Baking With My Buddy

Titus and I spent some time baking together today. There's nothing super exciting, or even blog-worthy about this moment necessarily, except for the fact that I really enjoy baking with my kids at this stage in life.

He did manage to crack an egg onto the floor. I wish I would have snagged a picture of that too!

I feel like I've been so far behind in blogging our family memories that I just haven't blogged much of anything at all. When I look back at the stories I used to blog about when they were little I smile at all the things I would have otherwise forgotten if I hadn't written them down.

I especially love when I come across posts about the little everyday things. Like this. Just me and my buddy making a disaster out of my kitchen baking one of Rob's most favorite treats, The Pioneer Woman's French Breakfast Puffs.

Who knows, maybe I'll start blogging more of these random everyday moments before this stage of life is also just a memory!

NOT THE BOOK!

Leeann was just eating lunch at the counter and all of the sudden she gasped as her cup full of water hit the counter. In a very calm, very loving tone (honestly, I really was calm, it was an accident... no one wants to get in trouble over an accident!)

I grabbed a towel and began to sop up the water when I realized it had creeped under my book. My brand new, signed copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks! Inside I screamed, "NOT THE BOOK! I WORKED SO HARD FOR THAT BOOK!"

As I picked it up I tried to hide my panic as I gasped and said, "Oh no, my book!" Again, rather calmly given the circumstances... but Leeann started to cry. She's so sensitive and knows how much I love that book. Isn't she so sweet? I just adore this little girl. Lucky me, the book has a pretty slick, fancy cover and I think it will probably come out unscathed!

 Now you can all sleep at night.

And I showed Leeann that the book is just fine, I think she'll come out unscathed too!

The night I met The Pioneer Woman

This is Melissa in front of Powell's bookstore. You know, the Powell's that's an hour and fifteen minute drive from my house? The one that was 30 minutes away from the Powell's that The Pioneer Woman was actually signing books at. If you don't get lost that is...

This is the super scary parking garage that we parked in. It had one lane ramps for two lanes of traffic hence the HONK HORN sign.  (As you can tell, the Hummer won the chicken fight over my Ford Freestyle).

This picture doesn't do it justice, but the ramp was straight down hill. Like, scary, creepy, I am going to flip my car down hill. After we left the parking garage, got a little lost and turned around, got directions, got lost again and got more directions, my heart started to return to a normal beating pace.

Because of our, um, short-cut, I was fearful we weren't going to make it in time to see her. And I promised my faithful blog readers a picture. Eventually we made it to the right Powell's Books. Whew!

I thought I was The Pioneer Woman's biggest fan. Apparently I'm in good company. Me and 600 other people who showed up!

The difference between all of these other people and Melissa and I? Apparently, they are better informed. They know trivial things like: What location the book signing will be at. 

They also know that her book signings are wildly popular and that hundreds of people show up freakishly early to things like this. Whoops! Knowing information like this doesn't bode well with the iner procrastinator in me. 

When we first got there around 8 o'clock we were told that they had previously handed out tickets--360 of them! Anyone who didn't have a ticket would have to wait for a free-for-all at the end of the night. Since it was 8 o'clock and they were only on number 150, my heart started to sink. We'd come so far to not end up with a blog worthy picture.

But, when opportunity knocks... you take it.

She had to pee. Her table was empty. It looked so lonely. I wasn't sure if I'd get a picture with her, so I did what any good little pastor's wife would do...

I stood up in front of hundereds of people and I took the opportunity to sneak behind the table and sit in the chair that Ree Drummond had been sitting in for the last 3 hours so Melissa could snap my picture. Hey folks, sometimes you have be a little rebellious!

Melissa wasn't as inclined to be rebellious at first, but my bad example wore off on her and she did it too!

Isn't she just beautiful? And funny as all get out too!

After strategically working our way from one set of chairs to another, we ended up in the front row, like 5 feet from PW. Seriously, we kept making friends with the people in front of us, asking them if we could have their seats when their numbers were called. Sometimes I embarrass myself! It paid off, because we spent the last several hours of the book signing watching her and listening to all of the conversations. This was especially exciting because we still didn't know if we'd end up getting our picture taken with her.

And, because I promised you a picture, we strategically lined ourselves up in such a way as to "get our pictures taken with her"... just in case. I'm a woman of my word!

This was the room sometime after 10 o'clock. They had locked us in because the mall was closing. Normal people were at home, asleep. All of us wack-jobs were clinging to our cookbooks hoping to get them signed. And a picture... I wanted a picture with her!

Was that too much to ask?

As we were waiting I snapped a picture of her cute boots. They were the subject of a recent blog post, I couldn't resist!

Finally, at about 10:45 (1 hour 45 minutes after the book signing 'ended' and 45 minutes after the store closed), the last ticketed person had their glorious moment. The other couple hundered people sat on the edge of their seats, trying to anticipate how the rest of us would be arranged to get our moment of glory.

Lucky for us, we'd snuck our way to the front row. While everyone else was forming a never-ending line through aisles of books, we jumped in and had our moment.

And this. This is my moment! I met The Pioneer Woman! I so wish I could have sat down with her and sipped on some Starbucks. I feel like she's a good friend. Knowing someone through their blog is so weird! I didn't tell her that I'd come do her dishes. I should have offered. I'm sure of her thousands and thousands of fans she would have slipped me a card with her contact information and invited me over to her house. Come on, stranger things have happened, right?

And of course, Melissa got to meet her too!

We finally landed in the car at 10:57. I didn't make it back home until nearly 1:00 am. Yes folks, that's an 8 hour tour. It was oh-so worth it!

I got her cookbook! And her signature! And I got my picture with her!

I felt like a middle school girl stalking a rock-band!

I got to meet a woman who has literally taught me how to cook (for which my husband is so grateful!). I got to people watch, and I got to enjoy a fantastic night with a fantastic friend. I'm still on cloud-nine! 

I carried my cookbook around with me all day today and showed it to everyone I encountered. In honor of meeting PW I made some orange mini muffins for my small group. She now has several new fans.

What a wonderful day!

Pioneer Woman

If it's not one obsession, it's another. Real Estate, Disneyland, Dave Ramsey, The Pioneer Woman. I enjoy them all!

As you may have noticed, however, my latest obsession has been with The Pioneer Woman. The Pioneer Woman happens to be in Portland RIGHT NOW! By this time tomorrow I'm really hoping you will be staring at a picture of me with my newest hero. What do you say to a woman who has inspired you, who you feel like you know (though you don't), who's blog you visit far too often? I'll probably get tongue-tied and start drooling. I may offer to move to her ranch and by her personal dishwasher. I might gravel at her feet. We'll see how it goes!

http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/. If you have not been to her web-site, read her love story or tried to cook some of her amazing foods you have NO IDEA what you're missing. Seriously... go there. Now. If you don't you may think I'm wacky. Then again, I may actually be wacky. But this wacky woman is on a mission to get a cookbook and a picture taken with it's author. And yes, I'm driving more than an hour each way to get the signature of a blogger. And I'm not even ashamed of it. I'm questioning whether or not I'm wacky, but I'm not ashamed. The second you taste her yummy sweet potato dish, you'll be stalking her too... I promise!

Homemade Goodness

Last night I made homemade roasted potato wedges (think jo-jo's, only yummier!) soaked in balsamic vinaigrette. I also made some homemade chicken strips. Both of them turned out pretty fantastic if I do say so myself!

Have I mentioned lately that I love The Pioneer Woman?

This might sound silly, but before I met her I had no idea that just about everything can be boiled down to a few simple, yummy, fresh, delicious ingredients. The thought of packaged and boxed foods chalked full of nasty preservatives is less and less appealing by the day. I'm becoming a food snot.

The funniest part is that I'm preparing much yummier foods at fractions of the cost of my former dinner selections. Now I'm starting to wonder how to pair all sorts of things that I use often down to their more basic (i.e. cheaper) ingredients.

For those of you who weren't raised by a pack of wolves, this might not be as stunning to you as it is to me. But, since I was raised by a pack of wolves, I confess that I had no idea until just recently that you could make pancakes out of something other than a Krusteaz "just add water" mix. And, I recently learned how to make my own frosting. No $2 Betty Crocker can necessary.

Sunday night I made crepes. I've always looked forward to having them at my mom's house, but I've never had the right pan. Lucky me, she had a spare! So, I came home and made crepes out of stuff I have on hand all the time. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, salt and vanilla. That's it! So, we enjoyed boat-loads of yummy crepes. Simple, yet profound.

I have no idea why I'm writing right now. I'm not quite sure what makes me think anyone wants to hear about my newfound cooking excitement. Yet, I write anyway. What does that say about me? I feel like I'm having a good ole conversation with myself when I write. Hmmm...

Scrumdiddlyumptious!

My step-dad took the really big hint I left on my last post and printed out the recipes for these cinnamon rolls. Leeann and my mom got to work and I immensly enjoyed the fruit of their labor. Seriously enjoyed it. In fact, I think I'm going to go enjoy another one. And my weight loss was going so well...

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.