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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!

JUNE 18

July 14, 2017 by Mary 18 Comments

June 18th is emblazoned in my mind.

We could not conquer my husband’s Stage 4 kidney cancer.

Steve passed on Sunday, Father’s Day, June 18th at 2 pm, surrounded by our sons, their wives and me. As he took his last breath, the Mets’ pitcher hit a home run. Seriously.

Steve loved baseball. The Orioles were his team (being from Baltimore) and the Mets were his NY team with our sons.

We had 10 weeks to say goodbye. He was diagnosed on March 31st. And in the beginning, we really thought we could beat this. 

I have been putting off writing this post.

Maybe, I’ve been thinking, if I don’t write about it, it won’t be true. We spent nearly 41 years together. I met him when I was very young. We were partners in LOVE, business, parenting and most of all, best friends who made each other laugh, a lot.

Now, the quiet and the evenings are the worst. I play music loud at night. The other day I was folding towels and some of his underwear I had just washed and dried (why, I’m not sure) and thought, oh, he’s just in the next room…and then I realized no, sobbing, he is not in the next room.

We all tried so hard. After Steve’s last hospital stay, our oldest and his wife appeared at the front door with suitcases in hand to move in with us to help care for him. Zach and Agata followed two days later, arriving from Poland.

Our oldest son came up with a “magic water” recipe to get him to drink more. It was filtered room temperature water with a teaspoon of coconut oil and five drops of pure peppermint oil. He loved it. We were constantly making and serving him bone broth, as his mouth was so dry, it was painful to eat. Our bone broth was soothing, full of nutrients and delicious. The secret? Cook it a long, long time in a 200 degree oven – 24 hours for chicken broth, 48 for beef or lamb broth.

He came home that last time with two PIC’s for intravenous nourishment, steroids, saline and heparin. We could all become RN’s at this point – even with Zach watching through FaceTime on the computer from Poland, very late into night, before catching his flight here.

At his memorial service the following Wednesday, over 200 people showed up, with the minister stopping the eulogies after 15 people spoke, as we were going way overtime. We had a jazz trio play and it was truly a celebration of his life. Our meditation piece was Take Five from Dave Brubeck.

I have received so many notes, phone calls and email comments about how wonderful the service was and even an interest in our Unitarian Church. Yes, it is an all-encompassing faith that respects all beliefs and acknowledges that we are all connected and part of the interdependent web of life. A few famous Unitarians are John Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Isaac Newton, and Amelia Earhart.

What is the recipe for a great marriage? Respect and support for each other, clear communication leaving nothing to fester, laughing a lot, and dancing together. Steve was a GREAT dancer!! We danced a lot, clubbing it in the late seventies and just by ourselves lately. We were always complimented on the dance floor at weddings and bar mitzvahs. I think because we were so in tune with each other in life.

We got to have two great sons, lived in the city at first, then Summit, NJ, and then back to the city and country. CollectiveIy, we started four new businesses with our creative juices constantly flowing. I am so very grateful for our full exciting life together, never a dull moment.

My love. My honey. Such a kind, intelligent, creative and fun man who was a terrific father and husband. I miss him so.

And now I am in Poland readying for our younger son’s wedding tomorrow. I kept telling Steve we’d be here together, dancing under the stars. But it was not meant to be.

It’s now time for me to buck it up and be joyful for Zach and Agata. Only the airlines lost my luggage after leaving NYC last Saturday. I was hoping and hoping they’d find it but no luck so now, I need to find a dress for the wedding tomorrow, along with purchasing all other things…

Remember, always cook with LOVE and stay healthy.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: family, weddings

Make Nonna’s Pomarola Sauce Recipe Now!

October 3, 2016 by Mary 14 Comments

Eleven pounds of fresh tomatoes in a box.

Tomatoes galore!! It’s the season and with the abundance of tomatoes from my garden, right now is the time to make Nonna’s Pomarola Sauce Recipe that I learned from my friends in Italy when we visited in July for Bianca’s wedding.

It was funny, when I first tried to make this, we were all texting back and forth running from Warsaw (with Agata) and Milano (with Bianca, the granddaughter) and Arezzo (with Tiziana, the daughter) on ingredients for the recipe but I had already started with carrots and onions before I learned from Tiziana, that Nonna only uses garlic, oil, tomatoes, salt, chili flakes and a little bit of butter at the end. That’s it! Simple is always best, isn’t it? Although I met Nonna at the wedding, she only speaks Italian, not my strong suit.

So make this simple clean tomato sauce, called Pomarola Sauce, that just lets the richness of the tomatoes shine through. Think of this as “summer in a jar” ‘cause that’s what it is!

Of course you skin the tomatoes easily after a dip in boiling water, but then you have to remove the seeds by hand. This takes time!! But it is worth it because I made it again this past week, cooking the tomatoes with skin and seeds and then putting it through the mill to remove it all and you know what? The resulting sauce was not as sweet and it was much thinner.

Woman deseeding fresh tomatoes outside in the yard.

Notice the wine to get through this process of deseeding the tomatoes. Luckily it was a beautiful day the weekend before last!

Deseeded tomatoes in a plastic bowl on the grass.

Here’s a whole bowlful of deseeded tomatoes!

So it’s up to you but the work beforehand does pay off.

Here you go with the official recipe from Nonna!

NONNA’S POMAROLA SAUCE – makes four 14 oz. jars of sauce

¼ cup of olive oil
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
11 lbs. tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
Salt, preferable French Grey Salt, to taste
¼ – ½ tsp. red chili flakes
1 Tbs. unsalted butter

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Drop tomatoes in and leave in for one minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and let drain. When cool enough to handle, peel the tomatoes, remove all of the seeds (it is tedious but worth it) and chop.

Heat the olive oil and add the minced garlic and salt. Saute for just a minute and smash down the garlic with a fork, just like Nonna does it. Stick your nose in the pot and breathe in the delicious garlic aroma.

Chopped tomatoes to make sauce in a Le Creuset pot.

Add the chopped tomatoes and bring to a boil, lower to a simmer. Simmer slowly for two hours, uncovered, stirring every so often. When thick and lovely, or as Nonna says, “It is ready when the tomatoes are ready.” Ha!

Add the chili flakes and off-heat, stir in the butter until melted. That’s it!

Homemade tomato sauce in glass jars with fresh tomatoes nearby on a cutting board.

Store in clean glass jars and freeze or you could actually can them if you want to. Follow the specific canning instructions for that.

Nonna's Pomarola Sauce on fusilli in white bowls.

Have a dinner like this in the winter – Pomarola Sauce on fusilli. Simple, clean and rich tasting all at once!

Wedding couple leaving NYC City Hall with rice being thrown.

My apologies to you for being out of commission for a bit. Our son got married on September 9th with a big reception at their house in Brooklyn on September 10th!!! Here they are leaving City Hall in a rice shower.

It was quite the party, delicious cheeses and appetizers followed by Turkish food and a huge spread of homemade desserts. His new wife did such a sweet thing. She went on Facebook, found and printed photos of everyone who made a dessert and put it as a stand-up card next to their creation, so everyone knew who made what. Isn’t that so SWEET??!!

Hope you have a great week and get your tomato sauce made for a little summer in a jar this winter.

Filed Under: Dinner, First Course, Lunch, Sides Tagged With: fresh tomato sauce, Nonna's Pomarola Sauce, pasta, Pomarola sauce, vegetarian, weddings

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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