A Jeanne in the Kitchen

Stir-fries are quick and easy ways to prepare a good meal that includes everything. There are really no right or wrong ways to make a stir-fry. In my view, the more things you throw into the stir-fry, the better it’s going to be. A good stir-fry is more about the technique than the actual ingredients. Once you get the technique down pat, anything goes as far as the actual ingredients used. Stir-fries lend themselves very well to creativity and imagination.

My latest stir-fry was with caramelized beef strips and vegetables. I added mushrooms, green beans, red bell peppers, ginger and shallots. I served it all over rice with some egg rolls on the side. Because it was beef, and the sauce was spicy-sweet, I served a red wine on the side to complete the meal.

Caramelized Beef and Vegetable Stir-Fry

I didn’t have cilantro, so instead I used some of my overflowing lemon verbena, and gave a hint of lemon flavor to the dish.

1-1 1/2 lbs sirloin, cut into thin strips

1 TBSP ginger

1 TBSP Siracha sauce

1 jalapeno, diced fine

1/2 cup sugar

1-1 1/2 cups water

1/2 lb green beans

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

salt & pepper to taste

red pepper flakes to taste

1-2 shallots, sliced very thin

1/4 red bell pepper, sliced into matchsticks

2 TBSP either fresh cilantro and/or fresh lemon verbena, chopped or chiffonade

Add the sugar to a large skillet, and let it melt & caramelize. As soon as it starts to change color, to a lightly golden brown, add the water.

Combine the seasonings and Siracha sauce and mix together well. Add to the caramelized sugar mixture and mix together well.

Add the vegetables and ginger and saute for about 3-5 minutes, stirring contantly over a high heat.

Add the meat and continue cooking until the meat is completely cooked, about 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly once again.

Once the meat is cooked and everything is done, add most of the the lemon verbena and/or cilantro and mix in well. Add the remaining portion as topping to the dish right before serving.

This is a quick and easy meal to prepare. It’s healthy and delicious, and full of color and flavor. Enjoy!

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was telling you about the first of my baby goslings. But now, they are almost all grown up. They are definitely teenagers now and will soon be out on their own.

These are the older ones. They have their adult colorings now, with very little of their baby gosling colors left.

Soon, they will be all grown up and will be starting their own families, and the cycle will continue. Time goes by so quickly, and this is exactly why I say savor every moment while you can, before it’s too late.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I have already been entertaining and feeding people again. Coconut Lime Rum Cake In the week and a half we’ve been home, I have already cooked for others twice. This time I made a mixed grill with chicken, shrimp and sausage and I made a batch of cowboy butter to top any and all of the meats, as wanted. I served a simple tomato, cucumber and onion salad and a potato salad on the side to round it all out.

Cowboy butter is a delicious and flavorful compound butter often used to enhance the taste of meats, seafood, and vegetables. While its exact origins are unclear, the name likely stems from its association with hearty, rustic cuisine reminiscent of cowboy cooking and the cowboy way of life. Common ingredients include garlic, paprika, cayenne pepper, mustard, and herbs like parsley, chives, and thyme, but there are so many other different variations, giving lots of options and way to butter things up. Usually it has a little extra kick added, giving it a bit of spice.

Cowboy Butter

This is just one of many possible varieties. Use your imagination. The possibilities of compound butters are endless. 🙂 I remember once when I was in culinary school, and we were making compound butters, I broke rank, and did not make what everyone else was making, but came up with my own creation instead. My chef instructor, Chef Aversegn, was saying “No, no, no Jeanne (in his heavy French accent pronounced Gee-nee), dis is not da way”. Then he tasted it and said, “Oh, dis is good”.

1 stick of butter

1-2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 red onion, diced fine

1/4 red bell pepper, diced fine

1 TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

1 TBSP paprika

1 tsp red pepper flakes (I used a blend of pepper flakes)

1-2 TBSP chopped parsley

1-2 TBSP lemon verbena, chiffonade (optional)

Get a skillet hot and add the butter, onions, garlic and bell pepper. Saute for about 3-5 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to soften.

Add the seasonings and spices and continue to cook for about 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the fresh parsley and lemon verbena right at the end, right before serving and mix in thoroughly.

Use this for anything you want to add some extra flavor to and giddy up!

It is lemon verbena season again, and once again, my whole back yard has been taken over by this fresh, lemony member of the mint family. I love it and use it as much as I can, but there is NO WAY, I will ever be able to get through all that I have. Every year, I seem to have more and more too. If anyone wants some, come on over help yourself. 🙂

You can use any kinds of pepper flakes to your saucy butter too, but Bob and Janet had given me a jar of blended pepper flakes, made here in Boulder, that I wanted to try. I LIKE it!!!!

We all need an extra little cowboy kick every now and then. Kick it up. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

I didn’t have to go very far at all to capture this beautiful Cooper’s Hawk with my camera. He appeared in my neighbor’s tree and stayed there for quite some time, allowing me to take quite a few good shots. These were all from the window in my breakfast nook area of my kitchen.

Even though Cooper’s Hawks are one of our most visible types of woodland hawks, we don’t see them too often in our area, and particularly not in our own backyard. He is also out of season, as they are typically seen in the fall and winter months, not early summer. But I was pleasantly surprised to see him, and he is ALWAYS welcome, anytime he wants to visit.

We have been home from Belize now for about 10 days. But as usual, as soon as we got home, I hit the ground running and was doing all kinds of things. We have already had people over for dinner twice in the short time we’ve been home too. It seems if I am not on vacation, I am always cooking.

When on our rum tasting quest Rum Tasting The Belizan Way, we bought a bottle of coconut rum. When we got home, I made a coconut lime rum cake for one of our dinners. I also used the lime chocolate I bought while in Cozumel for my chocolate ganache, so this was truly a Caribbean cake, through and through.

Since rum is so popular all throughout the Caribbean, and we had just returned from Belize, also in the Caribbean, it was only fitting to make a rum cake for dessert. Rum cakes have became a symbol of Caribbean culture, representing the fusion of European traditions with local ingredients and flavors. Rum cakes, particularly Jamaican black cake, have a rich history intertwined with the Caribbean’s colonial past and the traditions of enslaved people. The cake’s origins can be traced back to British colonists bringing fruit pudding recipes to the Caribbean in the 18th century. Local chefs and enslaved people then adapted these recipes, incorporating local ingredients like rum and spices, creating the unique Jamaican black cake we know today. Rum, a byproduct of sugar production, was used not only for flavor but also as a preservative, making the cake suitable for long-distance travel and celebrations, and helping to keep the cake moist. In the islands, rum cakes are traditionally served at Christmas for holidays, though they are available year round because they are so popular with tourists.

Coconut Lime Rum Cake

My recipe was inspired from a book I read on vacation, though you would never know it by the end result. My cake was NOTHING like the recipe I found in the book I read, but it was inspired by it, nonetheless. As usual, I made up my own recipe. 🙂

1 stick softened butter

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 cup coconut rum

1/2 tsp lime extract

1/2 tsp coconut extract or vanila

2 cups flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking sooda

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp salt

chocolate ganache

toasted coconut

green sprinkles, optional

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

Spray a 9″ cake pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Mix all the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Beat the sugar and butter together. Add the egg and milk, lime extract and coconut extract and beat again.

Add the flour mixture 1/2 at a time, mixing in between additions.

Evenly pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

When the cake has completely cooled, remove it from the pan and add the ganache. Typically, a ganache is equal parts melted chocolate to cream mixed together.

Toast the coconut to a light golden brown.

Once the ganache has been spread over the cake, add the toasted coconut and green sprinkles if you like, and enjoy.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

The loose ends of Belize will end my Belizan tour, with photos of odds and end things. They show everyday life in Belize.

Belize was once a British settlement, and was known as British Honduras from the 17th century until it got its independence in 1981. The name was changed to Belize in 1973.

Before Belize was colonized by the British, the largest influences came from the Mayans, until the Spanish came in the 16th century. The Spanish and the British both laid claim to Belize until the British finally took it over in 1798.

I hope you enjoyed our Belizan trip and our adventures as much as we did. There will be many more adventures yet to come. We just have to experience them first. Life is an adventure. Live as many adventures as you can when you can. ‘Til next time.

Part of the fun of traveling is finding new places to eat, and eating like the locals. I love going to as many different restaurants as possible while on vacation. Every place is different and unique. One place Larry waned to try was a restaurant called Caliente. It was a mixture of Mexican and Caribbean foods. We love both, so it was a win/win for us.

Larry was making friends with our server.

Of course we ordered some delicious libations and more seafood.

I ordered the Caribbean bacon wrapped shrimp, that I shared with Larry as well.

And Larry ordered snapper with a spicy butter sauce.

Both were very good.

We sat on the balcony with this lovely sunset as our view. Life is definitely good indeed. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Enjoy all the sunsets in your life. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Belize borders Mexico and Guatemala. They share a common history with the Mayans and Mayan chocolate, among many other shared commonalities. The cacao bean, or the “bean of the Gods” is also grown in Belize, though on the mainland and not so much in Ambergris Caye. Mayan chocolate is very popular all throughout Belize as well as Mexico. On one of our non-diving days, we took a chocolate making class and learned how to make Belizan/Mayan chocolate.

We were back at the Belize Chocolate Company, also known as the Chocolate Boutique.

The class started with a short video of how the cacao is grown and processed.

Everything was explained and then the demonstrations began. This is the cacao bean or pod. The white “slimy” interior is removed first to reveal the beans. Each pod contains roughly 50-60 beans. Once the beans are removed from the pod, they are fermented in boxes that are covered in banana leaves and then sun-dried.

Once dried, they are then roasted in a big roaster. There are 2 locations in Ambergris Caye/San Pedro. One is the shop, where we were, and the other is the production site, a little bit further down the road.

Every bit of the pod and beans are used. Nothing is wasted. The shell is used to make both mulch and cacao tea. The nibs are left, and that is what is broken down to make the actual chocolate that we eat, or drink, as the Ancient Mayans originally did. The Mayan word for chocolate, “xocolatl“, meant “bitter water”. And believe me, it is BITTER! Nothing like the chocolate we are used to eating, that’s for sure! This name reflects the original consumption of chocolate as a liquid beverage, often flavored with chili peppers and other spices, similar to a mole sauce. The word “chocolate” itself is derived from the Mayan word “xocoatl”. The nibs are then ground down to form a paste. The paste is the part that is used. The ancient Mayans drank it with nothing but boiling water. Today we add sugar and dried milk.

Pouring the chocolate nibs out to be ground into the chocolate paste. These large bowls are family heirlooms, passed down from the generations. They are used to grind anything from chocolate to corn.

Grinding down the cacao nibs is truly a talent. The technique is in the wrist, and is all about speed and applying the right amount of pressure. We all got a chance to try out our chocolate making skills. None of us were nearly as skilled as our instructor. 🙂

Once the nibs are ground to a paste, they are mixed with boiling water to make a thick paste. We tasted it at every stage. I will be brutally honest with you; it was AWFUL this way.

Next we added the sugar, for the dark chocolate and the sugar and the dried milk and ground it all some more to make the milk chocolate. Dried milk is used so it doesn’t spoil and has a longer shelf life. If you like dark chocolate, the general mixture is 70% pure cacao to 30% sugar, but there are plenty of other variations as well.

The chocolate was very good once the sugar and/or milk were added.

This is how the Mayans and the Belizans make both their dark and milk chocolate. To make their white chocolate, the cocoa butter that has been extracted during the pressing process is mixed with sugar and dried milk. It has many different uses, both edible and non edible. To make it edible, again, sugar is added and blended into the cacao butter. We all sampled the dark, milk and white chocolate. They were all very good and all very different. The Mayan chocolate is not nearly as smooth as the European chocolates we are all accustomed to.

The class was very interesting and informative, though I would have liked a little more hands-on experience. You can take group classes, like I did, or you can have a private class, that will allow for more hands-on experience. I enjoyed the chocolate class a lot. It was a fun, unique learning experience.

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what’ya gonna get”, Forrest Gump. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well, and eat your daily dose of chocolate. ‘Til next time.

Before we went to Caramba for dinner Eating Our Way Around Belize – Part 4, we were just strolling around, taking in all we could. We found the Traveler’s Rum store and decided to stop in. We asked if they did rum tastings, and that they did. They had quite a display of all their rums. At first we said we only wanted to try some, but Yvette, our lovely rum hostess, said to really experience the rum in the Belizan way, we had to try them all. Twist our arms. We agreed to her terms, but we told her to just give us little, tiny tastes.

I told her to smile pretty for the camera. She asked if I was going to make her famous. I told her I hope so. 🙂 She was a lovely lady, and very informative. Travelers Rum is a locally owned and family run business that has been handed down through generations. It has been around, winning various awards for its rums, for over 70 years.

Here we are, well into our rum tastings. Yvette is pleased with herself. We have made it through all of the tastings and we’re still standing. 🙂

Prince Harry and I are toasting with his favorite rum.

We travel all over the Caribbean all the time. We have tried so many Caribbean rums too. They are all different, and are all good, with their own unique styles. Of course we bought some to take home with us too. We bought a coconut rum, which I have already used it to make a coconut rum cake, but more on that later. 🙂

Salud! A Votre Sante! Lift a glass in good cheer.

Have you ever been to a pick-your-own seafood restaurant? I never had before, but Caramba in Belize is just that.

There was all kinds of fresh seafood available. It is all stored on ice to keep it as fresh as possible until you pick what you want for the chefs to cook up.

Caramba also has a full menu, which we actually ordered our dinners from. We got there in he nick of time. It was pretty quite when we first arrived, but by the time we were ready to leave, it was filling up quickly.

I ordered some chili mole shrimp.

And Larry ordered the snapper. I shared some of my shrimp with him too.

One of the items on the pick-your-own table was giant sea scallops. I LOVE scallops, and had to partake in the pick your own experience, even if only for a tiny bit. So I picked one HUGE scallop.

Here I am picking out my one scallop. It was fun. The staff was very accommodating and had fun too.

The chef cooked it to perfection for me. I had a lot of my delicious chili mole sauce leftover that I used for my lone scallop. Delicious!

After dinner, Larry saw an ice cream place across the street from Caramba, and he hadn’t had ice cream all week, so he had to indulge in some Belizan ice cream for dessert.

Larry was, well, “happy as Larry”, an old Australian term.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well, and if ice cream is your thing, eat your ice cream. It will help keep you happy. ‘Til next time.