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

Farmer’s Market green bean recipe

August 1, 2013 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

Green bean recipe with farm fresh beans, in a skillet with butter, ready to be cooked.

Delicious, skillet-cooked green bean recipe.

In addition to the terrific chicken we had last Friday and the leftovers for lunch this week, I would be remiss if I didn’t share this green bean recipe I made featuring Ethel and Tom’s glorious beans.

Just look at these beauties, which we had with the chicken. I used my old trusty skillet method and then topped them with some chopped fresh basil from my garden at the end. They were so darn delicious!! I highly recommend this green bean recipe when you want a healthy, beautiful, quick addition to your plate.

I also took a carton of their frying peppers, washed and tossed half of them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and Steve threw them on the grill. So very, very yummy.

Then they had (literally, and yes they know the Fourth of July is over) red, white and blue potatoes to sell! Since my husband has been following the “4 Minute Abs” diet (ha!), we are not eating anything white. So I bought the red potatoes. We could eat those!!

So on to the contest. As you could have guessed by now, I did not win. But I so appreciate all of your votes and efforts!! Thank you so much! It’s a pain to do it every day, I know. 373 people entered and the winner got 4000 votes. I was in the top 35 with about 400 votes. 🙁 Perhaps next time!

Gardening in gorgeous weather

May 5, 2013 by Mary Frances 11 Comments

I am sitting outside in our backyard upstate as I write this. It has been a glorious weekend, weather wise. Just spectacular!!

I should be riding my bike right now, but my body hurts too much from all the gardening yesterday. What happened? Gardening reaches muscles you forgot about for a year, even if you work out regularly, as I do. Honest. My father used to say, “It’s tough to get old, Mare.”

How right he was.

So here is my herb garden. I was so excited to see that my Italian parsley made it through the winter, as it’s an annual. Even my English thyme looks like it’s coming back. The chives, sage, mint, sorrel, and oregano are all in good shape. I planted sweet basil and some lettuces and weeded everything else.

And here are my tomatoes and nasturtiums. Yet to buy – tarragon, rosemary and arugula – next weekend.

Now I have to put covers on them before heading back to the city as it still gets really cold here at night.

Eggplant Parmigiano

September 12, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

My good friend, Margaret, has graciously shared her recipe of that wonderful dish we had on Labor Day weekend at her house.

The weather is getting perfect for a homey dish like this. Makes you want to crawl right into it … and eat it forever … pure yumminess! Hope you all enjoy.
THANK YOU MARGARET!!!

EGGPLANT PARMIGIANO
-serves 6 – 8

Eggplants, 8 small
Mozzarella, 2 balls
Parmigiano reggiano
Large bunch of basil
Tomatoes [maybe 3 to 3.5 lbs? cored and chopped]
Garlic
Olive oil

Select eight smallish eggplants. I suggest eggplants that are slightly smaller than your hand. Slice into ½-inch rounds and sauté in olive oil until golden. Salt and pepper lightly, turn and continue to sauté until golden and tender. Add additional olive oil as needed. Drain on paper towels.

Slice two balls of mozzarella. Grate parmigiano reggiano. Chop a large bunch of basil. Set aside.

To make the tomato sauce, core and chop whatever ripe to over-ripe tomatoes you have at hand. Add sliced garlic and olive oil (about 1/4 cup for an 8 cup potful). Cook at a low boil until most of the water has evaporated, stirring as needed.

To hasten the process, use a potato masher to loosen the “meat” of the tomato chunks. Blend in a food processor until smooth. Preheat oven to 375 – 425 degrees, depending on your oven.

Layer in a baking dish: half of eggplant slices, half of tomato sauce, half of parmigiano (should cover all of the surface “thickly” but not too much), mozzarella, basil, and then the remainder of eggplant, tomato sauce and parmigiano. Bake covered for 15 minutes, then uncover and bake until the dish is bubbly and the cheese has browned.

Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Then cut into squares and mangia, mangia!

Eleven pounds of tomatoes!

August 19, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

I have my work cut out for me today. Ethel (our farmer friend) convinced me to buy 11 pounds of her San Marzano tomatoes yesterday – and I did! So I am busy canning some and slowly oven drying the rest. I will give you those recipes later this week. Meanwhile the tomato smell is literally intoxicating, it smells so good. We will have this summer tomato freshness through some of the winter, but right now, I gotta get back to work!

My basil is also sky high – got to make pesto tonight!

Pesto!!

July 15, 2012 by Mary Frances 7 Comments

I had a dinner party this past Wednesday night that was so much fun. One of my senior designers who worked for me years ago, I think back in the late 80’s, was in town and got in touch. She now lives in Singapore. She connected with another former designer and I got in touch with Carl, who was the second person I ever hired for the firm in the early 80’s. So with other friends, we were 8 people in total and three were past employees of PM+CO! It was just great catching up. Linda is a vegetarian and I wanted to make sure the whole meal was amassed with local farm vegetables from upstate, to bring great country flavors to a NYC dinner party. So I started with a salad of farm lettuce and arugula from my garden, topped with roasted beets, Coach Farms goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and a sherry vinaigrette. I then roasted two huge trays of vegetables – yellow squash, zucchini, Portobello mushrooms, eggplant, Vidalia onions, smashed whole garlic cloves (from Ethel’s garden), red, and orange peppers and baby turnips – with Greek olive oil and French grey salt. I made a mass of steamed Jasmine rice, folded in Goya black beans (for protein) and for the non-vegetarians, I pan roasted 2 whole chickens seasoned with salt, pepper and Garam Masala. It was all really simple. I also had made some basil pesto the night before from basil in my garden, picked on Monday. I decided to put some of that in a bowl and people spooned it on everything and even took some home! I was originally going to fold the pesto into the rice and beans but after taking a survey from everyone during the cocktail hour, we decided this was the way to go. A dollop on top on the vegetables was divine. Barbara asked for a batch as her Christmas present and Mary Beth took a container full home. People just wanted to eat it straight. I really never dreamed of that for pesto. I just wanted to serve it because I had just made a bunch and with our youngest being in Europe, we couldn’t possibly eat it all, although pesto does freeze quite well.

We finished the meal with a rhubarb crisp (really quick and easy to make) topped with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream. Not bad for a weeknight dinner party!

Here is the pesto recipe. Remember, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients for any dish you make, so use the very best you can.

PESTO
-makes about 3 cups

3 cups of packed basil leaves, thoroughly washed and dried
6 – 7 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups Greek extra virgin olive oil (I like Athena brand)
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan (Reggiano) cheese
2/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano (Locatelli) cheese
salt
pepper

In a large food processor, combine basil, garlic and walnuts. Process to make a near paste. Scrape bowl. With machine on, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Scrape bowl again. Add the cheeses, a big pinch of salt and 20 grinds on fresh pepper. Process again, taste and add more salt, if necessary, to your liking.

A one cup portion is enough to coat 1 lb. of dried pasta, cooked. I like it on fusilli best as it can get in all the little groves for maximum coverage and flavor.

This freezes well.

Basil in my garden.

Pesto pasta and tomatoes in a white bowl.

Dinner with our good friend, Nancy, on Saturday, started with this course.

First course or a main meatless meal

October 29, 2011 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Let’s bridge Greece and Italy – or let’s just use up things in my refrigerator that need using! This is fantastic and could be used as a great first course or a main meatless meal.

BUCATINI WITH EGGPLANT, FRESH TOMATOES, SPINACH AND FETA
Serves 4 as a main course or 6 as a first course

1/4 cup olive oil
5 large garlic cloves – peeled and thinly sliced on a mandoline
1 medium eggplant, cut in quarters lengthwise and then sliced 1/4” thick
1.5 lbs. fresh plum tomatoes – about 7, cored and cut into quarters lengthwise and then sliced into 1/4” slices
1/2 bunch or 4 oz. fresh tender spinach leaves, (or baby spinach) stems removed, washed and air-dried
2 oz. Greek feta cheese, cut in 1/4 cubes
1 lb. dried bucatini No 6 pasta or spaghetti or fettucini
Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated
Chiffonade of basil to garnish

Prepare the eggplant and salt layers of it in a mesh colander to draw out and drain the bitterness. Use fine sea salt. Let sit while you prepare everything else, the longer the better, but do this for at least 20 minutes.

Prepare the tomatoes and place in a separate large bowl and salt it as well with sea salt, toss with a spatula and let sit. This will intensify the tomato flavor.

Warm the olive oil and sauté the sliced garlic on very low heat for 10 – 15 minutes. Do not let it brown.

Start a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.

Cut cheese and slice the basil leaves.

Take paper towels and squeeze and dry the eggplant and add to the skillet with the garlic and olive oil. Raise heat to medium and sauté until the eggplant is fork

tender. When the skillet becomes dry, drain the tomatoes in the same mesh colander and add their juices to the skillet.

Cook the pasta al dente and drain, saving some pasta water, just in case you need a little moisture.

In a large bowl you used for the tomatoes, layer 1/3 pasta, 1/3 fresh tomatoes, 1/3 eggplant mixture, 1/3 spinach, feta cheese and grate some pecorino on each layer. Continue until all is used up, pour in any extra tomato juice and toss and combine. The heat from the pasta and eggplant will warm the tomatoes, wilt the spinach and melt the feta. Garnish with more pecorino and the chiffonade of basil.

I hope you LOVE it!

cut salted eggplant

Chopped and salted tomatoes in a yellow bowl.

chopped salted tomatoes

Finished dish before basil garnish