A Jeanne in the Kitchen

Originally I was planning on making an Irish meal, for St. Patrick’s Day, but plans changed and I went Mediterranean instead. I can celebrate my Irish roots both today and tomorrow, or at any other time too. 🙂

One of the dishes I made was an avocado and white beans salad, inspired by one of our very own, The Ohio Cook at My Meals Are On Wheels at https://beatcancer2010.wordpress.com/. As always, I say I was inspired by the recipe, but of course, I made it my own. That’s just what I do.

Avocado & White Bean Salad with Chicken

This salad is delicious no matter what. You can enjoy it as is, as a vegetarian option and/or a side dish, with chicken, or even with shrimp, but either way, it is a guaranteed winner. I almost added shrimp, but instead I decided on adding chicken. I also added some orange slices to spruce it up even more and I served it over a bed of shredded Romaine lettuce.

1 head Romaine lettuce, shredded

1 avocado, sliced

3 Campari tomatoes, sliced thin

1 can cannellini white beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cucumber, sliced very thin

1-2 oranges, peeled and sliced very thin

1/4 red onion, sliced very thin

2-3 TBSP toasted pine nuts

2 cooked chicken breasts, sliced

Layer the salad and arrange it on a platter. Top with the chicken or shrimp and toasted pine nuts. Add just enough dressing to dress it up and add flavor without drowning it in liquid.

The Dressing

1/3 cup olive oil

2-3 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP lemon balsamic vinegar, optional

salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 tsp sumac

1 TBSP dried mint or 2 TBSP fresh mint, chopped

1 TBSP dried parsley or 2 TBSP fresh chopped parsley

Whisk everything together and set aside until just ready to serve the salad.

This is a perfect salad for any occasion, and can either be a side salad or a main entree. It is delicious and healthy anytime salad for any event. Enjoy!

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

I know I take a lot of pictures of squirrels, but I just can’t help myself. They are so darn cute, and they always seem to be posing for the camera. They seem to love having their picture taken. Of course I am more than happy to oblige. 🙂

It’s perfectly OK to be squirrely at times. Have fun and play around. Life is short. Enjoy every moment, and have a great day. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

My Robins are back. Robins are the symbol of spring and its return. I saw a whole bunch of them yesterday, but most of them were still pretty shy. It is after all, a tad early for them. As soon as I would get my camera in focus, they would fly away. But I will have plenty of upcoming opportunities to capture many more of them very soon.

Food is love. Food is life. And food is happiness, especially to those of us who cook and enjoy feeding others. It’s supposed to be fun and creative, and food is most definitely meant to be shared with those we love.

Here are some kitchen quotes about fun and good times in the kitchens.

I like a cook who smiles out loud when he tastes his own work.

Father, Robert Farrar Capon –  American Episcopal priest, author and chef

This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook — try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun!

Julia Child

Do what you love and love what you do and life will be grand. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe, stay well, but most importantly – HAVE FUN! ‘Til next time.

Today is the 7th bloggoversary for “A Jeanne In The Kitchen”. WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!! Time goes by fast. I am looking forward to the next 7 years. Thanks for being a part of it. none of this would be possible without YOU. 🙂

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!

You registered on WordPress.com 7 years ago.

Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

Well, spring is most definitely on its way. Soon I will have all kinds of new baby birds, ducks, geese, and all kind of other baby animals. The other day I told you about seeing my herons doing their mating ritual Nature Walks – It’s Heron Season Again. Well obviously it worked. Yesterday, I saw them in their nest, preparing for babies. They like to make their nests way up high, in the highest tree tops around.

After a few minutes, Daddy Heron decided he was hungry, so he flew down to the water’s edge for some fishing, while Mommy Heron was still guarding the nest.

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

I still had some chicken leftover from when I made my Lebanese chicken Lebanese Chicken. I could have made another salad with it, and I kind of did. But instead, I turned it into a Lebanese chicken gyro.

I sliced some red onions very thin, diced some tomatoes and cucumber and shredded some lettuce. Then I made a Tzatziki sauce and placed everything on a warmed pita. Larry added cheese to his. I didn’t have any feta, but he used some bleu cheese crumbles.

Tzatziki Sauce

1/2 cup yogurt

1-2 tsp garlic

2 TBSP lemon juice

1/2-1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp oregano

salt & pepper to taste

Mix everything together and chill until ready to use.

This meal was simple, easy-peasy, nice and cool and refreshing on a warm spring day, and I got to use up my leftovers. It was a win/win/win. WHOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!! Making great meals doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming. Just start with good, fresh ingredients, and everything will turn out just fine. 🙂

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

Larry and I had a fun date night by going to see a Queen Tribute band. It was at the Paramount Theatre, in Downtown Denver. I love the Paramount. It is an old, beautifully decorated Art Deco Theatre. I wish more modern architects would return to paying attention to all the details once again. All the older buildings have so much more charm and character than the newer designs. The newer, modern buildings all seem so cold and blah to me.

At first we were told we could not take any pictures of the band. So I focused on all the details of the theatre instead. I just love all this attention to detail. I LOVE older buildings.

Once the band got on stage, they told us to take pictures. They welcomed pictures. We did take quite a few pictures after they told us it was OK, but ours, from the cell phone, are NOTHING compared to the professional ones.

The band is called Gary Mullin & The Works. They did a good job. Queen is a tough band to pay tribute to because they are so good, and few people can pull off a good Freddie Mercury tribute, but Gary Mullen & The Works did a very good job. Gary Mullen made a good “Freddy Mercury” too. He was full of Freddie’s energy and spirit, and copied his moves well. He had a good voice too, though there can only ever be ONE Freddie Mercury.

If you are a Queen fan, and Gary Mullen & The Works is in your neck of the woods, I recommend going. It will definitely be a fun, entertaining evening.

Rock on Queen and Freddie. Rock on! Have a great day and make everyday great. Let the music always be in your heart and just keep on rockin’! Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Spring is in the air, and apparently in the water as well. All my ducks and geese are pairing up, swimming side by side. Soon, we should have lots of baby ducks and geese. They too will be swimming side by side with their moms until it will be time for them to move on.

We have Mr. & Mrs. Merganser.

Mr. & Mrs. Widgeon

Mr. & Mrs. Mallard

The Common Goldeneyes

And the Canadians

Woody is still single and looking for Mrs. Right. He seems to think he has a chance with Mrs. Mallard. I think Mr. Mallard may have a few quacks about that though.

Have fun no matter what you do. Enjoy the simple things in life and make everyday a great day. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Food is such a fascinating subject, at least for me. The more I learn the more I want to learn. And believe me, there is always something new to learn. Here are some fun food facts. Maybe you know them, but chances are, most of us, myself included, don’t. Hopefully we all learn something new and have some fun while we’re at it. 🙂

1. MacDonald’s is so popular that a burger is sold every second of every day. That’s a whole lot of burgers!

2. An average ear of corn has an even number of rows, usually 16. Each cob (or ear) tends to have between 750 and 1000 potential kernels, but only 400 to 600 usually come to fruition. Kernel rows begin as ridges of cells that eventually differentiate into pairs of rows, hence why there’s always an even number of rows per corn cob. The amount of rows, though, stays consistent because it is determined strongly by plant genetics.

3. You can tell the difference between cheap pasta and expensive pasta by looking at them. Texture and wheat quality are the primary differences between pastas. If you closely examine low-cost pasta, you’ll notice that they are almost shiny and incredibly smooth ― that’s the work of the Teflon die.

To save even more time and produce large quantities of pasta, mass manufacturers then quickly dry the pasta, sometimes for only a few hours, before boxing it and shipping it. This ruins the texture entirely. The smooth pasta never fully marries to the sauce, and the quick dry time requires a faster cook time.

The best pastas are made with grano duro, or durum wheat semolina. This type of pasta yields to a firmer texture overall and looks heartier just by looking at it before it is cooked. The cheaper pastas only the semolina flour variety found in the other brands. This one has an almost yellow or orange appearance. The raw pasta is almost see-through and very fragile. The ones with grano duro, or durum wheat semolina held their shape, remained al dente, and didn’t fall apart in the sauce, or get mushy. The other kind, well, not so much. They fall apart and are mushy.

4. Humans and bananas share 40% of the same DNA.

5. The probability of you drinking a glass of water that contains a molecule of water that also passed through a dinosaur is almost 100%. While most water molecules in an eight-ounce glass were never been consumed by another person, almost every single molecule has been drunk by a dinosaur. Like humans, dinosaurs also released all water that they drunk, then they drink anew.

So did you learn anything new? I did. There is always something new to learn. Never stop learning. Learning is fun and it helps keep us young. 🙂

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