Pioneer Woman Meets Country Girl | French Breakfast Puffs

A while back my sisters, mom, and I started a blog link up called Pioneer Woman Meets Country Girl, where we all cook the same Pioneer Woman recipe and blog about it. It was supposed to be a fun sisterly bonding thing, since we all don't live near each other any more. However, we only did it a handful of times and then gave up! Or like me... quit blogging altogether! But its a new year, we all have the latest Pioneer Woman cookbook and we're ready to give it another go!

I chose the first recipe of the month and I went with the French Breakfast Puffs from PW's first cookbook. I was looking for ways to switch up our family's usual breakfasts and I had all the ingredients for these so it was a win, win!

Ingredients

• 3 cups Flour
• 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2/3 cups Shortening (Crisco)
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 cup Milk
• 1-1/2 cup Sugar
• 3 teaspoons Cinnamon
• 2 sticks Butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.

In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and mix again. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.

Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

In a bowl, melt 2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

 

Miss Lizzy was an excellent sous chef!

Pioneer Woman | Country Girl Pot Pie

Hellloooooo!

Its been a while since I wrote on the ol' blog. But I'm back for another exciting edition of

Pioneer Woman Meets Country Girl.

Ashley picked Chicken Pot Pie for this round. This recipe comes from PW's first cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes From an Accidental Country Girl. But it is also on her blog here. 

I have to admit I WAS NOT excited to make this. I was very intimidated! The last time I made Chicken Pot Pie, I was recently married and trying to demonstrate my domestic skills for my new hubby. Well you know me.. at least you should if you are reading my blog.. and well, I tend to mess up a recipe about 12 times before I get it right. But luckily for me (and you!) The Pioneer Woman breaks this recipe down step, by step in this post.

My first Chicken Pot Pie recipe was your beginners basic.. can of mixed veggies and some cream of chicken soup kind-of-a-thing. 

But this.. this is a big girl recipe. Complete with fresh veggies, heavy cream and butter!

PW calls her pie crust The Perfect Pie Crust. And I couldn't agree more! This crust was light and crispy and delicious! I could've eaten it alone.. or with some ice cream.

Here is the pie fresh out of the oven. YUM!

Look at the gravy that spilled out. YUM! Oh, wait I already said YUM! Oh well.. YUM! YUM!

And because I like to keep it real around here.. here's my baby "helping" me! He's starving and pointing to dinner and grunting for some food. Also please note the pile of dishes in the sink. Classy.

This recipe was definitely a hit here in the Nelson home. Everyone ate it up! 

Five stars, two thumbs up!

It did take some time to prepare. Boiling the chicken, making the crust and such. But if you can plan ahead this is a great dinner! You can even make the filling and crust ahead and stick it in the fridge. Then say, oh I don't know, um Sunday after church when you are tired and starving.. assemble and bake. Easy peasy!

Also I cooked extra chicken breasts so I was able to make a batch of Chicken Roll Ups for easy lunches this week. Just freeze or refrigerate and then pop one.. or three in the microwave for a quick lunch. Dustin and Allie both took these for their lunches today!

Happy Cooking!!

Pioneer Woman Meets Country Girl x2

PW/CG 1

Lasagna

Last week, I made PW's lasagna, appropriately named, The Best Lasagna Ever. 

It was super yummy!

But because I was a slacker, I didn't take any pictures, so you get her photo.

Which is much prettier than mine anyway!

I loved this recipe for a couple of reasons.

1. The sausage! It gave it a whole new dimension of flavor. It added a zest to the hamburger.

2. The whole tomatoes and paste. Kept things more firm. Firm is good, when you're trying to scoop dinner to hungry mouths!

3. The cottage cheese. My kids think that Ricotta is "yucky". Plus its cheaper!

4. The Parmesan cheese. I love Parmesan cheese. Mostly because Grandma Shirley pronounces it "par-me-sian" .. so I love using it and saying it Grandma Shirley style!

and lastly,

5. The whole family loved it! Full bellies = happy mom.

~~~~~

PW/CG 2

Cowboy Calzones

"I had a bad experience." 

(Name that movie)

If you've been around this blog for a while, you might recall the Eggplant Parmesan incident of 2008. This in no way comes close to that. But its sufficient to say that new recipes and I DO NOT mix well. I have a hard time stepping out of my comfort zone of Mac and Cheese and Spaghetti. But every once and a while I get a wild hair, or a sister that gets to pick the recipe for the week, and all hell breaks loose!

PW doesn't have the recipe for Cowboy Calzones on her blog. Which is good because I did take pictures this time and I don't want you to compare them to her masterpieces!

Overall, the effect was there. The calzones were edible. The meat was tasty and the cheese mix was on.
But the dough... oh, the dough, dough, dough.

Let me give some advise. They say that those who can't do teach. We'll I'm gonna teach.

1. Give yourself plenty of time when trying a new recipe.

2. Try not to get distracted. Put a movie on for the kids.. paint, playdough, legos.. get em busy.

3. For this particular recipe, let the meat/cheese mixture cool almost completely before trying to put it in the calzone.

4. Give your dough plenty of time to rise.

5. Try, try again! Don't give up after your first failure. Try it again on a fresh day!

 

Like I said, the calzones were edible. They weren't pretty but we made it out alive!

Luke wouldn't touch his. He just downed the Kool-Aid. 

Johnny was content to nibble on the crust and hamburger. 

Allie's face says it all. She was not a fan. 

Mark gobbled it up after I told him it was "cowboy food"!

Dustin had a late night at the temple, but he ate two when he got home, so I assume he liked it.

Bottom line.. I will try this recipe again. I think when the kids are older they will appreciate it more.

But for dinner nights without dad, we're sticking to Mac and Cheese.

Pioneer Woman Meets Country Girl | Meatballs

I had this fabulous idea the other day. Let me tell you about it...

My mom, sisters, sister-in-law and I all got the Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From my Frontier for Christmas. 

As I was perusing through the foodie goodness, I thought it would be super duper fun to pick a recipe, every week, from the book and all of us cook it and then blog about it. We'd call it Pioneer Woman Meets Country Girl and maybe do a link up.

Having my sisters far away from us.. I thought it would be like we were all doing something together. 

Add in PW and a little butter and everyone is happy!

So I chose the meatball recipe for this week. Yum!!

Here, I have the balls all rolled out and ready to pop in the fridge to firm.

Then I browned them up and put them on a plate.

Then I heard laughing coming from the bathroom and found my cowboys playing pirates with their new boat! (Thanks Aunt Missy!)

Luke says "cheese" but Mark was "too busy" to look.

After cleaning up the flooded bathroom, I warmed up a can of spaghetti sauce.. instead of making it from scratch like PW.. then put in the meatballs, covered and simmered it for about 30 minutes.

I then served up the meatballs with Rigatoni noodles, salad and bread. The family approved!