I Love Food and Weekends

This weekend was a little uneventful....but sometimes those are the best kind of weekends.

Pat and I tested out our new lens by taking pictures around the house. (A post about our new lens to come later in the week).

I started my Saturday morning out with a simple but tasty breakfast....toast. I like my toast with cream cheese and jam. And as you can see, I occasionally have cheese whiz. I know that's bad, but it tastes so good on toast.

 

This breakfast of champions was followed by a mani-pedi. My nails look great, but the whole experience could have been longer. When I get a pedicure my favorite part is the foot massage and this pedicure was lacking in that department. But, I guess I can't really complain because I bought a groupon for the mani-pedi for only $18.

 

Pat and I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon watching HBO's (ridiculously long named series) - 24/7: Penguins/Capitals: Road to the Winter Classic. It's a four part series that followed the Washington Caps and Pittsburgh Penguins, giving an inside perspective leading up to the Winter Classic game.

We really enjoyed the series, which was evident because we watched all four episodes in one day. It was well shot and edited, interesting, hilarious at times, and very entertaining. They mic'd the players and the refs during games so it was particularly interesting to hear their comments. If you haven't watched it already and you like hockey (even if you don't follow hockey), I completely recommend it! (as long as you don't mind the massive amount of F-bombs and the occasional bit of blood).

Sunday morning I made our traditional (as of lately) Sunday breakfast of pancakes. I think we need to cut back on this tradition to keep our waste sizes from growing. But they were delicious!

After breakfast, Pat and I ran a few errands. First stop was Barnes and Noble, so Pat could pick up Settlers of Catan....a very addicting board game. I headed straight for the cooking and discounts sections. I stumbled upon The Pioneer Woman Cooks, which was on sale, so I bought it.

Recently, I've been following the Pioneer Woman's blog. She's someone every woman can aspire to. The Pioneer Woman, if you haven't already heard of her, is a city girl turned rancher's wife. She homeschools her four kids, makes home cooked meals, dabbles in photography, has made a business out of her wonderful blog, and is now an author of two books. Her cookbook has some of her best recipes and gives some insight into her life on the ranch.

While Pat was busy washing our car, I stayed in the car and read her book. (Washing the car is really a one person job, I would just get in the way, right?). The Pioneer Woman has some really great ideas, so good in fact that my mouth was watering the entire time. I made an ingredient list on my phone and our next stop was the grocery store.

Last night I made the following recipes from the book:

Pico de Gallo

added avocado to make Guacamole

PW's Potato Skins

Perfect Pot Roast

I loved how the Pioneer Woman's book had step by step pictures for each recipe. BTW, she took all the pictures in the book herself.

All the recipes I tried were delicious. The guacamole was fanatic! Pat devoured it! The potato skins were perfectly crisp. Although the potato skin in the picture looks somewhat like a baked potato, it wasn't. I scoped out the middle to make mashed potatoes.

Finally the pot roast was tender, flavorful, and fragrant. I love using rosemary with meat, the aroma and flavor it ads are amazing. Aside from the recipes, I used the broth from the roast to make gravy; it's not difficult to make, like so many people make it out to be, and it tastes so much better than making it from a package.

The Pioneer Woman definitely doesn't hold back on the use of oil and butter in her recipes (although not as much as Paula Dean); when cooking for a ranching family the focus isn't really on fat-free. So this book might not be for everyone. However, I enjoyed it and will keep in my repertoire as a go to for good old fashioned comfort food with a twist.