Cooking Through The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook

Well, gradually I am working my way through Ree's cookbook.  I'm still hoping/planning on get the whole thing cooked by the end of the year but I do realize that my recipe per week quotient is going to have to increase significantly if I want to meet that goal.  Last weekend I went through and found that I have 36 recipes left to cook and I've cooked 26.  Let's just say that if you're in Tuscaloosa with us this weekend be prepared to eat all Pioneer Woman all the time just so that I can make my goal! :)

I have had a few successful recipes in the past few weeks that I wanted to share.

Last Thursday I made The Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast.  Oh my it was good!  My friend Leslie had emailed me asking if I had made it yet and then she made it and told me it was great and easy so I forged ahead and went for it.  I had never made any pot roast before but this one really was easy.  And it turned out so good!  Just made sure you invite someone over to help you eat it because you'll have plenty! And we had leftovers last night in sandwiches and it was still really great!

I also made her Hot Artichoke Dip for our last summer Bible Study meeting.  It was reall good and very easy if you have a big food processor.  You just dump everything into the food processor and mix it up and then add the larger artichoke pieces in later and dump into a dish and make.  It was really good but I would recommend making two recipes. Our little group of 10 ate almost an entire recipe of it so if you're having some guys in your group or less things with the dip I'd recommend at least two recipes.  Besides, you can always eat the leftovers later!  I couldn't find this recipe online but if you want it let me know and I can email it to you.

This week I went for the Chicken Pot Pie.  I had never made Chicken Pot Pie before and this required me to make not only the filling but the pie crust.  It was a great recipe although I think I used a little too much thyme.  Also, it made A LOT of filling that overflowed my Pampered Chef deep dish pie plate.  So after cleaning that up and siphoning some sauce out of the plate I covered it with the crust and baked it.  I've never had good luck with pie crust and this crust was no different  -- it always tears for me when I try and pick it up.  But the crust tasted great and I think if I had made the crust longer than 30 minutes before I needed to put it on the pie it would have been colder and that would have helped.  But overall this was a great recipe and a good way to get veggies in C since she apparently really liked it and ate all that we gave her!  I also couldn't find this recipe online so email me if you want it.