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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!

Frosty cocktails and dinner salads – summertime is here!

June 6, 2016 by Mary 8 Comments

Four dinner salads with chicken thighs.

Frosty cocktails and dinner salads, summertime is here, right? Easy cooking and meals that come together quickly, that’s what we all want when it’s time to open the windows wide, as we’d really rather be outside.

My mother-in-law passed early Tuesday morning. We had the funeral in Baltimore on Thursday. She had lived a good long 96+ years. So on Wednesday night, our oldest son and his fiancée came over for dinner and spent the night so we could all drive to Baltimore together. Obviously I had not planned for four for dinner this week but here’s what I threw together. It was great for a hot summer, late night meal.

Fortunately I had defrosted a package of 4 chicken thighs with bone and skin. I had some baby spinach and romaine lettuce, potatoes, mini sweet peppers, radishes and tomatoes. I threw in some caperberries and lemon halves to roast with the potatoes and chicken. Over the finished salad, I drizzled a tiny bit of olive oil and with a squeeze of the roasted lemons – DELISH!!

The caperberries got crunchy – a nice and interesting little bit of salt crunch every once in a while. The potatoes, baby Yukon Gold, were creamy dreamy. And roasting the lemons at the high heat of 425 degrees made them almost sweet! You can just salt and pepper your chicken on both sides but I was also trying out a new possible product for the summer box, delicious and high in garlic content, so I will tell you to just add some garlic powder and sesame seeds on the thighs, in order to not ruin the surprise of this product in the upcoming summer box.

Four dinner salads with white wine.
Here’s what I did.

DINNER SALAD WITH ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS, CAPERBERRIES AND ROASTED LEMONS – serves 4

4 chicken thighs with bone and skin 
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Sesame seeds
5.5 oz. baby spinach leaves
3 – 4 romaine lettuce leaves, washed, dried and torn into bite size pieces
1.75 lbs. baby Yukon Gold potatoes – scrubbed, dried and cut into 2“ chunks
2 Tbs. olive oil, plus more to drizzle on finished salads
1/3 cup caperberries, drained
2 whole lemons, washed, dried and cut in half
8 radishes, scrubbed clean and dried, trim if greens are not nice
½ cup sugar snap peas, washed, strings removed, and cut on a diagonal into slices
3 tomatoes, washed, dried and each cut into 8 wedges
4 small sweet peppers – yellow, orange or red, washed, dried, split in half lengthwise, seeds removed
3 scallions, cleaned and sliced, white, light green and some dark green parts
Maldon salt
Fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss potatoes with 2 Tbs. olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast potatoes in the oven for 15 minutes. Then add the caperberries to the potatoes and toss and return to the oven for 20 – 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile, wash and dry chicken thighs, removing all fat and extra skin on the edges. Season both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder and sesame seeds, pressing them in to adhere. Place thighs on a rack on a rimmed baking sheet, add lemon halves in the corners of the baking sheet, cut side down and roast on the top shelf in the oven for  30 – 40 minutes.

Prepare all the other vegetables.

Distribute the spinach and romaine lettuce leaves evenly among four dinner plates. Place chicken thighs in the center and evenly distribute all the other vegetables around the chicken, putting one roasted lemon half on each plate and finishing with the scallions sprinkled all over. Drizzle olive oil on the vegetables in a circle around the chicken, and squeeze the lemon all around. Finish with some crushed Maldon salt and fresh ground pepper.

Two dinner salads with chicken thighs and white wine.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!! We paired this with an Alsace Riesling – perfect! (Steve – what do you think?)

Frosty cocktail on a teak table outdoors.

Last weekend, I was also playing around with cocktails and another box item. More on that to come later after the summer box is shipped on June 25th. Here’s a photo to whet your appetite.

Filed Under: Dinner, Poultry, Salads Tagged With: chicken thighs, dinner salads, quick weeknight meals

Mother’s Day Recap & Fettuccine with Salmon & Sugar Snap Peas

May 15, 2016 by Mary 9 Comments

How was your Mother’s Day? What did you do? Even you men out there, what did you do for either your mom or your wife?

My Mother’s Day was super lovely. But it was also a little bittersweet in that I cannot believe how much time has passed and how grown my boys are, as tears well up in my eyes. They are tears of happiness, yes, but also a reminder of a time gone by. How did they grow up so fast? The many memories of Mother’s Days when they were little, all make me smile. Oh yes, I am ready for grandchildren, but I’m not nearly old enough to be a grandmother, right???

I am so proud of my boys – they have grown up to be fine young, polite, fun men. They both have chosen wonderful women to be with. The older one and his fiancée own a townhouse in Brooklyn with a backyard and 3 large London Plane trees they planted. They have done an incredible job on renovating this house and yard. They still have a lot to do but to sit outside in a backyard in NYC and barbecue on beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon with a special cocktail he made me — well it just doesn’t get much better than that – except if my other son and his fiancée could have been there too, but they are still in Poland.
Pear pie with a heart on top.
They greeted me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and Kate made an amazing pear pie – with a heart on top! All of dinner was done on the grill. It started with an appetizer of barbecued baby back ribs, then grilled hanger steak, done to perfection, some smashed potatoes, and grilled baby Brussels sprouts. But the pie, oh my, most of us had seconds. Piece of pear pie on a Dansk plate.
Not too sweet with a super flakey, buttery crust – the girl can really bake! How lucky am I!

So this past Friday night, we arrived upstate and decided, for once, we were going to go out to eat at a local restaurant, the Stissing House, right near our home. And wouldn’t you know it, they were completely booked and wouldn’t take us! So fortunately, before we left the city, I threw a can of salmon in our bags – just in case – as I had nothing else except for some sugar snap peas.

After being rejected from the Stissing House, here’s what I threw together with what I had in the pantry and it was darn good. I really wanted some milk or heavy cream to mix with the salmon juice for the sauce but I had nothing, I didn’t even have any sour cream or yogurt, or crème fraiche so I reached for the mayo and it turned out great! And just recently I came across an article about cooking with mayo – so here’s my contribution!
Fettuccine with salmon and sugar snap peas.This came together so quickly. The only thing that takes time is cleaning the sugar snap peas so do that first. The rest can all be done while you’re waiting for the pasta water to boil and cooking the fettuccine. While I made this on a Friday night, this is a perfect weeknight meal simply because it is so very quick and easy.
Fettuccine with salmon and sugar snap peas in a white rimmed bowl.

FETTUCCINE WITH SALMON AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS – serves 3 – 4

1 lb. sugar snap peas, strings removed and washed
1½ Tbs. olive oil
1 14.75 oz. can of pink salmon (use red sockeye if you can find it – my Mom always said that was better!)
½ lb. fettuccine
Coarse sea salt
1 Tbs. capers, drained
5 Tbs. mayonnaise
Fresh ground pepper

Drain the capers.

Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Salt generously when it comes to a boil and cook your pasta. Check at 2 minutes less than the package instructions. When done, save some pasta water and drain the pasta.

While the pasta is cooking, warm the olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add the sugar snap peas and sauté until bright green and crisp tender, about 4 minutes.

Drain the canned salmon and save the juices in a small bowl. Whisk the mayonnaise into the juice. Remove the skin from the salmon and discard. Flake the salmon and crush the bones with your fingers.

Place the hot pasta in a large shallow bowl. Add in the salmon, sautéed sugar snap peas and the mayo/juice combo along with 1 – 2 Tbs. hot pasta water and toss to combine. Add fresh ground pepper to taste along with the capers and toss again.

Serve immediately in shallow bowls, with LOVE, and enjoy!Love people. Serve them tasty food.

Filed Under: Dinner, Fish Tagged With: fettuccine with salmon and sugar snap peas, meatless meals, quick and easy pasta meals, quick weeknight meals

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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