One more list item down!

As soon as I mark one thing off the list, I add another 3... in my mind, at least.


On our trip to South Carolina, Brad and I spent a lot of time talking about things that we want to do and try and love and all that. You know, we didn't have kids to yell at or to referee for... we had to find SOMETHING to talk about. Naturally, I thought of my list. :)


I turn 30 in a little over a month. I have spent about six months trying to mark things off my list... only to add more when I turn 30. So, be prepared. A revision is in order. I know, you are all wondering, "What in the world could she possibly add to her list? There's too much on there already..." There's more. Dream big...


Until then, I am enjoying my last few weeks in my twenties. I am determined to make the most of them so that I can say, "I did that when I was in my twenties." :) I guess it isn't a surprise or a huge accomplishment that I have marked this next one off my list, even though this is one of those items that I will have to repeat every year. You know, when I made the list, I was thinking long-term and wanted to have items that I continued to mark off every year. This is one of those. But, it still counts as being marked off... just only for this year. Can you tell that I worry about these things? It actually disturbs me in the strangest ways. I really feel this need to approve this by all of you readers. :)


Anyway... I have now accomplished my ten new recipes for the year. And, as I mentioned before, I could have easily made it "Complete 10 new recipes from the Pioneer Woman and become completely obsessed with her, to the extent that I need a category on my blog called 'My obsessions with the Pioneer Woman.'"


I completed my list item with one of my favorite recipes yet... the stuffed shells. And, as usual, the Pioneer Woman did not disappoint. This recipe was incredible. I love pasta. I love cheese. I love pasta stuffed with cheese and served with garlic bread. It was great. So, if you love these things, you need to try this recipe, too.


And, here are my ten recipes for this year, ordered in my most favorite to least favorite:


PW's Stuffed Shells
PW's Shrimp Pasta
PW's Friend's Herb Crusted Whole Chicken
PW's Meat Loaf

PW's Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich

Floyd the Food Guy's Pork Tenderloin

PW's Fettuccine Alfredo

PW's Crispy Yogurt Chicken
PW's Au Gratin Potatoes
PW's Chicken Stir Fry


And, since my husband and kids and family and friends and virtually every stranger I meet are all tired of hearing about my obsession with the Pioneer Woman, please send me some new recipes and/or blogging cooks so that I can add a variety for next year. Even though I am quite certain no one can meet up to the standard set by Pioneer Woman, I am open-minded. :) And, don't worry. I am not planning to stop blogging about her fabulous recipes... that is until she sends me a "cease and desist order" because I keep blogging about her. She is probably working with an attorney as we speak. Seriously, should I be worried? I hadn't really thought about how much I blog about her. She might really not like it. At all. Maybe I should calm down about the Pioneer Woman for a bit. 


Oh, but what in the world would I cook then? :) 

Good stuff...

Focusing a little on the list... 


I think I should change one of my items. Instead of trying 10 new recipes each year, I think I should have said, "Become obsessed with the Pioneer Woman by stalking her blog, website, and recipes, and deciding that the only new things I will cook have to come from her." 


That's what it seems like anyway... because I love this woman. I totally and utterly think she is the most fantabulous cook ever. Move over Paula Dean and Rachel Ray. I'm telling you... the Pioneer Woman can cook better than anyone. Period. 


So, ladies... if you are single and looking for a way to make a man fall in love with you, or if you are married and want your husband to think you are the bee's knees, you simply must cook some of her food. Trust me... it will work. I think my husband would leave me in about .2 seconds if he met Pioneer Woman. 


I am sure that if she saw my obsessive blogs about her cooking, she would think I'm insane. And that I'm someone she should probably put on a list of potential stalkers. Honestly, I would probably be slightly worried if someone posted such obsessions about me (but please feel free to go ahead because I would absolutely feel incredibly special!). :) I just can't help it. I sincerely and honestly love her recipes. Brad is loving them, too. I think he was quite impressed to find out that the Pioneer Woman doesn't look like a half-ton cow. :) I think it gave him hope that I can actually cook this wonderful deliciousness and not become morbidly obese. 


Anyway... one of my new favorites involves red meat and bacon. Yes... two of the most wonderful things in the world, combined into one dish. Pioneer Woman's meat loaf was incredible. Simply incredible. I can't even say anything else about it. It's just good stuff. If you are looking for a recipe for meat loaf, try this one. It's relatively simple and just downright good. When I turn 30 and have my heart attack, please remind me of how wonderful I thought it was to eat this stuff. I know I will pay for it one day, but not today. :) 


In the words of one of my favorite little people (he loves Yo Gabba Gabba): Try it.... you'll like it. Try it... you'll like it. Meat loaf in your tummy, so yummy, so yummy. :) Sorry, I just couldn't resist it. If I ever say "Try it" about anything, this song automatically pops into my head. Thanks a ton, Joseph. 

More Cooking!

What to write next? 


Well, I started a blog post about the circus a few days ago, but I have yet to finish it. That involves actually editing and saving photos and posting them on my blog. That just involves work. :) 


Instead, I will just tell you about something else. 


You might or might not have read that I love food. You know, that I was slightly devastated about not eating for a month or so while I waited for my gallbladder to be removed. I might have mentioned how hungry I was then. I mentioned it at least once, I think. :) 


Naturally, as soon as I was well enough, the first thing I wanted to do was eat. Enter my newest obsession - The Pioneer Woman. Seriously, I am obsessed. I honestly check her blog every morning, just like I brush my teeth. I just can't get enough of her recipes. I have never found a cookbook that I actually loved more than a couple of recipes in, but I can't get enough of the recipes she posts. I swear, I think she's my food soul mate, if one exists. I'm seriously on my way to becoming a stalker. :) 


Anyway... before I get any more dramatic about this... I have tried four more recipes (working toward that goal of 10 new recipes each year - I think I'm going to blow that out of the water). They are all fabulous. All three of them. And, they are all from the Pioneer Woman, of course. 


Seriously, try them... you'll see why I'm so obsessed. If anyone who buys Christmas gifts for me is reading, I want her cookbook for Christmas. Mom? Are you reading? :) 


So, here are the links to the three that I most recently tried. 


I have never cooked a whole chicken. I was eating lots of chicken with the whole gallbladder problem. And I was sick of eating it grilled. I decided to search out a recipe for something else and found this amongst the recipes for chicken on PW's website. It's a herb roasted chicken and it is delicious. I used lemon, onion, and garlic in the chicken and added garlic to the rub on the outside. It was so good and my house smelled wonderful for hours. The kids loved it, too, which is even better, since I feel like a short-order cook with them most of the time. 


Another chicken one that I found after my surgery. I was ready to eat, but easing back into things. And, I was not sure about this one... the Crispy Yogurt Chicken. But, I really needed something to try that was different and I was still a little worried about cooking something fried or extremely greasy. I wasn't too worried about the yogurt portion, mainly because I thought I would just pick at the breading and eat the chicken. It was very good. I think it needed a little more garlic, but that is an easy adjustment.


As a side for the crispy yogurt chicken, I prepared Au Gratin Potatoes.The doctor told me to try out some different things and I was wanting cheese. This just made sense for my taste buds. It was good... Mmm... I loved it. But, I didn't get a second opinion from anyone else. The kids refused to try it and Brad didn't eat any of it because he worked late. So, if you don't like it, you can blame me and my starvation for it. :) 


And, last but most certainly not least, my favorite of these four by far, the perfect combination of two of my absolute favorite foods - pasta and shrimp. We had this tonight and I can still smell how good it smelled in the house. It was so delicious that I really felt like I could cook... and cook really well. I was thinking about Eat, Pray, Love the whole time and imagining that I was actually sitting in Italy as opposed to my dining room with three chairs instead of four because we broke one. I'm cooking this one on Monday when friends come over, so I hope they love it as much as I did. I think I could eat this at least once a week. 

More Food

On Saturday, Brad watched the kids for me so that I could run out and pick up a few things at one of my favorite stores, Kohl's, for our vacation to the beach (only 4 days until we leave!!!). It took me longer than I anticipated. So, I wasn't really sure if it would be a good idea for me to try a new recipe on Saturday evening. We were in a hurry to get to the ball park for our t-ball game, but I had been craving the fettucine alfredo on Pioneer Woman's website ever since I'd seen it. And, I had been thinking that the pork tenderloin that I went on and on about last week would be an ideal combination for the pasta.

Yum. Does that say it? Actually, the cheese was a little clumpy, but I think that was my fault. I didn't really "sift" it (I know that's not the right word, but I can't think of what would be). So, when I put the cheese in, it was already clumped together in spots, which just made it harder to melt. So... note to self (and for anyone who might try it), make sure the cheese isn't clumped prior to cooking. Other than that, it was wonderful. And, I was right about the pork tenderloin (imagine that!). It was the perfect item to go with the pasta meal. It will be a future meal in our house. And... to top it off... it was really relatively easy. I think once I cook it a few times, I could have it down so that I could cook it without really reading the recipe... and that's saying something. :)

So... for my list... I'm up to four new recipes that I have added to my "collection." In case you wanted the links to them, here they are:

Fettucine Alfredo
Chicken Stir Fry
Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich (Steak - DELICIOUS)
Pork Tenderloin

Do you think Pioneer Woman would think I'm strange for being obsessed with her cooking? :) I'm starting to feel like I'm going to have a Julie & Julia moment with her. lol.

Cooking... GOOD food. :)

Another one of my list items is to learn at least 10 new recipes each year. This is probably my favorite list item yet. :) Well, I'm probably exaggerating, but... for those of you who know me, you know how much I LOVE to eat. And you probably (unfortunately) know that I'm a "limited" cook. That is a nice way of saying that I can cook a few meals, but not much else, unless it comes in a box, can, or the frozen food section. Can you say preservatives? :) I can... and unfortunately, my kids love them. Not something I'm proud of, but something I absolutely admit to. 


I actually CAN cook if someone shows me how or if I get a good recipe with good directions. Not directions like my grandmother always gave me when I first got married. You know, she'd say, "Just mix in some sugar and stir it until it gets hot, add some water... you know until it gets to the right consistency." I would always ask her how much or what was the right consistency and she'd tell me she just knew. lol. So, how do you follow that? I tried to make her fudge once and she forgot to tell me about a critical step, leaving me with hardened chocolate and peanut butter mixture that was so hot and hardening so fast that it nearly broke the motor on my electric mixer. It was probably the funniest cooking experience of my life. Ah... yes, how I miss my grandmother when I cook. Sometimes I feel like she's standing over me watching while I screw up yet another recipe... laughing because she knows that I forgot just one little thing. :) 


But, I digress...  I just don't have a lot of recipes that I want to cook. Most cookbooks are filled with fancy shmancy recipes with ingredients I can't find or don't even know where to begin to look for or how to shop for (you know, what is a good lamb chop supposed to look like - and could I really eat a lamb? Probably not.). I'm from the country and I like meat and potatoes. I like some other things, too, like pastas, stir fry, and anything mexican. Call me uneducated in the ways of cooking classy, restaurant-style meals... and I'll agree. But I know how to fix some great fresh green beans with bacon grease... the kind that will make you die from a heart attack at the age of 35, but will make every single day of summer worth living for. :) Primarily and most importantly to me, I guess, is that I like red meat. Beef. It's what's for dinner. Or what I want for dinner on most nights. Also, heart attack waiting to happen... but I'm running now, remember? :)


So... when my best friend got me totally addicted to this thing called Bloglines and sent me a dozen or so of her favorite blogs, it was easy for me to see that one of the things on my list that I would be focusing on next would be food. My goal in putting this item on my list is to build up a collection of recipes that I really love to eat... expanding what we eat so that I can actually go more than a week without cooking spaghetti or lasagna. :)  Two blogs in particular have started changing my life. Okay, I'll admit to being a little dramatic there. But, still... these are by far the best recipes ever. 


The Pioneer Woman and Once A Month Mom have the best recipes I have found in at least 7 years of searching (oddly enough the length of time I've been married). :) And while I have tried four new recipes, three of them are completely fabulous. One of them was OK, but not enough for me to add to my collection of recipes that I want to fix regularly. I won't say which one so that I don't hurt any feelings here. 


I would not even begin to post photos of my cooking of these meals. These people are fabulous at doing that and I'm sure that you would all crack up at the amount of Dixie plates that are used in our home regularly, and especially when I'm cooking things that need to be separated into bowls and sections. lol. I also need new knives and there's almost always a toy or two on the counter while I'm cooking. So... there. You can just follow these fabulous instructions. Plus, I don't see how it doesn't take them like a year to cook a meal. My hands are always covered in whatever I'm cooking... too much to actually pick up my camera, as small as it is, get it focused and take a picture.

Anyway...

So, the first recipe that I tried was from Once A Month Mom. It is a recipe for pork tenderloin. FABULOUS. I actually think that it came from Floyd the Food Guy, but I found it through Once A Month Mom. When I cooked this, I wasn't sure what to expect. I haven't had much luck in the past with recipes for pork tenderloin. After eating it at a Christmas party a couple of years ago, I was bound and determined to find a recipe for it that involved cranberry sauce. Epic fail. So... I was just really happy to find a new way to fix pork... the other white meat. :) It was so good that I kept munching on it while I was fixing veggies. I really didn't even want any on my plate by the time it came around to actually sitting down. I had already had about 6 pieces (they were small). The next time I cook it (probably this coming weekend) I am going to also fix fettucine alfredo. It's on Pioneer Woman's site, so if it is as good as it looks, I'll post more about it later. :)

The second recipe I tried last night. Oh. My. Gosh. Have any of you eaten at Steak Escape in Charleston, West Virginia? It's a chain, so it doesn't have to be that one. Well... it was one of my favorite places to eat when we lived there. And our steakery at the mall here is good. But just not quite as good for some reason. When I saw this recipe on the Pioneer Woman's website (I'm tired of adding links, so you know you can go to the one above if you want to go to her home page!), I thought of two things - Steak Escape and how much I would impress my hot hubby who loves steak sandwiches. :) This steak sandwich was, ah-hem, better than the ones I have eaten at either steakery. Maybe I was just starving by the time I got it all ready, but it was so delicious. Bailey even loved it. I didn't think she'd even try a bite because of the onions and the strong smell of spices, but she does love her steak (like mother, like daughter... or like both of us... we love red meat). I couldn't help but laugh at how much Bailey went on and on about it. She kept telling me how awesome it was... how I am the most incredible cook ever... and how we should have this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, everyday. :) So... there. It's good. :) Next time, I'm adding mushrooms to the onions though. We love mushrooms and it would be even more perfect with them. 

Okay... I know I'm being long-winded here tonight. :) I told you... I'm passionate about my food now. :)

The last recipe was tonight. I love stir fry and this recipe hit the mark. I've struggled to find the right combination of soy sauces and peanut oil and sesame oil, etc. etc. to make a sauce that I like for stir fry. And, it wasn't exactly perfect, but it was definitely and by far the closest I have ever been. I think it helped that I actually cut up the veggies and added the spices instead of depending on the frozen veggies and mixing it all in at one time. So... success here. Of course, the kids wouldn't even try it and Brad liked it. Although, I'm pretty sure it paled in comparison to the success of the steak sandwich (now forever referred to as Marlboro Man's Sandwich because of her recipe title). I am not sure Brad could pull off being called Marlboro Man, what with his constant attachment to his phone and computer... but for some reason, Computer Nerd's Sandwich doesn't have the same ring to it. :) Sorry honey, but I just couldn't resist. I love my nerd more than anything (except my kids and probably food).