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

Let’s talk about temperature

July 5, 2015 by Mary 16 Comments

I hope you all had a great July 4^th holiday weekend! We certainly did and the weather is glorious today, not too hot, actually amazing for July 5^th, with the temperature in the low 80’s accompanied by cool breezes. We are here in upstate New York and had our friends Margaret and Wayne over for dinner last night. Margaret said she had even turned on the heat yesterday in her house!!

For our meal, I followed my own instructions, if you got our recipe email from MARY’s secret ingredients for dinner suggestions for the 4^th. I made Barbecued Ribs, Corn on the Cob, Sweet and Sour Coleslaw, and I started our dinner with my Smoked Tomato Soup, (minus the Nueske’s sausage and Flathaus Cheese Straws) but decided to serve it at room temperature, which turned out to be a fantastic idea. Some time ago, I remember reading an article in Food & Wine magazine about famous chefs and their mentors. This one focused on April Bloomfield and she said her mentor taught her the most about temperature. Something she was making, she served way too hot. Her mentor said, in so many words, that all of the flavors were not blossoming with all that heat.

Well my soup, because the tomatoes were smoked and it contained smoky bacon, was actually intended to be served hot, but who wants hot soup on July 4^th? So then, I thought, I’ll serve it cold and it’ll be a different form of gazpacho. But no, I said to myself, that won’t work. Serving it cold would obliterate the beautiful bacony, smoky flavors that I had worked so hard to create. So after I pureed it, I just let it sit on a cool burner on the stovetop, letting it come to room temperature – and it was divine!!

I made this decision to take a leap of faith – fortunately we were with good, forgiving friends if it turned out to be a really bad idea. However, this was a really great idea! So I just thought I’d share.
This soup also contains one of our new ingredients from our summer box. You’ll find it to be surprising so stay tuned for the upcoming posts where I’ll reveal all of the great new products!

Let’s all appreciate our freedom and give thanks!!

Sweet and Sour Coleslaw

July 1, 2014 by Mary 18 Comments

This recipe is SWEET! It’s both super easy and super delicious! You will LOVE it and get compliments to boot!

The day after I served it, requests for the recipe came rolling in. This Sweet and Sour Coleslaw is a terrific accompaniment to the Amazing BBQ Ribs and Grilled Potato Salad with Scallions recipes that I just published in the June newsletter. If you are not signed up for that, you can do so now by clicking on the blue box on the right hand side here. That will take you to a page to sign up, and I’ll make sure you get one.

This recipe is from a cookbook that was a gift to me from our lovely Bianca, who was visiting from Italy by way of South Carolina, it is a find! Her Italian boyfriend is working for a company based down there and she was visiting him before coming to visit us in NYC. She said she wanted to bring me a little bit of the South so she picked out this Farm Fresh Southern Cooking cookbook, by Tammy Algood. I had never heard of Tammy, but so far I’ve made about eight recipes from this book and they’ve all been terrific! All of them are relatively quick, easy and super delicious! And yes, of course I’ve made changes – just a little though.

I figure that people from the South know coleslaw and from this recipe, they really do. It is perfect for your upcoming July 4^th celebrations. And don’t forget to let me know if you want to receive the newsletter for the best ribs and a really different potato salad recipe.

SWEET AND SOUR COLESLAW – serves 8
(adapted from Tammy Algood and her Farm Fresh Southern Cooking cookbook)

1 medium head of cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp. firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 rounded tsp. dry mustard
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. celery seeds

Remove the 2 – 3 outer leaves from the cabbage, wash and dry with a paper towel. Cut into quarters, and shred on a mandoline, avoiding the core. (I love to munch of the core while making this – something my mother used to do, giving me a piece, while I watched her shred.)

Place the shredded cabbage in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the white sugar and drizzle with honey. Do not stir.

In a small saucepan, over medium–high heat, combine the brown sugar, salt, dry mustard, oil, vinegar and seeds. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Let cool for 15 minutes. Pour over coleslaw, tossing and mixing well. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

Delish!

Summer pleasures!!

August 12, 2012 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

There’s nothing better than a meal of hard shell crabs, corn on the cob and a cold beer on a hot summer night. Throw in a little coleslaw, make sure you have plenty of newspapers and you are set for a real treat! Since my husband is from Baltimore, this is a must at least one summer night in our household.

This was our dinner last night and the crabs were heavy, meaty and delicious! Just follow the instructions on the back of the Old Bay can. Make sure your blue crabs are alive to start, wash them in the sink using long tongs, as they will bite. Create a steamer rack in a large soup pot, (I use a store bought aluminum pan, upside down and punched with holes), fill with about 2″ of half water and half cider vinegar, (or you could use plain old white vinegar), put the live crabs in, layer by layer sprinkle heavily with Old Bay, cover and steam for 30 minutes and voila – get ready to work for the succulent crab meat. It is worth it!

(Now, what in the world are we going to do when we finally give up getting the Times every morning in paper format?)

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

Let’s talk about temperature

Sweet and Sour Coleslaw

Summer pleasures!!

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