A Jeanne in the Kitchen

I will be out of town this weekend, and therefore will not be posting anything on my blog for a few days.  But have no fear, I won’t be gone for too long.  So in the mean time, I will once again leave you with some thoughts of food from those in the know.

 

Serve the dinner backward, do anything – but for goodness sake, do something weird.

~ Elsa Maxwell ~

Gossip Columnist from The New York, “Herald Tribune”, 1963

 

The qualities of an exceptional cook are akin to those of a successful tightrope walker; an abiding passion for the task, courage to go out on a limb and an impeccable sense of balance.

~ Bryan Miller ~

Food Critic, New York Times, 2/23/1983

 

My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me.  It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future.

 

~ Pearl Bailey ~

 

 

Sir, respect your dinner:  Idolize it, enjoy it properly.  you will be many hour in the week, many weeks in the year, and many years in your life happier if you do.

~ William Makepeace Thackeray , 1811-1863 ~

 

 

Yesterday, I left you with a teaser.   I showed you how to make the sun-dried tomato pesto,  Spicy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto but only showed you the sauce.  Today, I will give you the whole meal deal.  We love sausages of all kinds and eat them fairly regularly, in a variety of different ways.  Sometimes sausages just hit the spot.  I often serve sausages and pasta together.  They are a perfect combination.   And that is exactly how I served it last night, with the sun-dried tomato pesto, some garlic cheese bread and a fruity Pinot Noir from Carhartt Winery, in Los Olivos, California, sent to me by my best friend, Andrea, as a delicious birthday present.  (My birthday was last week).  Pasta is probably one of the most versatile dishes around.  I love pasta and can eat it all the time.  You can serve it with any type of sauce and any type of toppings, with or without meat, hot or cold, and you can even serve it as a dessert.  You just can’t go wrong with pasta.

So I already gave you the recipe for the spicy sun-dried tomato pesto.  I made that ahead of time, then cooked everything else and combined it all together for a delicious, yet simple meal.  There is no right or wrong way to prepare this meal.  You can use any vegetables you like to enhance the meal as well.  You can also use any type of sausage or chicken as well.  We love mushrooms, and use them in a lot of our meals.  We also love tomatoes of kinds, as well as onions.  Mushrooms, yellow tomatoes and red onions were what I added to the sauce to give us a few extra vegetables and a bit more color and texture to the meal.  Saute the mushrooms and onion slices in olive oil, adding salt & pepper to taste, and cook until the onions are translucent and soft and the mushrooms are done, about 5 minutes or so.  Cook the sausages.  You can grill them or pan fry them.   We do both.

When the vegetables are done, add the sun-dried tomato pesto sauce and the yellow tomatoes.  Mix everything together and cook just long enough to heat the sauce.  Add the sausage and top with chopped cilantro.  Easy-peasy!  Dinner is served.

My best friend, whom I have know since I was in 7th grade sent me these two great wines for my birthday.  One was a delicious Pinot Gris and the other was a mouth-watering Pinot Noir.  These wines are from Carhartt Winery, in Los Olivos, California.

 

**** You can find out more about Carhartt winery and many other California wineries by clicking onto the website.  https://californiawineryadvisor.com/winery/carhartt-vineyard

A vote sante!

Pesto sauce is a favorite all over the world.  Pesto, as it has become known, is a sauce made from fresh basil, garlic, salt, pepper, pine nuts, Parmigiano cheese and olive oil.  In Genoa, in the Liguria region of Northern Italy, where it is believed pesto sauce was invented, this is the traditional way of making pesto as well, along with the addition of another type of cheese called Fiore Sardo, which is a cheese made with sheep’s milk.  However, the term “pesto” itself, means to pound or crush, which leaves it open to the imagination and interpretation of the person making the sauce, thus allowing for it to be made in many different ways, with a multitude of different ingredients.

I don’t always set out to completely reinvent the wheel, but I do look for alternative ways of making that wheel go round.  If the result is that the wheel has been reinvented, then so be it.  That just makes my day.  As I mentioned above, traditional pesto sauce is a world wide favorite, and it is one of my favorite sauces as well.  But I like to “play with my food” to much to only settle for one type of anything.  I am also very creative and imaginative, and LOVE all kinds of food.  That creative combination and sense of adventure allows me to reinvent new dishes and recipes all the time.  Fortunately, my husband is a pretty adventurous eater as well, which makes cooking all that much more fun.

Costco is my favorite place to shop, and as anyone who has ever shopped there knows, their foods come in LARGE quantities.  The other day, when I purchased a Costco sized bag of walnuts, my husband asked what was I going to do with all those walnuts, especially, since out of all the nuts out there, they are my least favorite type, and I LOVE nuts.  I decided to make a sun-dried tomato pesto using some of those walnuts.  The sauce came out great.  I will be serving it over pasta with green chili sausages tonight (tomorrow’s post).  Any type of pesto sauce is so easy to make, especially if you have a food processor.  Just put all the ingredients together in the food processor, and process until it becomes your desired consistency, and voila!  Presto, Pesto, your sauce is made.

Spicy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Sauce

I cup sun-dried tomatoes, marinated in olive oil

1 cup fresh basil

1 jalapeno, seeds removed

1/2 cup walnuts or nuts of your choice

1 heaping TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste

1/3 cup Parmigiano cheese

1 cup olive oil (more or less depending on the consistency you are looking for)

 

Place all the ingredients in the food processor and blend.  Sometimes I like a nice thick pesto and sometimes I like it a little thinner.  To make it a little thinner, just add more olive oil.  It just depends on what I am using it for.  Serve over cooked pasta, vegetables, or meat and Mangia!

 

 

 

I had my first interview as a blogger, from Asham at SASE Girls. I am so honored. Thank you so much for thinking of me.

There are a good number of people who have come to think that walnuts are the healthiest food around, and who knows, they just may be right.  There are so many health benefits associated with eating walnuts as part of your regular diet, yet there are way to many to list; the biggest health benefits from walnuts are that they are good for your heart, they are loaded with minerals and vitamins, they are loaded with antioxidants and help prevent cancer and heart disease, and they are full of Omega-3 fatty acids.  Walnuts are also very rich in phenols, and about 90% of those phenols are found in the skin.  Phenols are found in a wide variety of medicines.  Walnuts are used in many different ways.  Obviously, they are used as food and are used in a multitude of ways in the kitchen.   But they are also used for making medicine, shelter, dyes and lamp oil.

Walnuts are grown all over the world and there are many different varieties.  The biggest walnut producer in the world is China, producing about 360,000 metric tons per year, with California as a distant second, producing about 240,000 metric tons per year.  Most of the walnuts grown in the United States come from either the Central Mississippi Valley and Appalachian areas or the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys of California.  Walnuts have been around for 1000’s of years.  They were introduced to many different European countries by the Ancient Romans in the 4th century.  Though there are many different types of walnuts, there are really only three types that are predominately eaten.  They are the English or Persian, the black and the white varieties.  Each of these have many different varieties and variations within as well.

As much as I love learning about these other uses for walnuts, for now, I really only know how to cook with them.  After all, I know about food and cooking is what I do.  I made a tasty spinach and pear salad with a walnut dressing, using my Organic Walnut Butter from Living Tree Community Foods.  A Delicious Relationship   I served it as a side salad with the rest of our dinner, but if you would like to make it a main meal, you can add the protein of your choice.  Chicken would be a great addition to the salad.

I made two slightly different versions for this salad.  I am not a big cheese eater, so I rarely use a lot of cheese for my meals.  My husband, on the other hand, loves cheese.  So his salad has bleu cheese crumbles and mine does not.  My salad has dried cranberries and his does not.

Spinach Salad with Pears

 

about 2-2 1/2 cups baby spinach, stems removed

1 pear, sliced thin

1/3 cup green onions, sliced thin

1/2 cup candied walnuts

bleu cheese crumbles

Craisins, or dried cranberries

walnut dressing

 

Toss all the ingredients together, unless making different variations, then leave the bleu cheese crumbles and the dried cranberries out and top the the salads with those individually.

 

Candied Walnuts

1 cup walnuts

1/3 cup Living Tree Community Foods Organic Walnut Butter

2 tsp Sweet and Spicy Rub from Pod & Bean

1-2 TBSP honey

1/3 cup butter

Mix everything together and cook in a hot skillet for about 5-7 minutes, or until most of the butter has been absorbed into the nuts and spices, stirring constantly.

Once the nuts are ready, cool them on parchment paper.

 

Walnut Dressing

1/3 cup Living Tree Community Foods Organic Walnut Butter

2 TBSP rice vinegar

2 TBSP lime juice

3 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP soy sauce

2 TBSP honey

2-3 TBSP sugar

1 TBSP garlic

1 TBSP ginger

dash of salt

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

 

Combine all the ingredients together and mix well.  Chill before serving, then right before serving, shake well.

 

***You can learn more about Living Tree Community Foods and their products by checking out their website at http://www.livingtreefoods.com and Pod & Bean products by checking out their website at http://www.cocoaexchange.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently I was introduced to the wonderful products from Living Tree Community Foods, based out of Berkeley, CA.  I have been very privileged to have been sent so many fantastic and delicious nut butters to sample and to create new recipes with.  More Treats from Living Tree Community Foods and New Products to Sample .  Everything I have tried is absolutely amazing.  All their products are fresh and organic, made mostly from ingredients coming from local California farmers, as well as farmers from Oregon, Texas and Vermont.  I have no shortage of ideas on how to use these wonderful products.  My only problem is that there are way too many recipes to create and not nearly enough time.  Lack of time has always been my nemesis.  So far, I have created a chocolate almond butter tart, using the almond butter and the almond meal Chocolate Almond Butter Tart , cashew cookies Frosted Cashew Butter Cookies and cashew shrimp and vegetables Cashew Shrimp and Vegetables with the cashew butter and today, I will be creating something with the walnut butter that was recently sent to me.  The February edition of the Living Tree Community Foods Newsletter has showcased my recipe for the frosted cashew cookies.   WOW!!!!  Thank you so much.  This is a huge honor for me.  Please check it out.  You can find their newsletter, as well as all their delicious products on their website at http://www.livingtreecommunity.com.   Living Tree Community Foods and I have entered into a very delicious relationship that I hope continues to grow and prosper.  I am so very grateful for this opportunity to work with Living Tree Community Foods.  I hope you are all enjoying these dishes and recipes as much as I am enjoying creating them.   Most of my recipes allow for you to be creative too.  For instance, most, although not all, of my savory dishes can easily be converted to either vegetarian or vegan dishes simply by substituting the meats for vegetarian/vegan friendly proteins, or  by just eliminating the meats entirely and using only vegetables.  I can easily cook and adjust menus to please all palettes.  I just need to know who I am cooking for, and what their dietary requests are, then I will stir my magic wooden spoon and make it happen.

My most recent package of tasty nut butters came just a few days ago.  I will be busy creating more delicious recipes with these new products as soon as time allows.  Be patient.  Many, many more good things are still yet to come.

I will be creating something from the walnut butter tonight.  Stay tuned.  You don’t want to miss it.

 

My friends Janet and Bob were very creative with my birthday present this year.  Happy Birthday to Me  Janet put together a “dinner in a bag” package that contained two packages of instant brown rice and quinoa, a bottle of Pod & Bean Honey Sesame Sauce, a tin of Pod & Bean Sweet & Spicy Cocoa Rub, and the recipe.   I added chicken and the vegetables.  Dinner was delicious.  Believe it or not, I actually followed the recipe more or less to a T, (well as best as I could) which is so unheard of for me.  I still did make some minor changes, mainly because I did not have all the ingredients, nor did I have time to go to the store to get them before cooking dinner.  As I have always said, use what you have and don’t worry about the rest.  It will come out just fine, plus it will have a little of your own personality added as well.  Pod & Bean spices, seasonings and dressings all have a little something extra (chocolate) that really bring out and enhance the flavors of your food.  They go with just about everything.  And they follow my philosophy of trying out new ideas, being creative and just having fun in the kitchen.  The cocoa in POD & BEAN™ products is the X-factor ingredient that gives any dish that extra oomph – that added mmmm! Sweet, bitter, nutty, peppery, creamy, crunchy and always tasty, cocoa’s got it all and goes with just about everything. So, play with your food using our Sauces, Seasoning Blends, Mustards, Glazes, and more. We dare you.  – The Cocoa Exchange.  You can learn more about the Pod & Bean products by going to their website http://www.cocoaexchange.com.

Honey Sesame Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

1-1 1/2 lbs chicken breast

2 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP Pod & Bean Sweet & Spicy Cocoa Rub

1 cup broccoli florets

1 red bell pepper, medium dice

1 cup snap peas – I did not have snap peas, but I did have frozen peas

1 onion, medium dice

2 carrots, peels and sliced

1 cup Pod & Bean Honey Sesame Sauce

salt & pepper to taste

toasted sesames seeds

green onion, sliced

instant quinoa brown rice mixture

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and preheat the oven to 400* F.

Rub the chicken thoroughly with salt, pepper and the Pod & Bean Sweet & Spicy Cocoa Rub on both sides and rub in some olive oil.  Marinate the chicken for at least about 30-60 minutes before cooking.

Cut all the vegetables and toss them together with salt, pepper and about 1/2 cup of the Pod & Bean Honey Sesame Sauce.  

Spread the vegetables in a single layer on the same pan as the chicken.  Place the baking sheet in the hot oven for about 10-15 minutes, then stir the vegetables and turn the chicken over to continue cooking, for about another 20 minutes, or until the chicken is done and the vegetables are cooked.

The chicken and vegetables were all roasted together on the same pan.  Dinner was easy-peasy, delicious and clean-up was a breeze.   The chicken came out so tender and juicy.  I served the chicken atop the quinoa, brown rice and a little extra white rice that I had leftover.  I added more sauce to the chicken, then spooned the vegetables over the chicken as well.  I added a little sliced green onions and some toasted sesame seed on top for garnish, and finished the meal with a glass of rich, buttery chardonnay.  Delicious!

Thank you all for the fabulous birthday wishes.  They made my day.  I had a fantastic birthday.  But I have been to busy celebrating to cook anything.  I promise I will be back in the kitchen again tonight, cooking up something delicious and delectable.  So, once again, I leave you with some fun food quotes and notables from those in the know.  Enjoy!

 

There has always been a food processor in the kitchen.  But once upon a time, she was usually called the missus or Mom.

~Sue Berkman~

 

I used to love the way everyone talked about food as if it were one of the most important things in life.  And, of course, it is.  Without it, we would die.  Each of eats about 1000 meals in a year.  It is my belief that we should try and make as many of these meals as we can truly memorable.

~Robert Carrier~

 

Life is so brief that we should not glance either too far backwards or forwards  … therefore study how to fix our happiness in our glass and in our plate.

~ Grimod de la Reyniere~

 

Cooking is like love.  It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

~Harriet Van Horn, from Vogue, 10/1956~

 

The people who give you their food give you their heart.

~Cesar Chavez~

 

 

 

Today is my birthday.  I dare not say how many times I have been around the sun, but let’s just say, it has been quite a few.  So far, this birthday is shaping up very nicely indeed.  Larry and I started celebrating when we took our trip up to the Stanley, where we had some spirited guests wish me a “Happy Birthday” as well. A Spirited Stay at the Stanley

Last night, he surprised me with totally impromptu tickets to go see Elton John and his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour.  I have seen Sir Elton a few times, and he is always the ultimate entertainer.  Although he has trouble walking around the stage, he can still play the piano like no one else.  Despite the blizzard-like conditions, and the bitter cold, Sir Elton was well worth it.

In between jobs, I went to visit with my friends Janet and Bob and we celebrated over Janet’s fabulous fruit tart, made with some of the Living Tree Community Almond Butter I gave to her. More Treats from Living Tree Community Foods  I had a delicious goodie bag filed wit all kinds of yummy treats to cook with waiting for me on the table, with a yummy new  recipe included.  They know me oh so well.

Literally, just as I came home from Janet and Bob’s, there was a flower delivery being dropped off as I drove into my driveway.  The flowers were from my friend and sister Kathy, in California.  Kathy and I have literally known each other our whole entire lives.  We grew up as sisters and have been family since I was 5 and she was 4.  Our birthdays are just 3 days apart too.  As Kathy’s card read, she sent me some flowers “that looked like the California sun”.  That was so thoughtful and sweet and the flowers are absolutely gorgeous.  Happy Birthday to you as well my dear friend.  I love you and miss you lots.

And I have been feeling a whole lotta love from all my wonderful friends and family all day, receiving a ton of good birthday thoughts and well wishes.  Thank you all.  All of you are what makes life so much fun.  I might have to just keep on having birthdays.

Many, many thanks to all of you.  I feel very loved and especially blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends in my life.

 

 

The K.I.S.S. rule can be applied to many things, and it is often a very good rule to follow in life in general.  The first three letters stand for “Keep It Simple”.  The last “S” can be substituted for a multitude of things, depending on the circumstances.  For today, I am going to use it for “sometimes”.  As you all know, I love to cook and to play in the kitchen, but there are times when either I just don’t have the time to do so, or I just don’t feel like it, and sometimes, life just happens.  Fortunately, the days where I don’t feel like it are very few and far between.  Back in my catering and restaurant management days, one of the best things we could learn was to just roll with the punches, and be flexible.  I had to learn to change my plans in the blink of an eye, and just go with it.  This life philosophy has been very useful and has served me well my whole life.  The results will be what they will be.  Just accept it and move on.  I was planning on cooking a wonderful meal, but my husband brought home some fried chicken instead.  That’s fine; no problem.  I love fried chicken.  So since I was not cooking a fancy meal, I applied the K.I.S.S. rule to dinner and kept the whole meal simple.

As I have told you many times, we eat a wide variety of vegetables all the time, and I almost always have vegetables with my vegetables.  One of my favorite ways of eating green beans is to top them with mushrooms, garlic, and either tomatoes or red peppers.  I use this for asparagus a lot too.  It’s fresh, colorful and very tasty, plus it is a good way of getting your vegetable intake for the day as well.  So for our simple meal of fried chicken, I also served up green beans, topped with the above and loaded potato skins.  Loaded Potato Skins  Not the healthiest of meals, but sometimes we look for comfort over healthy.  I served it with my favorite everyday chardonnay, and it was just good, down-home comfort food that really hit the spot.

Like a lot of people, I love to top my loaded potato skins with ranch dressing.  I think it just brings out all the flavors and really makes everything come alive.

Jeanne’s Topped Green Beans

This recipe is so simple and yet so tasty.  I cook green beans like this a lot.  This is just enough to serve the two of us, with a bit leftover for Larry’s lunch.

 

1/3 lb green beans, stems and ends removed

4-5 mushrooms, sliced thin

1/4 red onion, diced small

1 TBSP garlic

1/4 red pepper, diced small

salt & pepper to taste

olive oil

Cook the green beans in boiling water for about 5-7 minutes, or until they are mostly tender, with just a bit of snap left to them.  Once they are cooked, remove the green beans from the boiling water and set aside.

While the beans are cooking, saute all the other vegetables in olive oil until they are soft and tender, and the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Once everything is done, add the topping to the green beans (or asparagus) and enjoy.  You can also add cooked bacon as well.  I add bacon a lot, but because I used bacon for the potato skins, I did not want to add more bacon to the topping as well.