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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!

Entertaining

July 22, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Entertaining does not always have to mean you cooking everything, especially when you live in a city like New York. It is so much more important to get together with the people you love and don’t let anything or any excuse get in the way of that. My good friend, Susan, pointed this out to me and executed a beautiful example this past week.

We were invited to their apartment this past Tuesday evening. Now Susan always does a beautiful job. She usually makes all the food and we have such a good time getting together and catching up and discussing politics. But this past Tuesday was so darn hot here, she decided to change it up a bit. No matter, as long as you serve it with LOVE, it makes no difference.

She had her fish store, Dorian, on York Avenue between 83rd and 84th Street, deliver some beautiful poached salmon fillets with some green sauce on the side. Then she put together a gorgeous platter of the salmon with the sauce, along with some fresh cucumber and dill. She made a cold yummy rice salad ahead of time with black nicoise olives, served some gorgeous sliced heirloom tomatoes with chopped fresh basil along with some guacamole (also from the fish store). Add some warm rolls and butter and we were all set. It was so delicious and THE perfect menu for a hot summer night. Plus, she could spend the whole cocktail time with us in the living room as dinner was already made.

Dessert was a French yogurt cake she made, topped with a dallop of mascarpone cheese and fresh blueberries and raspberries. The perfect ending to a perfect meal!!
But I forgot to take a picture!!

As part of our hostess gift, we brought a little bit of the country to them – Ethel’s garlic.

Susan says they won’t be able to take the subway after eating this garlic! Taxis all the way from now on! Woohoo!

Farm stand garlic.

Fresh farm stand garlic!

Ethel and her garlic.

Ethel and her garlic

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: blueberries, cucumber, dill, Dorian's, fish market, French yogurt cake, guacamole, heirloom tomatoes, mascarpone cheese, nicoise olives, poached salmon, raspberries, rice salad, York Avenue

Father’s Day!

June 19, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Hope all you Dads out there had a great day!! Because our youngest left on Friday for a seven week vacation in Poland and Eastern Europe, our Father’s Day came early. They surprised my husband on Thursday evening, He came home from work to a beautifully set dining room table and both boys busy in the kitchen. I made cocktails for all and we had a grand time.

Here’s what they made. They started with a salad of arugula, topped with thinly sliced radishes and carrots, followed with avocado and a white wine and olive oil vinagrette. The meal was scaloppini of veal poached in a homemade vegetable broth with tarragon, dill and parsley, (a Mark Bittman recipe), served over parboiled broccoli rabe that was then flash broiled, and finished with a tossing of olive oil and chopped garlic, with mandoline sliced potatoes, coated in clarified butter and baked, (a French Laundry recipe). I am not making this up. They did it all and it was amazing and delicious!!!
Arugula salads with radishes on red places.Making an arugula salad with radishes, carrots, avocado, and white wine and olive oil vinaigrette.Arugula salads with radishes, carrots, avocado, and white wine and olive oil vinaigrette on red plates.Veal with parsley.

Mark Bittman's recipe of veal poached in  vegetable broth on red and white plates.

Father’s Day finished plates

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: avocado, broccoli rabe, clarified butter, dill, French Laundry, mandoline, Mark Bittman, parsley, potatoes, tarragon, Thomas Keller, veal scaloppini

Dining out

May 19, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Caviar Russe gravlox with caviar on a white plate.
I had a terrific lunch with my friend Judy this past week. She took me to Caviar Russe. It was divine! Judy is in the investment banking business and likes to take clients there. It is on the second floor overlooking Madison Avenue and she said she likes to come particularly in the winter when it’s snowing. To look out of that second floor window with the snow falling, is just so pretty. The seating is dark chocolate colored suede banquettes with beautiful china and exquisite service. They know Judy there so I’m certain we got special treatment.

This food is certainly not what I could make or serve at home. It was precious, beautiful, delicious and unusual, and my boys would have gone home hungry. Just take a look at the appetizer on the lunch tasting menu we had. Gravlox with Russian Caviar, creme fraiche, dill, lemon zest, little bits of crisp brown bread chips and flowers. (the flowers were probably from the mountains of Switzerland?) The delicate fish sat on a small pool of creme fraiche as well and having white ribbons of creme fraiche adorn it. I don’t know how they made those. Perhaps rapid freeze a thin slab of creme and then cut it into ribbons? Anyway, it was so pretty, I had to be one of those gawkers who actually took a picture at the table. I wanted to share it with you! (Sorry the pictures are a bit blurry – I had to take them quickly with my iPhone.)
Caviar Russe chocolate ganache on a beautiful plate.

For dessert, which isn’t normally served with this meal, our waiter brought out this lovely serving of chocolate ganache with whipped creme and some sort of crunchy toffee like topping. This was served with the traditional ivory caviar spoon – and with that beautiful plate, it was almost too pretty to eat. But not enough. And it was delicious! Thank you Judy and Caviar Russe!

Filed Under: Lunch Tagged With: brown bread crisps, Caviar Russe, chocolate ganache, creme fraiche, dill, gravlox, iPhone, lemon zest, lunch, Russian caviar, whipped cream

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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