Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

We had a very busy weekend, with not a lot of time for cooking. I have to admit, I got a wee bit lazy and prepared two very similar meals for two separate groups of friends over this weekend too. Both times, we had the Mediterranean Tapas, Tapas for Dinner and then on Sunday, we served that with some pesto pasta with shrimp and vegetables as well. This being said, I had a lot of leftovers. So, I did what I do best, and invited my good friend “The Queen of Leftovers” to stop by and we went to work creatively, to re-create something new from something “old”. We came up with some Mexican Mole chicken with vegetables. !Delicioso!

This whole meal was re-created from what I had leftover. I cleaned out my refrigerator. I had rice, roasted peppers, squash, mole sauce Pollo con Mole de Manzana con Pasilla and a Costco rotisserie chicken. I did add some red onion slices and a jalapeno, but other than that, everything was just re-created from what was leftover.

I needed to cook the red onion slices and jalapenos first.

Then I added the rest of the vegetables to heat them up.

I cut the chicken into leg and thigh portions and added them to the mix as well, and continued to cook it all for about 10 minutes or so to heat up the chicken.

Once everything was heated up and ready to serve, I just plated it up and topped it all with some of my mole sauce and served it with some toasted bread and a buttery chardonnay to complete the meal. Who says dinner has to be complicated? All that really matters is that it tastes good and is made from love.

Stay safe, stay well and carry on. ‘Til next time.

Columbines are the Colorado state flower. Usually they are in various shades of bluish purple with a white center and little hints of yellow, though they come in many different colors.

Around my lakes, I am seeing a lot of Columbines, but I haven’t seen any blue or purple ones. Instead, I am seeing them in a variety of other beautiful colors.

This gorgeous cat was just begging to be a part of the collection as well.

Color your world beautiful.

What do you make for dinner when you are having company but you are not going to be home when they arrive? Easy. You make tapas for dinner. Make something easy to prepare ahead of time and have them ready when your guests arrive.

I just started coaching for the summer again (I am hoping it will turn into a full time gig, but for now it is just for the summer), and our friends Leslie and Tim were coming in from out of town, but they were only going to be here for one night before they were on the road again. Leslie and I have known each other since 7th grade, and have been life long friends/family. Larry was home when they arrived, but I would not be home until later that evening. So I prepared a charcuterie tray and a some antipasto. Originally they were going to just be appetizers, but I kind of over prepared, hmmmm, imagine that, so it became a quick and easy Mediterranean tapas dinner instead.

It was all very simple, but a delicious tapas dinner that got rave reviews. I love mixing my olives, so I combined 4 different types of olives and Peruvian peppers. Then I made a charcuterie tray with a bunch of different cheeses, breads and sausage and a couple of zesty spreads. I also made a simple little antipasto tray with dolmas, marinated mushrooms and artichoke hearts and a roasted red pepper salad with a rosemary vinaigrette. And since we were with friends, who are really family, of course we had a couple of bottles of good wine as well. These were all just supposed to be starters, but they turned out to be dinner instead. What we eat is only part of the fun. What really mattered was sharing fun times with each other.

After a tapas dinner, we all enjoyed each other’s company over a few fun games of Farkle. The next morning, we all enjoyed an early breakfast, at one of our favorite breakfast spots, EAT! Video #16 – Eat at EAT! Food & Drink before Tim and Leslie were on the road again, off to their next set of adventures.

Life is short and unpredictable. Make the most of it while you can and enjoy it with friends and family. Even when time is limited, make the most of it. And of course, good food and good wine shared with good friends and family always makes it much more fun too.

Stay safe, stay well and carry on. ‘Til next time.

It was yet another gorgeous day, and all my neighborhood “friends” were out and about too. It was yet another fantastic photo day. I saw a few cormorants, but one was just having so much fun showing off and airing out his wings. He was the king of the rock, and he knew it too. He was proudly on display for everyone to see. And when he was done for the day, off he went to destinations unknown.

Sometimes it’s good for all of us to air out a bit. It helps to cool us down on a hot summer day. 🙂

Ever since I made my lilac sugar Gail’s Lilac Sugar I have been anticipating what I was going to make with it. I had a few ideas, but the one that kept coming back to me was to make a pound cake with it. Originally, I was going to make it with lemon, but I opted for lime instead. I like lemons a lot, but I LOVE limes.

I only tasted a small, little smidgeon, but what I tasted was very good. I will have more later. Our friends Leslie and Tim are coming in from out of town, and we will all enjoy it together later on tonight.

Lilac and Lime Pound Cake

My pound cake is just a basic pound cake recipe, except I added lime extract and lime juice instead of vanilla. I also substituted my new lilac sugar for the regular sugar, just to liven things up a bit.

Preheat the oven to 325* F or 160* C.

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup of softened butter

1 1/2 cups lilac sugar

4 eggs

1/2 tsp lime extract

1 TBPS lime juice

1/2 cup sour cream

Combine the dry ingredients together and mix well, then set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together unlit light ant fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing in between each addition. Add the sour cream and lime juice and extract and mix again.

Add the flour mixture, 1/2 at a time, mixing in between.

Once the batter is ready, evenly spoon it into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until it is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Allow the cake to cool completely before adding the glaze and slicing.

The Glaze

1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar

2 TBSP milk

1 TBSP lime juice

1 tsp lime extract

Whisk everything together and pour over the top of the cake. I added colored sprinkles to make it really festive. Slice it up and enjoy with friends.

This is a perfect light spring or summer dessert, but you can enjoy it at anytime too.

Stay safe, stay well and carry on. ‘Til next time.

Rarely do I tie my regular blog with my “Nature Walks” series, but today, I am. Today, it is all about the flowers. Right now, we have so many beautifully colored flowers of all types blooming all around. I just love flowers. They always brighten my day in so many ways. 🙂

I will have plenty more beautiful flowers to share. Everything is blooming.

A few days ago, my friend Cyndee asked me to do a piece on edible flowers. So here it is, just for you.

Beauty and fragrance have always affected the human senses. Flowers draw us with their color and scent. It was only a matter of time before it was necessary to also taste them. Curiosity and creativity ran rampant in our ancestors and birthed the use of flowers as food. Past cooks also thought of the medicinal benefits as well as the culinary ones when using flowers in food preparation. People have been eating all types of flowers as far back as Ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. The first recorded use of edible flowers was in 140 B.C. Edible flowers are still eaten worldwide, but the focus today is more on aesthetics rather than on nutritional value.

Historically, flower petals were eaten most often fresh in salads or as garnishes. The petals of carnation, bee balm, borage, sage, violet, nasturtium, daylily and calendula were commonly eaten. They were thought to be cleansing for the body as well as attractive. It was common to dry the petals and include them in tea blends. Popular tea flowers were hibiscus, rose, jasmine and bee balm. Bee balm was used as a tea substitute when black tea became unavailable during the Boston Tea Party in 1773. To preserve violets, medieval monks would make a sweet syrup from the petals. The Victorians, who associated edible flowers with elegance, candied the flowers of violet and borage to decorate cakes and desserts.

There are similarities among edible flowers that likely helped our ancestors decide on their safety. The majority of edible flowers are also butterfly staples, as the larvae eat the petals as a major food source. If they had contained dangerous compounds, the larvae would have likely succumbed. Our ancestors also knew that the flowers of culinary herbs like sage, lavender and oregano contained lower levels of the same constituents as the foliage. Their brave experimentation allows us to eat these edible flowers today without concern. Unfortunately, the poisons present in such flowers as monkshood (Aconite) were discovered in the same manner.

Here are some historical uses for edible flowers from other countries and cultures.

• Victorians candied violets to decorate desserts. 
• During the Renaissance, audiences of plays enjoyed rose-petal water and stewed primroses.
• Carnation petals were a key ingredient in Chartreuse, a liquor created by French monks during the 1600s.
• Bee balm was used a substitute for black tea during the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when tea was unavailable.

Floral arrangements can really add something special to an otherwise ordinary dish. Their fun colors and elegant features can make any dessert or meal really pop.

Here are some more great ideas for edible flowers: 

• Use petals to garnish cupcakes or cocktails.
• Mince flowers and add to butter or spreads.
• Dried flowers can be used to flavor teas.
• Squash blossoms can be stuffed with cheese.

Other countries appear to use flowers for culinary uses more often than we do. For example, in China and Japan chrysanthemum petals are stirred into soup or included with tea. Edible flowers are however making a slow comeback in America, primarily as garnishes for desserts. 

In addition to being utilized in cooking, flowers have long been recognized for their medicinal qualities. Red clover, for instance, has been known to help with coughs, colds, and as a blood cleanser.

There is a safety factor when experimenting with edible flowers as well – they have to be grown organically, preferably from your own garden. Flowers cultivated for commercial use have pesticides, and flowers you pick from near a road could have been exposed to pollution. Again, growing your own is best. If you are interested in growing your own edible flowers, there are plenty of books available to help you grow your garden. Here are a few suggestions to help get you started.

I don’t really care for edible flowers much. I’ve eaten them plenty of times, but I don’t really find them adding much to my meals, other than pure aesthetics. They do look pretty, but that’s about it for me, although this being said, I did just make some lilac sugar that I am excited to use. Gail’s Lilac Sugar I don’t really care for their taste much, but every rule has its exception though. Now I love decorating with flowers, and of course, I use fresh herbs all the time, but actual flowers in my food, only on rare occasions.

Enjoy the flowers whether you eat them or appreciate them for their beauty. Stay safe, stay well and carry on. ‘Til next time.

I have to show you pictures of the goslings while I still can. They are growing up so quickly, that soon they will be teenagers, and then will fly the coop. Yesterday, the goslings were on the move. Nature Walks – Walk This Way Today, they were napping. They are just so darn cute.

Sometimes, a little nap is just what we need.

For the most part I have free reign when it comes to making the foods we eat. Larry just says “we have this down to use” but offers no other suggestions. My response is SWEET!!!!! This was one of those times. We had shrimp down, but Larry didn’t give me any indications of how he wanted it.

I just love pesto. It’s one of my favorite types of sauces. I had made some earlier, but I didn’t think I had enough to make a meal for both of us, so of course I made more. Usually I make my pesto with pine nuts or pignoli, but they are getting so expensive, that I chose not to this time, although my original batch was made with pine nuts. For my extra batch, I used toasted pecans instead, to give it an even nuttier, more rustic flavor. Also, once again, the lemon verbena is beginning to take over my backyard, so I added some of that along with more basil, giving my pesto a real lemony spring flavor. In addition to the lemon verbena, I also added some lemon olive oil as well as the regular olive oil.

So now that the pesto is made, and I have more than enough for pasta, I needed to come up with other tasty ingredients to add. As you know, there is never any shortage of vegetables in our hose. We eat a wide variety of vegetables all the time. This time, I added some zucchini and crookneck, along with mushrooms, red onions, and my favorite little Peruvian peppers to the mix. And our main protein was shrimp, but I also had some prosciutto that I had as well. This was a last minute decision to spruce it up a bit. I liked it. A lot! This dish had a lot of layers and textures going on.

I cooked the shrimp first, then removed them and added the vegetables to the pan. Once the vegetables were cooked, I added the shrimp back to the mix. In a separate pan, I cooked the prosciutto in olive oil until it was crunchy. The angel hair pasta is also cooking. Once everything was ready, I just did my thing to make it all deliciously presentable.

I added some wine along with some of my jalapeno cheese bread, and dinner was complete. Jalapeno Cheese Bread !Mangia!

Keep it simple. Often times, those are the best meals. It doesn’t have to be fancy to be delicious. It just has to be made with love.

Stay safe, stay well and carry on. ‘Til next time.

It seems like just yesterday my little goslings were just tiny babies. Now they are almost teenagers. They are getting into the normal mischief that teenagers find too. Soon they will be all grown up. Mom and Dad are having a tough time keeping everyone in line. There are those who are insisting on going their own way and doing their own thing.

Here there were still small, but were still a handful.

And look at them now, one week later.

The goslings are going all over the place, in all directions.