A Jeanne in the Kitchen

We got together with our friends Julia and Bruce over the weekend. As you might recall, Julia and I met through the world of blogging and since have become very good friends. We have a lot in common and truly enjoy each other’s company. Julia’s blog is http://retirementrvdream.wordpress.com/. If you haven’t “met” Julia yet, you should stop by and say hi. Julia is a fabulous cook as well and there is always something scrumptious cooking in her kitchen. You will love what’s cooking in Julia’s kitchen too.

We started the day off with some wine tasting and officially introduced Bruce and Julia to our favorite local winery, InVINtions Video #17 – INVINtions, A Creative Winery, though they have enjoyed many a bottle of their wines with us at our house already. After wine tasting, we headed back their new “home”. Bruce and Julia have decided to hit the road and they now take their home with them everywhere they go. Their new “home” is an RV.

As far as RV’s go, this is top of the line and is both spacious and luxurious. I was amazed at the kitchen too. It is a full-sized, fully equipped kitchen that you would find in a house. Julia said Larry and I were their first dinner guests in their new “home”. We are honored. Julia prepared a fantastic steak fajita dinner for us, that we enjoyed outside at the picnic table before the rain hit. Though Julia’s new kitchen is amazing, she actually prepared our meal outside on the grill this time, which was perfectly OK with us. 🙂 Here she is grilling up the steaks to perfection along with some onions and poblano chilies.

Bruce and Julia’s new home.

Julia’s actual kitchen. It is hard to believe this is a kitchen in an RV, but it is.

Slicing the steak. It was cooked to absolute steak perfection too. It just melted in our mouths.

And voila! The fajitas are a culinary masterpiece. I loaded them up with some of Julia’s fantastic guacamole as well. For dessert, we had some sliced Palisade peaches Palisade Peach Salsa that Julia had seasoned with garam masala. That was a treat I never would have thought of, but they were so good!!!!!!

Once again, thank you Bruce and Julia for your delicious hospitality and for all the good times. We look forward to many, many more ahead.

Life is short. Do what makes you happy and don’t worry about the rest. Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

Purple and yellow are the predominant colors for flowers this year. I see all shades of purple and yellow everywhere I go. It is such a pretty, vibrant combination. Here are some more of our beautiful purples proudly wearing their colors..

Color me purple, color me beautiful.

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Challenge rules, why not join in?

1.Feel free to post every day or whenever you you feel like it.  You can either post new flower photos or dig back into your archives.

2. Depending on the time of year, you can post any of these types of things for your FOTD.

• Single flowers
• Buds
• Multiple flowers
• Bouquet
• Flower fields
• Wildflowers
• Tree or bush blossoms
• Autumn leaves
• Spring leaves
• Decorative Cabbage
• Berries
• Still life
• Fake or Silk Flowers

With my Church coffee cart up and running, and getting more and more successful each week, I now have a good excuse to start baking again without feeling guilty. I love to bake, but if I bake and I am not having people over, or going someplace that gives me an excuse for making something sweet, I feel guilty. I am really trying to loose weight, but it is so hard to do it when then are sweets, treats and goodies all around. So I have not been baking much for quite some time. But if it is for the church, well that it is all good, right?!

This time the coffee cart was fueled with some Nutella brownie bites, lemony zucchini bread and some chocolate chip cookies (I bought those). Once again, they were all gone at the end of the day. I like it that way, and apparently, so does everyone else. 🙂

Yes, I did technically bake the brownies and I did add the Nutella, but they were from a mix. There is NOTHING wrong from baking from a mix, and often times, they have already been perfected and there is nothing else to change. They are simply perfection in a box. But we can all do that. My lemony zucchini bread, however, was all from scratch. I was inspired by another one of our blogger “family members”, but I am embarrasses to admit, I forget who the idea came from. I do apologize for that. Though the recipe is mostly my own.

Lemony Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 cups sifted flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup grated zucchini

1/4 cooking oil

1 egg

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 TBSP poppy seeds

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

Spray cooking spray into a loaf pan.

Sift all the dry ingredients together, including the sugar, and add the zucchini.

Mix the egg, oil and lemon juice together then add to the dry mixture and mix only until everything is thoroughly combined, but do not over mix. Then pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread evenly in the pan.

Bake for about 1 jour, or until it starts to turn a light golden color and an inserted toothpick comes out cleans.

Let it cool completely before adding the glaze and slicing.

The Glaze

2 TBSP lemon juice

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 TBSP + 1 tsp fresh lemon zest

Whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar together then drizzle it over the top of the bread. Sprinkle the lemon zest over the top. Slice and enjoy.

I think it is because of the zucchini, but this cake is so moist and delicate. It is a lemon lover’s delight. 🙂

Sometimes, it is perfectly OK to enjoy those guilty pleasures in life. That’s what keeps us happy. Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.

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. 🙂

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Challenge rules, why not join in?

1.Feel free to post every day or whenever you you feel like it.  You can either post new flower photos or dig back into your archives.

2. Depending on the time of year, you can post any of these types of things for your FOTD.

• Single flowers
• Buds
• Multiple flowers
• Bouquet
• Flower fields
• Wildflowers
• Tree or bush blossoms
• Autumn leaves
• Spring leaves
• Decorative Cabbage
• Berries
• Still life
• Fake or Silk Flowers

The weather is already beginning to cool down, and the days are not as oppressively hot any more. Fall is coming. It won’t be to much longer now. 🙂

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!

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

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.

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Challenge rules, why not join in?

1.Feel free to post every day or whenever you you feel like it.  You can either post new flower photos or dig back into your archives.

2. Depending on the time of year, you can post any of these types of things for your FOTD.

• Single flowers
• Buds
• Multiple flowers
• Bouquet
• Flower fields
• Wildflowers
• Tree or bush blossoms
• Autumn leaves
• Spring leaves
• Decorative Cabbage
• Berries
• Still life
• Fake or Silk Flowers

Have a great day Everyone. Don’t forget to take in the little things. Those are the things that brighten your days.

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.

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

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.

http://viewfromtheback.com/2021/08/03/cees-flower-of-the-day-130/

Challenge rules, why not join in?

1.Feel free to post every day or whenever you you feel like it.  You can either post new flower photos or dig back into your archives.

2. Depending on the time of year, you can post any of these types of things for your FOTD.

• Single flowers
• Buds
• Multiple flowers
• Bouquet
• Flower fields
• Wildflowers
• Tree or bush blossoms
• Autumn leaves
• Spring leaves
• Decorative Cabbage
• Berries
• Still life
• Fake or Silk Flowers

Enjoy all life has to offer while you can, for there are no guarantees about later.

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.

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

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.