A Jeanne in the Kitchen

Merry Christmas Everyone.  I hope you are all enjoying your holidays.  Our big Holiday celebration was last night.  Christmas Eve Celebrations  We have had a VERY lazy day today.  We stayed in bed, watched TV and are just taking easy.   Since we do not have any kids, Christmas morning is more about taking it easy and relaxing than it is about presents.  We don’t really exchange any big gifts with each other.  We prefer making memories and sharing experiences than getting “things”.   We have found the most important gift to each other is the gift of time.  We have a few presents we open, but more so than not, those are shared adventures than actual things.  One of our “presents” to ourselves is to get NITROX certified for scuba diving.  We’ve been talking about it for quite some time and just haven’t done it yet.  So now is the time.  This will come in very handy since we already have 2 major dive trips planned for 2020; one to Cab San Lucas, Mexico,  and the other to the GBR in Australia.  After opening our “prezzies”, we made omelettes out of some last night’s leftovers.  This was the perfect way for us to “celebrate” our day.

We had the leftover bacon wrapped potatoes and leftover ham, so we made ham, spinach and mushroom omelettes.

We even had a little Christmas visitor stop by to wish us a Merry Christmas.

However you spend your day, make it merry and bright.  Celebrate all the good things in life.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!  It’s Christmas Eve.  Soon it will be Christmas Day!

We had a small but festive and fun celebration with our friends Priscilla and Jonathon and their daughters, and our friend Laura and her family.  Larry was busy cleaning all day and I was busy cooking all day.  We were getting everything ready for the festivities to come later in the evening.  I knew I was cooking the roast and the ham; it was just other stuff I wasn’t sure about.  What Do I Make for Christmas Dinner? But all that too came together, and we all ate way too much.  We all enjoyed everything and all had a great time.  I finally decided on a pear and green bean salad over spinach with a champagne vinaigrette and bacon wrapped potatoes with a queso blanco sauce, and then just some simple nibblies as well.

The table is all set.  Let the festivities begin.

The roast is ready to carve.

Larry is putting the glaze over the ham.

The bacon wrapped potatoes with queso blanco sauce are in place.

The salad is prepared.

And the guests arrive.  Priscilla and I enjoying a glass of bubbly to ring in the Holiday cheer.

Priscilla brought some fabulous sweet potato gnocchis made with sage butter, dessert and rolls.  Laura made a delicious zucchini casserole.  Both complimented the meats just perfectly.

After dinner, we pulled some Christmas crackers and let the games begin.  We all gathered ’round the Christmas tree (the smaller one) and played Apples to Apples until it was time to go home and go to bed, and wait to see the surprises left by good ole’ Saint Nick.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

OK!  I have the Christmas cookbooks.  Now, what do I make for Christmas dinner?  We are hosting dinner on Christmas Eve for our friends Jonathon and Priscilla, their kids, and our friend Laura, and possibly her kids too.  Priscilla, Laura and I all love to cook, so we decided to make it easy on ourselves and do it as a potluck.  I know I am making the roast, but what else am I going to make?  HMMMMMM.  I will have to go through my Christmas library and find the perfect things.  I had better get busy and figure it out pretty quickly.  After all Christmas Eve is TOMORROW night.

Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah and … all that jazz.  Enjoy your holidays, whichever holidays you celebrate.

 

‘Tis that time of year when we coaches and teachers get all kinds of fabulous gifts from our students.  My swimmers have been giving me some wonderful gifts.  The theme this year seems to be caffeine, chocolate and chlorine.  They seem to know what coaches live on.  We need all three of these things to keep us going.  I got some really cool coffee mugs, one even personalized, gift cards to Starbucks and other great places, chocolate, and some DELICIOUS caramel popcorn that is to die for.  The coffee is to help keep us awake, especially if we do early morning sessions.  The chocolate is a given.  Who can live without chocolate, right?!  And the chlorine, well, that is just in our blood; literally.  A few years ago, when I was swimming hard and training hard, one of my bosses told me that if she did a DNA test on me, my DNA would read 1/2 chlorine, 1/4 blood and the other 1/4 dolphin/mermaid.  She knows me well, and so do my kids.

Many thanks to all my fabulous, wonderful CUDAS!  I have some great kids and some fantastic swimmers.  Swim hard, swim fast, but most importantly, HAVE FUN!  Just keep swimmin’, just keep swimmin’, just keep swimmin’.

Mi Comadre and my best friend Andrea, whom I have known and loved for over 45 years, sent me this delicious box of honey from The Blue Sage Honey Company as my Christmas present.  We have shared so many laughs and tears, and good times over the years, and even though we now live in two different states, we are still going strong.  I am definitely looking forward to the next 45+ years.  My box of honey was a present.  Of course, I had to open it right away.  Andrea would be very disappointed in me if I did not open it the minute I received it.  And boy, am I glad I did too.  It was filled with all these delicious and unusual infused honeys.

My gift box included cinnamon honey, rose honey, chamomile honey, lavender honey and ginger honey.  I just had to try them all too.  They are all delicious, but my two favorites were the ginger and the lavender honeys.  I know they will all be great in tea, but I want to find better, more creative ways to really highlight these wonderful flavors too.  Stay tuned for some new and creative honey recipes in the near future.

Blue Sage Honey Company is located in the Sierra Mountains of Northern California.  “It is a small batch woman-owned business, inspired by love of honey bees, quality foods, the environment and sharing goodness in the world”.  Blue Sage Honey Company is owned any operated by Abra and her husband.  Abra and her husband have chosen to live close to the land, where they farm as much of their own food as they can, love their animals and their honey bees, and are avid gardeners.  Rather than succumbing to the hustle and bustle that is so prevalent in today’s world, they chose to give it all up for a clean, simple life instead. Preserving and protecting the honey bees is their passion, and a portion of every sale goes to the education of preserving and protecting the honey bees.

Protecting and preserving the environment is another passion and way of life for the Blue Sage Honey Company. All of the packaging they use is environmentally and eco-friendly, and they try to re-use and re-purpose things that are already being used and are in circulation as much as they can.

You can contact the Blue Sage Honey Company by calling them at (510) 292-7053 or by visiting them on line at BlueSageHoneyCo@gmail.com

Muchas gracias Chica.  Te amo mucho.   Tu familia es mi familia.  Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo.

 

 

In case you haven’t figured it out already, I lead a very busy life.  I am always fighting against the clock trying to get everything done.  I always do manage to get it all done, but there are plenty of times when it feels like a very steep, uphill battle.  I am also a perfectionist to a certain degree, AND I tend to take on way more than I should most of the time.   And you already know how much I love to cook.  If I had more time in the day, I would probably cook a lot more fancy meals, but since I don’t, simplicity is key.  I want to prepare good food that is both healthy and tasty, and of course visually stimulating as well, but time does not always allow for that.  The K.I.S.S. rule – Keep it short and simple, or another version I’ve heard, Keep it simple, Stupid, is one of my everyday mantras for a lot of the meals I cook.  Depending on the day, either one of these versions can be applicable.

Green beans almondine is one of those simple, easy dishes, that only takes a few minutes to prepare,  looks good and is always very tasty.  The term almondine just means something cooked with almonds.  Almondine, spelled this way is American and amandine is the European spelling for the same thing.  Usually when I prepare something in the almondine method, I use the slivered almonds, although you don’t have to if you prefer something different.  We eat a lot of green beans, and I like to prepare them in a wide variety of ways, although almondine is a favorite.  When I prepared my cod with the pepper coulis, one of my side dishes was green beans almondine.  Something from the Sea

As with many dishes and recipes, there are usually quite a few different variations.  There are some basic guidelines, but then there is also room for creativity too.  This is true for green beans almondine too, although the basic recipe is green beans or haricot verts, which are smaller, more tender green beans, almonds, butter and seasonings.  You can also add garlic and/or shallots too, which I do quite often, though this time I did not.  This time around, it was just the basics.

Green Beans Almondine

1 lb green beans, with ends trimmed

1-1 1/2 cups almond slivers

3-4 TBSP butter

salt & pepper to taste

1-2 tsp lemon juice

 

Cook the green beans in boiling water for about 5-7 minutes or until they are tender, then drain the water and set aside.  Melt the butter in a hot skillet.  When the butter is completely melted, add the lemon juice.  Cook it down for about 1 minute or so, then add the almonds and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes or until the almonds are golden brown and crunchy, making sure to stir constantly so they don’t burn.  Almonds, particularly the thin slivers, can burn very easily.

When the almonds are golden in color, add the green beans and the seasonings and toss everything together thoroughly.  Simple, easy-peasy, tasty and healthy too.  What more can you ask, right?!  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Larry is 100% German, from a very German part of the country, Hays, KS.  Bierocks are very popular in Hays, and especially Ollie’s bierocks (Larry’s mom).  Bierocks, also known as runzas, are meat pockets made with ground beef and cabbage, wrapped in dough and then baked.  A Little Taste of Germany  Ollie used to make them for the school and then has sold them to her loyal customers for years and years.  She doesn’t make them so much anymore, because it is to hard for her to make them now.  She is, after all, 90 now.  She does still make bierocks for the family on special occasions and for their birthdays though.   When she came into town for Randy & Roger’s party, More Festive Celebrations  she brought a batch of fresh bierocks for the birthday boy.  Growing up, a typical meal for Larry and his family was bierocks and soup.  We had that meal the other day.  Ollie made the bierocks and I made the soup.

After Thanksgiving, I froze most of our turkey, since it was just the two of us eating it then.  I still have quite a bit left in my freezer, and I am pulling it out a little at a time.  But I did pull out enough to make a big pot of turkey and vegetable soup.

Just a few simple ingredients and a lot of vegetables, and before you know, it’s time for soup.

Turkey Soup with Vegetables

2-2 1/1 lbs cooked turkey, diced

4 carrots, peeled, cubed small

3-4 celery stalks, cubed small

1 onion, diced fine

2 TBSP garlic

1 cup of frozen peas’

1 cup or frozen corn

1 cup of green beans, cut in pieces about 1/2 ” in size

3-4 TBSP flour, optional

3 TBSP olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

6-8 cups chicken broth

pasta, optional

2 tsp fresh thyme

 

Saute all the vegetables in the oil until the onions are translucent.

When the vegetables are cooked, add the turkey, seasonings and the chicken broth and mix everything together well.  If you like a thicker soup like I do, add the flour and make sure to mix it in very thoroughly.  No one likes lumps of flour in their soup.  You do not have to use flour if you want it more like a broth though.  Cook for about 20-30 minutes, at a medium heat, stirring occasionally.

If you are using noodles or pasta of any kind, add it right at the end, bring the soup back up to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer and continue to cook for about 10 additional minutes.  If the pasta or noodles are in for too long, they will absorb the liquid and you will have more of a casserole than soup, which can still be very good too.  If this does happen, no big deal.  You can either add more liquid to make it soup again, or you can add some cheese and breadcrumbs and bake it to make it more of a turkey tetrazzini type of dish.  Because I made such a big pot of soup, I might just do that with some of the leftovers.  The Queen and I are always thinking about what we can do with the leftovers.  🙂

Once the soup is ready, dish it up and enjoy.  There is always something comforting about eating a big bowl of turkey and vegetable soup, especially on chilly days.

I went with a white vin blanc to accompany the soup, but I could have gone with a red, like a merlot or a pinot noir too, to go with the beef in the bierocks.  Red or white, either way, you can’t go wrong.

 

We love seafood, although we don’t get to eat fresh seafood as much we would like, since we are landlocked in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.  Meats of all kinds are our specialties, not seafood, at least not fresh seafood.  But that does not stop us from enjoying our seafood dishes.  Our seafood is frozen, and that’s OK with me.  At least we still get to enjoy the gifts from the sea this way.  I had bought some delicious cod not too long ago and some crab for the Steak Oscar I prepared for Larry’s birthday dinner.  It’s Birthday Day – Part 2 – Lucie and Larry.  We used some of the cod for fish & chips, and had some left over that needed to be cooked as well.  So it was time for another delicious seafood dinner.  This time I pan-fried it and served over wild rice, with an orange bell pepper coulis, topped with crab, served along side green beans almondine.  And of course there was wine.  I served it all with a crisp chardonnay that was mildly oaked and had hints of citrus.

Cod is a cold water fish that likes to live close to the bottom of the ocean, near its floor.  It is a white, flaky fish that has a mild, sweet flavor.  Because it is a white, flaky fish, it is also a lean fish and is low in calories.  It is a healthy fish, full of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, such as D and B12, and minerals such as potassium.  It is a very versatile fish that lends itself to many recipes, which also makes it a very popular type of fish to eat.  Sadly though, because of its popularity the world over, it is vulnerable to being over fished and wild cod is becoming harder and harder to find.  Like many other types of fish though, it is often farmed in fish farms, which makes it more readily available.

This elegant dish is actually very easy to make and does not require a lot of time in the kitchen.

Make the rice and coulis first, since they take the longest to cook and prepare.  The coulis is super easy.  You can use any color of bell peppers you like and roast them over an open fire or on top of a hot grill until they are completely black on the outside.  Then sweat them in a plastic bag for about 1/2 an hour so they can cool.  The blackened skin just peels right off in your fingers.  Give them a rinse once they are peeled and seeded.  Then place the peppers into a food processor with about 4 TBSP olive oil, salt & pepper to taste and about 1 TBSP of garlic, and process in the food processor until it becomes a pureed sauce. Roasting Peppers

Coat the fish in flour, mixed with salt & pepper and lemon pepper if you like.

Carefully place the coated cod fillets in a hot skillet with both butter and olive oil and pan-fry for about 3-4 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fillets, or until it is golden brown and completely cooked through.

When the fish is cooked, you are ready to dish it up.  I cooked a little of the crab as wel,l and topped the cod with it.  Bon Appetit!