A Jeanne in the Kitchen

The other day our neighbors Hanaa and Aziz brought over some Lebanese farro. I wanted something delicious and Middle Eastern to go with it and we had lamb out, so I made a lamb and vegetable tagine to go with the farro. I also sent some back to Hanaa and Aziz as a way of saying thank you for their generosity and thoughtfulness.

The history of the tagine. Due to its ancient nomadic origins, the tagine dish is from Berber cuisine. However, over the centuries, the dish was influenced by different civilizations including Arab, Moorish and Ottoman and became one of the most emblematic dishes of Moroccan cuisine. In general terms, the dish tagine contains a choice of protein, vegetables, fresh herbs, spices, dried fruits, and nuts. There is nothing unidimensional about tagine, either — sweet and savory flavors often mingle with rich, earthy aromas in this appetizing stew.

A tagine is an important part of Moroccan cuisine and has been a part of the culture for hundreds of years. The word tagine actually has two meanings. First, it refers to a type of North African cookware traditionally made of clay or ceramic. The bottom is a wide, shallow circular dish used for both cooking and serving, while the top of the tagine is distinctively shaped into a rounded dome or cone.

Second, the word tagine also refers to the succulent, stew-like dish which is slow-cooked in the traditional cookware. Typically, a tagine is a rich mixture of meat, poultry, or fish, and most often includes vegetables or fruit. Vegetables may also be cooked alone in the tagine.

Most people agree that the tagine’s origin dates back to the late 18th century when Harun al Rashid ruled the Islamic Empire. However, there is another school of thought that the use of ceramics in Moroccan cooking is probably of Roman influence; Romans were known for their ceramics and likely brought that tradition to their rule of Roman Africa. Either way, the first appearance of recipes cooked tagine-style appeared in the 9th century in the publication The Thousand and One Nights.

This is the farro that Hanaa made, or at least I think she called it farro. It certainly looks like farro too, but I am not as up-to-date on all my Middle Eastern grain varieties as I should be.

Lamb and Vegetable Tagine

3 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP lemon olive oil, optional

1 1/2-2 lbs lamb, cubed

1 onion, diced medium

1-2 TBSP garlic

1 tsp cumin

1-2 tsp turmeric

1 TBSP ginger

1 zucchini, sliced

1 red bell pepper, diced medium

2-3 large tomatoes, diced

2 TBSP lemon juice

salt & pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste, optional

lemon verbena and/or mint

I have never actually cooked in a tagine, so I am not even going to try to give cooking directions for that. But I do use a skillet everyday, so I will tell you how to cook it all in a skillet.

Get a large skillet very hot and add the oil(s) then add the onions and cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until they start to soften.

Add the lamb and cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until the lamb browns lightly, stirring frequently.

Add enough water to cover the lamb and onions, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

When the lamb has cooked and is tender, add the vegetables and spices, and more water if needed.

Let everything for about 15 minutes, at a slightly higher temperature. Add the mint and/or lemon verbena right at the very end of the cooking process. Drizzle lemon juice over the top and stir in right before serving.

You can serve it as is, like a stew, or you can serve it over rice, farro or other Middle Eastern grains, or potatoes. Either way, this is a delicious one-dish meal that you’re going to love. You can change the vegetables around too. I was going to add eggplant, but my eggplant wasn’t looking so good, so it got tossed, into the bin and NOT my dish.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

This post is totally different than most of my other posts. It is more of a PSA and is about dog safety. It is NOT about food at all. It is about my Juneau or my Juni Bug.

She is OK now, and is now once again at home, but yesterday was a very scary day for us, again.

Juneau, like most dogs, loves her toys. But unlike most other dogs, Juneau doesn’t just play with her toys; she DESTROYS them, and then eats the insides and eats the squeakers. Unfortunately, Dorrie is proving to be the same way. SO NO MORE TOYS in our house anymore.

We think this was the culprit. As you can see, Dorrie completely killed the pig. Unfortunately though, the pig almost got Juneau in revenge too.

This is NOT the first time this has happened either. This is the second time we’ve been in this situation with Juneau. And she is only 2 1/2 years old. Both times, the squeaker got lodged between her duodenum and her small intestine, requiring major surgery. This time, it was slightly better than last time, since they did not have to remove any of her small intestine. Last time, they had to remove 8 inches of her small intestine.

Our regular vet does not have the capacity to keep animals overnight, so we picked her up from them once she was out of surgery and had to take her to an ER vet overnight, so they could watch and monitor her.

I got a call from the ER vet this morning, around 8:00 AM. They told me she had a very good night, but did NOT want to be there any longer. She removed her catheter on her own, had eaten some earlier and could I come and bring her some chicken. If she ate again, she could come home. The doctors wanted to make sure she was eating consistently and was doing OK before releasing her.

She definitely wanted to come home, and she ate the whole can. She even finished off this little bit.

At first, we thought we had removed all dangerous stuff and she would be OK with toys as long as we were watching her and removed all things dangerous once the toys had been attacked.

We also weren’t too concerned at first, because Juneau is a very picky eater, and it is a regular thing for her to skip meals, especially if she is “bored with her food”. But when she hadn’t eaten in a couple of days, we got very concerned. She was even turning down her cookies, and she LOVES her cookies, again just like her mommy. That’s when we called our vet. She was eating a lot of grass and throwing up, trying to dislodge the culprit, but it was in too deep, and she couldn’t remove it on her own.

Juneau is home again now, and she is eating and moving on her own. These are very good signs indeed, however, we still have to keep an eye on her for the next few days, and we have her on meds and painkillers too. My message to all of you doggie parents though, especially if you have toy destructors like we do, is DON’T give them toys. We were VERY lucky, twice, but I definitely DO NOT want to go through this again, EVER! Your good, loving thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated by Juneau and Larry and I. Thank you all so much. I hope Juneau’s story helps all of you doggie parents and all your fur babies.

If somethings has shrimp in the name, it’s a given I am going to like it. This is also pretty true for any most kinds of Italian food too. Preparing shrimp in an Italian way, well, that is definitely going to be a winner, no doubt about that. 🙂

I made Tuscan styled shrimp, or at least that’s what I am calling it, and it was oh so good. I loaded it up with spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and of course lots of huge jumbo shrimp. Shrimp and seafood are not traditionally part of the Tuscan diet, as Tuscany is landlocked and plunged in the center of rolling hills, but today, anything goes. Traditional Tuscan food is more centered around meats, cheeses, wild game, and of course fresh vegetables and bread; all the foods that come from the land.

Tuscan styled foods are simple foods made in a light sauce, usually made with olive oil and/or broths. They are made using fresh, high-quality ingredients that bring out the natural flavors in each dish. They are made with fresh aromatic herbs and peppers, garlic, onions, tomatoes, lemons, legumes, just to name a few. All the foods I love. I cook this way all the time. Sometimes, they are referred to as “poor man’s food or cucina povera“. I must really like poor man’s food a lot, because, no matter what style I am cooking in, these are the dishes I tend to gravitate to the most.

Cucina povera became the way to cook in order to survive when Tuscany was a poor, rural area. With access to limited ingredients, Tuscans got creative in the kitchen to make the most of what they had by embracing a no-waste philosophy. The magic of cucina povera lies in the frugal Italian cook’s ability to transform humble ingredients from the Tuscan countryside into simple, flavor-packed dishes.

Tuscan Styled Shrimp

1 1/2-2 lbs large shrimp or prawns, peeled and deveined

4 cups baby spinach, stems removed

2 large tomatoes, diced

1-2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 can artichoke hearts, drained and cut in half

1 onion, diced

1-2 TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste

1 TBSP capers

2-3 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP lemon olive oil, optional

2 TBSP lemon balsamic vinegar, optional

1 cup dry white wine

1-2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1-2 tsp basil

1-2 tsp oregano

1-2 tsp marjoram

Get a large skillet very hot, then add the olive oil and lemon olive oil, if using. Add the shrimp and cook until completely pink, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove and set aside.

Saute the onions and garlic for about 2 minutes, then add the spinach and mushrooms. Cook for an additional 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the wine and cook down for about 1-2 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then add the tomatoes, capers, chicken broth and seasonings.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the artichoke hearts and re-add the shrimp at about the last 2 minutes of cooking.

Drizzle more lemon olive oil or lemon juice on top and mix in, then serve over cooked pasta or cooked cannellini beans. This is a light sauce, so a lighter pasta is perfect. I used angel hair pasta. You do not want a heavy pasta. The delicate flavors of the sauce will get lost on it. Top it with some fresh Mozzarella or Parmigiano, serve it with some warmed bread and chilled wine, and dinner is done. !Buon Appetito!

You can also use this same sauce for chicken too.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I can’t believe it. It is so late in the duckling season, but I still have baby ducklings. I’ve heard that ducks can lay 2 sets of eggs during a season, but I have never heard of 3 sets. Sure enough though, I was very pleasantly surprised to see more baby ducklings. There was a momma with her 2 new babies, just swimming along the lakeshore, having a good time. So this means, I currently have ducklings in all stages of “babyhood” right now, all at the same time. How cool is that? 🙂

These ducklings were earlier in the season.

They have all grown up to be teenagers, and now they look like this.

This has definitely been a season full of surprises, that’s for sure, and I love all these wonderful surprises too. Keep them coming. 🙂

It’s been a lemony blueberry kind of summer. I have made lots of goodies using this delicious pairing, and most likely, there will be more yet to come. Like chocolate and peanut butter, lemon and blueberry are two great tastes that taste great together. They bring out the best in each other.

I was planning on making something different for my coffee cart, but I still had blueberries that I needed to use, so a lemon blueberry upside down streusel cake it was. Yet again, it was a big hit. This week’s coffee cart did have a few leftovers on it though, but I attribute that to the fact that we had two baptisms yesterday, and we offered a wide array of ice cream treats following the baptisms, allowing everyone a chance to celebrate the occasions with something cool to help beat the heat. 🙂

I call this cake an upside down streusel cake because the streusel “topping” was actually on the bottom of the cake this time.

Lemon Blueberry Upside Down Streusel Poundcake

Had I made this cake in a 9×13 baking pan, the streusel would have been on top, but I chose to make into a bundt cake this time. I wasn’t thinking about the streusel topping when I added it to the cake before baking it. But of course, I had to flip the cake onto my serving platter and the topping was now on the bottom. Oh well. These things do happen. As my mentor, the one and only Julia Child would say, ” never apologize when cooking. Act as if the results were the intended results all along”. How can I argue with logic like that, right?! 🙂

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 190* C.

Spray your pan with cooking spray. If you want the streusel on the bottom, use a bundt cake pan. If you want the streusel on top, use a 9×13 baking pan.

The Streusel

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

4 TBSP cold butter, cubed

Mix everything together until it all resembles coarse sand and set aside.

The Cake

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 or 1 1/2 sticks softened butter

3 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract

1 cup blueberries, or mixed berries, lightly coated in flour

Coat the berries in flour and toss gently. i actually had a few balckberries and raspberries included as well.

Combine all the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together until creamy, then add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing in between. Add the vanilla and lemon extract and mix again. Add 1/2 of the flour, mix, then 1/2 of the milk, mix, and repeat until it is all incorporated into the batter. Do not overmix.

Fold in the berries carefully.

If you are using a 9×13 baking pan, pour the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Add the streusel on top. If you are using a bundt pan, add 1/2 of the batter and spread evenly into the pan, add 1/2 of the streusel, then repeat, finishing with the streusel on top, which will be the bottom later.

Bake for about an hour or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing it to share with friends.

According to legend, though I think it was taken out of context, Marie Antoinette said “let them eat cake”. I think you should eat cake too.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay cool, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Today, while Larry and I were sitting out on our deck, enjoying lunch, I spotted this beautiful Ferruginous Hawk way up high in a distant tree. At first I thought it was a Golden Eagle, but once I got my camera out and was able to zoom in on him, I saw he was not an eagle at all. The name Ferruginous means rust-colored, and they are very much like little eagles, so I wasn’t completely wrong at first. I only got a couple of good shots of him because he was so far away, and my camera didn’t want to focus in on him. It kept focusing in on things I could care less about instead. I really wish I could have gotten more pictures of him, but there is always next time. I love the hawks. I think he is absolutely gorgeous.

Life is full of surprises. You just never know what you’ll see, or when, or where. Keep your eyes open and be ready for the unexpected. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay cool, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Americans LOVE their chocolate. No doubt about it. In fact, the average American consumes about 9.5 lbs of chocolate every year. It is estimated that Americans will consume the equivalent of about 10,000 chocolate bars over the course of their life. WOW! We are second to the Swiss, who eat about 11.8 lbs per year, but we’re quickly catching up.

We also love our cookies. Nearly 93% of American households serve cookies, and most of the cookies served are chocolate chip, or some other chocolate variety. Cookies came to America through the Dutch in New Amsterdam in the late 1620s. The Dutch word “koekje” was Anglicized to “cookie” or cooky. The earliest reference to cookies in America is in 1703. So they have been around longer than America as a country has been. We love our cookies for a lot of reasons, but mainly because they are good comfort food, that often remind us of happy childhood memories and fun times, that, and … they taste good. The cookie possibilities are endless, and they come in so many shapes, sizes and varieties. Cookies have always been my favorite dessert, and most probably always will be. Mrs. Nash, my second mom while growing up, made cookies everyday, and everyday when Kathy and I were playing or after school, we always had a wide variety of delicious cookies as a snack. The house always smelled so good too. 🙂

When you combine chocolate and cookies together, well that is just a little bit of Heaven in every bite. How could you go wrong???? With it still being July, America’s birthday month, I decided to make some patriotic cookies to celebrate.

These are just chocolate cookies with red, white and blue M & M’s, but they are still fun and still taste very good. I used the same recipe for the chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, and just substituted the M & M’s instead. I also just place them on top so they would really pop rather than incorporating them into the mix.

Chocolate M & M Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups softened butter or 2 1/2 sticks

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp chocolate extract

1 10-oz package of M & M’s

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 190* C.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine all the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, mixing in between. Add the vanilla and chocolate extract and mix again. You do not have to add the chocolate extract, however, it really makes the flavors pop. If you don’t use chocolate extract, use 2 tsp of vanilla instead. Add the flour 1/2 at a time, mixing in between until everything is blended together.

You can either fold in the M& M’s at this time, or leave them for the end and just place on top of the cookies.

Drop about 1 TBSP of cookie dough onto the prepared pans, roll into a ball, and lightly press to slightly flatten them if you like. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are set. Allow the cookies to cool for about 5-10 minutes on the pan before transferring them to a baking rack to finish cooling.

Share with friends and savor the flavors.

In my book, there is nothing better than fresh, homemade cookies. YUMMY!!!!!

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay cool, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I thought I was going out early enough to avoid the heat. WRONG! It was still very hot. At first I didn’t see much at all, but I just had to look more closely. There was lots to see, even somethings I didn’t want to see, like a big bull snake slithering along the sidewalk, or another snakeskin in the grass or the dead goose on the rocks. But there were lots more things I enjoyed seeing, which made it a good walk indeed.

One of my neighbors always has such a beautiful garden, and she had moths, bees and a beetle or two in her garden that captured my attention.

Up the road, and on another lake, one of my other neighbors, who also always has a gorgeous garden, had a curious dragonfly perched on a stalk that was posing for me as well.

It was a good day, despite the snake. Despite the things we like, there are always more things we do like. Focus on the good things in life and make everyday a great day.

As you know, I like to give you all a bit of variety, to spice things up. So today, I thought I would share more food thoughts with you. Here are some quotes and quips that the pros are saying about why we cook. We get into cooking for the love of creating and sharing with others. Cooking for others is an act of love and it comes from the heart.

This so very true. You can read a recipe, and cook it, but you must always add that special ingredient called love to really bring it to life. 🙂

Inspiration comes from the produce, beautiful vegetables, delicious herbs, an amazing piece of fish, incredible meats. – Chef Aaron Bludorn

Also very true. I am inspired by seeing beautiful foods. The foods themselves are my muse. What I cook and prepare is from their inspiration to me.

Yes, yes, and yes!!!!!

Cooking for someone is a form of love for them. They are sharing their best for you.

Well said. It sure is.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well, and happy cooking. ‘Til next time.

I love sunflowers. They seem to be such happy flowers, always facing the direction of the sun. They come in many different, sizes, varieties and even colors, though most are a bright gold. They are popping up all over the place right now. Here are some different flowers of the sun that just captured my attention and looked pretty basking in the sun.

Even my own sunflowers are shining brightly. Dorrie and Juneau had to check them out too.

Have a bright, bright, sunshiny day.