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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!

What We Should Be Eating & Making Now

July 15, 2020 by Mary 7 Comments

So, I have been trying out new recipes for you BUT, I haven’t found any that are great enough to share with you. They just aren’t and I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to fuss with them to make them better and therefore sharable! However, recently I came across this article that outlines the diets of the longest living, healthiest people on the earth, and there are six tenants for What We Should Be Eating & Making Now.

Here are the highlights from the article entitled The 6 Golden Rules of Eating for Longevity, According to the Longest-Living People on Earth by Allie Flinn from the blog Well+Good.

1.) Drink wine after 5 pm.

It’s 5 pm somewhere! Ideally with friends and a meal. I’m in!!

2.) Eat mostly plant-based foods.

Now I do eat meat, almost every day, but I have been trying to have more meatless days…

3.) Include plenty of carbs in your diet.

Surprising to me! They eat grains, greens, tubers, nuts, and beans. Beans seem to be most important, and I know when I am hangry (hungry and angry because of it), beans or lentils calm it the most.

4.) Enjoy meat only on occasion, and only 6 ounces at a time.

Your portion should be no bigger than a deck of cards – that is enough.

5.) Stick to black coffee, water and wine as your beverages.

In other words, pure stuff, no sugary nonsense.

6.) Practice modified forms of intermittent fasting.

I personally have been fasting 16 – 18 hours per day and I have lost weight and feel so much better. So, I may eat dinner at anytime between 6 pm and 8 pm and I will not eat anything the next day until 1 or 2 pm and that really works for me. At that time, I do have a really good meal, like a full dinner, with protein being eaten first. This is working for me in so many ways, I hope you try it for yourselves. And no, I do not miss breakfast first thing. You do not need it at our age.

I will also add to this list a few other things that I have been doing:

Practicing mindful eating.

Eating and chewing slowly, being conscious of what you are enjoying, is so important. This practice will result in eating less as it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to tell you that your stomach is full.

Intentional choices for your food.

I was having high blood pressure readings, most likely from the stress of trying to remake my life after the sudden passing of my husband, Steve, as well as lack of sleep from the stress, so my doctor immediately wanted to put me on blood pressure medicine, but I was not going to go in that direction. Instead I did some research and started eating a lot of broccoli – raw or barely roasted – sweet potatoes, flax seed crackers and taking the oil in supplement form, and eating 6 cashews a day as a preventative action for cancer. I am happy to say that my blood pressure is back to my usual good-to-low readings.

And then of course, are you drinking enough water

Years and years ago, I once had a doctor explain to me that your body needs plenty of fluids flowing always, to transport the white blood cells around to kill any infections that might be lurking. So drink up that filtered water!!

Food can have a profound impact on how people think and feel.

I would love to know the diets of the violent rioters. I wonder if they’re full of processed foods, high in saturated fats and simple carbs?

What do you think?

Since I don’t have any new recipes at this time that are good enough to share, here is a reprise of some of my summer favorites!

Feta radishes watercress and mint toasts platter.
Feta, radishes, watercress and mint toasts
Midwest potato salad in a white Le Crueset bowl garnished with parsley.
Midwest potato salad at Tanglewood
Best potato salad with fennel, Parmesan cheese, cipollini onions and picholine olives.
Best Potato Salad with fennel, Parmesan cheese, cipollini onions and picholine olives.
Sorrel pesto on a spoon.
Sorrel Pesto
Greek Roasted chicken, chicken with parsely garnish
Santorini Grilled Chicken with a Lemon/Garlic Basting Sauce accompanied by a Greek Salad
Greek Salad, salad with feta cheese tomatoes cucumbers greek
Tomato and cucumber Greek salad

Make and serve all with LOVE!

Filed Under: Appetizers, Dinner, Pasta, Poultry, Salads, Sauces Tagged With: chicken, Greek salad, potato salad, radishes, sorrel, sorrel pesto

Sorrel Sauce

September 10, 2014 by Mary 20 Comments

If you would please indulge me in my over-abundance of sorrel, just one more time, I would so appreciate it. Good thing I love it! And from the last post, I was honored to have turned some of you on to it. Raymund in New Zealand, and John in Chicago, I do hope you both can find it. Margot in Australia, I hope you plant it in your garden now. I know you all will LOVE it! Bright, lemony and light, it works on so many things. So I put together this sorrel sauce to do just that.

Sorrel sauce in a Cuisinart.This sauce is composed of mainly sorrel (thank goodness it uses a lot!) with a base of yogurt, (I used 2%), which even makes this healthy and relatively low calorie, although it tastes rich and full of flavor, yet light and lemony all at the same time. I used this on sautéed boneless skinless chicken breasts, on seared salmon, as a dip for crackers and even as a sauce for a warm potato salad with some grilled scallions. It’s versatile and super delicious. I made some more last night and threw it in the freezer, because my husband was getting sorrel-ed out!

Sorrel sauce in a white bowl.And the color is so divinely green, it dresses up any dish. This may even work on pork – experiment and have fun!

SORREL SAUCE – makes about 1.5 cups

3 cups packed sorrel leaves, washed and dried
1/2 cup unflavored Greek yogurt (I used 2%)
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt
Pepper

In a food processor or a blender, place sorrel, yogurt, garlic, olive oil, the mustard, salt to taste and 12 grinds of fresh pepper. Process until it is bright green. Taste and add more salt, if necessary/desired. Refrigerate until needed. Or freeze for future use.

This is great on grilled seafood, chicken, vegetables or as a sauce for a warm potato salad.

Sorrel sauce on salmon.

Sorrel sauce on grilled salmon with steamed jasmine rice, grilled Japanese turnips and sauteed kale with garlic.

Sorrel sauce on sliced chicken breasts with roasted broccoli and freekeh.

Sorrel sauce on grilled sliced chicken breasts, with oven roasted broccoli and freekeh.

 

 

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: sorrel, sorrel sauce, sorrel sauce on grilled salmon, sorrel sauce on sliced chicken breasts

Sorrel Pesto

September 2, 2014 by Mary 41 Comments

The crickets are chirping with the sounds of fall and the days are getting shorter. August has been a runaway month for us. Three weekends got away with a wedding in NJ, our week in Vermont and then a Saturday in Baltimore to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 95th birthday. Finally, we’ve been able to get back on track to normalcy to spend the weekend at our home upstate, visiting our friends up there. And then there’s my garden, which has been neglected for all this time. I was afraid I would miss all of my beautiful tomatoes, but thankfully most have waited for me! But my kale and sorrel have all gone wild!! So I had to do something with them. Kale salad last night and tonight (and hopefully our son who lives in Brooklyn will take some more), and the sorrel – so much! –   so far, I made a sorrel pesto sauce!
Herb garden in upstate NY.I spent all of Labor Day in the kitchen and garden. Here’s how my garden looked when I arrived on Friday. Holy kale, right!?

Sorrel leaves in a colander.And here’s all the sorrel I harvested. I used only 1/3 of this for the pesto.

I made a basil pesto and then I whipped up this sorrel pesto. After that I made a red sauce, which I simmered for 4 hours with short ribs, a fruit salad and I was going to make a sorrel sauce but my husband couldn’t find any plain unflavored Greek yogurt at any store that was open on this holiday, (the only one being Stewart’s).  While cutting everything in the garden, I did a bit of weeding and tied up the tomatoes that were growing all over the place. And then in the kitchen, I did something super dumb. I was reaching deep into this bottom cabinet where we keep the plastic leftover containers, trying to find a matching lid for my sorrel pesto container. I lifted my head before fully backing out and banged and cut my nose on the bottom part of the counter overhang. Wow! How stupid!! Here I am dizzy and bleeding while Steve is at Stewart’s trying to wrestle up some Greek yogurt to no avail.

So I’m holding an ice pack to my eyes and nose while blood drips down all over my face. Not a pretty sight. Steve comes home, we clean up the wound and try to make a butterfly bandage to hopefully heal this thing without a scar. Seems too minor to stitch. Besides, who wants to go to the emergency room? What a mess! Jeesh – the hazards of cooking!

Sorrel pesto on a spoon.Meanwhile back to my sorrel pesto. Here it is. A very pretty green, (with no blood drops, mind you).

Sorrel is a lovely, lemony flavor. I remembered this lemon asparagus pasta sauce recipe that I used to make all the time. I thought the sorrel pesto would be interesting, with the addition of the cheeses that a traditional pesto has. Because I feel sorrel is lighter than basil, I used a combination of pine nuts and walnuts as the nut addition. I know it’s not often that you may have extra sorrel around your household, but if you do, this is really delicious for a simple yet unique pasta dish.

So give it a go!! But don’t cut your nose like I did!

Remember, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients for any dish you make, so use the very best you can, and always cook with LOVE.

SORREL PESTO – makes about 1.5 cups

3 cups of packed sorrel leaves, thoroughly washed and dried
4 – 5  large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 cup Greek extra virgin olive oil (I like Athena brand)
¼ cup of pine nuts
1/2 cups walnuts
3/4 cups grated Parmesan (Reggiano) cheese
1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano (Locatelli) cheese
salt
pepper

In a large food processor, combine sorrel leaves, garlic, pine nuts and walnuts. Process to make a near paste. Scrape bowl. With machine on, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Scrape bowl again. Add the cheeses, a big pinch of salt and 12 grinds of fresh pepper. Process again, taste and add more salt, if necessary, to your liking.

A one cup portion is enough to coat 1 lb. of dried pasta, cooked. I like it on fusilli or gemelli best as it can get in all the little groves for maximum coverage and flavor. Excellent to put a dab on grilled chicken breasts, squash, potatoes or green beans. Adds a lovely cheesy, lemony flavor.

This freezes well.

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: kale salad, sorrel, sorrel pesto, sorrel pesto recipe

Fillets of sole with sorrel

May 30, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

I did something really terrific last night. (at least I thought it was!) You should know that sorrel is one of my favorite herbs. It’s lemony and light and so interesting and surprising. I had some fresh sorrel I had just cut from my garden upstate on Monday, that I wanted to use and some fillets of sole. We got home late and hungry. Before it got so late, I had in my mind to roast the fish and make a sorrel sauce. You know, with garlic and olive oil and maybe a touch of cream, but it was late and we were starving, so I came up with this idea. Lazy, I suppose, but a beautiful concept. I remembered this dish I used to make all the time with sorrel when the kids were young. It was sautéed chicken, with lots of onions, and then you throw in the sorrel on top, cover it and it melts. It’s not a pretty dish because the greens turn dark, but it tastes fabulous.

So I thought what if I reversed that and put the sorrel on the bottom of the fish, having it melt underneath? Genius – don’t you think?! You wouldn’t see it then but still get all the flavor, having it form a simple sauce.

So that’s what I did – and here’s our green and white meal. But it was really, really yummy!! I served the fish with sautéed mustard greens with garlic and steamed Jasmine rice topped with chopped parsley.Fillet of sole with sorrel, steamed jJasmine rice with parsley and sauteed mustard greens with garlic on a white Wedgewood plate from May 29, 2013.
FILLETS OF SOLE WITH SORREL
– serves 2

2 sole fillets, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels
2 handfuls of washed sorrel
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Chopped fresh chivesPiles of sorrel on a baking sheet, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slick a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Arrange 2 handfuls of sorrel in the shape of your fish fillet. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil on the sorrel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place your fish fillet on top, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.Fillets of sole on top of sorrel, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, ready to go into the oven to roast.

Roast for 10 – 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. Figure on 10 minutes for an inch of thickness, measured in the thickest area of your fish.

When done, carefully remove the fish with the sorrel leaves distributed on the bottom and garnish with chopped fresh chives.

This is the beauty of having super fresh ingredients, combined with LOVE, to make a fabulous, healthy meal in no time at all.

Enjoy!!

Filed Under: Dinner, Fish Tagged With: chopped parsley, fillets of sole, garlic, Jasmine rice, lemony, mustard greens, olive oil, pepper, salt, sole, sorrel

Gardening in gorgeous weather

May 5, 2013 by Mary Frances 11 Comments

I am sitting outside in our backyard upstate as I write this. It has been a glorious weekend, weather wise. Just spectacular!!

I should be riding my bike right now, but my body hurts too much from all the gardening yesterday. What happened? Gardening reaches muscles you forgot about for a year, even if you work out regularly, as I do. Honest. My father used to say, “It’s tough to get old, Mare.”

How right he was.Herb garden in early May, upstate New York, Columbia County.

So here is my herb garden. I was so excited to see that my Italian parsley made it through the winter, as it’s an annual. Even my English thyme looks like it’s coming back. The chives, sage, mint, sorrel, and oregano are all in good shape. I planted sweet basil and some lettuces and weeded everything else.Tomatoes and nasturium plants waiting to be planted.

And here are my tomatoes and nasturtiums. Yet to buy – tarragon, rosemary and arugula – next weekend.

Now I have to put covers on them before heading back to the city as it still gets really cold here at night.

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: basil, chives, English thyme, herb gardens, lettuces, mint, nasturiums, oregano, parsley, sage, sorrel, tomatoes

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