A Jeanne in the Kitchen

Our Juneteenth celebration was a feast of what I like to call Southern tapas.  Celebrating Juneteenth  The dishes I prepared were all small dishes and mostly finger foods.  But as we all know, and a concept I am VERY familiar with, a lot of small things can easily add up to a lot.

The little smokies wrapped in puff pastry were super easy to make, only required a few simple ingredients and were a HUGE hit.  If you are so inclined, you can definitely make your own puff pastry, but that is a lot of work.  I’ve done it, but most of the time, I just don’t have that kind of time, so I buy the pre-made puff pastry, which works just as well.  These little snacks are perfect for any occasion.

Smokies Wrapped in Puff Pastry

I package puff pastry, completely thawed

24 mini smoked sausages or smokies

egg wash

poppy seeds and/or toasted sesame seeds

honey mustard sauce for dipping

 

Cut the puff pastry into 24 equal squares.  Place a smokie in the center of each square or at an angle at one of the corners.  Fold the dough around the smokie and wrap like a burrito.

Preheat oven to 400* F or 200* C.

Brush the wrapped pastries with egg wash, and tightly pinch the seams together so they don’t unfold.  Sprinkle the top of the pastries with either toasted sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds.

Pop them in the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden brown.  Serve immediately.  These are best when served hot with some honey mustard sauce on the side for dipping.  I made my own honey mustard sauce with honey, Dijon mustard, and then I added a dash of my Sweet Heat Mustard as well. Bread and Jam

These are light and and flaky and taste of so good.

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

It is a beautiful day out in the neighborhood. It is warm, but not too terribly hot.  We saw so many beautiful things today.  All the flowers were in bloom.  We saw turtles, herons, egrets, the goslings that are almost all grown up now, cormorants, prairie dogs, and yes, even another large snake.  Larry asked if I wanted a picture of the snake, and I said nope.  The one I have is more than enough, thank you, and I did not even take that picture.  I had to google it.

All the cacti were in bloom too.

The goslings are almost as big as their parents now, and have lost all of their baby feathers.  They grow up so quickly.

He’s walking on water.

What’s your sign?

Just looking around.

Stranded on the island in the lake.

Hangin’ out on the rock.

Is this my best side?

Even though there were two herons that flew right over me, I could not get them.  This is the best shot I could get of the heron today.

Daddy, I’m hot.  I’m thirsty.  Can I have some water please?

I took a lot of pictures today.  There are plenty more to come your way.

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

 

 

Most people are completely unaware of Juneteenth and its significance in American history.  But to people from the south, particularly Texas, and, most particularly people of color from the south or from Texas, it is a very important day in history.  In Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger, from the Union Army announced the Federal orders proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were free.  This was 2 1/2 years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”

As you know, my mother was from Texas, so I grew up learning and knowing about the importance of Juneteenth.  In honor of the day, we had our friends Jonathon and Priscilla over and celebrated the day by watching a documentary about the importance of the day.  And of course you know I celebrated with plenty of food as well.  I made an array of simple Southern foods just for the occasion.

I made deviled eggs, a BLT pasta salad, browned butter lima beans and ham, little smokies wrapped in puff pastry and shrimp beignets.

Priscilla made some delicious lemon cookies and added fresh strawberries and cream.

We feasted first, then watched the movie.

When most people think of beignets, they think of them as sweet, donut-like fried pastries.  And they would be right in thinking this too, however, beignets have come a long way, and are not just sweet treats any more.  I made them with shrimp and peppers, thus making them savory instead of sweet.  They were delicately light and crispy. It was hard to stop at just one.

Shrimp and Pepper Beignets

2 TBSP butter or bacon grease

1/3 cup green onions, sliced thin

1/2 red bell pepper, diced small

1/2 red onion, diced fine

1 jalapeno, diced fine

2 TBSP garlic

1/2 lb shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut into small pieces

2 TBSP Cajun or Creole seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 1/2 cups Bisquick

1/2 cup warm beer

canola or vegetable oil for frying

 

Instead of butter, I used some leftover bacon grease from when I made the bacon for my BLT pasta salad, to saute the shrimp, peppers, onions, garlic and seasinings.

Let the shrimp mixture cool a bit while you make the dough.

Mix the Bisquick and cheese together thoroughly, then add the beer and knead it all together to make a soft dough.  I find it is better to use your hands.  Any kind of beer will do.  As with anything, changing the beers around will also enhance the flavor of the beignets slightly too.  This will be a very soft dough.  Do not over mix it or it will become tough, which will make them a lot less flaky and delicate too.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a rectangle, about 1/4- 1/2 inch in thickness.  Then cut the dough into about 4 inch squares.  You will have enough dough for about 12 beignets.

Place about 1-2 TBSP of shrimp filling in the center of the squares, making sure not to over fill them.   Then bring the corners together, making a triangle.  Firmly press the edges together, then press with a fork to seal the seams.  I have to admit, I love stuff in my stuff, so I often over fill things, which makes them difficult to work with later.  Place in the refrigerator for at least one hour before frying them up.  Serve immediately after cooking them.  These are best served hot.

When you are ready to cook the beignets, fill a deep skillet with enough cooking oil to cover the surface of the beignets.  Bring the oil to 350*F or 180* C.  (DO NOT USE OLIVE OIL.  The smoke point of olive oil is much lower than either vegetable, safflower or canola oil and will burn).  Carefully place the beingets in the hot oil, adding only a few at a time.  Cook them until they are golden brown and crispy.  Remove them from the oil and place them on a paper towel to extract some of the grease.  Repeat until they are all cooked.

These beignets are so light and crispy.  They literally just melt in your mouth.  You won’t be able to stop at just one.  Go ahead.  I dare you.  🙂

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second part of our Toronto tour was Larry’s impromptu version of the Canadian dish poutine.  Going North to Toronto, Eh – Part 1

Poutine is a Canadian dish that was first created in the small rural town of Warwick in Quebec, in the 1957.  It is French fries topped with gravy and cheese curds.  Legend has it that a customer in a local restaurant had asked for a mixture of these ingredients, but because he was in a hurry, he had them all thrown together in one bag.  When he looked in the bag,  he said “This is a ‘poutine,’” using the joual—or Québécois slang—for a “mess.”  The name poutine stuck and has been used ever since.  This dish even found its way across the Southern Border to the United States, to New Jersey.  In New Jersey, however, they make it with Mozzarella cheese sticks instead of cheese curds and call them Disco Fries.

I am NOT a cheese fan, nor am I am big gravy fan, plus I am already fat enough and I don’t need to waste my calories on something that I don’t like 2 out of the 3 main ingredients. This one was all for Larry.

We did not have cheese curds and Larry did not want me to make gravy just for him, just for this dish, so he improvised.  He used some leftover mystery sauce we had and added cheddar cheese to it, then added all of this on top of his fries.

If poutine is your thing, then you will like this, but it is definitely NOT my thing.  To each his/her own.

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

Larry finished another puzzle.  This one was the skyline of Toronto.  Since he did this puzzle all by himself again, he chose the dinner.  He had already picked out his Canadian meal too.  He wanted pealmeal bacon and poutine.

Canadians know peameal bacon as an iconic national breakfast food, but the back bacon’s backstory is even richer than its flavor. In fact, the story of peameal bacon is tied to several important themes of the last two centuries: the rise and fall of the British Empire, emigration and immigration, and the development of modern agriculture. But more than anything, the history of peameal is a salty tale of how Hogtown got its name, not to mention its most iconic sandwich.

Pealmeal bacon is a center loin pork loin cured in brine then rolled in cornmeal.  It is a traditional Canadian dish, that is specifically from Ontario.  We could not find anything specially from Toronto, so this would have to do for our puzzle and a meal series.  Pealmeal bacon is more like ham, when compared to smoked back bacon or side bacon. The cooked slices have been described as resembling small pork cutlets. It is eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, served in slices or as an ingredient in a pork dish.  The name “peameal bacon” derives from the historic practice of rolling the cured and trimmed boneless loin in dried and ground yellow peas to extend shelf life. Since the end of World War I, it has been rolled in ground yellow cornmeal instead of the yellow peas though.

Larry made the brine for the pealmeal bacon and let it marinate for about 2-3 days before we cooked it up.

Brine for Pealmeal Bacon

2 cups water

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup Kosher salt

1 TBSP garlic

2 TBSP sugar

2 TBSP Tabasco or other red pepper sauce

2 TBSP mustard seed or ground mustard

1 TBSP celery salt or celery seeds

pepper to taste

2 lbs pork loin

cornmeal

 

Mix all the ingredients together in a sauce pan except for the pork and cornmeal.  Bring them to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add ice cubes to the mixture then pour into a plastic bag and add the pork loin.  Let it marinate in the refrigerator anywhere from 3 days – 2 weeks before cooking.

When you are ready to cook the pork, pat it dry with a paper towel.

Completely coat the pork in cornmeal.  We used pork chops rather than pork loin, but it is the same concept.

You can either pan fry it or roast it.  I pan fried it this time, which made it nice and tender on the inside and crusty on the outside.

Once the pealmeal bacon is completely cooked, slice it up and serve it however you like.  In Canada, this is most often served as a sandwich.  I too made it into a sandwich, but I served it on some pita bread with some lettuce and tomatoes.

Larry also wanted poutine to go with his pealmeal bacon sandwich.  I opted for just plain French fries.  Sorry to all my Canadian friends, but poutine just sounds absolutely disgusting to me.  (More on poutine later).

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

 

 

Father’s Day is just around the corner.  People all over the world are celebrating their fathers in many different ways.  For many people, especially little girls, their daddy is their first love.  I know my daddy certainly was and still is.  If he were still with us today, he would be 95.  But sadly he passed away at 82, in 2007.  I miss you and love you Daddy.  I will always be your little girl.

Many of you might know, my dad immigrated to the United States after WWII from Australia.  He lived in the United States ever since, mostly in Pasadena, California, for the rest of his life.

My dad in Melbourne, Australia in the mid 1930’s.  Like Paul Newman, my dad was always complimented for his beautiful blue eyes.  Daddy would have been about 12 or 13 here.

At 14, Daddy ran away from home, lied about his age, said he was 16, and joined the Australian Army.  He fought in North Africa in WWII.  This was in 1939, in Melbourne, right before being deployed.

The St. Kilda Boys.  St. Kilda has always been a rough part of Melbourne.  And now you can see why.  This motley crew gathering together during a break from the war.  I don’t know why my dad was not in his uniform at this time, like his mates were.  More than likely, he was being the rebel that he was was always known to be.  The gentleman to my dad’s left, in the Air Force uniform, was my dad’s best mate.  Even though after WWII, they were separated by 1/2 a world, they never broke their brotherly bond.  They were best mates their whole entire lives; probably still are too.

After WWII, Daddy took to the sea.  This was the first of his many seaman’s ID pictures.  He was in the Merchant Marines, often doing military sealift commands, for the rest of his career.  He loved the sea.  It was his calling.

Before settling in Pasadena, Daddy was a vagabond, and tried living in various others parts of the US.  I believe this was in New York, shortly after WWII, but I really can’t say for sure where or when it was.Daddy’s travels took him to Texas, where he met my mother.  They stayed there for a few years, but the shipping was better in California, so they packed up and went to the Golden State, where they lived out the rest of their years.  Plus my dad and my grandfather never got along.  When my mom announced they were getting married my grandfather’s response was ” Why do have to go an’ marry a damn ferirner?”.  They were off to California.

Port Arthur Texas, where my mother was from, around 1950, right after they got married

Living’ the good life out in California, mid 1950’s.

Mom and dad were married 14 years before I came along.  It was just the three of us, plus all our fur babies, from that point on.  This was in our backyard with most of our menagerie.

Daddy loved the sea.  He sailed around the world many times over.  The sea was a part of him.  His last big sail was a cruise up and down the California coastline that we did together.  I bought him a trip on an old fashioned Cutter ship replica.  You can tell by his big smile that he was loving every minute of it.

All grown up, and living in Colorado.  We would bring my dad out to stay with us all the time.

Daddy walking me down the aisle on my wedding day in 2003.

Our Daddy/Daughter dance.

Mr. Cool.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there.

 

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

Up until recently, I had not had much of an issue with spam mail, but lately that all changed.  This morning, my spam folder EXPLODED!  I finally had to contact WordPress to see what was happening.  I literally received 350+ spam emails this morning alone, with regards to a post I wrote quite awhile ago.  At first, I was trying to answer them all, even though I thought some were a little odd.  After all, I don’t want to prevent readers and followers from commenting, and I truly want to hear from as many people as I can, but this was getting way out of hand.  I had to do something.  WordPress discovered they were all SPAM.

One by one, we “opened them up” to see what was inside, and they were all deleted.  Hopefully WordPress will do a better job of preventing that from happening again in the future.  One thing I was advised to do was to turn off comments from anything older than 28 days.

I don’t know if anyone else has been having this problem, but I thought you should all know.  I will continue to keep checking my spam folder, because I know nothing is fool proof, and some of the items that find their way to spam are actually things I may be interested in.  But the best way for anyone to get a hold of me regarding my blog is go to ajeanneinthekitchen.com and leave a message there.  I do eventually get back to everyone.

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

The weather here as certainly been HOT, HOT, HOT!  It is the perfect time for cool salads and things that require minimal cooking efforts.  I made a great salad AND I got to use up most of my leftovers in the process.  That’s a win/win for me.  WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!  It’s amazing what you can create with some imagination and little bits of this and little bits of that.

I added a bunch of my leftovers to a bed of chopped spinach to make this cool and refreshing salad.  I had chicken, but not enough for three.  My friend Elizabeth came over for dinner and I wasn’t planning on that, so I cooked up some more bacon and added that to that bacon I already had.  Then I added my orzo salad.  Both the chicken and the orzo were from our game night with Priscilla and Jonathon.  Italian Orzo and Vegetable Salad  Next, I added the corn and tomato salad from when we had our grilled sausages.  And finally, as the dressing, I used the rest of the roasted red pepper aioli sauce by mixing it with some more olive oil and some white balsamic vinegar.  Mayonnaise – It’s Not Just a Condiment  Everything combined made for a very tasty, cool and refreshing salad, which was just perfect since it was a scorcher outside.  The meal was made complete with a glass or two of my cool, crisp barrel aged Chenin Blanc and some warmed ciabiatta bread.

We definitely were able to keep our cool with this delicious “leftover” salad.

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

 

It has been way too hot to go out for my walks lately, so I have been busy crafting again.  My mother and I always used to do a lot of crafty works, so in a way, when I am crafting something, I am also channeling with my mom.  I have been doing a lot of things with wine corks lately, and believe it or not, I am actually running out of wine corks because I have been busy making corked hearts.  I guess that means I need to drink more wine.  🙂

Here is my latest creation.  I get my inspiration from many sources, and my muse speaks to me in many creative ways.  This time she was speaking to me in cork.  I saw this on some show we were watching on TV and said “I can do that”.  The first time I tried, it did not come out exactly the way I wanted it to, even though I really liked the two hearts I made, but my motto is “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”.   Heart of Wine  

The new heart of corks is a double heart.  I think it came out pretty cool too.  This is what I was originally trying to create.  I just had to play with awhile first.

Waiting for the glue to completely dry was the hardest part.  I learned a few new tricks from the last time I made this too.  This time I used some heart cake pans that I sprayed with cooking spray and lined with parchment paper.  This made it much easier to work with because the corks didn’t keep shifting all around.  Live and learn.  For the bottom layer, I cut the corks in half.

Once the glue was completely dried, I was able to add the finishing touches.  I added a row of ribbon around the outside of the lower level.  I used the hot glue gun for this.  Then I nailed in my loop to hang it with.

The finished double heart.  Now I just need to figure out what to do with it, as I do with so many of my other creations.  🙂

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

 

Most people think of mayonnaise as a spread you buy in a jar, that you put on your sandwiches.  But it is oh so much more, especially when it is made fresh, from scratch.  To the French and many others around the world, and especially to anyone who has been trained in the culinary arts, mayonnaise is one of the classic sauces.  It is very versatile and can be used for anything from salads to soups.  You can also add many different ingredients to mix it up and make it more lively too.

Mayonnaise and aioli are sauces that are very similar in consistency, yet the flavors are totally different.  Although aioli and mayonnaise are both creamy emulsions, aioli is made from garlic and olive oil while mayo is made from egg yolks and canola oil, though often times, aioli is also made with egg yolks. The final result may look similar but the two sauces have distinctly different flavors.  Garlic and olive oil are used in just about everything I cook, so when I make a “mayonnaise”, I am really making an aioli, because I make it with garlic and olive oil.  When we buy mayonnaise from a jar, we are used to it being kind of thick and creamy.  But often when you make it from scratch, it is a little more loose and “pourable”, especially if you whisk it all together.  It becomes a little thicker when you mix it all together in either a blender or a food processor, because more air is whipped into the mixture.  The keys to making a good mayonnaise or aioli are to slowly dribble the oil into the mixture as you are mixing it together, and to use eggs at room temperature.  By slowly dribbling the oil into the mixture you only get the amount you need and the sauce is less likely to break down.  But have no fear.  If the sauce does break down, and becomes more liquidy than you like, there are a couple of ways you can fix it.  You can either add another egg yolk and some more mustard or you can have a TBSP of warm water in another bowl and gradually add the broken sauce to the water and mix it in.  Both are tried and true methods of fixing a broken mayonnaise.

Because the temperatures are now soaring, I did not want to spend a lot of time cooking over a hot stove.  So I made a cool and easy dinner.  One of the dishes I made was a red potato salad with a smokey red pepper aioli, also known as a French rouille.  I served this along side some grilled spicy chicken sausages and a corn and tomato salad, finishing it off with a cool, crisp barrel aged Chenin Blanc.  It was a perfectly cool and simple meal to enjoy on a hot summer day.

Smokey Red Pepper Aioli Sauce

1 roasted red pepper, peeled and seeded

2 egg yolks

2 tsp sherry vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 TBSP garlic

salt and black pepper to taste

1-1 1/4 cups olive oil

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp Tabasco Sauce or other spicy pepper sauce, or to taste

 

You can either whisk it all together or blend it in a food processor or blender.  Add all the ingredients together except the olive oil.  Dribble the olive oil in as needed while mixing.

Once the sauce is made, you can add it to whatever you like.  Keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.  I mixed mine into a potato salad to give it a new twist.

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