Spinach Artichoke Dip...from the website

I had my first Bunco experience last week and decided to take spinach dip- without figuring out that it isn't in her cookbook :)  So, I found it online.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/appetizers-and-snacks/spinach-artichoke-dip-4/

WOW- a lot of cheese!  The flavor was just what I wanted in a hot spinach artichoke dip-

I didn't like that it wasn't as easy to eat when it cooled down (which it is tough to keep it warm and not let the cheese overcook at a party).

Give it a try- easy and yummy!

Lasagna

I made her lasagna for dinner Saturday night- YUMMY!  We love lasagna and I usually follow the recipe on the back of the lasagna noodle box.  This was my first attempt at cooking noodles (and I loved it!).  I never use ricotta (can't stand the taste), so a recipe that follows my own heart of using cottage cheese was delightful. 

The difference in using fresh herbs and whole tomatoes was amazing!  I will never again use Italian seasoning in my lasagna :)

I will say that the sauce was a bit thick for us, so I added 1 can of low sodium diced tomatoes (with the liquid) and it was better. 

My dad's comment was, "Can you please teach your mom to make it this way?"

I don't think I will go back to my other recipe anytime soon!

Cinnamon Rolls

I made PW's Cinnamon Rolls this weekend because we have the 3 of us, 2 temporary live in guests, and 4 guests for Saturday morning breakfast- we still had enough to take a plate to my in laws, a plate to my neighbors and freeze a plate!

I did half white flour and half wheat flour- noone could tell in the taste :) I also made one 9x12 tray full and then was able to make 3 9"inch aluminum pie plates full. 

I thought they were WAY to sugary- but everyone else seemed to love them.

Next time...
- let the dough rise in the fridge overnight as she suggested in a BIG bowl
- cut back the butter to 1 cup per roll (I used about 3/4 cup and I had way to much squishing out as we rolled them up)
- possibly look at melting the sugar and butter together and then smearing it on- I wasn't too thrilled about the gritty sugary taste- but noone else complained :)
- use Carissa's idea to cut with dental floss b/c mine were a bit squished
- make sure you put PLENTY of space- like 1 1/2 inches- between each roll
- if you don't put space in between, you need to add to the cooking time and watch carefully
- only make about half the icing b/c I threw a lot away

I can't wait to make these before the holidays and freeze them for future use :)

PW's Potatoe Skins

josh's mom was coming into town this weekend. we usually go out to eat when she is in town, but this time, i was glad to have something yummy to offer as an appetizer! these potatoe skins were fun! modification: i used turkey bacon. i don't know if this is discounted with all of the other ingredients----or at least a small redeeming quality when its all said and done. i must admit--most of the time i was bathing these beauties in canola oil, i couldn't stop thinking about amanda's "so long french fries" post. :) LOL. Love, Courtney

Cinnamon Rolls

So I guess I didn't use a big enough bowl for my dough to rise in the fridge in! Here it is the next morning ...spilling all over the shelf! To cut the rolls I used a trick I learned years ago from Food Network...dental floss! Slip it under the roll and cross the floss on top, then pull. It cuts perfect every time, no more squished cinnamon rolls.

Here is the before and after baking pictures, they rose quite a bit! I don't have a picture of them iced. I made them a week before my in laws were coming in town, then froze them till I needed them. They all agreed that these were the best cinnamon rolls they had ever had!

The only thing I did different was to cut the whopping 2 cups of melted butter down to 1 cup. Other than that I made it by the book. None of my guests missed the other cup of butter! I will definitely make these again, I loved that you can divide up the mess and do half of the work one day and the other half of the work the next day. Makes it not feel like such a big project. I made a full batch and it filled two large rimmed cookie sheets perfectly. YUM!!! -Carissa

edna mae's sour cream pancakes, take 5?

hello everyone!  i am so excited to be part of this fun little blog!  i received PW's cookbook for my birthday this past week, so I was giddy to dive in this weekend with my first recipe and post.  and I want everyone to know that I was unabashedly made fun of by my husband and sister for taking pictures of the goods.  see if i make them pancakes again any time soon! :)

i thought these were really good.  i am a pancake person, so i feel that i have a rather experienced palette.  they were dense, but not flat - and rich but not too heavy.  does that many any sense?  i thought the sour cream was perfect.  i used light, by the way.  i think the key to this recipe is following the instructions specific to not overmixing.  i tried to follow her steps exactly, and the results were yummy!

for those of you who are blessed with a gas stove, i'm sure you didn't have to wait as long for a hot pan, but having electric, i did.  and i definitely had to cook them longer then 1.5 minutes and 75 seconds on either side (i think those are the suggestions she gives).  with a stove setting of around 4-4.5, it took a couple minutes for each side to avoid a gooey center.

Potato-Leek Pizza, pg.110

This is the recipe that has most intrigued me about this cookbook. I kept hoping someone else would make it to hopefully answer the BIG question with this recipe....DO THE POTATOES WORK? But I gave up and decided to find the answer myself. First off, the crust in absolutely lovely.

I must admit, I did do 2 things different though, so now I don't know how much they added to the "wonderfulness" of my crust. I used the last of my Italian Bread Flour I had bought some time ago from King Arthur Flour. Also, I used a spice from KAF called, Pizza Dough Enhancer. My husband said I messed up big time, and now we don't know if this is truly a wonderful crust recipe or not...

I have a trick I like for baking pizza crust: I sprinkle the pan with cornmeal (rather than oil, like PW suggests). It seems that makes the pizza kind of "float" above the surface of the pan to make the crust crispier. And I used my handy pizza roller instead of my fingers to spread the dough. (It is a lovely dough to work with.)

Here is my next "cheat:" I sprinkled the oiled top of the crust with a special pizza seasoning that has salt in it, rather than just the plain salt the recipe calls for. I was very fugal with the spice though, as I feared getting the whole thing too salty. I would use more next time. This pizza needs salt. We were salting it at the table (and I don't even use much salt normally)
NOW FOR THE POTATOES....I laid awake nights thinking about these potatoes...imagining if they would cook or not, and if not, would raw potatoes taste very good on pizza?? The whole idea just really threw me for a loop. I finally decided I would just make the pizza like she said with raw potatoes....then halfway through arranging the slices on the crust, I quickly picked them all back up again. I just could not imagine this was going to be a good idea. So I decided to cook them a little first.

I put the slices in a microwave bowl and nuked them for one minute. They seemed about half cooked with that, and so I settled down and put them back on the pizza. Oh--one more change (sorry!) I sent hubby to the store for 3 leeks and he came back with one, claiming at $1.78 each, he was not buying 3 of them! (Hubby is very frugal.) So I felt I must fill in a bit. I added some sliced onion, since they are similar, ( I guess) then I decided I needed to use up the last of some fresh spinach. I did not have any bacon, but I do always have bacon grease in my fridge (it is how I grew up!).So I sauteed the leeks and onion in the bacon grease. I am not sure it is quite the "not to be believed" flavor PW thinks it is...but I am a fan of bacon grease, so I was sure it would be nice.

 

I did use only half the amount of fresh mozzarella, after reading on the package that 1 pound is 16 servings! So I used half (she said you could freeze it, so I did.)...plus I used less of the goat cheese just because I think it is quite strong tasting. My cheese situation worked just fine. Oh, and I layered the raw spinach under the cheese. I think spinach should be included in the recipe. It paired perfectly with everything else.

So what is the verdict on the potatoes?? I was wrong. I think I would have preferred the potatoes half raw, like they probably are if you don't pre-cook them a bit like I did. Mine were soft enough to feel a bit out of place on the pizza I think. I just had this feeling that a little crunch in the potato would be a good thing.  I kind of think PW should have said that, to reassure ones like me to not go changing it up! All in all though--we liked this pizza. I served it with a soup because I feared my husband, who does not like potatoes, would maybe not eat it,  so I figured he could eat the soup then. I did have to hold my breath when he took a bite, then dug into the pizza with his finger and proclaimed, " What is this...is this a POTATO!!" But then he just went on eating it like it did not bother him a bit. However, I think this pizza goes very well with soup, as it almost seemed like bread with a vegetable/cheese topping on it.

I will make this again. We really did enjoy it. (We had leftovers twice, and it heated up nicely.) The other half of my crust dough is still in the fridge....haven't decided what to do with it yet.