A fun interlude

Day 14

I took 6 minutes and 11 seconds of my work day to watch this video. I found it through this Time list of the 30 best music videos. (Did you know MTV turned 30 yesterday? I hate when people say this, but I'm going to say it: I'm older than MTV. I will not complain about it, however.)

Anyhoo, I don't recall ever seeing this video before and if I had to come up with one word for it, I'd say: charming. It's worth the 6 minutes and 11 seconds (and I miss Blur).

So my kind of fun is simple.

Fun - Day 1

It may not seem like a big effort, but for my Day 1 of "Fun!" I watched Covert Affairs. But here's the thing - I was looking forward to this episode since before the season premiere (I had read about it). It was the flashback episode that explained how Auggie became blind. Auggie is easily my favorite character on the show so I was excited to see this back story and have him have more screen time.

Mmm, hello Christopher Gorham.

And to make it truly fun, I enjoyed the episode with a beer (Smithwick's, to remind me of my trip to Ireland three years ago) and a bowl of popcorn that the hubby made for me. (He makes much better popcorn than I do. It's just SO good.)

Fun - Day 2

Today's fun plan was slightly thwarted. I didn't have to be at work until noon, so I was going to take an hour or so in the morning to go get coffee and read a bit before work. (The hubby is home with Nate.) However, a massive amount of traffic made it so I'd have about 20 minutes of reading time, boo. So I got a treat coffee (because, really, something with all that stuff in it really doesn't count as coffee) and went to work a little early to read some blogs. Still fun!

(And instead of whining about how I don't have an iPhone and Instagram, I've decided to start trying to use my Android Retro Camera app. Not bad for my first attempt today!)

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.

Team Ree! (the fanaticism continues)

So, yesterday, I talked about the Pioneer Woman's macaroni and cheese.  I ate it all week like a preparation.  Like pre-gaming, but without the liquor.  (I do have a baby to keep an eye on, after all.)  But I knew I needed to have a Pioneer Woman-centric table of food for watching Throwdown.  (Well, tray tables of food since we don't have a coffee table in our new living room.  You know, coffee table corners = baby eye poke-out.)

So for dinner I made PW's Corn Chowder with Chilies.  It came out a little thinner than I would've liked (even though I added extra cornmeal) and I'm wondering if it's because I used half and half instead of heavy whipping cream.  (I'm sorry but I just can't bring myself to add heavy cream to anything - especially a cup and a half of it.  I cringe at using anything above 1% milk.  I'm so sorry, Ree; I know I'm a disappointment sometimes.)  The soup was still incredibly tasty, though, just more like soup than chowder.

UNTIL I asked the hubby to heat it up for me on the stove before I got home (I actually made it the night before).  I assumed he'd keep an eye on it while it warmed.  He put a lid on it and let it fend for itself.  When I got home, it was boiling. Oops.  BUT, it helped the consistency!  The soup thickened up perfectly.  Hurrah for fortuitous culinary missteps!

Oh, but a recipe note: she says to use approximately 5 ears of corn for 4 cups of kernels.  I used 8 ears and that yielded just a little over four cups.  Maybe I had underachieving corn?  I also didn't find canned chipotle peppers so I added 1/4 tsp of ground chipotle pepper instead and the heat was just right for me.  I also used 3 slices of turkey bacon instead of 2 slices of regular bacon because that's simply what I was in the mood for.  Next time I'd use 4 or 5 slices.  (And, because the turkey bacon doesn't render much fat, I added some olive oil to the pot when cooking the onions.)

To top the soup, I made PW's Cheddar Puffs.  I hadn't ever made these before, so I made a test batch the night before.  Let me just say, I actually moved my bedtime back so I could stay up a bit later and eat a few more, even though my head was nodding with tiredness.  I even ate a few for breakfast the next morning.  They are so indescribably good - and they're made with two ingredients that I utterly can't stand on their own: Dijon mustard and cream cheese.  Yech.  Hate both of those items - except when they're incorporated in something else (cream cheese frosting, cheesecake).  On these cheddar puffs, though, they're magic.  I actually made a double batch.

Then, for the actual viewing of Throwdown, I made P-Dub's Mexican Layer Dip (also known as 7 Layer Dip in many circles).  This gave me the opportunity to make another recipe from PW's cookbook: her guacamole (and, of course, her pico de gallo, which I have made several times before and love).

Confession: I've always hated this dip because it has one of my food nemeses in it - sour cream.  I cannot stand sour cream (unless, like cream cheese, it's incorporated into something else).  So when I read PW's note that her friend sometimes mixes her sour cream with cream cheese, I wondered if my hatred for them would cancel out if they were mixed together??  I had to know!

I also used to hate guacamole - and then my friend Mike made some from scratch one day and forced me to try it (I have learned to like many many foods because Mike forced me to try them) - and it was delicious! No one told me this was what guacamole was supposed to taste like!  Since then I like it, but only when it's freshly made.

So I shredded cheese (sharp cheddar and Colby Jack), whipped up the pico de gallo and guacamole, and had the hubby mix half a cup of sour cream with half a cup of softened cream cheese (it was gagging me to mix them together).  I heated up the refried beans with a few dashes of Chipotle flavored hot sauce, mixed in the green chilies and then was ready to assemble!

I have to admit, though, that mine will never be 7 Layer Dip - because I will always skip the layer of olives.  Olives = yech.  And that's not changing.  Although, I could add a bonus level of cheese... hmmm...

Anyway, so it was dip assembly time and I got to it.  Beans, check. Sharp cheddar, check. Sour cream/cream cheese mixture, check (yech?).  Guac, check.  (Guac and I are such good friends now that we're on a one syllable basis.)  Colby Jack, check.  Olives, no.  Pico, check.  Time to serve and dig in!

The tastiness result?  YUM!  I liked it!  It's a dip with a white cream product in it that I actually like!  I cannot wait to make this again.

And then?  Then I squee'd many times over during Throwdown.  "Look, it's Marlboro Man!  Oh! It's her kids!  Oh my god, it's Charlie!  Eee!  Look at the ranch!  Look at the Lodge!!  Oh, Ree is so pretty!  Look, you can see how tall she is!  She's so tall!  She's just so tall and gorgeous!"

It was ridiculous.  I am so remarkably happy I had Danielle to share this with and a very tolerant hubby who is amused and entertained by my big girl crush on Ree.  (It helps that he loved the corn chowder and ate several bowls of it two days in a row.)

I flipped through the cookbook last night and I'm doing pretty well getting through the recipes.  Next up from the cookbook will be the lasagna and the pie crust (which I'm going to use for her pecan pie) for Thanksgiving.  I cannot wait to make these (and taste them!)



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.

Team Ree!

If you haven't watched last night's episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay with The Pioneer Woman, fret not - there are no spoilers in this post.  (Tomorrow, however, all bets are off. Okay?)

Before I spoil anything, though, I'm going to talk about the Ree-centric preparation I made for the wonderful television event.  (Okay, one show note: didn't Ree look gorgeous?  The woman is simply beautiful.)  But now onto the food...

On Sunday I made PW's Macaroni and Cheese.  Macaroni and cheese happens to be one of my very favorite foods, but I had never actually made it from scratch before (although my mom would and I've enjoyed hers many times).

However, because cooking anything from scratch isn't occupying enough, I also had a 6 month old nearby in a high chair, who I attempted to entertain with exaggerated stirring techniques.  It was like Cirque de Mac n Cheese.

The mac n cheese starts with your basic white sauce (butter, flour) and then you build your cheese sauce with milk, some mustard powder, egg, and... cheese.  Lots and lots of freshly grated cheese.  Yummmsa.

You then season the cheese sauce.  PW warns strongly against underseasoning so I bit the bullet and went for it.  Salt, pepper, seasoned salt, and a dash of cayenne to add some kick.  Mix in the macaroni, pour into a baking dish, top with some more cheese (CHEESE!!) - and I added some panko, mmm - and then bake.

When it came out, it was bubbling cheesy heaven.  But then I ate some and I feared that I overseasoned it - specifically that I added too much pepper.  I'm not much of a pepper person and really only use dashes of it in my cooking.  But I ate my portion and figured it was still good enough to eat, not ruined enough to trash.

And then a funny thing happened (on the way to the forum leftovers): it got even better.  I think this is one of those "better the next day" recipes.  It was great that first day but the flavors felt more balanced the next day and when Kate tried it on Tuesday, she confirmed that it wasn't overseasoned.  (Or maybe my mouth was having a particuarly sensitive day on Sunday, who knows.)

So I had been eating that mac n cheese for days, training like a cooking athlete... or something.  For the show night, I decided we needed a P-Dub dinner and snack for the show.  The details on that tomorrow!

Right now I'm re-watching the Throwdown episode and eating more of the mac n cheese.  Mmmm.  This was like the Superbowl of cooking, wasn't it?  Or maybe I'm just a fanatic.

Team Ree!!

(fanatic)

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.