Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

New Orleans is probably one of the most unique places on earth. It is a melting pot of so many different cultures from many different countries. It’s culture is a blend of French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, African, Italian and Caribbean influences all mixed together. And all of these influences are best expressed and tasted in all of their scrumptious foods too.

New Orleans is known for many things, and food is most definitely one of the many treasures this city is known for. Food is a big part of the New Orleans culture. Everyone loves to eat and everyone loves to cook. They believe that a “recipe coming straight from a restaurant or a chef without tasting is illegal”, Author Kit Wohl, New Orleans Classic Desserts. Every chef has his or her own special experiences, knowledge and special tricks they use to make their culinary magic that feeds not just the locals, but visitors from all over the world everyday.

Desserts are a big part of the New Orleansian way of life too. They believe life is short, so eat your desserts first. I remember my Aunt Janis (from Beaumont, TX) saying this all the time. They just may be on to something too. The New Orleansians are far less concerned about being stressed out over life than most other people. Maybe this is because they have realized that the word stressed spelled backwards is DESSERTS. I personally like this way of thinking; A LOT! Maybe we should all adapt this philosophy and life would be sweeter.

There are many different desserts that are famous in New Orleans. Once such dessert is Bananas Foster. I made that the other night. I usually only make desserts when we are having company or special events, and this night was no exception. Lauren is out of town so Mike came over, and Elizabeth is always waning to grow her culinary repertoire, so it was a deliciously fun evening enjoyed by all.

Bananas Foster

Bananas Foster was invented at the famous Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans in 1951. It is a combination of simple, everyday ingredients that are brought to life with the flambe, or the flaming of the sauce. The dessert was named after Richard Foster, who served with Owen Brennan, owner and founder of Brennan’s Restaurant, on the New Orleans Crime Commission, a civic effort to clean up the French Quarter at the time.

6 tsp cinnamon

1 TBSP sugar

6 TBSP butter

1 1 2/ cups firmly packed brown sugar

6 bananas, peeled, sliced and cut in half

1/3 cup rum

1/3 banana liqueur and/or 1 tsp banana extract

6 scoops ice cream

Combine the sugar, cinnamon and butter in large skillet. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until everything is creamy and caramelized.

Carefully add the banana slices and continue to cook for about 1-2 minutes.

Carefully add the rum and watch out. This will flame up very quickly. You want to use any rum or other alcohol that is between 40-80% proof. The higher the alcohol content, the higher the flames will be. DO NOT use any alcohol with a higher alcohol content or the fire department may have to be called out. I was taught to carefully add the liquor directly into the skillet, but this particular recipe and cookbook says to add the alcohol into a separate ladle then set ablaze and add to the skillet. I had honestly never heard of that technique before. Either way, I cannot emphasize enough to be VERY CAREFUL when creating a flambe!

DO NOT have anything flammable next to the flame and stand back. The flame dies down in just a few seconds.

Once the flames go out, add the banana mixture over ice cream, and viola! Bananas Foster is ready. Elizabeth enjoyed it so much, she went back for seconds and ate it all up. Bon Appetite!

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

Thanks once again to our very own Ohio Cook at My Meals Are on Wheels https://beatcancer2010.wordpress.com/ for this fabulously fun and festive idea for Mardi Gras cookies. These cookies are deliciously decadent, like the fun holiday they represent. Since I made Mardi Gras cookies I had to make them in the Mardi Gras colors too. There are three colors associated with Mardi Gras and Carnival, purple, green and yellow or gold. The traditional colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold. These are said to have been chosen in 1892 when the Rex Parade theme “Symbolism of Colors” gave the colors their meanings. Purple – Justice. Green – Faith. Gold – Power.

The French name Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, from the custom of using all the fats in the home before Lent. Mardi Gras is traditionally celebrated on “Fat Tuesday,” the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.  In many areas, however, Mardi Gras has evolved into a week-long festival.  Mardi Gras is a Christian holiday and popular cultural phenomenon that dates back thousands of years to pagan spring and fertility rites. Also known as Carnival or Carnaval, or Karneval, Fastnacht or Fasching in German, it’s celebrated in many countries around the world—mainly those with large Roman Catholic populations—on the day before the religious season of Lent begins. Brazil, Venice and New Orleans play host to some of the holiday’s most famous public festivities, drawing thousands of tourists and revelers every year.

Traditionally, in the days leading up to Lent, merrymakers would binge on all the rich, fatty foods—meat, eggs, milk, lard and cheese—that remained in their homes, in anticipation of several weeks of eating only fish and different types of fasting. The word carnival, another common name for the pre-Lenten festivities, also derives from this feasting tradition: in Medieval Latin, carnelevarium means to take away or remove meat, from the Latin carnem for meat.

The first American Mardi Gras took place on March 3, 1699, when French explorers Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Sieur de Bienville landed near present-day New Orleans, Louisiana. They held a small celebration and dubbed their landing spot Point du Mardi Gras.

In the decades that followed, New Orleans and other French settlements began marking the holiday with street parties, masked balls and lavish dinners. When the Spanish took control of New Orleans, however, they abolished these rowdy rituals, and the bans remained in force until Louisiana became a U.S. state in 1812. And from this point on, Mardi Gras has been celebrated as one of the biggest, most colorful, and extravagant parties ever celebrated. It keeps getting bigger and better every year.

Mardi Gras Cookies

I doubled my recipe to make about 5 dozen cookies. One recipe will make about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Preheat the oven to 350 F or 190* C.

1 box vanilla cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup flour, or more as needed

Cinnamon Filling

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 TBSP melted butter

Frosting

3 cups powdered

2 TBSP milk

1 tsp vanilla

Colored sprinkles – green, purple and yellow

Make the cinnamon filling first and set aside. Combine the cinnamon, melted butter and brown sugar together until it forms into a thick paste. Roll about 1/2 tsp sized portions into little balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I found wearing gloves works best, since it makes it easier to roll the cinnamon balls in your hands. Once all the balls are rolled, place the baking sheet in the freezer for about 15 minutes to set.

While the cinnamon balls are setting, make the cookie batter by adding all the ingredients together for the cake mix, then adding as much flour as needed to the mix to make it a stiff, firm dough.

Form the cookies into a round ball, with about 1 TBSP of dough per cookie. Then make an indentation in the center of each cookie, with either your finger or the end of a wooded spoon. Place one cinnamon ball in the center of each cookie, then carefully wrap the dough around each cinnamon ball until it is completely enveloped in the dough.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the cookies are set.

Allow the cookies to cool completely before adding the frosting and the colored sprinkles. I had some store-bought frosting that I had used for something else, that I used and it works just fine too.

Once the cookies are all frosted and decorated, laissez le bontemps roulez, or let the good times roll. These cookies are just as rich and decadent as you would expect them to be, which is why they are just perfect for celebrating in a big way.

Make everyday a day to celebrate and have fun, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Southern cooking and Southern baking are renowned for their homemade deliciousness found in every bite. Every recipe is a work of art, and many are family heirlooms that have been passed down from generation to generation. I got my Southern cooking roots more from my Aunt Gloria than I did my mom. My Aunt Gloria was a fabulous cook, and I cook a lot like she did. My mother, on the other hand, was a horrible cook. She burned everything. She inherited this trait from her mother, my grandmother, whose specialty was “that burned thing”. My mom’s brothers always talked about having to constantly scrape the burnt part off their toast every morning. All I can say is I am glad I was able to learn from my Aunt Gloria, watching and learning from the counter as I sat and colored while she was busy in the kitchen, cooking away to her heart’s content.

I am a little late in the Mardi Gras celebrations, but better late than never right?! Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, was last week, but I was busy making breakfast burritos The Burrito Factory. So, I am making my Mardi Gras goodies this week instead. This week, there is most definitely a Southern/Mardi Gras theme to what will be served on the coffee cart. My first treat is an apple pecan bread.

This bread is more like a cake than a bread. It’s loaded with apples and pecans, and topped with a rich buttery brown sugar glaze. It is so moist and just melts in your mouth. It definitely lives up to its reputation for delicious Southern cooking and baking.

Apple Pecan Bread

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

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

1 cup either sour cream or yogurt

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 TBSP vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups toasted pecans, chopped, divided

1 1/2 cups apples, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Combine all the dry ingredients and set aside.

Mix the yogurt or sour cream together with the eggs, sugar and vanilla. I use both yogurt and sour cream interchangeably. I find they both work great, and it really just depends on what I have on hand at the time. Mayonnaise also works well. Add the flour mixture 1/2 at a time, and mix in between each addition.

Gently fold in the apples and about 1/2 of the chopped pecans. Then evenly spread the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for about an hour, or until it is golden brown and a toothpick that is inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cake/bread to cool completely before adding the glaze.

For the glaze, melt the butter and the brown sugar together in a sauce pan, stirring constantly. Bring to a full rapid boil and let boil for 1 minute, then pour over the bread. Top with the remaining chopped pecans.

I toast my pecans right on the stove top, in a very hot skillet, with no added oil or butter. It only takes a couple of minutes. Watch them closely though, because hey will burn easily and quickly once they start toasting.

The only butter that is used for this is in the glaze. It’s a scrumptious praline glaze that goes perfectly with the bread.

All that is left to do is to slice it up and share it with loved ones. YUMMY!

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

You all know how much I love my nature walks and seeing, meeting new “friends”. The weather is still a bit frightful, so the walks are kind of limited at the moment. Yesterday, my car thermometer read 2* F. That would be -17* C. BRRRRR! But just because it is bitter cold outside, doesn’t mean there is nothing to see.

I met a new feathered friend this morning, from the comfort of my own office. There were 100’s of them on my roof and in the trees. My new friend is a Cedar Waxwing. They were flocking towards my Juniper tree.

There were so many of these Cedar Waxwings. My camera was just clicking away. And then, just like that, they flew away.

Look for something new in everyday. Have a great day. ‘Til next time.

I LOVE Spanish foods. All kinds of Spanish foods. I love foods from Spain. I love Mexican food, I love Southwestern and Tex-Mex food, and I love the foods from Puerto Rico as well. All of these delicious cuisines have a common Spanish thread, but they all have their very own distinct personalities too.

We have been down to Puerto Rico many times, and have visited all over the mainland of Puerto Rico, as well as both Culebra and Vieques, the two smaller islands off the east coast. Out of all the different “Spanish” foods, the foods of Puerto Rico are closest to actual Spanish food from Spain. The biggest influences on Puerto Rican cooking are from the native Taino Indians, Spain and Africa, and within the past 70 years or so, America, though there are many other culinary influences from many other countries as well. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, “there is no such thing as ethnic cooking. The term ethnic cooking is dead. We are all just cooking”. Chicken Burma

In the early days, Puerto Rican foods were simple, and were mainly vegetarian, from root vegetables, and seafood. The island of Puerto Rico is only 100 miles long and 35 miles wide, however, with all the distinct regional differences of the foods, the different names that are given, and the different preparation methods, you would think the island was much bigger. It seems as though every town has its own renowned specialty dish. Rice and beans have always been staples in the Puerto Rican diet, and still are. Today, all that has changed though, and there are many Puerto Rican chefs who are creatively cooking with all kinds of different foods, from all different backgrounds, using a wide variety of ingredients. It is said that Puerto Rican foods “have a rainbow of flavors and traditions” because the Puerto Rican people are rainbow people. Yvonne Ortiz, A Taste of Puerto Rico, Traditional and New Dishes From the Puerto Rican Community.

When I made my Puerto Rican casserole Puerto Rican Casserole, of course I made enough to feed a small army, meaning there was a lot leftover. So we enjoyed it again, but this time I served it with a Puerto Rican Carnival corn bread, or pan de maiz de Carnival. Pan de maiz de Carnival is a colorful cornbread made with shredded carrots and corn, and I added jalapeno as well, making it even more flavorful and colorful. I served it with honey butter.

Puerto Rican Carnival Corn Bread

Preheat oven to 425* F or about 220* C.

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup or 1/2 stick softened butter, cubed

1 egg

1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

2 carrots, peeled and shredded

1/2 cup corn kernels

1 jalapeno, diced fine, optional

Combine all the ingredients together, except the egg and the yogurt. Mix together until it resembles a colorful coarse sand.

Mix the egg and the yogurt together, then add to the dry mixture. Mix just until everything is blended. Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until it is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

I like my cornbread with honey butter, and that is literally just honey and butter mixed together. The proportions of honey to butter depend on you and how sweet you like it. This bread is so moist and flavorful. It is almost like a cake rather than a bread. !Esta mui delicioso! !Desfruitas!.

You can always add a little splash of color to your life in everything you do. Make everything fun and colorful. Have a great day. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Shortbread cookies are always a fan favorite. They are delicious cookies that are not too sweet, but are just sweet enough. They are perfect for dipping in your tea or coffee. They are delicate and crunchy all at the same time, and just melt in your mouth. That could be because of all the butter used.

They get their name shortbread cookies, or biscuits, because of their short, or crumbly, structure, which is caused by the high proportion of fat. The traditional recipe, developed in Scotland, consists of one part sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour. Shortbread cookies have been around, in some form or another, since the 12th century. A Scottish biscuit through and through, shortbread is eaten on special occasions and hasn’t changed much from its original form in the Middle Ages. When you eat or bake traditional shortbread, you’re essentially enjoying the same buttery treats that the Scots did many centuries ago.

The famous Scottish Queen Mary is often credited with the invention, or at least refinement of modern shortbread, as it was the cooks at her court who further improved it by taking influences from French cooking that developed at the court, and refining the biscuit using butter, flour and sugar as the main ingredients.

With my love of butter, and the fact that I have a lot of Scottish and Celtic blood running through me veins, is it any wonder why I love these cookies so much? It seems pretty straight forward to me. My great grandmother, on my dad’s side, was a Ferguson from Scotland who met my great grandfather, from Wales, who was a Jones, on the ship bound to Australia. So the love of shortbread cookies, or biscuits is in my DNA.

As with anything, especially something that has been around for such a long time, there are always plenty of variations. My most recent shortbread biscuits, were topped with toasted pecan, and went down, well, like …. butter. They are called fingers because they look like fingers.

Pecan Shortbread Fingers

3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks softened butter

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

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

Mix the butter, sugars and vanilla together until creamy, for about 2 minutes. Then gradually start adding the flour and mix in just until everything is blended together and the dough is moist enough to work with.

Form the dough into a rectangle then roll out to about 1 1/2 inches thick. You can roll it directly onto an ungreased cookie pan if you like then cut into fingers, but I found it easier to roll the dough out onto my island first and then transfer my fingers onto the cookie sheet after. You can have long fingers, or short stubby fingers, like mine. they will all taste the same regardless of their length. Once your fingers are made, press down on the ends with a fork.

Once the fingers are made and pressed with a fork, lightly press the chopped pecans into the tops of the fingers. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until they are lightly browned and a bit crispy.

It is hard to eat just one of these deliciously, buttery cookies. They are hard to keep for long, since they will all disappear in an instant.

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

One of my favorite things about our little church is how everyone gets very involved with helping others in need, whether it is our community at large, or within our own little “family”. One of our young couples just had their second child, little Maddie, born the day before my birthday, on Feb. 6 (though just barely), and we made a food chain to help them out. A different person has been busy making food for them everyday for the past two weeks. Yesterday was my day, though I gave them some of our breakfast burritos from our Super Bowl service too. The Burrito Factory

I made them a batch of Mediterranean steak with roasted vegetables and cannellini beans. Roasted Strip Steak and Vegetables I also included a bag of salad and some bread with a little plate of sweet goodies and treats leftover from Sunday’s service.

I just made a double batch, one for them and one for us. After all, it’s just as easy to make two batches as it is to make one batch. 🙂 The text I received was that they thought it was all delicious. SWEET! Mission accomplished.

This dish is an easy one-pan dish that is all roasted in the oven at 450* F or about 235 *C. Start by roasting the broccolini, mushrooms, garlic, and onions tossed with olive oil, lemon balsamic vinegar and red pepper flakes (for ours only, and optional) for 15 minutes, then add the seasoned skirt steak and continue roasting for about 5-7 minutes per side, for a nice medium rare steak.

After the steak was cooked, I let it rest for about five or so minutes before slicing it, but added the tomatoes and cannellini beans to the vegetable mix and let them roast for about 5-7 minutes.

Once everything is done, all that is left to do is to enjoy the roasted good flavors, with a glass or two of medium bodied red wine. Simply delicious!

Have a great day and help make someone else’s day great too. It doesn’t take much to help make someone else’s day great. Most often, it is the little things that mean the most.

Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Brownies are some of America’s favorite treats. They are a category all unto themselves. They are not a cookie and they are not a cake, but are something in between. Technically, they are referred to as a bar cookie though, since they are eaten with your fingers and not a fork.

The first-known printed use of the word “brownie” to describe a dessert appeared in the 1896 version of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer, in reference to molasses cakes baked individually in tin molds. Another idea is that Bertha Potter Palmer asked her chef at The Palmer House Hotel in Chicago to create a dessert that could be tucked into a box lunch for ladies to eat while attending the Columbian Exposition. The result was a super-rich, fudgy-chocolate confection, called a cake that could be eaten without a fork. It was known as the Palmer House brownie. Though with anything, there are always lots of rumors, theories and speculations on how things were really first created.

There are thousands of recipes for brownies, both “cake” types and “fudge” types. Either is perfectly correct—and delicious. It’s easy to see that the brownie got its name from its dark brown color. Here’s more about the style of brownies. There are numerous legends surrounding the origin of the brownie. The legend is told variously: a chef mistakenly added melted chocolate to a batch of biscuits…a cook was making a cake but didn’t have enough flour. The favorite myth, cited in Betty Crocker’s Baking Classics and John Mariani’s The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, tells of a housewife in Bangor, Maine, who was making a chocolate cake but forgot to add baking powder. When her cake didn’t rise properly, instead of tossing it out, she cut and served the flat pieces, and there are many more ideas as well. No one really knows how the brownies we all know and love came to be, but it is always fun to hear all the wild ideas that float about. Like many other things, this may be a mystery that we may never know the truth about. 🙂

I, like most other Americans, love brownies too. I make them from scratch a lot and I also enhance the ones from a box a lot too. If I am making them from a box, my favorite tried and true recipe is the Ghirardelli brand. So often times I start with the mix, then build upon them from there. And that’s exactly what I did this time too. I transformed them from really good brownies into really terrific brownies and added all kinds of goodies.

I had marshmallows that I wanted to use, so I added those on top, but that wasn’t enough. Next I added some Heath Bar Crumbles then popped the pan into the oven.

But they still didn’t look finished yet. They still needed something else. I had a few of my caramels left over The Caramels Are Done! I melted them down and then drizzled them on top of everything. Perfect! That is just what they needed.

Larry was really hoping against hope that some would be left after church, but to his disappointment, and my delight, they were gobbled up in an instant.

There is never any need to reinvent the wheel. You can always start with the basics and then dress them up from there. It’s a creative way of using up little bits and pieces of things that need to be used, and more so than not, they will will wow over your fans with your creativity. Always a win/win situation, in my book. 🙂 Make It Pretty

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

Today’s post is a little different than my normal posts. Believe it or not, there is NO food involved at all. Instead, we had a fun night of Karaoke with our friends Mike and Lauren. One of Lauren’s co-workers was hosting a fundraising event to help aid the City of Boston, in conjunction with The Boston Marathon. He held the event at Pitch Karaoke, in Louisville CO.

Lauren’s co-worker Joel rented the whole facility for this event. There were about 40 people in attendance all singing and having fun for a good cause. Joel is the one in the middle, wearing the big smile and the hat.

Joel and his wife Felicia.

Pitch is a brand new karaoke place, but instead of being in a bar, with one single karaoke machine, it is a bunch of individual rooms. Each room is equipped with comfortable couches, a wide screen TV that plays the songs you choose from their extensive list, 2 microphones attached to the TV system, and all kinds of other fun goodies, like tambourines that light up. I had never heard of anything like this before, but apparently, this is a trend in Asian countries. The walls were adorned with posters of famous singers and all kinds of fun memorabilia attached to music and radio stations.

Pitch has only been open for about 7 months. The proud owners, Rebecca and Jason.

Whether we could sing or not, everyone seemed to have a really good time, and all our efforts were going to a good cause. The proceeds were going to Boston Community, to help give aid in many areas where they need it, through The Boston Bruins Foundation.

Lauren actually has a beautiful voice. The rest of us …. not so much, but it was all in good fun.

My new friend, and fellow back-up singer, and tambourine girl, Jess. We were rockin’ those tambourines!

So, the next time you find yourself in Louisville, CO, and you are looking for something fun to do, go check out Pitch Karaoke, located at 640 Main Street. Call or go online to make your reservations.

If you would like to donate to help give much needed aid to the City of Boston, you can do so by donating to givengain at http://www.givengain.com/ap/joel-mccreary-raising-funds-for-boston-bruins-foundation/. I am sure both Joel and the City of Boston would greatly appreciate it.

Have a great day and help make someone else’s day great too. ‘Til next time.

This post will probably get me into even more trouble than I already am in, but at this point … Who cares? I am always in trouble for something, so I might as well go out with a bang, right?!

The other day I told you about the troubles I was having with FB. This is Weird!!!!! Needless to say, that got my blood boiling. So I sent out a FB post telling everyone I was leaving FB once and for all. I still had to clean some things up though, so I still had my account, or so I thought, until this morning. This morning I was greeted with this message from FB, with NO explanation at all as to what was so offensive, to whom or why, and of course NO recourse!

I write a food blog for goodness sake! What is offensive about that? But since FB has already deactivated my account for me, I guess I don’t have to. They spared me the trouble. If this gets me in even more trouble, or in trouble from WP, then so be it. I will NEVER back down from the good fight, and will always fight for what is right, and for my own rights. Censorship is NOT right, no mater what, and this is censorship, plain and simple.

So … ‘Til next time …Maybe.