Challenge Week One

I started out the week with the intention of prepping a whole bunch of breakfasts and snacks. Let's just be honest and admit that did not happen.  So this week I am winging it, and hoping for the best.  I did make sure I planned ahead and have enough groceries for all the dinners I have planned. 

I did want to have some breakfast left overs, so I decided to try Chrissy Tiegen's French Toast Casserole.  I was excited because what is there not to love about a casserole that has rum in it?  Yes please! This was really quick to prep, but I wish I had read the instructions earlier.  I knew it had to set in the fridge for a few hours, but I didn't realize it was 12 hours!  So I switched this from a breakfast to a dinner.  Another lesson I learned was to read the instructions completely, and then plan ahead don't just skim.  I also made candied bacon to go with it, super easy, just brown sugar and black pepper.  You mix it in a baking dish and press the bacon into the mixture then bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Sunday after we ate breakfast the kids and I decided to head up to my parents property at Lake Conner.  We did a quick Safeway stop to purchase hot dogs for lunch and then we spent the day in the sun relaxing after a long week at camp.  When we got home I was not in the mood to cook and I was already regretting this whole idea of mine.  However I powered through and decided to make the Pioneer Woman's Sloppy Joes from her website.  They are fast to make, and are also Michelle friendly without all the additives of using a spice mix or a canned sloppy joe sauce.  In my hunger I forgot to take a finished picture, but I'm sure you all know what Sloppy Joes look like, just know they are super yummy. And Jason Approved!

Day two was hectic as usual and I was trying again to talk my self out of cooking.  Monday is Jim's day off and I went over the meals I had planned for the week and he asked me to make the enchilada's I had planned.  I started making the sauce from scratch which was much easier than I thought really start to finish took me about 15 minutes.  Last week I had pre-shredded some chicken which came in handy with an unexpected phone call from Karie saying they were trying to figure out what to have for dinner.  I took the second bag out of the freezer, and ta da I had dinner for 6 with leftovers for lunches later in the week.  While they were baking Gavin and I ran to the pool to pick up Michelle from swimming.  I asked Jim and Karie to put the cheese in the shredder on the enchilada's....  Well you can see what happened yourself.  Day two completed and still going strong!

 Day three done!! I have to be a child and say naner naner boo boo, Jim cheated first!!  He went hiking and stopped and Jack in the Box on the way home.  He said it doesn't count because he had money from last week in his wallet, but no way man!  He caved before I did, I feel like that is a major accomplishment. 

So on with the day, I made pancakes and bacon for dinner no biggie. I decided to make some cookies, I have not made chocolate chip cookies in probably 15 years, but in the interest of adulating I decided to tackle it.  I read a lot of different website's and decided at the end of the day to try the Pioneer Woman's chocolate chip cookies.  I don't know where these have been my whole life, she has you brown the butter and let me tell you it was like heaven in a bowl.  Did you know that if you brown butter it starts to smell nutty?  I don't know how or why, but it adds a butter scotch flavor to the cookies that is amazing.  Everyone should try it!



I wish I could give you all a cookie, but by the time this comes out they will all be gone. 

Wednesday night was the best night so far, I didn't cook, I didn't buy dinner, and I didn't cheat.  Karie and I went to the Des Moines farmer market.  I was really cute only a few vendors on a Wednesday night, but there were food trucks.  Dinner was on Karie, and I had a night off.  Yeah!!

Thursday nights dinner was a major Pioneer Woman fail; I know shocking!  I was so excited to make grits and stewed beef, but it was too spicy for us buy about a million.  It was crazy, crazy, hot. next time I would recommend adjusting the spices.

Friday night we had breakfast for dinner -scrambled eggs nothing exciting.  The most important thing is I made it through an entire week without buying food out to dinner or lunch!  It was awesome and I am really proud uf us.

Three Potatos. Three Ways.

Potatoes are such a versatile side dish. You can mash them, whip them, boil, bake and grill them. You can have them a new way every day of the week. I recently made them three ways: sweet potato fries, russet hasselback potatoes, and garlic red potaoes on the grill.

The sweet potato fries are so easy to make -the hardest part is cutting them all the same width so they cook even. I did a quick google search and found a lot of different recipes, so I combined a bunch and came up with something delicious.

Thats the beauty of fries, you can do what you want with them. My favorite is to toss the fries with olive oil, garlic powder and maybe some cayenne pepper for a kick. I've also tossed them with smoked paprika and plain ol' salt and pepper. Bake around 375 depending on how thick they're cut and level of crispyness you want, for about 20-25 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Hasselbeck Potaotes take a lot longer to prepare and cook, but are totally worth it. I'd never heard of them before reading Cravings, and these potatoes totally live up to that name. These potatoes will impress people. They have a great presentation and are super yummy. Again the hardest part is slicing the potato into even slices. My first attempt sucked! 

The recipe said to use chop sticks on either side of the potato while slicing it but, sorry Chrissy Teghan, it doesn't work very well unless your potato has a flat side. I used two steak knives to keep me from cutting through the russet. It was also a little frustrsating making sure all the ingredients made it between each slice, but just keep reminding yourself how delish they're going to be and you won't mind.

The only potatoes I'd done on the grill before were baked potatoes -russets wrapped in foil with some butter. so when I needed a quick side dish and all I could find were a bag of reds, I improvised. I had some help from google again, just to figure out the cooking time. 

Once the potatoes were quarted, I smashed a few cloves of garlic with the side of the knife, sliced some butter, and tossed it all into a foil pack with some basil. It only took about 20 minutes on the grill. 

They were a little under seasoned -some salt would have solved that- but it was a good side for the kabobs we also had that night.

Three different potatoes, three different ways. I think my Irish is showing ...

Enjoy!
Karie

Mac Attack!

The littlest Gill Girl is obsessed with macaroni and cheese. If I'd let her, she'd have it for breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, dinner, and probably dessert. Though to be completely honest, I think all the Gill Girls are obsessed with mac too. Is that hereditary? The first recipe we decided to cook after our blog idea was hatched was Chrissy Teghan's Macaroni and Cheese.

It was a true family affair with all parties involved in someway. Jennie and I cooked, Michelle measured ingredients and stole cheese for her and Eleanor, Jason took photos, and Dad pretended he was going to die from our cooking and then loved it -as he always does. 

This recipe is bomb. From the homemade bread crumbs to the ridiculous amount of cheese, it's amazing. And it pairs really well with or beer of choice: Guinness. Haha! 

Mixing the cheese sauce was a process. Add, mix until melted, add a bit more, repeat. And this recipe has three different cheeses. I thought my arm was going to fall off from stiring so much. 

Side note: pre-prep the pasta shells so they are ready when you need them. We were so caught up in making the homemade bread crumbs, which we did first, that we forgot to prep the pasta. We made the most of it though by enjoying a beer and some left over cheese while the pasta cooked. 

Don't rush to mix everything in the baking dish; the direction say to mix the cheese and pasta in the cheese pot first until the pasta is hot again. This was cuts down in the mess and you can make sure it's mixed well before it goes into the baking dish. 

Then top with extra cheese and breadcrumbs, bake until crisp and brown on top. Then sit back and enjoy a little bit of heaven. 

Be prepared for this to be a new family favorite for sure! 

Enjoy! 

Karie

Am I Southern yet?

I love biscuits and sausage gravy.  I order it all over the place, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I can't get enough of it! I've never been brave enough to make it myself.  It always seemed a bit intimidating.  Let's be honest I always felt the that there was no way I could make flaky wonderful delicious biscuits.

When you read the recipe for Buttermilk Biscuts with Sausage Gravy and a Maple Cream Sauce it seems easy enough, which of course made me instantly suspicious.  There is no way something that yummy could really be that easy.  

Honestly the night I made this I was feeling overwhelmed, and I was running late.  I had to call everyone and ask them to come over later because I was not going to be ready.  So with a super high stress level I jumped into making the Buttermilk Biscuts.

Making the Biscuts was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and not nearly as messy.  Everything was clearly layers out in the step by step instructions, however do not make the mistake I made and when Chrissy says flour your hands before kneading the dough, listen to Chrissy.  My hands were a mess, but I ended up with a flaky success!

While the Biscuts were baking, I made the sausage gravy which is as so easy!  Why on earth was I ever scared of this?  I was so proud that I did not even scald the milk!  A side note I would use a lot more pepper next time.  The best sausage gravy I ever had was full of yummy black pepper.  I just don't think I used enough.

The end result was yummy, even my son Jason ate one and said it wasn't that bad.  Coming from the King of Mac and Cheese this was high praise.  Dad had seconds, there was not a lot leftover.  Another win in my cooking world!

My grandbaby Eleanor and my youngest daughter "Auntie" Michelle.

These faces make me so happy, they are part of the reason for our cooking adventures!

What Would Chrissy Say?

Oh my lord do I love these cook books and everything I have made so far!  I have often said that I hate cooking, which generally I do.  I am not that mom who finds satisfaction in preparing a pretty meal and putting it on the table for her family.  Let’s be completely honest, I do my best to avoid cooking at all costs.  Meal planning, hate it, and frankly most of the food goes to waste before I can be bothered to cook it.

Enter in my commitment to learn to cook: the youngest Gill girl, Michelle, has a food allergy. Basically she is allergic to the additives in highly processed food and it has made her sick for years.  We have gotten it under control, however in order to take it to the next level for her health, and mine, I’ve got to take adulting to the next level and **gasp** learn to cook for real. 

A few gorgeous views from the lake property.

I have an obsession with Chrissy Teigans food posts on Instagram,  so I decided to treat myself to her book.  I’ve learned a lot and actually made some pretty decent meals. Recently we took a family day trip up to Lake Conner to my parent’s property.  Since my parents have been so wonderful as to provide us this beautiful place to hang out I always feel it is my responsibility to cook for them when we are up there.  This trip I got really ambitious and decided to prepare the majority of dinner the night before.  Michelle was bringing two friends up with us and I did not want to spend a bunch of time in the heat cooking.  Enter in Chrissy's Cheesy Jalapeño Bacon Corn Bread, and Creamy Potato Salad with Bacon, and even Mexican Street Corn (are you sensing a theme?).

Prep work the night before. Makes eveyrthing so much easier the next day.

When I follow a recipe I tend to follow it exactly with no variations. Normally if I stray too far outside the lines bad things happen.  Two of my side dishes called for bacon, and right from the start I decide not to follow the instructions to fry the bacon.  Fry bacon?  I have not done that for a few years now, my friend Tiffany (not to be confused with Karie’s significant otter Tiffany) told me about baking bacon.  No more grease splatters on my stove, no more grease burns, seriously people it’s the only way to make bacon.

See how delicious baked bacon is?!

What would my friend Chrissy say though?  I’m not listening, I’m trying to learn but completely tuning out the teacher (oh so typical).  I decided to run with it for now and do it my way, with less mess for my hubby to clean up later.  Hopefully she wouldn’t be too disappointed in me.  As a payback I decided to follow her instructions of how to boil and peel an egg exactly, since this has been an issue for me in the past.  My eggventure (haha see what I did there) did not turnout as pretty as in the book, but hey I was just chopping them up so who cares that I ended up with a few divots in the egg whites.  Not as many as I usually have so I would call this a success!

Over the course of the next few hours (yes, hours, did I mention I’m also a slow cook) I baked, mixed boil, chopped, sweated (it was 80 degrees in the house) and prepared a side dish menu I was proud of.  They all looked beautiful and tasted even better.  In the end I feel like my potato salad looked almost exactly like it did in the cook book and the corn bread was amazing.  Over the course of the few hours I was cooking I elevated Chrissy from the level of new friend, to my new BEST friend because oh my lord! everything was awesome!

Creamy Potato Salad with Bacon

Cheesy Jalapeño Bacon Corn Bread

When we arrived at the lake and I was telling my parents about my adventure in the kitchen with my new best friend, my Dad looked at me like I had lost my mind, which is really nothing new in our world.  He had no idea who or what I was talking about so I became a little nervous to let him eat what I had labored so hard to prepare.   I was not worried about what Michelle’s friends would think because they are teenage boys and let’s be honest, teenage boys will eat just about anything.  I served our hot dogs, hamburgers, and amazing side dishes, and everyone loved it!  Dad decided maybe he should make friends with my new friend, which in my world is high praise.  Hours of sweat and work paid off in successful Gill/Wendler dinner, everyone ate, laughed, and most of all we spent some quality family time together! 

Oh yeah, I managed not to poison anyone!!

--Jennie

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