The PW's Skillet Cornbread

OK...can I just say, I've wanted to recreate my Arkansas Grandma's cornbread since...forever and now...ta da...I have! Thank you Ree. The recipe calls for buttermilk, but come on who buys buttermilk?! Her directions say you can make your own buttermilk (which apparently is a known fact to everyone but me.) With a little added vinegar to milk, I did indeed make my own buttermilk. The recipe calls for "shortening" I'm telling you, since recreating the PW's recipes I've never used so much shortening in my life. Not only do you melt it and add it to the batter, but you also melt some in the pan prior to pouring the batter in. Ree's recipes are not for the slim of hip, but SO good! It isn't a very sweet cornbread (which I don't like anyway) but it is full of great texture. My husband told me I could make it everyday and he would be happy, I'd say that's a 10.

*This recipe can be found on page 102 of The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook.

Pioneer Woman's olive cheese bread and ginger steak salad

This was not a hit. Well, hubby gave the meal a 7, and I would give it about a 6. Both of us enjoyed the asian flavours of the salad dresssing. The marinade for the steak was so-so. There was waaaaay too much cheese/olive topping for the bread. With that said...I didn't have french bread, there was none left at my grocery store, so I used focaccia. Maybe my bread surface was too small. Anyway...I found it to be too bitter tasting. I would probably make the cheese bread again, but next time with the french bread, and I'd use fewer green olives.

Hot and Sweet Drumsticks

Ohhhhh - this was delish!!! Made Terri's Hot and Sweet Drumsticks from the Tasty Kitchen site. Let me tell you - easy and tender and mouthwatering and...!! The kids looooved them, and so did I! Hubby gave them an '8', he said they only had a 'moderately high' score because he thought that last nights chicken parmigiano was an '11', and tonights meal was bound to score lower. Anyway... we had Pastor Ryan's Roasted Carrots, and the Crash Hot Potatoes from P.W.'s site to go with the chicken. Yum. Yum. The kids and I scored everything on the plate tonight at '10'!

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Parmiagana

Mmmmm...this one got the thumbs up from the whole family! The tender was soooooo....wait a minute...I mean, the chicken was sooooooo tender!!!! And the sauce...mmmmm...the sauce was rich, full of flavor and made me feel a bit better about eating chicken that had been basically deep fried. But...wow. So worth every pound of fat! I will make this for company one day when I really want/need to show off. ;-)

Marlbro Man's Favorite Sandwich (Pioneer Woman) and Jennifer Chandler's Greek Salad

Okay! I'm excited about our meals for this week...went shopping with grocery list that included a weeks worth of recipes - mostly Pioneer Woman's. Well, $350.00 Canadian later....

Tonight I made Marlbro Man's favorite sandwich. I forgot to take a pic - but it's not the most child-friendly in appearance. My kids asked what kind of worms were falling out...and um...that the meat looks like...poo. Yes, I need to focus more on some dinner table manners. Anyway, once the kids got over the appearance of the long strips of meat and onions, they actually quite enjoyed the sandwich! Hubby really liked it. It is definitely a manly sandwich! I thought it was a nice change. This is a cheap and easy sandwich, that is satisfying enough for dinner.

We also enjoyed a delicious Greek salad. The dressing recipe came from a cookbook that I have used probably once a week for the last seven months since buying it. It's called "Simply Salads" by Jennifer Chandler. LOVE IT. I followed the dressing recipe - easy - and then made a salad from a variety of peppers, feta, tomatoes, kalamata olives and a bunch of baby spinach. Mmmm!