A Jeanne in the Kitchen

I love rustic foods. I love their simplicity and how they focus on local seasonal items and ingredients. They are my favorite foods to cook and to eat. Rustic foods are simple, hearty, and unrefined dishes that focus on natural flavors, local ingredients, and generous portions rather than fancy presentation.

For dinner, I made a rustic pasta with chicken, sausage, vegetables and marinara sauce Hearty Marinara Sauce . It was delicious and hearty and perfect for a cool, chilly evening. It was a perfect fall dinner.

Rustic Chicken, Sausage & Vegetable Pasta

Think locally, and use the local seasonal vegetables that are readily available to you. Use what you like. I used mushrooms, zucchini, crookneck and red peppers, along with some yellow tomatoes, from Bob’s prolific garden. Use what you have and don’t worry about actual amounts of anything. I never really do. 🙂

1 cooked chicken breast, cubed

4-5 cooked sausages, sliced

1/4 red bell pepper, large dice

1/2 zucchini, sliced

1/2 crookneck, sliced

1-2 yellow, or other tomatoes, diced

2-3 cups marinara sauce

salt & pepper to taste

olive oil

Cook the sausage and chicken and set aside.

Saute all the vegetables, except the tomatoes in a large, hot skillet with the olive oil for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the chicken and sausage and mix together thoroughly. Add the marinara sauce and mix in well. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, and continue to cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the tomatoes about 1-2 minutes before serving and thoroughly incorporate into the sauce. Then generously serve over pasta and enjoy. I think a hearty, rustic pasta is always a good choice, especially for fall or when the temperatures begin to drop.

Have a great day and make everyday great no matter what you do. Life is short. Live life to the fullest and enjoy the ride and all the adventures that come your way while you can. ‘Til next time.

With Halloween just having passed, you might mistake these for “ghoulish” pies, but no, I really meant goulash pies. 🙂 I made some goulash for dinner a couple of days ago and had a lot of leftovers. You’ve seen my goulash dinners many times over the years, so you know I make a lot. You also know how much the “Queen of Leftovers” and I like to reinvent things by just using up what I have. So this time, we went Hungarian, and turned them into pies.

I started out with my leftover goulash, and added some diced pumpkin, potatoes and green beans, then topped them off with a delicious flaky crust.

Since everything else was cooked, I just needed to cook the potatoes and pumpkin, then added the goulash.

Once everything was hot, I put it all in large ramekins sprayed with cooking spray and added my crust, then brushed them with an egg wash and baked them at 375* F or 191* C or about 30-40 minutes, until the crust was golden brown.

There was no need for anything else other than red wine since the pies are a meal in themselves. There is NO limit to what you can do with leftovers. You just have to be creative, and like I always say, play with your food a bit. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great, no matter what you do. Life is short. Live life to the fullest and enjoy the ride and all the adventures that come your way while you can. ‘Til next time.

We are definitely bread eaters, and we like to eat bread with dinner every night. Besides, eating a lot of bread gives me a lot of good reasons for baking bread, which I love to do. So when we had our Portuguese dinner for Tim & Leslie, I made some Portuguese cornbread, or broa de milho, for the occasion too.

Portuguese Cornbread

This bread is best when served hot, straight out of the oven and smeared with soft, creamy butter, on the same day.

2 packages of dry active yeast or 4 1/2 tsp

1 cup warm water

3 1/2 cups flour + more for dusting

2 cups yellow cornmeal

2 TBSP salt

1 1/4 cups boiling water

Dissolve the yeast into the warm water and let set for about 10 minutes or until it gets frothy. Add about 1 1/2 cups of flour and mix in thoroughly. Cover and let rise for about 1 1/2 hours or until it doubles in size.

Mix the cornmeal and salt together then mix with a paddle attachment. Add the boiling water and mix at a medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until it starts to clump together.

Switch fom the paddle attachment to the dough hook on your mixer. Add the yeast mixture and 2 cups of flour and knead on low speed. Add more flour as needed and mix everything together until it forms into a firm, elastic dough. This should take about 7 minutes.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and sprinkle some cornmeal on the bottom. Turn the dough on a lightly floured surface a few times, then cut in half and form into 2 balls. Knead the dough and stretch it to form into 2 ovals. You are looking for round balls with tight surfaces.

Dust the tops with flour and cover and let rise for about 45 minutes or until it once again doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 475* F or 246*C.

Place in the oven and bake for about 35-45 minutes, or until it is golden brown and crackly on top and hollow when tapped on the bottom. Spray the oven with water 3 times within the first 10 minutes of baking to create steam which will make for a nice crispy crust. Allow to cool for a little bit before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

Bread is the food of life, and it is much better served with lots of butter too. 🙂 Have a great day and make everyday great, no matter what you do. Life is short. Live life to the fullest and enjoy the ride and all the adventures that come your way. ‘Til next time.

I know carrots are a Portuguese favorite, though I admit I am stretching it a bit with the green goddess sauce. But they looked and tasted great and were so festive, that I felt they deserved to be showcased for a special dinner with special friends. I was inspired to make them when Priscilla made them for us when we had dinner with them last week.

Roasted Carrots with Green Goddess Sauce

Preheat the oven to 400*F or 205* C.

1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and cut lengthwise

3 TBSP olive oil

1 tsp garlic

1 tsp dried onion

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

salt & pepper to taste

Mix the olive oil, spices and seasonings together well, then toss the carrot sticks in the olive oil mixture and coat thoroughly.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and spread the carrots out in a single layer. Roast for about 30 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Turn them at the halfway point.

Green Goddess Sauce

The actual recipe calls for Feta cheese to be blended into the mix as well, but since I am NOT a cheese eater, I left it out, and just sprinkled it on top at the end. No one even noticed the change.

Green goddess dressing was created in San Francisco, CA in 1923, by Executive Chef Philip Roemer at the historic Palace Hotel. He created the dressing in honor of the actor George Arliss, who stayed at the hotel while performing in the hit 1921 play The Green Goddess. You would think it got its name from the beautiful vibrant green color, but no. It was because of the play The Green Goddess instead. Some culinary historians say it actually has French roots, and is closely tied to the French sauce au vert or green sauce that is typically served over white fish.

10 oz Feta cheese crumbles + more for topping

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 tsp garlic

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp fresh lemon zest

1/2 cup fresh parsley

1/2 cup fresh basil

1/4 cup fresh chives

1/4 cup fresh mint

2 TBSP olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

pomegrante seeds

You can add the feta cheese to the dressing or leave it out as I did. Add everything else except the pomegranate seeds to a food processor and blend until it is all blended together and is smooth and creamy. The dressing is also very tasty served over chicken or fish too.

For this recipe, keep the dressing at room temperature, or slightly warmed. Spread on the bottom of your serving platter, then add the roasted carrots. Top with pomegranate seeds, Feta cheese and fresh chopped parsley.

This is a colorful and festive dish you can serve at anytime, but it is particularly fitting for your holiday festivities. 🙂

Life is short. Live life to the fullest and enjoy all the adventures that come your way while you can. Have a great day and make everyday great. ‘Til next time.

I gave you a teaser yesterday with posting about our dessert first, Portuguese Orange Cake. Now I will give you our actual dinner, in parts, one at a time. 🙂 It was just a simple Portuguese dinner; one that would be eaten and enjoyed by Portuguese people all over Portugal. We had Piri Piri chicken as our main course Chicken Piri Piri Mozambique Style, with Portuguese pan-fried potatoes, roasted carrots in a green goddess sauce and Portuguese corn bread. See, just a simple dinner. 🙂

Leslie was eagerly awaiting dinner. I think she was hungry. 🙂

Stay tuned. There is more coming your way. A-N-T-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N.

Have a great day and make everyday great, no matter what you do. Life is short. Live life to the fullest and enjoy all the adventures that come your way while you can. ‘Til next time.

Today, I am going to start with dessert first for a change. I always start with the main entree, but I thought it would be fun to do something a little different today. Besides, I made the cake first, so I should start with it right?! Life is short. Start with dessert first. 🙂

I made a simple Portuguese dinner for Tim & Leslie. The whole meal was Portuguese, though I have to confess, I thought we had some Portuguese wines but alas, we did not. The wines we served were Spanish. Close enough though right? Just don’t tell that to anyone who is Portuguese. They would NOT agree at all. 🙂

Portuguese Orange Cake

1 1/2 cups orange juice

3 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 tsp salt

5 large eggs

3 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups olive oil, or 1 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup orange olive oil

1 tsp orange extract

1-2 small oranges for orange zest and topping the cake

powdered sugar for dusting the cake

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

Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray.

Grate 2 oranges and add 1/2 of the orange zest to the orange juice. You can also squeeze your own juice from about 5 oranges too if you like instead of using premade orange juice.

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder and mix together well.

Beat the eggs and sugar together, then add the orange juice and mix again. Add 1/2 the flour, mix, 1/2 the oil(s), mix and repeat until everything is blended together well and makes your batter.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan and topping with powdered sugar. I also added some dollops of whipped cream, topped with more orange zest and orange slices. The cake was a huge hit, enjoyed by all.

No matter what you do, have a great day and make everyday great. Life is short. Live life to the fullest and enjoy all of life’s adventures along the way. ‘Til next time.

Tim and Leslie, were coming from their road trip in their camper. I met up them and introduced them to one of my favorite places, the Wild Animal Sanctuary (WAS) . They were awed by it, as I thought they would be. After visiting with all the animals at the sanctuary, we came home, where they could play with our animals; our fur babies.

Here are some highlights from the WAS.

Once Larry got home from work, we took the girls out for a walk around our lakes. Then I cooked us dinner. I had done all the prep work for dinner the day before, so all I had to do was cook everything. Leslie said she wanted chicken, but chef’s choice of how to prepare it. I cooked us a simple Portuguese dinner, with Portuguese orange cake for dessert (more on that later). In between dinner and dessert, Tim, Leslie, Larry and I all played a few rounds of Farkle. Jonathan and Priscilla came by for dessert as well. We all had a great time visiting and catching up with each other. Leslie, Priscilla and I have all known each other and been great friends since junior high.

Sadly, Tim and Leslie have already started their journey home, back to Southern California, and they left this morning. They are making other stops along the way before home.

Great friends through the many, many years together.

Life is always better when shared over good food with great friends. Have a great day and make everyday great. Always MAKE time for those who are important to you. We never know what tomorrow brings. Live life to the fullest, no matter what you do. It’s not what you do that matters, but who you do it with. ‘Til next time.

This is just a quick one since I will be very busy today. Our friends Tim and Leslie are coming to visit with us. They are stopping in from their trip to Minnesota on their way back to California. Leslie is another dear friend whom I have known my whole life. We are more like sisters; we have been great friends since we were about 11 or 12. More details on our adventures and fun times later. Stay tuned. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great no matter what you do. Live life to the fullest and enjoy all of life’s adventures while you can. ‘Til next time.

So far, we have had a VERY warm fall. I mean a shorts weather type of fall. But now our weather is changing and is becoming more like a typical fall, with cooler weather days and even cooler nights. That means it’s finally soup season. I love soups. They are good comfort food that warm you up from the inside out. I made my first soup of the season; a big pot of creamy chicken noodle soup.

I loaded it up with all kinds of vegetables and lots of chicken. There were fresh green beans, carrots, onions, garlic, peas, and a little pumpkin too.

I got the soup pot very hot, then added olive oil and butter and sauteed the vegetables and seasoning for about 7 minutes, then added the cooked chicken and mixed it all up.

Next came the chicken stock. I brought it to a boil, then added the cream, brought it to a boil once again, before adding the pasta. Add the pasta last, about 8-10 minutes before serving, since it will expand and soak up all of your liquid.

Once the pasta was cooked, it was time for some delicious soup. I love soup season. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Live life to the fullest and enjoy the ride, with all it’s adventures for as long as you can while you can, no matter what you do. ‘Til next time.

I love finding and sharing fun food quotes. They always make me chuckle. I hope you enjoy them too. 🙂

I certainly grew up with this one before I started cooking the meals.

This one you will see quoted by me, on Google. Pretty cool! https://ajeanneinthekitchen.com/2025/07/21/famous-food-quotes/

And of course, one of my favorites, from my favorite chef, Julia Child.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Live life to the fullest and enjoy the ride and all the adventures that come with it, no matter what you do. ‘Til next time.