PW Project: Chicken Pot Pie

Last month my aunt and uncle from New Jersey came to visit. I decided to cook dinner for their first night here. I’d been hankering to make chicken pot pie for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity; pot pie is a great comfort meal to eat after spending the entire day in airports and on airplanes. The recipe is only in the cookbook, but this turkey pot pie recipe is exactly the same, just swap out turkey for chicken and use the optional ingredients.

After cooking veggies in butter in a dutch oven for a few minutes, add cooked chicken.

PW Project: Super Duper Pie Crust

I have always been a little afraid of making my own pie crust, because I thought it was…difficult. I used to use the pre-made pie crusts from Trader Joe’s, but I didn’t really like them because they were hard to roll out. After making this pie crust recipe, I don’t really know what I was worried about. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to store bought pie crust, not when making your own is this easy.

Use a pastry cutter to cut the shortening into the flour.

This recipe is super easy to make, and the best part is that you can make the pie crusts ahead of time and then freeze them until you need to use one. Also, according to Ree, freezing the pie crust dough before using it it helps to increase its flakiness.

Add water, vinegar, one egg, and salt.

This recipe can either make 3 thin pie crusts or 2 thick pie crusts. After making the dough, divide it into plastic bags and place in the freezer. When you’re ready to use one, take it out of the freezer, let it defrost, and roll it out. I found it to be much easier to roll out than the pre-made pie crusts from Trader Joe’s.

Form into disks for easy freezing.

The taste is out of this world. It’s delicious and flaky and airy and everything a good pie crust should be. I have one pie crust still in the freezer; I’m waiting for the right recipe.

PW Project: From the Photo Vault

While browsing my laptop photos, I came across some PW Project photos that I had never posted.

Cinnamon Rolls

I made Ree’s famous cinnamon rolls a few months ago; they were delicious. I did a half recipe for the rolls, and then I did 1/4 of the icing recipe. It was definitely enough icing to make a good roll:icing ratio. I’m generally not a big fan of cinnamon rolls, mostly because I’ve only had Cinnabon, but these cinnamon rolls from the Pioneer Woman are absolutely delicious.

The Marlboro Man Sandwich

This cube steak sandwich is named for Ree’s husband, and only calls for onions and cube steak, with butter, of course. I added some green peppers and nixed the bread part. Easy to make and scrumptious.

BBQ Meatballs

These BBQ meatballs are not the kind you put in spaghetti sauce; they’re hearty meatballs slathered in a delicious BBQ sauce. Definitely some food for comfort.

All three of these recipes were pretty easy to throw together; the only hard part was the time. Cinnamon require lots of waiting for the dough to rise. You really have to plan out when you want to make them and give yourself enough time. The meatballs need to be fried in canola oil in small batches before you bake them in the BBQ sauce. Even though the recipes themselves are simple to follow, the waiting can be hard for some folks, who like instant gratification, to handle. I find the waiting, especially when you have food this delicious waiting at the other end, to be worth it.

Fan for Life

Today marks the day that I have become a fan of Ree Drummond/The Pioneer Woman for life. I will be a loyal fan, follower, and, barring any unforeseen catastrophes, devotee of Ree’s until the end of my days.

Why the epic language? Let me explain…

It all began way back in February when I was unpacking from my recent move back to LA. As I was putting away all of my crap that I had brought back from DC, it quickly became apparent that I didn’t have my beloved, well-used, and twice-signed copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I looked high and low throughout the house trying to find my cookbook.

About a week after moving back, Ree came to LA for a signing of her new book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: A Love Story. While she was signing my book, I told her that I was missing my cookbook, that it didn’t make it home to LA with me, and I had no idea what might have happened to it. I thought there was a chance I might have left it in DC.

Ree was super kind and told me that if my cookbook didn’t turn up, I should email her and she would send me another one. All I could think at the time was that it was really sweet of her to say that, but I was, not surprisingly, skeptical of whether she actually would send me a cookbook if I did have to ask.

I kept looking at home, and I emailed my former roommates in DC to ask if they had seen my cookbook around the house. They said they hadn’t seen it, and it was not to be found in my house.

I don’t want to speculate about what I think happened to my cookbook (I have many ideas) versus what actually happened to the cookbook (I have no clue).

Finally, about a week ago, I emailed Ree asking if there was a chance I could get another copy of the cookbook. A couple of days later I got an email from one of Ree’s assistants asking for my mailing address! And today, my brand new copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks, signed by Ree, arrived!

Wow! How awesome is that!? I’ve written before how awesome Ree is at her signing events. She’s stayed for hours at bookstores to make sure every fan gets their book signed and everyone who wants one gets a photo. She really makes an effort to interact and communicate with her fans (as much as her schedule will allow, of course). She has giveaways, photo contests, trivia quizzes…all for the benefit of her fans.
And she’s popular…I waited four hours to get my cookbook signed in Virginia, she gets around 13 million page hits per month, her entries generate thousands of comments (sometimes into the tens of thousands).

So even though it’s good PR for her to be generous towards her fans, she was really under no obligation to send me a new cookbook. I really believe that she appreciates her fans, those who have made her into the popular internet presence that she has become.

And this copy is never leaving my site.

PW Project: The Best Darn Sugar Cookies

I’ve made these sugar cookies a couple of times now.  And both times they’ve been delicious.  Easily the best sugar cookies I’ve ever had.  They’re flaky and delicate.  Sweet, but not too sweet.

These sugar cookies are so simple to make.  There’s no need to roll out an dough or use any wonky cookie cutters.  Just scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet.

To get the cookies flat you use a drinking glass smeared with butter on the bottom. Dip the bottom of the glass into sugar and then press the ball of dough flat. Dip the glass back into the sugar and repeat for each cookie.

The cookies don’t need to bake for too long, and you really want to be careful not to over bake them. You want to take them out of the oven right when they’re done.

This is a high yield recipe. I had cookies ready to eat for days. Super yummy.

And they say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice…

This morning I was at the National Book Festival (more on that later), and look who I saw:

Because Ree was speaking at:

The National Book Festival!

And we had a nice conversation at the Oklahoma booth in the Pavilion of States where she signed my cookbook…again!

Take a look:

Stay tuned for a more informative post about the National Book Festival and hearing Ree’s talk!

PW Project: Penne Pasta with Shrimp in a Tomato Cream Sauce

I made this penne pasta recipe last weekend, and it is wonderful!  I had a lot left over, and I was able to take some to work for lunch.  The recipe can be found on the website here; it is not too hard to make.

Here’s what you need:

Not pictured above is the shrimp which was thawing and draining in the fridge. The actual recipe has directions for cooking raw shrimp, but I bought whole cooked shrimp at Trader Joe’s. Next time I’ll buy raw shrimp, but I went easy on myself this time. There is a very well-known historic fish market at the waterfront, the Maine Avenue Fish Market, that I really want to visit one time and shop for some fresh fish. I love fish.

PW Project: Raspberry Cobbler

This afternoon while I was waiting for Comcast to show up, I found some raspberries in thr fridge that I bought a little while back.  I decided to whip up this super easy to make cobbler (available in the book and on the web).

The original recipe is for Blackberry Cobbler, but you can use another berry, like blueberries or raspberries, if you want.

It’s definitely not what I would consider to be a traditional cobbler, like the kind with the crumble top, but it’s so simple to make that you can put it together without much prep work.  It takes about 1 hour to bake; waiting for it to be done is the hardest part! 

I used my phone to take a picture of the finished cobbler. 

Not a bad photo but a little dark.

PW Project: Rib-Eye Steak

I made a steak tonight for dinner.  I’ve never made steak before, so this was very exciting for me, and I have to say, I didn’t disappoint myself.

Doesn’t that look gorgeous!

PW Project: French Breakfast Puffs

Last night I made these French Breakfast Puffs, featured on the website and in the cookbook. There’s nothing French about these little muffins, but there’s a story behind the name on the website.

These little muffins are absolutely delicious and a cinch to whip up. The recipe says it yields 12 muffins, but I was able to get 18 out of the batter.

So, if you look at my photo and the photo on the website, you’ll notice that I made a major change to the finished recipe. I did not coat the finished muffins in cinnamon-sugar. I left them as is, and they are definitely just as tasty (although I have no basis for comparison). I plan on eating these for breakfast, and I felt the cinnamon-sugar coating was too much like a desert.