Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

I guess old dogs can still learn new tricks. I am always learning new things. I just learned something new about the significance of blue aprons. Blue aprons are what new chefs in training wear when learning how to cook. Apparently this is a culinary tradition that is practiced all over the world. In all my years of cooking and studying foods and cooking techniques, I never knew this. Even my “little chefs” wear blue aprons. I just bought the blue aprons because I liked the color. I had no idea about the significance behind it. Now I do, and so do you. 🙂

I try my best to learn something new everyday. I love learning new things. Learning new things keeps us young, even if only young at heart.

So keep learning, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I knew I was going to be making a coffee cake with some of my left over fruit, from when I made our church Super Bowl spread. Cooking At Home Again I used up the rest of my pineapple. I combined it with some macadamia nuts and toasted coconut, and the result was a deliciously tropical Caribbean coffee cake. Yet again, it was a big success. It disappeared very quickly. The Caribbean coffee cake are the squares around the edges, and in the center. I added some raspberry tarts to my platter and then sprinkled a few chocolate covered Acai berries around for added color and decoration.

I have officially used up all the fruit that I had leftover. And Larry didn’t think I could do it. HA HA HA!!!!! He should never underestimate my abilities to recreate from leftovers. When will he ever learn? 🙂 Strawberry-Kiwi Cake

For this cake, I started off with a basic coffee cake recipe, then added the rest. I knew I was going to use up the pineapple, then as I was going along, I decided to add the chopped macadamia nuts as well. As I continued, I thought, “let’s add some toasted coconut too”, and voila! The result was a Caribbean coffee cake.

Caribbean Coffee Cake

The Streussel

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup coconut flour, optional

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

4 TBSP cold butter, cubed

1/4 cup toasted coconut

Mix everything together either by hand or with a pastry cutter, until it resembles coarse sand. Set aside.

The Cake

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

Spray cooking spray in a 9×13 baking pan and then coat with a light coating of flour or coconut flour.

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup coconut flour, optional

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

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

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups diced pineapple

1/2 cup toasted cocaonut

1/2-3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Like with most cake recipes, combine all the dry ingredients together and mix well, then set aside.

Then mix together the sugar and butter until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and blend in between each addition. Add the vanilla and 1/2 the milk, and blend together again. Then add 1/2 the flour mixture and blend. Repeat again and blend until everything is just blended.

Once the batter is mixed, add the coconut, pineapple and macadamia nuts and fold into the batter.

Evenly spread the batter into the prepared pan. The evenly spread the streusel mix over the batter.

Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick that has been inserted in the middle comes out clean and the streusel topping is golden brown. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

All the is needed to do now is to sit back and enjoy and let every bite transport you into a little bit of the tropics. A little tropical excursion like this is a much needed and appreciated break from the cold, harsh winter weather.

Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

It was another cooking day with the boys, Micah and Asher. As with their big brother Noah, I always try to have them make a wide variety of foods that are simple and fun. Noah made a Denver omelette the other day Breakfast for Lunch, so I thought it would be fun if Micah and Asher did something similar. They made mini quiches and some pan-fried potatoes. Who knows, maybe we will have a cook-off one day, brothers vs brother. 🙂 It was their first experience with purple potatoes too, though they insisted they were beets. 🙂

As you can see by their smiles, they liked their recipes.

The potatoes were just tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley and some garlic seasoning. The only difference between their potatoes and Noah’s potatoes were that the boys cooked them on the stove top in a skillet and Noah grilled his on his George Forman grill.

The mini quiches, were similar to Noah’s omelette too, but we baked them in muffin pans in the oven.

Mini Quiches

Preheat the oven to 350* F.

Spray a muffin pa with cooking spray.

Just like any quiche, you can add whatever you like to the filling. I just had the boys make it simple and we used things I know they like.

6 eggs

3 TBSP milk

1/2 cup bell peppers, diced small – we used red and orange this time because the boys like those better

1/2 cup cooked bacon or ham diced small

1/2 cup tomato, diced small

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp garlic seasoning

1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice

Add the diced ham, tomatoes and peppers to the bottom of each muffin tin.

Whisk the eggs, milk and seasonings together and pour over the toppings in each muffin tin. Fill to only about 3/4 full. Top with the cheese.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the eggs are puffy and the center is set and does not jiggle. Remove from the oven and let stand for about 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan.

These mini quiches and potatoes were gobbled up quickly and both got big thumbs up from both Micah and Asher, as well as mom and their big sister. I think they were a hit. 🙂

Keep it fun and make it interesting and stay safe and stay well in the process. ‘Til next time.

Let’s play a game, shall we? It is one of my favorite cooking games. It’s called “What’s In Your Fridge?” It’s kind of like the mystery box you see on the cooking shows. The challenge is to go through your fridge and to creatively use up your as many of your leftovers as best you can. Sounds easy, right?! You can do it. OK …. Ready … Set … and GO!

And the winner is … A Pesto Surprise.

As usual, I had a lot of little bits of this and a lot of little bits of that and they all needed to be used. So once again, the Queen of Leftovers waved her magic cooking spoon and this was the tasty result that followed. All I needed to do was finish it off with some garlic cheese bread and some white wine, and dinner was served.

The “mystery box” contained angel hair pasta, chicken, ham, mushrooms, red onions, corn, spinach pesto, cream, garlic, and Peruvian peppers.

I cooked the chicken first, since that had not been cooked, and needed longer to cook than everything else, then added all the rest of the ingredients to make up the base of the dish. I also added a hint of lemon balsamic vinegar to the mix, for a little extra pizazz.

Next, I combined the pesto and the cream, with a hint more black pepper and added that to the pan.

I stirred it all together and as a finishing touch, I threw in a few of my Peruvian peppers to really make things pop.

And voila! Dinner is served. When it comes time to cleaning out the fridge, I can honestly tell you no one knows what is going to happen next. But that’s when the fun really starts. 🙂 As I always say, “play with your food and have some fun”.

Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

Well, these are the last of the Belizian flowers. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. Belize is now behind us. It is now time to start planning a new adventure. There are plenty of new adventures out there, just waiting to be discovered and lived. I plan on having as many adventures as possible. Never stop dreaming and never stop living out those dreams and turning them into a reality. Life is short. Always take time to smell, and to notice, the flowers.

Whenever we have cold, frigid weather, it is always a perfect time for soup or stew or chili. And believe me, it was COLD and very FRIGID, but not nearly as cold and frigid as I had originally thought. When I read the temperature on my phone it said the weather was -11* as a high and the low would get down to -20*. Though this is NOT unheard of here in Colorado, it is pretty rare. That just made me cold thinking about it. Silly me. I did not see that my phone was set for Celsius, not Fahrenheit. So instead of being in the negative numbers, it was a balmy +9* F for the high and about 0* for the low. Still VERY cold, but nothing like what I first thought. Either way, it was still a perfect night for a big pot of hot chili to warm us up from the inside out. Chili Con Carne

It was a simple dinner of chili served over a baked potato. That was all we needed to help take away the chills of the day.

We had some smoked brisket in the freezer that Larry took down, so it all got thrown into the chili, along with some red and green peppers, jalapeno peppers, garlic, onion, kidney beans, and all kinds of good chili seasoning. I like lots of stuff in my stuff, and I love good, hearty, meaty chilis and soups. I just cut it all up and threw it into the slow cooker for a few hours.

Many moons ago, when I was still out in California and working for a National Corporate food service provider, whenever we had leftovers of just about everything, at all got thrown into the soups and the chilis. They often became “kitchen sink” soups, stews or chilies, and they all disappeared everyday. Our customers loved it. We never threw anything away if we didn’t have to. I still do that today.

I combined all the seasonings, tomato paste and beef broth together, then tossed it with all my vegetables and beef before adding it all to the slow cooker. Once everything was in the slow cooker, I walked away for about 4-5 hours, only coming back to stir it all up occasionally.

The hot chili just hit the spot and warmed us from the cockles of our hearts down to the marrow of our bones. The hot chili definitely took the chill out of the air and warmed everything up nicely.

On the cold winter days, stay warm, stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

I only have a couple more Belizian flowers to share with you then that will be all for this trip. All the flowers are bright and colorful with their own unique personalities.

Sloppy joes are definitely an iconic American food, but the actual origins are up for debate. It seems everyone wants to lay claim to the invention of these American favorites. A sloppy joe is a “burger” made with ground beef, onions and tomato sauce. It’s kind of like spaghetti bolognase on a bun. They go by different names, such as Toasted Deviled Hamburgers, Chopped Meat Sandwiches, Spanish Hamburgers, Hamburg a la Creole, Beef Mironton, and Minced Beef Spanish Style, but they have been most famously called “Sloppy Joes” since the 1940’s. The term sloppy joe’s had an earlier definition too, long before they became an American tradition. It was a slang for any cheap restaurant or lunch counter serving cheap food quickly.

It was a cooking day for Noah, and with it being a cold, snowy day, I thought it would also be a perfect day for sloppy joes. They were a big hit with Noah too. He made sloppy joes and some grilled new potatoes.

For the potatoes, we just simply coated them with salt, pepper and olive oil, then grilled them on Noah’s little George Forman grill. It was his first experience with purple potatoes too. I did that on purpose, though there was only one purple potato in the bag. 🙂

Sloppy Joes

2 TBSP water, divided

1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp baking soda, divided

1-1 1/2 lbs ground beef

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 onion, chopped fine

1 TBSP garlic

2 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/3 cup ketchup

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp cornstarch

vegetable or olive oil for cooking

hamburger buns

Combine 1 TBSP of water and 1/2 tsp of baking soda and mix well. Then add to the ground beef and mix it all in together.

Get a large skillet hot and add the oil, then add the onions, brown sugar, paprika and garlic, plus the remaining portion of the baking soda and cook for about 3-4 minutes.

Combine the ketchup, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce and red wine vinegar, and set aside.

Add the ground beef, combine well and cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until the beef is cooked. Once the beef is thoroughly cooked, add the ketchup mixture and combine well.

Mix the cornstarch with 1 TBSP water and add to the meat mixture. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain off the excess grease then spoon the mixture over warmed hamburger buns and enjoy. Noah gobbled up two in seemingly seconds and loved every bite. 🙂

Things don’t have to be complicated in order to taste good. Sometimes the simple things are the best things.

Stay warm, stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

More bright, tropical flowers from Belize. Aren’t these unusual? I just love them.

Sometimes it’s hard to get together with everyone to celebrate birthdays and special occasions. We all lead really busy lives, and life happens. But when we do get together, those special occasions are all that much more special and are greatly appreciated. As usual, I have been extending the birthday celebrations for as long as I can. 🙂

We celebrated with our friends Jonathan, Priscilla and Laura the other day. Priscilla prepared a fabulous feast, and as usual, everything was beautiful and exquisite. Priscilla has a special knack for making everything very elegant and beautiful. She always pays attention to all the small details that make every occasion truly remarkable.

Our first course for the evening was a beautifully delicious charlotte, which was a baked encrusted little savory tart filled with duxelles or chopped and creamed mushrooms.

The main course was lamb cooked to perfection with chimichurri sauce Steak Chimichurri, green beans Video #19 – Green Beans with Caramelized Shallots, and baby roasted potatoes, along with some delicate and flaky Parmigiano twists made from puff pastry. OMG! Everything blended together perfectly and just melted in our mouths. Priscilla is an excellent cook. 🙂

We were all very full, but it was a special celebration after all, so we had to have dessert. We had a snickerdoodle bundt cake topped with a honey ice cream and blackberries, followed by presents.

The best gift is of course the gift of our beautiful, long friendships. Priscilla and I go back over 45+ years. We have known each other almost our whole lives. But both Priscilla and Laura gave me other beautiful presents as well. Priscilla, originally being from Argentina, gave me a gorgeous Argentine cookbook, that I am already salivating over. There are so many fabulous recipes or recetas in that book. I am already planning an Argentine feast, which of course will include Priscilla, Jonathan and Laura as well. Laura gave me a beautiful planter and an air plant to go inside. It is my favorite color too, teal. I just need to get some strong nails or hooks to hang it with, and then it will be proudly displayed in my kitchen.

We went out to dinner with our friends Wendy, Marc, Mike and Lauren on my actual birthday, and are planning on going out with Janet and Bob as well. We were supposed to go out last week, but we all decided since the weather was frightful to postpone until it was a bit more forgiving. So the birthday celebrations continue a bit longer. 🙂 Thank you all for always making me feel so special. I am truly blessed and life is very, very good indeed.

I hope you all have those special people in your lives that love and support you. The gift of friendship is truly one of the best gifts we can give and receive.

Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.