I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
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.
I remember my niece had told me about someone she knew who would invite her over for dinner and ONLY serve an entree, with NO side dishes or anything else. That just seems so wrong and so odd to me. I do not get this concept at all. When I have people over, I do the opposite, and serve a bunch of different side dishes. I NEVER want to run out of food, though in my kitchen, that will never happen. But then again, I do love to cook, and I am Jeanne, from “A Jeanne in the Kitchen”. 🙂
Side dishes help make the meal and make it memorable. Yesterday, I shared my smoky BBQ sauce and short ribs with you. Spicy, Smoky Slow-Cooked Short Ribs Today I will give you the recipe for the broccoli and grape salad I served alongside those ribs.
Broccoli Grape and Bacon Salad
Just like with any good recipe, there are many different versions out there. As always, there are too many good recipes and not nearly enough time to try them all. My motto though, is to never stop trying. 🙂 This cool and refreshing salad is loaded with healthy nutrients that will help cool you down on those hot dog days of summer, and will tickle those taste buds as well.
1 large head of broccoli cut into florets and blanched
1 cup mixed grapes, cut in 1/2
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1/3 red onion, sliced very thin
4-5 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 tsp dry mustard
salt & pepper to taste
dash cayenne pepper – a dash is usually about 1/8 tsp
Cut the broccoli into small florets, and blanche them for about 5 minutes in boiling water. Drain and rinse in ice cold water immediately after, to stop the cooking process.
Once the broccoli is ready, toss it together with the grapes, bacon, pecans and red onions.
Combine the mayonnaise, seasonings, honey and apple cider vinegar, then use just what you need in the vegetable mixture. You don’t want to use too much or else the vegetables will be swimming in dressing.
Toss everything together and either serve right away or cover and refrigerate until you are ready to enjoy it with the meal.
You can vary this recipe by substituting cherries for the grapes, and/or using dried cranberries too. As I always say, don’t be afraid to play with your food. Have fun, be creative and see what happens.
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay cool, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
I have to admit, I haven’t been out walking much lately due to the heat. In the early days of summer, it was very cool and even very rainy and wet. I loved the cooler weather. Once we got back from Hays, KS to pick up Dorrie, however, the weather made a very dramatic HOT, HOT, HOT change. Ever since our return home, the temperatures have been in the very high 90’s, almost 100*F, almost everyday. It gets super hot super early. Fortunately, I have tons of pictures I can share.
Here are some pictures of more squirrels, out playing and having fun.
Larry likes his ribs. He likes all kinds of ribs. I am not overly fond of ribs, but if I am going to eat them, I prefer the beef short ribs. They are meatier and less fatty. That being said, you can guess, it was a rib night.
Larry had smoked some ribs the other day, but they were still tough and needed to be slow cooked. I did just that too. I slow cooked them in a spicy, smoky sauce for about 4-5 hours and they came out so tender. It was yet another oppressively hot day, so something that did not require me standing over a hot stove was a perfect choice for dinner. I made a cool broccoli and grape salad to go with it as well. Again, something cool was the plan.
There are all recipes for all kinds of BBQ sauces. You can make them sweet, spicy, smoky, tangy, or a combination of any or all. There is something for everyone. I like a combination of a slightly sweet, tangy, smoky, spicy sauce. This version had it all.
Spicy, Smoky, Slow-Cooked Short Ribs
2-3 lbs beef short ribs
1-2 tsp chili powder
1-2 tsp aji amarillo garlic seasoning, optional
1 TBSP garlic
2 TBSP dried onion
1/2 tsp celery seed
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 tsp dried mustard
3/4 cup catsup
2 TBSP Tabasco sauce, any variety
2 TBSP Chaloula Sauce, optional
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 TBSP flavored balsamic vinegar – I think I used Cara-Cara orange this time
1 1/2 tsp liquid dry smoke
1/3 cup water
3 TBSP flour
Add the water to the bottom of the slow cooker, then place the ribs on top. Combine all the other ingredients together and mix well, then pour over the ribs.
Cover and cook and walk away. You can cook them really slow, for about 10 or so hours on a low temperature, or you can speed it up a bit, and cook at medium-high for about 5 hours. Either way, you are going to come out with some very tender ribs, where the meat will just fall off the bone.
You can use this same sauce for just about anything that you like with a BBQed flavor. It will work with chicken, pork, beef or sausage too.
I served it with our left over mashed potatoes and a broccoli grape salad (more on that later), with a cool, refreshing mermaid on the side. A mermaid is like a Moscow mule only Blue Curacao is added to make it blue. I made it with a little vodka, limeade, ginger beer and Blue Curacao. It hit the spot too.
Juneau made a cameo appearance here too. It looks like she is taunting her sister, Dorrie.
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay cool, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
There are so many gorgeous flowers showing off their vibrant colors right now. We have all colors proudly on display. Today, I am giving you some of our prettiest purple flowers that have popped up recently. So many different beautiful flowers in all shades of beautiful purples.
Shrimp, also known as prawns, langostinos, camarones, gambon, crevettes, and many other names to boot, are some of my absolute favorite seafood options around. I love them, no matter what you call them or how they are fixed. Shrimp and/or prawns are universal and are found just about everywhere. That means, there are infinite recipes and ways to prepare them too.
As you all know, I am a very adventurous eater. I love to travel and I love to experiment with new things, new ideas and new recipes, from all over the world. Because of this, as well as my restaurant/catering background, I also have a wide array of different cookbooks, from many different ethnicities from around the world. One of my African books has been on my desk ( as well as many others) for a few weeks now, so I was perusing through it to see if it had some good shrimp recipes. Of course it did. And of course, I did what I always do, and started with one recipe and by the time I was finished, I had created something completely different. I use recipes as guides, and then let my creative juices flow how they will.
I was going to make some South African shrimp strudel with a piri-piri sauce, which is Swahili for a pepper sauce. But …. as usual, it turned it something completely different, yet just as good, if not better. 🙂 I made South African inspired shrimp pockets with a piri-piri sauce instead. They were like South African shrimp empanadas.
This is an example of what all my recipes look like at the end of my creative process. 🙂
I really didn’t follow the recipe at all, but it did inspire me to make what I did. Typical. This is just how I roll. 🙂
South African Shrimp Pockets
my basic go-to dough with cayenne pepper and aji amarillo garlic seasoning
Let the dough set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before using.
Preheat the oven to 375* F or 191*C.
Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.
Cut most of the shrimp into large pieces, saving some whole for the topping later. Sautee the shrimp in the olive oil and lemon olive oil until completely pink, for about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.
Add the peppers, onions, garlic and seasonings, for about 3 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and the vegetables begin to soften. Add the tomato right at the end. Once the vegetables are cooked, remove them and add to the shrimp. Mix together well.
Deglaze the pan with the wine and cook for about about 2 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Add the cream. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook down for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the butter and incorporate thoroughly. Turn off the heat. Add most of the cilantro and lemon verbena, saving some for the topping later.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out thin. Cut into circles or rectangles. Add about 2-3 TBSP of the shrimp and vegetable mixture into the center, then fold the dough over and firmly pinch the sides together. Save some of the mixture to add into the sauce.
Place the pockets into the prepared baking pan and bake for about 30 minutes, carefully flipping them over after about 15 minutes, so they can cook and brown evenly. These are fragile pockets. Handle with care.
When the pockets are done, serve them over rice, top with the sauce, and the remaining whole shrimp, and a little fresh cilantro and/or lemon verbena. I used the rest of my black eyed peas with tomatoes Black-Eyed Peas With Spinach And Tomatoes and mixed that into the rice with some spicy sausage, making it more authentically African in nature.
And in no time at all, you have made a culinary trip to the African continent in the comfort of your own kitchen. Bon Appetit! Bon Hamu!
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
Lately, I haven’t had to go very far to see all kinds of good things, which is really nice since it has been so oppressively hot. The trees right out behind our deck have been having all kinds of visitors there. We have been getting a lot of hummingbirds play in those treetops, and now we are getting quite a few dragonflies too.
I had to really zoom in for these, because it still about 75 yards away from our deck, and way up high too, so my shots aren’t great, but they are decent, especially since these are tiny critters to begin with.
My dragonflies came out much better than my hummingbirds. I have a good camera, a very good camera, but NOT a great camera. I apologize for the poor quality of these photos. It is what it is.
Speaking of decent photos, I haven’t heard anything regarding all the photos I submitted to our local photo contest. I would have thought that at least one or two would have been acknowledged. Oh well. Again, it is what it is.
Chocolate and peanut butter are two great flavors that taste great together. I love both on their own, but they seem to get even better when combined together. My latest chocolate peanut butter combination was chocolate peanut butter squares. They all disappeared in the blink of an eye too. I guess people liked them. A lot!!!!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
These chocolate peanut butter bars are another successful treat from my Amish cookbook, Amish Friends Baking Cookbook. It’s kind of ironic, but I actually almost gave this book to my niece. I thought about it and thought about it, and kept flipping through the pages, finding more and more goodies to make. Now, I use it all the time and wonder WHY I even thought of giving it away in the first place. I’ll just have to get another for her. 🙂
The Dough
Preheat the oven to 350* F of 190* C.
Spray a 9×13 baking sheet with cooking spray.
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour
6 oz chocolate chips
Combine the dry ingredients together and set aside.
Mix the butter and sugars together until creamy, then add the egg and vanilla and mix in. Add the flour mixture 1/2 at a time, mixing in between.
Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until it is set and golden brown.
While the crust is still hot, spread the chocolate chips evenly across the top. You might need to put it back in the oven for just a minute or so, so the chocolate melts.
Cool completely, then add the peanut butter frosting on top.
Peanut Butter Frosting
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
2-4 TBSP milk
mini chocolate chips, optional for topping
Mix all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy, then spread evenly over the chocolate. I added mini chocolate chips on top too, but this is optional.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before slicing so the peanut butter frosting can set. Then slice and share. Get one while you can, because I guarantee they won’t be around for long.
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
Thank you once again to our friend The Ohio Cook over at My Meals Are on Wheels at https://beatcancer2010.wordpress.com/ for the inspiration for making a raspberry lemon cake. Believe it or not, I actually followed the recipe fairly closely this time. I think the only changes I made were to make it into a sheet cake rather than a round layered cake, and I added lemon extract as well. It’s hard to improve upon perfection. 🙂
I converted my cake into a sheet cake because I can feed more people this way, and I was making it for the church congregation, for my coffee cart. I also added lemon extract because when I make something lemony, I like it really lemony.
I would like to say I used my own raspberries for this cake, however, my raspberry yield was pretty small this year. I have raspberry bushes growing all down my side yard and in a couple of places in my back yard, but I only got a few tiny raspberries. They were still delicious, just not very many of them. Instead, I just served them in a bowl of mixed berries this morning. They were all gobbled up too. Next year, I should have tons of fresh raspberries though. Usually they are slight one year, and prolific the next, then back to slight.
My big batch of fresh raspberries for 2023. There were a few more, but I ate them as soon as I picked them. 🙂 They are very tiny berries, but oh so sweet and delicious.
Lemon Raspberry Cake
Preheat the oven to 350* F or 190* C.
Spray your cake pan(s) with cooking spray. You can bake it in a 9×13 cake pan, like I did, or two 8 or 9″ rounds.
Coat 1 pint of berries in flour.
The Cake
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 TBSP vanilla
1-2 tsp lemon extract
2 TBSP lemon zest
3 eggs separated
1 1/4 cups sour cream or yogurt- I use both all the time, but this time I used yogurt. It really just depends on what I have on hand at the time of baking
1 pint of fresh raspberries
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Mix all the dry ingredients together and set aside.
Mix the butter, sugar and egg yolks together until creamy. Then add the vanilla and lemon extract.
Beat the egg whites until they form into stiff peaks.
Add 1/2 the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, mix well, add 1/2 the yogurt/sour cream, and repeat until it is all mixed together. Do not over mix.
Gently fold in the stiffened egg whites. Gently fold in the raspberries and flour mixture, then spread evenly into the prepared pan(s).
Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick that is inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before removing it from the pan and icing it.
Lemon Buttercream
1 cup or 2 sticks softened butter
3 TBSP lemon juice
3-5 cups powdered sugar, depending on how sweet you want it. i think I just used 3 cups.
2 tsp lemon extract
Mix everything together until it is smooth and creamy. If you are making it into a sheet cake, generously spread the icing on the top and sides of the cake. If you make it into a round cake, generously spread a layer of icing in between each layer of cake as well. Top with fresh raspberries and/or blackberries (You can also make this same cake with blackberries ). I did not have enough of the larger fresh raspberries for both the cake and the topping, but I did have fresh blackberries, so I added those to the topping as well. Besides, I think it made for a nicer presentation. 🙂
Keep the cake refrigerated before slicing it and serving it, if it is going to be for any length of time. Then slice it up and share with friends. This cake is so moist and lemony. You’re going to love it. I promise. 🙂
Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 