Day 5 of a PW Cooking...this one was a disaster...

So I decided to make Chicken Parmigana. Delicious right? I mean, I know the experts at say Old Spaghetti Factory or any other authentic Italian place can make this real good, so why can't I?

You would think that how my night started would probably have been a hint to just give up now but I didn't. I couldn't find the bottle opener to open this bottle of wine. I even went to my neighbors houses and asked if they had one, to no avail, nothing. My Mother even suggested just standing on my front porch and screaming "Does anyone have a bottle opener?" I tried a straightened wire hanger (I knew I had one in my hall closet for something!) but yeah no dice. I finally found out only to have bent it in the process. Telling my friend all of this, she decided that for my birthday she is buying me a fancy bottle opener. Thanks B! *giggle*

So I finally get the evil bottle open, I breaded the chicken (I bought the thin sliced breasts thinking I would try these out cause as much fun as it is to beat on a piece of a chicken, I just wasn't in the mood) and fried that up. Delicious. But then a thought came to me, I use nonstick pans. In the recipe, she asks for the "drippings", but I never have any! So of course, now I am already adding a stainless steel pan to my mental checklist of cooking "stuff" list. (Yes I said stuff cause for the life of me, I don't know what word to use.) Then I get the onions and garlic going, add the wine (which I tried to have a glass of and dear god it was nasty...NOTE: It was not the wine she had in her recipe) and then let it cook. Now this is where it becomes a disaster.

When I went to the grocery store they didn't have the 14oz cans of crushed tomatoes that she wanted in the recipe. So I ended up getting the 1lb cans. So since you need two, you would use roughly a can and a half. So I went ahead, dumped it in, stirred it around and then watched as it bubbled all over my stove, the fridge, my shirt, everywhere. Awwwwwesome. So I proceed to hang out, play some of the RPG I play and then it dawns on me...this is incredibly simple recipe, somethings not right. So I look at the recipe and I see I forgot the sugar, salt and pepper AND the parsley. Awwwwwwesome. So I take the chicken back out, mind you, covered in the cheese, and add the stuff I forgot. Even then, I only added salt and pepper cause I am awesomesauce and forgot again what I needed. ARGH.

In the end, it was a complete and utter disaster. And I am not sure if it was because of the fact that I failed at adding ingredients OR that the wine was just not that great but I didn't care for it. The chicken was delicious and I ate that but the sauce, nah. I WILL however try again one day and actually make it correctly. And with a better bottle of wine. :D

Recipe used is not mine, it is PWs. All credit goes to her :D 


http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/chicken-parmigiana/

4...if only I could remember what I did...

So last entry bought us up to Thursday the 19th. I am pretty sure I ate leftover Pasta Alla Marlboro Man that night. So then what happened on Friday the 20th? I have NO idea. Pretty sure I ate leftovers that day too (I only know this because I play an RPG and we raided and downed an end boss that night). So once again, this entry is kind of boring. Sorry about that :(

Day 3 of a PW Cooking...

Now since my blog is like a week behind, I guess I should start adding dates huh? Tuesday the 17th I didn't cook anything cause we had so many leftovers. Wednesday the 18th I made Pasta Alla Marlboro Man. Which was delicious as always. Seriously, make the mouth water just thinking about it. I have made this dish before, its a couple posts back. If you haven't tried it yet, what are you waiting for???

Day 2 of 17 Days of PW cooking...

Yes, Yes I know that I am very very far behind on my blog. For all of those people that said I would give up or wouldn't post regularly like I should...well you were right. So :-P.

On my 2nd day of a PW cooking, I decided to make biscuits and gravy. Simple enough. Just need to make the gravy, cook some Jimmy Dean Sausage (again, first time ever in life making the sausage that I have to make into patties) and eat. Not bad.

I was always told that making gravy was kinda tricky. And yeah I have to agree. The first time I added milk, it was WAY too runny. So I added bit more flour and this point, it was too thick. So that is defiantly going to be something that I have to master the art of.

These are the best biscuits ever. I used them for Monkey Muffins and OMG...delicious. Just something about them, can't get enough!

The cooking "connoisseur" proceeded to tell me that the sausage needed more salt. He of course did not eat any of it. So hence, no dessert. Oh well. I sure enjoyed my ice cream.

Recipe used is not mine...it is...like always...PWs. Recipe and link are below.

Ingredients

• 1 pound Breakfast Sausage
• 1 can (16 Oz.) Canned Biscuits
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation Instructions

Slice the breakfast sausage and place in a warm pan. Cook the sausage according to the instruction (thoroughly cooked inside). Remove them to a paper towel to drain.

Place your biscuits into the oven to cook according to the instructions on the can.

Pour grease out of the skillet/pan you used for the sausage, adding back in only what you want to use to make the gravy. For one to two people, use about 2 to 3 tbsp. of grease. Over low to medium-low heat, add about 2 tbsp of flour to the grease and whisk immediately. If you add in a little more grease so it’s smooth and stirrable. You want to find a good balance between the flour and the grease.

Once you find it, just keep stirring with the whisk and allow the mixture to brown for a few minutes. As you whisk, scrape in the anything from the bottom of the pan as you go.

After 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly, pour in about a cup of milk. IF the mixture is dry, lumpy or pasty, add in more milk – again, drawing a balanced mixture. Add salt to taste. Let the gravy warm up over low heat, stirring occasionally. Cut prepared biscuits in half pour gravy atop them

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/09/biscuits_and_gr/

17 Days of PW Cooking

So for the next 17 days, I am cooking nothing but PW recipes for dinner. It honestly didn't seem like that huge of a challenge but let me tell you, it's becoming that way. I have to cook every night, clean up from cooking, chopping vegetables, mixing ingredients, etc. But oddly enough, I actually like it!!

So Day #1 of my 17 days of PW cooking I made Cinnamon Baked French Toast. It is kinda like the Sleepin' Omelette's but this one is way sweeter. Super easy to make as well. Just take a loaf of sourdough, break it apart. Mix the egg, vanilla extract, milk and heavy whipping cream in a bowl, pour over it and in the fridge it goes for either a couple hours or overnight. Then mix butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and flour in a bowl, mix it together. Pour over the bread and egg combo, pop it in the oven for an hour and voila. Cinnamon Baked French Toast. I call this "diabetic coma" in a casserole dish. It's THAT sweet.

Now I realize this looks like something you found in the back of the fridge but honestly, looks are deceiving. Plus PW's looks better then mine!! 

These recipes are PWs and not mine. I include link as well :D

Ingredients

• FRENCH TOAST
• 1 loaf Crusty Sourdough Or French Bread
• 8 whole Eggs
• 2 cups Whole Milk
• ½ cups Whipping (heavy) Cream
• ¾ cups Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract
• Topping
• ½ cups All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 1 stick Cold Butter, Cut Into Pieces
• Fresh Fruit (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Grease 9 x 13-inch baking pan with butter. Tear bread into chunks (or cut into cubes) and evenly distribute in the pan.

Mix together eggs, milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla. Pour evenly over bread. Cover tightly and store in the fridge several hours or overnight.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add nutmeg if desired. Add butter pieces and but into the dry mixture until mixture resembles fine pebbles. Store in a Ziploc in the fridge.

When you’re ready to bake the casserole, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove casserole from oven and sprinkle crumb mixture over the top. (If you’re using fruit, sprinkle on before the crumb mixture.) Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture. Bake 1 hour or more for a firmer, less liquid texture.

Scoop out individual portions. Top with butter and drizzle with maple syrup.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/05/cinnamon-baked-french-toast/

There are limitations to my friendship....

So on Tuesday I decided to make Monkey Muffins. Well that never happened so I swore on Wednesday I would make them. And I did. Now I figured I would somehow mess this up. I mean yes the recipe is super super easy, my child would probably make these, but I just had this feeling I'd screw it up.

In the oven they went and they came out look like this:

Not too shabby for my first patch if you ask me. It's just cinnamon, sugar, biscuit dough and sweetened condensed milk dribbled on it. YUM! Now for someone who has never had monkey bread, I am not sure how either of them taste. All I do know is that Monkey Muffins...diabetic coma...at it's finest. And it's worth it :D These things are so good in fact, I brought the leftovers to N's and she told me she wasn't going to share. Her reasoning for not sharing? "There are limitations to my friendship. These are THAT good." I love her.

That brings us now to Thursday. I was having lunch with two of my friends, I shall call them N and L. Well I decided instead of us going to lunch or even N making lunch like she was going to, I would. Gives me guinea pigs for the blog! So Wednesday night I was looking through PW's recipes and I found the Killer Club Sandwich recipe. Looks delicious, looks huge, sure why not. So went to the store, I bought all the ingredients, only cost me 25$, way cheaper then going out to eat and then headed over to N's. We got right to making it. Poor thing burned her hand frying up the bacon :( Stupid bacon. Yes, I went there. Blasphemy huh? Her husband was coming home for lunch so I made him the first sandwich. His response? It was better then sex. Nice, very nice to hear. Then I made up me, Ts and Ns sandwiches. N and I ate up our halves. T couldn't even finish hers. So consensus on the sandwiches? EXCELLENT. They are huge, those pictures don't lie. You really have to smush it all together. But honestly....totally worth it.

Recipes used are not mine, they are PWs. They are included here.


Monkey Muffins:

Ingredients

• Leftover Bread Dough (or Refrigerated Biscuit Dough, Cut Into Thirds)
• Butter
• Sugar
• Ground Cinnamon
• Sweetened, Condensed Milk

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Add 1/2 teaspoon butter to muffin tins. Sprinkle in sugar and cinnamon.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls (or cut refrigerated biscuit dough into thirds). Place three into each muffin tin.

Top with 1/2 teaspoon butter. Sprinkle on more sugar and cinnamon.

Allow dough to rise, if applicable, or just go ahead and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

Remove from oven and immediately drizzle plenty of sweetened condensed milk over the top of each one. Be generous! Allow rolls to sit for a little while to absorb sweet, sticky milk.

Scoop out with a spoon and serve to hungry humans.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/12/monkey-muffins/

Killer Club Sandwiches:

Ingredients

• 12 slices Sandwich Bread
• 4 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
• 1 Tablespoon Prepared Basil Pesto
• 1 Tablespoon Prepared Sundried Tomato Pesto (or Just A Couple Of Pureed Sundried Tomatoes)
• 8 slices Bacon, Cut In Half
• ½ pounds Shaved Ham
• ½ pounds Shaved Turkey
• 4 whole Avocados, Peeled And Sliced
• 4 slices Cheese (swiss, Mozzarella, Etc.)
• Romaine Or Green Leaf Lettuce

Preparation Instructions

Toast bread in toaster until light golden brown. Set aside.

Fry bacon until just barely crisp, then drain on a paper towel. Set aside.

Mix together 2 tablespoons mayonnaise with prepared basil pesto; in a separate bowl, mix additional 2 tablespoons mayonnaise with sundried tomato pesto.

To Make One Sandwich:

Spread two pieces of bread with basil pesto. On one piece of bread, lay ham on top of pesto mayo, then top with cheese and lettuce. On other piece of bread, lay the slices of 1/2 avocado on top of the pesto mayo. Top avocado with bacon. Lift the second slice of bread (the one with avocado and bacon) and place it, ingredient side down, on top of the first piece of bread.

For the second layer: On the top of the top piece of bread, spread the sundried tomato mayonnaise. Spread one side of the third piece of bread with sundried tomato mayonnaise. Place ham, cheese, and lettuce on top. Place other half of the avocado slices on the other piece of bread. Top with bacon slices. Place this piece of bread, ingredient side down, on top of the first piece of bread.

Use a sharp knife to cut the sandwich in half (on the diagonal) then again in fourths.

Serve with chips!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/04/killer-club-sandwich/