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P/P Project: Buttermilk Biscuits
02
March
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I and a few of my readers are cooking our way through Ree Drummond’s book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  We’re calling the endeavor “The Pioneer/Pirate Project.”  Feel free to join in any time and discuss your exploits in the comments with us.  The next assignment is at the bottom of this post.

My biggest fear at this point is that after posting this and last month’s Red Velvet debacle, that you all will deduce that I cannot cook.  I can cook.  Promise.  Or maybe my overuse of the crockpot has just deceived myself into thinking I can cook.  Hmmm…but I have had a difficult time with these two recipes, but I think, with this week’s recipe especially, that I’ve learned a bit, and that, my friends, is the whole point in this project.

I am always fascinated with ingredients, and how those ingredients work together to make the finished product.

I mean how in the world did someone, long ago, even come up with biscuits?   Things like that are a mystery to me.

So anyway…so far, so good.  My dry ingredients were all mixed together, and I add the shortening and the cold butter pieces.  And speaking of shortening, I bought a new container, and it was nice and white and creamy and free from any funky aftertaste.

Then I started cutting them together using my grandma’s old pastry cutter.  I love that her hands once held tightly to that handle, rubbing the red paint off over time, making biscuits and other yummy things.

I was starting to get the feeling at this point that there was too much flour because I couldn’t tell if the butter and shortening were getting evenly distributed, and the dough didn’t seem crumbly enough to me.  I went ahead anyhow and added the buttermilk and mixed.  When I turned the dough out onto the cutting board though, it seemed way too dry to me, so I added another splash of buttermilk.  That seemed to help.

I don’t have a biscuit cutter or even a round cookie cutter, so I used a dinner glass.

I think these must be a good bit bigger than a biscuit cutter because I only got 14 biscuits out of this recipe that claims it will make 18-24.  I also think, even though my dough was probably rolled out to about 1/2 an inch that this was too thin.  They didn’t rise well and got too brown, I think.

I baked them for the minimum time listed of  nine minutes.  Next time I would probably reduce that to between seven and eight and take a peek then.

Interestingly, they weren’t as bad as they looked.  The inside was flaky and flavorful, and my family actually enjoyed them.  Next time I just need to leave the dough thicker and invest in a biscuit cutter, and I think I’m in business.

Or I just need to open a can of Pillsbury.  Seriously…that is a good bit of work for something that can be done quite conveniently and cost-effectively by buying a roll of pre-made dough.  But still…I’m willing to give it another shot.  I am a Southern woman afterall.  I should know how to make biscuits.  But if I don’t ever figure it out, thankfully I only live about ten minutes from a Cracker Barrel restaurant.

I didn’t receive any photos from others this time.  If you just forgot, go ahead and send them.  It’s easy to add them in.  Did anyone else try these?  How did it go?  What did you think?

***Update***  One reader posted about her biscuits on her blog. Check out Angela’s experience….http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jasonangela93/768896/?#c1394168

Our next assignment is from the Dinner/Lunch section.  We’re going to make the Simple, Perfect Chili on pps. 82-83.  I already have a really good, stand-by chili recipe, so it will be interesting to compare.  And it really does look simple, so if I mess this one up, I’m turning in my apron.  You have until March 15 to make yourself a pot, and if you’re like us here in Tennessee, it is still plenty cold enough for some chili!  Have fun!

Category: Grub, Pioneer/Pirate Project  Tags: , , ,  9 Comments
P/P Project: Red Velvet Cake
18
February
admin

A few of my readers and I are cooking our way through Ree Drummond’s book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  We’d love to have you join in with us.  Jump in any time, cook the recipe, and then come discuss it here on the comments section of  my blog.

Don’t let the above picture fool you.  This recipe, for me, was a disaster.  But I’m pretty sure it was my fault, and not PW’s.  Allow me to explain.

First of all, despite the misleading heart I put on top of my cake, I did not bake this over Valentine’s weekend.  No, I baked it about two hours ago.  Valentine’s turned out to be a lot busier than I anticipated, and then this week has been busy too with Jack Henry having his first head cold and all of us trying to make preparations to make a quick trip this weekend.  So, knowing I needed to get this posted today, I was rushed, and I’m blaming baby snot for it.

Secondly, I think my shortening was a little on the old side.  I had just used it before Christmas, so I don’t think it was detrimentally so, but it did look a little glossier than I think it should.  I threw the tub away after I made the cake, but by the time I realized it had seen better days, Jack Henry was napping, and Bonny Annie was at her tutorial, so a grocery run was not a prospect at the moment.

Thirdly, I had a headache.  I think it was because I colored my hair last night, and I always get a little bit of one when I do that.  I am more than likely giving myself a brain tumor for the sake of vanity concerning a handful of white hairs.  But, regardless, by the time I was finished I just felt like I was throwing ingredients everywhere and not really baking with purpose.

I think that’s all, but I’ll let you know if I can think up any more reasons that this cake kinda failed for me.

This is the kind of recipe that will totally trash your kitchen.  By the time I was finished, every single counter was covered with baking paraphernalia.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe, with just a few minor changes.  I used plain, old all-purpose flour and not cake flour.  My Publix apparently doesn’t carry cake flour, and that’s where I made a quick grocery run yesterday afternoon. 

I have no idea how much red food coloring I used.  I didn’t have the liquid kind on hand.  I had the gel kind that comes in little tubes, and the tube wasn’t full.  This accounts for the lighter pink color of my cake.

The only other variation was, like I said, using shortening that was a little “off.”  This may account for the slight aftertaste that I think my cake has.  It’s slight, but it’s there.

I had to bake my cakes for about ten minutes longer than the book calls for.  When I checked them at 20 minutes, there was still wet batter on my cake tester.  Then I think the outsides got a little too brown.  Then they stuck a little in the pans too, even though I let them cool longer than the 20 minutes that was called for…

Nothing terribly tragic, and they frosted up just fine.  The icing, I thought, was really good, but then how can you go wrong with cream cheese icing?

Overall, the cake tasted okay.  Dirty Harry was the only one available to taste-test, and he gave it a thumbs-up…but then he’s a nine year-old boy who is having a piece of cake before his lunch, so he’s perhaps not the best critic.  After a few more people have tasted it, I’ll let you know in the comments.

My sister-in-law, Susan, sent me these sweet pictures of her baking experience…

 

As you can see, she opted to make cupcakes, and I’ll let her share the details of that  in the comments section.

So, how did it go for all of you?  Did you whip it out for Valentines Day?  Are the ingredients still in your pantry?  Weigh in below and let us all know…

For our next assignment, we’re going to the “In the Morning” section.  Let’s get back to the basics and try the Buttermilk Biscuits on pages 44-45.  I’m going to skip all of next week and give you until Monday, March 1 to cook up a batch of these babies.   Have fun! 

Category: Grub, Pioneer/Pirate Project  Tags: , , , , ,  10 Comments
P/P Project: BBQ Jalepeno Poppers Outcome (and Your Next Assignment)
10
February
admin

Some of my readers and I are cooking our way through the book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  Feel free to join in, what I’m calling, The Pioneer/Pirate Project any time!  The more the merrier!

So, how did it go my fellow pirate chefs?  Did you make ‘em?

I put all of them together on Saturday evening.  I read in the book that you can prepare them up to 24  hours in advance and keep them in the fridge until you want to bake them, and this seemed to work just fine.

Overall, the prep was fairly simple, albeit a little time consuming.  I did decide to wear gloves for slicing the jalapenos, and I scraped out all to most of the seeds, since I was going for a as mild a version as possible in hopes that the kids would be brave and try them.  I had no problems with the bacon wrapping process, although I did opt to place the toothpicks in before brushing with the BBQ sauce, rather than after like the directions said.  I did this because I thought it would be less messy, and because I’m a rebel at heart. 

I put a pineapple tidbit in half of my poppers’ filling, and to be honest, I didn’t find the addition all that noticeable.  Maybe it was because I was using canned instead of fresh.  Maybe it was because the tidbit size was too small.  I don’t know, but next time I probably wouldn’t go to the trouble of that step….not that it was all that much trouble really.

(Please ignore the oven that needs to be cleaned and focus on the poppers.  Thank you.)

I’d say that these were a hit at my house.  Big D, Indiana Mimi and I all really liked them.  Dirty Harry thought they were okay, and Bonny Annie, who hates all things spicy, ate one without much comment.  Cap’n Jack Henry, who is perfectly willing to put anything at all in his mouth, was not afforded the opportunity.  I really didn’t think they were spicy at all, which was interesting to me since it was a fresh jalapeno pepper we were dealing with.  The removal of the seeds must be really significant.

The one improvement would be to figure out how to get the bacon crispier.  I think next time I might try baking at a higher heat for less time, and see what that might do.  Any other thoughts on that?

Also, next time, I will do a better job of picking out similiar sized peppers.  I bought mine on Saturday afternoon at Publix, and I think about 75% of my town was in the store at the same time, so I was rushed and agitated when I was choosing and just started flinging the peppers in my cart with wild abandon.  When I got home I realized I had a mixed bag of sizes, ranging from tiny to huge.  I think uniform sizing would be more ideal.

I only received pictures this time from my sister, Debbie.  Here are some shots of her adventure…

Thanks, Deb for sharing!  Love that you are wearing your Bears sweatshirt, even though they didn’t even make the play-offs!  Please, please, please share your story about your pre-heating/Tupperware debacle in the comments.  I almost shared it for you, but thought you could probably share it with more gusto…since it was your husband and your Tupperware.

It’s not too late to send pictures if you forgot.  I can still add them at any time.  kellie@thepiratemom.com

Okay, so let’s discuss these babies.  Here are some questions to consider…

  • Did you try any deviations from the original recipe?
  • What were the general reactions of your “tasters”?
  • Would you make this recipe again?
  • Did you have any mishaps?
  • What did you like/not like about the process and/or the recipe in general?

We’re going a total different direction for our next assignment.  It is in the Sweets section of the book:  Red Velvet Cake!  I thought this would be good for a Valentine’s treat for your family, friends or significant other.  The recipe is found on pps. 233-235 of the book (almost the very end!)  I couldn’t find this recipe on her site, so I think you’ll need the book for this one.  However, if you don’t have it yet, feel free to use another red velvet recipe (from scratch!) and chime in anyway.  It might be fun to do a comparison.  I will post about this recipe late next week…probably Thursday or Friday, so it will give you plenty of time to pull it off.  Happy baking!

Category: Grub, Pioneer/Pirate Project  Tags: , , , ,  10 Comments
The Pioneer/Pirate Project: Come Cook with Me!
01
February
admin

I had an idea.  Sometimes, when you’ve been snowed and iced in for four days, that happens, I guess.

Remember this movie review for Julie and Julia?  Well, after I saw that movie, I had a natural inclination to want to cook through a cookbook and blog about it too.  Julia Child’s book on French cooking is way, way, way beyond me.  So I kept perusing my shelves, trying to decide which one to tackle, when it suddenly hit me that the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook would be perfect!  She’s a blogger.  I feel like over the past three or so years that I’ve read her blog that I’ve watched her become famous.  Her recipes can be a tad challenging at times, but they are attainable…especially with her mouth-watering photography.  And, most importantly, pioneer, pirate, and project all begin with the letter P, and I’m in love with alliteration.  Perfect! (Ha!  Another P!)

But then I had another idea!  (Remember:  four days…snow and ice…a long, long game of RISK with the kids)  What’s the fun in cooking through a book by yourself?  Wouldn’t it be more fun if others joined in?  Wouldn’t it be like the biggest party if you had a whole posse participating with you? (Sorry…I really can’t stop with the P’s.)

So, do you want to join me?  Here’s a sort of outline of what I had in mind….

  • Every other week, probably on Monday or Tuesday at the latest I would post which recipe I’m going to make.  I will post the title and page number and the link, if it’s also on her website.
  • Then sometime over the next week (I will probably be doing mine over the weekend) we all cook up the recipe and serve it to our families or our friends or our neighbors or our postal carriers.
  • I will then post about the experience….the good, the bad, and the ugly.  If you have also joined in, then you can post about your experience in the comments section and hopefully some lively, fun discussions will ensue.
  • You can also send me some pictures via e-mail, kellie@thepiratemom.com .  It might be the finished product.  It might be your spouse’s satisfied smile.  It might be your kitchen stacked with dirty dishes.  Or, best of all, it might be you covered in flour or tomato sauce or the like.  Whatever you want to share, send it to me, and I’ll add it to my post.
  • Then I will post the next assignment, and the whole process will begin again.
  • You don’t have to cook every recipe to participate.  Feel free to float in out as you choose.
  • Anyone can join:  bloggers, non-bloggers, men, women,  kids (with parents’ permission, of course), Republicans, Democrats, pioneers, or pirates…just come join us in completely trashing the kitchen every once in a while for the sake of education and a good time!

Her cookbook is pretty easy to find.  It’s available at most major bookstores.  You can also purchase it here or here or about a dozen other places on-line.

For our first recipe, I chose the very first one in the book.  It is The BBQ Jalapeno Poppers, and it is found on pps. 14-15 of the book, in the Starters section.  I thought these would be perfect for the Super Bowl this Sunday, especially if Peyton Manning is sacked twelve times and the Colts lose 521-3.

Many of her recipes are also on her website, and the poppers are one of them.  I thought this one might be good to start with, so that anyone who wants to join would have time to get the book.  So, if you need it, here’s the on-line link:

BBQ Jalapeno Poppers

Sound fun?  Want to join?  I hope so, but even if I don’t have any takers, I’m still gonna’ do it and blog about it because, ya’ know, I had that idea and all…

Leave me a comment, and let me know if you’re up for the P/PP!  And feel free to grab my picture above and link to the post in order to share with your friends.  The more the merrier!

This blog post was brought you by the letter P.  Thank you.

Category: Grub, Pioneer/Pirate Project  Tags: , , , ,  16 Comments
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