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New Friends from The Plaza and a New Year’s Crostini Appetizer Recipe with Roasted Grapes

December 30, 2014 by Mary

We went off to see The Theory of Everything yesterday – something our new friends from The Plaza said we had to see. And then I’d like to tell you about this new appetizer that I made that was really different, delicious, and surprising. I think it would be a great a addition to your New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day celebrations. Later, I’ll tell you all about our Christmas dinner with a terrific new salad, but here’s the New Year’s Crostini Appetizer Recipe with Roasted Grapes.

But first, let me tell you this wonderful story – an only “in New York City” story. Could have definitely been a Woody Allen movie.

The day after Christmas, we went to see The Imitation Game at the Paris theatre, across the street from The Plaza. After the very crowded (where did all these people come from?) movie, my husband, Steve, asked if The Plaza was still a hotel. I said yes, partly, and partly condos and then suggested we go have a drink there before heading home.

So there we went and were ushered to a round table right next to a lovely couple who immediately engaged me, (Steve had gone to the bathroom), in conversation, asking what brought me to The Plaza, thinking I was from out-of-town. Well one thing led to another and here we were, the four of us talking for nearly an hour – about life, business, and the secret to a wonderful life. He was 86 and she was 82 and let me tell you, they both looked amazing!!! (I wanted to ask what brand of neck cream she used.) Seriously beautiful, she looked more like 62. They lived in The Plaza – a dream of hers since being a little girl, raised in New Jersey. Her first husband, as she said, dropped dead in front of her at the age of 29. She was 28, with 2 kids. (Can you imagine?) Then, family members recommended she go to the Concord for a vacation, to possibly meet a nice Jewish man. (The Concord – the precursor to JDate!) And that she did, and met Bert, (I have changed their names as I didn’t ask permission to tell their story.) and now they’ve been married for 52 years! Bert made a hugely successful insurance business in the ensuing years, with his wife helping him at his side, hiring his sales force of 250+ people.

So Bert goes on to say that there are three things necessary for a very happy life. One, you must have close family and friends; two, good health; and three is: money! You need money to do the things you need to do and to be able to give it away freely to help others. He said the more you give away, the more comes back to you.

Bert, you know, is absolutely right!

Oh and one more thing they said that they do. They tell each other they love each other, many times, every day, and even more so now as they’ve gotten older.

What a wonderful couple. May you all meet people like this who inspire and delight you in your travels of life!

On to my appetizer – this could be a great starter to your next holiday meal and perfect for New Year’s Eve. The basis of this recipe came from a recent Food and Wine magazine, but of course, I have changed it. The roasted grapes end up looking like olives so this can be a delightful sweet surprise when you bite into it as the roasting only heightens the sweetness of the grapes.

Getting ready to roast the grapes with rosemary for a crostini grape appetizer.

Isn’t this just so pretty?

NEW YEAR’S CROSTINI APPETIZER WITH ROASTED GRAPES – serves 4

1 lb. seedless mixed red and black grapes, stems discarded
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar, regular or aged
2 rosemary sprigs, plus chopped fresh rosemary for garnish
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Flaky French sea salt
Pepper
3 Tbs. pine nuts
Twelve 1/2-inch-thick baguette slices
1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese
Honey
Finely grated lemon zest, for serving

Preheat the oven to 400°. On a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, toss the grapes with the vinegar, rosemary sprigs and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Roast for 15 – 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the grapes are softened.

Meanwhile, spread the pine nuts in a pie plate and roast in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes, until golden. Brush the baguette slices with the remaining 1 Tbs. of olive oil. Arrange on a baking sheet and toast for about 8 minutes, until golden and crisp.

To assemble the crostini, place the toasts on a serving platter and spread some of the ricotta onto each toast. Spoon the warm grapes with their juices on top and sprinkle with the pine nuts. Top with a drizzle of honey and some lemon zest. Sprinkle the crostini with salt and garnish with chopped rosemary. Serve with LOVE. Enjoy!!

Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream and Our MSI Spring Box Winners!

April 28, 2015 by Mary

My mother used to make this cake often for birthdays or for our Sunday dessert. It was my brother Greg’s, always requested birthday cake for his July 30th birthday. It never misses an ooooh or ahhhh when brought to the table. The towering presentation, light and refreshing coolness, was always a hit, particularly in late July in steamy St. Louis.

My mother would use Dream Whip in those days, (remember that dry packaged stuff you added milk and vanilla to?) along with Duncan Hines Angel food cake mix. Ah the ‘60’s – the introduction of time saving mixes entered our lives, the beginning of processed food creeping into every aspect of our eating. Although my mother often talked about making the cake from scratch, the thought of a dozen egg whites was daunting. And then what do you do with all those yolks? (I am asking the same question now.)

When our boys were little, I continued the tradition of making this cake on Sundays with (yes, don’t judge) a boxed cake mix, but real whipped cream. Then my oldest asked for this for his recent big birthday. Only this time, I made the cake from scratch. There is a difference. Light, fabulously fluffy, not too much almond, this is sweet in so many ways. It is worth the effort. Be sure there is no butter, grease or olive oil even nearby and have your egg whites truly at room temperature – no kidding. Separate your eggs first and put your yolks back in the fridge right away, but leave those whites out. I probably let mine sit out for over 2 hours before attacking them to whip.

Be sure to use fresh cake flour too and don’t forget to cut through the batter with a knife to remove the air holes before baking and have a good liquor bottle around to turn that cake upside down on to cool, as soon as it comes out of the oven, otherwise you will watch it sink back into the pan. Find the right sized bottle first, before you even start making the cake.

Huge piece of angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries.

The birthday boy’s first piece!

This really isn’t hard and it is so pretty, so light and so delicious!! The birthday boy had one piece the size of three plus then another regular sized piece.

Yes, he was pretty happy.

ANGEL FOOD CAKE – serves 12
1 cup cake flour
3⁄4 cup sugar
2 Tbs. sugar
12 large egg whites, MUST be at room temperature
1 1⁄2 tsp. cream of tartar
1⁄4 tsp. salt
3⁄4 cup sugar
1 1⁄2 tsp. vanilla
1⁄2 tsp. almond extract

For the filling:
2+ cups heavy cream
1 rounded Tbs. powdered or confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
12 -16 oz. fresh strawberries, washed and dried. Save 5 – 6 perfect berries for the top decoration, hull and slice the others.

Note: For those not used to making angel food cakes, do not get any yoke in the whites. If you do, throw it out and start over. A good thing to do is to separate the egg in a glass first. Then if no yoke, pour into your clean, totally grease-free bowl to whip.

DO NOT GREASE PAN. Use a two-piece angel food cake pan.

Pre-heat oven to 375°.

Sift the cake flour and 3/4 cup + 2 Tbs. sugar; set aside.

Combine the extracts in a small bowl; set aside.

Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until peaks form.

Add the other 3/4 cup of sugar slowly, then beat on high until stiff peaks form. Remove bowl from mixer and fold in flour mixture and extracts slowly. You will add the flour in 5 or 6 additions, folding after each one. Make sure you fold in the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl.

Spoon batter into an angel food cake pan. Move a knife through batter to remove air pockets.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly with finger.

Remove from oven and invert pan onto a liquor bottle to cool completely.

To remove the cake from your pan take a flat metal cake spatula and insert it perpendicular in up an down motions around the rim of the cake pan just to get the ‘crust’ away from the pan.Then firmly spank the sides of your pan. Invert onto your serving plate then take the knife to the now top which was the bottom of your pan and gently cut cake away from the pan insert, using the same back and forth motion with the flat metal spatula. No need to cut around the center tube as you can just give the cake a gentle but firm tap or downward shake on to the plate. Or you can pick up plate while holding onto the pan insert with your thumbs and firmly strike the bottom of the plate onto a folded towel. (Just give it a slam down on the towel/table).

Cut the cake into 3 layers.

Whip 2+ cups of heavy cream – lightly sweeten with a Tbs. of powdered sugar and a little vanilla. Ice each layer with the cream and cover with sliced fresh strawberries. Top with whole strawberries and serve right away, with LOVE!

And now our MSI winners of our spring box giveaway are:

Carol Ezovski
Chelsea W
Stephanie Gee
Dominick Costa
Christina Bauer

Congratulations to all of you and I know you’ll love your spring box, which due to some growing pains over here, is mailing out this Friday, May 1st. Enjoy!!

Wheat Germ Saucer Cookies

June 14, 2021 by Mary

Food makes so many memories. The smells, the tastes, flooding back happy moments, complete conversations and pure joy! These Wheat Germ Saucer Cookies are a big one for me. I remember being in 7th grade when Mom first made these.

Take a look at my mom’s handwritten recipe. I could barely read it today!

My mother baked a lot. She also made sure I knew how to bake. Pies were my Dad’s favorites and of course as a kid, I LOVED cookies.

Mom made chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin (another of Dad’s favorites), and peanut butter regularly. Her Christmas Cookies were famous throughout the neighborhood and to die for, especially the Pecan Crisps, along with the Hello Dolly Squares (crazy name!), Cut-outs and Date Bars. But when she made these Wheat Germ Saucer Cookies for the very first time, I was over the moon! Because they were BIG, super crunchy and so different with coconut, oatmeal, wheat germ and chocolate chips! Then she told me that wheat germ was very healthy – especially good for pretty skin.

Well, this was MY COOKIE!!

But then of course, she told me I couldn’t eat two, because I would get fat and the cookies were big. (Granted, two is a lot — but they’re so good!!)

Well, Mom is not around anymore…

And lately, I’ve made two batches of these (why I waited so long I’ll never know) to the pure delight of everyone who tastes them! Even people who like soft chewy cookies can get into these, because of the coconut. So you get that chewy aspect combined with the crunchy-ness with the wheat germ and oatmeal – without any nuts – for those folks that are allergic.

Because they are large – they also do not take up too much time to make.

My chocolate chip cookie memories

Large cookies have another special memory for me. My dad’s older, forever single brother Eugene would come for dinner nearly every Sunday night. He didn’t talk much but this was a chance for him to be around family and to get one of my mother’s good healthy meals inside of him. One of his favorite, most memorable sayings was, when Mom would ask him if he wanted seconds on anything, Uncle Euge would say, “No thank you, I’ll do well to clean my plate.” and then chuckle. We always laughed at that and he had a very jolly laugh.

Uncle Eugene’s gifts

When he came, he always brought all of us kids (remember there were 6 of us), a box of one dozen Hersey’s chocolate bars and a big white bakery box of one dozen huge chocolate chip cookies from some bakery in downtown St. Louis near where he lived. I have been searching for that cookie for years. I still have not found it.

When I moved to NYC in the late 70’s, I got all excited as all the delis carried plastic wrapped huge chocolate chip cookies. I tried most of them, but not one matched up.

The Uncle Eugene cookies were large, just like these Wheat Germ Saucer Cookies, crunchy and pure chocolate chips. No nuts, just a great dough and chocolate. It occurs to me right now, that perhaps they used some Crisco or lard in them for that unmistakable tender crunch. That’s not really healthy so I’m not sure I’m gonna go there now, but maybe I should experiment, just a little.

The utmost importance of creaming your butter and sugar extremely well…

At any rate, do try these. My trick with any cookie is to cream the butter and sugar for a super long, long time – so that the mixture is not at all grainy with the sugar, but light colored and fluffy. Go do something else for a little bit of time while your mixer does the work. Then add your room temperature eggs, one at a time, beating very well after each one. Finally, add the dry ingredients, and most importantly, your LOVE!

I’m sure these will be an awesome hit. My friends who have eaten them just recently have begged for this recipe so here it is.

Finished dough in the mixer bowl – I didn’t have quite enough dark chocolate chunks so I added some white chocolate chips to get the full chocolate experience.

WHEAT GERM SAUCER COOKIES – makes 20 large cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups wheat germ
1½ cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 rounded tsp. Kosher salt
½ cup coconut
½ cup quick-cooking oatmeal (uncooked)
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter with sugars until very light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Mix wheat germ together with all remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and stir (lowest speed on your mixer) into butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks.

Place dough by ¼ cupfuls onto a silt pad lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 – 17 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 2 – 3 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in a loosely covered container.

Wheat Germ Saucer Cookies cooling on a rack. — You will LOVE these. Enjoy!!!

MARY’s secret ingredients summer 2015 box revealed!!

July 10, 2015 by Mary

Sand, surf and summer!!! You have got to check out this video created by our amazing and very talented team!! So FUN!!

The summer box is awesome if I may say so myself. Full of great new products that are sure to inspire your barbecues and beach parties. We hope to make your summertime living easy and these products will do it. And thank you for your purchase because each one helps us in our partnership with Feed The Children, as no one should go hungry.

We hope to inspire healthy eating for you and we want to eradicate hunger in the world.

That’s all.

Fall box mails on September 25^th. Remember there’s only a limited supply so order now!! They make a great gift and we can enclose a lovely note card with your message.

Here are all the products in the summer box:

Chipz Happen

Chipz Happen, a family owned and operated business, manufactures a line of gourmet tortilla chips. Created by our “Mom” over 25 years ago in her kitchen for family and friends, she took a bold leap of faith at the age of 73 to launch a company. Our mission is to produce products that are made with limited, premium ingredients that consumers can understand.

We offer four unique flavor profiles** and all of our products are gluten free, non-GMO, no trans fats, artificial ingredients or preservatives.** Parmesan Garlic, Spice-z Parmesan Garlic, Cinnful Sweet Heat and Himalayan Pink Salt.Cinnful Sweet Heat: The first DESSERT tortilla chip made with an unexpected “kick” at the end. Similar to a bunuelo but made with corn, this GLUTEN FREE tortilla chip is like traditional cinnamon and sugar with a little heat of cayenne.

Serve it over vanilla ice cream for a Sweet Heat experience or crunch over pancakes, apple pie or any of your favorite desserts for an unforgettable burst of flavor.

Delta Blues Rice

Delta Blues Rice is grown, milled, and packaged on a multi-generational family farm that has been in operation for over 90 years in the Mississippi Delta. The rich soil of the Delta has given birth to both agriculture and the Blues, feeding both the body and the soul of our country.

Delta Blues Rice Grits: Delta Blues Rice Grits are a delicious and versatile byproduct of the rice milling process. Traditionally known as “middlins,” rice grits are actually broken pieces of rice. The broken pieces cook up creamy with a texture that is perfect for sauces. Grits can also be cooked as a risotto or eaten plain with butter, salt, and pepper.

Love Grown Foods

Love Grown Foods was started to put healthier foods on the shelves because we are passionate about making delicious and nutritious foods available to everyone. We are also committed to educating kids, parents, and teachers about the importance of eating healthy.

Chocolate Power O’s: Power O’s will revolutionize your breakfast. Made with navy beans, garbanzo beans, and lentils, Power O’s are a powerfully nutritious cereal and a great way to power up your day!

Rufus Teague

Rufus Teague Made Some Sauce. He put some in a jar and shared it with the boys. They kept on painin’ him ‘til he fixed up another batch. Next thing he knew he’s makin’ sauce all the time. It’s damn good. All natural, gluten free.

Touch O’ Heat Barbeque Sauce: Rufus spiced it up a bit with this one. He always said, “A touch of heat will let you know it’s there”. Trust me, you’ll know the heat is there hangin’ out with all that delicious sweetness. This one’s special.

SpeegeeCo

My name’s Anthony Silva and I’m the founder of SpeegeeCo. I’m just a regular guy that loves to cook and try out recipes, while keeping things cost efficient. When faced with the plight of not wanting to buy anymore cooking tools just to try new recipes, was when the Speegee was born! The Speegee is a reinvention of the globally used silicone spatula. I found myself with cluttered kitchen drawers filled with items I’ve only used once, and tons of silicone spatulas! I asked myself, “Why have so many spatulas when it only really does a couple of jobs?”

Speegee Spatula: The Speegee was designed to accomplish any task that the spatula could, plus a whole lot more! From mixing, to folding, to spreading icing, transferring food, effortlessly scraping the sides of large pots, and even cutting, the Speegee outclasses the boring, old silicone spatula in every way. There’s no longer a need to clutter your drawers and spend a fortune on new tools, when one tool does it all!

Villa de Patos

Since 1980, Villa de Patos has combined ancient traditions with the newest technology to provide products that embody all that nature has to offer. Their products are minimally processed, or as we like to say, are preserved from the goodness from nature. Rooted in Aztec tradition and carefully crafted, Villa de Patos Maguey Sapis an ideal, unrefined and unprocessed alternative sweetener. Featured in Food & Wine as one of the top 10 objects of their obsession, Maguey Sap has a very unique flavor profile and tons of versatility in baked goods, marinades, dairy products, beverages and so much more.

Maguey Sap: Since Maguey Sap is never-heated and is all-natural, it is considered a “live” product meaning the colors will change gradually over time. The starting light amber color is ideal to use as an everyday sweetener, and the dark, rich brown color adds a one-of-a-kind flavor in sweet and savory dishes.

Potatoes Mary

March 3, 2014 by Mary

Since our children are no longer home, and as we have gotten older, I try to prevent the weight gain that happens with the slower metabolism by just not making or serving carbs at dinnertime. I try with all my might to keep in shape, (except for the couple of chocolates after dinner on weekends) but you know, I don’t consider myself too successful. I never really lost all the weight from having my boys. And you’re now talking 25 years ago.

Did I tell you I hate to shop for clothes? Seriously, I hate it. I always have. I love it when my husband buys me outfits and he does the work and lately, I guess because I haven’t shopped in so long, he went out and bought me two! The first was one of my Christmas gifts. A pair of really skinny, hip hugger jeans (that’s what we used to call them) and a beautiful navy shirt with sheer sleeves. Honestly, I was afraid to try the jeans on. I waited a few weeks. But miraculously, they fit! And they’re even a size 8 – but I think they’re making all the sizes more generous now – and they really should be a 10. Whatever, I was just so happy they fit and I didn’t have to tell him I had to take them back for a larger size.

I was reminded of a lunch I had some months ago with my friend Sharon, who is just a couple of years younger than me. Sharon is in good shape – don’t get me wrong – but she said she was with another friend who was helping her clean out her closets and her friend told her to throw out all the clothes that were too small because she thought they would constantly depress her. So Sharon decided right then and there that she didn’t have to strive for still being in her twenties. She said she gave it up!

Me? I’d like to think that I’m still nineteen – hell – forget the twenties – I want to be nineteen again! And I’m not giving up – and still striving for the body – not that I’m there – but you know what I mean?

So recently I had lunch with my friend Marie who is a few years older than me and she said she understood me. She was in that frame of mind in the past, but she thought she had moved to Sharon’s camp now. I was wearing the new outfit at that lunch and the jeans are not all that comfortable – but I’ll suffer for fashion every once in a while.

Who’s camp are you in?

We have been entertaining a lot and when we entertain, we do always serve a carb. Lately I’ve been making these potatoes – similar to Potatoes Anna but not done in the oven and not nearly with the amount of butter James Beard would call for. So let’s call these Potatoes Mary. They’re easy to do as long as you have a hand mandoline. Cook them slowly while you’re having cocktails, flip carefully and you’ll turn out a delicious and impressive looking dish for your guests.

POTATOES MARY – serves 6 – 8

6 – 7 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and sliced thin on a mandoline (you can peel these but I don’t if they’re really fresh – my mother always said the skin was good for you – made your own skin pretty!)
1 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. unsalted butter, divided
1 tbs. chopped fresh thyme leaves
Salt
Pepper

Slice your potatoes right before using. Warm the olive oil with 1 tbs. of butter on medium heat in a non-stick skillet. When butter is melted, swirl together and start laying the potatoes in the skillet, overlapping them in a round fashion, making sure the overall thickness is even and using 1/2 – 2/3 of them. Then stop and salt and pepper over the top. Sprinkle the thyme leaves evenly over the surface and dot with the remaining tbs. of butter. Layer in evenly the rest of the potatoes, and salt and pepper the final top surface.

Cover the skillet for 15 – 20 minutes. The potatoes will sweat and cook. Check the bottom carefully with a spatula to make sure the bottom is not browning too much. Uncover the skillet after the 15 – 20 minutes to let some of the accumulated moisture dry up as you’re aiming for a crispy bottom, yet all the potatoes must be tender and creamy so check them with a fork in the center, cooking them for 10 – 15 minutes longer on this side, uncovered. When they’re pretty dry on top as the photo shows, slide them out of the skillet onto a plate. Then cover the plate with an unrimmed cookie sheet and flip them over. Now slide the whole potato gallette back into the skillet to brown the other side. Cook for 15 – 20 minutes more to slowly brown the other side. Keep checking with a fork. If they are not getting tender, cover them for a bit but you want to end up with your last 10 minutes or so uncovered to get them crispy. Carefully slide the whole shebang out of the skillet and onto a serving plate.

Cut like a pie into wedges. Serve with LOVE.

Delicious crab cakes

December 29, 2011 by Mary Frances

A traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner is comprised of numerous courses of fish. It was a sin, way back, to eat meat on Christmas Eve and many folks fasted all day too.

However, my brother David was born on Christmas Eve so things got all catawampus at our house. David is the second oldest, was born with no name in mind. The story goes that after attending midnight mass, my father went back to the hospital and said he had to be named David, as that was the most mentioned name in the entire service.

Then I moved to New York and every Jewish person I met was totally surprised that our Catholic family had a son named David! Oy vey!

Well David and his brood (7 kids and 10 grandchildren with 2 more on the way) still live in St. Louis. So all of us on the East coast could go back to a more traditional meal, rather than his birthday request.

Here is what I served for this year.

Appetizers:
Taramusalata with red pepper and celery sticks
Greek cheese & aged Gouda with Breton crackers
Beautiful bunch of grapes

Dinner:
Crab cakes on a bed of Boston lettuce with chipotle mayonnaise and 1/2 slice of warm homemade Polish bread just out of the oven.
Steamed whole striped bass with ginger and lemon
Fennel salad
Coarse bulgar with olive oil and parsley
Oven roasted plum tomatoes with oregano

Dessert:
Christmas cookies, of course!

David’s wife, Pat, requested the crab cake recipe. This is from Preston Clark at Food and Wine magazine and it is the best crab cake recipe I have found so far. Now my husband is from Baltimore, so this is a big deal. Baltimoreans know their crab and they serve up the BEST jumbo lump crab cakes. A fine restaurant there will never use a lot or maybe any breading, but then I could never figure out how they got them to hold together because every time I would try to replicate their recipes, they would taste good, but look terrible as they always fell apart.

This recipe uses another fish as a binding – it’s genius! Fresh and full of flavor with the jalapeños and scallions, and crispy on the outside, you will love these. And they hold together nicely.

Crab cake on a Boston lettuce leaf with organic watercress and chipotle mayo

Here you go!

CRISP CRAB CAKES WITH CHIPOTLE MAYONNAISE – ADAPTED FROM PRESTON CLARK
-serves 8 as a first course or 4 as a main

Crab Cakes
1/4 – 1/2 lb. skinless flounder fillet, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
5 scallions, thinly sliced
3 jalapeños, seeded and minced
3 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tbs. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 lb. lump or jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over for shells, lay out on a paper towel and pat dry on top
1 1/4 cups panko bread crumbs
Pure olive oil, for frying (I think I might try canola or peanut next time to get it at a higher temperature.)

Chipotle Mayonnaise
This makes a lot and all is not necessary for the crab cakes, but you can use leftovers for other meat sandwiches, especially turkey would be good
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 chipotle chile in adobo, seeded and minced (or leave the seeds in if you like it spicey – I did)
1 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground pepper

To make the cakes:
In a mini food processor, puree the fish. A small fillet is about 8 oz and my fishmonger wouldn’t sell any less so I used the whole 1/2 lb. and pureed it in two batches. Transfer the pureed fish to a large bowl and add the scallions, jalapeños, lemon juice, parsley, cayenne, salt, pepper and mayonnaise and mix thoroughly. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the crabmeat. Form the mixture into 8 cakes. Place the panko in a pie plate and gently coat the cakes with the panko and refrigerate for 30 minutes. It is important to refrigerate them for at least 30 minutes, so you can handle them and they hold their shape when frying.

To make the mayonnaise:
In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, chipotle, lemon juice, Old Bay and mustard and season with salt and black pepper. Cover and refrigerate.

To fry the cakes:
In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1/4 inch of oil until shimmering. Add the crab cakes and cook over moderate heat until browned and heated through, about 3 minutes per side. Use 2 skillets or do 2 batches as 4 at a time is enough.

To serve:
I served the crab cakes on a bed of one Boston lettuce leaf topped with watercress with a dab of the chipotle mayonnaise. Squeeze a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice on the outside rim of the lettuce, before placing on the crab cake, then put on your dab of mayonnaise.

So pretty. So fresh. So good!!

Covered bread

Homemade Polish bread on a white napkin.

Homemade Polish bread – the slight sweetness of this bread offset the spiciness of the crab cake with chipotle mayo – yummy!

MARY’s secret ingredients spring 2016 subscription box

April 16, 2016 by Mary

Our MARY’s secret ingredients spring 2016 subscription box shipped early last week to amazing RAVE reviews!!! This box is so very special with fantastic products supporting terrific causes. As you know, with the box we support Feed The Children, the global organization dedicated to providing aid to children and fighting the hunger epidemic.

And also included in this great seasonal box are two other items supporting important causes. 100 Cups A Day supports clean water solutions starting with the state of Guanajuato, Mexico and The Tea Spot donates ten percent of its sales in-kind to cancer and community wellness programs.

Here is our unboxing video!

Read about all of these products in more detail below. As always, I created some scrumptious new recipes using each one, which will be posted on this site over the next two weeks

This box is so special, as we are not only inspiring you with healthy new products to help you make awesome LOVE inspired food but you are also supporting all of these great initiatives when you buy a box.

As a special offering, we have made up more of these subscription boxes so you can still go to maryssecretingredients.com and buy a box for $34.00. That price includes shipping anywhere in the continental US. This is quite a good deal since the box is worth over $55.00!

Mother’s Day is coming – this makes a great gift!

100 Cups A Day

100 Cups A Day is an organization dedicated to the physical and spiritual well-being of water, founded by sculptor and ceramic artist Natalie Blake. Natalie is awesome!! Each cup is hand-thrown in porcelain by Natalie and her assistant Kyle in her studio in Brattleboro, Vermont, with all proceeds going to Caminos de Agua – an organization working to innovate and implement open source solutions to sustainable, safe, clean drinking water in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico and globally.

100 Cups

For this spring box, Natalie has crafted a special edition symbolic cup. “The simplest vessel gifting the simplest need. Drink 100 cups of water and become aware of water in your life.”

Joseph Joseph

Founded in 2003 by twin brothers Anthony and Richard, Joseph Joseph specialises in creating design-led products for the
kitchen and home with a strong emphasis on form, functionality and quality. As one of the fastest growing companies in the worldwide homewares market, the brand has earned global recognition for its multi-award-winning designs.

Rocker 100 – Stainless Steel Garlic Crusher

By using downward pressure and a ‘rocking’ motion, this stylish, stainless steel tool crushes garlic cloves quickly and easily by forcing the pieces up through its mesh holes, leaving your hands free of garlic odour. Simply use the Rocker™ 100 to crush your garlic, then spoon or scrape it from the curved press with ease to add to your cooking. Rocker™ 100 is easy to clean under running water but is also dishwasher safe. A game-changing kitchen gadget that will revolutionise your garlic crushing!

Just Jan’s

It was December 2011; a decades long career in the film industry was coming to an end and Jan was looking for a new endeavor. One day while delivering a batch of fig spread to a friend, Jan had a chance encounter with a food industry veteran. Word had gotten out about this film producer’s fig spread, and he wanted to know if it was as good as he had heard. Jan ran home, got what was left of the spread, and met him at a coffee shop so he could taste it. After tasting it, he said “This is better than anything on the market. Would you consider doing this for a living?” The rest is history. Today, Just Jan’s can be found in the Four Seasons San Francisco & Westlake, and at select gourmet retailers across the country.

Just Jan’s Tangerine Marmalade

Just Jan’s Tangerine Marmalade, is a unique twist on traditional Orange Marmalade. Our Tangerine Marmalade is all natural and lower in sugar, allowing the bright citrus flavor of tangerine to shine through. Brighten up your morning toast, or try it in your evening cocktail.

Savory Choice

Located in Northern California, Savory Choice offers a full range of premium broth concentrates. They have been making news around the country because they deliver broths that taste good enough for chefs to call their own. Their clean label products contain no MSG, or HVP, and they’re naturally gluten free with zero trans fats.

Veggie Authentic Pho:

Made with traditional flavors and aromatics, infused in a rich broth, this Pho contains no artificial flavors or coloring added and is made with natural ingredients. Add your choice of protein or veggies, cooked rice noodles and garnish with your choice of condiments to create the perfect pho dish in minutes. Each stick pouch of liquid broth concentrate is reconstituted with 2 cups (16 oz) of hot water. Savor the homemade flavor!

Sir Kensington’s

Launched by Scott Norton and Mark Ramadan in 2010, Sir Kensington’s offers award-winning lines of ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard. I met Scott just last week – super nice guy!!

Sir Kensington’s strives to create products recognized as both healthy and uncompromisingly delicious by using only-the-best ingredients such as Certified Humane eggs and whole tomatoes.

Sir Kensington’s Dijonnaise

Sir Kensington’s Dijonnaise is the perfect blend of mayonnaise and mustard. With slightly spicy notes of their propriety mustard mix, paired with smooth and tangy Classic Mayonnaise, this is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Enjoy with your favorite sandwich, or as a crust on seared fish.

The Tea Spot

The Tea Spot is a leading producer of handcrafted whole leaf teas and the creator of Steepware®—innovative tools that make the premium tea experience effortless and accessible. The company was founded in 2004 by Maria Uspenski, a cancer survivor drawn to the health benefits of leaf tea during her recovery. Her message is simple and powerful: tea in its freshest form renders premium flavor, unmatched health benefits, and is eco-friendly. Through their 10% Pledge, the company donates ten percent of sales in-kind to cancer and community wellness programs

Meditative Mind Sachets

These premium sachets contain a soothing white tea blend to sharpen the mind and arouse the senses. Rosebuds are known to ease nervous tension and have a calming effect. The exotic floral scent of night–blooming jasmine is used as an anti-depressant in herbal medicine. This combination works together to enhance the light, subtle flavor of the white peony tea leaf base – creating the perfect remedy for a stressful day.

Amazing tomato chicken braise

June 5, 2013 by Mary Frances

I made the most amazing dinner Monday night, if I might say so myself.

Back when I really started cooking, my youngest son (who inscribed the cookbook in the About section) would say to me, “Mom, repeat after me, ‘Yes, I really am a good cook.'” However, I often didn’t, and still don’t now, know what I’m going to cook on any given night — meaning I don’t use recipes and I haven’t necessarily bought things that make sense for one. I usually make up something that I am in the mood for on the subway ride home. I think you have to cook something that you like, something that gets you excited, because that’s part of imparting your love into the dish. Fortunately, my family is usually okay with this.

So on Monday, I had a whole chicken and was tired of making roast chicken. I also had 6 plum tomatoes that needed to be used and was in the mood for a tomato chicken stew over some light pasta. I thought it would be good.

My husband said, “Stew? It’s too hot for stew. I could eat roast chicken again.” Not me. So then I said, “Call it a braise. I have an idea and I think you’ll like it.” (He had seconds. And it was in the 70s and rainy on Monday.)

I started making it, determined to change his mind and make something he would love.

It was fantastic!! Light and packed with flavor and very clean tasting. Actually there is very little oil or fat in this dish. I must say that I also used my Le Creuset Dutch oven to cook this in and I do think that makes a difference. It is such a great pot and no one pays me to say that.

I hope you will give this a go, in whatever pot you have. You will not be disappointed.

FRESH TOMATO CHICKEN BRAISE – serves 4

1 tbs. olive oil
1 whole chicken, washed and thoroughly dried, backbone cut out (save for stock) and cut into 6 – 8 pieces, depending on if you want to cut the breasts in half
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 large onion, chopped
5 – 7 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot, scraped and chopped into 1/4” pieces
4 anchovy fillets, drained, patted dry and chopped
2 tbs. water
6 plum tomatoes
4 sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained and chopped
1 large sprig of fresh oregano
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 lb. thin fettucine
Pecorino Romano cheese for grating – optional

Trim all the fat from the chicken. Wash and dry your pieces thoroughly. Salt and pepper both sides to taste. Heat the oil on medium-high heat in a Dutch oven and place in chicken, skin side down. Brown on each side for 5 – 6 minutes, using a metal spatula to turn the chicken over, so you don’t lose the skin. Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a deep plate or pie plate, as juices will collect.

Add the onion, garlic, anchovies and carrot to the Dutch oven. Add 2 tbs. water and lower heat to low and cover, to sweat the vegetables and make them sweet. Scape up the bits from the bottom of the pan and stir. After about 5 – 7 minutes, they should have succumbed and become tender and rich.

Add your browned chicken back in and blanket with the chopped plum tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, thyme and oregano. Cover and on low heat, cook for 7 minutes, stir and turn chicken over, cover and cook for another 7 minutes until done. Remove from heat, covered and let sit for 5 – 7 minutes. Temperature on an instant read thermometer should read 155 – 160 degrees.

Meanwhile, cook dried fettucine in salted boiling water 1-2 minutes less than the package directions. Drain and toss with a little olive oil.

Serve the pasta topped with the chicken and the sauce. Pass the Pecorino Romano cheese and grater if you like. I did, my husband didn’t.

This dish was so very flavorful and clean tasting – rich and buttery tasting, yet no butter and very little olive oil or chicken fat to speak of – just delicious, full bodied, clean tasting richness. I know that doesn’t make sense – just trust me – this was very good! The fresh tomatoes were ripe and bright, anchovies always add a burst of flavor and the carrot sweetened it all. Not to mention the herbs were just cut from my garden upstate the day before. We are very lucky to have that, I know.

I served this with baby bok choy from Ethel’s garden, sautéed with a little olive oil, water, garlic, salt and pepper. Just delicious!

Whether you make this dish or your own concoction, make it with LOVE and it will taste amazing! Truly!

Now I digress. Very early this morning I had a dream about my youngest son. He was back to being three years old and had a large, terrible wound on his back with a scab, and it was in the shape of a heart! He didn’t mind it, unless you touched it. It was almost as if he didn’t know it was there, he was such a trouper. But I was so concerned for him. I felt so sorry. I wanted to keep sleeping and stay in the dream to make sure he was okay and not in pain. He seemed to know how he got it – some sort of scuffle with another kid – like he knew what he doing and was okay with the wound. Very weird.

Any dream interpreters out there?

Duck Braised with Red Wine and Prunes

January 13, 2015 by Mary

I took Judy’s advice and served it with sauteed polenta, along with some green beans tossed with olive oil and toasted walnuts.

I have been wanting to tell you about this dish. It is so delicious, silky in texture, totally yummy and best yet, it’s super easy. You just need time, so a weekend is good. This Duck Braised with Red Wine and Prunes is a recipe from the famed Judy Rodgers, the chef and owner at Zuni Café in San Francisco. She left us way too soon, just a little over a year ago when she was only 57. (cancer) I feel a kindred spirit with Judy. She was also from St. Louis and she loved great basic food perfected. She was known for refined simplicity.

Her Zuni Café cookbook is different. Her recipes read like she is standing next to you, telling you what to expect, variations that may come up and what to do. Therefore, all recipes are very copy heavy, which is a little intimidating and time consuming to get through it all. But the upside is, she is teaching you HOW to cook, with tips all the way through on every possibility that may come up, and why, not just how to cook that particular recipe.

She has a definite fondness for salting the proteins early, even days before. If you think about it and can do it, it really does work. It tenderizes, promotes juiciness, improves texture, and flavors the meat or poultry all the way through. It’s interesting, that by seasoning judiciously early, you will use less salt overall. As Judy says, “you will eliminate the habit of repeated doses, and accidental overdoses, of “surface salt” at the table.”

One of my all-time favorite dishes of hers to make, and it is the most popular dish at the restaurant, is her Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad. It takes an hour to order at the café, but that hasn’t put a damper on its demand. I’ll have to share that at another time.

Because I love her roast chicken so much, I thought she couldn’t go wrong with duck, right? She did not disappoint. Here is her recipe. I made it with LOVE for our friends Margaret and Wayne during the holidays, using 6 duck legs and increasing the recipe proportionately, and then we got to have another dinner out of it later that week.

Duck braised with red wine and prunes on a white platter.

I decided it needed a little color so I garnished it with some chopped Italian parsley.

DUCK BRAISED WITH RED WINE & PRUNES – serves 4 – a Judy Rodgers recipe

A rich old French dish. If you use the orange zest or the clove, it will have a dramatic impact on the flavor and character of the dish, making it sneakily festive. I like it both ways. (I used both the orange and cloves)

Muscovy, or Barbiere (Barbary), duck has firm, almost beefy, dark red flesh that supports long cooking and generous old-fashioned flavors. Very good with toasted polenta.

Wine: Cabors, Chateau du Cayrou, 1996

For 4 Servings:

4 Muscovy duck legs (10 to 12 ounces each)
Salt
4 cups medium-bodied or hearty red wine, such as Sangiovese, Merlot, Syrah, or Cabernet Sauvignon
2 cups Duck Stock or other bird stock or Chicken Stock
2 medium yellow onions (about 8 oz. each), root end trimmed flat, peeled, and cut into 1 ½ inch wedges
2 ounces garlic cloves (about ½ cup), unpeeled
1 bay leaf
2 wide strips of orange zest about 2 ½ inches long, removed with a vegetable peeler, and/or a whole clove (optional)
12 prunes, preferably with pits

Trimming and seasoning the duck legs (for the best flavor and succulence, do this step 2-3 days in advance):
Trim lumps of fat, ragged edges or meatless flaps of skin (it’s worth saving and rendering these: even a few scraps can be enough to flavor a soup). Rinse the duck legs, lay between dry towels, and press to absorb surface moisture. Season evenly all over with salt (we use a scant ¼ teaspoon sea salt per pound of duck). Cover loosely and refrigerate.

Cooking the Duck:
Preheat the oven to 300°.

Reduce the red wine and the stock separately to about 1 cup each. The stock should have body and will be slightly salty. Set aside.

Press the duck between towels to wick off excess moisture. Place a dry 10- or 12-inch skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot enough that the duck hisses on contact, add the legs, skin side down, and leave to set a golden crust, about 10 minutes. The duck will begin to render fat within a few minutes; reduce the heat if the fat starts to smoke. Turn the legs over and brown for just a few minutes on the flesh side, then arrange skin side up in an ovenproof 3-quart sauté pan. Pour off the rendered fat from the skillet; if any appetizing golden bits remain in the skillet, add the reduced red wine to the pan and simmer briefly, stirring to dissolve them. Set aside.

Nestle the onion wedges in between the duck legs. Add the garlic, bay leaf, and optional orange zest and/or clove. Add enough of the reduced wine and stock, in about equal doses, to come to a depth of ½ inch; save any extra wine and stock for extending the sauce. Swirl the pan as you bring to a simmer over medium heat, then cover tightly, place in the oven, and cook for about 1 hour.

Turn the duck legs over and add the unpitted prunes, making sure they are submerged in the braising liquid; work quickly, so you don’t lose too much heat. (If you are using pitted prunes, add them after 10 minutes more.) Cover the pan tightly and return to the oven.

After another hour (or about 40 minutes if the duck legs are on the small end of the range listed), turn the legs over, turn the heat up to 375° and return the pan to the oven uncovered. When the legs feel just tender and are slightly browned, usually within another 20 minutes, remove the pan from the oven. Turn off the oven and place a serving platter to warm in the oven for a minute or two. Leave the duck legs to rest for about 5 minutes, then carefully lift from the sauce to the warm serving platter.

Skim the abundant fat from the surface of the braising liquid, and taste the liquid. If it seems thin in flavor or texture, set the pan over medium heat and, skimming attentively, reduce to the texture of warm maple syrup. If the sauce tastes too rich, dilute it with a trickle of water. If you seem shy on sauce and you have extra wine and reduced stock, add a little of each, then simmer to bring the sauce to a slightly syrupy consistency.

Serve each duck leg with 3 prunes and a few silky onion wedges and slippery garlic cloves. There should be a few tablespoons of sauce for each leg.

Kale & Farro Salad with Spicy Butternut Squash, Broccoli, Radishes & Cashews

April 10, 2016 by Mary

There are so many snack boxes out there — Graze, Love With Food, Snack Nation and Nature Box to name a few. I went to a food conference last Saturday called Founder Made, where numerous new food product founders participated. A lot of discussion was had about how millennials eat, much of it revolving around snacking. And Graze was there touting their “healthy” snacks.

Well I’m here to tell you that while their snacks may not be fried potato chips – they are “healthier” than that – but they are high in calories and sugar just the same. And if you eat three well-balanced meals, you should have no need to snack at all. Come on – one of their snacks was pecan pie pecans – that’s full of sugar and super fattening! That is not a healthy snack.

So the millennials will be overweight and even more detrimental, not understand the value of eating right, balanced meals in the first place. This is like the “low fat” craze of the 80’s – total hogwash!

So what we aim to do with MARY’s secret ingredients is to introduce you to new healthy products that will easily turn a ho-hum ordinary meal into a special gourmet “company” meal. We want to show you how to create fantastic dishes, super easily, with the new healthy products we have curated for you. It might be a new flavored natural jam or a condiment that can be used on steamed vegetables to create a sauce that gives it a wow factor, or creating a unique marinade with tea or how to make a spectacular sauce for grilled fish. Suddenly, “ordinary” moves to “extraordinary” with a few simple moves utilizing our new natural products. And you will know EXACTLY that what you’re putting into your body is good for you, wholesome and will make you feel terrific!!! And we want to eradicate hunger with our partnership with Feed The Children.

All good things!

The spring box shipped last week and I’m excited to share with you the recipes for those new products starting later this week.

I found this today on The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation site – one of my faves:

The first wealth is health. – RALPH WALDO EMERSON

When you regard your life as a trust, you realize that the first resource you have to take care of is your own body. This can be startling. Even your body is not really your own. It belongs to life, and it is your responsibility to take care of it. You cannot afford to do anything that injures your body, because the body is the instrument you need for selfless action. That is the fine print of the trust agreement: when we smoke, when we overeat, when we don’t get enough exercise, we are violating the terms of the trust.

If you want to live life at its fullest, you will want to do everything possible to keep your body in vibrant health in order to give back to life a little of what it has given you.

So on to my recipe of this Kale & Farro Salad with Spicy Butternut Squash, Broccoli, Radishes & Cashews, which was super delicious!

I always think of butternut squash as a winter vegetable so I want to tell you about this dish I made up the other night before spring really gets here, even though it should be here already. All of us on the East coast are still wearing scarves and winter coats. It’s crazy!

This was totally yummy with a lot of ying and yang – cool and hot, spicy and not, crispy and soft textures – a beautiful symphony of flavors and a very satisfying vegetarian dish. Make it tonight – with LOVE – and all will be right in the world.

Promise.

KALE & FARRO SALAD WITH SPICY BUTTERNUT SQUASH, BROCCOLI, RADISHES & CASHEWS – serves 4

4 oz. chopped kale leaves
1 cup farro, cooked
1 small butternut squash, cut in generous ½” squares
1 large onion, cut in ½” squares
2 Tbs. coconut oil
3 Tbs. spice rub* (recipe below – also great for pulled pork)
1 bunch of organic broccoli
1/3 cup chopped roasted, salted cashews
4 thinly sliced radishes
Olive oil for drizzling
2 wedges of lemon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

*SPICE RUB RECIPE:

1½ Tbs. sweet paprika
½ Tbs. garlic powder
½ Tbs. brown sugar
½ Tbs. dry mustard (Coleman’s)
1½ Tbs. coarse sea salt

Mix the paprika, garlic power, brown sugar, dry mustard, and salt together in a small bowl.

This makes more than you need and is also great to rub on a pork butt to make pulled pork. Double it if you’d like to have some extra on hand. Keep in a tightly closed container

Combine the squash and onions with the coconut oil and spice mix on a rimmed baking sheet. Toss all to combine and roast in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes until tender. Toss at the halfway point, at about the 20 minute mark.

Meanwhile, cover the farro with about 3 inches of cold water. Salt with a little coarse sea salt and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 30 – 40 minutes. Taste test with a fork for tenderness. It should be a bit chewy. Strain in a fine mesh colander when done.

Wash all the kale in a lettuce spinner, removing any large stems. Spread on a clean counter to air dry, then chill in a paper towel lined plastic bag in the refrigerator.

Wash and peel stems of the broccoli. Cut each stem into 4 or 5 smaller stems and steam for about 10 minutes, until bright green and crisp tender. When done, remove the steamer of broccoli from the pot so it can air dry a bit.

Wash and trim the radishes. Using a hand mandolin, slice into very thin slices.

Coarsely chop the cashews.

Everything should be done all around the same time, so now you’re ready to assemble!

Line low flat bowls with the kale leaves. Place ¼ of the cooked farro in the middle, with the kale forming a ridge around the edge. Place a scoop of the butternut squash on top of the farro.

Chop the steamed broccoli into 2” lengths, leaving the flowerets intact and place them around the edge of the farro. Tuck in sliced radishes in four places around the bowl as shown.

Place chopped cashews on top of the squash. Drizzle some olive oil on the kale edge of the bowl, and follow that with a squeeze of lemon juice around that same kale edge.

Serve with LOVE, a Vouvray and enjoy!!!

What is it??

October 10, 2012 by Mary Frances

Our wonderful friend, Carl, presented this gift to us at lunch last week. He was so excited! He was recently visiting Berlin and saw a kitchen shop there near the train station and knew he had to run in and see if he could find this for us.

Steve and I looked at one another. We were perplexed.

Certainly for him to think of us while he was vacationing in the Eastern Block was so generous of him but what the hell was this thing? And Carl was oh so very careful in taking it out of the bag and setting it on the table.

At our lunch together the last time, we had this big discussion on eggs! The variety of ways to cook them, how wonderful creamy and dreamy local farm fresh eggs taste these days and how not to have them crack when making hard or soft boiled eggs.

Well, this is an egg piercer!

When you unlock it by twisting it, a needle pops up. You place the raw egg on this baby and pierce a hole, to prevent it from cracking when boiling it.

Isn’t that cool?

I suppose, if you’re really a Martha Stewart or Sandra Lee, around Easter time, you could pierce both ends and blow out the eggs and paint and enamel them for eternity, or make Christmas ornaments, or whatever. Now I see people even hanging painted and colored eggs from trees at Easter!

So, my husband, Steve, makes breakfast for both of us during the week. I only do it on weekends. (Yes he is a sweetie.) So this is his tool. I think he’s getting used to it. He’s only broken one egg.

Crystal Lake in Barton, Vermont

August 23, 2014 by Mary

Our visit to my brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Trish, at their vacation home on Crystal Lake in Barton, Vermont was filled with great food, amazing wine and wonderful times to create lasting memories. We picked up our youngest son, Zach and his girlfriend, Agata, arriving from Germany, at the airport last week on Thursday and headed straight up north. Barton is a quiet village with a population of 720, near the Canadian border. This makes for a marked contrast to the hustle and bustle of our daily lives in NYC. We have been going up there for 34 years now and not much has changed. Crystal Lake is aptly named. It is very crystal clear.

Steve and Trish are the most amazing hosts. They planned every meal to perfection along with delicious pairings of wine. (you may remember that Steve has a wine and food pairing blog – www.wineandfoodpairings.net) We were joined by their friends, Dana and Richard. (They are the owners of the beautiful Bernese mountain dog, Otis.) Richard was celebrating a birthday last Saturday, and he brought some fantastic champagne, French Chardonnays plus a magnum of Tensley Syrah from CA and a 1977 port! Both Richard and Steve have full wine cellars. Richard said that since it was his birthday, he picked very special bottles he had been saving and felt like a kid in his own candy store. We got to be the lucky beneficiaries!

We arrived home this past Wednesday, relaxed, refreshed, and happy. We all ate and drank too much – but I’m not sorry. Here are some visual highlights so you can take a vicarious tour of our little vaca. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy drinking all the delicious wine.

We are a cooking family! Here’s Trish’s agile hands on the mandolin cutting raw zucchini into pasta-like strips to make Jenny Ross’s zucchini pasta with lemon pistachio pesto recipe from Jenny’s cookbook, Raw Basics. Jenny has the restaurant 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa, CA, where everything is served at 118 degrees or less. It was delicious!! Totally raw and totally healthy.

Here’s my brother, Steve completing his fresh tomatoes and basil side, with balsamic vinegar pearls or as he likes to call them, balsamic caviar. This is made with the Molecular Gastronomy Kit by Cuisine R-evolution. To make them you put a tall glass of vegetable oil in the freezer for 30 minutes. Combine agar-agar with balsamic and bring to boil. Fill a pipette (dropper) with this mixture and then slowly drip the liquid from the pipette into the cold oil. The pearls will form and then you use a sieve to remove pearls from the oil, rinse with water and serve. Pretty cool, eh?

Zach and Agata helping themselves to my brother’s famous grilled baby back ribs. What a beautiful meal with a gorgeous wine pairing!! The Williams Selyem vineyard is one of my brother’s favorites, and mine too!

Having just come back from spending the summer in Europe, Zach and Agata wanted to make some traditional food for us for lunch – borscht and pierogi.

Here’s Zach’s Ukrainian style borscht, which was delicious and oh so healthy with homemade chicken broth. (I liked it with a small dollop of sour cream.) They brought back a bottle of wine from Georgia to give to my brother. They said they knew that it was a little like bringing sand to the beach, but did you know that Georgia has some of the oldest wine producing regions on earth? I surely didn’t.

The pierogi ready to boil. Agata made 71 of them!! Aren’t they beautiful?

The finished pierogi with a bacon onion topping. Delish!!

The starting point of my 10 mile bike ride around neighboring Lake Willoughby.

Waterfalls along the way.

Steve and Steve (my husband and brother) out for an afternoon cruise. You can see just how clear the water is.

Always a highlight of a Vermont visit is the weather permitting, early evening cocktail cruise. Here’s our appetizer tray for one evening – homemade kale chips, jalapeño hummus, vegetable dipping sticks and lightly salted cashews.

My husband enjoying the cruise. Notice the “S” on his hat – so he doesn’t forget his name is Steve! (Actually it’s from Summit, NJ baseball when our boys played.)

Now you’ll notice I have no mention of my meal made there, as my Provencial chicken got quite the blackened treatment from a fire on the grill. Although it still tasted good and seconds were had, it was not something to share in a photograph.

I hope you all have been able to fit in relaxing vacation time this summer as well. School is starting soon!

A very special day.

November 27, 2011 by Mary Frances

Yesterday was my birthday and as has become a tradition from my husband and sons, I am to stay out of the kitchen the whole day and only do what I want. Pretty special! So I slept late, went for long bike ride, chatted with an old friend (actually my second employee who never forgets my birthday after all these years) from San Francisco and then some of us went to the movies to see J. Edgar.

Zach and his Polish girlfriend, Agata, made breakfast and lunch, while my husband and my eldest son made dinner. Breakfast and lunch were surprises to me while the dinner menu was my request. All were amazing!!

Homemade Polish bread on a wooden cutting board.

Polish homemade bread

We have a bread recipe in our family from my grandmother that I usually make on each holiday. Since we were all spending Thanksgiving at my brother, Steve’s house in CT, Agata volunteered to make the bread. Yipee!! This is a yeast number with 2 risings and takes about 6 hours. So it was a treat to have someone else offer to make it! The most interesting thing is that her family has a really similar recipe to ours and she made a few modifications to match ours exactly, as she had tasted my bread last Christmas. Nowhere else have we ever run into this! Most people think of babka or some form of that when you say Polish bread but this is a slightly cakey, eggy version and she said we do it a little sweeter than her family.

Polish vegetable and cheese salad in a blue and white bowl.

Polish vegetable/cheese salad

She did a beautiful job!! See the photo – light, airy and just the right texture. So for breakfast she made us all a breakfast her grandmother used to make for her! Egg salad (with Tom and Ethel’s delicious farm fresh eggs) and another dish that is a mixture of fresh peeled cucumbers, Farmer’s cheese, creme fraiche, tomatoes, garlic and chives. For each bite, we put a spoonful of either one on a piece of toasted homemade bread, and it was yummy! Creamy, light, refreshing and different! All things I LOVE!

Creamy egg salad

Right after breakfast, Agata got to work on lunch. From scratch, she made nearly 70 pierogis! They were delicious. They were stuffed with a mixture of sautéed onion, mashed potatoes and Farmers cheese and then topped with a light sauce of onions and bacon. Served with a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc and we were all happy campers!! Just delicious!

A pierogi lunch!

So for dinner, our oldest son made me a terrific Rob Roy straight up. It is one of my favorite cocktails, right up there with a Tanqueray 10 straight up martini. A Rob Roy is essentially a slightly sweet Manhattan made with either Scotch or better yet, choose a single malt, like Oban. Add a lemon twist and I am set!

This drink, besides being delicious, always brings back fond memories of the first time I had it. It was at the Windows on the World restaurant at a special event for World Trade Club Members. This was the storied restaurant on top of the World Trade Center. We were doing marketing work for the private club, dealing with the legendary Joe Baum, and they were holding this single malt scotch tasting for club members and we were invited. It was like an accelerated wine tasting. You can get pretty loopy pretty fast and our host was from Scotland, enjoying every moment and Jules, our client, insisted I try this Rob Roy. It was a match for me! You should try it.

Zach, Agata and I played Bananagrams in front of the fire while dinner was being prepared. Because it was my birthday, they let me get away with “luvv” (I kept on getting those darn v’s) and “eazy”. It’s good to be the birthday girl!

I still didn’t win!

But I digress – on to dinner. We started with fresh shrimp sautéed in hot pepper, parsley, garlic, and olive oil, served with warm crusty French bread for dipping in and scooping up every last drop of the delicious olive oil, served with a ’97 San Marco from Tuscany – a beautiful Tuscan red.

Dinner was Chicken Scarpariello served with sides of spaghetti squash with a fresh tomato garlic sauce and oven roasted Brussels sprouts tossed with blue cheese. It was fantastic!! Wine was a Portuguese 2007 red from this wine store we recently found on the Upper East side. Check out Park East Wines and Spirits on York Avenue at 87^th St. Tom Anderer is the Manager and very helpful. He is a certified sommelier.

Dessert was a lovely cheese plate complete with Medjool dates, Golden Delicious apple wedges and toasted walnuts.

Quite a feast! All so wonderful!

Tonight we’re having homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches – a break from the richness of the past 3 days. I hope your holiday weekend was also filled with wonderful family times and scrumptious food!