Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

Still working on Lauren’s birthday dinner. Now it is the side dishes I served with the Crying Lamb. Crying Lamb One of the dishes I served was green beans with marinated mushrooms. I love both green beans and mushrooms, so this was a win/win, at least for me. 🙂

Green Beans with Marinated Mushrooms

You can use either baby portabella, button or cremini mushrooms. I tend to use the baby portabellas most of the time, since they are my favorites, though I love all mushrooms.

I made some lemon zest with the lemons, lemon juice and Kosher salt first, and let it set until the rinds were softened.

1 TBSP garlic, sliced very thin

1 tsp lemon peel, chopped fine

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon olive oil, optional

1 TBSP fresh parsley, chopped fine

1 TBSP fresh basil, chiffonade fine

1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped fine

1-2 TBSP Peruvian peppers

salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

2 cups mushrooms, quartered

1 TBSP green onions, sliced thin

1/2-3/4 lb cooked green beans

Cook the green beans until they are al dente in boiling water, then drain.

Combine all the rest of the ingredients together and mix well.

Add the mushroom and herb mixture over the cooked green beans and enjoy. Or you can serve it all over a bed of greens, lettuce of your choice, or spinach and make into a salad if you prefer. No matter how you serve it, I promise you are going to love it. 🙂 We did.

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

We typically do not get any trick or treaters in our neighborhood. We don’t have a lot of kids that live in our neighborhood, and more and more kids are doing the Trunk or Treats instead. We only have only little boy, Luke, who lives on our street. Luke is a sweetheart, and I always get him some special treats. This year, I went to Yonutz Donuts Yonutz vs. Donuts, Yonutz! Is Official and got him a special Halloween donut.

I took a picture of the “donut chef” who made it too. She had the mouse from Ratatouille on her shoulder. She was ready for Halloween.

Other than Luke, no one came to our door, though it probably didn’t help that Larry and I did not have our lights on either. Halloween is not really our thing, especially since we do not have kids of our own. If you like Halloween though, I hope you had a spooktacular one. 🙂

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

The fall colors we saw on the east coasts of both Canada and the US were magnificent! They were so colorful, full and lush. But our colors here in Colorado are pretty spectacular too. We have different trees, a different climate and altitude, and obviously we do not have the amount of beautiful trees that eastern coasts have, but we are still beautiful in our own ways. This fall has been a very colorful fall here at home too.

Beauty is all around us, everywhere we go. We just have to open our eyes and our hearts to see it. Have a great day, and take in all the beauty around you.

Crying lamb is a very old dish with its roots in many different countries and cultures, though today it is considered to be a classic French recipe, named agneau qui pleure or gigot d’agneau pleureur. It is also known as seven hours lamb or agneau de sept heures because some people like to cook it nice and slow for seven hours. It is believed it was a dish shared by many people who cooked in community ovens. Some food historians also suggest it may have been a simple, early “grandmother’s recipe,” perhaps originating from an oversight where a piece of meat was left to cook for an extended period in the embers of a fireplace.

The unique cooking method involves placing the meat on a rack above a bed of vegetables (often potatoes or a gratin) in a sealed pot or casserole dish (a luted casserole, sealed with a paste of flour and water). The “tears” or “crying” in the name refers to the meat’s juices and fat slowly dripping down onto the vegetables below during the long, slow cooking process, flavoring them and keeping the meat moist.

Crying Lamb

I did not cook my lamb for seven hours, but I did marinate it overnight, which made it very tender and full of flavor.

4-5 lb lamb leg or roast

8-10 garlic cloves, sliced very thin

salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

2/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup lemon olive oil, optional

1/3 cup lemon juice

2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, cut into small pieces

2-3 sprigs fresh tarragon, chopped

2 lbs new or yellow potatoes, sliced thin

1-1 1/2 sticks butter, sliced into pats

1 onion, sliced very thin

1 cup water or broth – You can use either chicken or beef broth

Pat the lamb roast dry with paper towels. Remove the excess fat, while still leaving a little fat around the lamb roast. With a sharp serrated knife, cut deep slats or pockets all over the lamb. Generously season the lamb with the salt & pepper and pat it down. Insert the garlic slices and the rosemary sprig cuts into the slats.

Combine the olive oil(s), tarragon, lemon juice and more salt & pepper and whisk together. Pour it over the lamb, cover and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to cook the lamb, remove it from the refrigerator about an hour before cooking it, then get a large skillet VERY hot. Add enough olive oil and butter into the skillet to sear the lamb on all sides, without it burning or sticking. Cook each side of the lamb for about 4-5 minutes per side, or until a nice crust has formed all around.

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

Line a deep baking pan with aluminum foil (for easier cleaning purposes) and either spray the foil with cooking spray and/or add dollops of butter to the bottom.

Slice the potatoes into thin slices and place in a single layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Add dollops of butter onto the potatoes and repeat once again. Season with salt & pepper and drizzle olive oil on top.

Add more butter pats and the sliced onion. Add the of water or broth.

Place a rack directly over the potatoes, then place the lamb on top of the rack, cover tightly with aluminum foil and place in the center of the oven.

Roast until the lamb reaches an internal temperature of about 135-140* F or 58-60*C., or about 2 hours. Remove the foil after about 1 1/2 hours to let the roast brown some more and crisp up. Allow the lamb to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing it.

The lamb comes out so tender and juicy and the potatoes are crispy on the outside and velvety on the inside. In a word – PERFECT!.

This was a definite favorite. Lauren absolutely loved the lamb cooked this way. You will too. 🙂

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

From time to time, I write some freelance articles on various topics for different companies. They always get first right of refusal before I can publish and share them with you. One of the other projects I was working on right after returning home from Canada was an article featuring fun, festive fall libations. I called the piece “Spirits Of The Fall“. Now I can share it with you as well.

Spirits Of The Fall

Spirits of the fall.  That phrase has a lot of different meanings and connotations, depending on where you are and who you are talking to. 

1.  Does it mean the Halloween spirits coming around since Halloween is just around the corner?  Maybe.  We were touring all around Eastern Canada and New England and the whole area is ready for the spirits of the fall to come, in more ways than one.  

2. Does it mean all the beautiful fall colors and the good spirits the beautiful season brings?  Maybe.

3. Does it mean all the delicious fall spices and flavorings, like pumpkins and pumpkin spice?  Maybe.

4. Or does the phrase “spirits of the fall” mean something completely different? 

Today I am focusing my attentions on the spirited beverages people are drinking all over Eastern Canada and New England at this time of year, as the “spirits of the fall”.  I was on a mission.  I set out to try as many different and tasty ”spirited”  fall beverages as I could while on my vacation.  I could only try so many, but I have a ton of great ideas to offer that you might want to experience this fall season too.

First, I am going to share the spirited beverages I did try.  They were all very good and all very different.  Every region we went to offered something different, which made this a very fun and tasty research project.  I put the local bartenders to the test, and they all came up with some fabulous creations.

In Boston, I had a fall sangria, at the Union Oyster House, the oldest continuous restaurant in North America, operating since 1742.  This delicious fall sangria was made with spiced rum, apple cider, Sprite and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg to spice things up a bit.  It was a delicious start to the fall season.

Another delicious spirited beverage I tried was a Frangelico coffee while in Montreal, at La Buche.  We got soaked in a cold, heavy rain and needed something to warm us up from the inside out.  This delicious Frangelico coffee  hit the spot.  It was a combination of Frangelico, which is a hazelnut liqueur, coffee, and whipped cream, with some chocolate covered espresso beans on top as a bonus.  Spirited coffees of any kind are always a good cold weather favorite.

While in Lunenberg, dining at the seashore, I tried a Lunenberg blueberry lemonade.  It was made with Ironworks rum, Limoncello, vodka, blueberry liqueur and topped with locally grown fresh blueberries.  The sun was shining brightly, it was a beautiful sunny day, and this was a perfect way to relax by the boardwalk, watching life and all the people go by.

Another scrumptious fall creation from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was a cranberry mule, made with ginger beer, vodka, cranberry juice, and lime juice.  It was yet another great adult beverage to enjoy by the seashore on a bright, sunny day.

And one more adult fall lemonade to share from Sussex, Canada – a mango lemonade.  It was made with vodka, Limoncello, mango juice and Sprite, with fresh sprigs of mint on the side.  We enjoyed this lovely libation at Eastside Marco’s.  It was very tasty and very refreshing.

These were just the “spirits of the fall” I tasted and enjoyed, but there were many other options available too.  My dilemma – there were too many spirited libations from which to choose and far too little time to try them all.  Here are some other fall drink options I might just have to sample, the next time I am summoning up some fall spirits.

All of these libations sound luscious and delicious, and are only slightly decadent.  All are perfect to highlight all the fun flavors and colors of the fall season too.  So when hosting your Halloween parties or fall fiestas, you might want to summon up some or all of these “spirits of the fall” to add to your menu.  I’m sure your guests will all be wowed by your choice or choices of the “spirits of the season”.  These are many more reasons to enjoy the beauty of the fall season.  Cheers!

We had to celebrate Lauren’s birthday after the fact because we were still gone for her actual birthday. But I made something very special for her when we got home.

Lauren is Italian, and I was inspired to make her a traditional Italian dinner for her birthday, in part by our trip to the North End, or Little Italy, in Boston. I even bought her a North End Italian cookbook as her birthday present. Her whole dinner was from recipes out of her birthday present, although she didn’t know that at the time. 🙂

Lauren said she wanted lamb. OK. No problem. I made her some Crying Lamb as the main entree. I served it with some green beans and marinated mushrooms, olive bread, a spinach salad with a prosciutto vinaigrette, and rice pudding with chocolate covered pistachios for dessert. She was completely WOWED!! She said this was better than going to any restaurant, and it was her choice for me to cook her birthday dinner rather than go out. So I cooked her a delicious, authentic Italian dinner. 🙂

I’ve been telling you all along I have been busy cooking ever since we got back. I am always cooking up something. I am Jeanne, from “A Jeanne in the Kitchen” after all. 🙂

All the delicious recipes will be coming to you in good time, have no fears or doubts about that. 🙂 In the mean time, just sit back, relax, and let the good vibes come your way.

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

As you all know by now, I am home from our fabulous trip to the Eastern provinces of Canada. We had a great time, and saw and did so much. Now, they are just very happy memories.

I hit the ground running as soon as we got back. I have been busy with all kinds of things, including cooking up a storm, as usual. I have lots of good things to share. All in goo time. 🙂

Even though we ate a lot of fish while in Canada and Maine, we are still in our fishy kind of food mood, and we had fish ‘n chips once again last night. I served it with a new twist on tartar sauce, that we really liked a lot. It was so easy to make and very good. I was inspired by a recipe I saw from Marissa Bolden, from Two & A Knife at https://twoandaknife.com/2025/10/28/cilantro-tartar-sauce/. Thank you Marissa for this delicious idea. Of course I changed it and made it my own, but as you know, that’s just what I do. 🙂

Tartar sauce originated in 19th-century France as sauce tartare, a name believed to come from the Tatars, a nomadic Central Asian group known for eating raw meat. Initially served with a raw meat dish called steak tartare, the recipe evolved from earlier pungent, cold dressings into a mayonnaise-based sauce with ingredients like pickles, capers, and herbs.  The accompanying “tartar” sauce in these early sources was an oil and acid emulsion or dressing sharpened with mustard and chopped aromatics, such as shallot or onion, anchovy, pickles and parsley, rather than a true mayonnaise. The modern, jarred version became popular after Hellmann’s introduced it in the 1920s. The sauce was originally intended for steak tartare, but its use expanded to other dishes. By the early 20th century, it was increasingly paired with fried fish. Tartar sauce is served with fish because its creamy, tangy, and acidic flavor profile provides a pleasant contrast to the richness of fried or grilled fish. The acidity helps cut through the natural oils and richness, while the coolness can offset the heat of fried dishes. The creamy texture also adds a contrasting mouthfeel to the flaky fish. A cousin to the French condiment rémoulade, tartar sauce is a popular accompaniment to fish of any kind, but most commonly, fried fish.

Marissa’s recipe called for pickle relish. I am not a big fan of pickles, tough Larry loves pickles, so I left those out. Instead, I added some Peruvian peppers and Sambal sauce in lieu of hot sauce. DELICIOUS!

Cilantro Lime Tartar Sauce

1/2-3/4 cup mayonnaise

dash of salt

1-2 tsp lime juice

1-2 tsp Sambal sauce

dash of red pepper flakes

1-2 TBSP fresh cilantro, chopped fine

Mix everything together well and refrigerate until ready to use. Quick and easy-peasy. Serve it with fish and anything else you would use tartar sauce or a remoulade for.

Life is hard enough. Sometimes we all need a break, especially in the kitchen. Simple is often best. Keep it simple (K.I.S.S.) and make it easy. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

We had to have lobster while in Maine. It just wouldn’t be a trip to Maine without lobster, right?! We asked around and we were told The Lobster Shack was the place to go. It’s a local legend in Maine.

Maine lobster prices are lower when there is an abundant supply, usually between June and December. During these months, lobsters migrate closer to the shore, making it easier for fishermen to catch more, leading to lower prices. On Saturdays, traps can be hauled after 4 pm, but on Sundays, they cannot be hauled at any time. These regulations ensure that the lobster population remains sustainable, preventing overfishing and providing ample time for lobsters to grow and replenish their stocks.

The Lobster Shack is seasonal, and is open from April 1 -October 25. So we got there in the nick and time. The Lobster Shack is an award-winning restaurant that has been a local landmark since the 1920s. There are good places to eat in Southern Maine. Other restaurants have nice views…But nothing compares with The Lobster Shack at Two Lights.

This was definitely a good choice. We got to pick our own lobster.

We ordered other seafood dishes as well, like clam chowder and fish ‘n chips. We shared everything.

It was a bit breezy and chilly, but we chose to dine outside, right at the beach. So glad we did too. Look at our view.

Seize the day and seize all the moments of the day. Make everyday special. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

We had one last big driving day for our Canadian trip. We drove through Maine, tip to tip. Maine is beautiful, particularly at this time of year. We literally drove all the way down through Maine, and we did it all in one day. We were on a time crunch now. We had to be back in Boston for our flight the next day, so we didn’t have much time to stop or dilly dally around. I would have preferred to stop and take in the sights more, rather than just driving straight through, but it is what it is. We did take a few short stops to stretch our legs a bit, but no real long stops.

We tried to go to the Chocolate Museum, but it was closed. This is right at the Maine/Canadian border.

Across the river was Canada. I took these shots of the pigeons on the Maine side.

The fall colors were still spectacular.

American flags lined both sides of this stretch of the road.

Again, no real moose, just the man made ones.

We did see a momma dear and her fawn though on the side of the road. It was already getting dark, and momma was not staying still too long. She wanted to get her fawn to safety as quickly as she could, so this picture was the best shot I could get before momma and baby were on the move once again.

We also saw some wild turkeys. They too had to run, and were on the move. This is turkey time of year after all. If they stay still for too long, they will turn out to be someone’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Our Northern adventure was winding down fast. It was quickly coming to an end. But we had a lot of fun and many great adventures along the way. We will always have many happy memories from this fantastic fall trip.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Live those adventures and make those memories. They will stay with you forever. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

It is out last day in Canada, and our last day with Maureen and Milos before we head in different directions to go back home. We made our last day a very good day indeed by sailing on the tall ship around the Halifax Harbor. It was a beautiful sunny day; just perfect for a sailing trip. We got to see all the mansions on the Harbor too. It was fun to see how the other half lives. 🙂

As we were sailing around the Harbor, we were entertained by a solo guitar player and singer. He was very good and entertaining. By the end of the cruise he had a bunch of us up dancing too. It’s a good thing the water was smooth. 🙂

Of course I was up dancing too.

I can’t even imagine how much $$$$$$ it would take to own and run these mansions. Maybe in another life, but definitely NOT this one.

I might be able to afford this tree house and boat. This is definitely more my style anyway.

I wouldn’t mind this life either though.

When it was time to hoist the sails, Larry and I jumped right up to volunteer.

It was a beautiful day and a great way to end our fantastic vacation. It was sad to say goodbye to Maureen and Milos, but alas, we all have homes and lives to go back to. We know we have lots more time for more fun adventures in the future. So it wasn’t really goodbye, but more like until we meet again. After leaving the tall ship Larry and I headed down to Maine, for one more day of adventure before heading back to Boston to catch our flight home. Maureen and Milos stayed in Halifax a little longer and met up with some of their friends who live in the Halifax area.

Good bye and au revoir Canada. Thank you for allowing us to get to know you better. Thank you for all the wonderful adventures. 🙂