Leslee's Meal

Wow, I guess last night was the night for chicken fried steak! I made this meal as well last night.  We had a busy evening and I didn't get started on it until 8pm but luckily it came together pretty quickly. I used rice flour in place of the regular flour and that worked just fine.  I dipped the steaks in the egg mixture once and the flour mixture once before placing in the pan.  I feel like I had to cook mine longer than she said but maybe I over cooked them? I was a little leery of the gravy since I never seem to make it right but the directions were good for this.  I probably could have added a little more milk but tried to add lots of salt and pepper for flavor.  I served this with oven fries, since I was a little lazy to whip up the mashed potatoes:) 
Sean and I both like this meal.  I had never had chicken fried steak before and thought that I wouldn't like it so I was surprised.  Excellent choice Audrey!

Heidi's Chicken Fried Steak & Gravy

I fixed the Chicken Fried Steak last night for dinner.  I actually fix this about once a month because it is Kenton's favorite meal.  I got my recipe from Kenton's mom which has no measurements on the gravy... it's just add a little flour and then keep adding a little milk.  I MUCH prefer to know how much I am adding in a measured form.  I followed the recipe as it was called.  I usually don't put any seasoning in my flour so I really liked that change.  I also fixed PW's mashed potatoes.  These were too rich for us especially with the gravy on top so I probably won't fix those anymore. 
My plate... I prefer to dip my chicken fried steak in ketchup.  I am not sure why as I'm not a huge ketchup person.  Probably becasue that is how Kenton does his.

Kenton's plate.   For some STRANGE reason he likes to tear up bread and pour gravy over the bread.

Ashley enjoying her dinner.  Actually, both kids really like chicken fried steak.  Probably because they get to dip it in ketchup.

Jacki’s Review of Chicken Fried Steak & Gravy

Tonight we had the Chicken-Fried Steak and Gravy meal at our house and it was good.  My husband is a Chicken Fried Steak fan and always orders it when we eat out (rare) if it is offered on the menu.  He thought this version was pretty good but could have been just a bit more flavorful (which was probably my fault – I am not exactly heavy with the salt shaker).  I appreciated PW’s step by step pics on this one – very easy to follow.  In retrospect I probably should have seasoned the meat just a bit more before I started the egg/flour process and I would have used some of the seasoned flour made for dredging for the gravy.  I liked the cayenne pepper bite the flour mixture had.    Also, my gravy ended up just a tad on the thick side so another splash of milk would have been appropriate.  All in all though I think this is a good, solid recipe for those who like this type of food.  I am not a huge breaded/fried food fan so I wouldn’t make this too often – just occasionally to please the man of the house  after too many grilled salmon/brown rice/ broccoli type meals :)  I served it with a side of mashed potatoes and corn because I was informed this is how they serve it at restaurants.  Steamed broccoli or green beans would have been more colorful and pleasing to the eye though.  I sure hope some of you out there get a chance to try out this recipe and let the rest of us know how you liked it!

The process underway:

Just look at that golden perfection!

Artery-clogging goodness that would send the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) screaming! (I did use canola oil and 1% milk though:)  And, this was my husbands plate, not mine.

Audrey's Chicken Spaghetti

Hello everyone :) Sorry that it has taken me so long to post the spaghetti recipe results. I have been having problems with my computer. So far I am really liking this cookbook, so good job choosing it. The chicken recipe seemed pretty involved, but I was glad for Heidi's heads up about cooking the chicken earlier. I wondered about buying a rotisseried chicken and store bought chicken broth, but am glad that I didn't, as I don't think the flavor of the dish would have been as good. I meant to buy the whole fryer chicken, but accidently picked up fryer leg quarters, but they were just fine. I would have liked some white meat myself in the dish. I followed the rest of the recipe as shown and as Heidi mentioned it made a lot. I served it with sauteed zucchini. Since it was just Brock and I eating it, I had a lot of leftovers. We ate it for three days and both would have it again. I dirtied a lot of dishes, but now that I have fixed it, I would be better prepared for how I would do things. I thought that it was very flavorful, but would spice it up a bit more. I think the next time I would split the recipe between two pans and freeze the second. It would be very handy to have ready after coming home from a basketball game :) Good pick Heidi !! Sorry about how my pictures turned out. I'm lucking to get them uploaded.

Tarin's Meatloaf and Potato Experience

So I know we're technically on the next week, but since I got to try these recipes and I remembered to take pictures I thought I'd post anyways.

Since we're such picky eaters in this house no one has actually had meatloaf before, most recipes have all sorts of weird ingredients thrown in like onions and celery and other stuff that no one really likes in the first place, but when I mentioned that I was going to try this one everyone was brave enough to at least try it out!

This was definitely a lot of meat. I can believe that it would be way too much for a normal sized family, but for our special situation it was just right.

This part was just disgusting, really if I hadn't been so grossed out mixing all this stuff together I might consider making this again :) Plus we only had a block of Parmesan cheese that I had to grate by hand. Ugh! I will definitely buy the pre-grated next time I do this.

I feel like once I molded it that it was too heavy for the broiler pan, it kept oozing through the bottom, I probably pulled out at least half a pound of meat off the bottom of the pan. Maybe I need to put a layer of bacon down first to keep that from happening, either that or just start out with only 1 1/2 pounds of meat.

Our oven is so weird so I felt like I should cook it at a little bit of a higher temp, but still it wasn't done in an hour so I cranked it up to 400 for an extra 20 minutes or so. I wish that there was a better way to make the bacon wrap a little bit more crispy, but people had seconds and thirds so I called it a success. I served it with the potatoes which were fine, I didn't really think they tasted any different then normal, but it was nice to make them ahead of time. I also sauteed up some carrots and then I also made Raspberry Cheesecake muffins/scones...yummy!

Leslee's Meatloaf and Potatoes

First of all, I would like to start off by saying that I have not been the biggest fan of meatloaf. I can always remember hating it as a kid and being forced to eat it.  Sorry mom, I am sure it wasn't that bad! Anyway I decided I would be adventurous and give it a try and after reviewing the recipe it didn't look like it could be too bad.   Kim mentioned that it made a lot so I only made half of the recipe.  It was pretty easy to make and I had it in the oven in no time.  I liked her comments and tips about the mashed potatoes because even though I have made them plenty of times before, I learned a few new things.  I didn't use quite all of the butter and cream cheese that it called for and I just used regular milk instead of half and half.
I was pleasantly surprised when I tried the meatloaf, and must admit I actually really liked it! Sean, who has always been opposed to meatloaf too, liked it as well.  The potatoes were very delicious and I might have to add a little cream cheese every time I make them! Summer declared that she "couldn't like that" but did enjoy dipping her strawberries in the ketchup sauce (???)....not sure about that!

Jacki’s Review of Meatloaf and Mashers

There were no complaints from our house last night when I made this meal for dinner.  I have to admit I was very hungry when I ate it but it really tasted good to me.    For the meatloaf I followed the recipe as written except I used dried parsley instead of fresh.  I also cooked it at 375 and a bit longer than an hour because it didn’t seem quite done enough at an hour.  The sauce was absolutely delicious!  I forgot to buy ketchup at the store so I was only able to make a third of the recipe which turned out fine but more would have been even better.  The meatloaf smelled wonderful cooking.   I am not a big mashed potatoes fan but these were really good and went well with the meatloaf.  The Lawry’s seasoning salt and the cream cheese added just a bit of a different flavor from regular mashers.  We ate them soon after I made them so I didn’t bake them in the oven.  Steamed fresh green beans completed our meal.  (and some French Silk ice cream for dessert:)  I would definitely make both of these recipes again.

Meatloaf ready for the oven.

 

Plated and ready to eat – absolutely delicious!

Recipes for week of 9/19-9/25/2010

Chicken-Fried Steak pg142
This is a two for one recipe as it has two things that you make. You make the chicken fried steak and then the gravy, so I am not choosing anything else. I have already made it and it tasted real good :) I hope that all of you enjoy it also.

Kim's meatloaf, potatoes review

So, I made the dinner and I think it turned out pretty yummy. It was defiantly weird for me to put soggy bread in it, but I have a little bit of an issue with soggy things. I was able to look past it and I really enjoyed the meatloaf. It made SO much. We had another family over for dinner and we still had about half of the meatloaf left afterward. We ate it for dinner again last night and it tasted really good warmed up. Here is my meatloaf:


The potatoes were yummy but for me they were a little too much. I could only take a few bites of them. We warmed those up a few days later with our leftover meatloaf and for me they tasted better the second time. The two recipes tasted really good together! Hope you guys have enjoyed this recipe!

The Super Easy/Quick/Lazy Version of Chicken Spaghetti!

Okay, so I forgot all about taking pictures, but since I have a teething 6 month old I was just excited to find time to try this one out! Plus I'm really to lazy to make my own chicken stock and break down a chicken.

Since most of the family is gone I only wanted to make a half batch of this...it turned out to be the perfect size for a family of 5.

• I started out with about a pound of chicken tenderloins and cooked them for 30 minutes and then set them aside. 
• Then I cooked up a little bit more than 1/2 pound of thin spaghetti noodles in a premade chicken broth.
• Since I don't like green peppers, onions, or pimentos, I excluded all of those. If I had had a chance to  go to the groccery store I probably would have substituted in like peas or broccoli.  
• I used about 1 1/4 cups of the premade broth when mixing everything together. And I halfed all the spices except for the cayenne, I like the kick.
• I only had colby-jack cheese so I mixed in about 1 1/2 cups into the mix--I like things cheesy!
• Poured it into a glass pie pan and covered it with some more cheese and cooked it just like the directions said.

It turned out delish! I served it with my own corn muffin recipe, watermelon and green beans. It is definitely something I'll do again.

I'm looking forward to trying the cobbler recipe, but from the looks of it it doesn't quite strike me as a classic "southern" cobbler like I'm used to. It reminds me more of a buckle.

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

So, I think I am supposed to pick a recipe now... right? I am also remembering that I am supposed to post my selection on Fri so people can shop. I hope I am doing everything right, I am obviously new to how this thing runs!

First off i thought it would be appropriate to introduce myself to you guys, since Leslee is the only one who knows me. Here is me with my fam:

My husband is Christian, 3 year old son Lincoln, little babe (who is not so little anymore) Dean, and of course me, Kim.

We are from SLC, UT but are living here in good old Houston TX for my husbands schooling... which is how I met Leslee, who is AWESOME by the way!!

I am really excited to be doing this cooking thing because I can truly say that No one has ever had better intentions with cooking than me, but I seriously STINK at it. So, I am really trying and pushing myself with this.

I have made a selection for this week. I decided to do the Meatloaf on page 150-151. In the recipe it suggests that you serve it with the mashed potatoes that are on page 146. So I hope that is ok that I chose two. Happy cooking everyone!!

Heidi's Blackberry Cobler

We tried this dessert last night.  Sad to say that my kids have not ever had blackberries because I am not a huge fan of them.  The kids liked the ice cream portion of the dessert but didn't really care for the cobbler part, and I think that was due to the blackberries.  Kenton and I really liked it and thought that it was really good.  I really liked how easy it was to make!  Maybe next time I'll try it with some peaches. 
Just out of the oven..

Dished up and all ready to enjoy! 

Jacki and Leslee’s Meal

This week my mom and I made the meal together since we are at her house.  We made two versions of both recipes, gluten free and regular, and everything turned out delicious!

We started early with the chicken as suggested by Heidi.  We went with chicken breast with rib meat (bone in and with skin for more broth flavor) because we thought it would give us more meat than the fryer (and was on sale).  While the chicken was cooking and cooling, we diced up and sautéed the onions and green peppers to give them a bit more flavor. 

We halved the gluten free version and used brown rice spaghetti noodles and Progresso Mushroom Soup.  Since the mushroom soup is thinner than the condensed soup I didn’t add the extra cups of broth later.  We followed the recipe with the regular version, making a full pan.  It would have been a good idea to make half and freeze half as Heidi suggested.  To make the prep process faster you could use canned chicken, cook the spaghetti in broth and not sauté the veggies but then you might not feel like a true pioneer woman! We used 4 of the split chicken breasts and it gave us twice as much chicken as needed so we will use the rest to make enchiladas tonight.

 

Baking in the oven.  Left = regular,  right = gluten free

Here is the regular version all dished up and ready to eat!

Here is the gluten free version.  They pretty much tasted the same except I added a little extra cayenne to mine.

 

For the dessert we used frozen blackberries so it took about 10 minutes longer to cook the cobbler.  Again, we made both a regular and gluten free version.  It was a very easy recipe with the self rising flour.  For the gluten free we just used Pamela’s gluten free baking mix.  Paired with vanilla ice cream it was delicious! 

Regular cobbler pic – forgot to take one of it dished up with ice cream because we were in such a hurry to eat it! – this gives a good view of the inside goodness though:)

Gluten free cobbler paired with ice cream and ready for consumption. Soooo good!

 

Heidi's Chicken Spaghetti

We actually had this dish last week; but I didn't download the pics until now.  I forgot to take a picture of it after it was all cooked up; but here it is before I put it in the oven. 

I decided to go ahead and make on half now and freeze the other half for later.  I just put half (or close to) in 2 8x8 dishes and froze one.  I pretty much followed the recipe except that I omited the onion.  I probably won't put as much green pepper in next time either.  Kenton, Ashley and I really liked it.  Connor thought it was "okay" but there were too many green (peppers) and red (pimentos) things in there for him.  We sort of picked those out for him and he ate it pretty good.   It was pretty easy to fix but it does take a while.  The cooking and shredding of chicken took FOREVER and I started fixing it about 4:30 and we didn't eat until 7!  So I would recommend doing the chicken earlier in the day so you don't have to worry about getting it done in time for dinner.  It was very tasty though and I'll fix it again!

PW recipes for the week of 9/5

Well, I first want to say how excited I am about this cookbook.  This is much more the style of cooking that my little family (husband) likes.  :)  In fact, her chicken fried steak and my chicken fried steak recipe are the same!  When this cookbook came in the mail (I love Amazon) I thought I'd flip through it to look at a few of the recipes.  An hour later I had read the whole thing!  I loved  her stories and how each recipe had a story.  Great job to whoever picked this cookbook!!  We had some friends over last Saturday and I fixed the stuffed jalapenos and the twice baked potatoes from the cookbook.  They were both a hit and tasted great!  They drew rave reviews from everyone (including Kenton and that's saying something).  I forgot to take pictures though...  Anyhow... on to this week's recipes.  I went ahead and picked two since that it kind of what we did with the last cookbook; but we might only want to do one at a time since there aren't as many.

Chicken Spaghetti:  page 130-131. 
I am actually making this for dinner tonight so it worked out perfectly that I am first since I had already planned to have this meal this week. 

Patsy's Blackberry Cobbler:  page 212-213

Happy cooking!!! 

The Pioneer Woman Cookbook

We will start cooking from the new Pioneer Woman Cookbook next week! We thought we would let our native Oklahoman, Heidi, pick first! When it is your week you can chose one or two recipes to post.  The recipes are pretty long and detailed so you can just post the recipe tittle and page number.  Hopefully everyone has gotten or will get their cookbooks soon.  Also we have been trying to post the recipes for the week on the Friday before so if anyone does their shopping on Saturday they can add the ingredients to their list.
We have a few new members joining us this time around.  Tarin is my cousin on my dad's side, Kim is a friend of mine and Jamie is a friend of Nika's from her ward.  If we get any other new members we can add a them in too!
The schedule for September is..
Sept 5 Heidi
Sept 12 Kim
Sept 19 Audrey
Sept 26 Tarin

Our Big Meal

My mom, Nika, and I prepared the meal together this last week and each did a little part.  I prepared the soup and pretty much just followed the recipe.  Everything cooked up nicely and I blended it all up in the blender.  The soup had a very nice flavor and the smoked cheddar was an excellent addition!

We marinated the london broil in a little balsamic vinegar and oil to give it a little extra flavor before it was grilled on the barbeque.  It was a little thick so it took a while to cook. The balsamic onion rings had a good flavor but because of the sugar they seemed to burn.  Robyn said to cook it at a medium-high but we recommend a lower temperature. 

The pizza cookie was surprisingly good and fun to make.  The two little girls helped Grandma make this, which resulted in a little extra work but was fun for them. After it was first taken out of the oven the dough seemed a little too soft but after everything cooled it was perfect. 

 

 

Final Recipe Selections From Robin MIller Cookbook

Since this will be our final cooking from the Robin Miller Cookbook (which I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed) I am selecting 3 recipes. I hope some of you get a chance to try them out and let all of us know how/if you enjoyed them.

Sweet Potato Soup with Smoked Cheddar & Chives (p 16)

London Broil with Balsamic Onion Rings (p 196)

Pizza Cookie (p 287)

New Cookbook

We have decided to start a new book in September called The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  I sent an email out to everyone about it so hopefully everyone got that.  So far I know that Heidi, Audrey, Kim, myself, Jacki, Nika, Tarin, Kelly and NaDee will be cooking along with us.  Let me know if anyone else wants to join in too! We will start the week of September 6th so you have a little time to get your new books and get caught up on the old one if you would like.  We will be posting a schedule for choosing recipes soon!

Ravioli and Onion Soup

Last Wednesday we made the ravioli and onion soup. It was supposed to be tortallini but we had ravioli in the freezer so we used that. The only only change was using less sage. It was very good and easy to make. The soup was very tasty but we did have a lot of onions left in the bottom of the pot. For the bread we toasted some french bread with mozarella in the oven and that really made the dish. I will try to add a picture of the soup later.

Three Onion Soup with Smothered Toast

MMmm this was a tasty meal! I was quite skeptical since there were so many onions in this soup and nothing else really, but it was very good! I had never used leaks before and our store only had these huge ones… (at least they were organic:)

I cooked everything as directed on the stovetop.

 

For my own toast I decided to make some “Hearty Whole Grain Bread.” It is quite hearty has the name suggests and went perfect in the soup.  Sean decided to not try the gluten free bread and just used some regular wheat bread. 

None of are bowls said they were oven or broiler safe so I just put the toast bread in the oven with cheese on top and broiled that and then added it to the bowls.  We used pepper jack cheese to add a little zip. 

Sean and I both really enjoyed this soup.  It was so easy to make and rather healthy too!

Recipes for week of 8-15

Three onion soup with cheese-smothered toast page 20
Tortellini with sage-walnut sauce page 64

Leslee's Sesame Chicken with Bok Choy

Part of the reason I chose this recipe was because you can put it in the crock pot.  I followed the crock pot instructions at the end of the recipe but put the chicken in frozen.  I think if I had thawed it out first I could have really seasoned it and would have given much more flavor to the dish.  We thought it was okay but not amazing.  It didn't have quite enough flavor and neither Sean or I were big fans of the bok choy.  Maybe a different green would have been better.  I served it over some delicious rice noodles, although it might have been better over rice.  All in all it isn't something I would try again but maybe with a few changes it could have been better.  

Audrey's review of Three-Mushroom Spinach Fettuccine

My family likes mushrooms, so I thought that this would be a good recipe to try out. I used regular fettuccine and the 3 varieties of mushrooms, but used extra chicken broth in the place of the Marsala wine. I think that the wine would have made a big difference. We didn't think that the dish was very flavorful. My family complained, so I ended up opening a jar of Alfredo sauce and they used that also and were happier with the dish. I also served some garlic bread with it and some broccoli. I need to try it again and add the red wine vinegar like Jacki did and that would probably help:) I haven't tried the tomato salad yet, but I just got some more grape tomatoes, so will try and get that done.

Jacki’s Review of Sesame Chicken w/ Bok Choy

Tonight we had the Sesame Chicken with Bok Choy and we both thought it was good.  I served it over steamed rice with watermelon on the side.  I used regular green cabbage instead of the Bok Choy because I already had some I wanted to use up.  I just shredded it and sauteed it in the olive oil with the red peppers for a bit.  I don’t think I have ever used Bok Choy so it would have been fun to try but the green cabbage was really good.  I couldn’t find any Rice Wine in the store so I just omitted it – added a little more chicken broth instead.  The rice wine probably would have added a little more flavor.   I used Chicken tenderloins so the whole dish cooked up quite easily and quickly.  I am looking forward to trying the Hummus and Pita Triangles later this week.

New Recipes for Week of August 1-7th

Sesame Chicken with Bok Choy pg- 108
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cups chopped Bok Choy (stems and leaves)
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into thin strips
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup sake
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon red curry paste (can use curry powder)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Heat oil in a large skittle over medium-high heat.  Add the bok choy and bell pepper and cook, stirring for 2 minutes.  Remove the veggies from the pan and set aside.
2. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper and add to the hot pan.  Cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.
3. In small bowl, whisk together the broth, sake, sesame oil, ginger, and curry paste, pour over the chicken and bring to a simmer.  Return the veggies to the pan, partially cover and summer until the chicken is cooked through, 2-4 minutes.  Remove from heat, top with cilantro and serve.
**There is also a slow cooker option in the book!

Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pita Triangles pg. 30
Toasted Pita Triangles
4 whole wheat pita pockets, cut into triangles
cooking spray
garlic salt to taste

Red Pepper Hummus
one 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup roasted red peppers (from a water-packed jar)
1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste)
2 Tbl fresh lemon juice
3 gloves garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbl chopped parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400'F
2. Place the pita triangles on a large baking sheet and spray to the tops with cooking spray.  Sprinkle them with garlic salt. Bake until golden brown and crisp, about 6 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a blender or food processor, combine the chickpeas, red peppers, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and cumin.  Process until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to a serving bowl and top with parsley. 

Traditional Potato Salad

We enjoyed the new potato salad recipe last night with some BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, and watermelon.  It was the perfect addition to a summer meal! I did not add the relish or red onion but used the other suggested ingredients.  After reading the suggestion about using sour cream or yogurt in place of the mayo I decided to do a combination of both sour cream and mayo which I thought was quite delicious!