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Herons, horses and a lamb, oh my!

September 6, 2013 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

We are finishing up a week of vacation here in the country, before I head to the LongHouse Food Revival this afternoon, which I am very excited about! While we worked most of the time, due to new accounts coming in (yay!), it is still nice to sleep a little later, stay up and watch old movies and go for long bike rides in the afternoon.

We also have this gorgeous heron who has appeared right up the street from our house. He appears on either side of the road near these two ponds. I have been so near to him and damn it, no matter how quietly I stop, open my fanny pack and take out the phone, I can’t access the camera fast enough, and he majestically flies off!

He or she is so beautiful. I want to share him with you. But this is the best I can do from a distance, so the quality of the photo is not good. But I am so happy he has come so near to us. Several years ago there was another heron who had babies in a nest way up atop a dead tree trunk in the neighboring town of Gallatin. That area is also on one of my bike routes. But they have been gone now for two or three years.

Check out the beautiful horses in our area, and that magnificent Hudson River Valley light. This is late in the day, around 6 pm. No wonder many artists came here to paint. It is already getting chilly here, so they have their blankets on.

And then there’s Domino, the new baby lamb of our farmer friends, Ethel and Tom. This little guy is 7 days old!! He’s standing, walking, smelling, will let you pet him. Isn’t that amazing for 7 days old?

Life in the country. Ain’t it grand?!

AUGUST NEWSLETTER IS OUT TODAY!

I know it’s not August anymore, but sign up for the newsletter (in the upper right hand corner) if you don’t already receive it, because you won’t want to miss this exquisite meal. It’s perfect for the Indian Summer nights to come and complete with wonderful wine pairings for each course. Sent to you with LOVE – enjoy!

LongHouse Food Revival promises to be pretty amazing!

August 30, 2013 by Mary Frances 24 Comments

I’m so absolutely excited to have been invited to attend the LongHouse Food Revival 2013, a gathering of 100 visionary thinkers and influential decision makers in food, which will take place next weekend, Sept. 7 and 8, at a historic diary farm in Upstate New York.

Every year, LongHouse Food Revival chooses a subject to explore and presents its discoveries in documentary film, radio, broadcast, spoken word, live cooking, interviews and visionary art. This year their focus is on the Saffron Diaspora — looking at the original Spice Trail and exploring the various religions and cultures that arrived to the United States on a wave of exotic spices, ingredients and dishes. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could promote tolerance with all of this.

And you all know about my love affair with spices!

On Saturday evening, chefs from across the country will come together to cook us a “live fire” feast from the Saffron Diaspora. I’ll be sure to share as much of that as I can with you in photos later. As they describe it, this year’s feast will be “a world tour of flatbreads, spiced ice cream, saffron martinis and music from Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road.” Doesn’t that martini sound amazing? And it must be a beautiful color – I’m so ready!

This year’s speakers include Los Angeles Times’s food critic Jonathan Gold, blogger Elissa Altman, author Naomi Duguid, NPR’s Kathy Gunst, Food Network’s Katherine Alford, NYU Food Studies Director Krishnendu Ray, cookbook author Molly O’Neill and many more. I’ll be going as a guest of The Daily Meal, this blog’s affiliate.

Another part I’m looking forward to is first annual Food Flea they’ve planned for Sunday, a marketplace of “ideas and innovation for individuals, media outlets, publishers, organizations, brands, start-ups, farmers and producers.” I’m sure I’ll be meeting a very special bunch of food people there.

If you’d like tickets to next weekend’s festivities you can go to the event website and purchase access to one day only, or the whole weekend.

It’s going to be a special event and I would love to meet you there!

OMG – the whole goat! Chef Magnus Duruji (aka The Nigerian BBQ King) in a trial run for the live fire feast. Doesn’t he look happy! Photo courtesy of Cook N Scribble, producers of LongHouse Food Revival.

Test kitchen tours!

May 23, 2013 by Mary Frances 60 Comments

Yesterday was such an interesting, exhilarating and exhausting day!!

I enjoyed a day of touring test kitchens as part of Internet Week here, as a guest of Anna Curran from Cookbook Create, a site where you can make custom cookbooks. (Great gift idea, right?) We visited the kitchens of Bon Appetit, The Daily Meal and Food 52. Each one made us a little something special to eat, and we even had wine at The Daily Meal!

All of them were so helpful and sharing of information. We were 13 bloggers chosen for this day, and lucky ones at that. It was all good fun and useful information, plus I met some great new fellow bloggers!

These are the lovely ladies I spent the day with: Alejandra from Always Order Dessert, Amie from The Healthy Apple, Caroline from Taste, Love, & Nourish, Carrie from Poet in the Pantry, Diana from Appetite for China, Daina from The Hungry Fan, Heidi from Brooklyn Allergy Mom, Jennifer from Savory Simple, Jen from Champagne Problems, Kimberly from Mom in the City, Lisa from Nutcase Crunch, Melinda from Kitchen Tested, and Sloane from Allergic Girl.

Here are some pics from the day.

We started at Bon Appetit! They served a delicious fresh ginger, lime and seltzer drink with horseradish deviled eggs – yummy!

At The Daily Meal they served us a fava bean, spinach, garlic and onion tasting. So pretty!

The Daily Meal is giving away this fabulous Kitchen Aid!! I wonder who will win this shiny beautiful tool. I would LOVE it!! (so nice of them to do this!)

Food 52’s new kitchen in their new space with antique wooden shelves and walnut cutting top.

The girls at Food 52 serving us English Pea Soup with a garlic cream and slivered ramps.

LOVE’s Guest Post on Orgasmic Chef

March 26, 2013 by Mary Frances 12 Comments

We are excited to say that our LOVE blog has made a guest posting appearance on the most delicious Orgasmic Chef blog, down in Australia! We’re conquering the globe!

Her blog is a great source for “orgasmic” recipes – you’re reading that right – so go check it out (and say hello to Maureen for us while you’re there! Thank you, Maureen!).

Here is our post down under. Hint: Silky Chocolate Cake is the topic.

One fabulous beef stew to come

February 9, 2013 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

With all the blizzard storm warnings out yesterday, we got up early and stocked our larder for the weekend. Well it was pretty nasty on Friday, particularly with the gale-like winds, but NYC did not get hit so hard. We woke up this morning and it was all over, with just a foot of snow – so not so bad.
Here’s the view from our apartment.

So yesterday, with the thought of staying put all weekend, I had decided to make a favorite beef stew recipe today, to serve for Sunday night dinner. I use a recipe from Lee Bailey’s Long Weekends cookbook, that I have adapted and changed but the basis is his. He is no longer with us on this earth, but I will tell you, most all of his recipes are great!! I first met him though his Food & Wine magazine contributions and then searched him out in other places as well.

I have a sneaky suspicion that beings in the afterlife do not eat food. They don’t need to, but they miss it. Now I know you think I’m a little crazy, but haven’t there been times when you have to have an extra bite or an extra sip of something and YOU really don’t want it but feel someone is making you do it? Maybe that is some being who wants a little taste through you??

Just musing….

I will post the recipe and pictures later. Right now, I gotta get cooking!

Christopher!

November 30, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Christopher Columbus.

Oh you are larger than life.

Literally! Actually!

Tatzu Nishi Discovering Columbus exhibition

Chris, my husband and me!

We had a field trip for our office on Wednesday morning and went to see the experiential art exhibit of Tatzu Nishi, who built this installation around the statue of Christopher Columbus, in the busy intersection of Columbus Circle at the foot of Central Park, here in NYC. The statue stands more than 75 ft. tall on top of a column and you climb six flights of stairs to arrive at a living room surrounding this 120 year old sculpture.

It is way cool!

What you see when you enter – on the coffee table!

It is imposing and magnificent! It’s all about scale. How grand it is to see this masterpiece up close as never before could you do that. And once this installation is taken down after Sunday, I will never look up at that statue the same way ever again.

Discovering Columbus exhibit by Tatzu Nishi

The view looking East when leaving the exhibit