Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

Moroccan cooking is a blend of many different cultures. It is a mix of the indigenous Berbers, the nomadic Bedouins, the Moors who were expelled from Spain, the Sephardic Jews, the Arabs, the Ottoman Empire, and the French. With all of these delicious cultures contributing, you know the food is going to be amazing. Each culture contributed something and each of these cooking traditions were thrown into the pot and stirred and simmered until the recipes were perfected.

The Berbers brought their traditions of tagines and couscous. The Bedouins added dates, milk and grains from all their travels. The Moors contributed flavors from Spain and Andalusia, such as olives, olive oil, paprika and herbs. The Sephardic Jews taught the ways of preserving with salt. The Arabs introduced the Middle Eastern cuisines. Making pastries and kebabs were gifted from the Ottoman Empire. And finally, it was the French who put everything together with finesse. Mix it all together, and the result is some fabulously delicious foods from Morocco.

A tagine is both a type of cooking vessel that is a shallow, round earthenware pot with a unique conical lid that is used to lock in the moisture and flavors of the foods while they are cooking, as well as type of dish. A tagine dish is a dish of tender meats or fish cooked with vegetables and simmered over a low heat to perfection in a buttery herb sauce, often with honey, chilies and/or fruits as well.

Recently, I took us on a Moroccan culinary tour with a tagine made with shrimp, tomatoes, potatoes and olives. Not only did I incorporate all the above influences, but I also added my own influences as well. I know. Surprise, surprise! It was most definitely a big hit, and I will definitely be making it again soon. 🙂

I served my shrimp tagine over pearled couscous with my rosemary focaccia Rosemary Focaccia and a glass or two of cool, crisp chardonnay on the side.

Before making my shrimp tagine, I made a chermoula sauce. Chermoula is a traditional Moroccan sauce used in fish dishes. It’s made from chilies, cumin and cilantro.

Chermoula Sauce

1 TBSP garlic

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp Aleppo chilies, optional

1 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

2 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP lemon olive oil, optional

1/4 cup fresh cilantro or parsley, or both

You can make it in the traditional way with a mortar and pestle or the modern way by putting it all in the food processor. I chose the food processing method.

Marinate the shrimp in some of the Chermoula sauce for about 30 minutes, and save the rest for later.

Shrimp Tagine

You can use this same recipe for any kind of white fish you like. But, it went very well with shrimp as well.

2 lbs large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1-1 1/2 lbs small new potaotes, cut in half

olive oil and butter for cooking

lemon olive oil, optional

1 TBSP garlic

12-16 cherry tomatoes

1 yellow or orange bell pepper, cut into matchsticks

salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup mixed olives

1-2 TBSP lemon juice

1 can artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup Peruvian peppers, optional

Place the potatoes in water and bring to a rapid boil and boil for about 8 minutes, then drain and rinse.

Heat the olive oil(s) and butter and stir in the garlic. Cook for about 1 minute, then add the tomatoes and cook for an additional minute or so.

Add the bell peppers, and cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until they start to soften, then add the artichoke hearts, olives, potatoes and Peruvian peppers, as well as the rest of the Chermoula sauce and the shrimp.

Mix everything together well, and continue to cook for about 5 or so minutes , or until the shrimp is completely cooked and everything is heated. Cook at a medium-low heat.

Spoon it all over some cooked couscous, serve with some warmed bread and enjoy. Bon Appetit! This is a delicious shrimp stew that is full of flavor and traditions. The flavors are all layered to really enhance the flavors of all the ingredients. They come together perfectly.

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

We eat a lot of salads during the warmer summer months, so I am always looking for new, refreshing recipes. I came across one that I had just to try. When I noticed the recipe was telling me to get a “salad kit”, I looked at the picture and said, “easy-peasy. I can make that”. Who needs a recipe when a picture is worth 1000 words, right?! Besides my salad was much better than some silly salad kit salad. I made everything from scratch, as I almost always do.

I made the strawberry vinaigrette first. Ironically, I had a little bit left in the fridge from the store that someone had brought over on one of their visits. I added that to my own dressing. What I made fit into the bottle just perfectly too.

Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing

1-1/2 cup fresh strawberries, stems removed and sliced

1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1-2 TBSP honey

1-2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/4 cup fresh lemon verbena, optional

Mix everything together in the food processor or blender and blend until it is all creamy. Set aside until ready to use. Lemon verbena is once again taking over my whole backyard, so you will see a lot of recipes with it for now. It is after all, that time of year. 🙂

After the dressing was made, it was time to candy the pecan halves. I used about 1/2 cup of pecan halves, 1/2 stick of butter and about 2-3 TBSP of honey and a dash of cayenne pepper. Put everything together in a skillet and cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly. Once the butter is melted, and everything is smooth, pour the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to cool and harden. Then break apart when completely cooled.

The Salad

When I make salads, I just add what I want to add on the individual plates. So you can easily make this salad for one for for 20. Just add more ore less depending on how many you want to make. 🙂 You can eat it as is, with no additional protein, or you can add steak, shrimp, chicken or pork. We enjoyed it with steak this time, since Larry was in the mood for steak.

mixed baby greens,

baby corn, cut into pieces about 1 inch in size

red bell pepper cut into thin matchsticks

strawberries, stems removed and sliced

apples, sliced thin

red onion, sliced very thin

candied pecan halves

avocado, diced

feta cheese, optioal

strawberry vinaigrette

As usual, Larry’s salad was topped with feta cheese and mine was not, and mine had avocado where his did not. I served it with some warmed multi-grain bread and a chilled chardonnay, though a light to medium bodied red would go very nicely too.

Let salad season begin. This salad is a perfect salad for the summer or for a picnic or to share with friends. It’s light, refreshing and full of fresh goodness.

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

As you know, I love flowers. They may seem delicate, and many are, but the ones growing in the harsh mountainous areas are anything but. Not only are they beautiful, adding splashes of color where you would least expect them, but in order to not only survive, but flourish, they have to be hardy as well. Here are some more beautifully colored flowers from out recent trip to the southern mountains of both Colorado and Utah. Today, I give you the yellow mountain flowers.

No matter where you are, you can always find something beautiful in everything, in every situation. Color your world beautiful.

As you all know, I am home and have been busy cooking in the kitchen again, as usual. I have been baking and cooking and I have lots of fun things to share.

It is that time of the week once again, where I start doing all my weekly baking for my coffee cart. One of the menu items on the cart this week will be some cappuccino brownies. Everyone loves brownies, right?! I love coffee flavored desserts, but I tend not to make a lot of coffee flavored items ONLY because Larry does not like coffee flavored anything, and I certainly DON’T need to eat anything that is leftover, though usually I do not have many leftovers, if any, at all. 🙂

I can, and definitely do, make brownies from scratch, however, I really like the Ghirardelli Brownie mix, and tend to use that more so than not when making brownies. Why reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to? I used my Ghirardelli mix again this time as a starter, then tweaked them a bit.

For the actual brownies themselves, the only changes I made was to add 1 tsp of vanilla and 3 TBSP instant coffee granules to the mix to give them a hint of mocha or coffee flavor, then baked them per the instructions on the box.

Once my brownies were baked and cooled, I topped them with a cappuccino buttercream frosting. I prefer dressed up brownies rather than to serve them naked. 🙂

Cappuccino Buttercream Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 TBSP instant coffee granules

1/2 cup milk

2 sticks softened butter

Combine the milk and coffee granules together and mix until the granules have dissolved. Then mix everything together with a mixer until everything is well blended and creamy.

Spread over the brownies before cutting.

Once the brownies are covered with a layer of frosting, slice them up. I also added some mini chocolate chips on top to dress them up even more, making more them like cappuccino chip brownies. YUMMY!

I do my best to live and cook by the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) rule as much as possible. There is nothing wrong with starting from a store bought brand, as long as it is a good, reputable and reliable brand, and doctoring it up. If you doctor it up right, no one will ever know you didn’t slave away over a hot stove or oven. It will be out little secret. 🙂

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

We had one last stop to make before closing the book on our recent adventures. We stopped at Scileppi’s, The Old Stone Church Restaurant in Castel Rock, CO. Larry and I had been to Scileppi’s before and have raved about it ever since. Dinner at the Church. We had been wanting to take Mike and Lauren there ever since we went, and this just seemed like the perfect opportunity to go.

Once again we feasted on scrumptious food. We ordered too much and ate too much, but it was the last hoorah of our trip. And, we were celebrating Karen’s birthday as well. Just so you know, we DON’T always eat this way. In fact, the opposite is true. We tend to do more rustic and simple stuff, though I have gotten so fat, you might think otherwise. 🙂

Once again, there were appetizes, main entrees and desserts to share. Everything was “divine”, as to be expected. There was also quite a bit of food we brought home too, to be enjoyed again later.

We started off with calamari, bread and garlic cheese bread for the table.

Next came a variety of delicious entrees. We all sampled a bit of everything. It all gained our stamps of approval.

Since we were celebrating Karen’s birthday, none of us finished our meals because we all knew there was dessert coming too. You can’t celebrate a birthday without special desserts, right?!

Happy Birthday Karen. 🙂

Scileppi’s is located at 210 3rd Street, Castle Rock, CO. You can walk in and hope for a seat, or if you want to be in one of the special places, like the Confessional or the Choir Loft, you need to call and make reservations, at (303) 688-9000 or contact them online at http://www.scileppis.com

Finishing off our trip by dining at Scileppi’s was the perfect ending for a fantastic trip. We dined very well on the trip, eating all kinds of delicious foods. But Scileppi’s was most definitely our best meal for the trip.

This concludes my series on our Southwestern adventures. I hope you have enjoyed it all. Next time you come out to Colorado, I would definitely add some of these adventures to your itinerary. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Castle Rock, the namesake for the city.

A trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park was our last big adventure for the trip. We actually visited it twice, once for an evening picnic and some stargazing and then again in the day time. We weren’t planning on going twice, but that’s just the way it worked out. Glad we did too. They are two completely different ways to experience the Sand Dunes.

The tallest sand dunes in North America, just outside of Alamosa, CO, are the centerpiece in a diverse landscape of grasslands, wetlands, forests, alpine lakes, and tundra. The dunes were formed by the right combinations of wind, water, and sediment. Creeks and streams brought in large amounts of sediment and sand into the valley. Wind then blew the sand toward the bend in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where opposing storm winds helped squeeze the sand into the tall dunes you see today. They are a sandbox of epic proportions, where the entire dune field encompasses 30 square miles and the tallest dune towers 750 feet high.

We decided to visit the Sand Dunes at night to stargaze. It’s a great spot to watch the Heavens above because it is so isolated and there aren’t any interferences from city lights. We packed up all our picnic stuff and dined beneath the stars. We all agreed, it was a great evening. At first, we weren’t sure how things would turn out, especially since it was cloudy and over cast. Then one by one, the stars started to appear and each one got brighter and brighter. We even saw the International Space Station zoom right past us. We didn’t believe that’s what at was at first, but then we checked, and sure enough, we had seen the Space Stations zooming past us at about 5 miles per second. In addition to seeing the Space Station, we also saw about 6 deer in the creek, a coyote on the prowl and a lot of bats flying around us. The deer were only a few feet away, but as soon as I got them in focus with my lens, they scampered off to places unknown. I wasn’t able to get any photos of the local night life, but we all saw them. We knew they were there.

The Dunes at night.

The Dunes during the day time.

This is just right about where we had our evening picnic, right at the water’s edge. We were surprised to see water there. We weren’t expecting it.

After doing the dunes, we headed north again, homeward bound. We had one last bit of exploring to do, as well as a nice dinner, before ending our trip.

We made a stop at The Cave of the Winds, in Colorado Springs/Manitou Springs, to do some caving. All of us had been there before except for the Californians on the trip, Lori and Karen. (I am no longer a Californian. I have been in Colorado for over 23 years, so I’m like a native now).

In 1880, brothers John and George Pickett scouted for new caves in Williams Canyon. They discovered a small cave near the limestone archway. They noticed that the flames on their lit candles flickered in the wind coming from somewhere within the cave. They crawled through a small opening and emerged into a large chamber that promised an amazing world of exploration.

That world was structurally opened by George Washington Snider, a stonecutter from Ohio. Soon after the cave’s initial discovery, Snider excavated passages and found Canopy Hall. He continued to excavate and soon was giving guided tours. Cave of the Winds Mountain Park in Colorado Springs has been in continuous operation since February 1881 – it is one of Colorado’s original visitor attractions!

Outside the caves.

Inside the caves.

This concludes our Southwestern Colorado and Southeastern Utah adventures. As you can see we survived through it all. We hiked and climbed through the mountains, slid down sand dunes, explored caves and encountered all kinds of wildlife. And through it all, we are still smiling. We all had a great time and made many happy memories.

Last stop before ending the trip was a stop at Scileppi’s Italian Restaurant for dinner.

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

After leaving the Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde, we headed north, and landed in Durango for lunch, not far from Mesa Verde at all. We ate a little different today. We had our main meal in the early afternoon and our picnic for dinner (more on that later).

Durango, Colorado gained its fame to claim as a mining town in the days of the Wild, Wild West. Here are 8 fun facts about Durango.

1. It is known as the Hollywood of the Rockies, with over 30 films being shot here, ranging from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid to National Lampoon’s Vacation and Ticket to Tomahawk.
2. It is a culinary haven. Once known as the city with more per capita restaurants than San Francisco, Durango has always served as a foodie’s paradise.
3. It is a headquarters location for a lot of professional athletes. Beginning in 1915, professional fighter Jack Dempsey became the heavy weight champion after defeating Andy Malloy.  Today, Durango attracts world-class athletes to competitions like the Iron Horse bike race and the Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Race.
4. THE HAPPIEST (AND WORST DRESSED) WINTER TOWN IN AMERICA – the Snowdown Celebration, hosted annually at the end of every January, is one of the best and largest winter festivals in the state. The massive costume party, now more than 41 years old, is meant to lift the spirits of locals and visitors alike. It may be part of the reason USA Today named Durango the “Worst Dressed Town in America” back in the ’90s, but that’s a badge worn with honor.
5. Durango has hosted a number of famous artists and writers over the years as they worked.
6. Durango is a fisherman’s paradise.
7. It is a historical hotspot. With more than 2,500 preserved archeological sites, four nearby National Monuments, 13 historic sites, 2 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and one National Park, Durango boasts unbeatable access to our nation’s best-preserved history. You could spend months solely focused on exploring the ancient history around the southwest, with still so much more to see. Spend a day at Mesa Verde National Park, tour the Chaco Canyon UNESCO site, and make a point to escape into the Weminuche Wilderness for some intimate outdoor time.
8. Durango is home to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway that transported over $300,000,000 worth of precious metals that were mined from the area.

None of these fun facts were known to us when we stopped in Durango for lunch. But we can certainly vouch for #2 on the list. We stopped at a little Italian bistro named Primi, where we dined al fresco on their beautiful patio that was a window to the town.

PRIMI, meaning first course in Italian, refers to the many types of pasta found on restaurant menus across Italy. Perfectly al dente noodles are often handmade and accompanied with simple and flavorful sauces. Our inspiration is drawn from the many humble restaurants in Italy that use a few high quality ingredients to create mouthwatering dishes.

As you would expect by their mission statement, everything is home made fresh in house everyday, including all their desserts and gelatos. When they run out, they run out. Fortunately for us, they did not run out of anything, yet.

We started lunch off with some rosemary focaccia for the table and cool, refreshing drinks. Some of us had wine, others did not. I bet you know which option I chose. 🙂

Then it was time for our lunches to arrive. We all sampled different pasta dishes. Everything was fresh and delicious, and they all disappeared quickly.

There was one container of lemon gelato left, that was on sale, so we “forced” ourselves upon it and and helped them out so they could make another batch. It was cool and refreshing and just hit the spot. There was just enough for the 6 of each us to enjoy a little bit, and that little bit was all we needed.

Primi is located at 1201 main Street, Durango, CO.

After lunch, we were all very full and needed to walk around a bit, so we strolled down towards the Animas River and enjoyed the sights. It was a beautiful day and a perfect way to enjoy the day after lunch.

Since it was Memorial Day, Durango honored its fallen in a very patriotic way.

The day’s adventures did not stop here, but I am going to leave it here for now. You’ll just have to trust me. There is method to my madness, or at least most of the time. 🙂 There are still more adventures on the way. Stay tuned.

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

We did a big loop on our trip out west by going out to Grand Junction and Colorado National Monument first, Our Trip To The West – Day #2 – Colorado National Monument then out to Utah and Arches National Park, Our Trip To The West – Day #3 – Arches National Park , and from there, south and back into Colorado again. This time our adventures took us to Mesa Verde National Park to see the cliff dwellings.

The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in North America. Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa tops for 600 years, many Ancestral Pueblo people began moving into pueblos they built into natural cliff alcoves. The structures ranged in size from one-room granaries to villages of more than 150 rooms. While still farming the mesa tops, they lived in cliff dwellings, repairing, remodeling, and constructing new rooms for nearly a century. With more than 5,000 sites, including 600 cliff dwellings, Mesa Verde is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. Cliff dwellings were built by the Ancestral Puebloans, who were ancestors of the Pueblo Native American tribe.

The cliff dwellings were built from 1200–75. The people had lived on flat ground around Mesa Verde. To keep their community safe, they started to build homes in the cliffs. In the mid-1200s, the population began migrating to the south, into present-day New Mexico and Arizona. By the end of the 1200s, most everyone had migrated away. Drought probably caused food shortages, especially because the population had grown so large. The resulting hardships may have led to tension and conflict. Eventually, the Pueblo people of the Mesa Verde region decided to migrate south, where the rains were more reliable.

We missed our window of opportunity to purchase tickets to go inside the actual cliff dwellings, but we still got a chance to see how life was lived in and around them. We still got to see all of the dwellings and the pit houses and pueblos too. Fortunately the Visitor’s Center offered very good representations of what life was like.

These are representations from the Visitor’s Center. Life was hard, but the people seemed content. A hard life was all they knew.

We were able to hike all around and there was still so much to see and so much history to take in.

Boys will be boys.

The girls were all looking pretty.

After exploring the area on foot, we took in a couple of short documentary films that went into even more details about what life was like for the Puebloans. We got to see what they ate and what tools they used and learned a lot more about the culture of the cliff dwellers. All of it was very interesting.

All this corn was stored in the pot for 1000’s of years. Corn was a main staple of the Pubeloan diet.

I have always loved and been so intrigued by history, of all kinds. I have never been able to grasp or understand it when people say they have no interest in history. History is our past and by learning about out past, we are allowed to progress and move forward. Without knowing about our history, we can have no future.

We all thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating trip to the past. If you haven’t already been to Mesa Verde, I highly recommend it. It’s fun to step back in time. Upon leaving Mesa Verde and the Cortez area, we were back in the car, headed north to Alamosa for more adventures yet to come.

Learn from the past to build for the future. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

After our Arches National Park experience, it was back to Southwestern Colorado once again. Next stop, Cortez, CO. It was another 2 hours and 112 miles to go before settling in for the night.

Once in Cortez, we checked into our hotel and walked around town a bit to find a good place for dinner. We chose a family owned Mexican restaurant. We all agreed it was an excellent choice and a great way to end the day. Dinner was at Mi Mexico.

The decor inside Mi Mexico was very Southwestern and eclectic, which made it fun.

!La comida estaba delicioso! The food was delicious! We sampled many fantastic dishes and everyone was very full and very satisfied at the end of the meal. We had beef fajitas,

albondigas,

camarones al mojo de ajo or shrimp with a garlic mushroom sauce, and a smothered burrito.

For dessert, o postres, we sampled some sopapillas with honey and cinnamon and deep-fried ice cream.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel for more fun and games. It felt good to walk around a bit. We brought a bunch of games to play for our evening entertainment, and every night was filled with lots of laughs, lots of comraderie and lots of fun.

Live, love, eat, and make the most our of everyday. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Mi Mexico is located at 801 E Main St, Cortez, CO 81321. They open at 11:00 AM and you can dine inside or outside on the patio.

For our third day of the trip, we left Southwestern Colorado and ventured into Southeastern Utah, near Moab, where we explored Arches National Park. Arches National Park boasts of 76,518 acres of beautiful natural sandstone arches, geological wonders and gorgeous landscapes. It takes a little over 2 hours to go from Grand Junction, CO to Moab, Utah, where Arches is located. So we packed everything back up into the car to get to our next destination and we were on the road again.

Arches National Park is just as gorgeous and just as impressive as Colorado National Monument, but it’s bigger, so there is even more to see. Arches is about 3x the size of Colorado National Monument. Again, our day was filled with driving around the park, getting out for hikes all around, taking a bazillion gorgeous pictures and a picnic lunch with a beautiful vista. What a way to enjoy life and commune with God and nature, right?!

Once again, pictures just don’t do this magnificent park justice. And again God and Mother Nature painted a beautiful, colorful mural of natural beauty. We were all awestruck. It was absolutely breathtaking.

I will leave it here since there is no way I can show you everything. Once again, I am NOT going to share all of the pictures I took. It’s would be too overwhelming. The best way to experience Arches is to actually go and see it for yourself. It is truly a magical place.

Color your world beautiful and take in as much beauty as you can. We live in a very beautiful world. We just have to allow ourselves to see it and take it all in. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.