Jim & Jamie In The Kitchen

Tonight my husband, Jim, prepared dinner following one of Jamie Oliver's recipes. I asked him especially because venison is almost always cooked by him. Venison is deer meat. My husband is a hunter and any venison in our freezer is there because my husband was successful in his hunt.Not only does my husband hunt and kill the deer , he cuts and wraps the deer for the freezer. Thus, all venison we cook is thankfully received from God, and thereafter preserved and prepared by my dear husband. Jamie Oliver aptly named this dish : "Wild Mushroom & Venison Stroganoff For Two Lucky People" (If venison is not available to you, I think any beef fillet would do nicely) because the ingredients and flavors were a very pleasant surprise to us!

(above:My husband in the kitchen) Wild Mushroom & Venison for Two Lucky People

You will need:

• 7 ounces white rice
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 med. red onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 11 ounces venison loin, fat and sinews removed, trimmed and sliced into finger-sized pieces
• sea salt & freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 9 ounces mixed exciting, robust mushrooms, wiped clean, torn into bite-sized pieces ( we only had supermarket mushrooms, exciting enough for us)
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leafed parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks finely chopped
• a knob of butter ( don't you just love the way the Brits describe this?)
• a good splash of brandy
• zest of 1/2 of a lemon
• 1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
• a few little gherkins ( pickles) sliced

"This venison stroganoff is absolutely fantastic , of course you can use the more traditional beef fillet instead of venison, and any mushrooms you like, but there's something about venison and wild mushrooms that works so well together. Have a go at this and you'll know what I mean." J. Oliver "Cook the rice according to the package instructions until it's just undercooked and drain in a colander. Put the rice back into the pan, cover with aluminum foil and leave to one side to steam~this will give you incredibly light and fluffy rice." "Heat a large frying pan on a medium heat and pour in a glug of extra virgin olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook for about 10 minutes until softened and golden. Remove from the heat and spoon the onions and garlic out of the pan onto a plate. Keep to one side." "Season the meat well with salt, pepper and the paprika. Rub and massage these flavorings into the meat. Place the frying pan back on a high heat and pour in some more olive oil.Add the mushrooms and fry for a few more minutes until they start to brown.Then add the meat and fry for a minute or two before adding the parsley stalks ( you can do this in two pans or in batches if your pan is not big enough) and the cooked onion and garlic. Toss and add the butter and brandy." "You don't have to light the hot brandy, but flaming does give an interesting flavor so I always like to do this. Once the flames die down, or after a couple of minutes of simmering, stir in the lemon zest and all but 1 tablespoon of the creme fraiche and season to taste. Continue simmering for a few minutes. Any longer than this and the meat will toughen up~it doesn't need long, as it's been cut up so small." "Serve your fluffy rice on one big plate and your stroganoff on another. Simply spoon the remaining creme fraiche over the stroganoff, then sprinkle over the sliced gherkins* and the parsley leaves. Eat at once!"

*My husband and I almost did NOT add the sliced pickles. However, I am learning from following the recipes as precisely as possible that things I would have normally ignored because they seem yucky to me might not be as yucky as I imagined and here Jamie Oliver is RIGHT! We did add the gherkins ( pickles) and were very, very pleasantly surprised. Be sure you add pickles to this dish whether you use venison or beef. You'll be glad you did!The lemon zest also contributed to the taste experience, for the better. My husband did a wonderful job of preparing this dish following Jamie Oliver's recipe and if you are fortunate to have a bit of venison or beef this is well worth your time. I am giving you an A+ Jamie and Jim! Jamie well-named this dish " for two lucky people", and WE are!

Spot on A Great New Cook Book and Cooks

This is my birthday present from my daughter and her family and I love, love, love it! I thoroughly enjoy Jamie Oliver's cooking show on the Food Network, but as it is now on very early in the morning I do not get a chance to see it. Our daughter's family DVR's it and we watch it together at a more ( to my way of thinking ) reasonable hour. Even better, I usually have a grandchild or two in my lap as we watch Jamie..oh joy! My husband is the "foodie" in the family and I thoroughly enjoy doing the table setting,being the go-for, and clean-up help when he prepares delicious meals , quite often, for friends and family. After all, my reward is that I get to eat fine food and drink fine wine and visit with people we love. Such a small price ...but I digress. My daughter asked what I wanted for my birthday and I suggested maybe a DVD of Jamie Oliver, not realizing he had a cookbook published. What a cookbook! It surpasses his show. It shows pictures of his gardens, him hunting, cooking outdoors, and much more...all done very practically too. As the wife of a hunter, it is refreshing to have a healthy view of such a much-maligned endeavor. Well prepared game of any sort is a rare thing now-a-days. I cannot say enough in favor of this cook book, and I will be reading it from cover to cover...and I have only read one other cookbook that way...might write about it later. All this to say that my husband suggested I cook through this book and blog about it like the movie "Julie, Julia". Nope, not going to do that, but I have decided I will blog every Friday starting next week about recipes from Jamie's book, and cook my way through it. Jamie's book is orderd seasonally and I will prepare his recipes accordingly. I will start with Autumn recipes and hopefully my husband will give me a LOT of help and we will have opportunities to share these meals with friends and family . I have been very, very busy preserving the harvest and bounty of the garden my husband so lovingly prepared, planted and tended. All he asks is that I do not let the fruit and vegetables go to waste. Until this year , my poor husband's labors have oft been wasted or ended up as chicken food because I am at the fairs from mid- August til the end of September and when home am too exhausted to do much canning, freezing, etc. Then I am ashamed for the waste and sad for my husband's hard work for naught. No more! I have canned pickles, jams, and tomorrow will can Tomato Jam, a recipe I found on this wonderful blog: One Perfect Bite* ( click here). I am excited about trying this jam out on broiled French Bread with a dollop of goat cheese on top. Another book my daughter and her family have ordered for me is by Nigella Lawson*( click here). I have seen a few of her shows ( Nigella Bites) on the Food Network, but she, too, is now on way too early for me. There is just something so pleasant about a woman who loves to cook AND eat too! I watched her prepare a few egg dishes awhile ago and thought I could get excited about cooking like that. Can't wait for my new cook book by her! Meanwhile, because I have been busy canning produce I have been making easy breezy dinners. That is O.K. with my husband because he has been coming home from work and straight-way working on finishing his new Honey house / pump house. It is looking good and we have been needing a new pump-house and water pump for a long time. It has room for all my husbands' bee-keeping equipment, and also has been prepared for extracting and storing honey. Yay! Dinner tonight was sliced ripe tomatoes, with baked chicken, toast and FETA PEPPER DIP , thanks to Noble Pig *( click here)! It is good, try it, you'll like it! "Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labors in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward." Ecclesiastes 5:18

Spot of Contentment

~Today was one of those Sundays I long for when life gets too hectic, and the problems of this world seem too much to bear. A quiet respite, and not a bad way to spend most days.... ~It rained outside and inside I had a fire in the wood stove and was settled on the sofa, working on a rug I am almost finished with while listening to an audio book. I looked into our picture window where darkness had settled outside, and the window appeared to be a mirror reflecting what was going on inside our home. I could see myself happily working on the rug while my Hubby was busy in the kitchen making us dinner. He LOVES to cook, so I know he was happy too. As I gazed at the reflection of this moment in our lives I realized how content I am with the life God has chosen to bless us with. I love my husband. I love the home he has built for me and I love the quiet times we are able to spend together. I quickly put the rug aside and grabbed my camera to take a picture of this moment in time.And now I share it with you. ~Here my Hubby is sharing a treat with his buddy Hawk. "Content: Rest and quietness of the mind under existing circumstances; present satisfaction; contentment." Funk & Wagnalls ~Hubby made this delicious dinner. Braised halibut steaks, fresh steamed asparagus with butter and Parmesan cheese, his own rice dish with vegetables, and Green Onion and Fontina Arancini, or rice balls with cheese in the middle, YUM! The recipe for these is in the 2/2009 issue of Sunset Magazine. "But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content." I Timothy 6: 6-8 Blessings: rainy afternoons when we can stay home, Hubby cooking, contentment in the midst of trials

Spot of Food, Wine, and Fellowship

~It is snowy and cold outside here on Cedar Pond, but the kitchen is warm and busy and smelling of good things to eat. Hubby had to postpone his 'event' before Christmas because of the weather, but he is humming away in the kitchen Friday night as he prepares the food and snacks on his menu. He has set aside some fine wines and foods to complement the wines for a wine tasting and "teaching". I wish you all could see the days and days of thought, research, and application that go into these events he LOVES to put on. ~We have endeavored to host a special night for the many friends and family we love. We still have a few more special people to have over for one of these events, and hope 2009 allows us the opportunity to have others partake of Hubby's passion. This night we have over some old friends ( as in friends of many years) to enjoy Hubby's work of love.We are so thankful to have been able to have the Andersons, Millers , and Rolands over to share our meal and fellowship. "Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read." Athenaeus ~Of course, after the meal and tasting we enjoy catching up on what is going on in each other's lives, and laughing with each other about the things that bring us joy. "Forsake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable unto him. A new friend is as new wine, when it is old thou shalt drink it with pleasure." Bible ~"God in His goodness sent the grapes, to cheer both great and small; little fools will drink too much, and great fools none at all. " AU Fortunately we do not have any little or great fools here, but dear friends through "thick and thin". ~"At the shrine of friendship never say die, let the wine of friendship never run dry." Victor Hugo

~and about the man in my life, my love..."Men are like wine, some turn into vinegar but the best improve with age." Pope John XXIII Hubby, you're only improving with age!

~"We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy." Benjamin Franklin ~Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." Proverbs 31:6-7 Blessings: abundance of food, good friends, good wine, fellowship, Hubby

Spot on New Year's Celebration 2009 !

~The centerpiece for our new year celebration. Yes, I know it looks like Christmas, but really, this is a new year's celebration Hubby has been planning and thinking about for awhile. Hubby LOVES to cook, and share his cooking with others. The centerpiece is composed of cake platters full of the goodies accumulated during the holidays. Really tasty goodies!~Hubby is doing the last minute things to prepare for the evening. He has planned a wine tasting with games and lots of food for dear friends and family.He has uncorked some very, very good wines collected on our travels and will share them .

~The game is a blind taste testing. Hubby also talks about the wines and how to score them. ~We also set aside a special lactose- free platter for our daughter who suffers terribly if there is even a whiff of dairy in the food. And all those years with us, her parents..why dairy is a staple of life, right ? Butter, cheeses, whipping cream.....even most margarines have some dairy in them. So our daughter gets Nucoa to spread on her dairy free food. ~Here are most of the evenings celebrants. The children are wandering in and out of the dining room and perching on our laps when the mood strikes. We are so thankful for the friends and family we are blessed with. These friends ( and others coming over Friday night ) have known us and put up with us for many years now. Our daughter and her husband , are family AND friends, or our friends are friends AND family! ~My husband loves so very much to share his food and wines with others. You would have to see him studying recipes, cook books, magazines and watching the Food Network, all the while making lists for some event he has planned. He is just so happy when he is bustling around the kitchen , cooking, stirring, roasting, basting.....well, anything related to food preparation for people he cares about. So as we head into a new year, I am thankful for a husband who cooks well, family and friends to share the food with, and the abundance of food we have . ~As we grow just a little older ( but not too old yet) we value even more our friends and family. Our grandchildren are quickly growing up, many of the older relatives and friends have passed on to eternity. Some were literally here today and gone tomorrow, and some just disappeared from our lives because busy-ness, distance, and other priorities parted us. We really try to remember time goes by so very quickly and special people need to know we regard them as special. So here is hoping 2009 allows us this privilege!

"The better part of one's life consists of his friendships." Abraham Lincoln

I have decided to add a list of blessings at the end of my posts, an idea I got from Sandra Bennett at Thistle Cove Farm. Blessings : family, friends, good food, great fellowship, a new year

Spot On Dinner ! Yum !!!

~~~" If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold , it would be a merrier world." J.R.R. Tolkein~~~I cannot leave Hubby alone with the Food Network. It is dangerous I tell you ! I go to bed with a spotless kitchen ( I am a night person and I clean before I go to bed ) and I wake up with the kitchen looking like an army of chefs were busy while I slept. Gosh darn-it, the Food Network strikes again. Dear Hubby was inspired by Mario, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson....Bobby Flay, anyway, Hubby has whipped up a gourmet breakfast again ! Since I am not a morning person, breakfast just doesn't appeal to me until around noon. So after many years of marriage he knows NOT to wake me to eat breakfast. Just leave me a cup of very good coffee and I will come around and enjoy leftover breakfast round noon!~~~

~~~Since I have discovered the world of blogs, and FOOD BLOGS...Hubby has had a whole new world opened up. Now we have the NOBLE PIG ( click on sidebar) to seduce my Hubby. He checks her blog in the morning. He could not wait to tell me about her new postings when I was away for a few days. He clicks on ALL her food and wine links ! And he loves to try her recipes . So, here goes another posting about food. Mind you, I am not going to post the recipe, Cathy at Noble Pig does that very well and this recipe is hers..so check out her posting titled 'A Tiny Addiction" for that.~~~

~~~Here are the assembled ingredients to the recipe. Scallops, Champagne grapes , butter, onion, lemon. Our ingredients are lacking the almonds...Hubby forgot to buy them assuming we had them already. So we tried this with toasted pine nuts...it was O.K., but almonds would have been better, and since Hubby bought lots of scallops and grapes, he will pick up some almonds on the way home from work and we will have this dish tomorrow night too ! With almonds. Hey, any excuse to eat this again works.~~~

~~~Hubby is busy preparing our dinner. He asks me to go out to the garden and pick lettuce for the salad. I pick lettuce, fling a few fat slugs I found eating my lettuce to the ducks, then come on in and wash the lettuce very well. Hubby will assemble the salad to his liking.~~~

~~~Dinner is ready. Hubby has selected his wine of choice, we cooked green beans freshly picked from our garden, and to the salad Hubby has added tomatoes and Feta cheese.~~~

~~~Is your mouth watering ? Does this make you hungry ? It should. This is tongue tingling, toe tickling, heart warming good !~~~

~~~Hubby waits for me to taste his labor of love. ~~~

~~~Yes, it is pretty good. I think we will have to try this again tomorrow night WITH almonds!!!

~~~"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity." Voltaire

He's A Keeper !

He's A Keeper !!!

Happy 35th Anniversary To Us !

Hubby and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary this weekend ! Can you believe it ?( Don't answer that) I have been married for two thirds of my life....he has put up with me that long. What can I say. He works hard, he built our house, he planted our orchards and gardens and keeps them up. He builds pens for MY animals, and rebuilds the pens the animals tear down. And not only that, No...he cooks! He cooks very well. He cooks for fun and loves to feed a lot of people. He also cleans. When our children were little he would change diapers.

We had a wonderful weekend. We walked along the waterfront in Olympia. We admired the boats, the gardens, the weather. We had a wonderful lunch at a waterside restaurant . All in all a relaxing day. Then to the movies and home for a relaxing evening.


After all these years it is comfortable, and comfortable is wonderful. To know what the other is thinking by just a glance. To share a lifetime of history together...good and bad, the tragedies and comedies of life. To know that after all this, you can trust this person as much and more than you can trust any human . 'Til death do us part'.


And best of all....he knows me and loves me anyway ! Happy anniversary Hubby !!!!

Proverbs 5 : 18 "...and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth ." Thank-you Hubby for doing just that.......................................I love you................................................................................................