Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

I don’t know if this is true everywhere, but here it seems our first flowers of spring are always the purples and the yellows. I love all flowers, so I don’t really mind which ones come up first. They are always so pretty to look at and to enjoy. Here are the first of Spring’s first flowers around my neck of the woods.

The trees and bushes are beginning to bloom too. This explains why my allergies are so bad already.

Some trees even have sap.

And in my own front yard, I will have at least 2 kinds of Irises before too long as well. The Irises always make me think of my mother. They were her favorite flowers. We had so many different colored Irises in our yard while I was growing up.

Spring is here and the signs are beginning to pop up all around us. 🙂

You all know how much I love Costco. You can find so many delicious food items there. I don’t buy any of their pre-made foods because I can always make my own versions, both better and cheaper. However, I do like a lot of their specialty items that are hard to find anywhere else. One of those items is their butternut squash ravioli. We had some in the freezer and I needed to create a good way to serve them. I decided on making a Southwestern cream sauce with Larry’s smoked pork shoulder. You can make the same sauce with chicken or shrimp too. I served it with my sun-dried tomato and basil focaccia Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Focaccia and a crisp Pinot Grigio on the side to complete the meal.

Southwestern Smoked Pork and Cream Sauce over Butternut Squash Ravioli

1 1/2 lbs smoked pork, cut into thin strips

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

2-3 cups fresh baby spinach, chopped

1 shallot, sliced very thin

1 TBSP garlic

1 cup tomatoes, chopped

salt & pepper to taste

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup dry white wine

1/3-1/2 cup shredded white cheese, like mozzarella

1-2 TBSP butter

1-2 tsp roasted garlic in oil, optional

Get a large skillet very hot and add some olive oil, then add the shallots, spinach, mushrooms and garlic and saute for about 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the shallots are translucent and the vegetables are cooked.

Once the vegetables are cooked, remove them from the heat to make the sauce. Add the wine and cook down for a few minutes until the liquid is reduced by at least half. Then add the cream and the Mozzarella cheese and mix together well. Finish the sauce with a little butter.

Cook the butternut squash ravioli according to the package directions.

Re-add the vegetable, and the tomatoes, as well as the pork and thoroughly mix into the sauce.

We like things with a little kick to them so I added a little or the roasted garlic in chili sauce and mixed it all together as well. But of spicy isn’t your thing, no problem, just leave that out.

Once everything was ready, I topped it over the cooked butternut squash. Larry added a little extra Mozzarella on top of his, and I topped it off with another little dollop of the chili garlic.

It was a perfectly warm and satisfying meal for a cool and chilly night. It just hit the spot. You can enjoy the sauce even more by dipping your bread in it too. 🙂 If pork is not your thing, you can make this same sauce with chicken or shrimp as well, and it will be just as tasty.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

There are so many good recipes out there and way too little time to cook them all, though I try my best to cook as many as I can. I find my inspiration from all kinds of sources. The inspiration for my Greek lemon chicken and potatoes came from our very own Frank Solanki at The Reluctant Poet at https://thereluctantpoetweb.wordpress.com/. Thank you Frank for this delicious idea. Of course I tweaked it a bit to make it my own, but your recipe was my inspiration.

The fresh flavors of lemon and chicken are a natural pairing that is perfect for spring. Some version of lemon chicken is found in most places where lemons are grown, but this particular version is of Greek origin. The potatoes and chicken are cooked together to make an easy-peasy, one-pan dinner.

Some people use the whole chicken. Some prefer using parts. Some people like boneless chicken. There are no rules. Cook it how you like it. This time I used bone-in chicken and rib parts.

Greek Lemon Chicken and Potatoes

2-3 lbs chicken pieces

1 1/2 lbs potatoes, cubed

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 TBSP garlic

2 TBSP fresh orgeano

6 TBSP olive oil – or 2 TBSP olive oil, 2 TBSP lemon olive oil and 2 TBSP garlic olive oil

red pepper flakes to taste

salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup chicken broth

lemon slices for topping, optional

tomatoes for topping, optional

You know I used all 3 of the olive oils, which I think really brought the flavors to a whole other level. But I also understand not everyone has access to a lot of different flavored olive oils, and that is perfectly OK too. Your dish will still come out great if you only use regular olive oil as well.

Combine the oil(s), red pepper flakes, salt & pepper and lemon juice together, with some of the oregano. Mix well. Pour half of it over the chicken and marinate for at least about 15-30 minutes before cooking. This time, I used the whole garlic cloves that I sliced very thin. I used about 6 or 7 cloves.

Preheat the oven to 400* F or about 200*C.

Spray a 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray.

Get a large skillet very hot and add more olive oil and/or a a little butter as well, and brown the chicken pieces. Cook them for about 4 minutes per side.

While the chicken is cooking, using the marinade from the chicken and adding the rest of the seasonings, oils and flavorings, add the potatoes and mix together well. When the oven is at temperature, place the potatoes in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and add the chicken broth and mix together well. Place the chicken on top of the potatoes, and coat with a little bit of the juice. I topped my chicken with the lemon wedges and some tomato slices before baking for a little more pizzazz. Bake for an additional 30-40 minutes, or until the potatoes are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

As my chicken was cooking, I prepared my vegetables as well. To continue with a spring theme, I made some asparagus with mushrooms and shallots.

Once everything is cooked, it’s time to savor the flavors of spring and enjoy.

Thank you again Frank for this fabulous idea. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Way back when, in my restaurant management days, we learned a good way of cutting own on food costs was to re-use and repurpose as many of our leftovers as we could. Often times, those things found their way into the soup. Things haven’t changed. I still make a lot of soups with my leftovers. Turning things into soup can really extend what you have. If you only have little bits of this and little bits of that, you can easily end up with a lot of soup when you combine them all together. Such was the case with my latest big pot of soup, ham and barley soup.

I ended up with a lot more ham than I thought, which made this a very meaty and very hearty soup and meal.

I started off by making a stock from the ham bone once I got all the meat off.

Then I started getting everything ready for the soup. I decided NOT to use the spinach and tomatoes I had cut up, and will instead use them for something else later. I even used up the rest of my pork and barley filling from when I made my pork and barley pot pies, as well as adding more barley. Pork And Barley Pot Pie

When I make soup, I never measure anything. I just throw in everything until my big soup pot is filled. I had carrots, celery, onions, garlic, barley, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper, marjoram and thyme that all got tossed together to make my delicious soup.

The carrots, onions and celery and the seasonings were first to go into the hot pot with olive oil. I sauteed them for about 5-7 minutes, when the onions were translucent.

Next came the barley that got sauteed for a couple of minutes, before everything else got thrown into the pot.

I covered the pot, brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat to a simmer and let it all cook together for about 30-40 minutes, or until the barley was cooked and all the vegetables were tender, making sure to stir it every so often as well.

The result – DELICIOUS! I served it with some of my leftover sun-dried tomato focaccia and a glass or two of a crisp white wine, and dinner was served. 🙂 Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Focaccia It was a perfect soup day too, with the weather still being cold and snowy and us being under a winter storm advisory.

When life gives you leftovers, throw it all into the soup and mix it all up. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Ceviche is served all over Mexico, coastal Central America, and Coastal South America. It is typically seafood that is “cooked” in citrus juice, though it can also be made from chicken or beef as well. It is believed that ceviche originated about 2000 years ago, in the Pacific coastal regions of Peru, by the Moche People. It was initially prepared using fermented juice from local fruit like tumbo and passionfruit. The Spanish Conquistadors introduced citrus fruits like lime to Peru, which became an integral part of ceviche preparation, that is still used today.

Ceviche is often spelled ‘cebiche’, or ‘seviche’, which could easily be a mash up of the medieval Spanish ‘cebo’, a word that described both fish bait and fish eaten as food, and ‘escabeche’, which some historians think may have travelled to South America with Moorish cooks accompanying Spanish conquistadores.

Larry and I love ceviche. We eat a lot of it when traveling around in Mexico too. A few years ago, while on a dive trip with some friends in Cozumel, our friend Rich ate ceviche every night. He tried it everywhere we went, with each place offering a different variety. We liked that idea, as well as all the different ceviche styles, so we adopted that too. After our recent trip to Cabo San Lucas, where we once again sampled many different types of ceviche, Larry bought me a ceviche cookbook so now I can make all different kinds too. I made a shrimp ceviche.

FYI, I had just prepared this dish and hadn’t let it “cook” yet. It took about an hour or so for the shrimp to fully “cook” in the citrus juices.

Shrimp Ceviche

This is but one of an endless array of styles and types of ceviche. There is NEVER just one way to prepare it. The key to a great ceviche is FRESH ingredients!

Ceviche is usually made with raw fish that is “cooked” in the acidic juices of the fruit. You can also use regularly cooked seafood too. Any kind of seafood can be used to make ceviche.

1-1 1/2 lbs large shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut into small pieces

3-4 tomatoes, diced – any kind and any color

2 jalapenos, diced fine

1/2 cucumber, diced

1 red onion, diced fine

1/4-1/3 cup lime juice

1/4-1/3 cup lemon juice

salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

avocado slices for topping, optional

Cut everything into small, bite size pieces and combine together. I used different colored heirloom tomatoes, but you can use any kind you like. Once everything is combined, let it all chill in the refrigerator for at least 30-60 minutes before eating, to allow the shrimp to “cook”.

There are many different ways to eat ceviche too. When we were in La Paz, on our whale shark and sea lion expedition, our guide made some delicious ceviche and served it over some mini tostadas with a light spread of mayonnaise for our lunch. This is how I decided to serve mine as well.

!Esta mui rico o delicioso! It was so good and so refreshing. It was like being back in Mexico again. 🙂 I am looking forward to making many other ceviche options too. All in good time though. Ceviche is a perfect warm weather dish, and right now, we are buried beneath yet another layer of thick snow, so it’s not exactly ceviche weather at the moment. Last week, yes, today, not so much. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I have been seeing a lot of posts about National Puppy Day. Well I LOVE dogs, of all kinds, so how could I resist showing off some of our “puppies”? We have had and loved a lot of dogs throughout the years, and still do. We’ve always said that “rescue” is our favorite breed and because we get so many rescues, we rarely get puppies. I have had four puppies in total, including Juneau, but Juneau is the only puppy that Larry has ever had. Though technically, Dorrie was and still is a puppy for a little longer. She is 1 1/2 years old and we got her when she was about 8 months old, but she is quickly growing out of her puppy stage.

Here are some pictures of our current “puppies” Juneau and Dorrie.

As soon as we brought her home, she curled up and fell asleep in the kitty box.

Juneau and Nicky, with Juneau in the kitty carrier.

Juneau and Vinnie

Dorrie (Andorra)

When we first met Dorrie and she knew she was ours.

Dorrie meeting her sister Juneau for the first time.

Her first snow.

Our big girls, Juneau and Dorrie

And puppies we have lost – Lucie (Luzerne) and Vinnie (St. Vincent)

Kodi (Kodiak)

Kodi and Taipei – Taipei was one of my puppies.

Chopstyx, was another puppy. I met her when she was just 2 hours old and could fit in the palm of my hand.

Me with my very first dog, who we had for over 15 years. She was about 3 when we first got her. I got Daisy when I was 3. I am with Daisy and Nosy, my first rabbit as well.

There is always room in our hearts for more puppy love.

While I was planning my menu for my Irish shindig, My Irish Shindig I came across so many good recipes and dishes I wanted to make, but I could only do so much. It was just a small get together, after all. One of those dishes was a pork pot pie. I added the barley to it after doing my research on the Guinness stew, and saw how some places in Southern Ireland add barley to their stews. So, yes, this dish is Irish inspired, but is “A Jeanne” creation.

Meat pies of all kinds have been around since at least the Medieval times. Foods were often cooked with a pastry crust as a way to help preserve the fillings and add a little more shelf life to them. My pork pie was vastly different than the traditional pork pies, and I think much better too.

I made my normal go-to crust, then filled my ramekins with filling and topped them with the dough.

Pork and Barley Pot Pie

When Larry smoked the corned beef, he also smoked a pork shoulder. We thought about adding it to our Irish menu, but we already had a wide variety of Irish foods, so we saved it for later.

Jeanne’s Go-To-Dough

1 1/2 cups flour

6 TBSP cold butter, diced

pinch of salt

1 egg

5-6 TBSP heavy whipping cream

In a food processor, pulse the salt, flour and butter until it resembles sand. You can also do this by hand. Add the egg and the cream and beat together until it forms into a ball. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour before using.

The Filling

1 1/2-2 lbs cooked pork, diced

2-3 carrots, cubed

1-1 1/2 cups cooked barley – cook according to package directions

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, diced

1 1/2-2 cups beef broth

1 TBSP tomato paste

salt & pepper to taste

4-5 sprigs fresh thyme

olive oil for cooking

Preheat the oven to 375*F or 191*C.

Spray 4-6 ramekins with cooking spray.

Cook the barley according to the package directions.

Get a pan very hot and add the oil, then saute the carrots, mushrooms and onions until soft, about 5-7 minutes.

Combine the beef broth, seasonings, thyme and tomato paste together and mix well.

Add everything together and mix well.

Fill the ramekins with the filling. Roll out the dough and shape to fit the tops of the ramekins. You want the dough to be about 1/4 thick. Press it firmly onto the tops of the filling, and take a serrated knife and make a few slits in the top of the top. Brush with an egg wash.

Bake for about 45-60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Let cool slightly, then enjoy. Slainte.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

You can tell spring is in the air, and the ducks and geese are all out house hunting. They are all looking for that perfect place to call home and to raise their kids. This couple wanted some water front property and are looking in the reeds, at the water’s edge.

It looks like they are going to take it.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

This recipe is the last of the menu items I prepared for my big Irish Shindig. My Irish Shindig. We needed more vegetables, you can never have to many fresh vegetables, after all, so I made a big salad with roasted vegetables and a lemon vinaigrette. It was so pretty and colorful, not to mention healthy and delicious too.

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

It came out mostly purple because of the red beets, but I had red beets, golden beets, carrots, and parsnips all roasted and tossed together for this deliciously colorful salad. They were all tossed together with olive oil, salt & pepper then roasted to perfection. Simple, yet simply delicious.

1 head of lettuce – any kind

1-2 large carrots, sliced

1-2 parsnips, sliced

1 red beet, cubed

1 golden beet, cubed

salt & pepper to taste

olive oil – enough to thoroughly coat all the vegetables

Preheat the oven to 400*F or 200*C.

Peel and cut all the vegetables and toss them together with the salt, pepper and olive oil. Spread them out on a baking sheet, in a single layer. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Decorate a large serving platter with the lettuce. I used red leaf lettuce, but you can use any kind you like. Allow the vegetables to cool slightly, then spread out over the lettuce. Top with the lemon vinaigrette. Use just enough of the vinaigrette to give flavor to the vegetables and to the salad without drowning everything in dressing.

Lemon Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil

2-3 TBSP lemon balsamic vinegar, optional

3 TBSP apple cider vinegar or boiled apple cider

2-3 TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp dry mustard

salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

Whisk everything together well until it is fully emulsified together. Pour over the roasted vegetables and salad.

This fresh and zesty dressing will go well with just about anything. Lemon brings out the fresh flavors of all kinds of vegetables, chicken and seafood. This is a very versatile dressing, that’s perfect for spring and summer.

Make your day deliciously colorful as much as you can. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I was able to get some good shots of my first Northern Flicker of the season, though they are out and about pretty much year round. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen any though, so I was excited. He was sitting up high in the tree, just singing away to his heart’s content.

Life is always better if you follow and listen to the music in your heart. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.