I Want to Be Just Like Her

http://thepioneerwoman.com/2008/10/disturbing.html?cp=2#comment-388588

Pioneer Women. I have spoken of her before.

I just sat here and laughed my head off at her recent post. Is it funny to you? Ahahahahaha...still laughing. I just hate how I never win anything in her giveaways.:(

Oh...how do you like my spoooooky Halloween page? Okay...so I know I go a little overboard...if I had my way completely my entire page would just be glitter graphics...but I have restrained myself a little. Josh says I am tacky when it comes to Halloween...because if I had my way completely my entire yard would be full of inflatable Halloween blow-up scenes and fake headstones and spider webs...and if there was a way glitter graphics...Josh forces me to practice restraint there...we don't have one decoration. He won't even let me put sticky thingys on the window...you know that say things like "Boo to You"...well boo to you Mr. Party Pooper...so I am living it up on my blog! Spooky playlist coming soooooooooooon! Oh...and don't forget to scroll down...I have a bootiful friend down there too! Oh man...I am on a roll.

Cooking Update

So here are my pictures of how the recipes turned out. Quite different from Ree's pictures...I obviously have no future in food photography, good thing I had no aspirations in that field or I would have been sorely crushed.

Ultimately, I was rather disappointed in how the food turned out. It is probably a bad idea to pick recipes on an empty stomach because I picked the 1st 3 that I looked at...maybe I should have been more selective and remembered how much I dislike cilantro and chicken drumsticks...hmmmm...ya think?

Here are the Cheesy Muffins...it can't get any easier! So simple to make and these are pretty good...this will be the only recipe out of the three that I will make again. I would recommend you try this if you looking for a good bread side to go with your main course.

This picture is what our dinner looked liked on Tuesday night. It was a good dinner, tasted good...but was not spectacular. I guess I get my expectations so high...I think I was hoping that I would somehow explode in ecstasy after making Pioneer Woman's recipes. Has this ever happened...no.(my Lindor Truffles have come close) So why would I think a drumstick could do this?...have no clue where my delusions were coming from. But this meal was all too ordinary and took too much planning for it to be worth it. In fact the vegetables were my favorite thing on the plate and I had nothing to do with them besides throwing them in the microwave...I LOVE Steam Fresh veggies!

I am not sure if I messed up somewhere...but you first coat the chicken in the yogurt mixture and then roll it in bread crumbs. Well...while the chicken was baking all of the coating melting to the bottom of the pan...so I had naked drumsticks and coated glass pan. Which by the way....if you love drumsticks you probably would like this recipe...I just have never been a huge fan...they just looked so good at the time.

And here is the Black Bean Chowder...the biggest mistake of the night. Again, I have no clue what I was expecting...but whatever it was did not happen. It looked good, smelled good...but tasted like hmmmm...black beans. Which is fine...but if I wanted to eat black beans I would have just opened a can up and had at it. I thought with all the preparations and spices and milk and cheese that went into this that it would be nothing short of amazing.
The only way I really liked eating this was if I crumbled the cheesy muffins in it. Okay...it wasn't horrible...it was good...it is something that would be really nice on a terribly freezing cold day in the middle of nowhere and you are lost. I also felt like my dad while I was eating it. It just reeked of Dad-ness. And the Cilantro-relish...okay that was the biggest mistake of the night. While cutting up the Cilantro I almost tossed my cookies...which should have been my first clue. Cilantro and I do not get along...and Cilantro is a power hungry herb...it takes over everything it gets its greedy little leaves on. So...once I topped the chowder with it, it was all over.

So lesson learned...if you feel no love for drumsticks and hate cilantro...DON'T MAKE IT! However, there are cilantro lovers out there and you would probably adore the relish...I just feel bad that 2 cucumbers had to go to waste when I dumped the whole relish out. Wasteful me and poor starving children in the world...I wish I knew where they were because I would have happily given over everything I made that night.

I have not given up on Pioneer Woman...I still want to be just like her. But I have realized why I don't cook.

Get a Load of This!

So the Pioneer Woman has awakened the domestic goddess in me today...well at least the cooking part.

I am being bold and attempting to make 3...count 'em THREE recipes from her site today. I haven't eaten yet today so I almost had decided to make all of them...but narrowed it down to just the few.

I have the recipes all printed up (which print out really cute...perfect for sticking in a binder if they turn out as delicious as they sound) I am attempting the Black Bean Chowder with Yogurt-Cilantro Relish, Crispy Yogurt Chicken, and Fig's Cheese Muffins....yes a lot of dairy...that might be because I picked all the recipes out of the "Dairy Contest" winners.

I love Pioneer Woman...I want to be just like her. ;)

I'll let you know how these turn out...BUT I challenge all of my readers to go to her site and pick a recipe and MAKE IT! Then tell us all how it turns out. It is actually fun to look through and realize there are a bazillion choices for dinner...when I had thought there were only 2 things I could possibly make. Do you take the challenge? Tell me which recipe you are attempting...I know some of you already have...so leave a comments and tell me about it!