A Jeanne in the Kitchen

If you are anything like me, you are a fair weathered salad eater. I love salads, and I eat a lot of them too, but usually only in the warmer weather. In the winter, I live in snow country, and a salad just doesn’t do it for me. Or as my dad would say, “it doesn’t warm the cockles of my heart”. But in the warmer weather, there is nothing better than a cool, crisp salad to help beat the heat.

Because we eat so many salads in the warmer weather, I am always looking for something different. I like a lot of variety, both in my salads and my dressings. I also like a lot of color and different textures. This new summer salad is a definite winner, and meets all my salad requirements. It’s very colorful. It has a lot of different flavors and textures, and most importantly, it tastes really good too. I call it my summer sunburst salad. I served it with a vegan creamy cashew and orange dressing too. As is, this whole salad is vegan, but if you want to make it more of a main meal, all you need to do is add either shrimp, salmon or chicken, and you’ve gone from a vegan side salad to a main meal.

Summer Sunburst Salad

This salad is all about presentation. You want people to say “WOW” when they see it. The sunburst is in the presentation.

Mixed baby salad greens

1/4 red onion, sliced very thin

1/2 avocado, sliced

1/4 red bell pepper, cut into thin matchsticks

1-2 small oranges, sliced into segments

cooked asparagus spears

1/2-1 cup blackberries

1/3 cup chopped cashews

Start with a layer of the mixed baby greens then arrange all the rest of the ingredients on top to make a bright, colorful sunburst. Start with the avocado slices, then add the orange segments. Add a few blackberries in the center, and then sprinkle the rest of the ingredients around to really make the salad pop. You can use any kind of dressing you like, but I served it with a creamy orange and cashew dressing, also vegan. I actually made the dressing first, then created the salad around the dressing.

Creamy Orange and Cashew Dressing

This dressing can be used as a dipping sauce as well.

This can be a thick sauce or a more liquidy sauce or dressing, depending on how you use it and what you like.

3/4 cup cashews

1/4 red onion

1 TBSP garlic

1 cup orange juice

1 TBSP lemon juice

1-2 TBSP lemon olive oil, optional

1-2 TBSP lemon balsamic vinegar, optional

1/3 cup fresh parsley

1/3 cup fresh cilantro

1 tsp maple syrup

salt & pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste

2 cups + 1/4 cup water, or more as needed or desired

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Once it starts to boil, turn the heat off and add the cashews. Let them soak for at least an hour.

Once the cashews have soaked for at least an hour, drain them and place them in a food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse away until you have a liquid sauce. If you want the sauce thicker, 1/4 cup of water is fine. If you like it thinner, add more water until you reach the desired consistency.

I like bolder dressings, so I added more lemon olive oil, lemon balsamic vinegar and red pepper flakes. Once the dressing is ready, place it in the refrigerator to chill until you are ready to use it.

Let the summer salad season begin. I’m sure you will be seeing a lot more delicious salads and dressings coming your way since the season has officially started. Enjoy!

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

As much as I love to cook, it is NOT all I love to do. I LOVE living life and all that it has to offer, even outside of the kitchen. 🙂 The other day it was a beautiful day. It was way to nice to spend indoors. Mike and Larry played a round of golf while Lauren and I enjoyed ourselves at the zoo. Both were perfect ways to enjoy the beautiful weather and to spend some quality time with Mother Nature.

There were a lot of animals I would have liked to have seen, but they were not available to see. I loved seeing all the animals we did see though, with one major exception. You all know how much I HATE snakes. I do my best to avoid them at all costs. However, when we were leaving the lion’s den, they had an exhibit of a HUGE python, all curled up. I definitely could have done with seeing him. Needless to say, I DID NOT take a picture of him. But I did take a lot of other pictures of the other animals we saw.

I love this picture of the lioness watching over the lay of the land.

Some of the animals were active, but most of them were just lazing around.

We were hoping this hippo would turn around and give us a big smile, but nope. She was shy, and kept her back to us the whole time.

Catch me if you can.

This lion was just as impressive as the real king of the jungle. It was created all out of Legos – 56, 408 to be exact. Whoever made it did a fantastic job. So creative.

Lauren and I had a very fun day at the zoo. It’s been years since I’ve been to the zoo, but it is always something fun to do. The Denver Zoo features an 84-acre campus in an enchanting urban field station, where 3,000+ wonderful wild animals serve as ambassadors for their wild counterparts all over the world. The Denver Zoo is ranked the 10th best zoo in the nation. Who knew?

As you can see, I love to live life both inside AND outside the kitchen. I make the most out of everyday.

Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

We saw our first goslings today. They are still very little and need mom’s help and guidance, but they are so darn cute. Hopefully we will start seeing a lot more very soon too.

I love Spanish foods, especially Spain’s national dish of paella. Paella Con Camarones, Jamon y Chorizo; Paella vs Jambalaya; Chicken Paella Casserole; Paella Made Simple As you can see by how many posts I have posted about paella, it a most definitely a favorite of mine.

It was another paella night again last night. I had little bits of this and that, and turned them all into a delicious meal for four. Our friends Mike and Lauren joined us, and as always, we had yet another great evening. The boys had been playing gold earlier and Lauren and I went to the zoo. So a nice paella with a cool crisp chardonnay and some warmed ciabatta enjoyed out on the deck was a perfect way to end a beautiful day.

This paella was similar to many other paellas I make. It was loaded with all kinds of good things; Andouille sausage, chicken, shrimp and ham, along with lots of vegetables and, of course, rice.

All my meats except the shrimp were already cooked, which made this dish even easier to make. So, first thing to cook was the shrimp. I cooked it in a combination of olive oil and lemon olive oil.

Once the shrimp was cooked, I removed it from the heat and cooked the vegetables. Then I added red and green bell peppers, onions, corn, garlic and a very large yellow heirloom tomato. MMMMMM! I love heirlooms. They are my FAVORITE tomatoes, but I digress. 🙂

I added the rice and the seasonings after about five minutes and sauteed it in with the vegetables.

Next came all the meat, about 1 cup of chicken broth and 1 cup of dry white wine.

I brought it all to a boil, then covered it and reduced the heat to a simmer and cooked it until most of the liquid had evaporated and the rice was cooked. Of course, I stirred it along the way and scraped up the rice from the bottom, to get the flavors of the socarrat or the crispy fried rice at the bottom of the pan.

One of the key components to paella is the crispy rice that forms on the bottom of the pan. This crispy rice is called socarrat and it is one of the things that makes paella so special. When the rice is cooked just right, it will form a crispy, golden brown crust on the bottom of the pan. This crust is packed with flavor and is one of the best parts of the dish. The key to getting the perfect socarrat is to use a good quality rice and to cook it over a high heat. Once the rice is cooked, it is important to let it sit for a few minutes so that the socarrat can form.

It was yet another dinner that was simply delicioso! I like simple rustic dishes that come from the heart. And when they are shared with good friends, there is nothing better. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and satay well. ’til next time.

I’ve learned to take a camera of some kind with me everywhere I go. I don’t always carry my good camera with me, especially if I am only running errands or am just out and about, but I getting better about having my cell phone with me (better, not great). I am glad I had it with me yesterday though. The tulips were in full bloom and it looked like a sea of brightly colored tulips. So beautiful.

There were also some bright and beautiful hyacinths popping up for a little variety too.

Beauty is all around. We just have to open our eyes to see it. Have a great day. make everyday bright and colorful.

Every spring and summer our lakes are filled with these beautiful red-winged blackbirds. I just love them. I fell in love with these colorful little birds when I first moved to Colorado. I love seeing them all around our lakes. They love lakes and marshes and wetlands.

This one is a female. The females are never as colorful as the males.

Have a beautiful, brightly colored day.

Chefs cook because we are called to cook and we are called to feed the hungry and to feed the masses. It is not something we necessarily choose, but more something that has been chosen for, us by the higher powers that be. I will share some culinary truths from the kitchen with you today. These are things that go on in the back of the house that most people don’t see. We have learned how to cover these up so you will never know. And we hold these truths to be self evident. 🙂

Passion for what we do is the driving force behind every recipe.

I think most of us in kitchens can agree to this one. This was certainly true for Julia Child. 🙂

We can also agree with this statement. We can always find something to make that will satisfy our hunger.

And this is most definitely true. Real kitchens get very messy, and quite often. I cannot tell how many times I have worn half a recipe.

Also very true.

NEVER trust a skinny chef! We taste everything, many times. That’s how we perfect our dishes. They say it takes roughly 10,000 hours to master a skill. So does that mean it takes 10,000 tastes to perfect a recipe?

We can fix everything, especially with enough butter or garlic!

I have made this mistake many times. Have I forgotten ALL the long hours I spent in training, perfecting my craft? I will never call myself an ex-chef again!

I hope you enjoy all these kitchen insights.

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

Even though it is still very early in the season, I have already seen a lot of cormorants on our lakes. Most of the time, I see one, and only one at a time, but now I am seeing more and more, and even a few couples as well. It would be nice to one day see little baby cormorants too.

I love seeing the cormorants no matter what. And I am enamored with their beautiful jade green eyes. But I really love it when they spread their wings to dry out. They just look so majestic. There is this one rock in our first lake that seems to be one particular cormorant’s favorite spot. It’s like it’s his throne or his place of power.

Be the king or queen of your own castle, even if that castle is a rock. Make it your own and be proud.

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

I guess I have been thinking of summer and the tropics a lot lately, since I have been making a few things with macadamia nuts. Rumor has it that macadamia nuts are the most perfect nut there is, so that may have something to do with why I have been using them a lot lately too. 🙂

I made a very moist and tender butter rum cake that had a very definite tropical vibe to it. It had some rum, lime zest, lime juice and of course, macadamia nuts. YUMMY!

Butter Rum Snack Cake

You can use any kind of rum you like, but I used Malibu Rum this time, to give the cake an even more tropical taste. It is so moist and is full of flavor. You’ll want to go back for more and more.

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

Spray an 8 inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter

6 TBSP sugar

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3 TBSP crystalized ginger, finely chopped

2 TBSP fresh ginger, minced

1 egg

2 tsp lime zest

1 tsp vanilla or lime extract – I used lime extract

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Combine the flour and baking soda together and set a side.

Melt the sugars and butter together in a saucepan.

Once the butter is melted and most of the sugar is melted, remove the butter from the heat and allow to cool a bit. Add the gingers and mix together well. Then whisk in the egg, rum, lime zest and lime extract.

Fold in the flour and baking soda and mix thoroughly. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.

Evenly scatter the chopped macadamia nuts over the top of the batter and gently press into the batter.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely before slicing it and sharing it with friends.

Once again, this cake is a winner and will disappear quickly. Get some while you can, ‘cuz it won’t last long.

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

Cowboys are the ranchers who tend to the herds of cows that are on the ranch. Wranglers are the ultimate cowboys. They are the people who wrangle the horses, cows and other livestock together and are out on the open range, not in the pastures. Wranglers are often out on the range for long periods of time while in the process of herding all the livestock. Since wranglers are out on the range, they eat what they can and tend to make a lot of stews. The stews and “grub” will be different all the time, depending on what they have on hand at the time.

I had just a little ground beef left, and it wasn’t enough to make a full meal for both us. That is until I converted it into a wrangler’s stew that was filled with all kind of down-home goodness. Then, I had enough and then some. I served it with some warmed bread and a rich, fruity, medium-bodied red blend. Delicious! I served it as is, but it would also be good served over rice too. Either way, I know you’re going to love it. 🙂

Wrangler’s Stew

I used bits and pieces of what I had and just threw it all together in the slow cooker. I thought for sure I had corn, but I checked both freezers, and none was to be found. Oh well. These things happen. 🙂 I did have some delicata squash though, which was a good addition to the stew.

1 lb ground beef

1 lb sausage – I used Andouille this time

1 onion, diced

1 lb baby or red potatoes, sliced in rounds

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 cups tomatoes, diced

2 cups corn

1/2 delicata squash, diced, optional

1 TBSP garlic

1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

hot sauce to taste

salt & pepper tot taste

1 TBSP chili powder

1/2 cup beef broth

top with any or all of the above – cheese, sour cream, cilantro

Cook the sausage, ground beef and onions together for about 5-7 minutes, or until browned. Drain the excess fat when it is cooked. Add to the slow cooker.

Combine all the rest of the ingredients and mix in with the meat.

Cover the slow cooker, turn it onto high for 3-5 hours or to low for a slower cook, that will take about 7 hours, and forget about it until it is done. Easy-peasy and delicious! I cooked it on high. The whole house was smelling so good as it was cooking. I couldn’t wait to dig in and start eating it all up. We made a dent, but we did not eat it all. There is more for a another day. 🙂

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