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.
We see hummingbirds flitting around quite frequently, but they are so hard to get pictures of because they rarely slow down. But this time, I got very lucky. We were dining out on our beloved deck and I spied a wee little bird high up in the trees. Fortunately I had my camera with me, and I zoomed in as much as I could. And to my surprise, I got him. I got a few shots of him before he was off flitting about once more.
This is a little Calliope Hummingbird. At most he is only between 3-4 inches long. These are definitely some very lucky shots.
Sometimes you just have to take a chance and go for it. Sometimes, you just might get lucky.
Flowers come in all shapes and forms, from many different plants. They grow from the ground, they grow on trees and they are the beginnings of delicious vegetables. Some even come from various different types of succulents too. The flowering cacti are just as beautiful as all the other flowers, though they may be a bit more prickly.
We love Mexican food and eat it quite often, in many different ways, at our house. Fajitas are always a quick and easy favorite of ours. Fajitas are a Tex-Mex creation, that came about from when the Mexican ranch workers were living in West Texas along the Rio Grande in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Money was tight for everyone, so often times, the workers were paid in meat. Fajitas are any combination of thinly stripped meats and/or vegetables that are usually grilled and combined with peppers and onions and Mexican spices and are eaten with either corn or flour tortillas. Once meat became more readily available, the fajita craze traveled and became popular all over the South Western parts of the United States as well as California. Today, they are a staple in just about any Mexican restaurant anywhere you go.
And now, fajitas cane be made into salads as well. When I make my fajitas, I make them with a lot of vegetables and Mexican spices and seasonings. The other day, I used up the leftover rotisserie chicken as my meat, but made the fajitas as I normally do, then turned it all into a delicious salad. I made a creamy cilantro dressing to top it all.
For the fajitas, as usual, there is no ONE way to make them, so I will not even try to say there is. But here is the way I made them this time. I thinly sliced some red, green and yellow bell peppers, red onions, and mushrooms, that I sauteed together with garlic, thyme, cumin and oregano in olive oil and my new Lime Olive oil as well. My chicken was already cooked, so I just shredded it and tossed it with cilantro. Then I fried up the thinly sliced tortilla strips until they were golden brown. When the vegetables were tender, I added the chicken and cilantro just to heat them up.
Creamy Lime Cilantro Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
3 TBSP lime juice
3 TBSP fresh cilantro, chopped fine
1 TBSP lime olive oil (optional)
2-3 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP garlic
Mix everything together well and chill until ready to use.
For the fajitas, I wanted them warm so as soon as they were cooked, I layered them onto a bed of mixed baby greens, and then topped everything with the dressing and tortilla strips. In addition, Larry’s salad had two kinds of cheese, both cheddar and Cotija cheese, which is a Mexican cheese similar to goat cheese, and my salad had some avocado slices. !Esta muy deliciozo! !Que Bueno!
Make the most of your day and stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.
There are still lots more flowers coming your way. I look for them everywhere I go. Sometimes you have to look down, and sometimes, you have to look up, and sometimes you have to look all around, but they are there, just waiting to be noticed. These purple beauties are more tree flowers from my neighbor’s yard.
Last week I officially started the Church Coffee Cart. The Official Start of the Church Coffee Cart. I buy most of the goodies I serve, since sometimes that is just easier, especially in today’s crazy, complicated world. But today, I decided to make something for the coffee cart as well. I had a whole bunch of cherries that were in their prime, so I used them to make some mini cherry scones. I will add these to the other goodies that I have already purchased to offer a variety of goodies for everyone to enjoy.
These scones came out so light and fluffy. My dad would be proud. Being an Aussie, he loved his scones. My mother, the Texan, preferred biscuits. I like them all.
I cut my scones into small bite size pieces, other wise the recipe would have made between 8-12 scones.
Cherry Scones
2 cups sifted flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 TBSP baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 TBSP cold butter, cubed
1-1/2 cup cherries, pitted and roughly cut, lightly coated in flour
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 egg
turbinado sugar for the topping
Preheat the oven to 375* F or 190* C.
Mix all the dry ingredients together well, then add the butter and mash together until it resembles coarse crumbly sand. Add the cherries and fold in.
Combine the egg and whipping cream and whisk together well. Then add to the flour and cherry mixture. Mix together with a spatula just until it starts to stick together and form a dough. Then gently knead with your hands for a bit. DO NOT over mix or the scones will turn out tough and chewy.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it.
Because I was making smaller scones, I cut my dough into pieces, and then cut them into small triangles.
Once the scones are cut to the size you like, place them on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until they are lightly browned.
You can either enjoy them right out of the oven or at room temperature. Either way, I know you will definitely enjoy them though. You can eat them as is, or top them with a little creme fraiche or some Devonshire cream.
Have a great day. Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.
The more I look, the more flowers I see. All colors and all sizes. The only thing they all have in common is that they are all beautiful, no matter what they look like.
For whatever reason, we tend to have more yellow and purple flowers than red, so these big red flowers, that I believe are hibiscus, just really stood out to me and caught my attention.
As you know, I love to recreate my foods all the time. Sometimes this take a little effort and creative imagination and other times, it doesn’t take much time or effort at all. This latest recreation was one of those that was almost a no-brainer, and a bit to easy. But that’s OK. I always say “keep it simple”. I used my leftover Asian green bean salad as the “star” of the production and the rest was easy. Sweet & Spicy Asian Style Green Bean Salad This time, the only additions were mixed baby salad greens, chicken, bacon and a wee bit more olive oil.
This delicious main meal salad was recreated from
this tasty salad side dish. Both ways were delicious and healthy.
As I mentioned above, I only made a few slight additions that transformed a side salad into a meal. Simple and easy-peasy, just the way I like it. 🙂
I cooked up some bacon and crumbled it, then I started building my salad with the mixed baby greens, and added my Asian green bean salad, followed by the chicken breast. I added some goat cheese crumbles onto Larry’s salad, and topped it all with the left over dressing, to which I added some more olive oil, and topped it all with the bacon crumbles. I added more olive oil to my leftover dressing to both extend it and to make it it a little less pungent, since it was a very spicy marinade to begin with.
To complete the meal, all that was needed was a little warmed ciabiatta and a glass or two of a cool, crisp, buttery chardonnay, and voila! Dinner was served, out on the deck, overlooking our lakes. It was a perfect way to enjoy the summer evening.
Healthy and delicious doesn’t mean it has to be difficult. Sometimes the best things in life are the simple things.
There are still lots more flowers, of all kinds, all around. They are still putting on their colorful best and brightening up the days. It seems like everyday I am seeing more and more beautiful and brightly colored flowers. I am enjoying every bit of it too.
The birds are all around, singing their songs of joy. I have a wide variety of birds found in my backyard and around my lakes. Some are very colorful, while others like to blend in to the scenery more. Some are found in the trees and way up high and others like to stick to the shores or to the ground. Either way, I love the birds. I am always on the lookout for as many varieties as I can see. I love identifying my birds (just like I do my fish when we are diving, but I digress). My dad and I used to love bird watching together, so I guess I am thinking of my dad when I see all the different kinds of birds.
Here is just another small sampling of some of local birds.
Both the American Goldfinch and the Canyon Towhee were in my backyard, probably even in the same tree. This American Goldfinch was a lucky shot. He is just a little thing, and I almost missed him, in a couple of ways, but as you can see, I did get him in the end. Just as my camera focused in on him and I snapped the shot, my battery said it needed to be changed, so I really wasn’t even sure if I got the shot. I couldn’t even take another photo of him because he flew away immediately after, but, as you can see, I got lucky.
Canyon Towhee
We have tons of barn swallows all around, but sometimes they can be hard to get some good shots of. Again, I got lucky. In fact, most good photographs, at least mine, are just plain luck.
A Mourning Dove sunbathing down by the lakes.
I don’t see these to often, but every now and then, we even have a few Iceland Gulls around too.
I hope you enjoy my bird show. I will keep sharing them with you as as I can “catch” them. Sometimes, they can be a bit elusive, but persistence usually wins out. If I wait long enough, and am patient enough, I believe I will get them. 🙂
I got some new “toys” yesterday. PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT play with these though. They are NOT really toys. Only use them if you really know what you are doing. When I say “toys”, they are are definitely NOT toys in the playful sense of the word we normally think of. However, they are “toys” to me because as you all know, I love to “play with my food” and every chef needs good knives.
I bought a couple of new CUTCO knives yesterday. CUTCO knives are very good quality, lightweight knives that are guaranteed for a lifetime. Of course I already have a lot of very good Henckle knives, but believe it or not, most of them are over 20 years old. They still work absolutely fine, and I still use them everyday, but that doesn’t mean I can’t spruce things up a bit too. My Henckles are good quality German steel knives and I love them. The German steel though is considerably heavier than the steel used in my new knives. Because I am so used to my heavier steel, it may take a little while to get used to my new lighter blades, but I am sure I can manage. 🙂
I only bought two new knives, and that still set me back a couple of hundred bucks. If I bought the whole set, it would have been over $1200. Larry would have killed me for sure, though he forgets, I definitely know how to use my knives. 🙂
I bought a new, smaller chef’s knife. My old one is an 8″ blade, and this one is only a 7″ blade. I used to use a really big 12″ blade back in my professional days though. it is all a matter of getting used to what you work with and then you develop a comfort level. With knives especially, it is all about respect for the equipment and using them with proper skill.
I also bough a multi-use cheese slicer, but it can be used for oh so much more than just slicing cheese. I tried it on potatoes at the demo before I bought it. It cuts through potatoes like a dream.
These knives are VERY sharp indeed. I highly recommend them to anyone, but just know they can be dangerous if you do not respect them and know how to really use them. So BE CAREFUL, especially at first until you get used to them.
Be careful, stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 