Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

I was told a long time ago that we taste with our eyes long before we taste with our taste buds.  I think this is so true.  If a dish looks pretty, regardless of how it really tastes, the perception is going to be that is going to taste fantastic.  Sometimes this is true and sometimes not.  I have had plenty of foods that are beautiful and beautifully presented that either don’t taste good at all or are bland and boring once you put them in your mouth.  Either way, often they are a big let down and a disappointment not worth the calories.  By the same token though, if a dish or recipe is presented poorly, a lot of people are going to automatically turn their noses up at it and frown; until they taste it, and are then proved wrong.  Many years ago, when I was living up in San Francisco, working at a public relations firm, I experienced this first hand.  One of the ladies I was working with was getting married and our boss threw her a beautiful bridal shower.  She ordered a beautifully decorated and expensive cake for the party.  Everyone was oohing and awwing over the cake.  It was OK, but I don’t recall it being spectacular or really even that memorable.  But it was beautiful.  I had made a cake to bring to the party as well.  The recipe was a cake we created for one of our clients (most of clients were food clients).  I was so proud of my little cake too, but during transport, my little cake got all jostled around in the car, and by the time I arrived at the party, it was not nearly as pretty or desirable looking as it was when I first put it in the car.  I was really embarrassed to bring it in because it was now an ugly little cake, and it suffered by comparison to the big beautiful cake on display.  But eventually, through a lot of prodding, I brought it in and shared it with everyone.  It turned out to be a hit, despite being the ugly little cake.  The lady who was getting married said what made my ugly little cake so beautiful was that it was made from love.  Love is ALWAYS the most important ingredient to any recipe.

Moving on to the present.  I never forgot that experience or that lesson.  So now, I do my best to make sure my dishes are presented nicely AND taste good too.  I want the best of both worlds.  🙂  Last night for dinner, it was a Costco chicken night.  We love Costco’s rotisserie chicken.  It is one of the best out there.  It is fantastic all on it’s own, but I fancied it up to make it even better.  We couldn’t have just the chicken for dinner with no side dishes.  Larry just threw his on the plate and ate it up.  He doesn’t care.  He’ll eat just about anything.  But I had to make mine nice and pretty.  Making it pretty made it taste even better.  Presentation is everything.  Well, almost everything.  Taste is certainly very important too.

I served the chicken over wild rice and topped it with my creamy Brussels sprouts and mushrooms and the rest of my zucchini cheese bread.  Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mushrooms and Cream Sauce, Zucchini Cheese Bread  My wine choice was a cool, crisp Sauvignon blanc.  I t was a quick easy dinner that looks like I spent hours in the kitchen, but in reality, dinner was done in about  45 minutes.  The end result …. DELICIOUS!

I am a very creative person in many ways.  I have many different outlets I use to showcase my creativity.  My cooking is by far my best area of expertise, but I enjoy many other facets as well.  One of those creative facets is painting.  I am still a novice, but I enjoy it none-the-less.  I have been wanting to pain again for some time, although my schedule has been pretty hectic lately, but I was able to carve out a little time to go paint  with my friend Elizabeth the other day.  We spent an afternoon at Pinot’s Palette in Westminster.  We both picked some pictures we were drawn to and painted away.  She had never done this before.  Since Elizabeth had never done this before, she was given easy step-by-step instructions to follow for the picture she chose to paint.  I’ve done it many times, and I winged it with no instructions at all.  I was simply eyeballing it.  As always, we had a good time and a lot of laughs.

The picture in the background was what I used as my guide for my painting.  Mine is a little different, but then just like when I follow a recipe, I am always going to make it my own.

Our finished masterpieces.

After our painting session, I took Elizabeth to Mumtaz, only my favorite family-owned and operated Lebanese restaurant around.  Mediterranean Mumtaz.  This was another first for Elizabeth.  She had never eaten Mediterranean food like this before.  She thoroughly enjoyed it.  She has already said she is ready to go back again.

Elizabeth is enjoying her first ever little bit of baklava.

Pure baklava bliss.

In honor of the start of the fall season, my favorite season, I painted a little fall for the inside of my house too.

Elizabeth and I had a fun girl’s day.  Sometimes, we all need a break from reality and we just need to go out and have some fun.

Pepperoni pizza!  Who doesn’t love it?  Did you know pepperoni is the number one all-time favorite topping for pizza?  Well it is.  In fact, it is so well-loved that it even has its own day of celebration, 9/20.

Pizza was created by Raffaele Esposito in June 1889, to honor Queen Margherita of Italy.  His first pizza was a pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil, to represent the Italian flag.  Senor Esposito named his first pizza a Margherita pizza in honor of Italy’s Queen.

In the early 20th century, America had a large number of Italian immigrants, many of whom were living in New York.  There was a large Italian influence on the foods of New York and the rest of the United States at that time too.  One of those influences was pizza, and in 1919, pepperoni pizza was born.  Pepperoni is an American sausage made from a combination of cured pork and beef, made with paprika and/or chili powder.  So it has a smoky, spicy flavor.  It is believed to have been influenced by the Italian sausages from the Calabria and Apulia regions of Italy.  The word pepperoni in Italian means big pepper.  It was called pepperoni since it was originally the size of a bell pepper.  Ever since it’s creation, pepperoni pizza has been a huge success and today, it is the most popular pizza topping ever created.  It is enjoyed by everyone all over the world.

In honor of National Pepperoni Pizza Day, Larry and I of course had to do our part, and we had some pepperoni pizza to celebrate the day.  We ordered pizza from our favorite local pizza place, Marco’s.  Marco’s uses at least 2 kinds of delicious pepperoni for their pizza.  Their pizzas are all hot and fresh.  Every pizza is made the old fashioned way, with love.  Marco’s was founded in Oregon in 1978, and have since spread out across the country.  They’ve been “doing things the Italian way, because when your founder is a native Italian, you take pride in serving authentic Italian quality. Our dedication to quality has made us one of the fastest growing pizza chains in America, providing plenty of primo moments and opportunities along the way”.  Our Marco’s is located at 6875 120th Avenue, in Broomfield, CO.

I hope you all celebrated and ate your pepperoni pizza for National Pepperoni Pizza Day.

Well, I finally did it!  I am actually still in the process of cancelling all my connections with Facebook, so it is not completed just yet, but it will be VERY shortly!  I finally had enough.  This morning, before going into work, I checked the computer, like I always do, only to find a notice from Facebook that I had been temporarily banned because “one of my posts offended someone”.  They never even bothered to say who it was, or what the offensive post was, just that I was temporarily banned.  So Facebook,  KISS MY ASS!  I am in the process of permanently banning them instead.  I just deleted my blog and my ads from Facebook, and sadly, “A Jeanne in the Kitchen” and it’s readers will suffer a major blow because of it, but at least I won’t have to play their stupid little games or be controlled by the Facebook Thought Police any more either.  That in and of itself is a huge relief.  It’s so sad that these are the times we are living in, but it is a harsh reality.  I find it very disturbing that because I am a Conservative, and a proud American, I am banned from a stupid social media page because of it.  When and how did we ever get to this sad state?  America is in SERIOUS trouble.  The censorship has already started and will only continue if we don’t all stand up and fight for our rights and our freedoms.  NO ONE, and I do mean NO ONE, will ever tell me how or what to think or say.

The other day, all that was defrosted and ready to cook were some sausages.  No problem, we love sausages.  Maybe it is my Australian and British heritage or Larry’s German heritage that has given us such a taste and love for sausages.  I made some “bangers and mash” with a side of sauteed vegetables.  It felt like we were dining in the pub in London, only we were here, in the comfort of our own home instead.  Bangers and mash is a traditional British meal that is found in all the pubs all throughout the UK and all her “colonies”.  It is sausages and mashed potatoes which are often topped with a rich gravy as well, or at least it is served on the side.

Sausages were introduced to Great Britain by the ancient Romans, around 400 A.D.  Sausages were not divided into links until around the mid 17th century, when Britain was under the rule of Charles I, from 1625-1649.  Sausages have always been a very popular dish for the British working class people, but at the onset of WWI, meat was in very short supply.  The sausage makers had to compromise and started using fillers and a lot of water in the sausage making process.  The excess of water would make the sausages pop and explode violently when cooked.  They were given the nickname “bangers” and the term just stuck and has been used ever since.  Today, there are over 470 varieties of sausages, or bangers, that can be found all throughout the UK.  The most popular ones are pork sausages mixed with a combination of any of the following of apples, herbs and leeks.

I served my bangers and mash with a sauteed vegetable medley, using more of  …. my big huge zucchini of course.  I still have quite a bit of that zucchini left, which will also be used very creatively as well.  So hold tight.  There is more still yet to come.

Jeanne’s Sauteed Zucchini Medley

1-1 1/2 cups zucchini, cubed

1/4 red onion diced fine

1 cup mushrooms, quartered

1 cup frozen peas

1 TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp each dried oregano and thyme

olive oil and butter for cooking

In a hot skillet, with about 2 TBSP of butter and about 2-3 TBSP of olive oil, add all the vegetables and seasonings together and saute for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are tender but firm.  This could not be any easier to make, but don’t be fooled by the simplicity.  It is colorful, healthy and tasty and goes well with just about anything you want to serve it with.

Dinner does not have to be fancy or complicated to be delicious and satisfying.  Sometimes, a simple meal is the best meal, especially if time is of the essence.

I am still using up the huge zucchini that Larry brought home a few days ago.

So far, I have made three things with just that one zucchini, each recipe using quite a bit too, and I still have a lot left.  So there will be at least one more zucchini recipe coming your way in the very near future.  So far the recipes I made with it have been the Corn and Zucchini Soup The Soup is Hot this recipe for my zucchini cheese bread, and a vegetable dish coming your way tomorrow.  It is like the gift that just keeps on giving, and I am enjoying every bit, and bite, of it too.

This bread is so flavorful and moist.  It literally just melts in your mouth.  You can eat it as is, or the way I like it, smeared with soft butter.  YUM!  But then, I think everything is better with butter.  I thought it was a really nice compliment to my Pork with Peppers too.  Old World Meets New World  All the flavors just blended together really well.

Zucchini Cheese Bread

2 1/12 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 TBSP sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2-1 tsp black pepper, or a little of both black pepper and cayenne pepper if you choose to kick it up a notch

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup Parmagiano cheese

2 cups shredded zucchini

2 large eggs

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 180* C

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray

Mix 2 TBSP of the Parmagiano cheese and the cheddar cheese together in a separate bowl and set aside.

Shred the zucchini in the food processor or grate it.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Then add the the remaining cheese and the zucchini and mix everything together.  Whisk the eggs, milk and olive oil together separately, then add to the dry mixture and blend well.  The batter will be very thick.

Once everything is well blended, spoon the mixture into the loaf pan.  Make sure it is spread out evenly in the pan.  Top the loaf with the the remaining cheese spreading it evenly on the top.

Bake for about 60 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing, then butter it up and let it be a treat for your taste buds.

I am always adding new cookbooks to my already very large and varied cookbook collection.  I just got a new one a couple of days ago.  And the new one is …. A Spanish cookbook called The New Spanish Cookbook, Bites, Feasts, and Drinks.  Hmmmmmm.  Imagine that.  I like Spanish foods.  Who would have figured that one out?  My first recipe out of my new treasure was “Chuleta de Puerco con Piperrade Picante” or pork chops with peppers.  It sounds so plain and boring in English.  It has a lot more pizzazz in Spanish.  The funny thing though, is I have been making a dish very similar to this for many years, not knowing it was originally a Spanish dish from Spain.  I just made it because I like it.

The pork dish is from Spain, which we all know as the old world.  The wine was a chardonnay from Chile, which is part of the new world.  They blended together very well and made for a perfect choice for dinner.  I also served the meal with my zucchini cheese bread over rice with corn.  Pork and Pumpkin Empanadas Larry decided we needed more vegetables and added … more corn.  I couldn’t eat the corn, which is also an import from the new world, so again, old meets new.  I was already to full.  My tummy was very happy and satisfied.

Piperrada sauce is a Spanish pepper sauce, originally from the Basque area of Spain,  that has gone beyond Spanish restaurants and is now found in many places all over the world.  Peppers, onions and garlic are the key ingredients to this sauce, and then anything goes from there.  Often a piperrada sauce is served over ham and with eggs, but as you can see, it’s not just for or juevos y jamon, or ham and eggs, any more.

Pork Chops With Peppers

1 each red, yellow and orange pepper, seeded and sliced thin

3 TBSP olive oil

salt & Pepper to taste

1 yellow onion, sliced thin or 1-2 large shallots, sliced thin

2 TBSP garlic

1 tsp each fresh oregano and thyme, chopped fine – although dried is fine too

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup pickled peppers, sliced thin, with the juice

1 TBSP capers, with some of their juice

butter

For the Pork Chops

4 thick cut pork chops

salt & pepper to taste

dried thyme and oregano

garlic

olive oil

Marinate the pork chops in all of the above ingredients for at least 30-60 minutes before cooking.  You can pay fry them or grill them.  I grilled them, which added a bit of a smoky flavor as well.

Combine the all the peppers and their juices, onions, and garlic and then saute in olive oil for about 7 minutes or until they are tender.

Once the vegetables are tender, add the wine and continue to cook for another 5 or so minutes, or until the liquid is reduced to about half.  Then add the capers and seasonings.

Add the fresh herbs at this  point and mix thoroughly into the sauce.  If you are using dried herbs, you can add them at any time.  Add the butter and swirl the skillet around so the butter is evenly distributed throughout the sauce.  Serve over the cooked pork and enjoy like the Spanish do, with a glass or two of a good wine.  !Desfruitas!

I would love to say I learned how to cook from my mom, but that just ain’t so.  My mother and her mother were both horrible cooks who burned everything.  My grandmother used to make some kind of fish cakes that weren’t to bad, but as I little girl, the only name I knew them by was “those burned things”.  I still have absolutely no idea what she actually made.  My mother must have inherited her lack of culinary skills from her mother, because she was just as bad, although I do have to give her credit for making really good fried chicken.   So you ask, where DID I learn how to cook.  I first learned by watching one of my aunts and my “second mother” who was always baking something.  The funny thing is that I don’t really have any recollections of them actually showing me how to cook, or giving me any specific instructions.  They probably didn’t even think I was paying that much attention, since I was just a little girl at the time.   But I guess I learned more than what we all thought.  My Aunt Gloria never measured anything.  She just threw a little of this into a little of that and mixed things together to create something delicious and wonderful.  And that’s how I learned to cook as well.  When I first started creating my own recipes and tweaking things, the hardest part was always giving actual proportions of my ingredients.  Today, because I have been doing it for so long, it’s no longer an issue.  Recipes for me, have always been just a suggestion.  I use them more for ideas that I do for actually following them.

This is so NOT me.  I just throw everything in together and do what I do.  Although I have to say, because I have been cooking my whole life, I can eyeball amounts fairly accurately.  But I really just go by feel and by taste.

Mrs. Nash, my “second mom”,  only measured things when she was baking, which she did everyday.  Everyday, the house smelled so good because she always made us cookies as snacks for when we came home from school.  She is probably the reason why I love cookies so much.  It doesn’t even matter what kind of cookies are baking.  I just love cookies of all kinds.  I can eat them one after another and think nothing of it.

I took a few cooking lessons in school and the local Girls’ Club, which were great.  And from there, I just started cooking anything and everything, all the time.  Cooking and baking were always, and still are, my stress relievers.  Some people get very anxious when it comes to cooking, whereas I am the opposite.  Even when I am making a complicated dish or recipe, to me, cooking is relaxing and obviously, very enjoyable.  I started cooking the family meals on a daily basis when I was around 9 years old, and have been doing so ever since.  By the time I went to culinary school, I had already been cooking for many, many years, and was already quite an accomplished cook.  Culinary school just refined my raw talents.

This was about the age I was when I first started cooking.  I went from this ….

to this …

to this …

And back to this.  I have done it all.  It has been quite a journey, and believe me, I’m nowhere done yet.  I am still having way too much fun in the kitchen.  I hope you are too.

The other day, Larry came home with a H-U-G-E zucchini that one of his co-workers brought in.  My first reaction was “OMG!  What am I going to do with this?”  Well obviously I am going to be making quite a few things with it because there is so much of it.

The first thing I made with it was some delicious corn, zucchini, chicken and sausage chowder.  YUM!  But, I only used about 1/3 of this huge zucchini.  Larry was positive I could use the whole thing in the soup, whereas I knew unless I was making an even bigger pot of soup than I normally do, there was no way it was all going to get used in this batch of soup.  As I make more zucchini dishes, you will hear all the details, fresh off the press and out of the kitchen.

Even though it wasn’t exactly the soupiest of days, soup was just what I needed.  Soup is a great comfort food, and I needed a little comforting.  It just hit the spot.   I grew up with this picture and still have it hanging in my kitchen today.  This is one of my favorite pictures, and to me, it speaks volumes.  Keep it simple and stay humble.

I am one of those people who actually likes “stuff in my stuff”.  Why have less when you can have more, right?!  This is a simple soup really, but has a lot of good, healthy foods in it, making it more like a meal than just soup or, in this case, chowder.  I LOVE my thick creamy chowders.  Most chowders always have potatoes and bacon in them.  That’s part of what makes them a chowder, or at least, this is what some of my old chef instructors taught me while I was back in culinary school, many, many moons ago.  I have always stuck to this theory when making chowders too.

Corn, Zucchini, Chicken and Sausage Chowder

1- 1 1/2 cups zucchini, diced fine

1 lb (or more) frozen corn

2 lbs chicken, cubed small

2 medium potatoes, diced small

1/2 lb bacon, diced

1 lb cooked sausage, diced

2 TBSP garlic

2 large shallots or 1 white onion, diced fine

1-2 cups heavy whipping cream

6-8 cups chicken broth

flour to thicken (amount will vary depending on how thick you like your chowder)

salt & pepper to taste

cayenne pepper to taste

olive oil

5-6 sprigs of thyme, stems removed

Cook the potatoes and bacon together until the potatoes are soft and the bacon is cooked.  You can cook the chicken at the same time in a different pan.

Once the bacon and potatoes are cooked, or at least mostly cooked, you can add the vegetables.  Continue to cook until the vegetables are soft and the shallots are translucent.

I added a “secret spice” to my chicken as it was cooking.  Some friends of ours have an exchange student from Israel who is now staying with them for the school year, and she brought over some Ka’taar that her mother made.  She gave me some and I decided to add some to my soup.  I probably added about 2 tsp.  I loved it.

When the chicken is completely cooked, add it and the sausage to the mixture and combine well.  Then add the chicken broth and the seasonings.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the cream and combine well.  If you like a thicker chowder, add some flour.  Add as much as you like to make your desired thickness.  Continue to simmer the chowder for at least about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, before serving.

When the chowder is ready, serve it up and serve with some warmed bread and a glass or two of wine for a simple, yet hearty meal.  Soup, or chowder, always hits the spot.

It is once again time to be back in the kitchen, where I belong; one of my safe places.  In just a bit, I will be down making a big pot of soup and hopefully baking some bread as well.  Even though the weather is not exactly soup weather at the moment, that’s what we are hungry for, so that’s what’s cooking.  You will all just have to wait until tomorrow to see what kind I make.

In the meantime, I leave you with some more food for thought, or thoughts for food.  Either way, it’s all the same.

“It’s in the kitchen that confidences are exchanged, that family life takes place; it’s among the remains of a meal or when you’re elbow-deep in peelings that you ask yourself what life is all about, rather than when you are in an armchair in the sitting room”.

~ Benoite Groult, French Writer, from La Mer de la Cuisine, Loaves & Wishes~

” … a friend … showed me the kitchen in her new home with the words, “This is my office”.  I knew what she meant.  This is where I do the work I want to, the work I like and enjoy”.

~ Shash Deshpande, Indian Novelist~

” From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting … On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain”.

~ E. B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little~

~ Barbara Costikyan, American Advertising Executive~

“… devote all the time and resources at your disposal to the building up of a fine kitchen.  It will be, as it should be, the most comforting and comfortable room in the house”.

` Elizabeth David, British Cookbook Author~

I very deliberately chose the quotes I did for today.  I wanted and needed to find my safe space again; my safe space in my kitchen, since after all,  “This is where I do the work I want to, the work I like and enjoy”.