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!
Last night we went to the Avalanche (hockey) game with friends, and as we were driving down to the game we were commenting on how beautiful all the colors are this year. Our friend Jonathan had a great theory as to why they are so vibrant this year too. He was raised here in Colorado, and even he was saying he doesn’t remember a year with the colors being so beautiful. His theory, and it makes a lot of sense, is because it is late October and we haven’t had any snow yet, which has allowed the leaves to stay on the trees longer. Though, the snow is in the air along with the wind, meaning the beautifully colored leaves won’t be around to much longer. Let’s enjoy them while we still can. 🙂
As most of you know, my fur babies are my children. We have two big dogs, one St. Bernard, Vinnie, and one malamute, Juneau, aka Juni Bug, who is still a puppy, though she is growing like a weed. She will be 11 months old in just a few days. We also have two cats, who we lovingly refer to as our puma, Otis, and our panther, Nicodemus or Nicky. I do not cook food for the cats, but I do cook the wet food for our dogs, about once a week. I have been doing this for years. It is much healthier, I know exactly what they are eating, and they get a wide variety of foods too. When I make the kids’ food, I always have helpers. I have the little stuffed helpers, Fritzie and Sitka, as well as the real helpers, Vinnie and Juneau. Vinnie and Juneau are always so eager to help out however they can, especially when it comes time to eating everything up. They are also always at my side, just in case something should on the fall, in which case, they are a great clean-up crew.
It was that time of week again. Lately, they have been eating a lot of ground beef because we received about 50 lbs of fresh grass fed beef from our nephew’s cows. Though there is nothing wrong with this beef, something was a bit off, so it does not taste good to us. The kids don’t mind though. But this time they got a break from the ground beef and are enjoying a fall feast with chicken, rice, blueberries, celery, pumpkin, and yogurt instead.
I keep it simple, with NO spices, except maybe cinnamon. They eat lots of protein rich foods, as well as rice, potatoes, (peeled) and sweet potatoes, with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Sometimes I make a gravy and other times I just mix it all in yogurt, like I did this time. The kids love it. I’ve never had a complaint yet. 🙂
Once everything was cooked completely, Fritzie, Sitka and I mixed it all together with the yogurt then put it in the fridge to cool. I have learned the hard way to NEVER serve it hot.
At first Vinnie and Juneau just thought I was cooking for Mommy and Daddy and weren’t all that interested.
Then they realized I was cooking THEIR food, and all of a sudden, their interest level really perked up.
You can never have a bad day as long as you have fur babies around you all the time.
I love our lakes anytime of the year, but they are especially pretty at fall with all the fall colors on full display. We even have a bit of snow in the foothills.
The weather is getting cooler and cooler each day. It’s now time for long sleeves and sweaters (or jumpers for my friends across the ponds), fires in the fire place and soups and stews. I love it.
I love soups and stews. They warm you up from the inside out. This steak fajita stew I made will do just that too. I loaded it up with all kinds of good things, like lots of steak, a variety of peppers, pinto beans and three different kinds of chili pepper. I put it all in the slow cooker, and let it all the flavors come together perfectly.
I made this for a friend of mine who is healing from an injury at the moment, but of course, Larry and I had to sample it first. After all, I couldn’t give it to her if it didn’t turn out right. We will always volunteer to sample the goods before giving them out, to test for quality assurance. You know, that’s just who we are. 🙂
I served it over rice and added some cheese for Larry. Then I added the remainder of my garlic loaf One Dough Four Different Ways and a bold red wine for a perfect fall dinner.
Steak Fajita Stew
3 lbs London broil or roast, cubed
1/2 each red, yellow and green bell peppers, sliced thin,
2 onions, diced fine
4-5 roasted Hatch green chilies, diced fine
4-5 tomatoes, diced medium
2 TBSP garlic
salt & pepper to taste
2 cans whole pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can beef broth
1 TBSP chili powder
2 tsp each ground Aleppo chili powder and ancho chili powder, optional
I like to get everything prepared first before assembling everything together, or have my mis en place all set.
The beef was the first layer. Then I combined all the peppers, garlic and onions together. Next I mixed the beef broth and spices together and then added them to the pepper mixture. Once everything was well combined, I added it all to the beef and tossed everything together to ensure an even distribution of flavors. Everything went into the slow cooker, and I turned it up to high and forgot about for about 4 hours, although, I did stir it occasionally.
Since the beans were already cooked, I added them after the stew had been cooking for four hours. If you are using dried beans, add them with everything else at the beginning of the cooking process, after soaking them according to the package directions and rinsing them first.
After the beans are added, continue cooking everything for about one more hour, or until everything is cooked and the meat is tender. When done, serve it over rice and add some cheese if you like.
For Larry’s portion, I added a Mexican cheese blend. For Crystal’s portion, I topped it with cacique cheese, which is another Mexican cheese, similar to feta cheese. This delicious stew will most definitely take off all the chills, and will warm you up from the inside out. Enjoy.
The fall colors, though still vibrant, are already beginning to fade and fall. I am looking at my once beautiful and colorful tree that has now already lost most of its leaves for the season as I write this. I am thoroughly enjoying the fall colors while I can, for I know that soon, they will be a but a memory in time, and a new season will begin.
Every season has its day. Enjoy the days of each season and make the most of each day.
I was still in a German frame of mind, and was inspired to make this dish from one of my German cookbooks. I had planned on making the recipe as it called for, but then a lightbulb went off in my head, and I completely scrapped that idea. Instead, I used my leftover apple-rosemary syrup from I made my cantaloupe with apple-rosemary syrup or Melone Stile Esotico. You all know how much I love using up my leftovers. 🙂
These pork chops just melted in out mouths. They were so tender and so full of flavor, plus they were super easy to make as well, which is always a win/win for me.
Pork Chops with Apple-Rosemary Syrup
1 1/2-2 lbs pork chops
flour
salt & pepper to taste
1 TBSP dried onions
1 tsp spicy orange seasoning
olive oil and butter for pan-frying
parsley
Combine the salt & pepper with the flour. Pat dry the pork chops with a paper towel then coat them in the flour mixture. Get the skillet very hot, then add the oil and butter. Place the floured pork chops into the hot skillet and pan-fry for about 5-6 minutes per side, or until the pork chops are crusty on both sides.
When the pork chops are crusty, add the apple-rosemary syrup, the onions and the spicy orange seasoning and reduce the heat to a medium-high flame. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and about 2/3 of the liquid has evaporated.
Serve with your favorite side dishes and top with the remaining sauce and add some fresh parsley on top. I served it with some roasted potatoes and vegetables, with my garlic loaf bread on the side. One Dough Four Different Ways And of course there was wine. I served it with a crisp, citrusy chardonnay to counter the sweetness from the pork.
I have finally used up all of the bierock dough I made. The dough itself is just a basic soft dough, that you have already learned is VERY versatile. One Dough Four Different Ways Even my mother-in-law Ollie uses her dough in many different ways. She almost always makes cinnamon rolls and sausage wraps with her dough, as well as her bierocks. I usually do those too, but this time I used it to make some Southwestern chicken and Hatch chili empanadas with it instead, plus all the other ways you saw.
Usually I like to pan-fry my empanadas, but since this is a yeast dough, I baked them instead. Empanadas are made with just about anything you like, from sweet to savory, and I make them in many different ways all the time.
Chicken and Roasted Hatch Chili Filling
1 1/2-2 lbs chicken, diced fine
1 cup corn
1/4 red onion, diced fine
4-5 roasted hatch chilies, diced fine
1 TBSP garlic
2-3 TBSP lime olive oil
1/2 red bell pepper, diced fine
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1 tsp oregano
1/2 cup flour, optional
1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped fine
Saute everything except the cilantro and the flour together in a large pot with the lime olive oil (regular olive oil works just fine too) until everything is thoroughly cooked. Add the flour if you like your sauce a little thicker, especially since using it as a filling, and continue to cook for about5 minutes, stirring constantly to incorporate the flour. Add the cilantro and mix together well. Then remove from the heat and set aside until you are ready to use it.
Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch in thickness. Then cut into circles. I was making these as a main course, so I made bigger circles for bigger pockets. You can make them any size you like.
Once the dough is cut, add the filling to about half the dough, then fold it over and pinch together firmly. I always like to “fork” it by pressing the ends together with the tips of a fork too, to ensure the dough is completely sealed.
Because I was baking these empanadas, I brushed them with an eggwash, then baked them at 350* F for about 30 minutes, or until they were golden brown and the dough was cooked. !Desfuitas!
Everywhere I go, the trees are proudly and beautifully displaying their fall colors. It’s hard NOT to capture them with my camera, and when I do, I just have to share them with all of you. I was just telling Larry today that I don’t recall our past Falls being so colorful and beautiful as they are this year.
When I made my bierocks the other day, I only used half the dough. Baking Bierocks I had so much dough left over, I used it in a number of different ways after that. I just kept is well covered and in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it again.
The dough started off as these.
The next time I used the dough I made some clover leaf rolls to serve with dinner.
There was still a ton on dough leftover, so the next reincarnation of the dough turned into Southwestern chicken empanadas. (More on this later.)
I still had a lot of dough leftover, even after this. It just wasn’t going anywhere. After the 4th attempt, all the dough has finally been used. The last life for this batch of dough was a garlic-herb bread roll. I told you this dough was versatile and I wasn’t kidding. 🙂
To make this garlic-herb loaf I rolled out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Then I melted some butter and mixed in about 2 TBSP of garlic and dried herbs that I brushed over the dough.
Once the dough was rolled, I added a little twist to it and placed it in a loaf pan, brushed some more garlic butter on top and baked it at 350* F or 180* C for about 1 hour or until the top was golden and crusty.
For the moment, I am doughless, but I love to bake, and I love breads, so I doubt this is going to be a long-term issue. I see another dough batch in my near future. 🙂
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 