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

Meatloaf

May 3, 2020 by Mary 6 Comments

What a time we are in, huh? I so worry about the core of our country and what is happening to our democracy. Because if you follow all the politics behind the scenes, it is distressing. So, I suggest you make a Meatloaf to soothe everyone’s anxiety.

Finished meatloaf on a white platter. — Finished meatloaf!

Nothing can calm nerves better than a good old-fashioned Meatloaf for a weeknight or Sunday dinner, just like Momma used to make, right?

And then, what is better the next day, than a meatloaf sandwich with a little extra catsup? Pure heaven in my book!

I had always thought of meatloaf as a basic dish, nothing special, and really hadn’t made it in such a long time. But as my kids were visiting, and I had a big pack of local ground beef in the fridge and a birthday dinner to make for my son, so I suggested meatloaf!

He was excited!

I was thrilled.

My mom’s finishing touch

Because this meatloaf recipe contains my additions to my mother’s recipe, it’s a little richer but you must know that the finishing touch of Hunt’s Tomato Sauce and dried oregano is all hers. I remember from childhood, loving to scoop up the extra sauce that fell down on the sides in the pan, mixed with some of the fat from the beef and being told, that was a no-no. “Too fatty. Would make me fat.”

Why everyone was worried about my weight, I will never know, as I was not and am not fat.

Geez!

There is one part of me, growing up with six men in the house (five older brothers and Dad), that believes that somehow they wanted me to be perfect – according to a perfection in their eyes. And we all know that that is not possible. C’est la vie.

Your ingredients matter

At any rate, it’s really important to use the best dried oregano that you can find. I use Greek dried oregano, because it is super aromatic and potent.

It is always about the quality of the ingredients to make your dish sing. The Dijon mustard is also super important. And this isn’t just any old meatloaf. This recipe makes a meatloaf that will delight your senses, at least for two days. Because sandwiches the next day are a real treat!

On another note…

I do finally feel like I have broken through my veil of grief of Steve’s passing. It is hard to believe, but it will be 3 years in June. Last weekend was the first weekend I really felt like cooking again. Cooking new dishes, researching recipes, making my shopping lists. My daughter-in-law said, yeah, she finally felt like I was back again.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Meatloaf ready to go into the oven. — Meatloaf ready to go into the oven

MEATLOAF – serves 4 with leftovers

2.5 lbs. ground beef
1 smallish onion, finely chopped
1 egg – lightly beaten with a fork
½ cup whole milk
¾ cup Panko
1 Tbs. Dijon Mustard
2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp. crushed red pepper
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
20 grinds of fresh black pepper

TOPPING:
I 8oz. can of Hunt’s Tomato Sauce – it’s actually all natural!
Dried Oregano – preferable Greek

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

Combine all ingredients for the meatloaf (not the topping) and mix thoroughly but do not overmix. Just get everything blended.

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and shape the meatloaf as shown in the photo.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 F degrees.

Then boost the oven heat up to 425 F degrees and top the meatloaf evenly with Hunt’s Tomato Sauce and sprinkle oregano on top as shown in the photo. Return to the oven and bake for 12 – 15 minutes more.

Remove from the oven and let the meatloaf rest for 10 minutes in the pan. Carefully transfer the meatloaf to a warmed platter using 2 pancake turners. Garnish with parsley. Slice to serve.

Serve with LOVE.

Enjoy leftovers as meatloaf sandwiches with catsup and your hero status!

The cut-outs!

December 28, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Finished cookies – notice the dreidels and Jewish stars to keep everyone happy

I know that Christmas is over but you still have New Year’s coming and many parties probably await you this weekend. My mom would often make a batch or two during this week. Why not? She ran out of time before Christmas Day, so what’s the big deal, make them in the week in between! Just don’t tell anyone.

I did make these on Christmas Eve, along with another requested batch of Hello Dolly squares (they always go quick) and the 4 loaves of traditional Polish Bread that is my Grandmother’s recipe. Sorry I’m a little late in getting this to you.

Before this recipe, I was never a fan of cut-out sugar cookies. Any recipe I encountered came out too thick or too sweet or both.

Many of you know I went to Parsons School of Design, majoring in Communication Design. For many years, including my 4 years, the Chairman of the department was this wonderful, little (he was short) man named John Russo. He made sure he knew every student in his department. He loved to draw and produced these crazy drawings (I’ll have to show you later) and often converted each student into some type of bird. He made me a peacock. I could never quite figure out if that was good or bad. I have still kept in touch with him until just a few years ago. I should check in with him again. Now he lives in PA and is in his late eighties or early nineties.

So at Christmastime, he would have his wife make these cookies and instead of using cutters, he would spend time hand cutting each one of us as birds and then he made a huge display of them right by the elevators on the department floor. He would put a hole in the top of each one and hang them with a ribbon on push pins. Besides the amazing fact that he would take the time to do this, they were also delicious!!

Light and crisp – I guarantee you – this is the BEST sugar cookie you will ever eat!

ROLLED CHRISTMAS COOKIES
makes 3 1/2 dozen

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg, beaten
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream butter thoroughly. Add sugar gradually and then add vanilla and egg. Beat until light. Sift together all dry ingredients and blend into batter. Remove batter from the bowl, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for several hours. On a lightly floured pastry cloth, roll out 1/8” thin, cut, place on a greased or Siltpat lined cookie sheet. Decorate with colored sugars and bake at 325 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes. Or bake them plain and decorate them afterwards with colored icings. That is what Russo would do.

Store in a wax paper lined tin at room temperature.

The original recipe – signed with love – from Russo

Best Quick Roasted Chicken

November 3, 2011 by Mary Frances 3 Comments

Roast chicken in a cast iron skillet just out of the oven.

Finished chicken just out of the oven

They say that many a chef is judged by how good their roast bird is. I have tried many different ways over the years. Debating whether or not to truss the bird with string (Julia) or cut slits in the skin and shove the legs in there. (Anthony Bourdain) Starting with high heat to sear and then lowering it and basting it throughout (I still do like this method – more on that later) or Julia Child’s recipe that involves turning the bird every 15 minutes (more work) or Jen’s method (our long term nanny for the boys) of covering it and roasting it longer. My brother, Mark, thought hers was the best! When he would come to visit in NJ, he would request Jen’s chicken for the first night of dinners. Then there’s Zuni Café’s version of salting the chicken several days ahead of time (really a brining of sorts) and then roasting in a not too dissimilar way from the method I like below. Tell me your favorite! I think this is the best quick roasted chicken.

This is a version adapted from Mark Bittman and my oldest son on the way to cook it, with my added touches. They say great chefs never throw anything away. I believe in that so I always save my parmesan cheese rinds. Shove them into the cavity of a bird or throw into your risotto and you will be amazed at how much flavor they impart. Using them in a roast chicken provides a parmesan flavored sauce, mixed with the chicken juices that is just divine. (That’s the end of the cheese rind sticking out of the cavity – don’t you go thinking of other things!)

THE BEST QUICK ROASTED CHICKEN – serves 4

One 3.5 lb. chicken (I like Bell and Evans, still)
Fine grind sea salt
Fine grind pepper (I use Tex-Joy brand)
4-5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
10 sprigs of fresh thyme
½ lemon
Parmesan cheese rinds
20 – 25 cremini mushrooms, washed, stems trimmed a little bit and left whole

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with a cast iron skillet or heavy ovenproof skillet in the center of the oven. Trim the ends off of your mushrooms, wash, pat dry with a towel and let air dry. Thoroughly wash and dry your bird, inside and out. Distribute and shove sliced garlic, along with the thyme sprigs, under the skin on both sides of the bird – both breasts and legs and both sides on the back. Be careful not to rip the skin. Take the half of lemon and squeeze it inside the cavity to refresh the bird. Salt and pepper the cavity. Place the squeezed lemon half in there, along with more sliced garlic and thyme and shove in the parmesan cheese rind.

Pat dry the outside of the bird again, salt and pepper the outside.

Take the pan out of the oven and leave a hot pad on the handle immediately so you don’t forget and grab it. Quickly put the bird in the pan, breast side up (it will not stick) and shove mushrooms all around. It will be snug and please remember this pan is blazing hot so be careful.

Shove the hot pan with chicken and mushrooms back into the oven and roast for 35 – 40 minutes, undisturbed, until meat thermometer reaches 155 degrees. Remove chicken immediately from the hot pan by grabbing the cavity with long tongs and let rest on a platter, for at least 10 minutes before carving. Pour juices from pan on top and scatter mushrooms around. Please remember again to use a good hot pad on the handle. Too many times I have grabbed one of these, forgetting it had been in that crazy hot oven. (For burns, tea tree oil is the best but is not a good smell around food.)

Now, you tell me if this isn’t the easiest and fastest way to serve a delicious, moist, mouth watering roast chicken?

Delicious and easy roast chicken with mushrooms

Dinner in 30 minutes – REALLY!

October 12, 2011 by Mary Frances 3 Comments

This is no Rachel Ray joke!

We arrive home very late on Columbus Day, having had business meetings upstate in Hudson.

I know I have broccoli rabe at home in Manhattan. I grab a pack of frozen sausage from the country house and do not put in it in a cool pack for the ride home so it will thaw. I will make pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage. However it is a mild Italian chicken sausage, BUT I have just picked a very hot serrano pepper from my garden!

Everyone is starved as we walk in the door at 8:30. I put all the other groceries away and get to work a little before nine. How can I get dinner on the table quick? I ask for help from Zach’s girlfriend, Agata, and she does a beautiful job peeling and slicing the 6 large garlic cloves. And I continue with the neatest thing being using the broccoli rabe near boiling water to bring to a rolling boil to cook the pasta. It also flavored the pasta as well. Dinner was on the table at 9:23, served with a lovely bottle of red wine for the four of us and it was a feast! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. My husband said this was the very best version of this dish I have ever made! And, it has the magical pancetta in it to give it the big full flavor. Here goes.

PASTA WITH BROCCOLI RABE AND CHICKEN SAUSAGE
1/4 cup olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, pealed and sliced
1 serrano chili pepper minced, with seeds (remove seeds if you do not like things hot)
1 3/8” thick slice pf pancetta, cut into small dice
1 bunch broccoli rabe, washed and cut into 2” pieces
1 -11/4 lb. mild Italian chicken sausage, removed from casing and broken up into small chunks
1 lb linguini – No. 6
3 tbs. pasta water
2 oz. grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Peel and slice the garlic cloves. Mince the pepper. Warm the olive oil with the garlic, hot pepper and pancetta on low heat for 10 – 12 minutes in a large skillet while you’re cleaning the broccoli rabe. Trim the ends of the broccoli rabe and cut into 2” pieces, Wash thoroughly, twice. Put in a large pot, cover with at least 2” of cold water. Salt with coarse sea salt. Put on very high heat. When bubbles start to form on the edges of the pot, lift the broccoli rabe out with a hand mesh strainer or slotted spoon and drain in a colander. This partially cooks the rabe and removes the bitterness. You are saving the water to cook your pasta in. Raise heat on garlic mixture to medium, add your sausage and sauté until all pink is gone. Taste for salt and pepper but remember, the Pecorino is salty and that gets put in at the end. Meanwhile, bring the broccolli rabe water to a rolling boil and cook your pasta. Add drained broccolli rabe to sausage mixture and toss the combination. Save some pasta water and drain the pasta when done. I find it best to combine all in layers. Put 1/3 pasta in a bowl with 1/3 sausage rabe mixture and 1/3 cheese and 1 TBS. pasta water, toss to combine and continue with thirds and toss. Serve with more cheese if you like at the table, but it really isn’t necessary.

This dish is so creamy and delicious – even for people who say they don’t like broccoli rabe! It almost tastes like it has butter in it but it doesn’t. You will love it!

Friday night

October 10, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

My oldest son wanted to come out to the country house with 3 friends this past Friday afternoon, to spend the night, on their way to a farm in Massachusetts for a cider pressing event. Now I was already expecting 4 guests on Saturday for the weekend. After initially being taken aback, what’s a little more laundry? These kids are fun. And I have to tell you, it is so nice to drive up to your own house with the lights all on and all warm inside and have someone greet you to offer their help in bringing things in, martini glasses on the coffee table and laughter and music. What could be a better greeting on a Friday night – or any night for that matter?

He said he would make dinner. Great!! See – they all cook! He made the most spectacular chili – with tender pork cubes and no beans, served over polenta that his good friend Martha made.

I’m telling you, it was so, so good. I have to get the recipe and I was so very glad he did not take the leftovers which I cleaned up completely today – and I didn’t want to share. Not with anyone.

Later yesterday, I received this photo of his bounty from the farm. Beautiful!!

Beef brisket

October 9, 2011 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

I always think of my good friend Susan who on 9/11, after the towers collapsed, was told to go home from work and was so distraught and didn’t know what to do, she chose to go to her butcher and bought a beef brisket; hoping to find solace in an enormous slab of beef. The very idea of brisket is comforting; it is a homey dish in my mind. However, every Jewish holiday I have attended, with accompanying brisket, has almost always fallen short of my juicy, tender beef idealization.

My husband was raised Jewish and brisket is a Rosh Hashanah staple. He did not want a New Year’s family dinner this year but I insisted we try to pull it together at the last minute, At 6:30 the night before, we decide to plunge in and purchase the meat – a six and a half pound brisket – for 5 of us! Yikes! Now we had to convince Zach to be home by 3:30 to put this baby in. After dinner on Tuesday night, I got to work on a marinade. Not liking the sound of any one recipe online, I proceeded to make up my own. So here we go. This was so delicious; I will make this again and again, even if it’s not a Jewish holiday. I wanted to drink the gravy and then put it on everything afterwards, it was that good.

MARINATED BEEF BRISKET

1 head of garlic, cloves peeled and minced
3 cups of chopped onions
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
3/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 can tomato paste
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp. Kosher salt
6 1/2 lb. beef brisket
3 – 4 plum tomatoes, cored and diced
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 1/4” pieces
3 medium red-skinned potatoes, cut in 1 1/4” chunks

Whisk together the garlic, onions, vinegar, red wine, mustard, tomato paste, brown sugar, soy sauce and salt in a very large bowl. Wash and dry the meat and submerge it in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Turn it over in the morning.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Take meat out 45 minutes before putting in the oven. Place meat and 3/4 of the marinade in a covered pot or Dutch oven (Le Creuset is best). Discard the rest of the marinade. Roast for 3 hours Add carrots and potatoes. Cover again and at 3 1/2 hours, add tomatoes and cook for 45 minutes more. It should be fork tender.

Remove the meat to a platter. Take the vegetables out with a slotted spoon and surround the meat with them on the platter. Boil the marinade, skimming off all the grease that will form at the top as you rapidly boil for 20 minutes or so, until greaseless and slightly thickened.

Generously drizzle gravy over the meat and vegetables, garnish with parsley. Carve in 1/4” slices on an angle and serve. Pass extra gravy at the table.

You will be amazed.