Give me a C!

And give me chocolate cake! My daughter and I are making Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake in remembrance of the veterans today on Memorial Day. I am typing this as it is baking and the butter is melting for the frosting. And I am totally pioneer because where we live we can't get Internet on a computer so I have to use my cell phone! Lol! Old school baby!

I haven't made cake like this before where you cook the chocolate an add it to the set ingredients. Heck I don't think I've made chocolate cake from scratch before!

We are about to take the cake out of the oven and frost!!! Oh the temptation my daughter is having to just take the pot of frosting and run! Oh and I think I would join her and hide in the closet so baby boy cant find us!

Let me tell you the intense chocolate we have going on here! 8 tablespoons to be exact...in the whole cake and frosting package!

I have included some before and after shots of the cake as well as some yummy frosting dripping from the whisk. :) heaven I tell ya! Oh and that's my daughter helpin out so she can lick the bowl!

Now it's just time for the taste test! Drum roll please.....

Chocolatey richness so good! So rich I couldn't finish my piece! My cowboy loved it! Definite keeper and probably next birthday cake!

So good they were gone...

Before I could get a picture the apple dumplings were GONE! We had even bought ice cream to eat but didn't touch it. My cowboy asks if I can make these every day cause they remind him of pie and was just asking the other day if I could make pies so he could eat them for breakfast! This might be an easier version! The longest part was the baking and I had my doubts when I first pulled them out of the oven cause they looked really liquidy. But it's the secret sauce!

The sauce is a combo of butter, sugar, and vanilla with a splash (12oz.) of something you'll just have to find out about in the new Pioneer Woman cookbook because it's the secret ingredient! This sauce is over the top of apple slices rolled in crescent rolls. And baked for 40 minutes.

Heaven...

Definitely perfect potatoes!

Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin. I was in heaven just creating this magnificent cheesy concoction!

I have only ever purchased the box version of this at the store and I can NEVER get it right! It always took longer than it said to cook and it was always runny! I liked the taste on but it just never made me happy. But folks hang on to your shorts cause this will be better than a roller coaster ride!

This was easier than the box version! Although I did have to cut up my potatoes, I didn't mind one bit! As I added the whole milk and the heavy cream, the garlic and the cheese, I was getting giddy inside!

While the dish cooked and bubbled inside my cowboy comes in from his long day of branding and asks "what's that smell"? He could smell it all the way down the driveway! I said we are having Spicy Dr. Pepper pulled pork and Perfect Au Gratin Potatoes. He says "it smell like cheese" with a big grin on his face! My family are cheese Coinsurers.

When the timer went off to signal its doneness, low and behold, it was done! Perfect!

It was a great dinner a a great combination! No more boxes au gratin spuds for us!

Dr Pepper Pulled Pork

This is becoming my go to recipe for weekends because it goes on to make many other dinner meals for the busy week.

The Pioneer Woman uses onions, salt, pepper, and a while can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, brown sugar and Dr. Pepper (like you didn't know that from the title!) I on the other hand have a child and myself who doesn't like things too spicy so I only used 3or 4 chilies and about 1/4 of the sauce in the can. Trust me it was plenty and still very yummy!

This meal continued on to feed my family pulled pork sandwiches, nachos, and just my husband nibbling every time he was in the fridge! So it was very economical to buy a little larger pork butt (it makes me chuckle every time I say that).

So this recipe will be a monthly go to for me. At least not too often cause I don't want my cowboy to tire of it!

Beef stew alert!

This is an alert for your taste buds! Everyone needs to add a can of beer to your next beef stew! It's imperative to get the consistency and deep flavor for the most perfect stew! This is yet another winner! This stew has basic ingredients of meat, potatoes, onions and carrots. It cooked for longer than the cookbook said but that was ok with me. Also mine seemed to have a but more liquid so my plan to use it for another meal this week will be interesting but I will figure it out.
My husband had three helpings but my daughter wasn't sold as it seemed to be too much if a complete meal. She prefers pizza or waffles. My 1 year had two helpings as well so I could safely say this is a goods mans meal!

With this meal I made rosemary dinner rolls. These are magical! Oh the lovely fresh aroma of rosemary! And the buttery goodness of the rolls. I could make all the rolls in my future like this! Definitely will be at the next family function! I made two batches because I let the fire batch rise too long but yet were wonderful anyway!

I am off to start the next recipe...

The Menu

I recently purchased the new cookbook by Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman Cooks Food From My Frontier.  I got the cookbook on my kindle fire so that it is easier to take to the kitchen with me and I can read it ALL the time since I always have my kindle.  I am finding that my obsession with cookbooks and my kindle is a very good combination! But I don't seem to get much of anything else done...shhh...don't tell my husband or my boss!
So I have planned out the menu for the weekend and next week.  They all include recipes from the new and older cookbook from The Pioneer Woman.  So I thought I would give a heads up to what to look forward to in the coming week.

Saturday: Pot Roast and Rosemary Rolls
Sunday: Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork and au gratin potatoes
Monday: Chicken Tacos
Tuesday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Wednesday: if there is any left over pulled pork, we are having pizza made from it, if not then I have to think of something else! :)
Thursday: Shepard's Pie and fried Spinach
Friday: Steakhouse Pizza (I bet ya this will be a BIG hit with the hubby!)

So stay tuned! Its going to be a good one!

Cooking again!

So I have recently made Ree's cinnamon rolls and they are very good. I watched her show on the Food Network and she made it look so easy. So I got to the kitchen and got things going. It probably would have been easy if I had a standing mixer. But until money starts growing in trees I get to use a sturdy spoon and arm muscles so the process took a bit longer for me.
I got the dough rolled out but not as nice as the picture in the book it what I saw on TV but it worked. I got two pans worth of rolls and the frosting was unbelievable. Course I haven't tasted a frosting I don't like yet!
I had my husband come in after feeding the herd and try a sample. He did his usual shove a roll in, chew, kiss me on the forehead with a "good job honey" and back out. Considering he didn't spit it out I will call this one a winner!
Oh the second pan I took over to the boss man and his family! Gotta share the wealth...and the calories!

Good golly that was easy pie crust!

I wanted to make the flat apple pie recipe out of the Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook. But I see that my family has eaten all of my apples! So maybe next time. But I wet ahead and made the pie crust that is in the cookbook. An good golly Ms. Molly! It was easy!

I whipped it up during nap time and they are waiting to be filled with a raspberry mixture i have in mind.

The crust is a mixture of flour, shortening, water, egg, and vinegar. You mix it together and put in bags until ready to use! Took about 8 minutes to whip up.

This is a keeper!

And the last picture is the finished product.

Peach crisp with maple cream sauce

So we were in the need of a dessert. We are trying to not eat ice cream every night to help our waistlines and what a great way by making a Pioneer Woman Cooks recipe!

The lucky recipe winner of the night was the peach crisp! I must say I am a sucker for crisp!

So I got our the mixing bowls and measuring spoons and got to town. It didn't take long that's for sure!

I mixed together the peaches with flour, sugars, spices, butter and pure maple syrup. It truly is a heavenly recipe to follow!

While it was baking I created this sauce that was to die for! The maple cream sauce! I could have just made this for dessert and we would have been happy! It had all the goodies, heavy cream, maple syrup and light corn syrup.

You drizzle on top of your slice of crisp and savor every morsel of heaven. We fought for the last piece and I swear my husband licked every drop of sauce.

This will be a holiday recipe for us as I'm sure the rest of the clan will love this too!