From Our Kitchen: More Pioneer Woman

I have rarely used a cookbook as much as the one Tricia got me for Christmas this year - Pioneer Woman Cooks. It's good homestyle cooking that is nicely illustrated with pictures of each step.

I recently made Chicken Spaghetti.
It turned out to be similar to one of my favorite chicken casserole recipes that I've been making for years. No wonder it sounded so good!

One thing that was a little different was pimentos in the recipe. Remember one of my last posts about how the date was under-appreciated? Well, I was all excited hoping to say the same thing about pimentos. I mean, first of all, look at them in this cute jar....
...plus, they are the pretty orange filling of one of my all-time favorite snacks: olives. But, that's where the excitement stops. They are just a pretty face. I really thought they'd have more flavor, but was disappointed to find they are pretty neutral. I'm guessing Pioneeer Woman chose to use them in this recipe for color only. Oh well, live & learn, right? (Next time I think I'll use red pepper instead.)

But, they DID look pretty nice here all chopped up with green pepper and onion...
...and peeking out of the final product which by the way was quite delicious!
Maybe a week or so later, I made Simple, Perfect Enchiladas from the same cookbook. I usually make enchiladas with the recipe on the enchilada sauce can (and with chicken), but let me tell you, the few extra steps in this recipe were well worth it. The thicker sauce, the green chilies in the ground beef, and the fresh cilantro on top...mmmmm...

And you know what else made these dishes so tasty? The very lovely baking dish that I cooked them in. Don't you just love it? My sister Stacy carried it in her backpack all the way across the country to give it to me for my birthday. It's from Bennington Potters - one of my favorite places to shop in Burlington. I can't wait to use the matching pie plate I got for Christmas - don't you worry - I'll share the pics of course.

So there you have it. A few more bits of deliciousness coming out of our kitchen these days.

Rah Rah Raelyn!

I apologize on my lack of posting lately! I have a few in mind that I'm hoping to get up this week, so hopefully you won't boycott! :)

A little over a week ago, Jay and I went to cheer on our favorite cheerleader Raelyn at her school district's Cheer Showcase. She is in 6th grade and this is her first year cheering. We got there pretty early (to get good seats of course!) and waited with mom Erika for the show to start!
Raelyn was a "flyer" for her very first showcase! Here she is up on top showing school spirit! I was just happy she ended up back on her own two feet soon after this!
Her team (squad?) posting after the show. They were the youngest group at the event and did such a fabulous job!

Jay and I - proud of our friend Raelyn and the great job she did! Thanks so much for inviting us - we look forward to seeing more performances in the future!

Weekend Update: A Little Late

Did I tell you that Jay bought 30 POUNDS of lobster last week? Well, he did. That's a heck of a lot of (partially frozen) lobster and man does it stink up your house like nothing else. Anyway, all these creepy crawlies were filling up our freezer and he was soooo excited to eat them, so we had some on Wednesday night for dinner. I only had a tail as I'm not a huge fan in the first place. Not bad. Jay had 3 that day.

By Sunday, he was ready for more so we went over to Shane & Erin's house to cook some up and watch football.

Lobster was everywhere and the boys just stood there around the kitchen island eating until they were all gone. I think they went through close to 10! I had a salad.
My favorite part: we ended the meal with chocolate chip cookies and cake. Yum.

Weekend Update: You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile

I got to enjoy the first of my 2 Christmas gifts with Jay this past weekend! On Sunday afternoon, we saw:

It was a great show and since it was at 2pm, the audience consisted of many young girls all dressed up in their party dresses, tutus, etc. It was so cute!! We got in trouble for taking the above picture on my camera phone so snapped this one on the way out in front of ASU's Gammage:
After the show, we headed up to Scottsdale for dinner at Cowboy Ciao. If you live in the area, we definitely recommend you check this place out! The ambiance, food, and wine were fabulous!

For our appetizer, we had the Buffalo Carpaccio. I had trouble taking photos due to the low lighting, but bear with me. Here it is - rolled in a cumin/espresso dry rub, seared, and then topped with red onion/honey marmalade, greens (arugula?) and goat cheese (I think - it just says "chevre" on the menu). SO GOOD!
We each also enjoyed a flight of wine. They have 3 generous 3oz. pours per flight:
::sidenote:: I just adore Photoshop! I'm still learning, but it totally saved the above photo! I thought it was way too dark to even fix, but with a few tweaks here & there, I just love how it turned out!

For dinner, Jay had the house specialty - Exotic Mushroom Pan Fry. Nine different kinds of mushrooms in an ancho cream over double-cooked polenta topped with grilled portabellini, avocado, tomato and cojita cheese. He loved it! And get this. I tried it too. I ate mushrooms and didn't gag! They were actually pretty good (it's the texture that gets me) but that sauce was amazing! I think it would be delicious with pasta & chicken. Or really anything!

I had the New Zealand Lamb Loin - pepper crusted, grilled medium-rare, with roasted tomato/anise butter, served with roasted artichoke risotto cabernet demi-glace and vegetables. The lamb was amazing as was everything else but the risotto. I think I was expecting it to taste more like spinach-artichoke dip or something, but instead it tasted...well....the only way I can describe it is that it tasted like a hair salon? Like how I think Aveda products would taste if you could eat them. Clean? Fresh? Anyway - it wasn't my favorite, but mixed with the demi-glace, it was a-ok!
What is date night without dessert?? After much deliberation, we ordered some coffee and the Cuppa' Red Hot Chocolate (sort of). Basically it's a big hot chocolate mug filled with a chocolate-ey, cinnamon-ey, cayenne-ey fudge-ey YUMMINESS (it's cold though - the "hot" in the hot chocolate is due to the cayenne), topped with this creamy goodness (to look like the froth on the hot chocolate), and is served with 2 spice cookies. Can I say again - DELICIOUS. I have been salivating for more of both the Buffalo Carpaccio and this dessert ever since we got home. I want more.

So there you go. Christmas Date Night #1. Awesome. I can't wait for the next one - just a few more weeks (and a Spoonful of Sugar)! :)

Happy New Year!

Once the sun set and the Blue Moon was high in the sky, Jay and I started our 2009/2010 New Year's celebration.

We were initially planning on going to a bar to just "chill out" but ended up going to a friend of Shane & Erin's house party which was such a relief to me! I wasn't thrilled about the idea of being in a crowded bar for the whole night. Anyway - Jay and I brought some take & bake pizzas as a snack. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but you should see the oven in this beautiful kitchen (which, by the way I swear looks like it's straight out of HGTV - beautiful!) - it was so TINY! We all joked & called it an Easy Bake Oven - the pizza barely fit (touched the sides) which resulted in it smoking most of the time it was in there. I tried to get the smoke on camera, but instead got a bunch of goofy guys hanging out around it waiting for it to be done:
Jay and I were taking bites in the kitchen and one of the girls at the party had to take our picture - she said we looked like a commercial for DiGiorno - because we were enjoying it so much - haha!
I am posting this picture simply as a reminder to Jay and I of this moment. Let's just say he passed around a picture of something rather disgusting on his phone to a bunch of strangers that night. Love their reactions...
Almost midnight!
Welcome 2010!!!!
Shane got a little love from the Davis':
You think I had too much Diet Coke or what? I love our friends!!
Once all the kissing and hugging was done, Jay put on "Party in the USA" and everyone sang & danced. Wow do we sound lame, but let me tell you - it was hilarious! I have a video of Shane that I should get up here but until then, here's a pic:
The rest of the night was a mix of Rock Band, board games, and conversation! Jay & I didn't get home until just after 3am!! We did continue the "party" Friday afternoon with lunch at Chompies with the same group of people before spending the rest of the day on the couch in our pjs - just what the doctor ordered!


We both look forward to 2010 and all that it will bring and want to thank you for sharing with us in all our adventures!