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Best Blueberry Pie – Mary’s Version

June 27, 2021 by Mary

It’s blueberry season and I had been having a craving for this Best Blueberry Pie– it’s the pie by Rose Levy Beranbaum from Food 52 . Only now I have remade the recipe – Best Blueberry Pie – Mary’s Version!

The weekend before last, I was invited to my new friend Maria’s house in Bayville, NY. Her home is smack dab right on the water, the beautiful Long Island Sound. It is just gorgeous! Maria is also a recent widow like me, and has a terrific group of great friends who get together on a regular basis. They are all foodies and wine snobs, so I fit right in.

For a dinner party at her friends’ house we were tasked with bringing dessert. Maria suggested to go buy something but since it was cloudy, non-beach weather on Saturday, I suggested I make something. And I must say, this new version of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Blueberry Pie was spectacular! Everyone LOVED it – calling it the perfect dessert, not too sweet, the crust was so flakey, so many positive comments, even on the next day. I always think that if people are still remembering and talking about your food the next day, then you’ve made a real hit!

This is a masterpiece pie to look at and eat. In reality, the berries glisten like jewels and I just love the fresh pop of taste with the uncooked berries.

Truth be told, this pie was made under distressed conditions in that Maria is not a baker. She did not have a pastry cutter or cloth or rolling pin cover and her pie plate was particularly deep.

This pie crust is a pretty big deviation from my normal, Mom’s pie crust recipe. But this is the ONE to keep! And I made my recipe so much easier than Rose Levy Beranbaum’s.

YOUR LOVE AS ONE OF YOUR INGREDIENTS

Remember it is always about the quality of the ingredients you use, along with the amount of LOVE you put in.

Here, I used Plugra unsalted butter, the best blueberries you can find, freshest lemons and even homemade vanilla that her friend, Glenn, had made.

For the crust, the two phases of refrigeration in the recipe are very important. These cold portions will help to produce a very flakey crust so please do not skip them.

The gorgeous fried chicken and celeriac salad.

The fried chicken dinner with broccoli rabe and a celeriac salad was all too delicious. Not only was I over-served on great Nebbiolo wines but I over-served myself on the chicken too! So good.

It was super fun to be in a different area – Long Island – to me is like another state. On Friday night we met up with the mutual friend who had introduced Maria and me, for a long dinner at a local restaurant. On Saturday morning, we met up with that same friend and her group of friends for a hike through this beautiful wooded area that used to hold all of the Gold Coast mansions with everyone’s dogs (Maria has two). One of the friends is Italian so Maria and I got to practice our ISL – Italian as a second language. So fun!

SUCH HAPPY MEMORIES

Saturday night was the fabulous dinner party. Her friends were so warm and welcoming. Most of them came over to Maria’s house on Sunday, bringing a beautiful brunch. It was a glorious beach day on Sunday, all of us full and happy, sipping on beers, tequila or Bloody Mary’s, lying in front of the LI Sound just enjoying each other and the beauty. This reminded me of my younger days, pre-children, when Steve and I would visit friends in the Hamptons, enjoying a hungover Sunday sweating it out in the sun. So now I am creating new memories.

Best blueberry pie with blackberries, two pieces with vanilla ice cream. — Here is a pic from the first time I made this – with ice cream and some added blackberries.

The recipe:

BEST BLUEBERRY PIE – MARY’S VERSION – serves 8

PIE CRUST – for a 9” pie

8 TBS. unsalted very cold Plugra butter
1 1/3 cups bleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
3 TBS. ice water
1½ tsp. cider vinegar
1 TBS. egg white, lightly beaten

Toss the flour and salt together with a fork in a medium sized bowl.

Cut the cold butter into very small chunks by cutting the stick lengthwise into 4 quarters and then slice those quarters into ¼” pieces.

Put all of the butter into the flour mixture and using your fingers on both hands, mix and mash the butter and flour together until no chunks of butter are visible. It all has to be incorporated together otherwise you will get butter holes in your crust.

Then sprinkle on the vinegar and toss together with a fork. Sprinkle on a tablespoon of ice water, (one tablespoon at a time), toss with a fork, and repeat with the remaining two tablespoons. Your dough will now hold together and may seem a bit too wet but trust me, it is ok.

Form the dough into a thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 – 2 hours or overnight. This dough can also be frozen for 3 months for future use if you want to make a double recipe.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and if necessary, allow it to sit for about 10 minutes until soft enough to roll out. On a floured surface – pastry cloth or parchment paper – with a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to ⅛” thick and fit into your 9” pie pan, crimping the edges as shown in the photo.

Refrigerate the pie crust shell for at least one hour, with a maximum of 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Line the pie crust shell with parchment paper and weigh it down with dried beans or rice, trimming the corners of the extra parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes, checking at 10 minutes to rotate the pan so one side does not get too brown (as mine did). At the 20 minute mark, lift up and remove the parchment and beans or rice. Then with a fork, lightly prick the crust all over the sides and bottom to prevent it from bubbling up. Do not prick hard and all the way through as you do not want to create holes.

Place the crust back into the oven to lightly brown completely, baking for 5 – 10 minutes more. Check it at the 3 minute mark. It should be a pale golden brown all over.

Remove the crust and cool on a rack for 3 minutes.

Separate the egg yolk from the egg white and lightly whisk the white with a fork. Brush the inside of the pie crust with the egg white. This will keep it from getting soggy with the blueberries.

FOR THE BLUEBERRY FILLING

4 – 5 cups blueberries, rinsed and dried. Save a handful for garnish.
2 TBS. cornstarch
2 TBS. water
½ cup sugar
½ cup water
1 TBS. lemon juice
Good pinch of salt
2 cups whipped heavy cream, lightly sweetened with 1 TBS. powdered sugar and 1 TBS. vanilla extract

Combine 1 cup of blueberries with ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water in a medium sized pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 3 – 6 minutes until the berries pop and it becomes nice and liquidy and starts to thicken, stirring constantly.

Meanwhile, whisk together the cornstarch and water.

Have your fresh lemon juice ready.

Whisk in the cornstarch and water mixture, the lemon juice and salt. Simmer for a minute until the mixture becomes translucent. Immediately off heat, fold in the remaining blueberries, being sure to cover all berries with the jammy mixture.

Spoon into the pie crust, gently spreading the mixture all over.

Let the pie set at room temperature for at least 2 hours before cutting.

Just before serving whip the cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla and gently spread in a small circle on top, in the center of the pie. Garnish with the saved handful of berries as shown in the picture.

Enjoy!!

Best Blueberry Pie!

September 17, 2013 by Mary Frances

We are coming on the end of the season but I think there’s still time for you to try this blueberry pie. You must – this is a real keeper. It is the best blueberry pie recipe I’ve ever come across. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to baking the whole thing completely again. This is all freshness and goodness retained in the berries. Deliciousness to the hilt!!

As you’ve probably figured out by now, I’m not the typical dessert lover. I prefer savory things when given the choice, but I do love fresh fruit pies. I didn’t get a chance to make a peach one this year. Maybe this coming weekend.

In this blueberry pie recipe, you cook only some of the blueberries to make a sort of glaze, to bind all the fresh ones together. When you do this, your fresh berries glisten like jewels. So pretty! One addition I may do next time is to add a little fresh grated nutmeg to the glaze.

I found this method at Food 52 and the recipe is here. It is Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Fresh Blueberry Pie. I also added a cup of blackberries for additional interest. It is not necessary but they did add textural delight – a nice little surprise and burst of flavor in your mouth. I did not make Rose’s crust. I opted to make my own and you can find it on this post. My crust is not buttery as hers is. Hers might be better. You decide. I did use my friend Margaret’s method of making the slurry first. It really does turn out a flakier crust. Thank you Margaret!!

I baked my crust a little too long. As you can see, it is a bit brown, but no matter, it was still so very yummy. Definitely brush the egg white on it to keep it crisp. They say to serve with whipped cream but I prefer a little dab of vanilla ice cream.

One note of warning, because this is so very fresh and sweet, the fruit flies LOVE it, so eat it fast! Enjoy! And thanks to Rose Levy Beranbaum!

What a difference a pie makes…

December 4, 2011 by Mary Frances

So we had our friends Wayne and Margaret over for dinner last night and I decided to make a pecan pie (Mrs. Fowler’s recipe, of course – in an earlier post) for dessert, since I didn’t make one for Thanksgiving.

Margaret is a terrific, accomplished baker – she makes the greatest sticky buns and coconut cakes. But I’m telling you, make a pie from scratch and everyone loves you. First thing they said when they walked in the kitchen – “oh you made a pie!!”

As I was cutting the pie into eighths, after I had served the guys, Margaret puts her hand on mine (I didn’t know if this was going to be sexy or not – just kidding) and says, “Now cut this half in thirds.” I was floored and delighted that tiny Margaret wanted a bigger piece! While eating, she then proceeded to give me her mother’s secret for her pie crust and then asked to take another piece home! I loved it!

I used the recipe from my mother for my crust. Everyone thinks making a pie crust is a super big deal. It isn’t. You need to practice a little, follow instructions closely – this is baking – so it’s different from cooking as it’s much more exacting. But boy, do it, and everyone loves you!

We brought the two pieces home tonight (Steve had another piece before breakfast) and Zach was like, “Oh you made a pie!!!”

Here’s the recipe and hopefully some helpful photos.

BASIC PIE CRUST for Two 9” Single Crusts (cut in half for one bottom crust)
2 cups flour
1 scant tsp. salt
2/3 cup of Crisco or unsalted butter, cut into very small chunks
6 or less Tbs. ice water

Whisk together flour and salt. Cut in Crisco or butter until it forms “peas, “ using a fork or two knives or a pastry thingy. Sprinkle on ice water a tablespoon at a time, tossing lightly with a fork, or even better, with your hands, combining everything well after each addition. Press dough together and form 2 flattened rounds. Wrap each round in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour or two. Roll out quickly and lightly on a floured pastry cloth or floured board and then fold into thirds and place and shape into pie pan, fluting the edges as shown. Refrigerate overnight for a flakier crust, if you have time, or even for a couple of hours.

Line crust with parchment paper and fill with dried peas or beans. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, until lightly browned.

Carefully remove parchment filled with peas. Let cool for 15 minutes before filling. You’re a hero – you just made a crust from scratch!

Now Margaret says to take out 1/4 cup of the flour-salt mixture and mix it with 1/4 cup of ice water to make a slurry and then add that back in gradually to everything. I will try this the next time and see. Margaret has this German heritage and you know they know everything about making great pastries!

Unbaked pie crust

Pie crust with dried peas

Partially baked pie crust on a white table.

Partially baked crust

Finished pecan pie

Easy Ice Cream Pie with Power O’s Crust

July 21, 2015 by Mary

A pie crust that is actually good for you?

Impossible?!

Well, no.

Not if it’s made with Power O’s this super unusual, delicious cereal that’s made with beans!

This is the fifth item in our MARY’s secret ingredients summer box and really so unique, so smart and so delicious! I was told by a doctor years ago that the first thing I should put into my body in the morning was protein. So I usually eat meat but cereal is really a more normal breakfast food. So here, with Power O’s you can have both!

Beans are comparable to meat when it comes to calories, says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, a registered dietitian at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Wellness Institute in Chicago and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. But they really shine in terms of fiber and water content, two ingredients that make you feel fuller, faster. Adding beans to your diet helps cut calories without feeling deprived.

Our diets tend to be seriously skimpy when it comes to fiber (the average American consumes just 15 grams daily), to the detriment of both our hearts and our waistlines. The recommended amount for a daily dose of fiber is 21 to 25 grams per day for adult women (30 to 38 grams for adult men). Meat, on the other hand, contains no fiber at all.

This difference in fiber content means that meat is digested fairly quickly, whereas beans are digested slowly, keeping you satisfied longer. Plus, beans are low in sugar, which prevents insulin in the bloodstream from spiking and causing hunger. When you substitute beans for meat in your diet, you get the added bonus of a decrease in saturated fat, says Blatner.

So maybe with this recipe I negated part of the goodness by adding ice cream, OR you could say that this is my attempt to make an ice cream dessert healthy!

This company, Love Grown Foods, was started by a husband and wife team, Alex and Maddy. I met them last year at the Fancy Foods Show and their philosophy completely matches mine. They said, “We started Love Grown Foods 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. We are here to change the way people think about food, eat food, and ultimately buy food. Join us on our journey as we SPREAD the LOVE!”

This is exactly what I’m hoping to do with this blog and with MARY’s secret ingredients.

“Nuff said.” Eat your beans this way!

EASY ICE CREAM PIE WITH POWER O’s CRUST – serves 8

4.4 oz. Power O’s, honey or chocolate, crushed
Pinch of French Grey or Kosher salt
7 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbs. all natural chocolate sauce
2 pints of all natural vanilla ice cream
Strawberries
Blueberries
Aged pomegranate balsamic vinegar, (optional), for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Crush the cereal into fine crumbs with a rolling pin. Place in a bowl. Melt the butter and pour over the crushed Power O’s. When the warm butter hit the chocolate Power O’s, the chocolate smell was intoxicating – proof that they’re using real, high quality ingredients – as opposed to making this crust with processed food graham crackers – YUK!

Mix the cereal crumbs and butter well. Pour into a 9″ pie plate and distribute and press in evenly all around forming the crust, being careful not to make any area too thick, particularly where the sides meet the bottom of the pan.

Bake the crust on the middle rack in the oven for about 8 minutes. Let cool completely before filling.

Drizzle the chocolate sauce on the bottom of the crust.

Spoon the 2 pints of ice cream evenly all around in the crust. Do this quickly so you don’t have melting along the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until ready to serve.

Just before serving decorate the top with blueberries and strawberries as shown. I did this for July 4^th – very patriotic!

Cut with a knife dipped in hot tap water, drizzle each piece with aged pomegranate balsamic vinegar (optional) and serve. This vinegar was a very nice, surprising touch!

And as a little reminder, our fall box ships on September 25th and it’s going to be also full of great unusual products! The supply is limited so best to order now before we run out.

How’d it work out?

November 25, 2012 by Mary Frances

Thanksgiving roasted turkey. So how was your Thanksgiving? Ours was fantastic! My family said our dinner was the best ever. But then they seem to say that every year I cook, so I guess I keep on improving? But truly, they’re still giving me compliments today so I guess it was really, really good!

I was particularly pleased this year with our appetizers. They were different and just the right touch, pre-feast. I made two recipes from Food and Wine magazine. One was for Texas smoked salmon tartare and grilled pancetta-wrapped mushrooms along with my artichoke dip. You can make the smoked salmon tartare and the artichoke dip the day before. I also had help. Agata made all of the mushrooms while I assembled the tartare on the chips with a cilantro leaf each. It was easy!

Texas smoked salmon tartare on blue corn chips

-Pancetta-wrapped grilled mushrooms

My butternut squash soup was the best ever, I’m told. See this quick pic of the kids licking their bowls – seriously I did not ask them to do this for a photo op! This soup is based on David Waltuck’s recipe of Chanterelle fame, except that I have made my own revisions. One important one is that instead of cooking the squash by simmering it in the chicken broth, I oven roasted it at 425 degrees and then scooped it out of the skin to add to the broth and onions. Much tastier and you skip that difficult-to-peel step that makes your hands all wrinkly. Three kids licking their soup bowls clean

Oven-roasting butternut squash and sugar pumpkins

Oven-roasting squash and pumpkin

Pumpkin puree draining

I also made two pies this year. One pecan and one pumpkin, from a fresh sugar pumpkin I roasted with the squash and then let it drain for several hours through four layers of cheesecloth. You need to do that to get all the water out and get to the true pumpkin flavor. The pie was so light and yummy!! Definitely give that a try.

Pumpkin pie with fresh roasted pumpkin and pecan garnish

– Super light pumpkin pie

The best Southern pecan pie from Mary Frances.

My pecan pie – Mrs. Fowler’s recipe

I hope you enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving, full of good family times, providing you with sweet memories to last the year through.

Three pumpkins at nightime - the end of Thanksgiving.

The end to a lovely day.

Truly Southern Pecan Pie

November 22, 2011 by Mary Frances

Pecan pie is my all-time favorite dessert! My father was a correspondent banker for a large bank in St. Louis, and his territory was the Southeast area. He traveled all over doing business with smaller banks in the region. And as he became close friends with many of these folks, we used to visit them on family vacations.

I learned to water ski on Lake Norfork in Mountain Home, Arkansas at Powers and Louise Fowler’s weekend lake house. They had a really fast powerboat (Powers liked speed) as well as a pontoon party barge, (Louise loved a party). One time, when I was about 12 years old, for some reason, I was with my parents alone. None of my other 5 brothers were with us and we visited the Fowlers.

So my mom says, “Louise, you make the best pecan pie and it’s Mary’s favorite. I wondered if we could have your recipe.”

Mrs. Fowler said in her lovely Southern drawl, “Well honey, why don’t we just go and make Mary one right now, and of course you can have the recipe!”

Cocktail in hand, she got up, went straight into the kitchen and made me a pecan pie right then and there.

And I have been making them for years. These days I use less sugar and Karo syrup as I like things less sweet. If you like it really sweet, go with the full cup measurements.

MRS. FOWLER’S PECAN PIE
3 eggs beaten (take out early to be at room temperature)
1 scant cup of packed light brown sugar
1 scant cup of Karo light syrup (I know it’s not good for you – just close your eyes, just this once OR you can substitute 7/8’s of a cup of raw agave syrup)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs with a whisk, add in all remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 9” pie crust, which has not been pricked, but has been baked for 5 – 10 minutes, weighted with beans or rice in parchment paper.

Bake for 40 – 50 minutes. Test with a knife or toothpick in the middle – should come out clean and the center slightly set. Cool completely before cutting and serving. Bake this in the morning before your feast.

Serve with whipped cream sweetened with a touch of powdered sugar and some vanilla. I use 1/2 pint of heavy cream, 1 tbs. powdered sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla and beat until soft peaks form.

For me, this is the perfect ending to a Thanksgiving meal!

A Salt Problem and Pumpkin Woes

November 24, 2014 by Mary

Our youngest passed his orals for his Ph.D at Yale! YAY!!!!

So we wanted to celebrate with everyone, both boys and their girls. I wanted to make a special meal, filled with Zach’s favorites for last night (Sunday dinner) – starting with crab cakes with a chipotle mayo and then an herb crusted rack of lamb, farro with olive oil, sherry vinegar and parsley, and roasted asparagus.

Well, I had a salt problem. I followed a new recipe for the lamb that had me salting the meat and adding salt to the breadcrumb mixture too. As I was doing it, I was like, uh, (in my mind) this is too much salt, but with all the commotion of everyone being home and in the kitchen with me, I soldiered on, talking and following the recipe instructions. WRONG!!! And at such expense with the meat ($68.00), to screw it up with too much salt! I should have known better, as I was questioning myself while doing it. One should always trust your intuition, right? And as all you cooks out there know, with a meal like this, if people aren’t ooing and ahhing, there’s something wrong. My husband was sweet and said it was cooked perfectly. My boys were honest and the girls liked it, but one was sick so taste buds were off. I felt SO bad! I ruined what could have been a spectacular meal! Made me weepy and sad. I hate salt problems!!!

So that’s the sad part – but always being the optimist – here’s the funny part of the weekend.

Take a look at my husband helping me cut open my pie pumpkin to roast. Yes, that’s right, after numerous knives, we tried the saw from his tool chest. When that didn’t work we went to a screwdriver with a hammer and worked our way around the pumpkin. After I roasted it and removed the pulp, you could have used the skin as a helmet, it was that hard. Maybe they did use these as head protectors for battle a long, long time ago. Meanwhile this pulp is flavorful and not at all watery. It actually has a little bit of the texture of spaghetti squash. I will puree it on Wednesday in order to bake the pumpkin pie on Thursday morning and let you know how it comes out. Have you all ever had a pie pumpkin like this? It’s a first for me!

English Provender Caramelized Red Onion Chutney Pork Chops with Apples and Sweet Peppers & Luxury Lemon Curd Chiffon Pie with Strawberries

July 19, 2016 by Mary

Across the pond, the English Provender Company makes excellent chutneys, jams and spreads. They use only the finest premium ingredients to make each one of the products in their line. That’s why when they approached MARY’s secret ingredients to be in the box, after our testing and trial, we said a resounding “YES!” We’ve got two of their products in the box, which makes it twice as nice!

This caramelized red onion chutney is insanely good and you’ll want to put it on everything as I have been! I have used the chutney to finish off a fresh Bing cherry sauce for duck, it’s terrific as is served on the side of a broiled or grilled steak and it even goes great with scrambled eggs! You can tell I really love this stuff! But then I buckled down and made these Caramelized Red Onion Chutney Pork Chops with Apples and Sweet Peppers that you will LOVE. They are super easy to make, gorgeous to look at and taste out of this world. All good things.

Finishing the chops with a squeeze of lime and the sprinkling of chopped parsley adds the right amount of acid and really wakes up everything. I’ve been playing with limes a lot lately. A squeeze of lime is softer than lemon and not so distinct on a dish. It’s nice. Try it!

And then you can serve this super easy dessert to finish your meal that is light, delicious, refreshing, pretty and screams summer. Lemons and strawberries are a wonderful combination. A perfect way to end a meal is with this Luxury Lemon Curd Chiffon Pie with Strawberries. Enjoy!!

ENGLISH PROVENDER CARAMELIZED RED ONION CHUTNEY PORK CHOPS WITH APPLES AND SWEET PEPPERS – serves 2

2 ½” thick heritage pork chops
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 Tbs. olive oil
Salt
Pepper, fresh ground
1 Fuji apple, cored and cut into 16 slices
5 small red, yellow or orange small sweet peppers
2 heaping Tbs. of English Provender Caramelized Red Onion Chutney
3 springs of Italian parsley, chopped for garnish
1/4 of a lime in a wedge

Wash and dry your pork chops with paper toweling. Season the top side with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet on medium high heat until foaming mostly subsides. Lay pork chops in, seasoned side down. Add in apples and peppers around the chops and salt and pepper the top side of the chops and sauté for 4 – 5 minutes.

Turn chops and put on 1 heaping Tbs. of English Provender Caramelized Red Onion Chutney on each chop and spread around on the top of the chop. Turn apples and peppers and place them on top of the chops. Sauté for 5 – 6 minutes on this side.

Remove chops carefully to a platter, keeping all the toppings in place. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Squeeze on the lime wedge all over and sprinkle with parsley.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!

ENGLISH PROVENDER LUXURY LEMON CURD CHIFFON PIE WITH STRAWBERRIES – serves 6 – 8

10 – 12 oz. heavy cream
4 oz. English Provender Luxury Lemon Curd
1 qt. strawberries, washed, air dried, stems removed and sliced in half
1 9” baked pie shell

Make the pie crust from the recipe here, (or buy a ready made one). Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake the pie shell for 8 minutes with parchment paper and dried peas, beans or pie weights in the center to weigh it down. Remove the parchment paper and weights at the 8-minute mark and return the crust to the oven for 4 – 8 minutes more until pastry is light brown, crisp and dry. Let the crust cool completely on a rack before filling.

Whip the heavy cream until nearly stiff peaks form. Gently fold in all of the lemon curd evenly throughout.

Spread the filling in the pie shell and chill for at least 4 hours.

Right before serving, place all the halved strawberries on top of the filling evenly. Cut in wedges to serve. Enjoy!!

Pie Crusts with Lard and Other Thanksgiving Meal Questions

November 29, 2014 by Mary

I trust that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful holiday – all about being together, with great food. What could be better? No worrying about presents or decorations, the focus is on food. With the major snowstorm we had all day on Wednesday, our electricity kept blinking, but still going, so the bread got baked without a hitch. I make my grandmother’s recipe for Polish bread every holiday. This year, unfortunately I forgot to bring the recipe, but Zach’s girlfriend is from Poland and her family makes a similar bread recipe! Together, from our collective memories, we pieced together the ingredients and process and it turned out great! (Lucky!!!) Our other son, his girlfriend and her father all arrived safely early afternoon on Thanksgiving, and Agata made us another guest outside!

So I have a question for all of you. Knowing that hydrogenated vegetable oil is not good for you, as it essentially never leaves your body, this year I decided to use lard in my pie crust recipe. I had to special order it from our little local grocery store. I made the dough the day before so it was fully chilled. It handled absolutely beautifully in rolling it out. I then even had time to chill the formed crust again before baking. However, my beautiful crimped sides all fell during baking.

You can see that here. What did I do wrong? Should I have used half lard and half butter?

But here you can see how flakey it was on the pecan pie. Yum!

Meanwhile, the fresh pumpkin extracted with the hammer and screwdriver produced the BEST pumpkin pie – epic – as our oldest said!

Then the next thing I want to ask you is what do you do for your green vegetable at the big meal? In my book and at our last two Thanksgiving celebrations, I did this Brussels sprouts recipe with a fish sauce – from Momofuku and published at Food 52. My husband and I liked this but as my friend Judy said, it’s an acquired taste. So my boys vetoed that recipe out of the meal this year. I replaced it with sugar snap peas (blanched for one minute) with red pepper strips tossed with a sherry vinaigrette and topped with nitrate-free, all natural bacon bits.

My theory was that this would be a great refreshing dish, a counterpoint to the richness of the dressing, turkey and gravy with the crunch of the just blanched snap peas, and the sherry vinaigrette would be a nice contrast to the maple glazed sweet potatoes. A cool, salad-like dish to be clean and different on the plate, right?

Wrong. I hated it. To me, it broke up the whole warmth of the entire meal. So what do you do? Please share!

My Birthday

December 5, 2014 by Mary

I have to share with you the best card that I received from my friend Sheila in Texas for my birthday this year. First of all, you must know, Sheila and I have been friends for like, 37 years. And she always sends me a card, NEVER forgets. But this card, isn’t it the greatest? And it is fitting for me – don’t you think? (I certainly hope no one is offended.)

My real birthday was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. My younger son and his girlfriend made me a beautiful dinner that evening – exactly what I wanted, fulfilling my request superbly – sautéed boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a red sauce with capers over pasta, topped with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, with some green beans and pancetta on the side. It was a simple, robust and perfect meal for a snowy evening in front of the fire after a long day of cooking for Thanksgiving. The only thing is that I forgot to take pictures.

My older son declared my birthday was Saturday as he and his girlfriend did not arrive until Thanksgiving day, so they just moved my day. He recently made Pot au Feu for a Sunday evening dinner for my husband and me and he wanted to revisit that dish, only this time, he started making the broth on Thursday evening with the turkey carcass along with a chicken carcass I had saved for him. He cooked that broth in my giant soup pot for 3 days, as it very slowly simmered, totally permeating the house with luscious stock smells. His meat was pork shoulder and a whole breast of veal. This meal was to die for.

The broth was so dark and rich and his vegetables were cooked perfectly – cabbage still a little crisp, turnips and potatoes were dreamy creamy while both meats were fork tender and so flavorful. Agata made a crusty bread for dipping and his girlfriend made a totally yummy, rich chocolate pie with a ginger snap crust. It was EPIC! And, we got to have the exact same meal on Monday night with all the leftovers. I feel so fat and happy and I don’t care, for just this once. Just like a queen! Lucky me!

Sending LOVE to all of you!!

Hurricane Sandy, Halloween and New Features

November 1, 2012 by Mary Frances

Here in NYC, we are all trying our best to weather the most damaging storm. Personally and luckily, both of our homes are fine, no loss of electricity and no loss of trees upstate. But our office has had no power, so we’ve all been working from home or cafes that have electricity. We carry on, but our hearts and prayers go out to those who were closer to shorelines and not so lucky.

Sandy visited on Monday. The howling winds were so loud and scary that evening. It was such a helpless feeling just being in the middle of it. We woke up on Tuesday morning to an eerie quiet in our neighborhood. It was over, but the damage was massive.
And Halloween was last night, in a limited fashion here in NYC, with our major parade being cancelled. Halloween is also our wedding anniversary and I made the most marvelous veal chops for dinner! I’ll share that recipe later.

Meanwhile, with all the holidays coming, I wanted to tell you about our new feature on the right hand side of this blog, listing my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. From the ginger cranberry sauce, to the stuffing and pecan pie, it’s all there, easy to access, for you.

Our week upstate

July 7, 2012 by Mary Frances

We are rounding home stretch here on our vacation week upstate. We had glorious weather the whole time to be greeted by rain this afternoon. But that’s okay, it feels like a Nantucket day today so I am writing and reading and hopefully napping soon, a true vacation luxury.

I always end up saying to my husband, after my daily bike ride, that there is no prettier place than here. (Well Bali may be prettier but I’ve not been there yet.) It is just so darn pretty here – the sky even competes with a South African one! We often just sit staring out at our backyard, watching the show of animals that randomly appear, which provides a great sense of renewal to us city dwellers during the week.

Here are some photo highlights of our week. I’ll post some bike riding pictures soon!

Our backyard sunset cocktail lounge

Hudson Valley sunsets can’t be beat!

My 4th of July blueberry pie – served with Blue Marble vanilla ice cream and fresh raspberries to make it complete!

I’m very proud of this super flakey crust.

Gnocchi for a Birthday Party!

January 18, 2014 by Mary

We celebrated my husband’s birthday last Sunday. The kids (our boys and their girlfriends) wanted to do an all day cook-a–thon again and my husband was delighted. As we did last year, we all made a different course while some of us created several dishes. Of course the food was great. With so much love and care going in to it, why wouldn’t it be! My boys are getting to be better cooks than me. And they correct me all the time on things. (I think I raised monsters.) But truly, the best part of this day, this party, is being all together, working in the kitchen and the banter that goes on. I LOVE it! My two courses were a pasta course and dessert. I made homemade gnocchi with a simple red sauce and pecan pie with whipped cream, which was Steve’s request.

Here’s a photo gallery of our afternoon and evening of celebration food.

Black olive tapenade with whole wheat Finn-crisp crackers

Chicken liver pate with toast

Baby spinach salad with carrots and ginger miso dressing

The birthday dinner table with the spinach salad

Homemade potato gnocchi with a simple red sauce in an antique china bowl, garnished with chopped chives.

Potato gnocchi with a red sauce

The main course – Beef Wellington made with LOVE with a heart

The main course plate – Beef Wellington, wilted escarole with a warm Balsamic dressing and crispy Yukon Gold potatoes

Pecan pie, whipped cream and an amazing chocolate chip cookie topped with a little salt.

Pecan pie, (made with raw agave syrup instead of corn syrup) whipped cream and an amazing chocolate chip cookie topped with a little sea salt

And I really want to share this gnocchi recipe from Grace Parisi at Food and Wine magazine. This is the second time I have made this and it is so good and oh so very light. They came out like little delicate pillows. Two of the kids raced to the kitchen for seconds, of which there was little. This is really easy to make too. So give it a go and impress everyone. I served this with a simple red sauce with garlic, shallots and a couple of anchovies and garnished the dish with some fresh chopped chives. Basil or parsley would have been better but I already had some chives washed, dried and snipped so in they went. Serve with Parmesan or Romano cheese to grate fresh on top.

POTATO GNOCCHI – adapted from Grace Parisi at Food and Wine magazine – serves 6 as a first course

2 lbs. baking potatoes (about 4)
2 large egg yolks
Salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3 tbs. unsalted butter (optional) or a simple red sauce

Preheat the oven to 400°. Pierce the potatoes in 4 places with a fork. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour, until tender.

Halve the potatoes. Scoop the flesh into a ricer and rice the potatoes into a bowl. Stir in the egg yolks and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the 1/2 cup of flour; stir until a stiff dough forms. Knead the dough gently until smooth but slightly sticky.

Line a baking sheet or platter with wax paper and dust with flour. On a floured surface, cut the dough into 4 pieces, rolling each into a 3/4-inch-thick rope. Cut the ropes into 3/4-inch pieces. Roll each piece against the tines of a fork to make ridges; transfer to the baking sheet or platter.

In a large, deep pot of simmering salted water, cook the gnocchi until they rise to the surface, then simmer for 2 minutes longer. Make a simple red sauce in a skillet and using a slotted spoon, add the gnocchi. Fold to coat all of them in the sauce. Serve immediately garnished with chopped chives and pass Parmesan or Romano to freshly grate on top.

Alternatively, in a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter. Using a slotted spoon, add the gnocchi to the butter. Season with salt and pepper and cook over high heat for 1 minute. Sprinkle with the cheese and serve.

MAKE AHEAD: The uncooked gnocchi pieces can be frozen on the prepared baking sheet, then transferred to a re-sealable plastic bag and frozen for up to 1 month. Boil without defrosting.

TIP: Save the baked potato shells. You can top them with a little grated cheese and warm up them to make a great little hors d’oeuvres on another evening or I like to warm a half up in the morning and put an over-easy egg on top for breakfast – delicious!!

One very happy birthday boy!

Thanksgiving e-book is out!

November 13, 2013 by Mary

Dear Food Loving Friends,

I did it. (the very famous line from Presumed Innocent – great movie!) But no, really, our Thanksgiving e-book is out! I wrote our first e-book on how to make a fantastic Thanksgiving meal. I have collected and put together my favorite 13 recipes, along with a process guide on how to get everything accomplished on the days leading up to the big day. This makes it easy for you. Understand that I have been making Thanksgiving dinners for quite some time now and this is a collection of my very best recipes. It was only last year, that I discovered the perfect side dish of Brussels Sprouts with a Fish Sauce Vinaigrette. Yes, really! I know it sounds weird but this dish works really well in the pairing with the other rich dishes that surround the turkey.

Of course, you don’t have to make every recipe that is there. Pick and choose to suit your taste. But in this book you’ll find the very best way to roast your bird to achieve moist, melt-in-your-mouth white meat that doesn’t even need gravy. But don’t worry, I give you the best giblet gravy to make as well, seasoned with thyme and the crushed roasted vegetables that formed the rack for roasting the bird. My appetizers are great too – light and just right and you won’t need a second oven to prepare them in, because I don’t have one at our country house, which is where we’ll be celebrating. My stuffing has become globally famous and the cranberry sauce is just sweet enough, punctuated with fresh ginger and orange zest. Believe me, I’ve tried dozens of different recipes for all of these dishes and in this book, I only present the ones that made it to stardom.

The process guide combats intimidation and will keep you organized and sane. (So will a glass of wine.) We’ve even included little check boxes for you to appreciate your accomplishments along the way. Of course, the book is beautifully designed by our team here at PM+CO, because that’s what I do in my day job.

Check it out here with a full listing of recipes. Please share your experiences with me. I welcome your input!

With LOVE,

Mary Frances

Farmer’s Market Bounty

August 11, 2013 by Mary Frances

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!

Tarte Tatin

November 25, 2019 by Mary

Most of you know me as not such a sweet person. I mean, I am nice, I think, but I do prefer savory over sweet any day of the week. So over the past 6 months, I have made this Tarte Tatin recipe about 8 times, trying to perfect it in order to make it worthy enough to share it with you!

Great for Thanksgiving!

I think this could be a terrific alternative to the pumpkin and/or pecan pie for Thanksgiving this Thursday. It is a little healthier approach, but only if you decide, because holidays are always a special time, and should be kept so, with traditions in your family.

If you do decide to make this on Thursday, you can easily start it while the turkey is still in the oven, then bake it while the turkey is resting, if you only have one oven.

Easy as pie!

I initially learned about Tarte Tatin about 35 years ago. I had one of my first big projects with American Express and I was art directing a large photo shoot for a series of billing enclosures – remember those lovely little 4-color ad inserts you got with your bill every month in those days? Well the photo stylist I had hired to find all the props and to be on the set to style, suddenly started talking about this Tarte Tatin she had made the night before at her boyfriend’s apartment. They had had a bunch of people over, drinking and partying and she just went into the kitchen to make this, easily, and of course, everyone loved it!

So, man, I was in. But her recipe had you make a Pâte Brisée as the crust, which is really just a French version of a pie crust with a lot more butter and here, I just used my pie crust recipe made with all butter, and added an extra tablespoon. I had an already-made crust in the freezer, which then makes this recipe super easy.

What struck me about her story is that, A.) this had to be super easy to make if she just went in and whipped it up, probably even after having a few drinks at that – similar to Louise Fowler making me a Pecan Pie and B.) what a great way to wow people and make them happy, similar to “Oh you made a pie!”

I have had her recipe all this time, but now, I created this even easier recipe with what I have here.

My Tarte Tatin recipe is super quick, just as long as you can peel apples fast, but do take the time to make sure the sugar caramelizes completely and if you have a pie crust already made, it’s money!!

Here you go!!

TARTE TATIN – serves 6 – 8

4 Tbs. butter
¾ – 1 cup of white sugar, depending on the sweetness of your apples
4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8^th’s
Cinnamon – overall sprinkle
Nutmeg – overall grating of whole nutmeg
1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1 9” unbaked pie crust made with all butter plus an added 1 Tbs. of butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Coat a 10-inch cast iron skillet with the butter, melted. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the top of the butter.

Place apple pieces on top of the butter and sugar, rounded sides down, in a circular pattern. Do cram them all in the skillet!

Turn heat to medium-high and cook until sugar dissolves and begins to caramelize. Continue to cook until apples soften and caramel begins to brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Watch carefully and then remove from heat.

While the apples are caramelizing, sprinkle a work surface (preferably use a pastry cloth with a rolling pin cover) with 1 Tbs. flour and roll pie dough into an 11-inch circle.

Place crust on top of apples in the skillet and roll a rolling pin over the top to cut off the excess crust.

Bake in the preheated oven until crust is golden brown, about 20 – 23 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Do not allow it to cool any longer. Place a flat plate over the top of the pan and carefully invert to release the Tarte Tatin from the pan. Scrape any remaining apples stuck to the pan back on top of crust.

Serve with a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream and LOVE. Enjoy!!

Mixed Fruit Galette

September 2, 2021 by Mary

Before the luscious summer fruit season ends, you must make a Mixed Fruit Galette and wow everyone who sees it!!

Begin with the pie crust

You see, it’s really very simple. Make a buttery pie crust – why everyone is so afraid of pie crust when they’re really very easy, I don’t know. Someone must have given them a bad rap some years ago! Don’t let them daunt you.

It’s flour, a little salt, butter and ice water. Four basic ingredients, of course mixed with LOVE. Sure, you can add some vodka or cider vinegar so maybe it’s 6 ingredients, but don’t forget the LOVE.

Mixed fruits are the best!

Roll that baby out and fill that crust with a variety of mixed fruits, a little lemon, vanilla and cornstarch and you’ve got yourself a beautiful, simple, even healthy dessert as there’s not much sugar.

Dot it with fresh blueberries and some thyme leaves when finished baking and you’ll present a real showstopper. I prefer the pop of the fresh blueberries added afterwards because when cooked, they just collapse and spread the messy dark blue juice everywhere.

And the thyme leaves create a different floral component to the dessert that’s unexpected and delicious, while the sprinkle of sugar on top gives it that extra special glisten.

Serve your Mixed Fruit Galette with crème fraiche or vanilla ice cream, sit back, relax, and enjoy all the compliments!

Make this for one of your Labor Day weekend parties and create a loving memory for all there.

Ok, so I used too much butter in this crust dough and it cracked and leaked, but no matter, it still tasted amazing!

MIXED FRUIT GALETTE – serves 6 – 8

One pie crust – use the recipe here or here
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 Tbs.
1/4 tsp. salt
1.5 lbs. of mixed peaches, peeled and cut into 1-inch-thick wedges, tiny apricots cut in half or red plums cut in quarters or fresh figs, stems removed and cut in half, or blackberries
2 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg, beaten
4 thyme sprigs, leaves removed
A handful of blueberries
Crème Fraiche or vanilla ice cream for serving

Directions

Unwrap chilled pie crust dough, and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll out about 1/8 inch thick. Place dough circle on a parchment paper–lined rimmed baking sheet, and chill, uncovered, until firm, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425°F. Whisk together cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Add peaches, apricots, plums, figs and blackberries, melted butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla, and toss to combine.

Arrange fruit mixture in center of chilled dough circle, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Fold dough edges up and over filling (dough will only partially cover filling), pleating every 3 inches. Lightly brush folded dough edges with beaten egg. Sprinkle dough edges and filling with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake in preheated oven 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F (without opening oven door), and bake until crust is golden brown and fruit mixture bubbles in the middle, 40 to 45 minutes.

Transfer baking sheet with the mixed fruit galette to a wire rack, and let cool 30 minutes. Dot the galette with the fresh blueberries and thyme leaves. Serve galette warm, or let cool completely to room temperature, about 1 hour. Serve with crème fraiche or vanilla ice cream and LOVE.

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MARY’s secret ingredients

MARY’s secret ingredients is a limited edition culinary surprise box containing new, unique, gourmet products and a small kitchen tool. Every season, a limited number of themed boxes will be filled with lovely surprises to inspire your cooking and delivered right to your door.

In each box you’ll find mouth-watering sweet and savory products, as well as Mary’s favorite tips and tricks for creating delicious meals. On this blog, Mary shares recipes to inspire, using ingredients from the boxes.

Buy here.

Secrets for a great THANKSGIVING you will LOVE eCookbook

Secrets for a Great Thanksgiving You Will LOVE – eCookbook for $2.99

Thanksgiving is a beautiful time of year. It’s about good food, loved ones and spending time enjoying both. It’s my favorite holiday in every way! But let’s be honest: cooking a feast is no small feat. I say that a glass of wine helps, but so does my time-perfected Thanksgiving planner — a step by step guide you’ll find inside these pages to help keep you happy and sane in the days leading up to the big meal. You will also find these 13 delicious tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipes:

Pancetta-Wrapped Mushrooms
Smoked Salmon Tartare on Blue Corn Chips
Artichoke Dip
Butternut Squash & Bourbon Soup
Cornbread Sausage Stuffing with Apples and Pecans
Best Roast Turkey Ever with Giblet Gravy
Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup and Ginger
Cranberry Ginger Sauce
Momofuku’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Fish Sauce Vinaigrette
Basic Pie Crust
Mrs. Fowler’s Pecan Pie
Whipped Cream
Pumpkin Pie

Get it here.
Get the Kindle version here.

Secrets for HOLIDAY SMALL PLATES Savory & Sweet! eCookbook

Secrets for Holiday Small Plates Savory & Sweet! – eCookbook for $2.99.

The winter holidays are lovely. We celebrate with glitter, lights and all things cheery, and focus on what’s important — getting together with friends and family over good food and drink. If you are hosting, what you serve need not be elaborate, just delicious. This collection of ten small plate recipes, savory and sweet, will help your holiday entertaining to be stress free:

Savory
– Southern Cheese Straws
– Mary’s Bean Dip
– Roasted Whole Almonds with Sea Salt
– Feta with Black Olives
– Parmesan, Dates, Prosciutto and Roasted Almonds

Sweet
– Cognac Sugarplums
– Hello Dolly Squares
– Best Brownies
– Date Bars
– Lemon Bars on Brown Butter Shortbread

Get it here.

Thanksgiving in Tuscany

December 3, 2017 by Mary

Last Saturday, I made (with a lot of help) Thanksgiving dinner at my friends Tiziana and Andreas’ house, in Tuscany, as they have a very large dining table, for 13 Italian friends, including my son and daughter-in-law from Poland.

Here is a video from the appetizer part of the evening.

And Tiziana’s beautiful table.

It was so great! They were all very excited and appreciative to eat and be a part of this truly American meal!!! Please take a look at all the pictures, and especially this video where my son Zach wheels out the huge turkey. It was 7.8 kilos – over 17 lbs. At the last minute, we all realized that there was no room on the table to carve the turkey and the platter was so huge and heavy with the bird on it, so Tiziana says, “let’s wheel it out” and is wiping off this cart that I never even realized she had! Zach wheels it in to the clapping and cheering of “TACCHINO!!!!”

It was thrilling and hilarious all at the same time!!

To make this meal happen here was quite a lot of work as well as nervousness involved on my part. The stakes were pretty high. People were traveling in from Roma, Milano and Berlin. I was cooking with unfamiliar things in a kitchen I had never cooked in before. I made all of my recipes in my Thanksgiving book, but to get all of the ingredients and convert from pounds to kilos and translate the spices and EVERYTHING – I must admit – it was quite a feat. And, you can’t buy things here too early because the fresh fruits and vegetables do not last as long as they do in the States. Either we put preservatives on everything and they don’t, or the refrigeration systems here are not as good, or both.

It literally took me about 4 days to shop and find everything, and some things could never be found here in Arezzo. Fresh cranberries and pecan halves were an example, but luckily I discovered that beforehand and Zach and Agata “imported” them from Poland. The so-called “sweet potatoes” they have here, are nothing like ours so I’ll have to correct that somehow for the next time, as that was the only thing that was not so good. Perhaps we’ll have to import those from Poland next time too.

Poor Zach had to make many trips back to my house for ingredients I had forgotten to bring to Tiziana’s house. The vanilla extract, that I had to search for high and low at stores here, (it’s different from ours, by the way, it’s thicker), never made it into the pecan pie as I had forgotten it and Zach couldn’t make in time to bring it over and the pie had to go into the oven and be out, so the turkey could get in.

I made the pie crust first and I guess I was still a little sleepy. I was able to borrow measuring cups from Cristina’s kitchen, but I left the one cup measure in my dishwasher and thought the ½ cup measure I had brought with me was the one cup measure so the pie crust had only half the amount of flour that it should have had!! AUGHHH!!!

They were very buttery!!

So needless to say, I was a nervous wreck. And, the turkey was done 1.5 hours before planned! But it was a DELICIOUS bird. Through Chef Franco here and my friends, I’ve made friends with Marcello the butcher who thinks I’m just the funny Americana. He speaks no English and my Italian now, even with lessons, is poco. He calls Chef Franco or Tiziana to find out what I really want, but he always gives me the best and also moves me up in the line in his shop, much to the ire of the other Italian women, and offers tastes of things to me – which is not often done here.

Bianca, Tiziana’s daughter, likes to drink martini’s and I love them too but I would not normally have one before such a big dinner but by the time cocktail hour started at 7:30 and I had been working since 8:30 am and 4 days before, I said, “what the hell – let’s have one!”

So between starting with martinis and the gorgeous bottle of 2007 Amarone (that has a very high alcohol content) that Franco (another Franco) brought, along with a lovely bottle of Vin Santo from Andrea, by the end of the evening, I was notably smashed – and then they surprised me with singing Happy Birthday right after midnight and a lovely gift, and flowers, and candied chestnuts, and I also received a surprise delivery of extremely gorgeous flowers and chocolates from my son and daughter-in-law in NYC. It was crazy good!!

So you can see it was quite an amazing day!!!

The dinner, I must admit, was spectacular. Zach said, “Best turkey ever!!” Marcello outdid himself. And, EVERYTHING else tasted amazing because the ingredients here are SO, SO GOOD!!! Everything! So Agata said, no matter where we are living in the future, we should always have Thanksgiving here in Tuscany!!

I agree!!

The apples and sausage and bread in the stuffing, the oranges from Napoli in the cranberries, even the cranberries from Poland, the baby butternut squashes for the soup were so, so sweet – it was all so amazing!!

Again, I don’t know what we have done to our food supply in the US, but here, everything tastes SO GOOD!!!! And of course, I added a lot of LOVE!!

I hope you enjoy these crazy pictures and videos!

RawSpiceBar Winter Herbs on a Beef Rump Roast with Potatoes & Parsnips

January 3, 2016 by Mary

Growing up in the Midwest, and from a large family with lots of boys (five brothers) Sunday dinner was often a big beef roast with mashed potatoes, green beans and some sort of homemade fruit pie. That roast and the pie said “Sunday” to me and my mom did a great job of making sure the beef was cooked to a beautiful medium-rare. Desserts in the Midwest were pretty mandatory and her pies were spectacular. My father always loved her flakey crusts.

This little packet from RawSpiceBar doesn’t look like much. However, cut it open and the fragrance released is like nothing I’ve ever experienced from a mixture of dried herbs. They say that they’re special and you know what, they are! Also, you don’t think there’s much in the packet but there’s more than you think! My rump roast was pretty sizable, 2.7+ lbs. and I applied the spice mixture liberally and still have a third of my spices left!

So use these now to take advantage of their freshness and don’t be stingy. They are a little rustic with some stems in the mixture, but that all adds to the aroma!

Sprinkle Kosher salt all over your roast, then sprinkle on the herb mixture and press in. For the rounded sides of the roast, sprinkle the herb mixture and salt on a flat surface spread out about the same area you need to cover, and then roll your roast in it to cover completely. Neat trick, eh?!!

Do this as early in the morning as you can on the day you want to serve this. Do it the day before for even better results. Salting any meat ahead of time helps to tenderize it. While a rump roast is flavorful, it needs some help on the tender part.

RawSpiceBar WINTER HERBS ON A BEEF RUMP ROAST WITH POTATOES & PARSNIPS – serves 6

1 Tbs. Kosher salt
1.5 – 2 Tbs. RawSpiceBar Winter Herbs spice mix
2.7 lbs. beef rump roast, tied at 2-inch intervals
½ bunch marjoram
1.5 lbs. medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled
1.5 lbs. medium parsnips, peeled, cut in 3-inch lengths
4 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
1 large bunch watercress

FOR THE HORSERADISH SAUCE:
½ cup crème fraîche
2- 3 Tbs. horseradish, drained
Small pinch cayenne
Salt and pepper

The day before or in the morning, evenly cover the roast with the Kosher salt and the RawSpiceBar Winter Mix herb mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. (If you don’t have time for this, even 2 hours at room temperature before you put it in the oven will do.)

Remove the seasoned roast from the refrigerator at least an hour before you plan on putting it in the oven.
Line a roasting pan with marjoram branches and set roast on top. Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Roast the beef, uncovered, for about 1 hour. Check with an instant-read thermometer after 45 minutes. For medium-rare, take the roast out of the oven when thermometer registers 120 degrees (residual heat will cause roast to continue cooking as it rests). Remove the roast, let it rest for 20 minutes; the temperature should rise to 125 degrees.

Meanwhile, while the roast is cooking, in a large pot of well-salted boiling water, cook potatoes until just done, about 15 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a baking dish. In the same water, simmer parsnips until just done, about 8 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and add them to the potatoes in the baking dish. Pour melted butter over the potatoes and parsnips and use a brush to make sure they are all well coated.

Make the horseradish sauce: Whisk together crème fraîche, horseradish and cayenne in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper and refrigerate.

After about 45 minutes after the roast goes into the oven, put in the baking dish of potatoes and parsnips, uncovered, and roast until beautifully golden brown, about 25 – 30 minutes.

Slice the beef into thin slices and arrange on a warmed platter, garnished with a big bunch of watercress and the roasted vegetables. Pass the horseradish sauce separately.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!