A Jeanne in the Kitchen

Today is the first day of November. We are dead smack in the middle of Fall, though the temperature is beginning to drop considerably and snow is in the air. Our trees are doing their best to maintain their beautiful colors, though they are beginning to drop their leaves quickly. I still have a lot of great fall shots though, so hold tight. 🙂

Today, it’s the colors of gold.

Yesterday, our church held it’s annual Trunk or Treat event. You read that right. I did say Trunk or Treat. Trunk or Treats are becoming quite popular. People decorate their cars and the kids are all in one safe location, and rather than going from house to h0use trick or treating, they go from car to car instead. So many cars were there all decorated for the day.

Larry is out of town visiting his mother, so I joined some friends and we decorated her car in a Hawaiian theme. I went as the punked out surfer chick and my friend Lauren was all decorated with leis and flowers. Mike, Lauren’s husband, and I were also some of the official photographers.

This is not Mike, it’s Allen. We took photos of each other taking photos.

Jonathan and Priscilla were all decked out as well. Jonathan was Luke Skywalker and Priscilla was Mary Poppins.

We had a lot of games, popcorn and fresh made cotton candy, as well as hot dogs for everyone who wanted them.

Jonathan, I mean Luke Skywalker, was helping with the games, while Priscilla, excuse me, Mary Poppins, was face painting.

We had planned on having about 300-350 kids, but we had almost 1000 instead. We ran out of candy a few times and had to make a few candy runs, but it was definitely a smashing success. Eadie, our Pastor’s mom, was in charge of getting all the candy to the cars.

We had all kinds of costumes. Some were very cute, others were super heroes and some were down right scary. But everyone had a great time. I took over 350 pictures, so needless to say, I am NOT going to share them all with you, but I will share some. There was A LOT of creativity all around, that’s for sure.

We also had a Police officer there giving out candy as well. One of my favorite pictures is this little junior police officer with the real Police officer, but then it is really difficult to pick favorites. All the kids were so cute.

As we were all having fun, handing out candy to everyone, Pastor Matthew was busy watching over his flock.

Halloween is for the kids; kids of all ages. We went through a ton of candy. Everyone had a great time, and those of us who worked the event all had a blast too, but boy were we all tired after wards. We were all talking about how tired we were today in church.

Whether you are trick or Treating or Trunk or Treating, or just partying things up, have a great time and be safe. Happy Halloween Everyone.

I have more fall colors to share with you.

Happy Halloween. Stay safe and depending on where you are, stay warm if you go out Trick or Treating.

More beautiful fall colors just in time for Halloween. I thought some more of the oranges would be a perfect choice for the occasion.

I have been teaching cooking lessons with Noah every Friday and with his younger brothers, Micah and Asher, every other Friday for the month of October. So far, we have all been having a lot of fun, learning all kinds of new recipes.

Because it is Halloween season, I thought we would do some fun Halloween recipes. Micah and Asher each made a “Creepy Cookie Pie”. Micah made a muddy pie and Asher called his a tombstone pie. They also made some pumpkin spice white chocolate pretzels that they dubbed ghosts and spiders. Their little cousin Cayden joined in to help as well.

Pumpkin Spiced Dipped Pretzels

8 oz your choice of pretzel shapes

24 oz white chocolate

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 drops orange food coloring

fun colored sprinkles

Melt the chocolate either in the microwave r on the stove top until it is liquid and creamy. Add the pumpkin spice seasoning and food coloring if using and combine together thoroughly. We did not use any food coloring this time.

Dip 3/4 of the pretzels into the chocolate mixture and shake off all the excess chocolate. Place the pretzels on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let set for about 30 seconds to a minute before drizzling more of the chocolate over the pretzels. Then sprinkle with your favorite fun colored sprinkles. You can do the same with either milk or dark chocolate as well, or better yet, mix and match your chocolates.

Creepy Cookie Pies

1 1/2 cups any flavor of Oreos or sandwich cookies you like + plus more for decorating

1 8-oz package of either cream cheese or Mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 8-oz container of Cool Whip or whipped cream equivalent

1 tsp vanilla

1 9 inch pre-made pie crust, chocolate if you can find it

cocoa powder

Cook the pie crust according to the package directions. Let cool completely before filling.

Combine the Cool Whip, vanilla, sugar, and cream cheese and beat with a mixer until creamy.

Crush the cookies, leaving some bigger chunks, then fold into the Cool Whip mixture. Spoon the mixture into the cooked pie shells and spread evenly.

Cover the top of the pie with the cocoa powder by shaking it through a sifter.

Stand the whole cookies into the “mud” and refrigerate the pie for at least 4-5 hours before serving. You want everything to set.

We were to busy making up some fun Halloween treats, so I did not get a lot of pictures, though I did take a few. Here are the boys with their pies. The boys loved making these. Not only was I working on their reading and math skills by having them read the directions and learning how to measure things, but they got to be boys and “destroy” the cookies by smashing them into pieces. I think they liked that part a lot. What they were not so happy about though was that they had to wait for about 4-5 hours before they could sample their creations.

Once Micah and Asher were done, I went to work with Noah. Again, it was Halloween, so he got to make some fun things too. He made dipped pretzels like his younger brothers did, but he made them with melted chocolate and peanut butter.

Noah also made some chocolate peanut butter apple nachos.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Apple Nachos

4 apples, sliced thin

1 cup peanut butter, melted

1 cup chocolate chips melted

1 cup mini peanut butter cups cut into pieces

1 cup M&M’s or Reese’s pieces

Arrange the apple slices on a platter and drizzle 1/2 of both the melted chocolate and peanut butter over the apples.

Add the peanut butter cup pieces and the Reese’s pieces and distribute over the apples.

Drizzle the remaining chocolate and peanut butter over the top.

These have apples, so they at least have SOME nutritional value, but I would not say they were healthy by any means of the imagination. They are fun and tasty though. Noah said these are now his new favorite Halloween dessert.

You can also use pears as well as or instead of apples too.

the boys are busy taste testing. I think these recipes all got their stamps of approval. :

Happy Halloween Everyone. Don’t let the ghosts or goblins get you. ‘Til next time.

Larry and I both love life and we love to live it as much as possible. We don’t go out nearly as much as we used to, but this week, we made up for that. We had not one, but two date nights this week. So not much happening in my kitchen at the moment, but that will soon change again.

We are all decked out in our Av’s gear.

The first one was to the Avalanche game with our friends Jonathan, Eric and Shannon. The Avalanche is our hockey team. Larry is a HUGE hockey fan. I love hockey too, but not like Larry. It was a fun night, but we ended up losing 3-1. They won a couple nights later (the same night we were at the Jason Bonham concert), same score, just in reverse. I would have preferred seeing our team win, but what can we do about it. It is what it is.

This mural is made completely from recycled cans. Isn’t cool?

All of these pictures are still from the cell phone, and NOT my new camera. We cannot really take purses or bags into the arenas, and I didn’t feel like bringing in my brand new, expensive camera.

The hockey gang.

Date night #2 was to the Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience. We went to dinner at Maggiano’s first though. Normally I do not like to write about chain restaurants, since I much prefer to give a shout out to the independent places. We enjoyed our dinner. We feasted on salad, bread, lasagna and Parmigiano crusted cod. Everything was very good, but we both thought I can do better. In fact, as looking over the menu to make our selections, I just made a lot of what they offered last week at home, only better.

After dinner, as we were walking towards the Paramount Theatre for the concert, we decided to stop in for a sweet bite at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I made a new friend. Larry wasn’t to jealous.

For those of you who don’t know, Jason Bonham is the son of rock royalty. He is John Bonham’s son, the late drummer for Led Zeppelin. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Led Zeppelin, just like Larry loves his hockey. Always have. Since Led Zeppelin broke up many moons ago, after Bonzo’s death, this is the only way to really see a Zeppelin show any more, and it was great! Led Zeppelin has so many great songs, it’s impossible to pack them all in, though the boys in the band did play a lot of great hits.

The Paramount Theatre is an absolutely gorgeous theatre decorated in art deco style. It is a beautiful tribute to the bygone era of elegance. We have seen many concerts there. It seats about 2000-3000 people.

Rock on Everyone. Life just keeps on rolling on. Don’t let it pass you by. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I will keep sharing the beautiful fall colors with you as long as I can. I don’t know about you, but I just can’t get enough of these beautiful scenes.

Sometimes I plan meals way in advance and other times I never know what I am going to make until I get into the kitchen to start cooking. Last night was one of those impromptu nights. Larry had said he wanted something with shrimp. OK. No problem. We also had some leftover pasta that needed to be used. So I knew I was going to have some kind of shrimp pasta. I just wasn’t sure what kind of shrimp pasta. I finally, by accident, decided on a Thai style dish. As I so often do, I was making it up as I went along.

Thai Shrimp and Vegetables with Noodles

1 1/2 lbs large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 lb cooked asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 large shallot, sliced very thin

1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

3-4 roasted Hatch chilies or jalapenos, diced fine

1/3 cup small tomatoes

1-2 TBSP sweet Peruvian peppers, optional

1 TBSP garlic

1 cup either heavy whipping cream or coconut milk

2 TBSP lime olive oil or regular olive oil

1 TBSP lime juice

1 TBSP honey

1-2 TBSP butter

salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin

Because I have and love my lime olive oil, I use it as much as I can. If you do not have this or cannot find it, regular olive oil works just fine. I just love the subtle lime flavor. In a hot skillet or wok, add the olive oil then add the shallots, garlic and mushrooms and saute for about 5-7 minutes. Once they are cooked, remove them from the skillet and set aside.

Cook the shrimp, adding more oil if necessary until it is completely pink and thoroughly cooked.

Once the shrimp is completely cooked, re-add the vegetables and the lime juice. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then add the asparagus and cream or coconut milk. Normally I would have used coconut milk, but I didn’t think about it at the time. The cream, especially with the lime olive oil and lime juice worked just fine. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After tasting it, I decided to add about 1 TBSP of honey as well. I also added the butter right at the end to finish it. Once everything was cooked and my sauce was complete, I added the tomatoes and the peppers and mixed everything together then served it all over cooked pasta. This is a rather light and delicate sauce, so use lighter noodles or pasta.

I served a cool, crisp and citrusy chardonnay on the side, which complemented the sweet-limey, and subtle spices of the sauce perfectly. Delicious!

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

It’s amazing how quickly things change. One minute the trees were in their glory, then we had some high winds, and a good portion of those beautiful, colorful leaves are now gone. We still have quite a few left though, but we also have snow predicted this week, and what’s left will all soon be gone too. I am enjoying every colorful leaf I can though. I hope you do too.

I LOVE taking photos. Always have. But apparently I am rough on my cameras. My old camera died a few weeks ago. Just died; completely flatlined. I was having some problems with it before we left for Mexico, and then in Mexico, I think moisture got into the lens, giving me even more problems, and then upon our return home, it fell one to many times, and that was it. I can’t really complain to much though. I have taken many 1000’s of pictures with it. It lived a good life, and was a good friend for quite a few years. Now, I have a new good friend, that will hopefully serve me well too. I have also gone through about four dive cameras. We think this is due to our high altitude and dry weather that puts to much pressure on the seals and O-rings and dries them out to much. Needless to say, we go through a lot of cameras here. I always upgrade with each new camera I get though, so I guess it isn’t all bad, albeit expensive. I can’t deny I have expensive hobbies. 🙂

I was left with ONLY taking pictures on my cell phone, and the quality just isn’t the same. Then my “wolf baby” decided she needed to break that too. It made for a good chew toy. Everything does. The whole world is a chew toy for her. It still works, but it is completely cracked up.

Long before my camera died, I had been thinking it was a time for an upgrade. I was very happy with my camera up until recently, and I had a 50x zoom. But I was ready for more. We searched and shopped and I found a new camera I wanted. It just came in yesterday. I haven’t played with it yet. I will start playing with it today.

My new camera has two lenses. One will zoom up to 55x and the other will take it up to 300x. I am SO excited. Hopefully I will get some really great shots. I have no excuses, except for maybe lack of talent. 🙂

As I was opening up the boxes, I had another helper. If there is a box around, Nicky is going to get into it. My “girls” are such big helpers. What would I do without them?

I just love capturing moments in time with my camera and lens. Now I have two lenses I can see the world through. Let’s see what the world looks like.

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