With today being Veteran’s Day, I am just going to give a big THANK YOU to all those who serve and all those who have served and to all those who put their life on the line everyday to keep us all safe.
My daddy in his Australian Army uniform – circa 1940 WWII, before being shipped off to fight in North Africa. This picture was taken outside of Melbourne, Australia, where he was from. Thank you Daddy, and to everyone else who fought to make the world a better place.
I love cookies. I also love anything and everything pumpkin. And it is prime pumpkin season, so of course, I am going to combine these two great flavors to make something really special, especially just in time for Thanksgiving. One of our fellow blogger friends, My Life as A Mom, posted about her pumpkin spice cookies back in October. Ever since I saw her post, I have been “Jonesin'” to make these incredible looking seasonal cookies. I just knew I would be making these in the very near future, although I was hoping to have made them long before today. They did get made today though, and they are every bit as scrumptious as I knew they would be. So hats off and kudos to My Life As a Mom for this delicious inspiration. I love these cookies. The only things I would do differently would be to bake them a little longer since I prefer crunchier cookies to soft cookies, and chill them in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before baking to have them set, but other than that, they are just perfect.
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp of either pumpkin pie spice or 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp allspice and 1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
Preheat the oven to 350* F
Spray you cookie sheets with cooking spray
Mix all your dry ingredients together and set aside.
Blend the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Then add the egg, pumpkin and vanilla. Mix well. Add 1/3 of the flour and mix until just incorporated, then repeat until all the flour is mixed into the dough.
Once the dough is made, fit a pastry bag with a fluted tip and fill the bag about 2/3 full with the dough, then pipe the dough in a 2×2 circle onto the prepared cookie sheet.
Spice Topping
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp of either pumpkin pie spice or 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp allspice
Mix everything together and add about 1/3 tsp to the cookies. Chill in he refrigerator for about 30 minutes before putting them into the oven. Bake for about 12-15 minutes for softer cookies or about 18 minutes if you like crispier cookies. Let cool for about 5-7 minutes on the cookie sheet before placing them on a cookie rack to continue to cool.
The end result – DELICIOUS!!! It’s hard to stop at just one, or two ….
Halibut is one of my absolute favorite types of fish. It is a thick whitefish with a steak-like quality to it. The best halibut is found in very cold waters. However, living in Denver, fresh halibut is hard to come by, and when it is easily obtainable, it is usually too expensive to buy, so unfortunately, I do not get to eat it nearly as often as I would like. When I do purchase it and get to eat it though, it is always a special treat to me, and I always make the most of it by preparing it in a very tasty way. This time was no exception. I added a crispy coating and baked it, then topped it with a delicious dill buerre rouge, or a dill red butter sauce, that just brought the dish to life and made the flavors really pop. I complimented the meal with some creamy scalloped potatoes and Brussels sprouts cooked with apples and bacon and pumpkin Parmesan bread that i took out of the freezer. Savory Sweet Pumpkin-Parmesan Bread I finished the dish with a crisp chardonnay that had hints of citrus, apples and melon. I was in seafood Heaven.
Baked Parmesan Halibut
1 lb halibut or white fish or your choice
1 cup corn flake cereal
2 TBSP grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried dill
salt & pepper to taste
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
Mix all the dried ingredients together in a food processor until you have a nice crumbly texture.
Pat dry the fish. Mix the egg and the milk together. Dip the fish in the egg mixture and coat well, then dip it into the corn flake and Parmesan mixture and coat well on both sides.
Place the fish in a baking dish or on a baking sheet and bake at 450*F for about 10-12 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the fish flakes off easily with a fork.
Dill Buerre Rouge
1 tomato, diced small
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 TBSP garlic, minced fine
1 shallot, minced fine
4-5 TBSP butter divided
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp fresh dill
In a very hot skillet, melt 1/2 the butter and saute the garlic and shallots, until they are soft and translucent, or about 5 minutes. Add the wine, and completely cook off all the liquid. This will reduce the acidity in the sauce. Once the liquid is all cooked off, add the tomato and salt & pepper. Continue to cook, at a medium heat for about 7-10 minutes, or until most of the tomatoes have broken down and are well incorporated into the sauce. If you need to add more wine, add a bit more as needed, but make sure to completely cook the liquid off again.
Once the tomatoes have broken down and are now part of the sauce, add the rest of the butter and incorporate well. The tomatoes do not have to be completely liquified. In fact, I love the rustic flair where there are still some chunks of tomato left in the sauce. It gives the sauce more texture and character. Add the fresh dill right at the very end, after the sauce is completely cooked. Serve it over your fish and top with a sprig of fresh dill for garnish.
Fall is the perfect season for pumpkins. They are great for decorations, but they are also very healthy and delicious to eat as well. Not only are they healthy for us, but they are very healthy for our dogs too. Both the “meat” of the pumpkin and the seeds are very healthy and good for dogs to eat. If you are going to give them the seeds though, they should be roasted and not raw, since raw seeds can go rancid very quickly. Roasted pumpkin seeds for dogs are high in Omega 3 fatty acids which act as a natural remedy for parasites such as roundworms and tapeworms. They can also help dislodge kidney stones, and are also beneficial to your dog’s urinary tract. Because pumpkins are high in fiber, and are good for your dog’s digestion, they help with both diarrhea and constipation. And if your dogs are on the pudgy side, like my Lucie, adding pumpkins to their diets helps with weight loss as well. Pumpkins are 90% water, so adding pumpkin to the diet can help hydrate your dogs too. You can use canned pumpkin puree or whole pumpkins that have been peeled and cooked. Do not let your dogs eat the skin or the core though. Not only are pumpkins healthy for your dogs, but dogs love them because they taste so good.
As most of you know, I make the wet food for my two Saint Bernards all the time. I give them a wide variety of foods high in protein and low in fats. I make them the same quality of foods that I make for myself and my husband. I usually make a batch that will last for most of the week. They are very healthy, with shiny coats. I will take this as a positive sign that they like their food, although they don’t exactly have the most discriminating tastes. There is some controversy about whether or not to give dogs raw food or cooked foods. I personally believe their foods should be cooked, not raw, only because of the risks of salmonella or trichinosis, or any other parasitic food risks that are out there, but if making your own dog food, each person has to make that decision themselves, and do what they feel is best for their own dogs. The argument against cooking their food is that dogs in the wild eat raw meat. And though this is true, the difference is that the wild dogs are actually hunting their own live prey and are catching their food, rather than having it butchered and prepared by humans, and therefore, there is much less risk for the parasitic or foodborne illnesses. This week, Lucie and Vinnie are feasting on a lot of P’s. I made their food with ground beef, and added peas, potatoes, pumpkin, parsley, and peanut butter, along with a dash of cinnamon. (I told you I would find a use for my pumpkins that I used for my fall decorations. From Sesame Chicken to Stir-Fry Pork) Other than the cinnamon, I did not add any other spices or seasonings. So with all the P‘s listed above, the most important P in their food was protein, and lots of it. Dogs in general, but especially the larger breed dogs, need a lot of protein in their diets. Lucie and Vinnie have no complaints about how mommy makes their food. They love every bite of it and gobble everything up within seconds.
Fritzie is helping me prepare everything.
I cooked all the vegetables in canola oil for about 10-15 minutes, or until the pumpkins and potatoes were mostly cooked and translucent. Then I added the parsley and cinnamon.
After mixing everything together, I added the lean ground beef, and continued to cook everything until the meat was completely cooked as well.
Once everything is completely cooked, it is time to add the peanut butter. The peanut butter not only adds both flavor and additional protein, but also acts as a binder to hold everything together.
Vinnie (left) and Lucie (right) enjoying a spoonful of peanut butter.
Mom, we’re hungry. It’s time to eat. NOW PLEASE!
I know, you’re reading the title and thinking ??????? What is she up to now? Has she completely lost her mind? Well maybe, but not for the reasons that you may think. I may be crazy in all other aspects of my life, but in the kitchen I know exactly what I am doing (or at least I put on a good show so everyone is fooled into thinking that ). 🙂 By now, you all should know I hate throwing food away if I don’t have to, and that means waving my magic spoon and stirring with my magic whisk to re-create something completely different from leftovers that I already have. I have nothing against eating leftovers just as they are, but as a creative person, I get bored easily, and I just have this burning desire from deep within that drives me to create, or in a lot of cases, re-create. Hence my reigning title as “The Queen of Leftovers”; a title I have no intentions of surrendering anytime soon. This time, I had a lot of sauce leftover from when I made my sesame chicken and I did not want to just throw it away if I didn’t have to, nor did I want to have the same exact dish all over again so soon. Sesame Chicken We had pork chops and a wide variety of vegetables, so an Asian pork stir-fry with vegetables it was. All I needed to do was to add a few different ingredients, and voila, it was a new sauce and a new dish. Don’t worry, it was extra sauce that was nowhere near the chicken. I would never cross contaminate my foods like that.
I love all vegetables and I always have a wide variety on hand at any given time. We eat a lot of vegetables, and I am always mixing them up. We always have vegetables with more vegetables. I love mixing up a whole bunch of colors and textures of my vegetables too. So mix them up yourselves, and use what you like, in any combination you like. There is no right or wrong types of vegetables to use. This time I used, red bell peppers, fresh green beans, mushrooms, jalapenos, shallots, kobiashi squash or pumpkin and green onions (Yes, soon all those little mini pumpkins in the background will be cooked up and used as well). If you are using both soft and hearty vegetables, saute your heartier ones first and add your softer ones towards the end of the cooking process. I cooked them in a combination of both olive oil and sesame oil with chilies in a hot skillet. If you have a wok, that’s fine too. I have one, I just very rarely use it. For whatever reason, I prefer using my large skillet.
I sliced the pork into thin strips that were about 1 1/2″x 1/2′ in size. Once the vegetables were cooked, I added the pork to the vegetables and continued cooking until the pork was completely cooked. While everything is cooking. I made the additions to my sauce.
As I said above, I used my leftover sauce from my sesame chicken Sesame Chicken then I added about 1 heaping TBSP of each garlic, fresh ginger and hot Chinese spicy mustard. To make the sauce a little thicker, if you want, you can add a little cornstarch mixed with water to the sauce. I was going to use it, but the sauce did not need it this time. It was fine just the way it was, so no cornstarch was needed.
Once everything is completely cooked, add the sauce to the pork and vegetable mixture, and combine well. Add sliced green onions right before serving.
I served my stir-fry over white rice along with some crispy pan-fried dumplings and a crisp and fruity chardonnay, but a semi-sweet Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc or Gewertztrameiner would be nice wines to go with the meal as well.
**** You can easily substitute chicken or shrimp, or a combination of chicken, shrimp and/or pork if you like. You can also make it vegetarian and/or vegan simply by removing the meat and adding tofu and/or other vegan products.
Chicken is one of our staples. We eat a lot of chicken, and we eat it in many, many different ways. It is so versatile and just goes with everything. When the weather gets cooler, I like baking it and roasting it, or baking it with delicious sauces. This recipe for chicken with mushrooms and artichoke hearts is is a baked chicken with a creamy sauce. This recipe is from one of my German cookbooks, and as always, I modify it and made it my own recipe. The original version of this dish is called Gebackene Habnchenbrust mit Champignons, and does not have the artichoke hearts, garlic, shallots or thyme. I added these ingredients, which I feel just made a good dish a much better dish. In case you have not realized this yet, I am always”playing with my food”, making changes and tweaks wherever I feel they are needed. That’s just what I do, and I encourage you to do the same. That’s what makes cooking so much fun. You are personalizing your recipes, making them how you like them, and making them your own.
Chicken with Mushrooms and Artichoke Hearts. This is a very hearty dish and is best when served over with mashed potatoes, rice or noodles. I had leftover mashed potatoes from when I made my steak with paprika vinaigrette, Steak with Paprika Vinaigrette so I served it over mashed potatoes here.
Chicken with Mushrooms and Artichoke Hearts
2 lbs chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour + 1 TBSP
salt & pepper to taste
3 TBSP butter
olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 can artichoke hearts, reserve the liquid
1/2 cup sour cream
1 TBSP bread crumbs
1 TBSP garlic
1 shallot, sliced thin
1 tsp fresh thyme
Preheat the oven to 350* F or 175* C
Mix the flour with the salt and pepper, then coat the chicken with the flour mixture. The chicken breasts I used were HUGE, so I cut them in half, wrapped them in plastic wrap and pounded them with a meat tenderizer, to make them both more tender and thinner. This will also reduce the cooking time and will allow for more even cooking.
When the chicken breasts are floured and prepared, place them in a hot skillet with butter and olive oil and pan fry them until they are browned on all sides. This will take about 15-20 minutes.
While the chicken breasts are cooking up, slice the mushrooms and shallot, then saute them with the garlic in a combination of butter and olive oil. Add the artichoke hearts right at the very end. They do not need to cook more. For the sauce, mix together the breadcrumbs, 1 TBSP flour, sour cream, wine, reserved liquid from the can of artichoke hearts and thyme.
Once the chicken is cooked, place it in a baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Next add the mushroom and artichoke mixture. Finish by pouring the sour cream and wine mixture on top.
Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for about 40-45 minutes. Serve over mashed potatoes, rice or noodles. I completed the meal with a nice, cold viognier that had hints of citrus and apples. It was a perfect dinner for a cold and chilly night.
Hey Out There, if you like food and fun food facts, come check me out at ajeanneinthekitchen.com. Hope to see you all there.
We love steak and because we eat it quite often, I am always looking for new ways to prepare it. Steak is one of those very versatile meats that can be fixed and enjoyed in many, many different ways, which is what makes it so much fun to prepare. There is always something different to look forward to. So far, I have not yet found any way that I do not like to eat it, except for when it is over cooked. No matter how I prepare it, or what toppings I add, the best way for me is to have it nice and juicy and medium rare. More so than not, we tend to grill our steaks, and we grill them year round. The only time we really don’t grill steak is if the grill is buried under a thick blanket of snow.
No snow covering the grill this time around, so I rubbed salt, pepper, brown sugar and olive oil all over a thick and perfectly marbled T-bone and slapped it on the grill. The brown sugar caramelized and made a little bit of a charred coating on the steak, which was perfect when served with the smokey flavorings of the paprika vinaigrette on top. The result was a steak that was smokey, sweet and crusty, and came it just perfect. It was also really tasty.
Paprika Vinaigrette
1 /2 cup olive oil
2 TBSP paprika
1 large shallot, minced fine
1/3 cup capers, plus some of the juice
1/4 cup chopped parsley, chopped fine
2 TBSP red wine vinegar
1 TBSP garlic
2 tsp brown sugar
Mix everything together and let rest before using.
I served the steak with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus, along with a delicious, smooth and velvety cab franc. This paprika vinaigrette would also be very good with either chicken or pork, or even mixed in with roasted potatoes.
Green tomatoes and tomatillos may look similar, and are distant cousins from the nightshade or Solanaceae family, which also include tomatoes, eggplants and potatoes, and in Spanish they are called tomates verdes, but that is about all they have in common. Green tomatoes are actually hard tomatoes that have not yet ripened or changed colors. They are found mostly in the fall, when the temperatures are cooler and the tomatoes have not received enough heat to allow them to fully ripen and change colors. They are always cooked and most often fried. Tomatillos, on the other hand, are not tomatoes at all. They are fruits from a completely different plant, and have a sticky pectin-like substance, as well as a husk that the fruit grows into, on the outside of the fruit. They can be either green or purple, although, I have only seen the green tomatillos. They are very popular in both Mexico and Guatemala, and were originally thought to have been introduced to the area by the Spanish conquistadors. Although, fossils have been found in Argentina that have the tomatillos dating back as far as 16 million years. Tomatillos are also known as jamberries. They are very healthy for you, and their health benefits include being a great source of dietary fiber, as well as containing large amounts of niacin, potassium and manganese. It is also believed they have anti-inflammatory and cancer fighting properties as well. Tomatillos are very versatile, and can be eaten in many ways, however, they are most often used for either salsas or sauces. I use a lot of tomatillos when I make green chili. Tomatillos have a tangy flavor and are crisp and firm until cooked. Time for Green Chili
The other day, I found these very large, beautiful tomatillos and just had to buy them and put them to good use. That night, my husband told me about the chili contest for his work that was yesterday, on Halloween. I was going to make a red chili, but made green chili instead. Our chili did not win, but it was one of the finalists. Maybe we will win next time. It was very popular though, since there was none left over for us. It’s a good thing we had some the night before.
Tomatillos, green bell peppers, roasted hatch chilies, green bell peppers, Anaheim chilies, and jalapenos, mixed together with garlic, onions, cumin, sage, thyme, oregano, salt & pepper. All that is needed is the pork and the chicken broth,and time, then in a few hours, it will be a delicious green chili.
We love a good, hearty, meaty green chili, so I used this whole pork loin. I cubed it and coated it in flour, then browned it before adding it to the vegetable mixture and the chicken broth.
i mixed everything together, then put it in the slow cooker and cooked it for about 7 hours, at a low-medium temperature.
This picture is from another batch of green chili that i made in April. Time for Green Chili
We love green chili, and it is a very popular dish here in Colorado, and in the Southwest in general. We eat it quite often. One of our favorite ways to eat it is served over tamales, with a nice, cold margarita especial to make the meal complete. Esta mui delicioso! Desfruitas!
My friend Priscilla and I have been getting together to make our famous caramels for quite some time now. It has became an annual tradition. We started out just making regular caramels, but last year we added chocolate pecan caramels as well. Both are mouth watering delicacies. Those who have tasted our caramels have even claimed these are “these best caramels in the whole world”. I don’t know about that, but I will say they are really, really good. I am not going to include the recipe for the caramels this time since I have already included it in a previous post, Making Caramels. We were going to make a third type this year, but life happened, and we both got so busy that we just didn’t have time to do the research we needed to do to find out what type we wanted to make. As it was, we had to scramble to make a date for this year because we have both been so busy. In years past, it has always been just the two of us, but this year, we invited our friend Janet to the candy making factory as well. She chose not to make caramels, but made sherried walnuts instead. Those were very tasty too. It was fun to add something different to our repertoire. After the candies we all made, we sat down and enjoyed our tapas dinner. A great time was had by all. This is the meal where we enjoyed the Greek cannellonies and the sausages cooked in red wine. Greek Crepe Cannelloni Stuffed with Beef and Sausage Cooked in Red Wine.
Janet and Bob making the first batch of sherried walnuts and Priscilla is making her first batch of caramels. Priscilla’s mom, Ana is supervising.
To make the caramels, you just add everything together, except the cream gets added in two batches. Then, just stir and let it boil until it gets to between 230*-240*F before adding the second round of cream.
Two dear friends whom have known each other a lifetime, just having fun in the kitchen.
Once the second addition of cream has been added, and the temperature once again reaches between 230-240*F, the cooking process is done. It is now time to pour the bubbling hot mixture into a prepared 9×13 baking pan. Let it set and cool for at least 5 hours.
Once the caramels have completely cooled and are set, they are ready to cut and wrap.
The cutting and individual wrapping is the really time consuming part of making caramels. You can cut them any size you like, but remember, they are pure sugar, so you don’t want them too big. I usually try to keep mine about 1×1″ in size.
I just finished cutting and wrapping all the plain caramels yesterday. I have not even started on the chocolate pecan caramels yet. I am hoping to get to these today. These take awhile to do, so have patience; a lot of patience. These also make great holiday gifts, which is one of the reasons why we always try to do them sometime in October. Of course, I have to sample every now and then; for quality control purposes, you know.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 