Speaking of a Messy Kitchen

I love this woman. My husband loves her too. Well, at least he loves what she's done to my cooking skills!

She is The Pioneer Woman. And man alive, can she cook! She gives you step-by-step instructions (hilarious banter included) and even posts pictures along with very basic steps for us knuckle-heads. Each dish has 10-20 pictures of the process attached to it. This is huge for me since I grew up with a pack of wolves whose idea of cooking included a pound of hamburger and a box of hamburger helper!

I looked for her cookbook at the local library, but they didn't have it, so they ordered one and I get to be the first to check it out! I'm going to have an extremely hard time giving this book back. I feel like she's one of my best friends. Laugh now, but spend a few minutes on her blog and you'll understand...

The other day I decided to try my hand at some home-made Macaroni and Cheese. It was quite good! The kids ate it, though they were asking for 'regular' mac-n-cheese instead. I followed her recipe, but included some caramelized onions, paprika and I topped it with french fried onions. Decadent!

I also made her simple, pan-fried pork chops. The first time I've ever made pork chops by the way. The only meat I ever make is chicken, so this was a real treat for my husband!



Every dish I've made has taken me a ridiculous amount of time. I'm a slow learner! Her dishes are all from very basic ingredients, so it takes a lot of prep work, but every dish I've tried has been an absolute delight! My kitchen always ends up looking like a war zone, but it's oh-so worth it!

*I had to go babysit for the evening just after we ate... so Rob cleaned up for me. What a good man!*

I've also enjoyed her

Baked Acorn Squash
Basic Breakfast Potatoes
Crispy Yogurt Chicken
Farfalle With Zucchini
Fresh Corn Casserole
Orange Mini-Muffins
Pot Roast
Sweet Potatoes
Zucchini Cakes
Zucchini Strings

All of the above dishes are some of the best eats that have ever come out of my kitchen! Seriously, you must check out her recipes. You must!

I'm thinking about cooking through all of her recipes Julie and Julia style. I'm also thinking about moving to her ranch and becoming her understudy. I'm not sure how she'd feel about that though. She's an unlikely city girl turned ranchers wife. I'm an unlikely pastor's wife, I think we'd have a lot in common! Have I mentioned she's hilarious, and an amazing cook?

I'm heading to my mom's house this week for a little family vacation. She's a fantastic cook too and always treats us to really yummy food. I'm really hoping for some of these world famous cinnamon rolls or one of these variations orange marmalade rolls or caramel apple sticky-buns.

(No pressure, Keith, but if you want to print out any of these recipes and drop a really big hint toward mom, you'll be SO GLAD you did. I promise! Just tell her that Leeann would have so much fun learning how to make cinnamon rolls with Grammy.)

p.s. If any of you end up with ridiculous amounts of zucchini (or any other freshly grown produce that you don't know what to do with) I'd love to take it off your hands this summer! If you have any berries or anything else growing on your property I'd be happy to come harvest some if you'd like to share. The end.