PW Red Velvet Cake

I did it!  I made a Red Velvet cake from scratch.   It's not like it was on my recipe bucket list since Red Velvet cake is not my first choice at the dessert table.  But boy do some people love it and just go on and on about it!    I was just curious so I did it just to say I did it, plus I needed a dessert for Christmas Day.

The recipe is simple enough to put together.  I'm not one to gather all the ingredients together on the countertop then measure them out.  I get one ingredient out, measure, get the next one out measure.  Probably not the most efficient way so it seemed to take me forever just to get this stirred together and into the oven.  

I was surprised at how much red food coloring and how little cocoa goes into this cake.  Finally, after leaving things out at room temp, stirring, baking, cooling, cooling some more, stirring some more and icing it was finished.

We ate it on Christmas Day after our traditional red beans and rice dinner.  It's the buttermilk that makes it so yummy and moist.  Oh, and the cream cheese icing is good too!

PW Italian Chicken Soup

Got to catch up on the Sweet As Pie Cooking Club posts for December selections so I can get on with the yummy January selections!  

Italian Chicken Soup was my selection this time round.  I seriously doubt if this is an authentic Italian recipe but maybe a couple of my Italian friends will let me know.   Does adding oregano and olive oil make a dish Italian?   Even if it doesn't, this soup is still very good and it makes enough to feed an army.

Lots, and I do mean, lots of bell pepper, onion and some jalepeno.  The jalepeno is optional, we like it so for us, it's just not right to leave it out.

I had never heard of "ditalini" pasta.  Publix didn't have it or anything like it.  But I found a ditalini look alike at Piggly Wiggly in a box called salad macaroni.  Sometimes the small town grocery stores save the recipe.

Even with all the peppers and seasonings, this soup is mild, tasty and very filling.   It's even better the next day.  Crusty bread and Ricatoni's italian herbs and olive oil are the only side needed.

Perfect on a cold night!  Just be ready to feed an army or make half a recipe.  Mine made about 6 quarts.

PW Roasted Cauliflower

We especially love roasted asparagus and even roasted young tender green beans and broccoli.  But I had never tried roasted cauliflower until this recipe showed up on the Sweet As Pie Cooking Club for November.

The Bassman doesn't like cauliflower so I prepared this dish for one of our Sunday family gatherings.

It's easy, as is roasting any vegetable.   Cut, toss, sprinkle and bake!

I think my oven is old and tired.  A new oven and a kitchen update are on our to do list ... but not until after our daughters graduate from college.  The cauliflower had only a few roasted brown areas and I was short on time.  I'd like more brown roasting on there so next time I'll roast it at a slightly higher temperature.

The cauliflower must have been small for the amount of bread crumbs called for in the recipe.  That's way too much bread crumbs, I only used a cup and it was still way too much in my opinion.



I let the crumb topping brown only slightly so I could heat it up and brown it more at lunch time.  This was a different side than usual and most of the family did give it a try but no one commented on it at all.  

The roasted cauliflower is good, I'll definitely add that to my roasting vege options.  And I'll just leave off the bread crumbs completely or use a lot less and maybe add some of the variations like parmesan cheese or herb seasonings.

PW French Onion Soup

I just enjoyed this PW French Onion Soup, one of our November Sweet As Pie Cooking Club selections (I am a little behind on the November menu!)

Be aware it takes a couple of hours to prepare this, but it's worth it.

After a long onion prep and simmer...

....and the bread has been toasted and cut into croutons for easier eating (my preference)...

...and smoked gruyere, my latest cheese addiction... is piled on top and broiled ...

it's ready to eat...

I promise there is soup under all those yummy layers!

And I had a second ladle full...

Have a great weekend!

Pioneer Woman Pecan Pie...Again

My favorite men in my life, the Bassman and my Dad love Pecan Pie.  After I made PWs Pecan Pie the first time, and gave it away, I wanted to make it again and this time I planned to EAT some of it myself!!

This was also my challenge to overcome my fear of making the "the crust".    The crust recipe makes 3, so there's already one handy in the freezer from the first pie.  I like that and the crust taste good, it's light and flaky.

One of the Sweet As Pie Cooking Club ladies said hers turned out runny.  I just hope the pie I gave away wasn't runny, but I don't know for sure!   PW says cook it ... and cook it some more...without burning it...until it's only slightly jiggly.   Kinda high maintenance keeping a check on it while it's baking.  

Using a 10 inch pie pan, the crust came just to the top, not enough to ruffle.  No ruffle, less fuss.  I left the foil over the edges for 40 minutes instead of the 30 minutes in her recipe, so it wouldn't brown too much while trying to bake long enough to get the jiggle out.

It baked for about 75 minutes, until the jiggle was pretty much gone.

This recipe has more sugar than my usual pecan pie recipe, maybe that's why it tends to be more jiggly.  But it wasn't runny, so it turned out good.

Only a small slice for me, please.  I usually eat the pecans off the top and have a bite or two of the crust so I need lots of help eating pecan pie.  That's where my two favorite men come in!

Drunk Chicks

"Drunk Chicks". 

That's what the Bassman called this Sweet As Pie Cooking Club selection when I told him we were having Peach Whiskey Barbecue Chicken for dinner.  I wasn't expecting that comment and just had to laugh and tell you about it!

This was another recipe that I could convert to a crock pot version which is perfect for when evenings are busy.  The version on the PW website is slightly different than the one in the book, but only slightly.  I had read the one on the website before I went to the grocery store so I didn't pick up any fresh peaches and wasn't going back to get them! 

Brown the chicks.

Saute the onion.  This is the best smelling part!  Now the whole house smells yummy!

Stir in the remainder of the drunken ingredients.

Pile it all in the crock pot.

Add a shake or 12 of hot sauce.  This is in the variations section of the recipe in the cookbook.

Cook on High for about 4-5 hours.  Serve over mash potatoes.

It's good, I was wishing I had some crusty bread to get up all that yummy sauce!

PW Chicken Spaghetti

This dish is the third dish of my PW marathon cooking day.   

It really was a full cooking day because I had put the chicken in the crock pot to cook overnight.  I am not a real big fan of dishes that need to be cooked and then baked.  I was either really in a cooking mood that day or a gluten for punishment by making the dough for the Pecan Pie AND a dish that had to be cooked twice!

This Chicken Spaghetti was for the college kids who were going to be home while I wasn't :(.   Yes they could have just eaten out, but I don't like them to do that all the time and our bank account doesn't like it either!  Plus, I wanted to send some leftovers back with them.

With the onion, bell pepper, cream soups, chicken and lots of cheese you can disguise that whole wheat pasta that you have been hiding on the shelf.  I like the whole grain pastas, but my family doesn't.  In this dish, you couldn't really tell it was whole grain and it made the dish slightly healthier (but only slightly)!



It makes a BIG casserole dish full!  More than the stated 6-8 servings.  Perfect for a bunch of hungry kids and some leftovers too.

Whew, I'm wiped out!  I may not cook again until Thanksgiving! 

;)

PW Pecan Pie

Next dish on my PW marathon cooking day is this Pecan Pie.  

Dealing with dough is not the most fun thing, but since Pecan Pie is the Bassman's favorite I'd like to step above the store bought crust.

The crust recipe actually makes 3 crusts.  So I still have 2 in the freezer for when I'm in the mood to play with dough again!

It rolled out pretty easily.

But it tears easily when I put in the pan and needs to be smoothed and pinched together. 

Please don't critique my pie ruffle.  I work with it for a few minutes then move on.  Let's be real, it will taste the same as a perfect ruffle, I'm sure!  :)

Add lots of pecans!  Yum!

Add the pie mixture.

Then bake at 350.  I think this took about an hour.  I kept checking on it but lost count of the total time.

It looks good, doesn't it?   I wish I knew, but I don't because I gave it away.   Good thing I have 2 other crusts in the freezer so we can try one for ourselves one day!

PW Beer Braised Beef with Onions Crockpot Style

This dish was the beginning of a Pioneer Woman marathon day of cooking.  We are always accusing our 20 year olds of burning the candle at both ends, but we are guilty of it, too!

On the day of my upholstery class...the day before we leave at 6 am on a road trip so I need to pack...the same day I want to make a home baked gift to take on the trip...the day before my daughters will be home for the weekend and I won't be :(  I made this Beer Braised Beef with Onions.  It was great in the crockpot.   I'm a little behind on my Sweet As Pie Cooking Club recipes, this is one of our October selections.

I used fresh thyme from my herb pots and dried rosemary.   I used this same process for rosemary, thyme and oregano so I'm hoping to have enough dried herbs from these plants to last through the winter.

After braising the meat and veges according to the recipe, I just layered the ingredients in the crockpot the same way PW did in the dutch oven.  I used lite beer since that's what we had on hand.  The beef needed to be done by dinner time, I turned the crockpot on High and cooked it until the meat pulled apart easily with a fork.  Serve with mashed potatoes. 

This is definitely for the meat and taters men (and women, too) in your life.  It is easy and we both loved it! 

I think I'll have some leftovers again tonight.  Yum!

PW Pasta With Pesto Cream Sauce

This Sweet As Pie Cooking Club selection is the perfect recipe for the last of my basil plant. 

For half of this recipe, I made the entire amount of pesto and then froze half of it to use later.   I substituted walnuts for pine nuts.  The butter-y, cream-y, pesto-y sauce poured over the pasta was looking and smelling so good too!

It made a good side with grilled chicken.

Unfortunately, half the recipe still calls for the full amount of pot and pans and food processor to wash.   And some recipes only get one photo, the one of my plate!

Now excuse me, I'm going to get a breath mint.  That pesto is kicking!

PW Crash Hot Potatoes

This recipe was my pick for the Sweet As Pie Cooking Club.   Thinking back, I have been cooking potatoes most of my life.  Seriously, since I was about 10!  Coming from a family of 8, we had potatoes almost every night.   They were mashed, stewed or fried.   We never had baked potatoes that I can recall.  I'm not sure why, except that maybe the oven was busy with the roast or the oven-fried chicken.  And this was before microwave ovens.  It seems weird saying that!

So I chose Crash Hot Potatoes in honor of my all my potato-fixin' years.  And this recipe didn't disappoint! 

Some days I'm not a fan of recipes that require being "cooked" twice.  This one does, and I didn't know that before I chose it, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

While the potatoes boil, start looking through the drawers and utensil places for the potato masher.  It never gets used in my kitchen but it's around here somewhere, just gotta look!

So mash to the left and mash to the right.  Brush on the oil.  Season with salt, pepper and the best part, rosemary, fresh from it's pot.  Other herbs can be used instead.

Bake about 25 minutes until toasty.

These are good.  The kids and picky people will probably like them too, even with that green stuff sprinkled on top!

PW BBQ Jalapeno Poppers

We're always ready to eat jalapeno poppers.  We love them!  We even like 'em nekked.   I was excited to see one of the September picks in the Sweet As Pie Cooking Club was jalapeno poppers!  Perfect for gameday...or any day for that matter!  The game is only the side attraction, right?

Leave some seeds and membrane because we like 'em hot.

Fill them with cheese and secure the bacon wrap with a toothpick.  After wrapping the bacon around several peppers, it occured to me this step was more time consuming than I wanted it to be.  After all, where do we think this bacon is going anyway?   I guess the toothpick is a help when it comes to grabbing one when they're done.

A friend recommended Blue's Hog BBQ sauce and we tried it on smoked ribs.  It's pretty sweet, which is not our preference, but it's what I had on hand.  I brushed it on a few and left some plain.

One of the variations was to spread on some preserves.  So I tried that too.

Isn't the pan going to be swimming in grease with half a slice of bacon on each popper?   I cut back on the bacon, laying on just enough to cover the top.

Bake them for what seems like forever at 275 degrees or until the bacon is crisp.

Well, it never got crisp and the longer they baked the softer the jalapenos got.

I turned the broiler on and toasted the tops until the bacon started browning.


With jam





Plain




With BBQ sauce

Although the peppers are too soft, they still taste ok, just mushy.  After all, how can you mess up jalapenos, cheese and bacon? 

With some adjustments, basically less bacon and higher oven temp, I would make these again.  It was a good variation on a family favorite!

Chocolate Mint Brownie Fall Apart

Head's up chocolate and mint lovers!   You'll love these, I also threw on a scoop of vanilla ice cream.   Now that I've come down from the chocolate high I can tell you about these from The Sweet As Pie Cooking Club. 

This is Katie's selection, she's at Come Hell or High Waters.  I had the opportunity to meet her a couple of days after I made these brownies!  Isn't that sweet?  Nice to meet you Katie! 

I love Andes mints but had never seen them used in a recipe before.  Katie found Andes baking mints, but I used the individually wrapped ones.

Just unwrap them.  Repeat 50 times.

I don't have a stand mixer...maybe I should ask Santa for one.  I whipped up the ingredients with my hand mixer.

I love mint, but I didn't add mint extract.  With so many Andes mints already, I thought I might not miss it.

Kind of as an oversight, I used semi-sweet chocolate instead of the bittersweet and unsweetened baking chocolate.   I didn't have my grocery list with me when I bought the chocolate so I just bought baking chocolate and went with it.

Coming out of the oven, they look like mushrooms because they overflow out of the muffin pan.  

PW warns to grease the pan generously, which I thought I did.  But several fell apart while trying to get them out...sigh...I put them on the back for this photo opportunity.

So just carry on!  That doesn't stop the chocolate dipping and pouring and sprinkling of the remainder of melted chocolate and chopped Andes mints over the brownie fall-apart.

I had to have the college crowd around to help me eat these so I would not eat them all by myself!

Not shown:  scoop of vanilla ice cream

Kerry

PW Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas

We're not big mushroom fans around here but I was looking forward to trying the Sweet as Pie Cooking Club selection the Pioneer Woman's Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas. 

Cheese fans?  Yes, definitely.

Spinach fans?  Yes, definitely.

Spinach and Mushroom Quesadilla fan?

Yes, definitely!

Corn Casserole with Peppers

This Pioneer Woman recipe was just meant to be for The Sweet As Pie Cooking Club. 

Back in the spring, I needed a dish for a potluck.  So I flipped through the PW recipe book and found the Corn Casserole with Peppers recipe.  I did take some photos thinking I would just post it or select it when my turn came around.  And here it is, our August bonus recipe.  I am feeling so ahead of the menu!  Ha ha!

This was the perfect dish for all that corn in the freezer that needed to be used to make room for this summer's corn.

Red peppers are not my favorite, but they're good in this dish.  I removed the seeds from the jalepenos since this dish was for a crowd.  Some may not like it hot!

Whenever I see cream, I think of the Pioneer Woman ... I have never cooked with so much cream until I started following her recipes.

...and plenty of butter too!

The sauce is thinner than I expected.  My sister-in-law makes a similiar dish using cream cheese instead of cream so I guess I was comparing to that. 

It's rich and very good!  I received positive feedback at the potluck, too!