A Jeanne in the Kitchen

Spring is definitely here. We have the first buds and blooms of spring. They are popping up all over the place. Usually the first buds and flowers to appear are either purple, yellow or white or a combination of all three. I don’t why this is, but those are usually the first colors we see, at least here around our lakes.

My own irises are starting to pop up as well. These too will be purple. Irises were my mother’s favorite flowers, so I have them around as much as I can to remind me of my mom.

Even the most recent bouquets that I bought were white, purple and yellow. I sense a theme here. 🙂

Spring has definitely sprung. Let the colors brighten your days and brighten your spirits.

I am sure you have all noticed the rising price of food in the grocery stores. It is happening everywhere. Every time I go into the store I am paying more for the same items than I did the time before. I am paying more and more and getting less and less each time. I never paid all that much attention to it before because the rising prices seemed small and incremental. But now they are HUGE and are very noticeable.

I had to finally concede that I can no longer teach my kids’ cooking classes at the moment because of these ever increasing high food prices. I was pricing out the items I needed for Noah’s latest request, and to my dismay and horror, in order to purchase just the basics for what I needed, plus the high costs of gas as well, I was actually operating in the red. And as I said, that was just for the basics too. It is much worse when I am purchasing specialty items. And that isn’t even accounting for my time, or my planning or my travel. No business, regardless of whether it’s just a business of 1 or a business of 1000, can continue operating in the red for very long. It broke my heart to have to say “good-bye” to the kids, but I had no other choice. These high food costs are eating me up.

All we can do is to do our best. And sometimes that means we have to make some touch choices to get through tough times. I hope all of you continue to do you best and to be your best. Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

It seems a bit early early for our turtles to come out, especially since our weather is all over the place right now. But sure enough, I saw our first snapping turtle of the season out trying to get some sun. This guy is one of oldest residents in the area. It is rumored that he is over 100 years old. By the looks of it, he is still going strong too. I think he will be around for quite some time to come.

All we can do is to keep on moving on.

Sometimes the simple things are the best things, and sometimes simple is exactly what we need. I had some chicken chorizo sausage that I roasted up with a variety of vegetables to make for a delicious spring meal. The weather was so nice outside and outdoors was exactly where we wanted to be. It was also one of our first meals out on the deck for the season too.

Sausage and Vegetable Bake

You can make this with any type of sausage you like. I just happened to have some chicken chorizo on hand, so that is what I used.

2 lbs link sausage

1-2 sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cubed

1/2 onion, diced medium

1 heaping TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

2 tsp thyme

1 can cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups fresh spinach, stems removed and chopped

1-2 tomatoes, diced

2 TBSP red wine vinegar

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

2-3 TBSP olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425* F or 240*C.

Coat the sweet potatoes or yams, onion and garlic with salt & pepper, thyme and olive oil and spread out onto a baking sheet in a single layer. Coat the sausage in olive oil and add to the pan. I just rolled the sausage on the pan in the oil from the vegetables. Roast for about 20-25 minutes.

Combine the red wine vinegar and broth together and set aside.

Mix the chopped spinach, tomatoes and cannelini beans and then gently toss with the red wine vinegar mixture. The store had some beautiful heirloom tomatoes that just called out to me, so I had to pick those, but you can use whatever kind of tomatoes you like. This is one HUGE heirloom tomato. It was so fresh and colorful and jam packed full of flavor.

The spinach, tomatoes, beans and red wine vinegar mixture could easily be a simple salad all on its own too.

Add the spinach mixture to the sausage and roasted vegetables. Combine it well and toss it all together. Place it back in the oven for an additional 10 or so minutes.

When it is ready, serve it up and enjoy with your favorite wine on the side. I had some chardonnay and added some garlic bread to complete the meal. It was a deliciously light meal that was a perfect way to ring in the spring. It had sweet and salty and spicy all combined together in one bite. We loved it.

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

Our Mallards are the most prolific of our ducks. We see them almost everyday. The Hooded Mergansers are probably the other ducks we mostly see on our lakes or ponds. The males are so gorgeous, especially when they are all puffed up. The females look good too, but they are not nearly as colorful, which is often the case with birds. The Mergansers are much smaller than our Mallards, but just as beautiful. We also get some Common Mergansers, but strangely enough, they are not nearly as “common” on our lakes or ponds as are the Hooded Mergansers. 🙂

Have a great day and make the most all your days.

It was time to make another delicious assortment of goodies for the church coffee cart again. This is always a fun challenge. I bought some yummy springtime treats and fruit and then added to it with a toffee coffee cake. This week’s selection was a combination of mini apples and grapes, some chocolates, and strawberry bites, lemon bites and the toffee coffee cake.

You all know how much fun I have when I am able to recreate something into something totally different just by adding a few creative touches and some imagination. I did it again here too. I had some leftover toffee scones that I crushed up and added to the cake, both in the filling and as a topping. Success yet again. It was a big hit, just the way I like it. 🙂

Toffee Coffee Cake

I love coffee cakes. They are so versatile and can be made with just about anything. They lend themselves to all sorts of cakes too. They are great for breakfast or snacks or dessert at any time too.

3 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup or 1 stick of softened butter

3 eggs

16 oz of either yogurt or sour cream or cream cheese – I used cream cheese this time

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups toffee scones, crushed

1 package butterscotch chips

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

Spray either a cake pan or a baking pan with cooking spray.

Crush the scones and mix together with the butterscotch chips and set aside.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together in a mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing in between each addition. Add either the cream cheese, yogurt or sour cream and vanilla and mix again. I had some organic cream cheese that wasn’t as soft as liked, so I also added a couple of TBSPS of organic oat milk to soften it up a bit too. I rarely buy organic products unless I am cooking for special dietary restrictions, but that is a whole other topic, maybe for later. 🙂

Add the flour half at a time and mix in between. When all the flour is added and everything is mixed together, fold in half of the scones and chips. Spoon the mixture into your prepared pan and spread out evenly. I used a 9×13 baking pan this time, but I often use a bundt pan too.

Once the batter is in the pan, top it with the remaining scone and chip mixture and bake for about 1 1/4 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Once the cake is completely cooled, cut it how you like and enjoy. You can also add apples to this cake as well, to make a more like a caramel apple toffee cake. YUM!

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

Another one of our new guests on the ponds is a Cinnamon Teal. Like so many of our other visitors, I have seen him before, just not that frequently. Now I have seen him a few days in a row, but he is pretty hard to capture with my camera. Every time I get him in my sights, and get the camera focused, he decides to dive underwater. I did manage to get a few good shots though before he decided to plunge again.

I’ll take what I can get, you know. I am grateful for them all. I just love meeting all “my new neighbors”.

We have had some more gorgeous visitors out on our ponds these days. More so than usual. One of our other gorgeous visitors was a Redhead duck. His bright red head really stands out and he just looks so impressive.

Most often, when it comes to making dinner, I never really know what I am going to make until an inspiration just comes to me. Most of the time, it happens at random, as I am looking through cookbooks, just looking at recipes and getting ideas. Sometimes, I have a general idea in mind, but more so than not, I don’t know until it comes time to making dinner. And then I check my pantry to see what I have on hand and what I need to get. And from this spark comes dinner. This time, I was inspired to do some Indian chicken tikka.

The inspiration for this dish actually came from 2 different sources. At first, I was thinking of something completely different, and then I kept flipping pages, this was what I wanted to make. And viola, this dish was created. The first recipe I found called for a jar of tikka sauce, but I try my best NOT to use store-bought items if I can help it, so I wanted to make it myself. I had to go to the store for some of the ingredients anyway, so I looked at the ingredient list on a jar of tikka sauce, and thought I can do better than this. So I did. 🙂

Chicken Tikka with Roasted Vegetables

I love big, bold flavors in almost all of my cooking. That may be why I have such an affinity for so many different ethnic foods. I started off by roasting some tomatoes and went from there.

3-4 tomatoes, roasted

1-2 jalapenos, seeded

2 TBSP garlic, divided

1 TBSP minced ginger

1/3 cup olive oil

4 tsp coriander

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp cardamom

1 TBSP lemon juice

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream or yogurt

2 lbs chicken pieces

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 can chickpeas or garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 red onion, sliced thin

2-3 carrots, sliced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced medium

chopped cilantro, for topping

Roast the tomatoes for about 30 minutes at 425* F or about 220* C.

Allow the tomatoes to cool for a bit, then add to a food processor along with the jalapeno, spices, olive oil, 1/2 of the garlic, ginger and cream or yogurt and blend together until you have a creamy sauce.

Marinate the chicken in the sauce for at least 30 minutes before cooking. Reserve some of the sauce without the chicken for a topping once the meal is done.

Toss the vegetables, along with more olive oil, garbanzo beans, salt & pepper together, then arrange on a baking sheet lined with either parchment paper or aluminum foil. Spread the vegetables out so they make a single layer.

Arrange the chicken pieces into the pan as well.

Roast everything together for about 40-45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked completely. After about 20 minutes or so, mix up the vegetables so they cook evenly.

Once the chicken and vegetables are done, top them with more sauce and some of the fresh cilantro. You can serve over rice or potatoes. I served it with some roasted potatoes and warmed pita bread, and a cool, crispy, citrusy chardonnay on the side. Even a sweet white wine would go well with this dish. A sweeter wine will compliment the spiciness of the dish nicely.

This is a layered dish with so many great flavors and textures all blending together. It came out oh so good.

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