A Jeanne in the Kitchen

You have seen many posts featuring my beautiful Snowy Egrets, but did you know we actually have two kinds of Egrets that call our lakes home? We do. We have both the Snowy Egrets and the Great Egrets. I’ve known this for a long time, but I had never really seen any Great Egrets until recently.

Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets are both beautiful, all-white wading birds, but they are easy to tell apart by looking at their size, bill color, and feet color. The Great Egret is much larger (up to 3 feet tall) with a yellow bill and black feet. The Snowy Egret is smaller (about 2 feet tall) with a black bill and bright yellow feet. Both types, when gathered in a group, are called a congregation.

(not my photo)

This my photo of the two Egrets.

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

I love meeting new friends. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. ‘Til next time.

We are off again today. Our first stop will be Hays, KS. The trip to Hays is about a 4 1/2-5 hour drive from our house. I made a whole bunch of cookies to take with us. The cookies are mostly for Ollie’s party, though I am sure we will nibble on a few while on the road too. 🙂

I made two main types of cookies, and one a variation of the other. Some of Larry’s favorite cookies are chocolate peanut butter chip. That is the bulk of my cookie tray.

The other cookies I made are citrus sandwich cookies. The smaller ones are just from the centers of the larger cookies. Their cream-filled centers are slightly different too. One is more orange focused and the other is more lemon.

Citrus Sandwich Cookies

You need to plan ahead to make these cookies. They are time consuming, but worth every minute.

The Dough

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 sticks softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tsp lemon peel

2 tsp orange peel

1/2 tsp lemon extract, optional

1/2 tsp orange extract, optional

colored sugar

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together, then add the egg and extracts if using. Add the flour mixture 1/2 at a time, and mix in between each addition.

The dough will be a stiff dough and this is what you are looking for. Form it into a rectangle and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours, and up to 3 days, before rolling it out to about 1/8 of an inch in thickness and cutting with a cookie cutter.

When you are ready to bake your cookies, preheat the oven to 350*F or 180*C. Line some cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Cut 2 matching cookies with a scalloped edged cookie cutter. Then cut out the center with a pastry tube or something small and round. This will be your top cookie.

Place the cookies on different cookie sheets, since they will cook at slightly different times. Add the colored sugar or sprinkles on top and gently press into the dough before baking.

Bake for about 11-15 minutes, or until the edges just start to brown. Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, then place on a cookie rack to cool completely. Let the cookies cool completely before filling them.

The Filling

1/4 cup orange juice

1 TBSP lemon juice

3/4 stick softened buutter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 TBSP heavy whipping cream

pinch of salt

Mix everything together with a mixer, then spread on one cookie and place another cookie on top.

Because I wanted to make my cookies slightly different, for the smaller cookies, I used some of my leftover Portuguese custard, mixed with whipped cream and about 1 tsp of lemon extract.

And now we have a whole bunch of cookies to take on the road with us for the party. 🙂 I am storing them in the refrigerator until we are ready to eat them. I will keep them in a cooler while on the road.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Life is short. Make the most out of everyday and enjoy it one cookie at a time. ‘Til next time.

I will be gone for about 10 days. But you know I will share all the fun details of our trip once I return home. 🙂

When we took Bob up to RMNP, I was so hoping we would see some elk to show him. We are pretty proud of our elk, as we should be too. Colorado has the most elk of any state in the U.S., boasting an estimated population of approximately 280,000 to 290,000 elk. This accounts for the largest elk herd, or gang, in North America, making the state a major hub for wildlife observation and hunting. We saw plenty of other critters, which I was very excited about, but no elks. That is no elks until at the very end, as we were driving through Estes Park, looking for a restaurant to eat dinner. Then I spotted her; a lone female at the parking center. They like to hang out there. Sometimes we see a lot all at once, just hanging out there, and sometimes, like this time, we only see the one. But, I will take it, anytime and every time. 🙂

Elks, also known as wapiti, are a mid-sized deer species, with males weighing between 600 and 1,100 pounds. The name wapiti derives from the Shawnee and Cree languages, and is roughly translated to mean “light-colored deer” or “white rump”. A mature bull can run as fast as 40 miles per hour – they’ve even been able to outrun horses in short races. Moose are the largest members of the deer family, with a big bull moose weighing in at up to 1600 lbs.

Look, she’s smiling at me. 🙂

Now she’s laughing at me.

And now she’s had enough of the paparazzi. She’s got better things to do and places to go.

Now she’s just mocking me and sticking her tongue out as she walks away. 🙂

One last nibble before she heads out on her way.

Even though she ended up mocking me, it was still fun to see her. I love our elks.

Have a great day and make everyday great. ‘Til next time.

Once again, we are headed out. We will be on the road again this time. Our first stop is to Hays, KS to celebrate Ollie’s (Larry’s mom) 97th birthday. From there, we are headed east and south. We will be visiting friends along the way, ending up in Muscle Shoals, AL to visit with Julia and Bruce for a bit before heading back home.

Because we are off and running, or driving, again, it is time to clear out the fridge and use as much of our leftovers as we can before we head out. This time, the Queen and I rummaged through the fridge and created something Thai with what we found. I was thinking and creating on the fly, trying to best use up as many of my leftovers as I could. This is what I came up with. 🙂

I got to use up some of my chicken, ham, asparagus and rice. WHOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!! I get so excited when I can use up a lot of my leftovers. 🙂

1 cooked chicken breast, cubed

1 1/2 cups cooked ham, cubed

1/4-1/3 red bell pepper, diced

1/4 red onion, sliced very thin

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

4-5 garlic cloves, sliced very thin

1 jalapeno pepper, diced fine

1 red chili pepper, diced fine

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1-1 1/2 cups cooked asparagus, cut into pieces about 1 in long

olive oil

2 TBSP coconut vinegar, optional

2-3 TBSP Sambal sauce

1 TBSP red curry powder

1 TBSP lemongrass paste

1 cup heavy whipping cream

salt to taste – I used my lime infused salt

1 TBSP lime juice

1 TBSP spicy honey

Combine the Sambal sauce, red curry powder, lemongrass, honey and lime juice and whisk together well, and salt. Set aside until ready to use.

Get a wok or a large skillet very hot, then add the olive oil and the coconut vinegar if using. Add the vegetables, except for the asparagus and cook for about 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the chicken and ham and mix togther thoroughly.

Incorporate the Sambal mix, then add the cream. Mix everything together thoroughly, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the asparagus and mix together.

Serve over rice or noodles and VOILA! Dinner is done. And if you are like me, you have just recreated a delicious dish using up a lot of your leftovers. It’s a delicious win/win all the way around. I added some potstickers on the side; dinner was done, AND I used up a good portion of my leftovers before we are off again. WHOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!

Be creative. Play with your food. Life is short. Have fun and make the most out of everyday. Have a great day and make everyday great. Live life to the fullest. Enjoy the ride. ‘Til next time.

We are leaving tomorrow around noon. I will have more posts for you tomorrow before I leave, then I will be gone for about 10 days. I will see you soon.

Marmots are large, herbivorous ground squirrels known for their stout bodies and deep underground burrows. As some of the largest members of the squirrel family, they are famous for spending up to half the year in deep hibernation and for using loud whistles to alert their colonies to predators. There are 15 species worldwide. In Colorado, the Yellow-bellied Marmot is the most common, while hikers in places like Glacier or Washington state might spot the Hoary Marmot. Sometimes they are called whistle pigs, because when threatened by predators (like eagles, coyotes, or badgers), they emit a piercing whistle. They live in rocky, mountainous talus slopes and alpine meadows where they can easily sunbathe, forage, and dig deep burrows to escape the cold. They don’t store food for the winter. Instead, they gorge themselves during the summer, packing on layers of fat, and then hibernate for 6 to 8 months.

We made it to the peak of Rocky Mountain National Park, up to Alpine Peak, at 11,796 feet above sea level.

There was still quite a lot of snow up there, and it was considerably cooler than it was at the lower elevations.

The cooler weather didn’t seem to bother the marmots though. In fact, they liked it and were out playing hide & seek and running all around and having a lot of fun. Some where even posing for my camera too, and they seemed to love the attention.

You’re never too old to have fun and play around. Life is short. Make the most out of everyday and live life to the fullest. Enjoy the ride. Be like the marmots, and be a little mischievous. ‘Til next time.

The mercury is soaring right now, which means we are eating a lot of salads. We are definitely carnivores, and when I make main meal salads, they contain meat. So we eat a lot of chicken salads, steak salads, salads with shrimp or seafood, and much more. This time I made another steak salad. The cumin vinaigrette was what I really focusing on though, but I needed a delicious salad to to with it in order to highlight the dressing. 🙂

The salads were made with a bed of Romaine lettuce with corn, black beans, red onions, green onions, grape tomatoes, red bell peppers and cucumber. Larry’s salad had some shaved white cheddar cheese and fried tortilla strips. I was making my salad with little bits of this and that and I did not have enough fried tortilla strips for both of us, and I didn’t feel like making more because I wanted to use what I already had, so I added some pepitas to mine. I love pepitas, so no problem for me.

Cumin Vinaigrette

1/3 cup olive oil

2-3 TBSP red wine vinegar

1-2 TBSP orange juice

1-2 tsp spicy honey

1 tsp cumin

1-2 tsp garlic

salt to taste

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste

fresh cilantro, chopped

1 red chili pepper, diced fine

lemon verbena, optional

Mix everything together well and dress up your salad right before serving.

I have so much lemon verbena growing in my backyard and am trying to use it as much as I can, while I can. It seems like I have an endless supply though. But whatever I do use it for, it adds a nice fresh, lemony taste to it.

I made a little extra dressing because I marinated my steak in it as well. I marinated the steak for about 2-3 hours before cooking it.

Be creative and play with your food. Have fun with it. Life is short. Make the most out of everyday. Live life to the fullest and enjoy the ride. ‘Til next time.

We saw so many critters on this particular trip to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), that I had to separate it into multiple days worth of posts. It was most definitely a banner day.

After seeing the beautiful birds and the friendly chipmunk Chippy, Nature Walks – Headed Up To Rocky Mountain National Park we also saw a whole bunch of deer. They were mostly lounging around beneath the shade of the trees, but some were wondering about too. Since some were on the move, it was hard to get good shots of them, but I did what I could. Sometimes, that’s all you can do. The primary type of deer found in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, is the Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus), known for its large, mule-like ears and black-tipped tail.

We were heading to the peak, since it was now open for the season. There is still a lot more yet to come. Stay tuned for more views and more critters. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Life is short. Make the most out of everyday and live life to the fullest. Enjoy the ride. ‘Til next time.

Even though we have been home from Portugal for a couple of months now, I guess I am still in a Portugal frame of mind; certainly when it comes to food. I have been real good about not making or eating desserts for quite awhile now, but I do make exceptions for special occasions. Having my friend Bob come in and stay with us was a special occasion. I broke the rules, but only slightly. I made a Portuguese almond custard cake, or Morgado or Bolo de Amêndoa e Doce de Ovo, for the occasion. This cake is native to the southern Algarve region of Portugal. But I have been good. I’ve only had 1 tiny little piece, as good as it is. 🙂

Custards are very popular all over Portugal. Back in it’s early days, the priests wore starched collars. Their collars were starched with egg whites. They had so many egg yolks leftover that they needed to find ways to use all the egg yolks. The nuns decided to make custards with all the yolks. Custards of all kinds, for many of their desserts was their answer.

Almond trees tend to grow in tandem with grape vines in a lot of wine regions, so almonds were another product that were readily available and in abundance. Almonds are also prevalent in Middle Eastern cooking and particularly the Moorish cooking from the early Moorish influences in Portugal. In the 8th century, the Moors brought both almond trees and citrus trees to the Algarve region of Portugal. The nuns of the area created this dense almond cake or the morgado, and added the custard or the doce de ovo (a thick, sweet egg custard) as a sweet treat. When religious orders were suppressed and convents were closed in the wake of the 1834 Liberal Revolution, nuns and monks lost their funding and were forced to sell their treasured recipes to survive. The recipes seeped into the general public and became closely tied to regional Portuguese bakeries. The Portuguese love their sweets and especially love their custards.

Almond Custard Cake

This recipe only has a few basic ingredients that are blended together for a perfect dessert and sweet treat. Since my cookbook is from Portugal, it has everything in grams and ml. I will be nice and give you both. 🙂

The Cake

3 cups or 400 g ground almonds

6 eggs spearated

1 1/4 cup or 250 g sugar

1-2 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 180*C.

Spray an 8 1/2 inch cake pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Place the almonds in a food processor and mix until they become a powder. You can mix in the salt, cinnamon and lemon zest with the almonds or mix them in with the eggs. Either way is fine.

Mix the egg yolks with the sugar until it is thick and foamy, then fold into the almond mixture.

Fold everything together gently, so to not flatten the egg whites, then pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes, or until the cake is browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Allow the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan, then slice in half through the middle.

The Custard

This custard is a lot more dense than an English custard.

3oo g or 1 1/2 cups sugar

150 ml or 2/3 cup water

10 egg yolks

10 g or 1 heaping TBSP cornstarch

Mix the sugar and water together and place in a medium saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then bring to a boil without stirring. Let boil for about 3-4 minutes or until it reaches a temperature of 105-107*C or 225* F on a candy thermometer. Allow to cool slightly

Mix the egg yolks and cornstarch together well.

Slowly pour the egg mixture into the sugar water, whisking constantly while pouring. This is called tempering. It prevents the eggs from scrambling in the hot liquid. Whisk until the the mixture thickens.

Spread half the mixture on one layer of the cake, then place the other layer on top and spread the rest of the mixture on top of the cake.

I toasted some almond slivers, made whipped cream and topped my cake with them.

Cover and chill until ready to serve. Delicious! This was yet another smashing success. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Life is short. Make the most out of it and live life to the fullest. Enjoy the ride. ‘Til next time.

Larry only worked a half day on Friday. When he got home, we packed up some snacks and took Bob up to Rocky Mountain Nation Park (RMNP) for some sight seeing. But Bob and I had already had a nice long walk at one of our nearby trails before Larry even came home. So we got a double dose of sunshine and exercise. SWEET!!!!! Whenever we take our little drives, we are always watching for critters. We had a banner day this time, we saw so much wildlife. It’s like they all came out to say hi to Bob.

We took the back roads up and stopped at my favorite little mountain church for a quick photo. We couldn’t go inside because they were preparing it for a wedding. But we could see it from outside. This just looks like a postcard.

We were welcomed by a friendly little Black-headed Grosbeak.

Then we kept heading up through the mountains to RMNP.

Our first stop at the RMNP was at Bear Lake. We stopped at the parking lot for the shuttle that took us up to Bear Lake. That is always a beautiful place to stop and visit. It was a beautiful day and the weather was just perfect for a hike around the lake.

There was a friendly Stellar Jay that was posing for us too.

There was also a little chipmunk, I’ll call him Chippy, who wanted his picture taken too. Chippy couldn’t let the jay get all the attention.

After going around the lake, we got back to the car and continued our mountain journey. We stopped at one of the creeks for another quick photo shoot. The waters were raging.

On our way back to the car, we had an added bonus of seeing the horses on their trail ride. It was a big group of riders too.

We saw lots more, but I will stop it here for a little intermission. I don’t want to overwhelm you all at once. 🙂 Have I mentioned how beautiful our state is before? 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Life is short. Enjoy every moment and live life to the fullest. ‘Til next time.

I just made a simple meal for us when Bob was out, but he gobbled it up and asked for more. Then he ate more of it again on the next day. I think he liked it. 🙂 I made my piri-piri chicken, Mozambique style, which you have seen before Chicken Piri Piri Mozambique Style, Portuguese fried potatoes, and an orange salad with toasted pine nuts and an orange vinaigrette as our meal. Dessert will follow later.

Fortunately Bob took this picture, because I didn’t get a chance to take any. I was busy getting dinner ready, and we wanted to go to Denver after we ate, so I was a bit rushed. It’s a simple salad, but it is full of color and flavor.

Orange Salad with Toasted Pine Nuts and Orange Vinaigrette

mixed baby greens

1 blood orange, peeled and cut into wedges

1/4 cucumber, sliced thin

1/4 red onion, sliced very thin

3-4 green onions, sliced

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

Arrange the salad on a platter and top with the orange vinaigrette right before serving.

Orange Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4-1/3 cup orange juice

2-3 TBSP white wine or proseco vinegar

fresh ground black pepper

1-2 TBSP honey

Mix everything together well and use just enough to dress the salad without having the salad swimming in dressing.

This is perfect for anytime, but is especially good on a hot summer day.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Life is short. Enjoy every moment and live life to the fullest. ‘Til next time.