Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

When we had our Carnivores’ Gathering, we smoked A LOT of meat. A Carnivores’ Gathering Larry thinks he smoked about 50 lbs of meat in total. We ate as much as out tummies would hold. We gave a lot of it away to our guests. And we still have A LOT left over. There was no way we were going to go through 50 lbs of meat all at once. Some of it we put in the freezer, to pull out for another time, and some we are eating right now. One of the things we left down was the bacon wrapped pork loin.

I hadn’t made pizza in quite awhile, especially a pizza with BBQ sauce, so that was what I decided to make. I used my South Carolina mustard BBQ sauce Saucing It Up, our bacon wrapped pork loin and some of my caramelized onions from when I made my caramelized onion tart, Olive and Caramelized Onion Tart along with some mushrooms and yellow bell peppers. It was definitely a yummy combination and our tummies were very happy.

I made my pizza dough BBQ Pork Pizza then started layering it up with all kinds of goodness, most of which was just using up my leftovers. 🙂 You would be amazed at how many compliments and comments I get about how I am always creatively using up my leftovers. It’s a gift. 🙂

Pressing the dough onto my pizza stone was first, followed by the sauce and cheese. I used both cheddar and mozzarella. Larry likes cheddar and I prefer mozzarella.

Next, came the toppings followed by more cheese. I sauteed my mushrooms and peppers with a little garlic first though, to soften them up.

Once the toppings and the cheese were loaded up onto the pizza, it was time to bake it at 375* F or 190* C for about 40-60 minutes, or until the dough was done and all the cheese was completely melted.

Once the pizza is completely cooked, all that is left to do is pour yourself a glass or two of either your favorite red wine or beer and enjoy.

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

When we had our “Carnivores’ Gathering” A Carnivores’ Gathering we had to have other things besides just meat, although meat was most definitely the main feature for the day. I wasn’t sure what other people were bringing to our little shindig, so I also made my green vegetable salad It’s All About Being Green , my sauces to go with all the meats Saucing It Up and of course we had to shave some rolls or bread as well. Although as it turned outs, I didn’t need to make rolls because Julia brought some absolutely delicious and fabulous dinner rolls. But with having two different kinds of rolls, it added to the variety, which is always a good thing.

I got busy and distracted once everyone arrived, so I did not take pictures of my rolls after they came out of the oven. But I think you will get the idea. 🙂

Garlic Rosemary and Sage Rolls

5-6 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

5 tsp yeast or 2 packages of dry active yeast

1 TSBP fresh sage and Rosemary, chopped fine

1 TBSP garlic

1 cup milk

2/3 cup water

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

2 eggs

garlic butter melted

Combine 2 cups of flour, sugar salt, yeast and herbs together. Mix well and set aside.

Combine the milk, butter and water together in a saucepan. Heat until the butter is mostly melted. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and beat in a mixer for about 2 minutes at a medium speed.

Add the eggs and another 3/4 cups of flour. Beat again for another 2 minutes, then gradually add as much flour as needed to form a stiff dough.

Once the dough is formed, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead together until the dough is smooth an elastic, for about 8 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover to let rise for about 20 minutes.

When the dough is set, grease a baking dish. Divide the dough into 24 equal portions and roll into balls. Place the dough balls in the pan and cover, then place in the refrigerator to rise for 4-12 hours.

When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 375* F or about 190* C.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let rise at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Melt some butter and garlic together and brush the dough balls with the garlic butter and place in the oven to bake for about 15-20 minutes or until they are hollow when tapped on the top and are golden brown.

Let the rolls cool for about 10 minutes before serving and serve them warm. You can add more butter or not, but either way, the end result will be delicious!

I have a confession to make. I misread the directions at the time I was making my rolls and I did not add the right about of yeast to the dough, so my rolls did not rise the way they were supposed to, though they still tasted good. I actually did not even realize this until just now, as I was writing my post, and then it dawned on me. See. I make mistakes too. 🙂

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

Well, Yesterday, 3/20/21, was the first day of Spring here in the U.S. As I mentioned in my post Words of Wisdom from Julia Child – Part 3, we were celebrating the first day of Spring by getting out the smoker and smoking up a whole bunch of meats. There are other reasons why our menu was so heavily meat oriented, but I am not going to get in that. We celebrated the first day of Spring by gathering with some friends and of course, feasting. We called out little gathering the Carnivores’ Gathering.

Larry loves any excuse to pull out his smoker, and when he does, he loads it up with all kinds of meats. This time he smoked a brisket, ribs, a bacon wrapped pork loin and chicken. I know he said we had 6 different types of meat, but I just can’t remember the rest. I was more than a bit overwhelmed by all the meats and food we had. It was most definitely a feast. We had so much good food and good fun.

My theory is, when you’re going to do something, do it right, and that we did.

Gabe came dressed perfectly for the occasion.

Spring has sprung, but no matter what the season, make it fun and make the most of it. Life is short. Live it up. 🙂

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

We are having a Spring feast and Larry and I have both been busy cooking and cleaning. So today’s post is just going to be yet another quick post coming from the maestro herself, the one and only, Julia Child. She is always so full of wisdom and wit.

This one is so apropos considering Larry is busy smoking A LOT of meat for today.

Certainly one of the important requirements for learning how to cook is that you also learn how to eat. If you don’t know how an especially fine dish is supposed to taste, how can you produce it? Just like becoming an expert in wine – you learn by drinking it – the best you can afford – you learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simple or luxurious. Then you savor it analyze it and discuss it with your companions, and you compare with other experiences.

Therein lies the science of the experiences wine connoisseur – the more you drink (and think upon it), the more you will know.

Serious artist or weekend amateur, it’s more fun cooking for company in company.

Bon Appetit! Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

One of the dishes I made for St. Patrick’s Day was an Irish vegetable casserole to accompany my tilapia with black butter sauce. Tilapia with Black Butter Sauce This vegetable casserole was inspired by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw was in Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. He was born into poverty in Dublin, Ireland in 1856. He later moved to England, where he lived the rest of his very long and productive life. He wrote over 60 plays and died at the ripe old age of 94, in 1950. For most of his life, George Bernard Shaw was a vegetarian too. He became a vegetarian in 1881, in large part because of the abject poverty in which he grew up. When there was meat, which was very rare, it was cooked horribly and boiled to the point of it being tasteless shoe leather. He never acquired the taste for meat and lived on a diet complete from vegetable sources and sweets for the rest of his life. Food was never that important to him in real life, but ironically, food played a very large role in many of his plays.

Irish Vegetable Casserole

1 onion, diced medium

1/2 zucchini squash, diced medium

1 parsnip, diced medium

1/2 yellow crookneck squash, diced medium

2-3 celery stalks, diced medium

1/2 red bell pepper, diced medium

2-3 carrots, diced medium

1/2 lb mushrooms sliced thick

2 tomatoes, diced medium or about 1/2 cup of grape tomatoes cut in 1/2

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 TBSP garlic

1 tsp turmeric

1 TBSP ginger

1 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste

green onions, sliced Asian style

salt & pepper to taste

olive oil

chopped parsley

Mix all the hearty vegetables together along with the spices and seasonings and olive oil, then saute for about 7-10 minutes, or until they start to soften.

Preheat the oven to 350*F or 180* C.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Once the vegetables have softened and the onions are translucent, transfer them onto the baking sheet. Add the beans, tomatoes and green onions and cover with foil. Bake for about 40-50 minutes.

When the vegetables are done, sprinkle with the chopped parsley. You can eat this on its own or over rice. I have done it both ways, and enjoy both ways as well. Slainte is tainte.

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

There is still snow everywhere, though it is beginning to melt. But typical Colorado weather, the sun was shining brightly and the skies were a very vibrant blue. The temperature was perfect. The lakes are still quiet, but the ducks and geese are beginning to swim side by side once again, and the buds are started to pop up as well. My irises, though covered in snow at the moment, were already peeping their shoots up through the ground before we got hit by snowmageddon and the buds in the trees are becoming very plentiful too. It won’t be too long now. Spring is in the air.

The Canadians scouting out the grounds.

Ring-necked ducks checking out the neighborhood.

There were some hooded mergansers out and about too.

There was even a Northern Flicker looking at real estate and his view from above.

Take a walk in the sunshine, clear your head and take it all in.

I hope those of you who are Irish, even if only for the day, enjoyed your Irish holiday. I have a lot of Irish, Scottish and Welsh in me, as well as most of the Northern European bloods. My dad was an Aussie, and the early Australian colonials were predominantly Irish, Scottish or Welsh (they were sent over mostly as prisoners).

I know most people cook corned beef and cabbage as their St. Patrick’s Day feast, but I rarely do. I mean, I do cook corned beef on occasion, in fact, I will cook it for tonight’s dinner. I just rarely cook it for St. Patrick’s Day. First, I am not a big fan of corned beef and second, I just like to do other things and celebrate with other Irish foods. For whatever reason, I tend to cook a lot of seafood for our St. Patrick’s Day dinners. This time was no different. I cooked some tilapia with a black butter sauce, that I served over mashed potatoes and an Irish vegetable casserole on the side, along with some warmed bread and a chilled, crisp chardonnay.

For this recipe, you can use any white fish you like. I just happened to have tilapia on hand, so that is what I used. It was super easy-peasy and simple, but it was also very, very good. This particular recipe is an Anglo-Irish favorite.

Since Ireland is an island, known as the Emerald Isle, seafood is eaten a lot and is a staple to the Irish diets, particularly those who live by the seashores. Often times the people eat whatever seafood has been caught for the day, so many of the recipes are flexible and go with whatever the daily catch brings in.

Whitefish with Black Butter Sauce

1 1/2 lbs whitefish of your choice

1 onion, diced fine

2 TBSP white wine vinegar

fresh parsley, chopped fine

a sprinkle of salt or fleur de sel to taste

Black Butter Sauce

4 oz butter

2 TBSP white wine vinegar

Place the fish in a large skillet, add the onions and parsley and white wine vinegar, then completely cover the fish and toppings with cold water. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the fish and continue to cook for about 20 minutes.

For the sauce, melt the butter in a separate pan and let it brown. As soon as it is a rich, dark brown, add the white wine vinegar and mix together well. Dish up the fish and serve it with the black butter sauce on top.

This is simply delicious. The butter sauce is very light with a very unique flavor. And yes, it is a dark brown sauce.

Slainte is tainte or health and wealth to all of you.

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

Larry is about to pull out the smoker again and he will be smoking up a whole bunch of meats. So I got busy and made some delicious sauces to go with all those meats. (More on this later).

I think by now, you all know I am a “saucy kind of girl”. I love adding sauces to my foods, and particularly my meats. So, I made a couple of sauces that will go well with all the smoked meats we are going to have. I made a Colorado style green chili honey mustard sauce and I made a Southern style mustard BBQ sauce. I made them a couple of days early because sauces usually taste better after a couple of days, when all the flavors can blend in together and marinate.

My first sauce was the Colorado style green chili honey mustard. I would have made more, but I ran out of Dijon mustard; in fact, I actually used up all of my mustards today. That’s OK though. This sauce packs a punch and a little dab will do you.

Colorado Style Green Chili Honey Mustard Sauce

4 oz roasted green chilies – I used my roasted Hatch chilies

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1/2 cup whole grain mustard

1/2 cup honey

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix everything together in a food processor until it is well blended. Refrigerate until ready to use. This spicy and delicious sauce could not be any easier to make and will go well with any kind of meat, particularly chicken or pork.

The other sauce I made was just as easy. Surprisingly, it reminds me a lot of Heinze 57 sauce, which I love. Now I know how to make it. This sauce recipe comes from South Carolina. Some people refer to it as the “low country BBQ sauce” because it is very common in the eastern part of the state and around the Columbia areas. I have never been to South Carolina, so I actually have no idea what they are talking about.

Southern Style Mustard Based BBQ Sauce

1 cup yellow mustard

1/2 cup spicy yellow mustard

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 can tomato paste

5 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 TBSP garlic

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/3 cup molasses

Put everything together in a saucepan and cook just until all the sugar melts and everything is blended together well, stirring constantly. Refrigerate until ready to use. I ran out of yellow mustard too, so that’s when I thought of adding the spicy yellow mustard as well, which gave the sauce a little extra kick. I like things with kick. 🙂

After tasting it, I decided it needed a bit more of something, so I added the molasses too. The molasses gave it just the flavor and texture I was looking for.

This sauce will go really well with all kinds of smoked or grilled meats too.

Sauce things up. Life is always better when it’s a bit saucy. 🙂

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

What is a Cumberland sauce? I had never heard it by name before either, though I have made it many times. A Cumberland sauce is a sauce made with either port or a dry red wine and fruit or fruit juices. It originated in Germany around 1846, as an accompaniment to meats like ham, pork, lamb and venison. It was officially created as a sauce around 1846, but its traditions of serving meats with port and/or wine and fruit dates back to the medieval times. It is a sweet and sour sauce of sorts, but with a European heritage rather than an Asian heritage, as we would normally think of a sweet and sour sauce. Like with any recipe that has been around through the ages, and is found in many different areas and regions, there are many different variations. It is said the name comes from the name of the Cumberland region in England, where it is a very popular sauce for meats, but no one really knows for sure.

Pork with Cumberland Sauce

1-2 lbs pork – either as chops or loin (or venison, lamb or ham)

1 shallot, minced fine

1 cup dry red wine

salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp cornstarch

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP pomegranate juice or red currant jelly

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

olive oil

As always, I did my version slightly differently than the recipe calls for. I mixed the red wine, brown sugar, mustard, pomegranate juice, lemon juice and salt & pepper together to make a marinade and marinated my pork in it for about 4-5 hours. This way, the pork was nice and flavorful and very tender. I also added some of my fancy peppercorns I got for my birthday too. Another Birthday Surprise

When it is time to cook the pork, get the skillet very hot and add olive oil with a little butter to completely brown the pork on all sides. Once it is completely browned, remove it from the skillet and keep warm.

Saute the shallots in the oil until they are translucent, then add the marinade, reserving a little to mix with the cornstarch. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a medium/low heat and cook for about 5-7 minutes.

Mix the cornstarch into the reserved liquid and add to the skillet, then add the pork and coat it with the sauce. The sauce should be thick and glossy.

When the pork is heated and thoroughly cooked, serve it up and top with the sauce. I served it with roasted potatoes and green beans. I also added some mushrooms, garlic, onions and peppers and finished it all off with more of the same red wine I made the sauce with. Delicious!

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

I was going to post something else, but I figured since yesterday, and this whole weekend, were snow days, with tons of snow, I would make some soup to help take off the chill. Nature Walks – A Snow Day Hot soup on cold snow days is just a perfect match. The soup of the day this time was chicken tortilla soup.

We bought a Costco rotisserie chicken a couple of days ago, and only ate a small portion of it. The leftover chicken was perfect for soup, and I just felt like something a little different today, so I made a chicken tortilla soup that I served with some vegetable quesadillas on the side.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 1 /2-2 lbs cooked chicken, cubed

1 1 /2 cups frozen corn

12 can black beans, drained and rinsed

4 Roma tomatoes, diced medium – I mix and match my tomatoes all the time. I like the different flavors of them

1/2 onion, diced fine

2 TBSP garlic

6-8 cups chicken stock

3-4 roasted Hatch chiles, diced fine

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp marjoram

1 tsp oregano

1-2 tsp chili powder

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

oil for frying the tortilla strips

fried tortilla strips

cheese, optional

I had a sneaky little helper. She was looking so sweet and innocent, and then I turned my back for a split second, and next thing I know, she had stolen some of the chicken breast before I was able to cut it up.

Start by sauteing the onions, corn and garlic in the olive oil in a big soup pot for about 5-7 minutes, or until the onions are soft and translucent.

Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix together well.

Bring the soup to a full boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue cooking for about 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently.

While the soup is cooking, cut a tortilla into thin strips and fry them in just a little bit of hot oil for a few seconds until they are golden brown and crunchy. Remove from the oil immediately and place them on a paper towel to drain. Add salt if you like. Set aside.

When the soup is done, serve it up and top with cheese if you like, some cilantro and the fried tortilla strips. You can eat it all on its own, or serve it up with something else on the side. This spicy soup will warm you up from the inside out on those cold, chilly, snowy days.

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