Darn you, Pioneer Woman.... :):)

...for drawing us in with your mouthwatering pictures and causing us to just NEED to make something!! Hubs and I were on spring break and we came across the cinnamon rolls. We just HAD to have them! Little did we know, it made 7 trays full! We loved them and shared with friends and family in order to avoid eating them all ourselves!
I followed PW's recipe exact so this is a copy/paste...
Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
* 1 quart Whole Milk
* 1 cup Vegetable Oil
* 1 cup Sugar
* 2 packages Active Dry Yeast
* 8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
* 1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
* 1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
* 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
* Plenty Of Melted Butter
* 2 cups Sugar
* Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon
* _____
* MAPLE FROSTING:
* 1 bag Powdered Sugar
* 2 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
* ½ cups Milk
* ¼ cups Melted Butter
* ¼ cups Brewed Coffee
* ⅛ teaspoons Salt

Preparation Instructions
Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. “Scald” the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.
After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).
When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.
Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.
Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.
Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees (see note below) until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

"You don't make friends with salad...."

....unless it's THIS one!! Out of the latest group of cookbooks borrowed from the library, I chose this recipe from the Newlyweds Cookbook because I had an avacado in the fridge and wanted to eat it desparately. I didn't make the dressing called for because it didn't seem appealing to me at all. Instead, I made a simple balsamic dressing. This salad was good and quite attractive too. It'd be a great choice to serve to guests.

Bacon and Avacado Salad
Spring mix
1 avacado, sliced
3 slices of bacon per plate, cooked and chopped
handful of feta, crumbled
Dressing
pinch of salt
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

1) Pile spring mix on plate.
2) Cook bacon and slice the avacado.
3) Sprinkle salad with dressing and top with bacon, feta and avacado.

Bruscetta- Julia style....

Around these parts we love our bruscetta. We've grown accustomed to making it our own cheater way.....until now! I came across a recipe for a version that is similar to what Julia Child would've made back in the day. WAAAAAAY more decadent. WAAAAAAAAY WAAAAAAAAY WAAAAAAAAAY more decadent but also, much better as far as we're now concerned (3 foot tall family member included). The recipe is not so much a recipe as it is a method so I'll try my best to make it straight forward for you:

1 pkg cherry tomatos, chopped
1 loaf crusty bread, thinly sliced
olive oil- lots and lots of olive oil
garlic (I use pureed)
salt (kosher would work well)
a few fresh basil leaves, chopped

1) put a good glug or five in your pan and heat
2) fry the bread until golden on both sides (add more oil as needed)
3) mix the tomatos with another 5 or 10 glugs of olive oil, some basil, a tsp or so of garlic and salt. Taste it and add salt as needed. The tomatos should be glistening with oil.
4) top the toasty bread with the tomato mixture and eat it!
Yum....

My new favorite cookie??

I borrowed the Pioneer Woman cookbook from the library. Everything in the book looks super yummy but everything is very fattening and well, after Christmas my thighs need a break! I found the Oatmeal cookie recipe tempting so I decided to put my own spin on it. The resulting treat was soft and yummy. Here's the result:
Healthier Oatmeal Cookies
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg plus white of a second egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 3/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup coconut
at least 1 cup chocolate chips (couldn't resist)
1) Mix together wet ingredients
2) Stir in dry ingredients, beginning with flour, salt and baking soda. Once the oats have been added, mixture will be very hard to stir.
3) Bake for 10 minutes (or until golden) at 350 degrees.

TAAAAAAKE OUT! Taaaaaaaake Out!?!

Hubs and I get a hankering for asian cuisine on a frequent basis but, given that we're students, we can't always afford it. So, I'm always on the lookout for decent recipes that give us that 'fix'. Here's one that is not only yum but also easy since it sits in the crock pot all day long....

Moo Shu Pork and Noodles
3 boneless pork chops (or small pork roast), sliced very thin
1/2 cup hoisin
1 tbsp seasame oil
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp ginger
1 clove garlic, pureed
1 bag broccoli slaw
1/2 bag shredded carrots
1 pkg chow mein or instant noodles

1) Slice pork thin and put in the crock pot.
2) Mix ingredients in bowl and then pour over the pork.
3) Pour veggies in pot and then stir.
4) Cook on low for 6 hours.
5) Cook noodles as directed.
6) Spoon pork over noodles and serve. Mmmmm!!

Chicken and Rice

A casserole? Yes, I actually made a casserole! Not the wet, goopy kind so nothing to worry about! It just felt like that kind of day around here. Minus 10 weather does that to a girl!
I found this posted on another blog I like and just altered to suit us a bit.

Chicken and Rice Casserole
(Adapted from kayotic)
2 shredded chicken breasts
3 small carrots, diced small
1 green pepper, diced small
1 red pepper, diced small
8 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp each- paprika, salt, pepper, parsley, onion powder
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
3-4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups rice

1) Cook vegetables just until tender.

2) Mix all ingredients together and pour into casserole dish.
3) Bake at 375 for 45 minutes and check rice to ensure it is cooked. If needed, add more broth and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

A November Recipe

I planned out the majority of my meals for the month of November in hopes of having an easier time blogging. The first recipe I made? Beef Bourguignon. Y.U.M. In addition, I made the Pork Chops with Apples and Rice which, wasn't super (in case anyone actually considered making it) and the Parkers Fish and Chips (which we liked but it was more fattening than we normally like). Since we liked the Beef Bourguignon, I figured it was a great one to post about. Hubs helped me get the ingredients ready and we threw it in the crockpot around noon. By 6 in the evening, we had a deeeeelish supper.....The broth was amazingly rich and dark, the meat was tender and the veggies were full of flavor. We topped the meal off with a nice glass of red wine...