Adventures in Cooking

Have I mentioned how much I love Pioneer Woman lately?  Oh, okay.  Sorry. 

Moving on......

I have some delicious recipes to share today.  They are from a great woman who I love and adore.  You may have heard of her....Pioneer Woman.  Sorry, I couldn't help myself.  If it weren't for PW, I don't know that I would be as into cooking as I have been the past couple of years.  And while her recipes aren't always the healthiest, they are always delicious.

First up, Chicken Pot Pie.

The recipe can't be found online, so here ya go.

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie
from The Pioneer Woman Cooks (her first cookbook)

3 celery stalks
3 medium carrots, peeled
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 large yellow onion (I hate onions so only used about half this amount...maybe less)
4 tbsp butter
2 cups chicken, cooked, diced or shredded (I used only breasts, but PW says to use both white and dark)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/4 cup white wine (optional)-I did not use this
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp kosher salt
black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400.

Begin by finely dicing the fresh vegetables, celery, carrots and onions. Melt the butter in a large pot or dutch oven. Add the onion, carrots, celery and peas. Saute until the vegetables start to soften, a few minutes. Add the chicken and stir to combine. Sprinkle the flour evenly over the vegetables and chicken and stir to combine. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring gently.

Pour in the chicken broth, stirring constantly. Stir in the bouillon cube and wine, if using. The flour will combine with the chicken to create a delicious gravy. Pour in the cream and stir. Allow mixture to cook over low heat, thickening gradually, about 4 minutes. Season with the thyme, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed. Be sure it's adequately salted!

Pour the chicken mixture into a deep pie pan. (I used an nine by nine casserole pan because I knew my pie pans were not deep enough).  
Roll out the crust so that it's one inch larger than the pan.  Place the crust on top of the chicken mixture and cut small slits in the top.  Press the crust gently into the sides of the dish to seal.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling in bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

A note on the crust...I used the recipe from the newest PW cookbook called, Pam's Pie Crust.  If you want it, go get the book for crying out loud!  Otherwise, I think any crust recipe would work.  Also, some of you may want to use crust on the bottom and top.  I didn't because I follow recipes pretty much exactly how they are written (except for onions...yuck) and also because I didn't think I would like crust.  Of course the crust I used was delicious, but given that I know how much butter was in it, I still think I would only do it on top.

This pot pie was A-MAZ-ING.  Jason and I were in heaven.  The girls...eh, they were okay with it.  It was seriously so, so, so good.  And for the record, up until the day I made this, I would have said that I hated pot pie.  Now I love it.

Next,  Strawberry Shortcake Cake.

picture from PW

I was a tad disappointed in the cake, but mainly it was my fault.  For starters, I think I may have mixed my cake batter too long, making my cake pretty dense.  My brother who went to culinary school also suggested I use some cake flour instead of regular flour in the recipe.  Second, my frosting didn't turn out "light and fluffy" as the recipe suggested it would.  My cookbook doesn't show the picture or suggest using the whisk attachment on the mixer which I am guessing would have made a major difference.  I feel like such a dork for not thinking of that when I was making it.  Oh, and I think next time I will use double the amount of strawberries!

Despite all of that my father in law still said it was the best strawberry cake he had ever had, so I guess my work was worth it!  It was pretty tasty despite the problems I mentioned, and I think it was waaaay better the second day when all of the strawberry juice had soaked down a little into the cake.  I will for sure make this again.

There you go, two delicious recipes you should make very soon, if not today.  Especially the cake since strawberries are in season!  And, if you don't have PW's cookbooks, I would suggest you go get them!  You won't regret it!

Adventures in Cooking

Hello, Monday!  I can't believe how fast this weekend went by!  Saturday was a busy day for me with the OSU Scrub Run, three Mary Kay classes, and church.  Sunday was a lazy day, and now it is Monday again.  The one thing we did do yesterday was cook dinner.  Yummy, yummy dinner.  From PW (of course).  So, I thought I would share.

White Chicken Enchiladas

I must tell you, however, that the link to these on her blog are not exactly how they appear in the cookbook.  So, maybe you should just go buy the darn cookbook.  You will not regret it.  Okay, so maybe your waistline will regret it, but your taste buds won't. 

These enchiladas were so good.  Not too difficult to make, but there are lots of steps involved so it was pretty time consuming.  It was totally worth it.  You must try these, but for your sanity, try them on a day when you have lots of time to be in the kitchen.  For us, that was yesterday.

Now since I don't want to just leave you with one new recipe, I will also share something I recently made for the second time, Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie. (this link takes you to another blog with the recipe.....I am too lazy to type it out!)

I am in agreement with that blog on how good this is.  And it is easy to make if you have chicken already prepared.  We had bought a rotisserie chicken the day before and had leftovers that I used to make my Pie.  This was a great meal for us because we always have leftover chicken and because I almost always have the rest of the ingredients on hand.  The girls loved it and so did Jason!

Lastly, a Mexican Rice that will go great with both.  Also a PW recipe as you will see if you click the link!

This rice was yummy in terms of flavor, but mine was not cooked enough.  I think I needed more broth.  Her recipe calls for equal amounts of broth and rice and I have found that I almost always need close to twice as much liquid as rice when I am cooking with long grain rice.  I will try making this again because the rice that was done was delicious!

What are you making that is yummy?  Have a recipe that I should try?

Friday Five-My date with PW

Last night I met PW (obviously since I am in a picture with her).  She was as nice as I imagined she would be and as expected about 1000+ other ladies in Tulsa also feel that they should be besties with her.  So today's Friday Five is all about my date with the wonderful Ree Drummond.  And just so you know...her and I really would get along fabulously (both OSU fans, both love her cooking, she homeschools and I am thinking of homeschool, the list could go on and on).  So here goes, five things to know before a PW book signing.


1.  When you go to a Pioneer Woman book signing be prepared to wait a very, very, very, very long time.  PW takes time to talk to everyone who is there and is happy to take a picture (or two) together, and sign your book (or books in many cases).  If there are babies involved it will take even longer as PW held lots of babies. 

2.  If you are lucky enough to be at an event where they are serving food from her recent cookbook you must try the Pots de Creme.  Pronounced Po de Krehm.  If they don't have any, you should go home and make some.

3.  Do not practice over and over what you are going to say to PW, because then when you actually do say it, you sound like a MAJOR dork.  At least that is what I have heard.

4.  Take a friend with you.  See #1.  It would have been nice to have someone to chat with during the three hours I was there.

5.  If you are standing less than six feet away from Marlboro Man try not to stare too much.  I was for reals that close to the MM himself and didn't even realize it.  Once I did, I noticed I kept looking at him.  There is something about a good looking cowboy in boots, starched shirt and cowboy hat.  Speaking of cowboys, I also got Cowboy Josh to sign my book!  Don't know who MM and Cowboy Josh are?  Here are a couple of pics.

Cowboy Josh

Marlboro Man

I had a great time and am glad I waited the three hours to get my books signed.  I took both cookbooks and Isabelle's Charlie the Ranch Dog book.  My obsession continues!

Adventures in Cooking

I think I may have mentioned the new Pioneer Woman cookbook and how excited I was to get started cooking my way through her delicious recipes a few days ago.  Well, we have already had three of her recipes and I am excited to tell you about them.

First up, Lemon Blueberry Pancakes.

To be honest, Jason made these bad boys, not me.  I just ate them.  They were so yummy.  Jason made them exactly according to the recipe and for some reason ours turned out much thinner than they appear in the picture.  They were still very good.  Jason did say that they were quite a lot of work for just pancakes and that he preferred her sour cream pancakes better.

Next, Knock You Naked Brownies.

You must make these.  Like now.  Seriously.  Go to the store, buy the stuff, and make them.  Today.  They are delicious. 

Easy to make.  Easy to eat.  I would only change a couple of things if I made them again.  First, being that I would use slightly less caramel.  Second, I would use more chocolate chips.  But, if you are a mega caramel lover and don't want extra chocolate, don't listen to me.  I just found that the bags of caramel at the store contain 50 not 60 (like the recipe calls for) caramels and I don't think it would have made that big of a deal to have 10 less.

Lastly, BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas.

We had these last night for dinner and I was in love.  The kids, not so much.  Jason liked them, but I don't think he was in love like I was.  I did leave out the jalapenos because we were making them for the girls also, but who knows, maybe next time I will add them in and see what I think.  I normally do not like anything quite that spicy, but I would be willing to try.  I think that perhaps this meal would be better to make after we have had bbq chicken for dinner and use leftover chicken rather than grilling a chicken breast just for these quesadillas.  All that to say, I loved them and would eat them over and over again.

I love PW and I love the new cookbook.  In the next couple of weeks I will be making her sloppy joes, beef and bean burritos, and her mexican rice.  Can't wait!

ps. all photos are pw's from her website.  if you click on them you should go right to the recipe!

Oh, March

I must tell you that I have hated this winter.  We have had no snow.  Okay, we have had some snow.  But not a day where it really snowed.  You know, the kind of snow that shuts down schools and roads and prevents people from getting out and about.  The kind of snow that keeps J home from work and we are forced to stay inside and have a family day.  I wanted just one of those snows.  I wanted to take pictures of the girls playing and making a snowman all bundled up in cute winter gear.  But, no.  No snow.

And now it is almost March and my hopes of the BIG ONE are pretty much destroyed.

But...........

Something exciting is happening in March.  March 13th to be exact.  It isn't one of the weddings I am attending, it isn't Molly's birthday or my sister's marathon.  Nope, none of that fun stuff I mentioned on Friday.

March 13th is the day I will be driving to the bookstore to grab my copy of this....

I am so excited I can hardly stand it.  And, to make it even better I am thinkin' I may head on over to her Tulsa book signing event to meet her in person!

If you haven't got her first cookbook, you should go get it.  Now.  For reals.  It is amazing.  A few of my fav's from that book....Comfort Meatballs, Enchiladas, Cinnamon Rolls, Blackberry Cobbler, Mashed Potatoes, Chicken Fried Steak, and Brisket.

I can't wait!

ps.  spell check seems to be on a break...so if I have misspelled words...I am sorry!