Pioneer Woman's "The Bread"

To accompany our lasagna last night I made "The Bread".  Simplest recipe of all time - and so good. I put dried thyme on one half and left the other plain.  I didn't use quite as much butter as the recipe calls for and it still turned out delicious.

Pioneer Woman's Lasagna

I love pasta and almost every other Italian dish known to man.  But lasagna?  For some odd reason I don't love it.  I don't really like ricotta cheese and lasagnas usually seem to have it.  Bleh.  I saw that Pioneer Woman's lasagna doesn't have ricotta, though, and knew I had to try it.

It takes a while to make this because it says to simmer the meat for 45 minutes after browning it, so I decided I would make this over the weekend and freeze it.  I've never done this before so I was a little hesitant but it worked out just fine.  The only issue I had was it taking forever to bake - but if I had taken the advice I was given and covered the lasagna with tin foil from the get-go, it wouldn't have taken much longer than it normally does.  So, if you end up freezing this, bake it covered in tin foil.

Into the freezer it went...

And here is the baked, finished product.

And HERE is the recipe.  I used the noodles you don't have to cook to save a little time and they work just perfectly.

Now, we had friends over for dinner who are big lasagna lovers.  They loved it and thanked me repeatedly for it (so nice).  Also, my husband said it was "amazing" and "better than most restaurants".  I was quite pleased with the results and how much everyone loved this.  I thought the bites with basil were pretty amazing... I think I would add a little more basil because I love it so, so much.  But if you make this exactly as directed, you won't be disappointed.  Also, if you don't like the idea of cottage cheese, what the original post of the recipe says is true - you have no idea that there is cottage cheese in it, not in the least.

Finally, a lasagna I actually like!

Spicy Pasta Salad with Smoked Gouda, Tomatoes and Basil

I made this pasta salad back in July and my sister has been requesting another batch so I made it for a BBQ yesterday.  It's very simple to make (I think I say this in every post) and is really fresh-tasting.  The spiciness can be almost non-existent (like the batch I made yesterday) or as intense as you want it - just add more adobo sauce or a chipotle pepper.  The first batch I made had more of a kick to it and I think I like it better like that.

I used fresh cherry tomatoes and basil from our garden - yum!

It is yet another Pioneer Woman recipe - and not the last for the week.  Click Me for the recipe!

My sister says it's one of her favorite pasta salads ever... so give it a try! Especially if you like smoked gouda.

Blackberry & Raspberry Cobbler

My husband said this was the "best cobbler ever".  It's from the Pioneer Woman Cookbook, but she also has it on her site.  Find the very simple recipe here.

I used a cup of raspberries and a cup of blackberries to mix the flavor up a little.

I think I used too large of a baking dish.  Next time I would use something a little more deep and round so that it was more thick cobbler-ish with each bite.  

The slices that were more thick cobbler-y with a little less berries were very, very delicious.  

I am very happy with the results and will make this again soon.  The best part is you are likely to have all the ingredients for this just lying around your kitchen, except the berries.

I bought a can of Reddi-Whip to serve with it, but the bottle was broken and so we only got a few tablespoons of cream out of it.  What a tragedy.

I will definitely make this with peaches next month when we buy a bushel.  Now that is something to look forward to.

Highly recommended.

Tomato Basil & Cheddar Bites

Obviously, no recipe is needed for these because every ingredient is listed in the name.  I was having friends over and wanted something to serve while we waited for the actual meal.  I just picked some fresh basil and cherry tomatoes from our garden, chopped cheddar into bite sized bits and put them on toothpicks.  They were easy to eat and deliciously fresh.  A nice little addition to a summer bbq.

Oh, and, I realize these would be delicious little caprese bites with the use of fresh mozzarella - but I didn't have any and used what was available to me.

I'm feeling that strong urge to cook + bake, but have been too busy so far this week.  Tomorrow night I'm squeezing in the time to make a dessert, that's all there is to it.

Slow Cooker BBQ Pork

I made this Slow Cooker BBQ Pork for friends on Friday night.  The recipe is the easiest thing on the planet and turned out really well.  I got the recipe below from All Recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle root beer
• 1 (18 ounce) bottle your favorite barbecue sauce
• 8 hamburger buns, split and lightly toasted

Directions

1. Place the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker; pour the root beer over the meat. Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6 to 7 hours. Note: the actual length of time may vary according to individual slow cooker. Drain well. Stir in barbecue sauce. Serve over hamburger buns.

Seriously, it doesn't get much easier than this and it was a definite crowd-pleaser.  You can change up the final product's taste by using whichever BBQ sauce you prefer.  I used a Kraft one that was $1, and it was great!

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

My favorite candy?  Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Reese's Pieces, Reese's Sticks.  Seriously.  I LOVE peanut butter and chocolate.  A s'more is practically inedible to me nowadays if it doesn't have a Reese's in it instead of the standard Hershey's bar.  Thus, these brownies will be a permanent part of my life from now on.

Go to THIS LINK for the recipe.  I may have added a little more peanut butter in each brownie than just 1/2 teaspoon (more like a full teaspoon).  And I didn't get 40 mini brownies out of it - I got 24 mini brownies.

If you love peanut butter cups as much as I, you will make these and you will be so happy you did.

I also found at the grocery store a nifty bag of a mix of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips, so I had two of the ingredients in one bag.  Awesome!  There are a ton leftover so I will be making these again soon.

  I love easy recipes that taste not-easy.

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

Ohhhhh goodness.  These are really sweet and so uber delicious.  I love really tart things and therefore I love these bars.  I found the recipe at www.bakingbites.com, via Pinterest.

This is the recipe for Strawberry Lemonade Bars.

They are a little messy to make because you have to juice 1 cup of fresh lemon juice (which is a LOT) and puree strawberries, too.  But it's so totally worth it.  I'd recommend these for a spring/summer baby or wedding shower because they are pretty and they are more unique than the normal, plain lemon bars.

I tend to not eat treats that I make.  I take a bite or so and then leave the rest for others to eat.  But these... I can't resist.  And that's bad.  

Yes, I'm still working on the whole getting-better-at-photos thing.  Not really putting forth the effort that I should, but I'll get around to it eventually.  Good thing the websites I find these recipes on have really great photos.

If you like a lot of tartness, please do yourself a favor and make a batch of these.

Fresh Strawberry Butter

I whipped up some fresh strawberry butter that I will be enjoying on toast for a couple of weeks.

It's as simple as:

1/2 Cup Butter, Room Temperature
1/2 Cup Strawberry Puree, (about 3/4 cup berries)
1 Tablespoon Confectioners' Sugar

Beat the butter and the strawberry puree together until mixed well.  Add confectioners' sugar and mix until combined.  Put into a tiny-sized Tupperware or mold and freeze for 30 minutes.  Then store in the fridge until ready to use.

Easy, fast and wonderful for toast!

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

This past weekend my family had breakfast up in the mountains.  Everything tastes better up there - but these were scrumptious and would be just as so at home.  

Of course, everything amazing comes from The Pioneer Woman's website.  HERE is her recipe for Lemon Blueberry Pancakes.  I had to double the recipe to feed my family and I decided to add extra lemon juice to my batter because I wanted a more overwhelming lemon taste, instead of really subtle.  I am glad I did because they were deliciously lemony!  Top them with butter and syrup, of course.  

If you love lemon and you love blueberries - you simply must make these!

Now if only I could perfect the flipping/timing of pancake-cooking.  Grrr!

Cilantro-Tomatillo Dressing, Cilantro-Lime Rice, Mexican Pulled Pork [Mexican Pork Salad]

Cafe Rio is a big hit around these parts and I used to be a huge fan.  I think I was too huge of a fan because now I don't really have the desire to go there.  I can still recognize how delicious it is, though, and I wanted to attempt a couple of their recipes at home.

I made their cilantro-tomatillo salad dressing.  This was my second ever salad dressing and it was very easy to make.  I just threw all the ingredients in to my trusty Magic Bullet and voila!  It turned out well, but it is very spicy.  Unless you love extreme spiciness, I would recommend using a very small jalapeno, half a jalapeno, or make sure you take the seeds out before throwing the whole thing in.  I thought I wanted a lot of flavor and that a whole jalapeno with seeds and all would be fine - not really so.  I had to add quite a bit of sugar just to make it  slightly less spicy.  It is a very good recipe though, and tastes exactly like Cafe Rio's (other than the extreme kick).  I used the recipe from a distant-acquaintance's awesome food blog.  Go HERE!

(Now we have a year's supply of spicy dressing.)

I made the dressing because I wanted to make a salad.  I found a slow cooker recipe for Mexican Pulled Pork that I wanted to try.  I have tried the sweet Cafe Rio pork recipes a couple of times and never really loved them - so I wanted to try something a little bit different.  This recipe was so easy to throw together!  I got it from THIS website. It turned out so well!  8 hours in the slow cooker and it shreds with barely being touched and the sauce is really yummy.  I will keep this recipe on hand and use it all the time.  It is really versatile.  Definitely try it if you want a fool-proof Mexican pork.  

I had a little extra time and ingredients on my hands so I decided to throw together the Cilantro-Lime Rice for the salads, too.  Again, I used Wire Whisk.  I don't really like rice much so this was my first time making it.  Ever.  It turned out okay... I think the recipe itself is good but my rice was brown instead of white, I didn't have enough of it (1 cup) and it was a little too limey and not cilantro-y enough.  I would follow the recipe closely if you make this one and I bet it turns out great. My husband liked the way ours turned out, though, so maybe I'm being too critical.

I crisped flour tortillas on the stove top, put them in bowls and filled them with lettuce, black beans, shredded cheese, rice, pork, sour cream and the cilantro dressing.

WHOA!  They were scrumptious!  I was truly, pleasantly surprised.  They tasted a lot like Cafe Rio salads but with the satisfaction of knowing I made them - they were better! Maybe.

This was a fun little experiment and I'm happy to report it turned out so well.  I'll definitely make these again.

Tomato Mozzarella Pasta al Forno

Pasta can be frustrating to make sometimes because it often comes out really bland or dry and just not outstanding in any way.  I have tried 3 handfuls of different pastas and loved only a handful.  Last night I made one of the best pastas and it was extremely easy.  Maybe I just loved it so much because of all the cheese, but at any rate... I highly recommend it.

I slightly adapted the recipe from www.annies-eats.net.  Here is the original recipe.

Tomato Mozzarella Pasta al Forno

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced 

3 -14 oz. cans diced Italian plum tomatoes 

2-3 tbsp. Italian seasonings [I like a lot of flavor] 

Salt and pepper    

1 lb. penne pasta 

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

2/3 c. parmesan [the green can powdery kind] [I think I probably used more than this but I didn't measure.]

Fresh basil, chopped [optional]

Heat oil in skillet. Add garlic and cook over medium high heat, 1 min. Add tomatoes and Italian seasonings and simmer rapidly, stirring occasionally until thickened, 15 min. Add salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook pasta. Toss pasta with sauce. Place half of pasta in an oiled 9×13” dish. Cover with half parmesan and half mozzarella. Top with remaining pasta, then parmesan and mozzarella. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes.  Sprinkle with chopped fresh basil.

I served mine with toasted artisan bread covered with olive oil, basil and tomatoes.

This seriously didn't disappoint.  It was so delicious.  I can't wait to eat leftovers tonight for dinner! 

Banana Cake With Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting

Yesterday we went to a movie night with friends and I was in charge of dessert.  I made a Banana Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream.  I found this recipe via a photo on Pinterest (which I'm obsessed with) and thought it looked a little challenging because of the layering and the frosting is slightly different from anything I've made before.

Here is the CAKE recipe and the FROSTING recipe from www.cooklikeyourgrandmother.com.

The cake tasted a lot like banana bread, but was more moist (ew, I hate that word).  The frosting tastes really good but is a somewhat odd texture and I never could get the graininess to completely go away.  Making layered cakes is so rewarding because they end up looking so large, like masterpieces (although mine are pretty messy masterpieces).

I would make this recipe again if someone really loved banana and wanted it in a cake instead of bread - the frosting really does add something to it.  But I don't think I would go through the trouble of making it again otherwise.  If you love banana though - give it a try at least once.  It got good reviews from the tasters.

I would definitely make the frosting again for other recipes.  Despite a strange-ish texture it is really, really tasty.

Strawberry Whipped Cream Frosting

I am obsessed with the website Cupcake Project.  Last night I made mini white cupcakes with strawberry whipped cream frosting for a friend's birthday (& so I could eat a dozen or so) from this site.  This frosting is incredibly easy and cheap to make (especially if you have strawberries on hand that are about to go south).  Most importantly, it's delicious!  You could use this for a fruit dip, with graham crackers or plain + straight out of the Kitchenaid.

Find the recipe HERE.

See my picture dilemma?  I need to learn to make what I bake look good in photos.  For now I  will use the Retro Camera app on my phone, but I will eventually progress and my pictures will look as good as The Pioneer Woman's.  Okay... maybe not quite that good.

Speaking of The Pioneer Woman, I make a lot of the recipes on her website.  She's my favorite.

Should you make this frosting?  Yes, indeed.

My Happy Place.

I wish I'd started this a long time ago.  I have made so many recipes that I absolutely love and now they are scattered about and I'll never find them all.  The beginning of this blog is for a few reasons... (1) I love to bake and cook; (2) I want to keep all of the recipes I try together in one place; (3) I want to learn how to take pretty photos of food and this will hopefully force me to learn; and (4) It will make me happy to share recipes I've tried with others and give them a star-rating so you'll know whether to spend the time + money on making something.

When I'm cooking or baking, I'm in my happy place.  This will be an extension of that happy place that I can share with you.  I hope to excel in my cooking, baking and photo-taking skills over the course of time by being held accountable via this blog.  Hopefully one day I will be skilled enough to create my own unique recipes that are not borrowed from other places.

Welcome!