Cooking with The Pioneer Woman: Weekly Update

Thanks to a little dinner party, I have enough for a weekly update!

Huevos Hyacinth

I went into these knowing these weren’t really my thing but I figured Scott and Emma, whose taste buds tend to match up, would dig them.  And they did.  Scott I think would have preferred the tomatoes versus the picante sauce I used and I wish I would have had a different cheese to use than just sharp but it worked.

Maple Pecan Scones

I have been so anxious to make these but I kept holding off because Mom had pecans for me.  However, I kept forgetting to get them.  Finally, months later I took a bag full of them to crack open and made these scones Saturday.  Before we get to that can we get to the whole cracking pecans thing?  Because no one told me how to open them.  I figured it was like the little peanuts at restaurants.  Give them little mush and they’d fall right out.  Well…as you know, you can’t do that with a pecan.  So then what do I assume?  Since I don’t have a nutcracker I’ll just go get Scott’s hammer!  I wish I would have taken a picture of the disaster THAT made.  The worse part is the girls decided they liked them so they kept eating whatever little bits I was able to salvage.  I had a certified MESS.  Only later did I find out I could let them soak and they’d come right out.  OH WELL. I got my 1/4 cup of nuts and made the darn scones. 

But the work was so worth it because the bits of pecans in the scones is my absolute favorite part of them.  And I think scones get a bad rap for being dry but I found with the icing they melted in my mouth.  YUMMY!  The girls devoured them with the icing but no one else seemed too interested.  That makes EIGHT scones for me to eat!  I’ve been having one for breakfast every morning.   When I complain about not losing weight, please point me back to this post, please.

Braised Beef Brisket

I was scared to death of the brisket.  First off, I had no idea what to buy at the store.  Only when PW posted about the Passover Brisket and mentioned NOT buying the corned beef brisket did I have a clue.  Second, I’d heard that brisket was tough.  Well, I think brisket has a bad rap in these parts (I understand brisket to be big in Texas) because I thoroughly enjoyed the brisket.  It fell apart with a fork and had I not known, I’d simply thought it was a chuck roast someone had cooked.  I do have to say it’s A LOT of preparation.  Not a lot of work because really, it doesn’t get easier but you have to marinate it for 24 hours, and well, I just don’t think that far ahead most of the time!  Plus, it wasn’t the cheapest thing.  I think I paid $16 for a 7 lb piece.  However, it could have easily fed 8-10 people.  So, I guess what I’m saying is this is best when you’re planning ahead for a lot of people to come over.

Creamy Rosemary Potatoes

Oh boy, I could create a whole post on step 2 – use a mandoline to slice the potatoes.  Do you know how many many people do not own a mandoline?  And do you know that you have to be organized enough to keep around an extra attachment for your food processor for it to slice?  And did you know that the $19.99 mandoline at WalMart really isn’t worth the time and money?  Yeah, well now you do.  So just plan on using your sharpest knife in the drawer to slice you a few potatoes.  You don’t even have to peel them!

OK, so the sauce.  MMMmmm, the sauce.  Jill and I were licking the skillet of the sauce. I was SO looking forward to the potatoes.  But I was a little let down.  I’m not sure if I had too many potatoes or let it cook too long or WHAT.  But those were not the creamy potatoes I had hoped for.  The taste was great and the potatoes were nice and soft and but where’s the cream??

Olive Cheese Bread

I do not like olives.  Scott likes olives.  Jake doesn’t like olives.  Jill likes olives.  It was kind of a toss up.  We made it.  If you like olives, make this.  If you do not like olives, don’t make this.  The End.

Sloppy Joes

These are yummy.  Make them.  The kids loved how sloppy they were and ate every single bite of their sandwiches.  I ate every single bite of both my sandwiches  *cough* #theyweresmallsandwiches

 

PS.  My cookbook is now officially falling apart.

PPS. Best I can count, I’ve made 39 of her recipes and have 21 more to go.  Why?  I don’t know.  Why not?