I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
Author: ajeanneinthekitchen
I have worked in the restaurant and catering industry for over 35 years. I attended 2 culinary schools in Southern California, and have a degree in culinary arts from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, as well as a few other degrees in other areas. I love to cook and I love to feed people.
Today will be my last day of the flowers, at least for awhile. We are leaving for Cozumel tomorrow and the flowers I will be seeing will all be underwater. When I get back, most of our flowers and plants will be gone and will be resting for the season. It has definitely been a fun challenge. I will gladly take it up again at a later time. Flowers bring so much to our lives.
Today, I will leave you with a variety of beautiful flowers. I hope they all brighten your days.
I love our blue herons, but this season, I haven’t seen many at all. Until today. As I was walking, there was one lone heron out enjoying himself on lake 3. He had the whole lake to himself too, and he seemed very happy about that. At first, he had his back to me, then he realized he was the star and main attraction, and suddenly, he had a change of thought and turned around to give me profile shot.
Then he decided to be a bit coy, and flew off to the protection of the reeds, but he was still posing for the camera.
Enjoy your day, and always be prepared for the unexpected surprises. I was very pleasantly surprised today. I’ve missed my herons, and today, I saw one.
Nothing cooking this time around. It was a pizza night, and then off we went to rock out with the legendary duo, Hall & Oates. They have so much great music and have been rocking the world for many, many years. We were supposed to go last year, but then COVID turned the world upside down and put life on hold. The concert was postponed and last night was the night. It was finally here. It was a bit surreal too.
Hall & Oates have so many great hits. They played a lot of them too, but there is no way they could play them all in the time that was allotted. Musically, they still sound great, but I hate to say it, Daryl Hall is beginning to loose his voice a bit. He can’t hit those high notes he is so famous for anymore. But then again, they have been rocking the world since the 70’s and he and John Oates are now both in their 70’s, so they still deserve a lot of credit, and overall, they still sounded great and it was a fun evening. Their music has touched a lot of people all over the world for many, many years.
This is a shot of the stage before the bands came out. The Ball Arena (formerly the Pepsi Center) holds about 18,000 people. It was not a full house, but there were still quite a fair number of fans that showed up to enjoy the music. We estimated there were about 7,500 people in attendance.
The opening act for Hall & Oates was Squeeze, another British 80’s band. They sounded good too, but once again, the years of rocking the world are beginning to show their ware and tear. But then, I can’t say anything, because my age is showing too. We have all rotated round the sun more than a few times.
It was a fun evening, and the first big concert we have gone to since COVID. Hopefully there will still be a lot more fun times ahead like this yet to come.
Keep rockin’ on, and take it all in stride. Make the most out of your days while you still can. Tomorrow is always a day away. Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.
Today’s flowers are about the bunnies and the blooms. It was not only a good flower day, but the bunnies were out and about too. Some were make believe bunnies and others were real.
I was inspired to try these delicious looking bread from our very own blogging family member, https://americaoncoffee.blog/. The pictures that were posted on https://americaoncoffee.blog/ looked absolutely irresistible and just scrumptious. So I printed up the recipe and decided to try it that day. And believe it or not, I actually followed the recipe too. Mine was still very good, especially since I love garlic bread, but mine was nothing like the inspirational pictures I saw. This is what happens when I follow recipes. They only turn out well if I do my own thing. It is just the rebel in me, I guess. Oh well. I guess that just means I still need to keep working on it. Oh darn! I’ll have to eat more garlic bread! 🙂
This is how the cheesey-garlic pull apart bread was supposed to look.
Mine was close, but it did not pull apart that easily nor was it this ooey and gooey. But it was still very tasty.
The recipe actually said to start with a good Sourdough loaf, so I went out and bought one. Then it said to mix 1 stick of softened butter with the garlic and parsley. Check. I did that too.
The next step was to make deep scores into the bread. Check. Done.
The next step was to stuff the butter and cheese into the deep bread pockets. Check. I did that too.
Sprinkle the top of the bread with the remaining butter and some salt. Check.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350* F or 180* C, wrap the bread in foil and allow to heat through so the cheese melts completely for about 15-20 minutes. Check. I did that too. Like I said, I actually followed the recipe completely this time, but my bread never came out looking like the original picture.
HMMMMM!. I think next time, and there will most definitely be a next time too, I am NOT going to wrap it in the foil. I don’t think my cheese ever got hot enough to really melt completely. Even when I reheated it again the next day, it never came out ooey or gooey. Live and learn. We all have those days, even me. Never give up though. Or as my idol, Ms. Julia, would say “Never apologize. Just act as if that is how it was supposed to turn out”.
I am seeing more and more people posting their beautiful flowers. I love it. I think we are all realizing there is so much beauty all around us, and we all need more beauty in our lives, especially right now, with all the ugliness in the world. So, I say, keep those flowers coming! 🙂
Here are my flowers for the day. Today, I am giving you some irises. I know iris season ended quite a while ago, but I have all these beautiful irises that I never got around to sharing with you earlier. Some are from my front yard, and others are from out and about.
Irises will always be amongst my favorite flowers, if not my very favorite, because they were my mother’s favorite flower. Every time I see irises, I know my mother is around looking over me. That is my way of getting to visit with my mother.
We are about ready to take off again, and we are trying to get through as many of our leftovers as we can before we go. We love Costco’s rotisserie chicken and eat it quite often. Usually we can get at least 2-3 meals a piece out of each chicken. Our first meal of course, was just the chicken on its own. The second meal took on an Italian accent.
I had some leftover rice and lentils that I mixed together and added the chicken to. Then I sauteed some spinach, mushrooms, garlic, shallots, artichoke hearts and tomatoes to top the chicken. It was quick, easy-peasy, healthy and delicious. It doesn’t get much better than that.
One of my friends from church and I were talking food and we discovered we both LOVE the Tap n Taste store, and we also really enjoy the same flavors too. So she inspired me to use some of my Sicilian Lemon Balsamic vinegar in yet another new way. I just love all the creative ways I am using it too. She was actually using another one of their flavored balsamic vinegars for dinner that day too. Once again, great minds were thinking a like.
The spinach, mushrooms, garlic and shallots were sauteed first, and then once the spinach was wilted and the mushrooms were cooked, it was time to add the tomatoes and the artichoke hearts. I added those at the end and cooked them just long enough for them to heat up, since they are more delicate.
I finished it all with about 1 TBSP of the Sicilian Lemon Balsamic Vinegar, to give everything a little lemony taste.
I served it all over rice and lentils this time, but it would also be very good with angel hair pasta too. Everything was then complimented by a nice, crisp chardonnay to make for a perfect summer meal.
I think our seasons are once again all mixed up. I am seeing so many birds all about, and seeing them in groups too. I think they think it is Spring again. That’s OK. The more birds we have, the better.
Is this called a dove bar?
Some “not so happy” birds.
My ducks are all in a row.
Gather with friends and family and make all your hours happy.
What is a Tiffin cake? I admit, until I discovered this recipe, I had never heard of it either. A Tiffin cake is a form of cake-like confection composed of crushed biscuits (most commonly digestive biscuits), sugar, syrup, raisins, cherries and cocoa powder, often covered with a layer of melted chocolate. Unlike regular cakes, Tiffins do not require baking. Instead, following preparation of the mixture, the confection is chilled until set. As a consequence the product may also be known as “fridge cake” or another similar term. It was invented in the early 1900s in Troon, Scotland, by the Cadbury Chocolate company. The name Tiffin comes from an Indian term, back when the English had a large stronghold in India. The word Tiffin was used to denote the British custom of afternoon tea that had been supplanted by the Indian practice of having a light meal at that hour. It is derived from “tiffing”, an English colloquial term meaning to take a little drink.
I didn’t set out to make a Tiffin cake, especially since I had no idea what one even was. I was just looking for something different to add to my Church coffee cart. I like to offer a variety of yummy goodies and nibblies for everyone to enjoy. But once I found the recipe, it was something that just sounded very intriguing to me, and I had to make it. It was a surprisingly big hit too. One lady kept coming back for more and more. That works for me. We all like it when people enjoy the foods that we serve, especially when people come back for more. It makes our day. After all, we are making foods to share.
I did not have enough graham crackers, so my Tiffin cake was a bit more like fudge that what it was supposed to be, but no one complained and everyone enjoyed it all the same, and that is really all that counts.
Just like so many of my favorite recipes, the ingredients were simple, everyday items we all have on hand. I did not add the golden raisins this time around either. I love raisins, especially golden raisins, but I am finding out that a lot of people, Larry included, are just not big raisin fans, so I chose to leave them out; this time.
Chocolate Tiffin Cake
14 oz graham crackers or vanilla wafers, broken into pieces
2/3 cups golden raisins or sultanas
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup cherries, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks
8 1/2 oz dark chocolate or chocolate ganache
1/3 cup + 1 TBSP maple syrup, honey or golden syrup
5 TBSP butter
Generously spread butter all over a 9×13 baking dish then line with parchment paper.
Place the graham crackers into a plastic bag and beat with a rolling pin until they are broken into pieces. You do not want them into crumbs.
Add the cherries, raisins, chocolate chips and pecans and mix together thoroughly.
I already had some chocolate ganache made, so that is what I used. I melted it all down with the butter and maple syrup.
Once everything is melted together, pour it all into the fruit and graham cracker mixture and combine well.
Then evenly spread it out onto the parchment paper.
Cover and refrigerate for about 24 hours and let it all set. Once everything is set, place the whole dish in a bain marie or a warm water bath, so it is easier to remove. Then slice it up however you like. Because mine came out more like a very rich and decadent fudge, I cut my pieces into very small bite sized pieces and put them all in a paper baking cup, making them easier to handle.
I wasn’t sure how these would go over, but as I mentioned above, they actually went over very well indeed. I am already looking forward to making it again, though with more graham crackers, to see how it is actually supposed to turn out. But this way worked just fine too. Life is short. There is nothing wrong with starting off your day with a little dessert first.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 