should grind the saffron to a powder (use a mortar and pestle) with half of a sugar cube, as the sugar removes the moisture from the saffron, and then store it in a tightly covered jar in the refrigerator, or make saffron water and keep in the fridge. To make saffron water, mix two tablespoons of hot water or rose water or orange blossom water with 1/4 teaspoon of saffron powder and store in a covered jar in the fridge. Both versions make the saffron ready to use and Najmieh obviously uses a lot of it, so she wants it always handy. The Iranian Jeweled Rice recipe calls for the saffron orange blossom water.

For the recipe, please check out Najmeih’s cookbooks on Amazon. They are beautiful and inspired and clearly written with LOVE.

Leg of lamb and the best tomatoes

September 2, 2013 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

We love being invited to our friends Susan and Matt’s apartment for dinner. They are both great hosts. Susan always does a terrific job making special recipes, Matt always serves a wonderful single malt Scotch and our conversations are topical and stimulating, often revolving around politics. Susan worked closely for a state senator for many years and really knows the ins and outs of the system. This past week, we were invited there along with some old friends of theirs and Susan made the most amazing leg of lamb.

It was Herb and Honey Mustard Crusted Leg of Lamb from the September issue of Food and Wine magazine. But listen to this story – this is the great thing about living near an old fashioned butcher. The recipe calls for a boneless or butterflied leg of lamb, seasoned with the mustard paste, rolled and tied back up to form a roast, and then to put the bone back in the one end so it looks pretty. Her butcher, Frank at Ottomanelli on York Avenue and 82^nd St. would be happy to butterfly it, but then she was nervous about tying it back up. No worries, Frank told her to bring her herb mustard mixture in to the store and he would spread it all around on the inside, salt and pepper it, and tie it back up all pretty, making a gorgeous roast and putting the decorative bone back in. Isn’t that the sweetest? So she arrived home all set to put this baby in the oven. Done!

TIP: I have found that most butchers in independent shops love to offer to do this type of work. They take ownership in their work, have a lot of pride in what they do and want to be a part of your meal. So next time, let them know what you’re trying to do and just ask!

Now I stupidly neglected to take a picture of the whole roast but here’s one of Matt cutting Susan’s beautiful and scrumptious leg of lamb.

Here’s her gorgeous plate.

And here’s the recipe for the delicious tomatoes. You know I love anchovies!!

TOMATOES NICOISE – from The New York Times by David Tanis

1 small shallot, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, grated
Salt
Pepper
2 tbs. red wine vinegar
3 tbs. olive oil
8 anchovies fillets, 2 finely chopped and 6 for garnish
2 tbs. roughly chopped black nicoise or oil cured olives, plus olives for garnish
6 small red tomatoes
12 cherry tomatoes in assorted colors
1 tbs. small capers, rinsed
12 basil leaves

Make the vinaigrette: Put shallot, garlic, salt, pepper and vinegar in small bowl. Macerate 10 minutes, then whisk in oil, chopped anchovies and chopped olives

Slice red tomatoes thickly and place on platter in one layer. Season with salt and pepper. Season cherry tomatoes with salt and dress with vinaigrette. Spoon cherry tomatoes over tomato slices.

Top each tomato slice with half an anchovy fillet, sprinkle with capers. Garnish with basil leaves and whole olives.

Serve at cool room temperature.

Roasted broccoli & spring onions with feta

August 21, 2013 by Mary Frances 24 Comments

I am constantly looking for new flavor combinations with vegetables. I keep thinking, I’ve just have to make them more exciting, especially since we are eating less meat, and I know that a lot of my readers are vegetarians.

So last night I came up with this one. Roasted broccoli and spring onions topped with feta cheese and toasted bread crumbs. The bread crumbs were really leftover croutons that were too few for another Caesar salad, so I crushed them up in my mortar and pestle and threw them on top. Easy, right? This is why you should always make extra croutons! The more you cook, the more you can have various, ready-made ingredients at your disposal.

This was so yummy!!

ROASTED BROCCOLI AND SPRING ONIONS WITH FETA AND TOASTED BREAD CRUMBS – serves 4

1 head of broccoli
1 bunch of spring onions, ends and tops trimmed and bulbs split if large, or 1 large shallot, peeled and thickly sliced
2 tbs. olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1/4” thick slice of feta cheese
1.5 tbs. toasted bread crumbs or crushed croutons

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash, trim and peel stalks of broccoli and cut lengthwise into similar sized pieces. On a baking sheet, combine the broccoli with the spring onions and toss with the olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and place in the oven to roast. Check at 15 minutes and toss. Total time should take about 35 minutes or until the stems are fork tender to your liking. I love it when the broccoli florets get a little charred in places.

Place the vegetables on a platter and top with crumbled feta pieces and the bread crumbs. Enjoy!!

Farmer’s Market Bounty

August 11, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

NOW is the time to enjoy all the fresh goodness of summer!! Last Friday when we stopped by our Farmer’s Market at the Milan Town Hall in upstate NY, we were treated as stars, for talking about their chickens and vegetables in my blog post on July 28th.
The chickens were celebrities too! Isn’t this so cute?

Here was some of our bounty last Friday!!

This is the time of year for simple dinners made with super fresh ingredients. Just toss them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and throw them on the grill and you will have total yumminess!! (Use a grill pan if you don’t have outdoor space.)

Last night we did just that with broccoli and yellow peppers. Just delicious!!

And then last week we grilled Ethel’s shisido sweet frying peppers with just olive oil, salt and pepper. Totally amazing!

Our oldest son and his girlfriend were with us last weekend in the country and she made this most beautiful pie. Peaches and blueberries with a super buttery crust, absolutely made with LOVE. She said her mother always put a heart on top!

So please enjoy the bounty at your local Farmer’s Markets and support them. We need for them to keep bringing us pure, delicious, unadulterated, clean food grown with LOVE and care, to keep us healthy and happy!

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