A Jeanne in the Kitchen

The Germans love their potatoes. Like me, the Germans love their potatoes cooked in all kinds of ways. They use them for almost every meal. Today, each person on average, consumes about 150 lbs of potatoes per year.

Potatoes were introduced to Germany in the 17th century, but became popular in the 18th century. Back in the 18th century, Frederick II of Prussia (also known as Frederick the Great) was looking for ways to feed his nation and lower the price of bread. He proposed the potato as a suitable new addition to the nation’s diet. Potatoes are called Kartoffel in Germany and German speaking countries, like Austria.

Potatoes are popular in Germany for many reasons, but one reason is because of the military, believe it or not. When an army camped on a field with traditional crops, which they did without consideration for the peasants, the crops would be destroyed and the harvest gone. Because of this, German peasants quickly saw the value of the potato, which would not so easily be harmed by military movements taking place on the surface.

One of the popular potato dishes in Germany is scalloped potatoes, though they often are made with a bit of mustard. I made some German scalloped potatoes from a recipe from one of my German cookbooks, that included mustard, bacon onions and garlic. No wonder they were so good. 🙂

German Scalloped Potatoes of Kartoffelauflauf mit speck

Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.

Preheat the oven to 400* F or 200*C.

olive oil

3/4 lb bacon, diced

1 onion, diced fine

1 TBSP garlic

3 lbs potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

1 cup heavy whipping cream

salt & pepper to taste

1 cup shredded cheese

fresh parsley, chopped

Slice the potatoes into thin round slices.

Get a skillet very hot add the oil and cook the bacon until it is browned, for about 5 minutes, then remove from the heat.

Add the garlic and onions and cook for about 7-10 minutes, or until the onions are translucent.

Combine the mustard, cream and the salt & pepper. Add the onions, garlic, bacon and most of the chopped parsley to the mustard and cream mixture and mix together thoroughly.

Add a single layer of the potato rounds to the prepared casserole dish.

Add a layer of the cream mixture, then repeat until the potatoes and cream are all used.

Top with the cheese. You can use whatever type of cheese you like, though cheddar is usually recommended. I used Mozzarella this time, because that is what I had. Using different cheeses will give different flavors and qualities to the potatoes. Play around with them. Use what you like most or mix and match them.

Bake for about 1 hour, or until the cheese is all melted and forms a golden crust on top. Sprinkle a little parsley on top and enjoy it while it’s hot. You can leave out the bacon if you like, and it will still be very good.

We had two types of potatoes for this meal. The German scalloped potatoes and the potatoes in in my focaccia. Potato Focaccia Pugliese

Since fall weather is slowly creeping in, and the weather is getting a little cooler each day, this was a perfect meal for fall. Our days of dining out on the deck are becoming limited for the rest of the year. We are going to enjoy it for as long as we can though; one ray of sunshine at a time.

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

This year I saw a lot of Says Phoebes. A lot more so than I have seen in years past. They are such cute little birds. They supposedly like the quiet solitude of the country life, but I live in the suburbs and they seem to like it here too. They are usually here with us from March-October, so their time here is coming to an end for this year. I will miss them, but I will also gladly welcome them back again next spring.

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

As you know, I love to cook with international themes. This allows me to sample foods and different cooking techniques from all over the world in the comfort of my own kitchen. We are quite the culinary travelers (although we are quite the real travelers too). I had some Kielbasa and decided to go with a German theme for side dishes. I made some red cabbage with apples and German scalloped potatoes. I also had some mustard cream sauce I used to top the Kielbasa and then served it with my potato focaccia Pugliese Potato Focaccia Pugliese and a smooth red blend. Larry is 100% German, so he was fine with this idea too. It was a perfect Bavarian meal. 🙂

Red Cabbage and Apples

You can either bake this dish or cook it on top of the stove. I chose to cook it on top of the stove. It’s sweet and tangy and very colorfully delicious. This is another simple meal using basic ingredients.

1 red cabbage, shredded

1 onion, sliced very thin

2 apples, peeled and sliced into thin matchsticks

2 tsp red wine vinegar

2 TBPS water

1 TBSP sugar

salt & pepper tot tasdte

olive oil and butter for cooking

As I mentioned, I cooked mine on the stove in a skillet. I find this is a quicker way to cook it with the same results, or even better, than baking it.

Get a large skillet very hot, then add some olive oil and a little butter. Add all the ingredients to the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, until the cabbage, apples and onions are tender.

When everything is tender, it’s time to eat and enjoy. Wunderbar! This is perfect for all of your Oktoberfest celebrations.

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

We have quite a few different species of hawks that call Colorado home. We have Cooper’s Hawks, Sharp-Shinned Hawks, Northern Goshawks, Swainson’s Hawks, Red-Tailed Hawks, Ferruginous Hawks and Rough-Legged Hawks. The Red Tails are the most prolific hawks we see in our area, but every now and then we see other types as well. We see them quite often too.

I love the hawks and all the other birds of prey. They are graceful, majestic warriors like none other. They are almost always perched up high, to get a good hawk’s view of the surrounding area or are soaring high in the skies, hunting their prey.

Here are some of my recent hawk sightings. This one looks like a Ferruginous Hawk.

It’s hard for me to get good shots of them in flight. This one will have to do for now.

This one is a Red-Tailed Hawk.

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

Oh how I love the cooler weather!!!! I can bake things in the oven without melting from the heat. I can bake breads again. WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!! There is something very calming and therapeutic about making bread too, at least for me. I made some potato focaccia Pugliese bread and we enjoyed every bite of it too. 🙂

Potato Focaccia Pugliese

Focaccia is a type of yeast bread that is very similar to pizza. It’s baked in a shallow pan, giving it a flatter appearance than regular leavened bread but with a spongy, bubbly crumb. The olive oil coating is part of what makes it unique, resulting in a deliciously crispy top and bottom crust.

Pugliese means it is something that originated in the Puglia region of Italy. Pugliese bread is a type of bread made from a soft sough that has large holes in the bread that come about through the baking process. The bread is soft in the center and crunchy on the outside and most often it is shaped in an oval shape.

My potato focaccia Pugliese is a combination of both types of delicious breads. Like with so many other wonderful dishes, it is made with simple ingredients, but most importantly, it is made with lots of love.

4 scant cups flour

1 TBSP salt

2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

olive oil – I used both regular and garlic olive oil

8-10 small new potatoes, sliced thin

rock salt to sprinkle on top

2-3 sprigs of either fresh rosemary and/or sage

Combine the flour, yeast, water and salt together and form into a soft dough ball. Lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough ball into prepared bowl, cover and let rise for about 1-1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.

After the first rise, oil a baking sheet and firmly press the dough into the pan, trying to fill the pan as much as you can. Dimple it with your fingers.

Slice the potatoes into thin slices and top the dough with the potatoes. Cut the herbs into small pieces and distribute over the top. Add a sprinkling of coarse salt to the top. Cover and let rise again, for about another hour. I used a combination of both garlic olive oil and regular olive oil.

I didn’t have rosemary this time, but I did have sage. The sage complimented the potatoes perfectly.

Preheat the oven to 450*F or 230*C.

Bake for about 30 or so minutes, or until the dough is golden brown and a light crust is all around the edges. Drizzle with more olive oil, slice and serve warm. !Delicioso!

This recipe makes 1 large flatbread. Originally I cut my focaccia into portions and I was going to share with a couple of my neighbors. But neither of them were home when I tried to deliver it, so darn, we had to eat it all ourselves. 🙂 It took us a couple of days to finish it, but finish it we did. Now it is all gone and time to make some more.

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

Yesterday out on my walk, I saw a late season Heron, hiding in the reeds. I thought my eyes were deceiving me at first, and I had to do a double take. But sure enough, there was this regal looking Heron right in front of me. He only allowed me to get a couple of shots before flying off, but at least he granted me that, and for that I was grateful.

As I was quietly trying to readjust to get another angle, he flew off. I couldn’t get him in flight, but I did catch him on his landing.

It is very late in the season for Herons, but I am always so happy to see them. We are still having very warm weather, so maybe my birds are a little confused about the seasons right now.

You have probably noticed I am not baking as much as I was in the past. There are a few reasons for this. One, I have considerably cut down my sugar intake and am really trying to loose weight. If I don’t have these tempting treats around, I won’t eat them. And two, I no longer attend the church I was going to, for reasons that I don’t really care to go into, therefore I am no longer running the coffee cart. That being said, Lauren said they are having a difficult time finding people to run the coffee cart and to supply goodies. I had mentioned I had some frozen peaches that I wanted to use, and Lauren asked if I would make something for the coffee cart. I did this time, and might do so occasionally in the future, but it will not be a regular thing again. I also had some blueberries, so I used both the peaches and the blueberries to make a coffee cake.

Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake

I coated my blueberries in flour to help prevent “bleeding” before adding them to my batter.

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

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

The Streusel

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

4 TBSP melted butter

Combine everything together until it resembles sand. Set aside for later.

The Cake

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cups, or 1 1/2 sticks softened butter

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

1 pint blueberries, coated in flour

2 cups peaches, diced

Combine all the dry ingredients and set aside.

Mix butter and sugar until creamy, then add the eggs 1 at a time and mix in between each addition. Add the vanilla.

Alternate adding 1/2 the flour, mix, 1/2 the milk, mix and repeat until all is mixed and incorporated into the batter.

Gently fold in the blueberries and peaches.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan and top with the streusel topping.

Bake for about 1 hour or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool completely before slicing and removing from the pan.

This delicious, fruity cake came out so moist. I am glad I won’t have it around my house for too long. I don’t know if I could resist the temptation. Even Lauren said it just might not make it to the church. 🙂

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

We have a wide variety of different ducks that call our lakes home. Our resident ducks are the Mallards, and they live here pretty much on a permanent basis. For the most part, they are all pretty chill, and aren’t really bothered. They just go about their business and don’t let things bother them.

But every now and then, they get their feathers ruffled, and sometimes, there is even a duck fight or two. This was actually a male attacking a female. He was relentless. Fortunately, she was able to break free and was fine.

You just never know what you are going to see when communing with nature. It is always an adventure.

Since I made fresh roasted tomato and vegetable sauce, Roasted Tomato & Vegetable Sauce I had to come up with some delicious way to use it. And of course I did too. I made some chicken cacciatore, using some of my Costco rotisserie chicken. I also got to use up some more of my delicious tomatoes.

Chicken Cacciatore, or “Hunter’s Chicken” originated in 14th century Italy, combining wild game such as rabbit or chicken, with whatever vegetables were on hand; tomatoes, onions, red wine and vinegar. Originally, the main ingredient was rabbit, not chicken, but today, chicken is used. The word cacciatore means hunter. Now, chicken cacciatore has evolved into many different versions around the world. Many parts of Italy lay claim to this delicious chicken and vegetable dish, but most people think it originated in Tuscany, though many argue that it originally came from Milan. Who really knows? All I know is that it is delicious and that’s all that really matters. 🙂

Chicken Cacciatore

As with any dish that has been around for centuries, there are many different versions. This is just one.

2 lbs chicken, either breasts or parts – I used cooked chicken this time

1/2 each red bell pepper, yellow and/or green bell pepper, cut into medium chunks

1 TBSP garlic

1/2 zucchini, sliced

1/2 yellow crookneck, sliced

4-5 tomatoes, diced

1-1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

1/2 onion, diced

1 TBSP each fresh oregano, thyme, basil, marjoram or Italian herbs of your choice or 1 tsp each of dried

2 cups tomato sauce

1 cup red wine

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

lemon juice or lemon olive oil, optional

If you are using cooked chicken, there is no need to cook the chicken again. If not, season the chicken with salt & pepper, get a large skillet or pot very hot, then add olive oil and butter and brown the chicken on all sides.

Cut all the vegetables, separating the heartier vegetables from the softer, more fragile vegetables. Cook the heartier ones in olive oil for about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. You want a little crispness left to them, since they will continue to cook with each additional layer. If using fresh herbs, add with the tomatoes later.

If you are cooking the chicken, once it is browned, add the vegetables and sauce to the chicken.

When the vegetables are ready, add the red wine and the tomato sauce and incorporate thoroughly.

Add the tomatoes and herbs, and cooked chicken. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Top with either 1-2 TBSP lemon juice and/or lemon olive oil at the very end, right before serving. The lemon will enhance the tomato flavors.

I like to serve it over pasta. This is a hearty, robust sauce, so a heavier pasta, like fettuccine is best. Serve with a robust red wine, preferably the same wine you used for the sauce. I also served it with some potato focaccia I made.

!Mangia! You’re going to love this. I promise.

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

It is once again that time of year when my Northern Flickers are out and about. It’s Flicker season again. I love seeing all the Flickers, but then I love all my birds. I am seeing so many. Sometimes I even get some good shots too. 🙂

I just never know what I am going to see, or if I will see anything at all. And just because I see something, doesn’t mean I am always able to capture it with my camera either. It’s all just a matter of good luck and timing. 🙂