Happy Mother's Day to Us!

Mother's Day 2016 was around the time our blog idea was hatched. I had given Jennie The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime by Ree Drummond as a gift, then a week later she ordered a copy for me, along with a copy of Chrissy Teigan's Cravings. We became so obsessed with these two women and their cookbooks that we decide to start a blog to talk about it. That idea progressed into our renewed "weekly" family dinners to test our new found cooking skills and introducing new cookbooks as we find/rediscover them. We learn to cook new recipes and hopefully our followers find some amusement, and maybe a recipe or two themselves.

So brace yourselves for an onslaught of recipes from these two books, at least in the beginning. We promise to not be too overwhelming, but its so hard when it all looks so good!

Two beautiful women and their two beautiful books.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinner Time 

Jennie introduced me to the Pioneer Woman sometime around November of last year. We don't have cable in my house -we survive off Hulu and Netflix- so I hadn't seen Ree Drummond's show on Food Network. I live under a rock? I can't remember what recipe Jen made but I do remember a) that I couldn't get enough of it, and b) it was around the time she bought her mandolin and I decided I needed one too. So I went out and bought my mandolin with a gift-card from my awesome mom-in-law and made the Pioneer Woman's scallop potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner.

They were AMAZING.

Seriously drool worthy and everyone raved about them. Maybe it was the perfectly sliced potatoes; maybe it was all the creamy deliciousness; maybe its because Ree Drummond is a genius.

Fast forward 6 months and I am flipping through The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime. Not only is the commentary very relatable and family oriented, but there are pictures with every step! Every single step! No more waiting until the end to see if everything looks as it should. The recipes also use pretty common ingredients, making it a go-to for everyday meals. She even gives advice on how to prep everything early if needed, and which recipes can be easily frozen to have on hand for later.

All the recipes I marked as "MUST DO" in each book.

Cravings

This was also a Jennie discovery. I knew who Chrissy Teigan was and that she'd come out with a cookbook, so when it was suggested I was game to try it but still skeptical. It is the most hilarious cookbook I've ever read.

Chrissy doesn't hold back in her commentary. She's fun and witty and makes me laugh while I'm cooking, and lets face it, she's saying what we're all thinking anyway. The conversational commentary also makes the recipes easy to follow, and most of her tips and tricks are right where they are needed in the recipe, instead of off to the side.

The recipes in Cravings range from roasted chicken to crab cream cheese wontons to delicious looking Thai food that I'm too nervous to attempt right now. The intro says the ingredients are meant to be easy to find and should be at most grocery stores, but I'd probably need to ask someone what isle to find them in. I'm excited for the new flavors this will open up for us though!



Enjoy the next few weeks of posts! I'll be writing many of them, but Jen says she has a lot to say too.
-- Karie