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Father’s Day!

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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

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Valentine's Day Sweethearts and a card.

So tonight, what will you be doing? I’m not a big fan of going out in NYC. The restaurants are always packed and besides, I’d rather serve my own LOVE-filled food at home!

I’m planning on making a veal chop recipe with grapes, honey and sage. It’s a very memorable dish that I made years ago and I really haven’t repeated, quite frankly, because veal is so expensive. But tonight, it will be just the two of us so I figure I’ll go for it!

Now Zach (23) is still living at home with us and he needs a place for his dinner with his girlfriend. So I suggested a candle light dinner in our office conference room with food brought in. Sounds pretty good – right? They’ll be alone. I just need to get the conference room in shape from all the editing and packing for the move that we’ve been doing.

When the kids were little, I would always make these heart cookies that my mother used to make for us. They are an oatmeal based cut-out cookie, that you sandwich two together and then ice all over with a buttercream frosting. They are really good and get better with age as the butter soaks into the cookies. But as you can imagine, they are a ton of work. My oldest son, had us all over for dinner on Sunday night at his apartment in Williamsburg, and was asking about the cookies. With the move, I don’t think I’ll get to them this year.

It was wonderful to have dinner at our older son’s home, particularly after the full day of packing we did at the office. Zach helped us on Sunday and both boys helped on Saturday. (We are blessed with great kids.)

The dinner was a delicious chicken tagine with homemade chick peas and farro instead of cous cous (much better) and served with a mixture of mustard greens and kale, wilted under the broiler, and then tossed with a dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar! Divine!!

To all you young moms out there, this is what can happen if you serve your kids great fresh food cooked with LOVE. They will want to continue the tradition and even step it up a notch! Our older son’s most recent purchase – the French Laundry cookbook from Thomas Keller! I don’t even have that one and it is gorgeous!!

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

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