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!
There is beauty in everything. We are beginning to enter into fall, and the leaves and flowers all around are making their seasonal changes. This time, the berries are in bloom. Tree berries, that is. 🙂
It was a another steak night, but of course I had to try it in a different way. After all, I can’t fix it the same way time after time, right?! 🙂 This time I marinated it in orange juice, jalapenos, green onions, cilantro and garlic to give it a little bit of a Caribbean flair. I served it with some vegetable quesadillas on the side, making it even more Caribbean and South of the Border style.
Steak With Orange and Jalapeno Sauce
1 1/2-2 lbs steak, your choice of cut
1 TBSP garlic
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced fine
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup green onions, sliced thin
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped fine
salt & pepper to taste
Season the steak with salt & pepper. Mix all the ingredients together and pour over the steak as a marinade, reserving some of the sauce for later. Allow the steak to marinate for at least 2-3 hours before cooking.
I had every intention of grilling the steak, but when it was time to cook dinner, we were in the midst of a thunder and rain storm and had just come off a tornado warning, so I decided to pan-fry it and sear it in the skillet, on the stove instead. I admit, I love walking on the wild side and living a bit dangerously, but there is something about standing outside in the thunder and lightening while grilling meats that puts me off a bit. Call me strange, I know. My point is that whether you decide to sear it or grill it, it will turn out just fine and will be very tasty and delicious no matter how it is cooked. 🙂 If you are searing it, make sure the skillet is HOT, HOT, HOT, then add a combination of butter and olive oil to cook the meat. Cook for 3 minutes per side, then 1-2 minutes per side again, depending on the thickness of the meat as well as your desired level of doneness. We like it medium rare, and very pink inside. But you still want the crust on the outside too. For this, timing is EVERYTHING.
When the steak is done to your level of perfection, remove it from the skillet and top it with the remaining marinade and serve with your favorite side dishes. Because this was steak, I chose a nice, full-bodied red to go with it.
Enjoy the finer things in life. Bon Appetit! !Disfrutar!
All kinds of things are still in bloom right now. Everyday is a new adventure. You just never know what is going to catch my eye or the lens of my camera. I have always called these pussy willows, but when I was looking it up to double check, I learned I have been wrong all this time. I found out they are actually called cattails. They are growing all around our lakes. Right now they look like over cooked corndogs. Later they will burst open with a cotton-like filling.
Pasta salads are a typical American dish with the earliest recipe for it being published in 1962, though they have been an American trend since 1916. The dish gained in popularity during the early eighties and was touted as a form of Nouvelle Cuisine. Pastas in various shapes and sizes were heaped on a plate and topped with dressings of vinegar, olive oil or mayonnaise. “Salad, a term derived from the Latin sal (salt), which yielded the form salata, ‘salted things’ such as the raw vegetables eaten in classical times with a dressing of oil, vinegar or salt. … And hence the name salad, which comes from Vulgar Latin Herba salata, literally ‘salted herb’.” There are as many variations as there are people who live in the USA. We love our pasta salads. They are great side dishes and people take them to pot luck parties, picnics and BBQ’s all the time. They are most often served cold and go with just about anything.
I had pesto and I had pasta. All I needed to do was to cut up a few vegetables and cook up some bacon. Then I tossed it all together for a deliciously cool summer salad.
As I mentioned above, there is NO one way to make a pasta salad. The possibilities are infinite. This is just one way. I have eaten and made many different varieties. They are a quick, easy-peasy way to make something tasty to take with you wherever you go.
It’s colorful, full of vegetables and full of flavor. This time I used red, orange and green bell peppers, green onions, cherry tomatoes and bacon.
I combined my pesto with some mayonnaise for the sauce.
Then everything just got tossed together, and into the refrigerator it went for a chill before serving.
Quick, easy-peasy and delicious. It’s a perfect combination for a busy and hot summer day.
I was able to get out and about for a bit before we had a little tornado in our area. People do not realize that Colorado is part of Tornado Alley, but it is, particularly Eastern Colorado. About 3:15 yesterday afternoon, I had an emergency tornado alert sent to me on my phone. It was for all over the state, but we had a funnel cloud right down the street from us too, and we are in the North Denver Metro area. We had a brief hail storm and rain, but it only lasted about 20 minutes or so.
These are some shots I got of our feathered tallgrass before the tornado warning though. I just love these. These are in my front yard.
To say you are eating Indian food is really open to interpretation since, India is a land of many mysteries and many different people from many different walks of life. Because this land has such a rich diversity of people from all different backgrounds, there is a wide variety of different kinds of foods as well. The Parsis or Parcees are a group of people who are “Persians,” who are descended from Persian Zoroastrians who emigrated to India to avoid religious persecution by Muslims. They live mostly on the West Coast of the Indian shores. Because their heritage is Persian, as you would expect, the foods are also mostly Persian as well. Most of the Indian foods found in America come from the Northern parts of India.
It was time for some chicken, but of course, I didn’t want anything ordinary. I know we just had an Asian Beef stir-fry the other day A Little Stir-Fry, but there is a huge difference between a Chinese style stir-fry and Indian food, especially food from the Parsi sector of India, so they were completely different, even though technically, both are considered Asian. The Parsi name for this dish is Dhansak.
When cooking ethnic foods, I like to prepare them as authentically as I can, so I tend to actually follow recipes a lot more closely than I normally do. Indian foods are always made with a wide variety of exotic spices, also known as Masala. There are two main types of Masala, but every region will produce a different variety depending on the kind of ingredients that are used in that region – The two main types of Masala re Godha and Tikha.
Godha – This Masala sauce does not use chilli, but is highly pungent due to its heavy use of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. With good quality spices this Masala is hot in its own right! It tends to be a shade of brown.
Tikha – This is generally a hotter masala due to its primary use of chili as the main ingredient and so it is generally red in color.
This dish uses more of the Godha version of Masala.
Chicken with Lentils and Vegetables
The Masala
2 TBSP butter or ghee
1 onion, diced fine
1 TBSP ginger
1 TBSP garlic
1 jalapeno, diced fine
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cumin
Mix all the ingredients together and cook in the butter of ghee to make a paste.
The Lentils
1 cup lentils
3 cups water
Soak the lentils in cold water for at least 30 minutes, then drain and bring the lentils to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the liquid has evaporated.
The Main Dish
2 lbs chicken breasts
salt & peper to taste
1 onion, sliced very thin
1 jalapeno, diced fine
1 TBSP garlic
1 TBSP ginger
2 cups either zucchini, yellow crookneck squash or eggplant, or a combination thereof, sliced thin
1 can garbanzo beans or chickpeas, drained
1 can chicken broth
1 potato, diced
2- 3 cups spinach, stems removed and chopped
2 large tomatoes, diced large
1 TBSP dried mint
3 TBSP fresh cilantro, chopped fine
olive oil and butter or ghee for cooking
Saute the onions, garlic, ginger and jalapeno in the butter/ghee and olive oil for about 3 minutes. Then add the chicken and continue to cook for about 20 minutes or until the onions start to caramelize and the chicken is tender, flipping the chicken over after about 10 minutes. Once the chicken is tender, remove the chicken and onion mixture from the skillet and set aside.
Add the vegetable mixture and Masala to the skillet and cook for about 5-7 minutes, then re-add the chicken and onion mixture as well as the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 more minutes.
When both the lentils and the chicken mixture are done, it is time to serve it up. I layered the chicken and vegetable sauce over the lentils and topped it all with more of the cilantro. I served it with some warmed naan bread on the side. I chose a light, crisp, citrusy chardonnay as my wine choice, which helped cut down some of the heat and spice from the meal.
Enjoy your meal or as they would say in Parsi, bho’jan ka aanand len.
In the movie “You’ve Got Mail“, with Tim Hanks and Meg Ryan, Meg Ryan said “daisies were her favorite flower because daisies were such happy flowers”. I could not agree more. They are very happy flowers. Usually I have a whole bunch growing in my front yard, but this year I only had a couple. Fortunately one of my neighbors had a big bunch of daisies in her yard, so I am able to enjoy them vicariously through her.
Smile and be happy like the daisies. Enjoy your day and all the days to come.
Tilapia are mainly freshwater fish inhabiting shallow streams, ponds, rivers, and lakes, and less commonly found living in brackish water. While Tilapia is often raised in fish farms around the globe, the species is native to the Middle East and Africa. Tilapia is the fourth-most consumed fish in the United States dating back to 2002. The popularity of tilapia came about due to its low price, easy preparation, and mild taste. Tilapia is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein, both of which are important for good health.
We love all kinds of seafood, and eat quite a bit of it, especially while we are on our diving expeditions and trips to the seashore. Tilapia is one of those fish that finds its way into our menu plans quite frequently too. Because it is a lighter, whitefish, without a heavy “fishy” taste, Larry likes it better than many other types of seafood. I grew up eating seafood of all kinds and I don’t mind that “fishy” taste so much, but I have to say, the whitefishes are some of my favorites too. That being said, we pulled some tilapia out of the freezer, and into the culinary rotation it went. This time, I pan-fried it and served it with a creamy spinach sauce over rice. Tilapia is what we had on hand, but this sauce would go very nicely over any type of whitefish.
Tilapia with Creamy Spinach Sauce
1 lb tilapia, or any other whitefish
3-4 cups baby spinach, stems removed, chopped
1 shallot, chopped fine
1 TBSP garlic
2 TBSP lime juice
1 cup heavy whipping cream
salt & pepper to taste
butter for finishing the sauce
Saute the spinach, garlic and shallots in a hot skillet with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. You can use either white or black pepper, but I actually prefer the black pepper. I think it add more character.
When the spinach is wilted, removed the mixture from the skillet and add the line juice. Reduce until most of the liquid is gone, then add the cream.
Once the cream and lime juice are thoroughly mixed, re-add the spinach mixture. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, and continue to cook, stirring constantly, for about 7-10 minutes. Turn off the heat, then add some butter in for the finish and incorporate well.
Lightly coat the the tilapia with salt and pepper and panfry in a hot skillet with a combination of both butter and olive oil until golden brown.
When both the fish and the sauce are done, it is time to serve it up. I served it over some of my leftover lime rice with a medley of summer vegetables. My wine of choice was a crisp, citrusy chardonnay. It was a deliciously light meal, which was just perfect for a summer’s evening out on the deck.
We often cook a lot of things up in quantity and then freeze them to pull out at a later time. We had some brisket that we smoked and froze awhile ago and it just made its way into our culinary rotation. What was I going to do with all this brisket. HMMMMM?????? I turned it into an Asian stir-fry with a teriyaki sauce and vegetables that I served over some leftover pasta with some fried potsitckers on the side. Because my dish was a beef dish, I served it with a smooth red blend as my wine choice.
You would think with a name like teriyaki that this sauce originated in Japan. You would only be partially correct though. It can trace its origins to the Japanese shoyu sauce, but teriyaki sauce is actually an American creation, born in Hawai’i, around the early 1960’s, when large amounts of Japanese immigrants were settling into the islands. Teriyaki sauce is a unique marinade that was created using local products such as pineapple juice and brown sugar that were blended together in soy sauce. Today, teriyaki is widely recognized the world over, and is now more or less a way of cooking rather than just a very popular sauce.
Teriyaki Beef and Vegetable Stir-Fry
Stir-fries are as versatile as they come, and you can use any combination of meats, seafoods and vegetables you like. This time I used some red and yellow bell peppers, green beans, mushrooms, green onions, red onions, ginger, garlic and cilantro with my beef brisket.
I started off with what I had left of my store bought teriyaki sauce, then I added to it to make it even better.
1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
1 tsp Chinese 5-Spices
1 TBSP soy sauce
1 heaping TBSP cornstarch
Combine it all together and mix well.
My meat was already cooked, so I just sliced into thin strips and set it aside.
Slice the vegetables and saute together with the garlic and ginger until they are tender. Then add the beef and mix together well.
Add the meat and mix everything together thoroughly, then add the sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce thickens a bit. It is now ready to serve over either pasta or rice and enjoy.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 