A Jeanne in the Kitchen

Larry said he wanted quesadillas with the smoked pork for dinner.  Cool beans!  We love quesadillas and eat them quite often.  There is no right or wrong way to make them.  Queso is cheese, so obviously queso and tortillas are the main ingredients.  Anything else is up to your imagination.  Just like with anything though, when I make quesadillas, I load them up with plenty of stuff.  I added onions, jalapeno, corn and garlic to my pork for the filling.  It is hard for me to order quesadillas at most restaurants though because I know they do not make them nearly as good as I do.  I needed a good salsa to really bring out the smoky flavors of the pork, so I made a roasted tomato and jalapeno salsa.  The roasted flavors of the tomatoes and jalapeno went really well with the smoky pork.

This salsa is super easy to make and only requires a few basic ingredients.  You can use any kind of tomatoes you like, but I used a couple of heirlooms and a Roma.  It’s fun to play around and mix and match the tomatoes.  Tomatoes are in abundance and are super fresh and flavorful at this time of year too, so there are all kinds of tomatoes available.

Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa

Preheat the oven to 375* F or 190* C.

2-3 large tomatoes – your choice, stems removed

1-2 jalapenos

1/2 red onion, diced fine

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped fine

1/4 cup green onions, sliced very thin

1 TBSP garlic

1 tsp chili powder, or chili lime powder

1 tsp oregano

salt & pepper to taste

1 TBSP paprika

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the tomatoes on the parchment paper.  You can also roast the jalapeno with the tomatoes too, or you can do it over an open flame.

Roast the tomatoes for about 30 minutes, or until they are nice and soft.

When the tomatoes and jalapeno have cooled (and peeled and seeded for the jalapeno), cut them into large chunks and place them in a food processor with all the spices and vinegar.

You can put all the ingredients in the food processor if you like, but I like a chunky salsa, so I only put the tomatoes, jalapeno and spices in the food processor.  The rest of my ingredients I diced fine, then mixed with my tomato mixture after.  Because the tomatoes are soft, this only requires a few pulses and a few seconds to become a liquid.

Your salsa esta listo!  Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before using. !La salsa esta muy bueno y muy delicioso! !Desfruitas!

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

 

It was a two-walk kind of day.  I did one walk by myself, earlier in the day, then Larry and I took Vinnie out for a walk when he came home from work.  On my first walk, the lakes were pretty quiet at first.  And then …… There was more than a little excitement when on the 4th lake I saw a big bull snake out sunning himself, right on the sidewalk.    Not only do I HATE snakes, but I am very phobic of them as well.  Nothing else bothers me.  But SNAKES – YIKES!!!!!!!!  Needless to say, my heart rate definitely rose a few beats and I quickly turned around and high tailed it in the other direction.  Bull snakes are relatively harmless, but I DON’T CARE!  I am NOT ever going to stop and make friends with ANY snake.  EVER!!!!!!

The only good thing I can say about bull snakes, is that at least they kill the rattlesnakes, so for that I guess I am grateful.  And we do have a ton of rattlesnakes out in our fields Other than that, I have NO need for them at all.

Fortunately, I did see other things that helped make my walk better.  I still saw the goslings and the ducklings, and i got some good pictures of both, but I was a bit more wary of stopping for too long to take more pictures.

The goslings are becoming teenagers and growing up so fast.  They were starting to learn how to use their wings too.  Soon they will be flying high with the rest of the family.

Stay safe and stay well Everyone.  And AVOID the snakes!!!!!!!  ‘Til next time.

 

 

Cucumbers and tomatoes are staples in the summer.  On those dogs days of summer, when the mercury keeps rising, a combination of cucumbers and tomatoes will help you keep your cool.  Plus, they just taste so darn good together too.  We are not yet into those dog days of summer, but the temperature is rising, and we had a cucumber and I just bought a ton of tomatoes.  So I combined them to make this delicious, easy-peasy summer salad.  All it takes is a few minutes of your time and a few simple ingredients and this salad is made and ready to enjoy.

Tomato-Cucumber Salad

1 1/2 cups small yellow tomatoes, cut in 1/2

1 1/2 cups small orange tomatoes, cut in 1/2

1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, cut in 1/2

1 English cucumber, scored and sliced

2 TBSP green onions, sliced thin

1/3 cup olive oil

1 TBSP white wine vinegar

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 TBSP ginger

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp black pepper and/or lemon pepper

2 TBSP lemon verbena, chiffonade, optional

 

Combine the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and lemon verbena (if using).  Whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing.  Toss the vegetables in the amount of dressing you need, reserving the excess for another salad.  Let the salad chill in the refrigerator for awhile, then sit back and enjoy.

You can use either a regular cucumber or an English cucumber, but an English cucumber will be slightly sweeter, with a thinner peel and no seeds.  In the summer, lemon verbena completely takes over my back yard, so I use it as much as I can, and there is still absolutely NO WAY I can ever use it all up.  It is a great addition to all kinds of salads and dressings.  I also had some leftover rosemary vinaigrette that I combined with the other ingredients for the dressing.  Roasted Pepper and Mushroom Salad with Rosemary Vinaigrette

I served my tomato cucumber salad along side some grilled London broil that I topped with mushrooms, garlic and shallots that I sauteed in the leftover of my buerre Parisienne Boeuf Avec Buerre a la Parisienne and some leftover scalloped potatoes, for a quick and easy summer meal.  The buerre Parisienne made both the mushrooms and the steak just come to life.

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

 

 

 

 

 

All of our spring babies are already beginning to grow up.  Soon, they will be out of their nests and on their own.  Ah!  They grow up so fast.  So I thought I would share some more our prairie pups before they are all grown up.  Typical of kids, they are in every direction at once, running wild, and creating chaos and confusion for Mom and Dad.

Making plans.

They’re on the run.

Mom, desperately trying to round them up.

Counting heads.  I think we got them all.

Dad is double checking, just to make sure.

Planning their next escape.

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

 

Cooking with chicken is always a pleasure, because it is so versatile.  Everything goes with chicken.  You can poach it, broil it, roast it, grill it, stuff it, make it in to a salad, and on and on and on.  The possibilities are endless.  Maybe that’s why chicken is one of the most universal foods.  There is nothing you can’t do with chicken.

We had some Andouille sausage down.  I had already used some of it for my sausage and shrimp skewers, Spicy Shrimp and Andouille Sausage Skewers and I am hoping to use more of it for some jambalaya later this week, but Larry was hungry for more sausage again.  So I used some of it to stuff my chicken.  I package of 6 links cooked in 3 totally different ways.  I LOVE it!

Chicken Stuffed with Sausage and Spinach

2 lbs chicken breasts

salt & pepper to taste

olive oil

1 lb ground sausage – any kind is fine

1 shallot, minced fine

1 TBSP garlic

3 cups fresh spinach, stems removed

1 TBSP roasted chilies, minced fine

2-3 oz, jalapeno jack or jack cheese

 

Slice the chicken in the middle to make a pocket.  This will be easier to do when the chicken is still raw rather than when it is par cooked.  Coat both sides of the chicken with salt, pepper and olive oil.  In a hot skillet, add some more oil with a little butter and brown the chicken for about 4-6 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts.  You are only par cooking the chicken since you will be baking it to fully cook once it is stuffed.

Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.  In the same pan, cook the sausage, shallot, garlic and peppers for about five or so minutes.  If you have link sausage, just remove the inside from the casing or cut into very small chunks.  Then add the spinach and continue to cook until everything is completely cooked.

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

Carefully fill the chicken with the sausage and spinach mixture and place the chicken breasts in a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

I poured the rest of my oil and toppings over my chicken before baking it too.  This is optional, but it will help coat the chicken and keep it moist, and will also crisp it up a bit too.  Bake uncovered for about 40-45 minutes.  Baste with the juices occasionally.

Add the cheese on top of the chicken and continue to cook for about 15 additional minutes, or until the cheese is completely melted.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a “saucy” kind of girl, probably in more ways than one too.  But for cooking purposes, I love adding sauces to my dishes.  Sauces help make the meal.  One of my go to sauces is a simple red pepper coulis (any color is fine).  It is super simple, easy to make and full of flavor.

Red Pepper Coulis

2 red bell peppers (yellow and/or orange is fine too), roasted, skinned and seeded

1 TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup olive oil

 

Once the peppers are roasted, remove the skins and the seeds.  Place everything in a food processor and process until you have a creamy liquid sauce.  That’s it.  Easy-peasy.

Once everything was prepared, I served my chicken over wild rice and topped it with the red pepper coulis, with some corn on the cob and warmed ciabiatta and an olive oil dipping sauce on the side.  My wine choice was a cool, crisp white blend that was perfect with the meal.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is late May, right?  Almost summer here in the United States, right?  That’s what I thought too, but you wouldn’t know it up in the high country of the Colorado Rockies.  Instead of doing our normal walks around our lakes, we took a long 6-hour drive through the mountains.  As always, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking and beautiful.  But there was also a lot of snow; fresh snow too, and people were actually snow boarding.  Believe it or not, this is really not all that unusual for we Coloradans though.  We are actually kind of used to this.

We saw everything on this beautiful drive.  We saw raging river waters, under both blue skies and gray.

There were beautiful signs of new life.

And sadly, signs of death.

There were waterfalls and rocks.

And there was snow.  Lots of snow.  Our temperature range was from the low 60’s to the low 30’s all in one trip and all in one day.

You can see the recent trails of the snowboarders.

Snow is all around and Larry is in shorts.  We weren’t out in the weather that long though, and it really was pretty comfortable.

We kept seeing signs saying to watch for deer, elk or moose, but the only moose we saw was this one.

We did see horses though.

We even saw a beaver running across the street, although I did not get a picture of him.  (This one is a stock photo, sad to say).

We brought sandwiches and stopped by a little babbling brook for a picnic in the car before it started to snow.

It is a good thing we like to drive and sight see, because that was all we could do.  Sadly, nothing was open, not even the restrooms.  It really made me want to purchase something local just to help do my part, even more so than usual, but we couldn’t.  Everything was closed, and this being the start of their busy tourist season too.  Many of these businesses have shuttered their doors for good.

Despite everything being closed though, we still had a very enjoyable day.  We are Colorado tough and we are Colorado proud.

Stay safe and stay well Everyone.  Thank you to all who paid the ultimate price and sacrifice for our freedoms and for our country.  ‘Til next time.

 

 

 

Pine nuts are eaten all over the world, and have been since the beginning of time.  Pine nuts, also known as pinons or pignolis, depending on where you are, are the seeds that come from pine trees.  Though they are called nuts, and have all the same nutritional benefits as nuts, and are known as the smallest and fanciest nuts in the world, they are actually seeds. They come from specific kinds of pine trees that do not grow densely together.  They like to spread out more and are usually from dryer, more arid, desert-like regions of the world.  Russia is the largest producer of pine nuts in the world, followed by Mongolia, Afghanistan, China and Korea.  China is the largest importer of pine nuts.

Pine nuts have a lightly sweet and subtle flavor than lends itself to many different dishes from around the world.  In china, pine nuts are often used for sweets and desserts.  In Greece and Italy, they are used in many dishes, and are often found as ingredients used to stuff grape leaves.  They are eaten in a wide variety of dishes and recipes found in Native American and Southwestern dishes too.  It is common to pair pine nuts and honey together, since they were frequently stored and preserved in honey.  They are toasted or roasted a lot too, which really enhances their nutty flavor.  Even though they are very expensive, I love them.  I would eat them a lot more frequently too if they weren’t so cost prohibitive.  But I do still eat them quite a bit, regardless of cost, much to Larry’s dismay.

When we got together with Priscilla and Jonathon for our Southwestern Burger night, one of the things I brought was a honey and pine nut tart. Roasted Pepper and Mushroom Salad with Rosemary Vinaigrette  It was a huge hit, as I knew it would be.  It is sweet, but not overly sweet, and it’s pure simplicity just hits the spot.  This is a traditional Italian dessert too, known as Crostata di Miele e Pignoli in Italian.

Honey and Pine Nut Tart

The Dough

I make a basic Pate Sucre, or sugared dough.

1 1/2 cups flour

6 TBSP cold butter, cubed

a dash of salt

2-3 TBSP powdered sugar

1 egg

5-6 TBSP heavy whipping cream

 

Mix the butter, flour, salt and powdered sugar together in a food processor until it is crumbly and looks like fine sand.  Then add the egg and cream and continue to process until it forms into a soft dough ball.  Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and let set in the refrigerator for at last 30 minutes before using.  It is the same process as my basic dough, only I add the powdered sugar to the mix as well.

The Custard

2/3 cup honey

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup or 2 sticks of butter

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

1 1/4 cups pine nuts

 

Combine the sugar, honey and butter together in a sauce pan.

Cook until the butter is completely melted and everything is well combined.  Bring to a boil, and let boil for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, then turn off the heat and let the mixture cool for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325* F or about 140-145* C.

When the dough is ready to use, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch in thickness and place it into a 10″ tart pan.  Firmly press the dough into the pan.  Evenly spread the pine nuts around the dough.

Whisk the egg, egg yolk and cream together, then slowly add the sugar and honey mixture and combine thoroughly.

Carefully pour the mixture over the pine nuts and place in the oven.

Bake anywhere from 30-55 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the filling has set.  If the crust starts to brown to much, cover with foil and continue to bake until it is set.  Allow the tart to cool completely before cutting.  You can enjoy the tart as is, but the best way to enjoy it is with some ice cream on top.

Jonathon made his own ice cream, and his ice cream maker is the most unique ice cream maker I have ever seen.  It looks like a soccer ball, and that is exactly what you do to make the ice cream.  You kick the “ball” around or throw it around until the ice cream is churned and thickens.  What a cool idea.  You get to work off your calories before you even eat them.  I love it.

The boys are “making” ice cream.

Once the ice cream was done, it was time to serve it over the tart.  Delicious!  It was enjoyed by all.

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

 

 

 

 

Today is Memorial Day here in the United States.  It is a day to remember all those that made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms and to protect us against tyranny.  Thank you to all those who never made it back in the name of freedom forever.

 

We have been hearing the coyotes howl and yelp a lot in the evenings, so we knew they were out and about.  But we actually say our first one of the season today.  He was very bold and was out hunting in the middle of the day.  Usually, they are more likely to come out at dusk or in the evenings.  At first, he was right at our fence, then started wondering around the top of the first lake.  Our dogs, Lucie and Vinnie, scared him away, which was a good thing too.  He was on the prowl for the goslings that were out enjoying the day with their parents.  Lucie and Vinnie came to their rescue and were the heroes of the day, by loudly barking, which eventually made him change his plans.  Sadly, I did not get the camera in time to catch him.  But I am pretty certain there will be plenty more opportunities in the near future.

Most animals, and people, will definitely think twice before attacking when the guardians and protectors are much larger and stronger than the attackers.  This was certainly the case with our coyote attacker.  Lucie and Vinnie are each 140 lbs.  It was definitely a wise decision for the coyote to turn the other way and to rethink his plans for the day.

The Guardians – Lucie

Vinnie

Thanks to the guardians, the goslings live to see another day.

‘Tis the season for wildlife to be about and about, and it’s not only the cute ducklings and goslings or baby bunnies.  The predators are out too.  So be aware and be cautious.  So even more so than normal, stay safe and stay well Everyone.  ‘Til next time.

 

It certainly wasn’t planned this way, but it has been a Southwestern kind of week.  But you won’t hear any complaints about that from me though.  I love Southwestern food and will enjoy it anytime I can.

We got together with our friends Jonathon and Priscilla and they were cooking Southwestern burgers, that were served on warm tortillas rather than buns.  So of course, I had to come up with more Southwestern dishes to go with the burgers, right?!  I was more than happy to oblige.  I made a roasted mushrooms and pepper salad with a rosemary vinaigrette that went perfectly with the Southwestern burgers.  I also made a pine nut tart for dessert, but you will just have to wait a bit longer for that one.  🙂  This salad is super simple and very tasty; just the way I like it.

Roasted Mushroom and Pepper Salad with Rosemary Vinaigrette

2 lbs portabella mushrooms, stems removed

1 red pepper, roasted, peeled and seeded

1 green pepper, roasted, peeled and seeded

1 jalapeno pepper, roasted, peeled and seeded

1 onion, sliced and roasted

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in 1/2

5-6 oz lettuce or mixed greens

2/3 cup olive oil

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

1 TBSP garlic

1 TBSP fresh rosemary

salt & pepper to taste

1 TBSP sugar

roasted pepitas, optional for topping

 

Preheat the oven to 375* F or about 190* C

 

Coat the mushrooms and onions with olive oil and roast for about 15 minutes.  I did not add onions to this.  I have to admit, they were an after thought, but a delicious one.

Roast your peppers, with on an open flame or in the oven or on the grill.  I prefer roasting mine on an open flame, but it is just a personal preference.  I like the smoky flavor that can only come from an open flame.

Once everything is roasted and cooked, let it all cool.   Then peel the peppers and seed them and slice the mushrooms.  Toss everything together with the rosemary vinaigrette.  Line a bowl with the lettuce and place the roasted vegetables on top of the lettuce.  Don’t add too much dressing.  It will make everything soggy.  You can always add more later if you need to.

Rosemary Vinaigrette

2/3 cup olive oil

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

1 TBSP garlic

1 TBSP fresh rosemary

salt & pepper to taste

1 TBSP sugar

 

Put everything into a food processor and blend until it is creamy and all the rosemary is finely chopped.

Spread the tomatoes around the dish and top with the pepitas.  I used a variety of tomatoes.  I like the colors and dimensions that come from using a variety of different tomatoes.  This salad is best when served either warm or at room temperature.  This bright, colorful salad is a true representation of the Southwest, in both color and in flavor.  DELICIOUS!

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