Grits for Labor Day

Hey, y'all, remember when I set out to make all the recipes in The Pioneer Woman's cookbook? Yeah, I know, that was a while ago. Still working on it, though! And now that she's working on a second cookbook, I better start hauling hiney on this project in case I plan to try the same thing with her next book!

So I used my sister's day-before-Labor-Day barbecue as an excuse to make PW's Cheese Grits. (Hence my use of "y'all" and "hiney" in the first paragraph. We're getting southern today.)

I LOVE grits - but being a Yankee, I never get to have them. Sure, I could make them at home, but I generally do not have the luxury of ordering them for brunch when we go out because they simply aren't offered around here. Seriously! I know, it's unthinkable. I remember the first time I went to an IHOP in Maryland and looked at what I figured was an identical menu to the IHOPs around me in NJ, but then realized they had grits on their menu. We don't! Unfair! (Not that I ever eat at IHOP anymore - this was years ago - but still.)

So when my sister asked what I wanted to bring to the BBQ and I said, "Um, do you think anyone would eat cheese grits?" you can imagine my surprise when 1 - she said she loved them (I had no idea) and 2 - the restaurant she waitresses at on Sundays serves them. What? There are cheese grits being served in my town and I didn't know? For someone who is employed to teach research skills (among other things) to college students, clearly my research here failed, big time. (Shhh.)

The thing about cheese grits is that, while they are incredibly delicious, they're not pretty. It would take photography far more skilled than mine to make them look good. And while I love photography, I don't really have the time to advance my skills at it right now since I spend most of my spare time chasing this monkey off the newest piece of furniture he learned to climb.

 

Half a minute later, he was standing on the BACK of that chair.

So, instead, I present to you... Cheese Grits: the ingredients.

grits, obviously (duh)

lots of cheese (again, duh)

And then Paula Deen visited... I mean, here's some butter.

I brought the grits to my sister's house and was told by several folks who tried them that they were good. I was able to sneak in a few spoonfuls in-between chasing Nate around and I have to say I was a little disappointed in the texture. They were cold by the time I had some, so maybe that affected it a little (I usually only eat hot/warm grits). But I prefer my grits with some texture and these were a bit too smooth for me. I haven't yet looked up how to remedy that since I don't know when I'll make them again, but when I do, I'm going to aim to get more of the texture of the grits into the dish.

I don't have PW's cookbook with me right now to see how many recipes I have left to go, but I do know it's still pretty substantial. And I don't really have a plan for the recipes I have no interest in - like the linguine with clam sauce (I can't eat clams) or burgundy mushrooms (I seriously hate mushrooms). Anyone need a delivery of linguine with clam sauce with a side of burgundy mushrooms?

This post is another in a series where I attempt to make every recipe in The Pioneer Woman's cookbook.  You can click on "Pioneer Woman" in my tags to read the other attempts (and probably some other random times I've mentioned PW).

7 Quick Tuesday Takes

1. Watching the dance numbers from the Tony's, I decided once and for all that dancers have the best legs. They just really do. I want dancers' legs. Guess I better get dancin'.

2. I realized that I haven't updated a few Pioneer Woman recipes I made! I am still slowly eeking my way through her cookbook. Two weekends ago I made her Basic Breakfast Potatoes and Huevos Hyacinth. Both were delicious, although the Huevos Hyacinth were far too liquidly - I'm not sure if I didn't cook the eggs long enough or if the juice came from the tomatoes. Either way, it was on the border of unappetizing so if I made them again, I'll have to play around with the broiling time.

This past weekend, I made her Blackberry Cobbler, but with blueberries. Blueberries are in season and are just SO good right now - so juicy and sweet. The cobbler was delicious. I made one for my in-laws and one for myself. (Ha!)  I've been eating it by the spoonful with some whipped cream on top. Not good for my pants size in the slightest, but soooo tasty. Next time I would make it with more of the cake part, though. It came out really thin; it was still really good, but I'd like to try it in a more cake-y ratio.

3. Speaking of sweet things I shouldn't eat, my brain is obsessed with Joy the Baker's Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread. I mean, have you looked at it? Are you not convinced you could eat the whole loaf by yourself?  Hence why I haven't made it yet. (Well, that and the whole dough needing to rise thing. I don't have the patience for that. Eventually the recipe will break me down and win, though, and I'll be making this. For sure. She recently said it's her most popular post... and it's so obvious why.)

4. Eating a slice of pizza doesn't negate the positive effects of eating something sold as a "low carb salad," right? I'm not asking for me. I'm asking for yesterday's lunch.

5. I love that I started this list talking about how I want to have dancer's legs and then go on to talk about a whole bunch of things that are part of why my legs look the way they do. (nom nom nom)

6. I'm going out to lunch with my boss today. I'm hoping for a raise and a promotion. I will probably just get a sandwich. (Aaaand, still talking about food.)

7. Is it Friday yet?

Monday Five Countdown

Can you believe it's May?? It's my little man's birthday month and I really can't believe it.

Five Things I'm Grateful For

1. Having lots of time with Nate this weekend. It makes leaving for work on Monday morning even that much harder, but I love our weekend time.

2. I had to return the rental car this morning but I'm glad we were able to afford it for the week that we needed it.

3. I might have Friday off this week. *fingers crossed*

4. The hubby took Nate to a party yesterday afternoon while I stayed home to do homework. Before doing any homework, I was able to do a lot of cleaning and errands, though.

5. We hung up FOUR pictures yesterday!  Yay! I love the painting we bought to go over the new sofa in our living room and am so happy it's finally up (and we finally hung up wedding pictures, for the first time - and we've been married 2 1/2 years, lol).

Four Things I Can't Stop Thinking About

1. Bin Laden. A friend who had someone die on 9/11 said she feels like her family finally has some peace. I'm glad that they do.

2. Hoping my boss approves my comp day on Friday. *fingers still crossed*

3. Nate's birthday is a week from tomorrow!! Which means his party is less than two weeks away. Lots of planning and work to do for it still.

4. Schoolwork. Nate's birthday is also my last day of the semester and I have tons of work to do. Lovely timing.

Three Things I Want To Accomplish This Week

1. More picture hanging!

2. Make a menu/cooking plan for Nate's party.

3. Scope out party supplies.

Two Things I Am Working To Be Positive About

1. My car. The insurance inspector is supposed to come look at my car today or tomorrow. I'm really, REALLY hoping they total it out so we can just go get a new car.

2. How hard it is to be married with a baby. I've done a lot of things in my life - surgeries, a graduate degree, a dozen moves, traveling abroad alone - but nothing in my life has been harder than being married the past year. I used to think all that "marriage is hard work" talk was hooey. I get it now.

One Random Thing

1. If I counted correctly, The Pioneer Woman's cookbook has 62 recipes in it (main, not including variations) and I've completed 30 of them, so I'm almost halfway through. I thought I was much farther along than that, oops!

Do you do the Monday Five Countdown?  Link up!

Bit o' scone, Mum?

It's 5am and I'm up without an alarm clock. I didn't think I was that excited, but I think I was more nervous to miss the start of everything.

You know, everything - Prince Duke William's wedding. Yeah, I'm up for it and I love it. I think it's great fun, like the Oscars - not incredibly important, but enjoyable to watch (especially for the fashion). I understand people who don't understand why it's interesting, but I do have to say I'm bothered by the comments I've seen saying, "I hope they get divorced in a few years." I wouldn't say that about nearly anyone. At the base of things, William and Kate are two twentysomethings getting married because they love each other (we hope/assume). Why wouldn't we want to celebrate that?

To truly celebrate the occasion, I've made a bit of a treat: PW's Maple Pecan Scones (from her cookbook). That recipe calls for forming the dough into a large circle and cutting it into eight wedges. I decided to instead form the dough into a large rectangle and cut the dough into twenty-four petite wedges, like PW's petite vanilla scones.

All in all, the recipe mostly went as planned. The only glitch was rolling out the dough, which I suck at, always. I need to get a silicone French rolling pin; I think that will help. So I ended up forming the dough by hand and that actually worked out just fine. (No pictures of the finished scones because it was dark when I made them and it's dark as I'm eating them and the flash makes them look unappetizing, alas.)

I definitely recommend this recipe - it is quite delicious. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a scone and a cuppa English Breakfast Tea to get to and a wedding to watch.

This post is another in a series where I attempt to make every recipe in The Pioneer Woman's cookbook.  You can click on "Pioneer Woman" in my tags to read the other attempts.

Pink Velvet Cake

For Easter, I made The Pioneer Woman's Red Velvet Cake, except I didn't have red food coloring so I used pink instead and told everyone I did this because it was Easter, not Christmas. Sounds good, right?

Until this venture, I had never made a layer cake before. Not one, ever. Not even from a box. Even my mother-in-law and the hubby were shocked at this. The hubby said I was like one of those star chefs who end up on a cooking competition and then go, "Oh, wait, I have to know how to boil water? I've never done that before." But it's true. Layer cakes have always intimidated me because there are so many stages at which the whole thing can go wrong. In her post about Red Velvet Sheet Cake, PW says she prefers the simplicity of sheet cakes because they're easier. However, she also hosts at home usually, I believe. I never do, so my desserts always need to be transportable and I don't see a sheet cake as being highly transportable (especially when you're also juggling a diaper bag and proto-toddler).

Things about layer cake that intimidate me:

-cooking the actual layers

-stacking the layers

-trimming the layers

-frosting the layers

-running out of frosting

I worry too much, in general, but I learned something valuable from this experiment: frosting covers a million sins. (Except when you eat a lot of it. Then you probably end up with cellulite.)

So PW's recipe calls for 10 inch pans and I only had 9 inch, so I baked them an additional 4 minutes until they seemed done (toothpick came out clean). After letting them fully cool, I did the initial middle icing and then stacked them.

And then I decided to get all fancy-pants and try to trim the layers so as to make a nice, perfectly round cake. What I ended up with was 3/4 round (untouched because I gave up) and one squared off side, like it was trying to start an octogon cake. I gave up on trimming and resigned myself to filling in the missing cake segment with icing. It worked, too.

Or at least everyone was nice enough to not saying anything to me about how I patched cake with frosting. I also forgot to put the vanilla extract in the icing. Oops. But I don't think that mattered too much.

I think the cake came out a little dry, which is a pattern I'm noticing with PW's recipes - well, or with my execution of them, probably. (And boy did I execute this cake, ha! Ba-dum-dum, I'll be here all week.)

For anything of hers I make that's flour-based (breads, cakes, etc), I find them to be a bit dry as well as a bit bland. (I'm thinking particularly of her cornbread, which I don't think I'd make again, truthfully.)

I don't know how many recipes I have left to complete in her book, but I know there are still several flour-based ones, so we'll have to see how those go. This cake was passable, but not the best I've had or the best I've made. I have another layer cake to make this Friday, so I'm glad I had this practice. Onwards and upwards!

This post is another in a series where I attempt to make every recipe in The Pioneer Woman's cookbook.  You can click on "Pioneer Woman" in my tags to read the other attempts.