A Jeanne in the Kitchen

We randomly picked a restaurant in Ardmore, OK, for dinner, not knowing anything about it. We went to Two Frogs, about 30 miles from the OK, TX border. Little did we know that Two Frogs is a pretty famous hot spot for musicians.

The owner is a famous rock photographer and has autographed photos and guitars from many, many famous musicians.

The food was very good too. We are entering bayou country, so a lot of good Cajun food, as well as other choices, was on the menu. Larry ordered crawfish Alfredo.

I ordered blackened catfish with crawfish and voodoo sauce. Both were delicious, but I liked mine better. 🙂

After dinner we drove straight through to Ennis, TX, outside of Dallas, where we stayed for the night. It was a long day, but it was filled with lots of fun adventures. 🙂

Pratt, KS is only about 40 minutes from the Oklahoma border, and we needed to go through OK to get to Texas. Most of our day was a driving day. Without stops the drive is a 6 1/2 hour drive and is 438 miles or 686 km. But we made a couple of stops along the way, since OK was a new state for us (we have been to most of the 50 states, and are down to only single digits of states we have not yet seen).

The Kansas/Oklahoma border.

Of course we had to make a few necessity stops, but we took advantage of those too, and made them fun. We have started a fun trend of taking selfies of the day to share with everyone while traveling. One of the pit stops had a dog park that was all ready for Christmas. And everyone knows we are big dog lovers.

These pictures were taken from the car, while driving.

We had definitely entered The Bible Belt region of the country.

We also made a fun and necessary stop at the OK City Visitor’s Center. While there we asked about things to see and do on our way.

One of the suggestions was to go visit the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. OK is a large part of cowboy country, as was the whole area we visited, so off we went. The museum did a good job of covering all aspects of life in the western and cowboy states. I highly recommend it. It mostly featured the way of life for cowboys, but it also covered everything about living in the high plains and the west, and the western movie classics, and the rodeo way of life. They did a good job of featuring the different Native American cultures of the areas too.

This is the giant sculpture that you see when you first enter the museum.

Then there were big statues of Charleton Heston and John Wayne,

Ronald Reagan,

and, of course, Abraham Lincoln.

We toured the outside gardens first.

Larry was trying his skills as a roper. It’s a good thing we don’t have to rely on those skills. 🙂

The outside gardens had replicas of different Native American homes and lifestyles.

Life was difficult for everyone, cowboy, settler or “Indian” in those days.

People moving west would pack up all their earthly possessions, food, and their family into these covered wagons to make their long, arduous trek westward.

Long live the cowboys!

After touring the outside gardens, we ventured inside once again. Once of the large displays was a replica of any western town throughout the nation, complete with one-room schools, churches, hotels, and jail cells.

Larry was practicing his sermon

while I landed in jail.

We saw A LOT of cattle along the way, all throughout this trip, and we saw a lot of Texas longhorns too.

If you are interested in how the west was won, I highly recommend visiting the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, OK. It was very informative and very well presented. It’s a good family excursion for locals and tourists alike.

After making sure Ollie was OK Our Texas Thanksgiving – Part 1 – Hays, KS, we headed 2 hours south to Pratt, KS to visit our nephew Jared and his family. It just so happened that the town of Pratt was displaying it’s annual Christmas display for the season’s first night on the day we were there. They did a beautiful job.

First, we went to the park in the daylight hours to see the day’s festivities, where Santa and one of his reindeer were greeting visitors.

Then we strolled around taking in the sights and letting the boys have some fun. There were lots of fun family activities for everyone to enjoy.

Larry, our nephew Jared and his youngest son Callen at the deer toss.

Jared, Callen and Gentry doing a reindeer race.

All six of us took a hayride around the park too.

It was still too light for the Christmas lights so we decided to go out to dinner first then come back for the lights later. We took Jared, Lexi and the boys out to dinner at Cancun Mexican Restaurant. The food was very good.

After dinner, we went back to the park to see all the Christmas lights. Pratt did an excellent job of lighting the parks up. One park was random and the other park had a theme of the 12 Days of Christmas. The Christmas displays were beautiful and very creative. These are just some of the highlights. I just love seeing all the brightly colored Christmas lights.

After driving around to see all the lights, the boys were tired, so we all went back to Jared and Lexi’s house for a fun family game night and presents. Both Gentry and Callen woke up again for presents and games. 🙂

We all had so much fun together. Next stop – a drive through Oklahoma before landing in Dallas for the night.

I know. It’s confusing when I call it our “Texas Thanksgiving” and our first day is in Hays, KS, but we drove and Hays was our first stop. Hays is where Larry is from and his mom Ollie still lives there, and still lives by herself at 96.

We left Friday 11/21, around noon, and arrived in Hays just in time for BINGO. Ollie loves BINGO. We went with Ollie and Phillip, one of our nephews. Collectively, we won over $400, and Ollie’s rule is that all the winnings are split evenly. So we all came out of BINGO $106 richer than when we entered.

BINGO was a huge win for all of us. After BINGO, and the next morning, however, we had a big scare. Ollie fell as we were going to bed on Friday night, and really banged herself up badly. She wouldn’t let us take her to the hospital and insisted she was OK. The next morning, she fell again, and almost fainted in Larry’s arms. We called 911 and they were there instantly and took her to the hospital. The doctors checked her heart and her vitals, and said it was not a heart attack or a stroke, which is great news. But the bad news is that we don’t know what is causing these falls (she has fallen quite a few times lately). But, after about an hour, the hospital released her and let her go home again. We stayed to make sure she was OK, and Larry’s sister Jean, who lives nearby came over. Ollie told us she was OK and told us to leave for the rest of our trip, to drive safely and to have a good time.

Next stop is in Pratt, still in KS, to visit our nephew Jared and his family.

I’m back. Did you miss me? We got home late last night, and now we are transitioning into the Christmas season. We had a great trip, visiting with family and doing all kinds of fun things, but as always, as soon as we get back from a trip, I hit the ground running and have tons of things to do. I am just now getting my busy day started, but just wanted to let you know I’m back. I will start posting and sharing again in a few days.

I also wanted to share something else with you that I saw as I started my arduous task of going through all my emails.

Congratulations! Your site, A Jeanne in the Kitchen, passed 500,000 all-time views, and counting! WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!! This is because of ALL of YOU!!!!!! Thank you so much. Let’s keep this trend going!!!! 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe, stay well and Happy Holidays.

Larry and I are off once again. This time we are headed to Texas for a Texas Thanksgiving with some of my cousins. We are leaving today, and will be gone for about 2 weeks. Once again, I will be out of touch for the duration of our trip. I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. I will see you soon.

Live it up, and enjoy your day with family, friends and loved ones, and just remember, the Thanksgiving calories don’t count. 🙂

Yesterday, the lakes/ponds, were very quiet for the most part. I saw a few various ducks, geese and cacklings, but not much otherwise; except for one Belted Kingfisher. He was begging me to take some pictures of him and he was so proud I was able to get a shot or two of him with his fish too.

I saw him swoop down and catch his fish, and he was proudly showing it off for me too.

Life is full of surprises. You just never know when or where or what you’re going to see. Always be prepared for the unexpected. 🙂

Today, we take it for granted that we live in a world where we don’t have to worry about having enough good, healthy food whenever we need it, especially for our soldiers, sailors and explorers who travel by land and sea and are often gone for long periods of time. But this is a relatively new luxury. This wasn’t always the case, and something we don’t often think about.

When explorers first started traveling to far off lands, particularly by sea, during the 16th century, keeping ships’ passengers and crews healthy during long voyages was a constant struggle. Malnutrition and disease, particularly scurvy, were very prevalent. Prior to the times when canned foods became readily available, often our soldiers and sailors had other concerns that had nothing to do with fighting their battles and traveling to far off destinations. Maintaining their food supply was another major and constant concern. Historically, expeditions frequently struggled to replenish food supplies, which if they were not replenished in a timely manner, led to starvation, scurvy, and dependence on unreliable hunting or trade. Survival often hinged on careful planning, effective preservation methods (like drying, salting, smoking and pickling), and crucial assistance from local indigenous populations. Small miscalculations in the amounts of fresh meats and vegetables could lead to failure of the mission, and worse, death to all. Explorers often miscalculated the duration of their journeys or the amount of food required for the strenuous physical labor involved. Sometimes, it wasn’t even due to miscalculations or human error, but space, storage and transportation limitations, as well as other unforeseeable events and catastrophes, such as shipwrecks. The land expeditions had it slightly easier because they could hunt for fresh game, assuming it was available. They were also at the mercy of the locals to help out with replenishing their food supplies.

Scurvy was a major concern for long journeys, and left untreated can be very dangerous, even deadly. Scurvy is a disease caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin C that leads to symptoms like fatigue, weakness, and bleeding gums. It is caused by a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables and can be treated by increasing vitamin C intake. Left untreated, it can lead to more severe complications like anemia, poor wound healing, and, in some cases, death from bleeding or infection. But fortunately today, with proper nutrition, it is easily avoidable and curable. We know that today. Prior to the 19th century though, scurvy was not such an easy fix and was a major concern for soldiers, explorers and travelers alike.

The common ways of preserving foods in the early days were salting, drying, smoking and pickling, but even these methods had their limitations. Foods preserved in these ways, especially in the early days, still had a relatively short shelf life and still went bad, which could be almost as bad as not having enough food, because it could become poisonous. Food quality deteriorated over time, and supplies were often lost to spoilage or accidents.

Drying or dehydrating foods is one of the earliest methods of food preservation, dating back to about 12,000 BC. This process removes moisture from food, making it inhospitable to bacteria and fungi that cause spoilage. While drying with sun and wind were the earliest forms of drying foods, other early methods included salting, smoking, and fermentation, which create an environment where microbes cannot survive

Often the drying method was combined with salting the foods to draw out their moisture. But salted foods have to be “bathed in water” to remove the salt, in order to be edible.

Even foods that were dehydrated and salted still needed to be stored, and at first were “potted” in large clay pots with tight fitting lids. This involved packing cooked meat tightly into a jar and capping it with a generous amount of butter, lard, or tallow (rendered beef fat).  An unappetizing as this may sound it kept meat safe to eat for weeks or months in the right environment. It kept people alive, though often times just barely. Potted meat is still popular although today, we call it tinned or canned food, and the preservation methods have come a long way, and are much healthier, with a much longer shelf life than the early days.

Pickling foods was another way of preserving foods and extending their shelf life. Pickling has been around since the days of the ancient Mesopotamians, and evidence suggests it has been around since as early as about 2400 B.C. Everything was pickled from eggs to meat to vegetables. Meats and fish were usually pickled or preserved in a salt brine and sometimes later smoked to encapsulate the salted meat with a thick protective coating of creosote that inhibited insects or microorganisms from spoiling the meat. Vegetables and fruits were often brined in a vinegar base. Most pickled foods involved high concentrations of salt and/or vinegar, and just like purely salted foods, they still had to be freshened by repeated soaking in fresh water to make them edible.

Necessity is often the mother of invention, and people will do whatever they need to do in order to survive. Because salt was so important for food preservation, and we all need food to survive, the salt trade quickly sprang up and became a very competitive and lucrative industry. Salt was gathered from many places around the world and sold to the highest bidders.

Vinegars were also used for preserving foods, and were originally made from beer and wines, but soon farmers started planting apple orchards to produce apples and other fruits, both for eating and for making vinegar. While vinegar making may be as old as brewing, the first documented evidence of vinegar making and use was by the ancient Babylonians around 3000 BCE. They primarily made vinegar from the fermentation of fruits, such as dates and figs, and beer. Vinegars were used for both culinary and medicinal purposes.

Smoking meats was another way of preserving foods in the early days. Most 18th century farmers had smoke houses on their property. From the earliest times, a smokehouse was a small enclosed shelter, a place in which a fire could be kept smoldering for a few weeks, which would only slowly release its smoke, and in which the smoked meat could hang safe from vermin and thieves. Just about any sort of vernacular shed could serve. People who were not lucky enough to have a separate smoke house often hung their meats above the fires in the fireplaces or their hearths at home. Ashes were placed over the embers to extinguish any flames which produced an ideal Smoky environment in which to preserve their fish or game.

We have come a long way since the early days of food preservation, and refrigeration has aided the process immensely. We have it so easy today compared to the days of old. Today, we go to a market and get what we need, whether it comes from the refrigerated section, the freezer or canned or pickled. I don’t think most of realize this was not always the case. Food, good, fresh, healthy food, was not always accessible to many people around the world. People lived off the land by what they could find, hunt or fish, and did their best to preserve it for as long as they could, since it was often scarce.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe, stay well, and make sure to eat your fresh fruits and vegetables. ‘Til next time.

I recently cooked a big ham, and that means I had a lot of ham leftover. I am always creating other dishes from all of my leftovers, as you very well know. When I cook a ham, a quiche almost always follows, as it did this time too, (a ham, spinach and mushroom quiche) and then I usually have enough leftover to still make other things as well. usually a split pea soup is somewhere in the immediate future after a ham. I did make soup, but this time I did not make split pea soup. I made an African inspired pumpkin soup instead.

I loaded this delicious, healthy soup up with all kinds of good things; everything from ham, sausage, spinach, pumpkin, kidney beans to tomatoes, and then some. It was a hearty meal filled with all kinds of goodness. Really, I was just trying to use up as many of my vegetables as I could before we leave for Texas. 🙂

African Styled Ham, Sausage & Vegetable Soup

1 1/2-2 lbs cooked ham, cubed

3 hot Italian sausage links, cooked and sliced

3 carrots, diced

1 onion, diced

2-3 celery stalksd, diced

2-3 cups spinach, stems removed

2 cups diced tomatoes

2 Anaheim peppers, diced

1 small pumpkin, peeled and diced

1 1/2-2 TBSP garlic

6-8 cups ham or chicken broth

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

olive oil

salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

2 tsp Mekelesha Ethiopian spice, or other African spices

Get a large soup pot very hot, and par cook the sausage enough to where you can slice it, or about 5-7 minutes. Remove from the pot, let it cool enough to cut, then slice.

Add the carrots, onions, celery, peppers and red pepper flakes to the pot, adding more oil if needed and cook until they are al dente and the onions are translucent.

Add the garlic and pumpkin and continue to cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. I used delicata squash, which usually has the thin skin still attached. The skin is so thin that it softens nicely when cooked.

Add the sausage and continue to cook until the sausage is completely cooked. Add the ham, broth and seasonings. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, and continue to cook for about 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the tomatoes, kidney beans and spinach towards the end. Mix everything together thoroughly and cook just until the spinach is wilted. Serve immediately. If you like, you can top it with some soft cheese that melts quickly too.

This soup is very similar to a lot of African vegetable soups or pumpkin stew. It’s deliciously healthy, with a little bit of an added kick. Serve with some warm bread, and you have a hearty meal that’s perfect for when the temperatures start to drop. It will warm you up from the inside out.

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

Mediterranean foods are some of my favorite foods. As much as I love all kinds of food, the Mediterranean diet is the one I follow most closely. It is a diet that is based on consuming lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, fish, chicken and lean meats. It also limits processed foods and sweets. I have been eating like this for most of my life. I love all of the differences between the foods from the different Mediterranean regions too. Right now, I am in a Greek frame of mind, with my Greek green beans Greek Green Beans and now my Greek salad.

Greek Salad

I created this deliciously healthy salad as another way to use up our gyro meat. I love gyros, but I wanted something different. Gyro meat is traditionally made from lamb or pork, but modern Greek-American versions often use a ground mixture of lamb and beef. It can also be made from other meats like chicken. The meat is typically seasoned and cooked on a vertical rotisserie, then shaved into thin slices to serve. We buy the Costco version, where all that is already done for us. 🙂

1 lb cooked gyro meat

2-3 cups fresh spinach, stems removed

2-3 tomatoes, diced or cut into wedges

1/2 cucumber, sliced very thin

1 can garbanzo beans or chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup mixed olives, sliced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1/4 red onion, sliced very thin

1-2 pita slices, cut into triangles and fried

feta cheese, optional

Layer the salad over a bed of spinach.

Za’atar Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1-2 tsp lemon olive oil, optional

1-2 tsp lemon vinegar, optional

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

1-2 tsp Harissa seasoning

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1-2 tsp garlic

1-2 tsp Za’atar seasoning

salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

Whisk everything together well and let rest. Whish everything together once again right before serivng.

When ready to serve, top the salad with a Za’atar vinaigrette and feta cheese, if using. Add the fried pita chips all around. Enjoy! απολαμβάνω or apolamváno!

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