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

Memorial Day Melange

May 26, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

Strip ad of Kitchen Aid appliances in shiny red. It is Memorial Day weekend, the beginning of summer. It is 45 degrees with gale like winds here in upstate New York. It is way too windy for a bike ride, besides we’re all wearing winter coats.

My husband is about to build a fire, waiting for me to open the flue (my job as he somehow messes up the closure when he does it.) And oh no, we haven’t screwed up the environment?!? And why do we call Memorial Day a holiday? Okay, so it is a day off from work but really, we should all keep in mind what this day is about and remember all of those lost or maimed in the name of defending our country for freedom for all of us.

This week has been so hectic with the test kitchen tours and then the champagne breakfast on Friday, not to mention we had a dinner party Friday night (more on that later) and then came upstate yesterday, having dinner with our dear friends Margaret and Wayne. Margaret made a wonderful eggplant starter with spinach, pine nuts and cheddar cheese and a fantastic shrimp and chorizo paella. They had a fire too! Lovely evening!! The Friday morning champagne brunch was a wonderful place to meet all kinds of people in the food business, not just bloggers, hosted by XO – they own The Knot, The Nest and The Bump. I got to have further conversation with Anna Curran from Cookbook Create (they create custom cookbooks!) and learned more about The Daily Meal, who are the wonderful folks giving away the Kitchen Aid mixer! Meanwhile Kitchen Aid is really pumping up the design aspect of all their products. I just saw this ad today in the May issue of Elle Décor. (I am always dreaming of refurnishing my house.) That mixer would sure look great sitting on my countertop here in the country!

So I wanted to share with you some tidbits I learned on our kitchen tours. Did you know that there are 25,000 food bloggers in the United States alone? So we all have to support one another! Did you know that Bon Appetit tests their recipes 4 to 6 — and sometimes even 12 — times before publishing them? They really want to Ginger lime and seltzer drink that is refreshing for summer.ensure success for the home cook.

Even for cooks with access to just basic ingredients, they want to know if that recipe will turn out for them in a good way. So nice of them! They prepared for us a wonderful ginger lime drink. You make a simple syrup with fresh ginger. Let it cool, add fresh limes and some lime juice along with seltzer or club soda and you have the most refreshing drink – for when summer does get here!

And then lastly, here’s me with Amanda Hesser from Food 52. It is her New York Times cookbook that my sons gave me, and Zach wrote in, that became the inspiration for starting this blog. It’s in the About section. She is looking at my LOVE card as I just told her the story of this blog.Amanda Hesser and Mary Frances of LOVE-the secret ingredient.net. Photo courtesy of claywilliamsphoto.com

Filed Under: Cookware and tools Tagged With: Amanda Hesser, Bon Appetit, Clay Williams photography, Cookbook Create, custom cookbooks, Food 52, ginger lime drinks, great summer drinks, The Bump, The Daily Meal, The Knot, The Nest

Test kitchen tours!

May 23, 2013 by Mary Frances 60 Comments

Yesterday was such an interesting, exhilarating and exhausting day!!

I enjoyed a day of touring test kitchens as part of Internet Week here, as a guest of Anna Curran from Cookbook Create, a site where you can make custom cookbooks. (Great gift idea, right?) We visited the kitchens of Bon Appetit, The Daily Meal and Food 52. Each one made us a little something special to eat, and we even had wine at The Daily Meal!

All of them were so helpful and sharing of information. We were 13 bloggers chosen for this day, and lucky ones at that. It was all good fun and useful information, plus I met some great new fellow bloggers!

These are the lovely ladies I spent the day with: Alejandra from Always Order Dessert, Amie from The Healthy Apple, Caroline from Taste, Love, & Nourish, Carrie from Poet in the Pantry,  Diana from Appetite for China, Daina from The Hungry Fan, Heidi from Brooklyn Allergy Mom, Jennifer from Savory Simple, Jen from Champagne Problems, Kimberly from Mom in the City, Lisa from Nutcase Crunch, Melinda from Kitchen Tested, and Sloane from Allergic Girl.

Here are some pics from the day.Bob Appettit magazine covers.

We started at Bon Appetit! They served a delicious fresh ginger, lime and seltzer drink with horseradish deviled eggs – yummy!
Fava beans and spinach on a white plate.
At The Daily Meal they served us a fava bean, spinach, garlic and onion tasting. So pretty!
Red Kitchen Aid stand up mixer.
The Daily Meal is giving away this fabulous Kitchen Aid!! I wonder who will win this shiny beautiful tool. I would LOVE it!! (so nice of them to do this!)
Food 52 kitchen with antique shelves.
Food 52’s new kitchen in their new space with antique wooden shelves and walnut cutting top.
Two girls serving English pea soup with a garlic cream and ramps.
The girls at Food 52 serving us English Pea Soup with a garlic cream and slivered ramps.

Filed Under: Lunch, Travel Tagged With: Bon Appetit, Cookbook Create, custom cookbooks, English pea soup, fava beans, Food 52, ginger, horseradish deviled eggs, Kitchen Aid, ramps, spinach, test kitchen tour, The Daily Meal

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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