Wordless Wednesday - Isla Rosario Columbia

I'm posting over here today.

Ruby Tuesday

I'm posting over here today.

Taken at the Royal Kona Luau in Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

My Recipe Box - Fajitas

This is a recipe I found at Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice. I made it with chicken a few weeks ago and it was delicious so it is going into my recipe box as my go-to fajitas recipe.

Recipe courtesy of her site.

Ingredients 

MARINADE
1 pound steak (beef shoulder, flank or skirt) or chicken or fish
sea salt and fresh black pepper
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced 

1 small jalapeno pepper, diced, seeds removed (optional)
1/2 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed between fingertips 

1 green bell pepper, sliced in 1/3" wide strips
1 red bell pepper, sliced in 1/3" wide strips
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced in 1/3" wide strips
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
olive oil, for sauteing
warm flour tortillas
fresh cilantro leaves
lime wedges


For serving (your choice):
shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream
shredded iceberg lettuce
salsa/diced tomato
guacamole/avocado
UPDATE MAY 2016 - instead of lettuce use red cabbage and apples

Instructions
The night before or morning of pierce the steak an inch apart all over with a fork on both sides; season lightly with salt and pepper. I cut the steak into pieces before I marinade. It gets more seasoning.

 In a small bowl whisk lime, oil, garlic, jalapeno, chile powder, cumin and oregano together. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Pour over steak in a shallow dish or pan or put the steak in a large Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over. Marinate at least 6 hours or longer in refrigerator.
Heat 2-3 tablespoons oil in a large skillet and add peppers and onions, season lightly with salt and pepper and cook over medium-low heat until desired tenderness. Remove to a small platter or dish.
Remove the steak from the marinade, wipe off the garlic and pat dry. Heat the skillet over high heat and cook the steak 3-4 minutes on each side depending on how well done you prefer it. You can also grill it if you prefer. Remove to a cutting board and allow to sit for at least 5 (to 10) minutes. Slice into thin strips against the grain at an angle.
Serve immediately on warm tortillas with peppers, cilantro, lime and your choice of toppings.

SLOW COOKER UPDATE MAY 2021

Slice the meat against the grain. Set the slow cooker to browning, coat the meat with corn starch and the spices, garlic, salt and pepper. Brown. Add a little beef broth. Set up HIGH for 4 hours. After 3 hours add the sliced green peppers and onions.

SHEET PAN - OVEN JULY 2021

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or coat with nonstick spray.
In a small bowl, combine spices.
Place meat, bell peppers, onion and garlic in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet. Stir in olive oil and chili powder mixture; gently toss to combine.
Place into oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until the meat is completely cooked through and the vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in cilantro and lime juice.
Serve immediately with tortillas.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila at  Book Journey. For this meme, bloggers post what they finished last week, what they're currently reading, and what they plan to start this week. 

I've been on vacation (at a conference) so I didn't do as much reading as I had anticipated.

Finished this week:

:

Synopsis over here.

I enjoyed this book some may find it too gory. It has some fantastic prose and brilliant narrative flow. The research is detailed as all his books are. A supreme crime novel and set  in England in a period that I hadn't paid any attention to when growing up. Did I love the ending, no, I hate being left hanging and drawing my own conclusions. I am ready to move onto the next book in the series however!

Started this week:

From the book jacket:

Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, growing up poor in Dublin's inner city, and living crammed into a small flat with his family on Faithful Place. But he had his sights set on a lot more. He and Rosie Daly were all ready to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, break away from factory work and poverty and their old lives. 

But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd dumped him-probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again. 

Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not. 

Getting sucked in is a lot easier than getting out again. Frank finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind. The cops working the case want him out of the way, in case loyalty to his family and community makes him a liability. Faithful Place wants him out because he's a detective now, and the Place has never liked cops. Frank just wants to find out what happened to Rosie Daly-and he's willing to do whatever it takes, to himself or anyone else, to get the job done.

2012 books read:
The Coast Road - John Brady
Still Midnight - Denise Mina
The Bulgari Connection - Fay Weldon
Good Bait - John Harvey
The Heretic's Treasure - Scott Mariani 
Dead I Well May Be - Adrian McKinty
The Devil's Elixir - Raymond Khoury 
A Darker Domain - Val McDermid
The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin 
GB84 - David Peace 
The Emperor's Tomb - Steve Berry 
Stonehenge Legacy - Sam Christer
Inquisition - Alfredo Colitto ABANDONED!

The Troubled Man - Henning Mankell

Nineteen Seventy-Four - David Peace

Blue Monday

I'm linking up over here today.

Shop in Toronto

Mellow Yellow Monday

I'm posting over here today and these are the rules:
I chose yellow for this photo meme because it's my favourite colour and I think the world is always better with a splash of yellow ... whether it's in your home or in nature.

The rules are pretty simple:
1. Every Monday post a photo with a little or a lot of yellow.
2. Please only post photos you have authority to use.
3. Include a Mellow Yellow Badge or a link to this blog in your post.
4. Leave the link to your Mellow Yellow post below on Mr. Linky.
5. Visit other blogs listed ... comment & enjoy!

When to Post:
Mister Linky will be available every Sunday at 10:00 pm EST and will remain open until Wednesday.




Taken on Wangfujing street in Beijing China.

Macro Monday

Macro Monday is hosted by Lisa at  Lisa's Chaos.
Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back here and sign MckLinky.  
Taken at the Honolulu Zoo - he's drooling!

Pink Saturday

I'm linking up over here today.

Taken at the San Francisco Hotel in Granada Nicaragua.

Friday Favorite Finds - Recipes

Please link up to a post containing your list of recipes to try -- do not link up individual recipes please, save those for other linkys.  Be sure to leave a link back here to Finding Joy in my Kitchen.

Marinated steak fajitas from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice
P.S. I tried this recipe for chicken fajitas and it rocked! This will be going into My Recipe Box!!


Raspberry and dark chocolate cheesecake from Kevin's Closet Cooking. Kevin was one of the first food blogs I found and he's from Toronto. His recipes are always great and easy to make.

Black bean brownies from The Leftover Queen

Lemon ricotta blueberry biscuits

Skywatch Friday

I'm linking up over here today!

The Arena, in Verona, Italy is an enormous, spectacular Roman amphitheatre, crumbling on the outside but still functioning today. It was erected in the 1st Century AD in an elliptical shape, and is the world's third-largest amphitheatre to survive from antiquity. Much of the outer ring was damaged during the earthquake of 1117 but the inner part is still intact and is used for opera performances in the summer.

Verona is best known as the home of Romeo and Juliet.


All photography on Junk Boat Travels are under copyright. If you would like to use any of my photographs please contact me first.

My Recipe Box - Roasted Cauliflower

Image source


This has become my latest way to cook cauliflower. 

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

INGREDIENTS

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely minced
• Lemon juice from half a lemon
• Olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Parmesan cheese

METHOD

1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut cauliflower into florets and put in a single layer in an oven-proof baking dish. Toss in the garlic. Sprinkle lemon juice over cauliflower and drizzle each piece with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If the oven hasn't reached 400°F yet, set aside until it has.

2 Place casserole in the hot oven, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown. Test with a fork for desired doneness. Fork tines should be able to easily pierce the cauliflower. Remove from oven and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

Yield: Serves 4.

Simply Recipes http://simplyrecipes.com

Wordless Wednesday - Paris France

I'm posting over here today.

Cancun

Our flight was at  6:30am and our limo we ordered did not arrive (another story) so I called a taxi. Arrived on Sunday aboard Air Transat. Anyone who knows me knows I don't "do" charters or packages. However, other than the teeny tiny seats and aisles, once you were settled it was a good flight. They offer a glass of sparkling wine and then serve a hot breakfast of awful airplane food.

Once we cleared Mexican immigration and  customs we found our driver and were on the road to our hotel Marriott Casa Magna. We were here by 11:15am as we had gained an hour.
We checked in but our room wouldn't be ready until 2pm. We went to lunch at Champions and then got our room.

Then it was stroll along the beautiful, pristine white sand and a dip of our toes into this magnificent blue water. I have always said that Cancun has the most gorgeous beaches.

Random photos in no order.

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