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!

Instant Apple Pie

Last weekend, Dustin and Mark went to Cannonville (more on that trip later)
and brought home a whole dang bunch of apples from Grandma Bonnie!

I've never done any fruit canning.. just vegetables and jam, so I was at a loss on what to do with all these apples. I knew my sister in law, Kristi, had just done some, so I called her up and said, hey help me out! And like a good sister in law she hooked me up with a recipe and helped me with all my silly questions. Thanks Kris! It turned out to be pretty easy. The hardest part was preparing the apples. But I got one of these little gadgets. If you are wanting to can apples, it is a must! It will save you time and energy.. I was still pooped by the end of the day, but every little bit helps!

Instant Apple Pie

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup carnstarch

1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2tsp cinnamon
10 cups water
3 tbs lemon juice
About 30 medium apples
Yields about 6 quarts

1. Peel and slice apples

2. Mix cornstarch and sugar. Add salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir in water til smooth. Cook til thick and bubbly. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice.

3. Fill bottles with raw sliced apples. Pack down tight.

4. Pour enough sauce to fill bottles. Note: you may have to let the sauce settle and add more, but do not overfill. Allow about a half inch of space at the top.

5. Cold pack (meaning the sauce and apples do not have to be hot) in pressure steamer for 30 minutes. 

I trippled the recipe and got 15 quarts full and a little extra sauce. 

The sauce is so yummy I was licking the pot clean.. I might use the extra for pancake syrup!

Octopus for Dinner?!

Hey guess what?

I'm not dead!!

I'm just a super duper blog slacker...

So I will leave you with this super fun activity we did for dinner while I get some other posts ready!!

We made Poor Man's Calamari for dinner.

Yes, I totally just made that name up!

Its soooo easy and soooo fun.

Basically, you stick spaghetti noodles in cut up hot dogs... like so...

or like so... {if you're Estefan}

Then you throw your little octopuses... octopi... whatever their called... into some boiling hot water.

strain

and scarf!

YUM!!

Freezing Spaghetti Sauce (Small Recipe)

Spaghetti Sauce

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbs cooking oil

2 lbs tomatoes, peeled and cup up

or 1 28 oz can of tomatoes

1 6 ounce can tomato paste

2 tsp instant beef bouillon granules

1 tsp dried oregano, crushed

1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 1/2 cup water

1 large bay leaf

****This recipe is super easy. There is no canning or straining involved. The only time consuming part is the scalding and peeling of the tomatoes.****

The recipe calls for 2 lbs of tomatoes but I had about 9 lbs so I had to times the recipe by four. But in my directions I'll stick to the regular amounts. If you have more than 2 lbs of tomatoes just add to the recipe as needed!

1. Prepare tomatoes- scald and peel.

2. In a 3 quart saucepan cook onion and garlic in oil

I suffer sooooooo badly when I cut up onions.. so mine aren't finely chopped... It just makes for chunkier sauce.

3. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, bouillon granules, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt, pepper and stir in water.

4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 1 1/4 hour. Stirring occasionally.

5. Remove Bay leaf and simmer for 15 more minutes.
Your sauce should look something like this...

Since the sauce doesn't need to be canned you can just used quart size freezer bags!

6. Label your bags with the date and contents before you pour in the sauce.

7. Pour 3 cups of sauce into each bag and remove excess air.

8. Lay bags flat on a cookie sheet and tick em in the freezer while still on the cookie sheet so they'll freeze flat for easier storage!

Now you are done!! You can enjoy your sauce immediately or put it in the freezer for later use!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Extra stuff:

**Mark being a good helper!! **
**A bonus recipe for meatballs to go with your spaghetti! **I made this 3x5 card in photoshop. Just right click it and copy it into a word document and print. Then ta-da a recipe card just for you, from me!!!

my little secret...

After posting all my canning tutorials and recipes, I've had soooooo many people leave comments asking, "How do you have time to do all that?" or " You are a busy woman!"
or they'll say I'm amazing or my personal favorite a "domestic Diva!"

But the truth is simple. I have a little secret...

I




am





a






WIZARD!
(ok I'm a girl so technically I'd be a witch but I like the sound of wizard better!)

That's right you heard me correctly. I am a wizard! See for yourself...

I have a magic wand and it really does all the work for me. I just sit back, kick my feet up and swish and flick my wand! Magic gets the canning and crafting done in half the time. Its really cool, you should try it sometime!

Ok, you caught me. I'm not a wizard or a witch but I am excited to see Harry flippin Potter and the Half Blood Prince in 23 days!! I'm even gonna get a HP t-shirt so I can be cool like all the other crazys that'll be there! I'm thinkin this one....

or this one...

{cuz I'm pretty much in love with Ronald Wesley.}

What do you think?

Should I just get em both???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok now for some more garden friendly stuff...

If you don't use all your onions or peppers in the salsa, soup or spaghetti sauce you can freeze em!

How you ask?

Here's how my friends...

Onions

Clean you onion like you would for eating

scald it for 3-7 minutes or until the center is heated

cool, drain and freeze!

Peppers (sweet)

Wash, cut out stems and remove seeds

freeze whole, as halves, strips or diced!

Then you can save them for next year or use them in other recipes through out the year!

Easy as pie, enjoy! :)

good and garden fresh

I still haven't unpacked the truck and I'm exhausted from camp.. so the canning will commence Monday. But since I promised some yummy garden friendly recipes here are two that I love. I promise I'll get to the canning stuff soon.. I'm just so tired right now!

I got both of these recipes from my mother in law.

Zucchini Bread

Mix 3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

sift 3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg

add 2 cups grated zucchini
1 15 oz can pineapple, well drained

Pour in two greased bread pans and bake for 45 mins at 350*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carrot Drop Cookies

Cream 1 1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
sift 1 tsp salt
4 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
add 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
2 cups cooked, mashed carrots
2 tsp vanilla

Drop spoonfuls on greased cookie sheets.

Bake at 375* for 10-12 mins


Frosting to make cookies even yummier
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp butter softened
add orange juice to desired consistency

Now I've gotta plan my primary lesson, prepare a talk for Sacrament meeting and get some sleep!!!
Happy Baking!!

a couple of things...

First of all, didn't any one notice the Buzz reference in my give away post?!

1. Prizes A, 2 and D

In Home Alone, Buzz numbers the reasons why he isn't worried about Kevin A, 2 and D.. so funny, but maybe I'm the only one.

2. My Squishy

I picked a bunch of tomatoes yesterday and I found this tiny tomato. "I shall call him squishy and he shall be mine" -now name that movie.

3. Chips anyone?
I made some fresh salsa with the non-tiny tomatoes. Yummy!
4. Root Beer Cookies
Root Beer is my guilty pleasure so when I found the recipe at Becoming Betty I had to make them. So good!!
5. Fabric covered Thumbtacks
Allie and I covered some thumbtacks. Very fun, but I did burn myself on the hot glue gun :(
The tutorial is found at How About Orange!
Do you like how Allie stuck all but one in my little postcard?!
6. Clipboard of Cuteness
Made one of these using a tutorial found at Green Apple Orchard!
7. Beautiful Dreams
The other day Allie broke her Cinderella princess shoe. She brought it to me and sighed and said, "Oh mother, it was all such a beautiful dream."
If she got any funnier I would have to start an Allie-ism blog! Luckily, her fairy god mother has tape! All better now!
P.S. I've decided to give away one of everything on my give away. So instead of one winner there will be three! So leave a comment or two!! The give away closes tomorrow at midnight!

Meat Loaf

I love blogging for many reasons and one of the best is everybody shares their yummy recipes!

I was just going to post my delicious Meat Loaf recipe when I came across my friend Lara's new blog- Managable Meals! Also Torrey's Kitchen is great for yummy and fun recipes. Check em out!

We had this last night! Dustin loves it and took the half we didn't eat with him to work today!

Meat Loaf Recipe from Catherine Brown :)

What you'll need for the loaf:

• 2 beaten eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 tbs snipped parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dried sage, basil or oregano (I put a little of all of em!)
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef

What you'll need for the yummy sauce:

I usually double or even triple this cuz its so good!

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp dry mustard

1) in a bowl combine eggs and milk, stir in bread crumbs, onions, parsley, salt, sage & a dash of pepper.

2) add meat and mix well

3) lightly pat mixture into an 8x4x2 inch loaf pan

4) bake at 350* for an hour

5) combine ketchup, sugar and mustard

6) spoon fat of the top and spread sauce over the meat loaf. Bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving

HAPPY EATING!!!

Stuffed Peppers and Corn Bread!!

Last night for dinner I made stuffed peppers and corn bread! It was so yummy. Half way through dinner we realized that everything we were eating was either from food storage or home grown! I was so excited. If this is how being self-sufficient is than I am gonna be FINE!!

Ok ok you caught me.. these pictures aren't of my food but the food I made was as equally beautiful (right!).

Here's the recipe for the stuffed peppers, compliments of Gaye!

6 medium green peppers

1 lb ground beef (I used sausage)

1/2 chopped onion

3/4 tsp salt

dash of pepper

1 16oz can of tomatos (I didn't use this)

1 cup cooked white rice

1 tsp worch. sauce

1/2 tsp chili powder (I didn't use this, thought it might be to hot for the kids, ok me!)

1 bottle homemade tomato soup

-boil peppers 3-5

- cut peppers in half or leave whole

- in a skillet cook ground beef, onion, peppers, drain fat

- add salt, pepper, tomatoes, rice, worch. sauce and chili powder

- simmer til done

- stuff in peppers

- put in a baking dish

- pour boiled tomato soup over stuffed peppers

- bake 350* for 25-30 mins

HAPPY EATING!!!

Corn Bread

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

YEAY for Cornbread! Dustin picked a bunch of corn from the garden. Then we cut it off the cob and ground it into corn meal. Then I made cornbread! Talk about baking from scratch!!!

I used the recipe off the Albers brand corn meal. Its yummy so I thought I'd stick with a good one. But its even yummier with homegrown corn!

Corn Bread

• 1 cup corn meal
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400*. Grease 8 inch square baking pan

Combine meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Combine milk, oil and egg in a small bowl; mix well. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stil just until blended. Pour in prepared pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes

Happy Eating!!