Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

Pork chops were the next item in our “meat rotation” as Larry likes to call it, so dinner was pork chops with a creamy mushroom sauce served over wild rice. YUM.

To me, the sauces are what make the meal. Pork chops on their own are fine, but they are really kind of plain and that makes them kind of boring, at least to me. So I am always trying to “sauce” them up in as many delicious ways as I can. And I did just that with this creamy mushroom sauce too.

This sauce was so easy to make and so good to eat too. You can also use this same sauce for chicken too if you like.

Pork Chops with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

2 lbs thick pork chops

salt 7 pepper to taste

olive oil

1/2 onion, diced fine

2-3 carrots, sliced

1 TBSP garlic

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1 cup peas

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

4 TBSP butter, divided

Add coarse salt and cracked black pepper to the pork and let it rest for about 2-3 hours before pan frying it and browning it. Then brown it for about 2 minutes per side in a very hot pan with a combination of olive oil and about 1 TBSP of butter.

Once the pork is completely browned and has a crust to it, remove it from the heat and set it aside. In the same pan. add the carrots, onions, mushrooms and garlic and cook for about 3-5 minutes or until the carrots are tender and the onions are translucent.

Add the Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Combine well then add the broth, cream and the peas. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the rest of the butter to finish the sauce. Re-add the pork chops back to the sauce and heat thoroughly.

I served this over wild rice, but it would also go nicely with wither white or brown rice or even noodles too. I served it with a creamy chardonnay on the side, with some warmed ciabiatta. Delicious.

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

The warmer spring weather is making everyone very playful. This little squirrel was having so much fun posing for the camera. You could tell he just loved being the focus of my camera’s attention. I don’t know who was enjoying it more, him or me. 🙂

Oh, are you looking at me? He has just discovered the camera, and he likes it.

There was one more squirrel in another tree who was curious, but he was not a ham at all like his buddy. He couldn’t really be bothered with the camera and the papparrazzi.

Try to find something good in everyday then everyday will be a good day.

This is a follow-up story to yesterday’s post regarding the ever increasing food costs. High Food Costs Are Eating Me Up The responses I received were all saying the same thing. EVERYONE is experiencing higher food prices at the grocery stores, everywhere, and not just here in the United States either. Our very own blogger seekingdivineperspective at https://seekingdivineperspective.com/ suggested I offer some saving tips on how to save in the kitchen. I can only offer the tips that personally work for me, but I do believe they can help everyone as well.

• Buy in bulk when you can, if you have storage space and/or freezer space. Even though it is just the two of us, we buy things in bulk as much as possible. We cut and divide things into smaller portions and freeze the rest. We especially do this for our meats. But we actually purchase a lot of thigs in bulk. For instance, I buy a 25 lb bag of flour at Costco that is cheaper than a 5 lb bag at the store. Of course I am going to buy it in bulk.
• Make as much from scratch as you can. I rarely buy pre-made or pre-packaged items. Yes, I do buy some items that are already made, like pasta sauce. Can I make it? Of course I can, but it is usually cheaper and easier to buy it already made. But things like pre-cut vegetables or meats that are already marinated, are much cheaper and usually healthier and better tasting if you do it on your own.
• Buy store brands rather than name brands. Store brand foods are almost always the same identical items you purchase with the fancy, more expensive name recognition. We shop at Costco all the time. We love Costco. The Costco/Kirkland brands are the same exact items you purchase with the name brands. They just use their own labels, because they too know that it is much cheaper to buy things in bulk.
• Waste not want not. You know how I have an alter ego whom I lovingly refer to as “The Queen of Leftovers”. I do my absolute best to re-use, repurpose and recycle everything, and that absolutely includes food as well. Both of my parents were products of both the great depression and WWII, so this philosophy is a concept I grew up with and it has always been a part of how I live my life.
• When entertaining, instead of having to prepare it all by yourself, have a potluck. You can still enjoy your friends and family, but at a fraction of the cost because everyone is contributing. Not only is this a more cost effective way to entertain, but it is also a lot of fun. You get to try many other styles of cooking and new recipes, and everyone gets to shine for a bit. I absolutely LOVE potlucks.
• If possible, DON’T buy a lot of specialty foods. Those are ALWAYS more expensive.
• I rarely buy organic foods. I buy local foods, but I rarely buy specifically organic foods. In all honestly, I have found that organic is NOT all that it is cracked up to be. This has to be a personal decision, and it will be different for everyone. But usually organic foods are much more expensive because they do not produce or yield as much as “non-organic” foods. And a lot of people have been fooled to believe that organic foods are better for the environment. NOT TRUE! To produce organic foods, it requires more water and more land to yield the same amounts.

List of Cons of Organic Food

• Easily Goes Bad. Compared to non-organic food, organic produce has the possibility of going off a lot quicker. …
• More Expensive. …
• Minimal Chemicals Allowed. …
• No Health Benefits. …
• No Nutritional Proof. …
• Even Low-Level Pesticides Can be Harmful. …
• Pesticide Contamination. …
• High Bacterial Levels.
•  In March, a Consumer Reports analysis found that, on average, the prices on organic foods were 47% higher than on their conventional counterparts. 

While organic crops are often promoted as being nutritionally superior to conventional or GMO, there is little evidence to support this claim. In fact, numerous studies (all from Google) have found no significant nutritional advantage of organic over conventionally grown foods.  A recent study found that because organic agriculture is now done mostly by big corporations instead of not local producers, and the lower yields combined with the intensive use of machinery means that overall, in terms of emissions and pollution, organic agriculture is usually worse than conventional.

Many consumers believe that the Organic label means the food has superior nutrition and is safer, especially in regard to pesticide residues. This is not true. Studies have shown no appreciable difference in nutrition between crops grown either organically or conventionally.  Organic agricultural production still uses pesticides and herbicides that USDA’s organic certification standards have okayed. Just because something is labeled “organic” does not mean that no pesticides or herbicides were used. It simply means that the ones applied met the USDA’s production standards for the term. In general, pesticide levels in both organic and non-organic foods were within allowable safety limits. A recent USDA survey reveals some shocking facts. According to an annual summary of pesticide data, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revealed that a whopping 21 percent of organic samples tested contained pesticide residue.

***All of these tips on organic foods was taken from Google. Do your own research and make the decisions that are best for you and your family based on your own studies.

I hope these tips help. Right now, we are all doing our best to help make ends meet. All we can do is to do our best. Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

Spring is definitely here. We have the first buds and blooms of spring. They are popping up all over the place. Usually the first buds and flowers to appear are either purple, yellow or white or a combination of all three. I don’t why this is, but those are usually the first colors we see, at least here around our lakes.

My own irises are starting to pop up as well. These too will be purple. Irises were my mother’s favorite flowers, so I have them around as much as I can to remind me of my mom.

Even the most recent bouquets that I bought were white, purple and yellow. I sense a theme here. 🙂

Spring has definitely sprung. Let the colors brighten your days and brighten your spirits.

I am sure you have all noticed the rising price of food in the grocery stores. It is happening everywhere. Every time I go into the store I am paying more for the same items than I did the time before. I am paying more and more and getting less and less each time. I never paid all that much attention to it before because the rising prices seemed small and incremental. But now they are HUGE and are very noticeable.

I had to finally concede that I can no longer teach my kids’ cooking classes at the moment because of these ever increasing high food prices. I was pricing out the items I needed for Noah’s latest request, and to my dismay and horror, in order to purchase just the basics for what I needed, plus the high costs of gas as well, I was actually operating in the red. And as I said, that was just for the basics too. It is much worse when I am purchasing specialty items. And that isn’t even accounting for my time, or my planning or my travel. No business, regardless of whether it’s just a business of 1 or a business of 1000, can continue operating in the red for very long. It broke my heart to have to say “good-bye” to the kids, but I had no other choice. These high food costs are eating me up.

All we can do is to do our best. And sometimes that means we have to make some touch choices to get through tough times. I hope all of you continue to do you best and to be your best. Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

It seems a bit early early for our turtles to come out, especially since our weather is all over the place right now. But sure enough, I saw our first snapping turtle of the season out trying to get some sun. This guy is one of oldest residents in the area. It is rumored that he is over 100 years old. By the looks of it, he is still going strong too. I think he will be around for quite some time to come.

All we can do is to keep on moving on.

Sometimes the simple things are the best things, and sometimes simple is exactly what we need. I had some chicken chorizo sausage that I roasted up with a variety of vegetables to make for a delicious spring meal. The weather was so nice outside and outdoors was exactly where we wanted to be. It was also one of our first meals out on the deck for the season too.

Sausage and Vegetable Bake

You can make this with any type of sausage you like. I just happened to have some chicken chorizo on hand, so that is what I used.

2 lbs link sausage

1-2 sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cubed

1/2 onion, diced medium

1 heaping TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

2 tsp thyme

1 can cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups fresh spinach, stems removed and chopped

1-2 tomatoes, diced

2 TBSP red wine vinegar

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

2-3 TBSP olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425* F or 240*C.

Coat the sweet potatoes or yams, onion and garlic with salt & pepper, thyme and olive oil and spread out onto a baking sheet in a single layer. Coat the sausage in olive oil and add to the pan. I just rolled the sausage on the pan in the oil from the vegetables. Roast for about 20-25 minutes.

Combine the red wine vinegar and broth together and set aside.

Mix the chopped spinach, tomatoes and cannelini beans and then gently toss with the red wine vinegar mixture. The store had some beautiful heirloom tomatoes that just called out to me, so I had to pick those, but you can use whatever kind of tomatoes you like. This is one HUGE heirloom tomato. It was so fresh and colorful and jam packed full of flavor.

The spinach, tomatoes, beans and red wine vinegar mixture could easily be a simple salad all on its own too.

Add the spinach mixture to the sausage and roasted vegetables. Combine it well and toss it all together. Place it back in the oven for an additional 10 or so minutes.

When it is ready, serve it up and enjoy with your favorite wine on the side. I had some chardonnay and added some garlic bread to complete the meal. It was a deliciously light meal that was a perfect way to ring in the spring. It had sweet and salty and spicy all combined together in one bite. We loved it.

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

Our Mallards are the most prolific of our ducks. We see them almost everyday. The Hooded Mergansers are probably the other ducks we mostly see on our lakes or ponds. The males are so gorgeous, especially when they are all puffed up. The females look good too, but they are not nearly as colorful, which is often the case with birds. The Mergansers are much smaller than our Mallards, but just as beautiful. We also get some Common Mergansers, but strangely enough, they are not nearly as “common” on our lakes or ponds as are the Hooded Mergansers. 🙂

Have a great day and make the most all your days.

It was time to make another delicious assortment of goodies for the church coffee cart again. This is always a fun challenge. I bought some yummy springtime treats and fruit and then added to it with a toffee coffee cake. This week’s selection was a combination of mini apples and grapes, some chocolates, and strawberry bites, lemon bites and the toffee coffee cake.

You all know how much fun I have when I am able to recreate something into something totally different just by adding a few creative touches and some imagination. I did it again here too. I had some leftover toffee scones that I crushed up and added to the cake, both in the filling and as a topping. Success yet again. It was a big hit, just the way I like it. 🙂

Toffee Coffee Cake

I love coffee cakes. They are so versatile and can be made with just about anything. They lend themselves to all sorts of cakes too. They are great for breakfast or snacks or dessert at any time too.

3 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup or 1 stick of softened butter

3 eggs

16 oz of either yogurt or sour cream or cream cheese – I used cream cheese this time

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups toffee scones, crushed

1 package butterscotch chips

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

Spray either a cake pan or a baking pan with cooking spray.

Crush the scones and mix together with the butterscotch chips and set aside.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together in a mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing in between each addition. Add either the cream cheese, yogurt or sour cream and vanilla and mix again. I had some organic cream cheese that wasn’t as soft as liked, so I also added a couple of TBSPS of organic oat milk to soften it up a bit too. I rarely buy organic products unless I am cooking for special dietary restrictions, but that is a whole other topic, maybe for later. 🙂

Add the flour half at a time and mix in between. When all the flour is added and everything is mixed together, fold in half of the scones and chips. Spoon the mixture into your prepared pan and spread out evenly. I used a 9×13 baking pan this time, but I often use a bundt pan too.

Once the batter is in the pan, top it with the remaining scone and chip mixture and bake for about 1 1/4 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Once the cake is completely cooled, cut it how you like and enjoy. You can also add apples to this cake as well, to make a more like a caramel apple toffee cake. YUM!

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

Another one of our new guests on the ponds is a Cinnamon Teal. Like so many of our other visitors, I have seen him before, just not that frequently. Now I have seen him a few days in a row, but he is pretty hard to capture with my camera. Every time I get him in my sights, and get the camera focused, he decides to dive underwater. I did manage to get a few good shots though before he decided to plunge again.

I’ll take what I can get, you know. I am grateful for them all. I just love meeting all “my new neighbors”.