Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

I am working on a concept and an idea that will hopefully materialize shortly.   Ideally, if possible, I would like to have these ready for the holidays, but I may be just a bit to ambitious to make that happen for this holiday season.  I am working on creating “A Jeanne in the Kitchen” apron as one of the latest and newest creations from the “the kitchen”.  Is this something you would be interested in?  Do you think this idea is something that would sell? Please let me know your thoughts.  I am just starting the design phase, but before I do, I want to know what your interest levels are.

I am also still looking for my next guest chef to be featured on “A Jeanne in the Kitchen” as well.  Everyone is welcome and all recipes and ideas are always encouraged.  Who Wants to be My Next Guest Chef?

As I have mentioned many times, I have been teaching water aerobics for many years.  Through all these years of teaching and all my classes, I have also made many wonderful friends.  Friends come in many different varieties and each one offers their own special relationship.  My friends Lois and JoAnna are two such people, both of whom I met quite a few years ago while teaching for the Town of Erie.  My friend Lois recently had a nasty fall and is currently in a rehab facility until she can get back to doing all the things she loves to do.  So JoAnna and I decided to bring her favorite lunch from our favorite restaurant, where the three of us have had many wonderful lunches and shared many good times, to help brighten her day and brighten her spirits.

Lois’ son Richard also joined us for lunch and we all feasted on The Wishbone’s famous fried chicken, along with cole slaw, baked potatoes and Texas toast.  YUMMY!  Lois said that was her best day and best lunch in quite some time.

Lois, JoAnna and I loved to meet for lunch at The Wishbone,  located in Westminster, CO. The Wishbone is a family owned and operated restaurant that has been around since 1963 and is still going strong today.  It was founded by Joe and Francis Lochi, and is now owned and operated by second and third generation Lochi Family members.  The Wishbone has a very loyal following and owe the success of their restaurant to the people who have frequented their restaurants throughout the decades; the very same people whom they call friends.  “Our five-plus decades of success is due to our incredibly supportive customers and dedicated staff. We have had the honor to serve many generations and look forward to serving many more”.  The Wishbone offers a large menu with a wide variety of good, wholesome food, but what it is really known for is its fabulous fried chicken.  Fried chicken from the Wishbone is some of the best fried chicken I have ever eaten.

Elvis is in the building … along with a lot of other fun and memorable facts and artifacts that were popular back in the early years of The Wishbone.  All of these help add to the fun, family atmosphere that has kept customers coming back for decades.

Though The Wishbone is famous for its fried chicken, there is so much more good food too.  Whether you dine in or dine out, your taste buds will most definitely be in for a treat when dining at The Wishbone.  The Wishbone is located on the corner of 97th & Federal, in Westminster, CO.  Go check them out at http://www.wishbonerestaurant.com.

First of all, I want to really apologize for my delay in getting to this.  These past few weeks have just been so crazy and hectic and I am struggling to stay afloat, which means that unfortunately, there is a bit of a delay on getting back to people and responding to things.  I thrive on busy and chaotic though, even if it means I get a little behind.  I was nominated for the Real Neat Blog Award by fellow blogger dnhess at Life On The Patio.  Thank you so much.  I am flattered and honored that you thought of me and my blog, “A Jeanne in the Kitchen”.  All of these award nominations are truly an honor.  They make me feel like what I am doing has meaning and that it makes a difference to people out there.  Thank you, thank you.

The rules of Real Neat Blog Award are:

• Put the award logo on your blog.

• Answer the 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you.

• Thank the person who nominated you and add a link to their blog.

• Nominate any number of people, linking to their blogs and let them know you nominated them by commenting on their blogs.

• Come up with 7 questions for the people you nominated.

The questions:

1.  What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?

Tough question.  I am always looking for fun and cool adventures.  Life in general is a pretty fun and cool adventure.  I live life to the fullest and never take anything for granted.

2. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done?

I have no idea.  I guess that would depend on who you were asking and how it applied to them.

3. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

I’ve done many things that people think are crazy, but they don’t seem all that crazy to me.  I will do and try just about anything.  I am always up for an adventure.

4. What is your best feature as a person?

My honesty.  It can be a double-edged sword at times, because I can be brutally honest, but no matter what, you always know I am telling you the truth.

5. What is the best thing your blog can offer to readers?

That it is OK to make mistakes.  It’s OK to change things around a bit and to customize foods and recipes to your liking.  I want to help people feel more comfortable in the kitchen and with cooking in general.  Cooking is supposed to be fun, not rocket science.  

6. What does summer means to you?

Summer means a lot of things to me:  1) being able to swim outside; 2) vacations; 3) being 4) able to take a break; 5) being busy; 6) being outside are just some of the things summer means to me.

7. What does coastal means to you?

Coastal means being by my beloved ocean.  It means being able to do my favorite thing, which is scuba dive.  It means being able to live my live in and on the water.  It means home.

My nominees are:

1. Renee/Heart Tokens
   @hearttokens1
2. joypassiondesire
   @joypassiondesire
3. lillyevechristie

   @lillyevechristie
4. crushedcaramel
   @crushedcaramel
5. badfinger20
   @badfinger20
6. hawkfeatherstories
   @hawkfeatherstories
7. Gail’s Snapshotsincursive
   @gaildorna
8. bottomlesscoffee007
   @bottomlesscoffee007
9. floatinggold
   @floatinggold

Silly me.  I am always getting things backwards and mixed up.  Oh well.  It just makes things more interesting that way.  I answered the wrong questions, but I liked those questions and I like my answers.  I also like the questions that I was supposed to answer, so I will use those as my questions to you.

My questions to you:

1. What brings you happiness?
2. Where is your favorite place to travel to?
3. What is your favorite food?
4. When you blog, who is your audience?
5. What is your biggest accomplishment in life?
6. What is your favorite type of blog to follow?
7. What motivates you each day?

Good luck to all of you, and please, definitely keep up the good work.  I enjoy all your blogs.  Everyday, you either make me think about things in a new way or you just brighten my day with encouraging words of wisdom.

Country style ribs.  What are they and what makes them so tasty?  Country style ribs taste like rib meat, but they have hardly any bones in them and the meat doesn’t really come from the rib area either.  So why are they called ribs?  They are pieces of meat that come from two main areas of the pig; blade-end loin chops, from the blade near the shoulder or from the shoulder itself.  The blade-ends often have a bone or two in them, but more so than not, the bones are removed and they are sold as boneless.  This cut of pork loin is specifically called country style ribs.  Meat cut from the shoulder can also be cut into thick, boneless strips, and these are often called pork shoulder country-style ribs.  Both cuts are full of flavor and marbling.  They are also very versatile and lend themselves to many different ways of cooking, whether the cooking process is a slow method, like braising, or a fast method, as in cooking on a high heat grill.   I like short ribs much more than I do actual ribs, so we eat them fairly often.  Maybe the reason why I prefer these “kinds of ribs” is because they are so much meatier than regular ribs.  I grilled them the other day, and created a new marinade for them too.  It was one of those scorcher days, and being inside near the hot stove for a long period of time was just not going to happen.  I made a citrus- lemon, onion marinade for the “ribs” and let them marinate for about 4 hours before grilling them up.

Grilled Citrus-Lemon Country Style Ribs

3-3 1/2 lbs country style ribs

salt and pepper to taste

1 sweet, Vidalia onion, sliced very thin

3/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup chopped parsley and/or lemon verbena – I used lemon verbena fresh from my garden

1 tsp lemon zest

Season the ribs with salt and pepper, then place in a baking dish with some of the onions and parsley under the ribs and more covering the ribs.  Make the marinade with the juices and lemon zest and pour over the ribs.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before grilling.

Once the pork has been marinating, it is time to put it on a hot grill and let the grill take over from there.  Since this is pork, you want the internal temperature to be at least 165*F and the juices to come out clear, so grill it for at least 30 minutes, turning it over at least once.  We also grilled up some corn on the cob to go along with the country style ribs and served them both along side some of my leftover grilled potato salad Grilled Potato Salad and warmed ciabbiatta bread.  Of course there was wine as well.  I served a smooth red blend with the pork that just made everything melt in my mouth.

When the ribs were done, I sliced the meat at a diagonal and topped it with the remaining sauce that I heated up and cooked down.  I added more lemon zest and more lemon verbena right before serving.

This recipe is also perfect for a new lemony-twist to beef short ribs too. I’ll take it either way, with beef or pork.  YUMMY!

Yet another Liebster nomination comes my way.  This time I have been nominated by WendyMegget.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I am very honored and flattered.  I know some people think all this awards and nominations are silly, but I am definitely NOT one of those people.  To me, no matter how many times, it is always an honor.  I don’t count or keep track of nominations like this.  I just do my best and try to keep it fun and interesting.  It makes me feel good just knowing that others like what I do too.  It is an honor to be recognized by my peers and it is very flattering to learn than what I blog about and write about is pleasurable and encouraging to others.  Whether we want to admit it or not, we all blog about the things that matter to us and we want them to matter to others too.

The Rules are:

1. Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you.
2. Share 11 facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions the blogger(s) asked you.
4. Nominate 11 bloggers and make them happy!!
5. Make up to 11 questions and ask them to your nominees!
6. Notify your 11 nominees.

The 11 Questions Are:

1. Where is the most beautiful or majestic place you’ve seen?

Gosh, this is a hard one.  We travel all the time, and there are so many beautiful places.  I think if you look close enough, every place has its own kind of beauty.  But Colorado, where I live, is pretty hard to beat.  It has so much beauty everywhere you look.

2. What sort of weather is your favourite?

Fall is my favorite season.  I love the cooler weather and all the changing of the colors.

3.  Have you ever saved a life? How?

Yes.  Because of my job I am first responder, though NOT a professional first responder.  I am trained the same way life guards are trained, since I work in pools and I am a swim coach and a swimmer.  Because of my training I was able to help someone who was pinned underneath a motorcycle after an accident.  The motorcycle was about to blow up, and I was the first one there and got him away from the bike, just minutes before the bike went up in flames.

4.  What is your favourite quote?

“Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never what you’re gonna get” – the movie Forrest Gump

5.  If you had a spirit animal, what would it be?

I have a couple actually.  One is the dolphin.  The water is my home, and I would swim and play all day if I could.  The other is the wolf.  I am very protective and love to be part of a pack, but I also love to be on my own too.  I can be very loving, but if you cross me or threaten my loved ones, I can also be very deadly.

This is my husband and I swimming with Maya in Roatan, Honduras in 2017.

6.  What is the most valuable quality you look for in people?

Honesty and sincerity.

7.  Is there something in this world that you haven’t seen, but that you want to see before you die?

Plenty of things.  The more I do, the more I want to do.  Rather than checking things off my bucket list, mine just keeps growing and growing.

8.  What’s your favourite song?

That depends on my mood and what is going on at the time.  I love music of all kinds.

9.  What scares you the most?

Snakes, yet surprisingly, eels do not.  

Me holding a garden eel in Grand Cayman.

10.  What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?

Be myself.

11.  What is your next big adventure?

I am off to Spain in just a couple of weeks.  We’ve never been and this is one of those bucket list places.  I am really looking forward to it.

I like these questions, so I am going to ask my nominees the same questions.

My Nominees Are:

I am interested in many different things, and I have a lot of different hobbies.  These are only a handful of some my favorite bloggers.  I think we all have our specialties and interests, and that’s what keeps things fun.  Good luck to all of you.  You all deserve to be recognized.

1. ourlittleredhouseblog
   @ourlittlevalleyhouse
2. aguycalledbloke
   @aguycalledbloke
3. sonofabeach96
   @sonofabeach96
4. joypassiondesire
   @joypassiondesire
5. Well Balanced Millennial
   @wellbalancedmillennial
6. blackwings666
   @blackwings666
7. MAP195
   @map195
8. orkidedatter
   @orkidedatter
9. Fisherofmen
   @keyshaunsblog
10. badfinger20
    @badfinger20
11. abetterman21
    @abetterman21

My husband and I travel the world for pleasure, and of course scuba diving, in our personal life as much as both time and money will allow, but in reality, we can only do that so much.  There is only so much time and so much money, and it does not take to long before both run out.  So to fill my travel lust in between actual trips, I scour my cookbooks to find recipes to take me away.  I love that I am able to do so much “traveling” in the comfort of my own home and kitchen just through my cooking.  All it costs is the price of my ingredients and my time to make my exotic foods, and I am allowed a momentary getaway.  Granted it is not the same as actually going to these far off places around the world, but I am able to “travel” a lot more frequently this way, and it is still a fun little adventure, even if only for the duration of our meal.  Last week, I ventured down to Argentina with my culinary travels.  Yesterday, it appears I was on an Asian expedition.  I started with dessert first, as I often do, by making my pistachio chocolate cake Pistachio & Chocolate Butter Cake.  As the cake was cooling, I was able to make dinner.  Yes, we did eat the cake after dinner, although I made the cake first.

As most of you know, not only do I cook our foods all the time, but I also cook my dogs’ food too.  They eat a lot of the same foods we do (no spices or anything fancy for them though).  I made their weekly food yesterday too.  They had chicken with peas and sweet potatoes.  The sweet potato I used for them was HUGE, so I only used half.  That was part of my inspiration for what we were going to have for dinner too.  I wanted to use the other half of the sweet potato.  Other than wanting to use up the rest of my sweet potato, I really had no idea of what the rest of the meal was going to be until I just started rummaging through the fridge to see what I had.  I knew I was also going to do something with the chicken, so at least I now had two items in mind.  The rest just kind of came to me as I went along.  I cook this way quite often.  This is my play time.  When I cook this way, I’m really just having fun playing.  The final result was an Asian themed stir-fry with a honey sesame-orange sauce.

Sweet Potato and Chicken Stir-Fry

1 1/2 lbs chicken, cut into strips

12 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

1/2 sweet potato, cut into medium chunks,

1/4 red onion, sliced very thin

1 cup fresh green beans, cut into 1″ pieces

1 large tomato, diced medium – I used a large heirloom tomato

1 TBSP garlic

1 TBSP ginger

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup orange juice

1 tsp chocolate chili

1/2 cup honey sesame dressing/marinade

1 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

salt & pepper to taste

olive oil

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

Cook the sweet potatoes in olive oil for about 5 minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables, except the tomato and cilantro, and continue to cook for 5-7 more minutes.

Once the vegetables are cooked, remove them and cook the chicken, adding more olive oil as needed and salt & pepper to taste.

While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce by mixing all the liquid and wet ingredients together.  Once the chicken is cooked, add the vegetables and the sauce and mix everything together well.  Then add the tomatoes, and about 1/2 of the cilantro.  Bring everything to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 5-7 minutes.  When the dish is done, top with the rest of the cilantro.

You can serve it over rice or noodles.  This dish also easily lends itself to being vegetarian as well.  You can also use shrimp either by itself or along with the chicken and it would still come out very tasty and delicious.  I served it over lime-cilantro rice, along with some warmed pita bread (I would have preferred Naan bread, but I did not have any).  I served it with a chilled fume blanc, but a good riesling would do nicely too.

It’s been a while since I made a cake or any other kind of dessert, and I just felt like making a cake today, even though it was yet another hot day.  I found this exotic cake recipe that called for pistachios, chocolate and cardamom and it just sounded to good to pass up.  Cardamom is a spice I really don’t use a lot of unless I am doing an Indian dish, so it was kind of a pleasant treat to use it in a cake today.

Cardamom and cloves are ancient spices dating back to the days of the ancient spice trades.  Cardamom is a spice that is native to the Western Ghat forest of the Malabar Coast in India.  It grew alongside the peppercorns.  Peppercorns at that time were known as the “king of spices” and cardamom was known as the “queen” of spices.  These spices, along with many others, were brought to South Asia via Babylon, by the Arab traders, and from there, they traveled to Egypt, Greece and Rome.  Though cardamom was very popular in Asia, it did not take off so well in Europe at first.  For centuries, cardamom grew wild and it was not grown on plantations until the British established them in India in the early 1800’s, which could explain why they were not so popular in Europe at the time.  This being said though, cardamom was very popular in the Scandinavian countries by as early as the 9th century.  The Scandinavian counties are still among the top consumers of cardamom today too.

Cardamom is the fruit from the perennial bush Eletteria cardamomun, which is actually a member of the ginger family.  Before the British started cultivating cardamom a little over 200 years ago, it was all gathered from wild bushes.  Today is is mostly harvested in both India and Guatemala.

Pistachio and Chocolate Butter Cake

1 stick butter, at room temperature

1 3/4 cup flour

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup of pistachio paste – if you can not find it, no worries, it is very easy to make.  It is pistachios with about 1/4 cup of sugar and about 1 TBSP of milk.  Pulse everything together in a food processor until it forms a thick paste.

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup pistachios, chopped

confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 180* C

Spray a 9″ springform with cooking spray and line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.

Mix the butter and the sugar together for about 3-4 minutes until it is light and fluffy,  then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between.  Then mix in the pistachio paste.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Once the eggs, butter, sugar and pistachio paste is mixed, add the flour mixture and milk, alternating, adding about 1/2 of each and mixing.  Mix until everything is well blended.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Spread the cake batter evenly into the prepared cake pan, then top with the chopped pistachios.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes or until the cake is done and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let the cake cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting.  Dust with powdered sugar before cutting.  Serve with whipped cream or ice cream on the side.   Delicious!  The cardamon gives this cake a little hint of a pepper, which makes it a little exotic.  It is not what you expect from a dessert, but is definitely an interesting treat for the taste buds.

Hello, all my loyal followers, family and friends.  As of today, and less than an hour ago, there is something BRAND NEW on “A Jeanne in the Kitchen”.  Maybe you have already seen them.  Ads are now up and running on my blogsite, at ajeanneinthekitchen.com.  That means, just maybe, I might start to see a few $$$ before too long.  WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!  All of this is possible because of you and all your support.  You all get a big huge

as well as big

from me to you.

Give me a cookbook, and I will be a happy camper for quite a long time.  I am definitely a book lover.  I love holding books in my hands and flipping through the pages, and if it is a cookbook, I want to make all the recipes I see, right away.  I am like a little kid in a candy store, only instead of seeing visions of lollipops swirling through me head, I see visions of all kinds of different delicious foods before me.  Maybe that’s why sometimes I tend to make a lot of similar foods in a short time frame.  Lately, I have been on an Argentine food theme.   I have enjoyed this latest culinary journey down to Argentina just as much as I enjoy all my other culinary journeys to all other far off places around the world.

When we have our mermaid/merman potlucks, I almost always try to bring something healthy, since after all, we are in a fitness and exercise class and we are all trying our best to get healthier and lose some of those extra pounds that somehow seem to accumulate around our middle sections.  This time, I chose to make the hearts of palm and shrimp salad.  It’s healthy, quick and easy to make, and with the shrimp, it was a perfect fit for our mermaid/merman party. The Mermaid/Merman Gathering

The ensalada de palmitos y camerones or hearts of palm and shrimp salad is a dish that became famous and popular in the mid 1920’s at a golf resort in Mar del Plata, off the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires.  Mar del Plata is one of Argentina’s busiest fishing ports and every year, at the end of January (the middle of the Argentine summer) Mar del Plata hosts The Festival of Fishermen, where large quantities of delicious seafood dishes are served every year, in appreciation of all the gifts from the sea.  This is one of the popular dishes served at this annual event.

Hearts of Palm and Shrimp Salad

1 lb medium sized shrimp, peeled, deveined and cooked

1-2 firm, avocados, sliced

1 can hearts of palm, drained and sliced

1 head of red leaf lettuce

2 TBSP fresh chives

1 red bell pepper, sliced thin

4 TBSP lemon juice

red pepper flakes to taste

1-2 TBSP olive oil

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 TBSP ketchup

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp brandy

dash of Tobasco sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 TBSP capers

Cook the shrimp in half of the lemon juice, olive oil and red pepper flakes for about 5-7 minutes or until they are done and are pink all around.  Then remove them from the heat and set aside.

Place the lettuce leaves on a platter and arrange the red pepper slices, avocado slices, hearts of palm and shrimp around the lettuce leaves.  Squeeze the rest of the lemon juice over the ingredients, making sure to really cover the avocado slices to prevent browning.    You can use lemon juice from a bottle or lemon juice from a lemon.  I used both because I also used the cut lemon as my decoration and garnish too.

Mix together all the wet ingredients to make your sauce, then drizzle the sauce over the salad.

Once the salad is made, sprinkle the chopped chives and capers all around.  I also used more red pepper strips to enhance my presentation.  Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.  !Desfruitas!

One of my paying jobs is to teach water aerobics.  I have been teaching for a long, long time, and I love what I do.  It helps keep me in shape (or at least it used to) with all the cooking and eating I love to do.  One of the pools I work at is the beautiful outdoor pool in Wheat Ridge.  This is my favorite pool.  When the weather is scorching hot, like it has been all week, it is so refreshing to jump into this cool blue pool to help beat the heat.  Here in Colorado, our outdoor pools are seasonal, and are only open in the summers.  We all lament closing day, but rejoice when they open up again at the start of a new season.  We look forward to opening day of the new season the day we close the pool for the season with tears in our eyes.  My beautiful ladies that attend my outside classes have named us the Mermaid Club.  This year, we had our first merman too.  At the end of our mermaid season, we traditionally have a potluck party and everyone brings a ton of food to enjoy after class.  I have to work us extra hard on those days so we can burn off all those delicious calories we just know we are going to consume as soon as we get out of the pool.  We have so much fun at our mermaid/merman gatherings, that this year we decided to have two.  Our first one was held a couple of days ago.  As usual, there was so much good food and we all left feeling very, very full, although everything we brought was fairly healthy.

I am the lead mermaid, and am here in my natural habitat and environment, the water.  If I am not in the kitchen, I am swimming or diving somewhere in the waters around the world.

This year’s attendees and our scrumptious feast right before we dig in and it all disappears.  We were missing quite a few of our mermaids this time, but we all still enjoyed ourselves and ate way to much.  Hopefully everyone will be able to attend our next one, the last one of the 2019 season.

My friend and one of my original mermaid members, Kathy, is always so creative.  She brought this adorable layered tray with white chocolate dipped strawberries and gummy sharks and cherries, complete with a mermaid floating around on her pink flamingo at the surface of the shark tank.

Since I had so much of my vegetable escabeche leftover from the other day, Our Colorado Gaucho Grill that was one of my contributions to our feast.  Again, sticking to my Argentine theme for the week, I also made an Argentine salad with hearts of palm and shrimp, or ensalada de palmitos y camerones (stay tuned for details and the recipe for later.  Most probably tomorrow’s post).

Once again, we had a successful Mermaid/Merman party and season.  We have one more party for the season, and then our mermaid/merman tails will disappear and will return again next season.  I love all my mermaids and my new merman.  Thanks for yet another AWESOME season!  Just keep swimmin’, just keep swimmin’, just keep swimmin’.