We have a lot of Common Grackles around during the spring and summer months. They love to call our lakes home for these months. They are not shy at all, and seem to love being photographed too. Lucky for me, I always have my camera with me, and I am always happy to oblige. 🙂
Have a great day and make everyday great. 🙂
My friend Elizabeth wanted to meet Dorrie, our new baby. She also loves to come over and cook with me as well, so we did both. We made a North African/Southern Mediterranean meal. I saw this delicious recipe for black-eyed peas with spinach and tomatoes and I centered our meal around this dish. Elizabeth is fun to cook with. She is always such an eager student and loves to make just about everything. We have been cooking together for years, and so far, I can’t recall anything she hasn’t enjoyed making. 🙂
Black-eyes peas have been around since the prehistoric times. They were first cultivated in West Africa, most like from Nigeria or Cameroon, then spread to China and Asia. From China and Asia, they made their way across the Mediterranean. They came to the New World and to the United States when Africans were brought over as slaves. The Africans planted the black-eyed peas as a reminder of the foods they ate back home. They became very popular throughout the South and wherever there were large populations of blacks. They are all the time, but particularly eaten on New Year’s Day as a symbol of prosperity and good luck for the upcoming new year. My mother grew up in Southeast Texas, and eating black-eyed peas for New Year’s Day was a tradition I grew up with as well.
Black-eyed peas, also known as Hoppin’ John’s or Texas Caviar or humble peas, are part of the legume family and are very healthy. Black-eyed peas are rich in nutrients, including vitamin A, folate, manganese, and fiber. These nutrients may help lower blood pressure, support digestion, maintain skin health, and much, much more.
Black-Eyed Peas with Spinach and Tomatoes
To make my black-eyed peas with spinach and tomatoes, first I soaked the peas for about 24 hours, then rinsed them with fresh water and boiled them for about 30 minutes before mixing them with the spinach and tomatoes.
1 1-lb bag of dried black-eyed peas
1 onion, diced
1 lb fresh baby spinach, stems removed and chopped
2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
salt & pepper to taste
1 TBSP garlic
1 -2 TBSP lemon zest
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 TBSP lemon olive oil, optional
olive oil
feta cheese crumbles
Preheat the oven to 350* F.
Spray cooking spray in a 9×13 baking dish.
While the black-eyed peas are boiling, cook the onions, spinach, garlic, lemon zest, salt & pepper in a hot skillet with the olive oil and a little lemon olive oil too, if using. The lemon is always a good compliment to tomatoes and fresh vegetables. It makes the flavors really stand out and come to life. Cook for about 5 minutes, or just until the onions start to soften and the spinach starts to wilt, stirring constantly
When the black-eyed peas are ready, add the spinach mixture in with the drained black-eyed peas and toss together well.
Spread everything out into the prepared pan, then add a layer of crumbled feta cheese on top. Add the tomatoes on top of the cheese. Drizzle some more lemon and/or olive oil top and bake for about 35-45 minutes.
As I mentioned above, I made a Southern Mediterranean/North African meal around this dish. I served it along side some chili-lime chicken and Greek potato wedges, with banana-pineapple rolls for dessert. As usual, I made enough for a small army. Mike and Lauren came over to help us enjoy the meal and the evening.
After dinner and dessert, we finished off with a couple of rounds of Farkle. 🙂 It was yet another fun evening spent with good friends, good food and fun. What more could I ask for, right?! Life is very good indeed. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe, stay cool and stay well. ‘Til next time.
Mourning Doves are all over the place and are very common. We hear them cooing all the time. We see them as much as we hear them too, particularly in the summer months. This year, they have been even more plentiful than usual.
Have a great day and make every day great.
I am always looking for new and exciting recipes to try. I don’t think this quest will ever end. 🙂 There are just so many great recipes and too little time to try them all. However, I will keep trying and will create as many as I can.
I also am always trying new things for my coffee cart. This time I added some cherry melt-away bars. They were a big hit yet again. They were filled with delicious cherries and cherry pie filling, then baked to perfection. I got the recipe from my Amish cookbook once again. The Amish really know how to bake.
These delicious bars had a slightly crunchy bottom and a soft cherry filling. And yes, they really did just melt-away in my mouth. YUMMY!!!!
Cherry Melt-Away Bars
2 cups flour
2 eggs separarted
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 cut melted butter
2 cans cherry pie filling
1/8 tsp/dash cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cherry extract, optional
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Preheat the oven to 350* F or 190* C.
Spray cooking oil or rub softened butter into a 9×13 baking pan.
Combine the flour, egg yolks, 1 cup of sugar and the melted butter and mix together well. Press into the prepared baking pan.
Mix the egg whites and the cream of tartar together until they form stiff peaks. Add the remaining sugar and vanilla and cherry extract, if using.
I had a few extra cherries that I added to the cherry pie filling as well, making it even more cherrilicious. Then I folded the egg white mixture into the cherry pie filling and poured it all over the crust.
Sprinkle the chopped nuts on top of the mixture and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until the center is completely set.
Let cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing. If you like, you can add a dollop of whipped cream to the slices as well.
Share with family and friends and enjoy! 🙂
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Tiul next time.
If I had to hazard a guess, I would say roses are the most universal flower, and probably one of the most popular flowers too. I love roses. They come in so many different varieties, shapes, sizes and most of all, colors.
Here are some of my recent roses.
Have a rosy kind of day, today and everyday.
When we buy lamb, it comes in a fairly large quantity, especially for just the two of us, so I always get quite a few meals out it. With this last batch of lamb, I made some lamb gyros as well as a some lamb vindaloo.
Goan Vindaloo or vindalho is an Indian curry dish, which is originally from Goa, based on the Portuguese dish carne de vinha d’alhos.[1][2][3] It is known globally in its British Indian form as a staple of curry house and Indian restaurant menus and is often regarded as a fiery, spicy dish. The traditional recipe uses pork, but alternative versions have been prepared with beef, mutton, prawns, chicken, lamb, vegetables and tofu. Vindaloo is a traditional recipe of the Catholic community of Goa, an Indian state on the country’s southwestern coast. However, its origins lie 5,500 miles (8,850km) to the west, in Portugal, from where an earlier variant of the dish made its way to Goa with Portuguese explorers in the early 15th century. A standard element of Goan cuisine derived from the Portuguese carne de vinha d’alhos (literally “meat in garlic marinade”[5]), a vindaloo is a dish of meat (usually pork) marinated in vinegar and garlic.[3] The basic structure of the Portuguese dish was the Portuguese sailor’s “preserved” raw ingredients, packed in wooden barrels of alternate layers of pork and garlic, and soaked in red wine.[citation needed] This was adapted by the local Goan cooks with the substitution of palm vinegar for the red wine, and the addition of spices. It evolved into the localized and easy-to-pronounce dish “vindaloo”.[6]
Of course I had a basic recipe and then expanded upon it. Would you expect anything any different? 🙂 For my recipe, I added both potatoes and vegetables to the lamb curry mixture, making it more of a complete meal all in one. I served it all over rice, with a cool, crisp chardonnay on the side.
Lamb Vindaloo
The vindaloo sauce is a basic vindaloo sauce. You can use the same sauce for any kind of protein you like, whether it be lamb, chicken, pork, shrimp or tofu. I had my lamb marinating it an herbed tomato vinaigrette for about 2 or 3 days before using it for my vindaloo, Heirloom Tomato, Garlic & Herb Vinaigrette with Steak Salad which made it very tender and flavorful.
2 lbs lamb, cubed
6 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 cups onion, sliced very thin
1 TBSP garlic
1 TBSP ginger
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 can coconut milk
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into thin matchsticks
1 lb red potaotes, quartered
1 1/2 cups fresh green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced fine
1/2 cup water or more as needed
1/4 cup fresh cilantro and/or lemon verbena, chopped
Mix all the spices together with the vinegar and marinate the lamb for a minimum of 1 hour before cooking. Then brown the meat in a hot skillet with olive oil and butter. Once the meat is browned, remove it from the pan and set aside for later.
Cook the potatoes for about 7-10 minutes, or until they begin to soften.
Add the onions, green beans, red peppers, jalapenos, garlic and ginger and continue to cook for about 2-3 minutes, stirring often.
Add the tomatoes and mix well. My big heirloom tomato was a gift from my sister-in-law’s garden in Hays. Nothing better than fresh, homegrown tomatoes.
Re-add the lamb as well as the coconut milk. Mix everything together well, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently.
Adjust the seasonings if needed.
Add the cilantro and/or lemon verbena within the last 5 minutes of the cooking process, then serve over rice with warmed naan bread on the side. Delicious!
One of my favorite things about cooking different ethnic foods is that I get to “travel” to far off, exotic lands from the comfort of my own kitchen.
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cookies. And lemon is one of my favorites. So combining lemon AND cookies is just a win/win for me. That is exactly what I did when I made these lemon crinkle cookies too.
Crinkle cookies have been around since the early 1950s and were initially made with chocolate. Crinkle cookies are rolled in powdered sugar before baking which causes the icing sugar to crack (break apart). They have a slight crunch on the outside and are super moist inside like a brownie. They are very popular and delicious cookies too. Believe me, I have both made and eaten a bazillion of them. But you DON’T have to make them only as chocolate cookies. You can make them as lemon, molasses or red velvet cookies too. This time, especially for summer, I chose to make them lemon. YUMMY!
Just with anything, there are always a few tricks of the trade to make things consistently “perfect” and magical. Crinkle cookies are no different. There are few helpful hints that I am going to share with all of you too. Follow these tips, and you will have perfect crinkle cookies all the time. 🙂
They’re soft, tender and just a little bit chewy, with a delicate exterior that’s coated with a thick layer of powdered sugar. Crinkle cookies get their well-deserved name from the way the cookie splits and cracks along the sugar-covered top and sides as it bakes.
Lemon Crinkles
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks soften butter
1 cup + 2 TBSP sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 TBSP lemon zest
1 tsp vanialla
1 tsp lemon extract
Mix all the dry ingredients together and set aside.
Mix the butter and sugar together on medium high for about 1-2 minutes. Add the egg, lemon juice, lemon extract and vanilla and mix for an additional 1-2 minutes.
Add the flour mixture 1/2 at a time, mixing in between each addition. The dough should be thick, creamy and sticky. Wrap tightly and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before using and up to 3 days.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350* F or 190* C. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine 3 TBSP of granulated sugar and 1 cup of powdered sugar and mix well. Take about 1 TBSP of dough and roll gently in your hands to form a ball then roll in the sugar mixture. Continue until all the dough is used.
Place them on the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. I like to flatten my cookies a bit, however these will spread out and flatten on their own too.
You can re-roll them in the sugar mixture before baking too if you like. Then bake for about 15 minutes, or until they are lightly golden around the edges.
Then share with friends. Cookies always seem to bring friends closer. Oh, I have shared so many good times with friends over cookies. 🙂
Have a great day and make everyday great. And EAT your cookies. 🙂 Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
We were only in Kansas for a weekend, but that was a very busy weekend indeed. The main reason for this particular trip was to pick up our new fur baby, Andorra or Dorrie. But as you know from my previous posts, we managed to jam pack a lot of stuff into that weekend. Part of that was taking a lot of pictures too. I think all in all, I took almost 200 pictures, of all kinds, including a few bird shots.
I am fascinated with birds. Birds of all kinds. I think because my dad and I used to enjoy bird watching together, and it is a way to have my dad with me.
There were Sparrows,
Mourning Doves,
and Mississippi Kites, which were new to me as well, though we have them in Colorado too. In fact, they are pretty common all over the Midwestern states.
But one type of bird in particular really captured my attention. He was so pretty and colorful, and another new bird to me. I kept seeing them fly all through the trees, but had a hard time capturing one with my lens, until one stopped and posed for pictures. I think he is called a Western Kingbird, but I am not sure. All I know is that I was fascinated by his bright, vibrant colors.
Have a bright, colorful day.
We have had he wackiest summer weather. We’ve had a ton of rain and cooler temperatures, which I love, and we have also been having very hot, hot, hot days too. We have been all over the place.
On one of our super hot days, when cooking over a hot stove was not an option, I made a cool and refreshing cucumber and melon salad. This salad idea came to me via one of our very own yet again, this time coming from The Reluctant Poet at https://thereluctantpoetweb.wordpress.com/. Thank you for the cool, refreshing idea. Of course I made it my own though. As you all know, that’s just what I do. 🙂
Here is my version of this delicious summer salad. If you want the original recipe, you will have to go to The Reluctant Poet at https://thereluctantpoetweb.wordpress.com/ and find out. 🙂
Cucumber Melon Salad
3 cups cubed cantaloupe
2 cups cubed cucumber, seeded and peeled
4 cups fresh baby spinach, stems removed and chopped
1 cup grapes, cut in half
2 TBSP lime juice
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 TBSP honey
2 TBSP mint or lemon verbena
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled, optional
1/4 cup chopped nuts
Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, lime juice, lemon verbena or mint and honey together and mix well. Lemon verbena is growing wild all over my backyard, so this will always be my first choice. But mint is a great option too. Or you could use both.
Toss the chopped spinach, fruit, cucumbers, nuts, and feta cheese together, then add as much of the dressing as needed to coat everything without making it to heavy. You can make everything ahead of time without putting the dressing on and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Add the dressing right before serving it so your salad doesn’t get soggy.
This salad is so cool and refreshing and only takes a couple of minutes to make. It will definitely cool you down on those hot, hot, hot dog days of summer.
I served it alongside some grilled brats and potato salad, keeping cooking at a bare minimum on a day where the mercury was definitely on the rise.
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay cool, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
I have been very busy this morning already, but I don’t feel I’ve accomplished anything! Larry told me about a photo contest for the City of Westminster, where we live. I entered literally 100’s of photos from around our lakes, since it all had to be from Westminster. We’ll see what happens. At the very least, the powers that be will see I LOVE to take pictures of our gorgeous area. 🙂
These are just a few random shots I entered.
Wish me luck please. Larry really wants the golf package for 4. 🙂
I have so much good stuff to share with you. I’ve been busy in the kitchen, as always, and will be busy cooking again today, but I will have to get those to you later. I have friends coming over later, and the morning is already gone. And i still have so much to do. But stay tuned. Don’t touch that dial. I’m just getting started. 🙂
Have a great weekend Everyone. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 