"I am not a glutton, I am an explorer of food." - Erma Bombeck

Monday, September 20, 2010

Falling in love with a woman from Oklahoma

Recently, I found this blog called the Pioneer Woman. It’s a woman from Oklahoma who lives on a cattle ranch with her husband, four kids, and a gaggle of farm animals (a gaggle? Is there a better word?) Anyway, I found her blog through another blog I was reading where the blogger featured Pioneer Woman’s HOMEMADE cinnamon roll recipe (drool) and while I feel that is too advanced for my cooking skills right now (and my kitchen is too small) she has some other great recipes that I have started to try.


Last Friday I took my 11 year old step son grocery shopping and we cooked  Pasta alla Betsy together. (Recipe here)
I was not only surprisingly easy (an 11 year old could do it, with my help) it was amazingly tasty! So tasty in fact, that I forgot to take a picture of it! . . . It looked just like hers though . . . true story.
Last night we tried her Steak Bites (Recipe here) and man oh man were they good! I added mushroom pieces to mine though and we paired it with some sour cream and dill (purple) mashed potatoes. I saw these beauties in the grocery story over the weekend and while they were a bit pricey, I wanted to try them out.

Word to the wise, the purple potatoes were a bit starchier than a normal potato. This led me to add a bit more milk, butter, and salt than I normally would as a result.


Next we are going to try her Beer Braised Beef with Onions (I'm getting fat. Recipe here) and her Homemade Chicken and Noodles (I can't fit into my pants but I'm making this this week)


What are some of your favorite chefs/cookbooks?

PS I want her cookbook for Christmas, kay?

3 comments:

  1. I love the Pioneer Woman, and sometimes browse her recipes if I'm in need of inspiration.

    I've made cinnamon rolls from scratch a few times. When I move to TT, if you like, we can make them together some time! I'll also show you how to prep the dough the night before and let it rise in your fridge over night so it's not a 2+ hour process in the morning.

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  2. I <3 you! I will add that to my list of things Sarah must teach me (underneath hemming my own pants, and making pizza dough)

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  3. Pizza dough and cinnamon rolls are not so very different. They're both yeast doughs that are usually made w/ white flour; you just do different stuff w/ the dough when it's ready. The basics of mixing the ingredients (and how to tell when you need more/less flour than the recipe calls for), kneading (and how to tell how long to knead), rising (and how to tell when it's done rising) are the same. It takes a bit of practice but then it becomes almost intuitive. Good dough feels a certain way. Once you master that you can use the skill set for pizza, cinnamon rolls, french bread, soft pretzels, you name it. And once you know what to look for, you can play around with your ingredients, substituting different flours for flavor and texture, trying your hand at sourdough, etc. and you'll be able to gauge early on whether something is on the right track.

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