• Blog
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Tips & Tools
  • International LOVE
  • Love Notes
  • Shop
  • Powered by MSI Media Group

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

Gourmet fast food

February 7, 2013 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

That’s what my husband calls my leftovers. While I really enjoy the process of cooking and find it a great way to unwind from the day, and I like the act of making up a great dish out of what I have on hand, working with the beautiful colors of the vegetables, herbs and spices. But when the week is busy, especially with evening work-related events, leftovers can be a lifesaver.

TIP: I only shop once a week – buying only what looks great in vegetables and figuring out what to make with them day by day. This is a time saver, and with the Internet you can always look up recipe ideas to match the ingredients you have on hand, or come back here to LOVE and check our recipe tab.

You can also make dishes that incorporate leftovers into a bigger meal – this is a way to quickly make a simple dish gourmet. I did this on last Friday night. I bought fresh catfish fillets, lightly coated them with flour, salt and pepper, and flash fried them in a little canola oil, and then topped them with the multi-use leftover fennel compote and it was fantastic!! To “freshen” the compote, I added in three chopped cherry tomatoes and tiny drizzle of olive oil, warmed it up in the microwave and a quick dinner was spectacular! TIP: I like to always have fresh tomatoes on hand and a few fresh herbs. With those, you can liven up any dish.
Fried catfish with fennel compote on a brown plate with sauteed Swiss chard and Jasmine rice.
Here is our plate with a little steamed Jasmine rice and sautéed Swiss chard with garlic. Delish and quick!!

When your husband wakes up the next morning and is still talking about the dinner the night before, you know it was good.

This is the thing: the more you cook, the more accumulated resources you have at hand to continue to cook better and better!

Filed Under: Dinner, Fish, Sides Tagged With: capers, fennel and tomato compote, fried catfish filets, gourmet fast food, gourmet leftovers, Jasmine rice, olives, Swiss chard sauteed with garlic and olive oil

A September Sunday morning

September 9, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

After the huge storm last night, including tornadoes in Long Island and parts of Connecticut, we awoke in the country to a most spectacular day today! Blue sky, billowy clouds, and a downed, huge, heavy tree branch that just missed one of our cars were the first things we saw this morning. Yikes!Toasted bagels with smoked salmon, Ben’s homemade cream cheese, tomatoes from the garden, thinly sliced red onion, and capers.
This was our breakfast, an absolute favorite of mine. Smoked salmon, Ben’s homemade cream cheese, tomatoes from the garden, thinly sliced red onion, capers and toasted bagels. We finished it off with a fruit salad of black mission figs, mango, red grapes and banana. Can’t beat that!
Fruit salad with black mission figs, mango, red grapes and banana.
Although there is nothing here that I made, except for putting together the fruit salad, I just had to share it with you because it was all so pretty in the dazzling sunlight this morning.

See the view from our dining room window below. Hope you had a great weekend!
View from dining room window.

Filed Under: Breakfast Tagged With: bagels, bananas, black mission figs, breakfast, capers, cream cheese, figs, fruit salad, mango, red grapes, red onion, smoked salmon, Sunday breakfast, tomatoes

Mother’s Day!

May 15, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

It is my all-time favorite holiday. I get to feel like a queen and do whatever I want for the day and my boys and husband are just the BEST!

This past Sunday I woke up to a dining room table set for four, which meant that my oldest son was even joining us for brunch! The younger one made fabulous waffles from scratch, with maple syrup from upstate New York, thanks to our friend Mary Beth who was just over for dinner and brought it as a gift! The meal was complete with artisanal sausage and tea.

And now dinner was amazing. They had asked me what I wanted and I said, “Surprise me!”

They started with a baby arugula salad with roasted beets, toasted walnuts and English Stilton. Yum! The main course was swordfish steaks, stuffed with a parsley, anchovy, caper, pesto sauce and topped with it too (a Mark Bittman recipe) and a quinoa vegetable dish that the younger one made up and promises to share. Dessert was vanilla ice cream with sauteed figs in butter with a vanilla bean, plus my husband supplied some fantastic chocolate truffles. But the boys did everything! I could truly taste the LOVE – everything was scrumptious! I am very lucky.

And then dessert was followed by gifts! A totally fantastic day!

Baby arugula, roasted beets, toasted walnuts and English Stilton

Baby arugula, roasted beets, toasted walnuts and English Stilton

 

Broiled swordfish with parsley pesto and quinoa with sauteed vegetables

Broiled swordfish with parsley pesto and quinoa with sauteed vegetables

 

Ice cream and sauteed figs in a white bowl.

Ice cream with sauteed figs

 

Chocolate truffles.

Can’t you just smell the chocolate?!!

Filed Under: Breakfast, Dinner Tagged With: anchovies, arugula, capers, chocolate truffles, English Stilton, figs, ice cream, Mark Bittman, Mother's Day, parsley, pesto sauce, quinoa, roasted beets, sauteed figs, toasted walnuts, vanilla bean

Football snacks

January 15, 2012 by Mary Frances 3 Comments

This past week, we had some dear friends over for cocktails and appetizers and then had dinner together at the Red Rooster restaurant, just open a year now, but famed and always crowded. It’s nice!

Charlie Rose was at the table next to ours, (poor guy, he spilled wine all over himself) and the star chef/owner Marcus Samuelsson stopped by and chatted with us. As usual, the Swedish meatballs and fried chicken (yardbird) were great!

I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think I do appetizers well and this opportunity of only having to serve just that and not a whole dinner, was unusual for me. So I wanted to make them different, not too filling, (because I knew dinner would be), and fresh. I think I achieved that.

Crackers, nuts, vegetables, and creamy dip.

I relied on my friend Margaret’s recipe for tonnato, a really creamy, bursting with flavor dip. Combining tuna, anchovies, capers and mayo and you can’t go wrong. Throw in parboiled green beans, fresh fennel and red pepper sticks and you’ve got a delicious combo. I also included a marvelous true English cheddar from Todd English’s Food Court at the Plaza Hotel, some crackers, pistachios (Susan loves) and corn nuts.

It worked out great and I think this would also be great for game watching today. Let me know what you think!

TONNATO
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 olive oil
8 oz Italian tuna in oil, drained (or use 1 ½ cans of water packed white albacore tuna, drained – I actually think this is better!)
5 anchovy fillets, packed in oil, at room temperature, drained and patted dry with a paper towel
3 tbs. lemon juice or a bit more to taste
2 tbs. capers, drained
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in the food processor and process until smooth and voila, you’ve got one tasty dip! Do taste before you add any salt and pepper as you may not need any salt at all.

For the green beans, trim the one end, drop in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and immediately put in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Pat dry and let air dry. When dry, wrap in a paper towel and place in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator to chill.

Fennel and red pepper strips should just be raw. You could also use carrot, celery or cucumber strips too.

Filed Under: Appetizers Tagged With: anchovies, capers, Charlie Rose, English Cheddar, fennel, Food Court at the Plaza Hotel, football, Giants, green beans, lemon juice, Marcus Samuelsson, mayonnaise, Plaza Hotel, red peppers, Red Rooster restaurant, snacks, Todd English, tonnato, tuna

Join 32k+ followers!


Never miss out on a recipe!

Subscribe to receive new posts via email:

Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

Summer Favorites

Easy Cheesy Sautéed Squash The Best Potato Salad Super Quick Chicken and Summer Vegetables Stir-fry Chimichurri-ed Wilted Endives with Walnuts Chilled Curried Zucchini Soup with Apple Garnish Best Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp to make now!

Categories

  • Appetizers
  • Breakfast
  • Brunch
  • Cocktails
  • Contest
  • Cookies
  • Cookware and tools
  • Desserts
  • Dinner
  • Events
  • First Course
  • Fish
  • Food Responsibility
  • Guest Post
  • Lunch
  • Meat
  • Pasta
  • Poultry
  • Products for sale
  • Salads
  • Sauces
  • Sides
  • Soups
  • Tea time
  • Travel
  • Vegetables

Pages

Blog
About
Recipes
Tips and Tools
International Love
Love Notes
Shop
Mary's secret ingredients

Blogs We Love

  • 1840 Farm
  • A Pug in the Kitchen
  • Cottage Grove House
  • Food, Photography & France
  • Food52
  • From the Bartolini Kitchens
  • Go Bake Yourself
  • Hotly Spiced
  • Jovina Cooks Italian
  • Lavender and Lime
  • Orgasmic Chef
  • Smitten Kitchen
  • Sophie's Foodie Files
  • Steven’s Wine and Food Pairings
  • That Skinny Chick Can Bake
  • The Pioneer Woman
  • The Squishy Monster
  • Tips on Food and Drinks
  • Yummy Chunklet
  • LOVE - the secret ingredient


  • GET IN TOUCH
  • E mary@lovethesecretingredient.com

· All Rights Reserved ·© 2016 Love- the secret ingredient. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | Privacy Policy Disclosure Policy Terms & Conditions