Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

There are so many gorgeous flowers showing off their vibrant colors right now. We have all colors proudly on display. Today, I am giving you some of our prettiest purple flowers that have popped up recently. So many different beautiful flowers in all shades of beautiful purples.

Color your world purple today.

Shrimp, also known as prawns, langostinos, camarones, gambon, crevettes, and many other names to boot, are some of my absolute favorite seafood options around. I love them, no matter what you call them or how they are fixed. Shrimp and/or prawns are universal and are found just about everywhere. That means, there are infinite recipes and ways to prepare them too.

As you all know, I am a very adventurous eater. I love to travel and I love to experiment with new things, new ideas and new recipes, from all over the world. Because of this, as well as my restaurant/catering background, I also have a wide array of different cookbooks, from many different ethnicities from around the world. One of my African books has been on my desk ( as well as many others) for a few weeks now, so I was perusing through it to see if it had some good shrimp recipes. Of course it did. And of course, I did what I always do, and started with one recipe and by the time I was finished, I had created something completely different. I use recipes as guides, and then let my creative juices flow how they will.

I was going to make some South African shrimp strudel with a piri-piri sauce, which is Swahili for a pepper sauce. But …. as usual, it turned it something completely different, yet just as good, if not better. 🙂 I made South African inspired shrimp pockets with a piri-piri sauce instead. They were like South African shrimp empanadas.

This is an example of what all my recipes look like at the end of my creative process. 🙂

I really didn’t follow the recipe at all, but it did inspire me to make what I did. Typical. This is just how I roll. 🙂

South African Shrimp Pockets

my basic go-to dough with cayenne pepper and aji amarillo garlic seasoning

1 lb large shrimp or prawns, peeled and deveined

1 TBSP garlic

1/4 red onion, diced fine

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 tomato, diced

1 jalapeno, diced fine

salt & pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste

1 tsp cumin

1 TBSP paprika

2-3 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP lemon olive oil

4 TBSP butter

lemon verbena, chiffonade

cilantro, chopped

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 1/4 cup dry white wine

Make the dough first. I used my basic go-to dough, and added some cumin, cayenne pepper and aji amarillo garlic seasoning. The Empanada Party – Part 1 – Beef Empanadas

Let the dough set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before using.

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

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.

Cut most of the shrimp into large pieces, saving some whole for the topping later. Sautee the shrimp in the olive oil and lemon olive oil until completely pink, for about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Add the peppers, onions, garlic and seasonings, for about 3 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and the vegetables begin to soften. Add the tomato right at the end. Once the vegetables are cooked, remove them and add to the shrimp. Mix together well.

Deglaze the pan with the wine and cook for about about 2 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Add the cream. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook down for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the butter and incorporate thoroughly. Turn off the heat. Add most of the cilantro and lemon verbena, saving some for the topping later.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out thin. Cut into circles or rectangles. Add about 2-3 TBSP of the shrimp and vegetable mixture into the center, then fold the dough over and firmly pinch the sides together. Save some of the mixture to add into the sauce.

Place the pockets into the prepared baking pan and bake for about 30 minutes, carefully flipping them over after about 15 minutes, so they can cook and brown evenly. These are fragile pockets. Handle with care.

When the pockets are done, serve them over rice, top with the sauce, and the remaining whole shrimp, and a little fresh cilantro and/or lemon verbena. I used the rest of my black eyed peas with tomatoes Black-Eyed Peas With Spinach And Tomatoes and mixed that into the rice with some spicy sausage, making it more authentically African in nature.

And in no time at all, you have made a culinary trip to the African continent in the comfort of your own kitchen. Bon Appetit! Bon Hamu!

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

Lately, I haven’t had to go very far to see all kinds of good things, which is really nice since it has been so oppressively hot. The trees right out behind our deck have been having all kinds of visitors there. We have been getting a lot of hummingbirds play in those treetops, and now we are getting quite a few dragonflies too.

I had to really zoom in for these, because it still about 75 yards away from our deck, and way up high too, so my shots aren’t great, but they are decent, especially since these are tiny critters to begin with.

My dragonflies came out much better than my hummingbirds. I have a good camera, a very good camera, but NOT a great camera. I apologize for the poor quality of these photos. It is what it is.

Speaking of decent photos, I haven’t heard anything regarding all the photos I submitted to our local photo contest. I would have thought that at least one or two would have been acknowledged. Oh well. Again, it is what it is.

Have a great day and make everyday great.

Chocolate and peanut butter are two great flavors that taste great together. I love both on their own, but they seem to get even better when combined together. My latest chocolate peanut butter combination was chocolate peanut butter squares. They all disappeared in the blink of an eye too. I guess people liked them. A lot!!!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

These chocolate peanut butter bars are another successful treat from my Amish cookbook, Amish Friends Baking Cookbook. It’s kind of ironic, but I actually almost gave this book to my niece. I thought about it and thought about it, and kept flipping through the pages, finding more and more goodies to make. Now, I use it all the time and wonder WHY I even thought of giving it away in the first place. I’ll just have to get another for her. 🙂

The Dough

Preheat the oven to 350* F of 190* C.

Spray a 9×13 baking sheet with cooking spray.

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup flour

6 oz chocolate chips

Combine the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugars together until creamy, then add the egg and vanilla and mix in. Add the flour mixture 1/2 at a time, mixing in between.

Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until it is set and golden brown.

While the crust is still hot, spread the chocolate chips evenly across the top. You might need to put it back in the oven for just a minute or so, so the chocolate melts.

Cool completely, then add the peanut butter frosting on top.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

2-4 TBSP milk

mini chocolate chips, optional for topping

Mix all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy, then spread evenly over the chocolate. I added mini chocolate chips on top too, but this is optional.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before slicing so the peanut butter frosting can set. Then slice and share. Get one while you can, because I guarantee they won’t be around for long.

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

Thank you once again to our friend The Ohio Cook over at My Meals Are on Wheels at https://beatcancer2010.wordpress.com/ for the inspiration for making a raspberry lemon cake. Believe it or not, I actually followed the recipe fairly closely this time. I think the only changes I made were to make it into a sheet cake rather than a round layered cake, and I added lemon extract as well. It’s hard to improve upon perfection. 🙂

I converted my cake into a sheet cake because I can feed more people this way, and I was making it for the church congregation, for my coffee cart. I also added lemon extract because when I make something lemony, I like it really lemony.

I would like to say I used my own raspberries for this cake, however, my raspberry yield was pretty small this year. I have raspberry bushes growing all down my side yard and in a couple of places in my back yard, but I only got a few tiny raspberries. They were still delicious, just not very many of them. Instead, I just served them in a bowl of mixed berries this morning. They were all gobbled up too. Next year, I should have tons of fresh raspberries though. Usually they are slight one year, and prolific the next, then back to slight.

My big batch of fresh raspberries for 2023. There were a few more, but I ate them as soon as I picked them. 🙂 They are very tiny berries, but oh so sweet and delicious.

Lemon Raspberry Cake

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 190* C.

Spray your cake pan(s) with cooking spray. You can bake it in a 9×13 cake pan, like I did, or two 8 or 9″ rounds.

Coat 1 pint of berries in flour.

The Cake

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 TBSP vanilla

1-2 tsp lemon extract

2 TBSP lemon zest

3 eggs separated

1 1/4 cups sour cream or yogurt- I use both all the time, but this time I used yogurt. It really just depends on what I have on hand at the time of baking

1 pint of fresh raspberries

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Mix all the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix the butter, sugar and egg yolks together until creamy. Then add the vanilla and lemon extract.

Beat the egg whites until they form into stiff peaks.

Add 1/2 the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, mix well, add 1/2 the yogurt/sour cream, and repeat until it is all mixed together. Do not over mix.

Gently fold in the stiffened egg whites. Gently fold in the raspberries and flour mixture, then spread evenly into the prepared pan(s).

Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick that is inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before removing it from the pan and icing it.

Lemon Buttercream

1 cup or 2 sticks softened butter

3 TBSP lemon juice

3-5 cups powdered sugar, depending on how sweet you want it. i think I just used 3 cups.

2 tsp lemon extract

Mix everything together until it is smooth and creamy. If you are making it into a sheet cake, generously spread the icing on the top and sides of the cake. If you make it into a round cake, generously spread a layer of icing in between each layer of cake as well. Top with fresh raspberries and/or blackberries (You can also make this same cake with blackberries ). I did not have enough of the larger fresh raspberries for both the cake and the topping, but I did have fresh blackberries, so I added those to the topping as well. Besides, I think it made for a nicer presentation. 🙂

Keep the cake refrigerated before slicing it and serving it, if it is going to be for any length of time. Then slice it up and share with friends. This cake is so moist and lemony. You’re going to love it. I promise. 🙂

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

Pork chops are a favorite at our house, which means we eat them quite often. We buy a big pork loin at Costco and then slice up our own thick pork chops, just how we like them. We do the same thing for steaks too. We like doing this because we can cut them how we like them and it is also much cheaper to purchase a big slab of meat, cut it how we like, and freeze the rest for when we want it later.

Because we eat a lot of pork chops, I am always looking for new and tasty ways to prepare them. This time, I made them Italian style.

Italian Pork Chops

1 1/2 -2 lbs pork chops

1/2 onion, diced

1 zucchini, sliced

1-2 cups sliced mushrooms

1-2 medium-large tomatoes, chopped

1 TBSP garlic

1-2 tsp oregano

1-2 tsp basil

1 tsp marjoram and/or thyme

salt & pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste, optional

1-2 bay leaves

salt & pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

2 TBSP balsamic vinegar

1 TBSP cornstarch

1 TBSP water

olive oil

lemon olive oil, optional

Season the pork chops with salt, pepper and the balsamic vinegar for at least 30 minutes before cooking.

Cut all the vegetables.

Get a large skillet very hot, add the olive oil and carefully place the pork chops in to cook. Cook for about 3 minutes per side and brown them. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the onions to the pan and cook for about 3 minutes, or until they have softened and are translucent.

Add the rest of the vegetables, mix well, then add the chicken broth, seasonings and re-add the pork chops. Bring to a boil, then reduce cover and reduce the heat to a simmer, and continue to cook for about 30 minutes. Mix the cornstarch and water together and add to the pan to thicken up the sauce.

Add a little lemon olive oil on top right before serving to really make all the flavors come to life.

You can serve it was it, or over pasta or rice. I served it over pasta, with warmed rosemary focaccia and a chilled chardonnay on the side. Top with mozzarella or Parmigiano cheese if you like. It was so tender and juicy and full of flavor. !Buon Appetito!

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

I have a very soft soft for Blue Jays. When I was a little girl, my friend’s mom, who was my “second mom” had a Blue jay that she tamed. We could feed him peanuts, that he would eat right out of hands, but Mrs. Nash actually would get him to come into the house for the peanuts. We named him Bluey. We fed Bluey for years this way. So whenever I see a Blue Jay it always brings back very fond memories.

Last night there were a couple of Blue Jays in our trees as we were out dining on the deck. I got a few good shots before they flew away.

Have a great day and make everyday great. 🙂

I am not a big dessert eater for the most part, except for popcorn, but when we have company over, I always make desserts. I love to bake and I love making desserts, but I am also desperately trying to loose weight, so having company gives me a good excuse to indulge a bit. The other day when Elizabeth, Mike and Lauren were over for our Southern Mediterranean/North African dinner, I stuck with the theme and Elizabeth and I made some banana-pineapple rolls for dessert for everyone. She must have really loved them, because she kept going back for more. 🙂

Fruit fritters are popular desserts in West Africa. Deep frying in oil is one of the major cooking techniques in Africa. Everything is deep fried in Africa, from savory dishes to sweets.

Fritters are filled dough pastries that are deep fried. They can be filled with meats, vegetables, fish, fruit or sweet fillings. Fritters are popular all over the world, and have been around since the days of the early Romans. The term fritter has many different origins – from Middle English fryture, from Middle French friture, from Old French friture, from Late Latin *frīctūra, from Latin frīgō (“to fry”).

Banana-Pineapple Rolls

Of course I made my own version. I had a recipe that I used as a guide, then expanded upon it. Rather than making my own dough, this time I used some wonton wrappers I had. They were the larger egg roll sized wrappers, so my “fritters” became rolls. Whether they were fritters or rolls, who cares? They were delicious no matter what they’re called. 🙂

2 bananas, diced

1/2 pineapple, diced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

2 TBSP key lime juice

1/2 cup toasted coconut

eggroll wrappers

egg wash

hot vegetable or canola oil for frying

whipped cream, optional

chocolate, optional

Combine all the ingredients together and toss well. Reserve some of the toasted coconut to top the rolls with just before serving.

Add about 2 TBSP of the fruit mixture to the center of the egg roll. With your finger or brush add the egg wash around the edges of the egg roll wrapper. Then fold in the edges and roll firmly.

Place the rolls in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before frying in hot vegetable or canola oil that is 350* F or 190* C. Fry the rolls for about 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown. These need to be eaten immediately after frying. I topped mine with whipped cream, toasted coconut and then drizzled them with melted chocolate. They were a huge hit. 🙂

There is always room for dessert and something sweet. Sweeten up all your days. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

We have had so many colorful lilies pop up this year. I am used to seeing them in yellow, orange and red, but this year I am also seeing them in pinks and purples too. I love them in all their colors. This year has been such a colorful year for flowers. Maybe it is because of the cooler temperatures and all the rain we’ve had. Whatever the reason, whatever their color, they are always a welcomed sight to see.

Have a bright, colorful day.

Once again, I bring you an inspirational recipe from The Ohio Cook and My Meals Are on Wheels https://beatcancer2010.wordpress.com/. As always, thank you for your delicious ideas. This time I am sharing my take on roasted Greek potatoes. I made them even more lemony by adding lemon olive oil and lemon verbena fresh from my garden. I have to use up my lemon verbena. It has completely taken over my backyard. That and I thoroughly enjoy the taste of it too. 🙂

I served these delicious potatoes alongside my chili-lime chicken and black-eyed peas with spinach and tomatoes. Black-Eyed Peas With Spinach And Tomatoes Everything got rave reviews.

Roasted Greek Potatoes

These potatoes were tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. In other words, just perfect. This time I used Yukon golds, but you could use this same recipe for any kind of potato. The cooking times may need to be adjusted, but that is about it.

2 lbs potatoes, cleaned and cut into wedges

1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

salt & pepper to taste

4 TBSP lemon juice

1 TBSP garlic

2 tsp dried oregano or 1-2 TBSP fresh chopped oregano

olive oil

lemon olive oil

lemon verbena, optional

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

Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

Combine the chicken broth, lemon juice, salt & pepper, oregano and lemon verbena together.

Toss the potato wedges into the chicken broth mixture, then spread evenly in a single layer in the prepared pan. Pour the remainder of the liquid over the potatoes. You can also make these vegan/vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth. Place in the oven and bake for about 1 hour, or until most of the liquid has evaporated, turning them over and rotating them at about 30 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, turn the heat up to 500* F or 260*C. Drizzle both the lemon olive oil and regular olive oil over the top of the potatoes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and return to the oven to continue cooking for about 5-10 minutes. And voila! These delicious potatoes are now ready to enjoy alongside your favorite main dish.

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