A Jeanne in the Kitchen

We have so many gorgeous flowers on display right now. They are so bright and vivid. We have all colors of the rainbow proudly on display. In fact, there are so many beautifully colored flowers right now, that I have to color code my flowers for you. And that’s OK! I say we can never have to many flowers, right?! The more flowers and colors there are, the more beautiful our world becomes.

Have a great day and color your world beautiful.

The phrase cool beans is something I have been saying forever. It is kind of my signature phrase. But this time when I am saying “cool beans” I am actually referring to a cool bean salad.

Right now we are experiencing record high heats. We are only in the middle of June and we have already had quite a few days with temperatures over 100* F. Trust me, this is very, very HOT! So with the mercury levels rising, I am spending as little time as possible in the kitchen and away from the stove. I came across this cool and refreshing recipe from our very own “My Meals Are On Wheels” at https://beatcancer2010.wordpress.com/ Rebecca Fernandez. Of course I personalized it in my own way, but I was inspired by Rebecca’s delicious looking salad. And delicious it is too.

Summer Bean And Corn Salad

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups corn

1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half

4-5 green onions, sliced

salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup fruit flavored balsamic vinegar – I used Cara-Cara orange

2-3 TBSP olive oil

fresh lemon verbena, optional

Combine everything together then add the balsamic vinegar and olive oil and toss well. Refrigerate until ready to use.

This salad has it all. It’s colorful, cool, refreshing, low in fat and very healthy. Plus it tastes really good too. It is a win/win salad, perfect for these dog days of summer.

Stay cool, stay safe, and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

I love berries, and particularly blackberries. I eat them straight out of the container all the time. I also like to add them to different cakes and desserts. And I really love to mix and match my berries. This time I added a bowl of mixed berries to my chocolate pound cake to give it a little extra zip and pizzazz. I stayed with the mixed berry theme for the decorations too and added some chocolate and strawberry ganache, with sliced strawberries on top. It was a fun, summertime dessert, or in this case coffee cart item.

Chocolate Berry Pound Cake

This cake was so decadently rich and moist and definitely full of flavor. But because of all the fruit, I will “claim” it is healthy too. It will be our little secret that it’s not really as healthy as I would like it to be though. 🙂

3 cups flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups or 3 sticks of softened butter

2 tsp vanilla

5 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup mixed berries, or berries of your choice

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 180* C.

Spray a bundt cake pan with cooking spray and add a dusting of flour to coat the pan.

Combine the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together until creamy, then add the eggs 1 at a time, and mix again in between each addition. Add the vanilla too.

Alternate between the flour and milk until both are incorporated into the mixture and mix just until everything is combined.

Spoon about 1/2 the batter into the pan, then add the berries in the center. Add the rest of the batter on top.

Bake for about 1 hour and 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. Let the cake cake cool completely before taking it out of the pan and adding the toppings.

Once it is cooled completely, top and dress it up however you like. I added both a chocolate and strawberry ganache and some sliced strawberries to make it a festive summer time treat. I added it to my coffee cart goodie trays. Delicious!

Stay cool, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I love all kinds of Mediterranean food. In fact, it is probably one of my absolute favorite styles of food. The other day, Larry just said he wanted something with chicken, but no other guidelines than that. It was one of those days where time was of short supply, so I knew I needed to make something easy-peasy. Also, we are most definitely in the dogs days of summer right now, so something cool and refreshing was definitely a must as well. A quick Mediterranean orzo salad seemed like just the perfect thing.

We have already had this salad a couple of ways too and then we shared it with our friends Mike and Lauren. It was a big hit all the way around.

For dinner, I served it with some chicken that I marinated in some pesto and lemon balsamic vinegar and then grilled it up. I topped it all with feta cheese (for Larry ) and some fresh lemon verbena from our backyard.

For the orzo salad, I cooked the orzo according to the directions on the box, then cooked up a few vegetables and mixed everything together with a lemony fresh citrus dressing. Usually I make my own dressings, as you very well know, but I had some store bought dressing that needed to be used and it worked just fine.

This time I used typical Mediterranean vegetables like red onions, zucchini, crookneck squash, red and green bell peppers, garlic and tomatoes, as well as some spinach, and again, more lemon verbena.

I cooked everything except the tomatoes and the lemon verbena in some olive oil, along with salt & pepper, some red pepper flakes and oregano.

Once all the vegetables and orzo were cooked, I added the tomatoes and lemon verbena and tossed everything together with the dressing. Then I let it chill in the refrigerator for about 2 hours . This is a summer salad and is best when served chilled.

Of course I served with a cool glass of or two of chardonnay and some warmed pita bread on the side.

Afterwards, I served it again by adding some artichoke hearts and sausage to make it a quick and cool lunch salad. Both ways, it was cool, refreshing and very tasty.

Stay cool and do your best to avoid the heat. Stay safe, stay well and carry on. ‘Til next time.

I thought I had seen the last of my little ducklings for the season. I thought the only babies we still had were already growing up to be teenagers. Nature Walks – Duck Teens However, I was very pleasantly surprised to see we still have little babies out and about too. They were so cute in their swimming lessons with mom.

Life is just full of surprises.

Larry is from a very large family. He is the youngest of 9. The other day, one of his sisters was in town for a business meeting and he has two brothers who live in the Denver area. Even though there are three brothers that all live fairly close, we all lead very busy lives and don’t get a chance to get together as often as we would like. So we all decided to make a dinner date while Jean was in town. We gathered at the Griffin Tavern in the DTC or Denver Tech Center.

Larry is in the rust shirt, sitting next to his brother Randy, their brother Ron and his wife Sue, two of Jean’s colleagues and Jean. We are all visiting and catching up before our dinner arrived.

We enjoyed a round of libations before our food was delivered as well.

Griffin Tavern is a cozy pub in the heart of the Denver Tech Center, featuring an eclectic selection of whiskey and craft beer, great appetizers, delicious salads, burgers, and sandwiches.

You can dine inside or out. Both were hoppin’ and happenin’ places to be.

We were a group of 8. Most of us ordered one of the many burger options. They were delicious, messy and HUGE. I ordered one with peppered bacon and pepper jack cheese. Larry helped me with my fries.

Larry went for the sliders and the mini ribs.

Jean ordered nachos, but she wanted everything on the side. They had no problem accommodating all our special requests. Our server took great care of us.

Griffin Tavern is a friendly and fun place to gather with good food and drinks to boot. They are located at 5062 Syracuse Street, Denver, CO. Their phone number is (720) 482-4038. Next time you are in the neighborhood, stop by and enjoy the local DTC pub scene.

We do our best to make the most out of every situation. Everyday is a good day, especially when celebrated with family, friends and good food.

Stay safe, stay well and carry on. ‘Til next time.

Teenagers are teenagers no matter what “skin” they are wearing. I saw the first batch of baby ducks, who are now teenagers, and they are every bit as curious and rebellious as human teenagers. They want to do their own thing while at the same time are still pretty close to mom. But they were really cute. They were off exploring the tall grasses before taking a dip in the pond, and then back to the grass.

Let’s play a little game of hide and seek.

While Mom was off with the kids, dad decided to take a little break.

Sometimes we have a whole flock of pelicans around and other times, we only have one. This is one of those times when I only had one, and he was completely enjoying having the lake all to himself.

Things here have been even more crazy and chaotic than usual these days, which means I haven been making simple things and easy-peasy things, most of which you have all seen before. We are also eating a lot more salads at the moment too. So because of this recent chaos, instead of sharing delicious recipes with you, I will share some fun food quotes. There are so many fun food quotes out there, and I love to share them with you. I hope you enjoy them like I do. It’s good to shake things up a bit. 🙂

Have a great day Everyone. Stay safe, stay well and carry on. ‘Til next time.

I saw my goslings again today. Boy, they sure are getting big, and so fast too. The whole family was catching a bit of shade, just relaxing under the tree.

Their personalities are starting to show a bit too.

It won’t be to much longer and they will be all grown up.