Author: RJ

Ryan Cooks PW Recipe 2

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For my second Pioneer Woman recipe, I decided to make one of my favorite dishes: Beef Stroganoff.

  • Name of Recipe: Beef Stroganoff
  • Cookbook: Dinnertime
  • TV Episode: Kitchen Confessional: Dinner Through the Decades (Season 10, Episode 4)
  • Rating: 1.75 out of 5

As someone who did not grow up eating a lot of red meat, beef stroganoff was not something I can really remember having as a child or even a teenager. I fell in love with beef stroganoff a number of years ago when my best friend made it for dinner for us. He claims that the recipe is from his grandmother, but he leaves out certain ingredients such as mushrooms since he doesn’t like them. Needless to say, this has been the version I’ve been making for a few years.

Until I stumbled upon Ree’s recipe. Featured in her cookbook, Dinnertime! this recipe looks amazing and it is super simple.

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Ryan Cooks PW Recipe 1

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  • Name of Recipe: Teriyaki Salmon and Kale Sheet Pan Supper
  • Cookbook: Come and Get It
  • TV Episode: N/A
  • Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The first recipe on this journey was an easy one. I also loved that it was a sheet pan recipe, so clean up was extremely minimal.

This recipe was so easy and almost hands-off, so there were no pitfalls except for the fact that I think I need to add more kale to the sheet pan. That stuff really cooks down, like spinach, and I forgot about that.

There were basically three main steps to this dish: kale on the pan and season, add salmon and cover with teriyaki, bake! Super, super simple. It’s a wonderful week-night meal since it can be ready in under 25 minutes. It is also an easily scalable recipe. As a first recipe, this one was the perfect choice. It was not very involved and it tasted amazing so it gave me the renewed confidence that I needed for this project.

Here are some pictures below, since I’m trying to take more of them during the cooking process.

The seasoned kale on the sheet pan
The sheet pan with the teriyaki-covered salmon, ready for the oven!

See? An easy recipe with only a few ingredients and only one dirty dish. This is a true winner!

The finished meal with a side of white rice.

We served this meal with a side of white rice, but it would be even better with brown rice or quinoa!

I can see why people flock to Ree’s website and TV show. Her recipes are simple and are designed for modern parents — quick recipes, easy clean up makes for a real winner in my book. I have a feeling I’ll be coasting through these Sheet Pan suppers in no time! Who wouldn’t want a beautiful and tasty meal with little cleanup?

Herbal Update 8/11/2021

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Late last week, I finished the Client Care section. Now, I am able to officially begin the the Master Clinical Herbalist course! For those that are interested, here is a link to the course.

To say I’m excited, is an understatement. When I was in college, and first discovering the world of herbal medicine, this course was one of the first ones that I stumbled upon. But, at the time, the cost was prohibitive for someone who only worked during the summer months. But now, since I’ve taken the plunge and begun the Phytotherapy Diploma, this course is included.

The Master Herbalist course seems to be one of the best ones on the market and it seems to be rather in-depth. Like I said, I’ve been waiting a few years to do this program. Even though I have taken other herbal courses in the past, I never really followed the program correctly. Meaning, I didn’t experiment with herbs, I didn’t make things. I read the materials, took the quizzes, but nothing really stuck. I didn’t get my hands dirty — I didn’t learn much.

I’m hoping for that to change with this program. I am hoping to make some herbal remedies and really get down and dirty with the herbs. This is also the portion of the Diploma program that I’ve been waiting for to make this part of the blog (the herbalism section) more than just updates. I have a few topics planned for this section specifically.

That’s all for now….

Magnolia Bakery #8 – Blueberry Jamboree

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I had a few days off from work this week. I didn’t go anywhere, I was able to take some time for myself. While I didn’t get everything done that I wanted (mainly due to my own laziness and poor planning skills…and the fact that I took a nap one afternoon), I did spend the majority of Tuesday in the kitchen making something tasty.

I also took the time to try and take some halfway decent photos of what I made, which you can see in this post! I am really working on upping my photography game.

So what did I make?

It appears that I am on a Magnolia Bakery kick lately. I’m not sure if it’s because of an article about their vanilla cupcakes is making the rounds online or I’m still just infatuated by the cookbook itself. Whatever the reason, I decided to tackle a recipe from the Icebox Desserts chapter this week.

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Magnolia Bakery Handbook #7 – Brown Sugar Cookies

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Last week, I came home from work and was in the mood to bake. But, by the time I got home, ate dinner, and did some chores, I was not in the mood to go to the store. So, I had to pick a recipe that called for ingredients that I already had on-hand.

Enter Brown Sugar Cookies from the Magnolia Bakery Handbook. I recalled that this recipe was in the book and they looked interesting, so I seized this opportunity to make them. The only downside was the recipe required that the dough chill for at least 30 minutes before baking. Ms. Lloyd says that her cookie recipes should actually chill overnight before baking, but 30 minutes will do. In fact, I let this chill for a little over an hour before I started the baking process.

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Braided Everything Loaf

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After the tiny finger cut debacle of July 18, I quickly realized that the location of the cut would make it difficult to work in the kitchen. Even with the use of the bandaid doing things was an awkward experience.

So, I had to wait until the cut was mostly healed before I was able to dive into cooking and baking again, especially for blogging purposes.

But that doesn’t mean I stayed out of the kitchen! Over last weekend my friend and I made a braided loaf of bread. But we spiced it up a bit — literally! We added Everything Bagel Seasoning to the top of the bread and that added so much flavor.

I didn’t really take pictures of the process, but I do have a photo of what it looked like after it came out of the oven.

Doesn’t it just look divine!

Sometimes Things Don’t Go According To Plan

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You may recall that two weekends ago I was planning to make 5 Barefoot Contessa recipes over the course of the weekend. These included two cookie recipe as well as a full meal, BC style.

Well, the cookies were baked without a hitch. They were well-received by my family, friends, and co-workers. You can read about those recipes here and here. But like many things in life, the goal of knocking out a total of five recipes over just two days proved to be a little more difficult than I originally thought.

When it came time for to begin cooking dinner at my friend’s house, things started off decently. I wasn’t able to follow the chicken recipe to the T since I couldn’t find boneless chicken breasts with the skin on. Instead, I just bought regular boneless, skinless chicken and butterflied them before stuffing them with the goat cheese and basil.

There was a lot of action going on in the kitchen. A few pots on the stove, the chicken in the oven, watching the pasta, talking to my friend, etc. And that’s when it happened! I sliced by finger.

Granted it wasn’t a major cut by any means. Probably slightly worse than a standard papercut. But still, it caused the flow of the evening to change. I wasn’t able to take photos of the completed recipes, and to be honest, I kind of ended up deviating from the recipes as written.

I decided I’m not going to count these three recipes as completed. At some point, I’ll make them for real.

So, I only made two recipes that weekend not five. *sigh*

Barefoot Contessa Recipe 52

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This recipe comes from Parties! page 236.

The second baking recipe I made over the weekend comes from the early days of Ina. Her second cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Parties! takes on a menu-based theme. Recipes are organized not by type, but by party theme.

The recipe I chose to make from this book is one of three variations on the same base recipe. Combined, all three would make wonderful treats for friends or family. But the star recipe of the bake on Sunday was the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies.

There were surprisingly so simple to make. At first I was hesitant because there isn’t a lot of peanut butter in the recipe and it makes a lot of cookies…like over three dozen! At least that’s how many I got out of it. However, upon biting into one, they tasted like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup! I was in heaven!

In the recipe, Ina states that these cookies should bake for 17 minutes. I did that for the first tray of 8 cookies. But when I removed them from the oven, I found them to be too browned and overdone. When tasted, they were much drier and didn’t really have a lot of flavor. They were overdone.

So, I adjusted for the remainder of the batch. I baked them for only 16 minutes and they were perfect! What a difference 60 seconds could make, huh? Who would have thought so much could happen in such a short amount of time?

These cookies are super simple but packed with flavor. Everyone loved them. I think they belong on the Favorites list!

Barefoot Contessa Recipe 51

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This recipe can be found in Back to Basics, page 214.

This past weekend was filled with baking and cooking! After a long hiatus, I finally got the BC bug and dived head first back into the project. Over the course of three days I made a total of five Barefoot Contessa recipes. You can see the full list here, but the different review posts will be dropping over the next couple of weeks.

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Weekend Recipes 7/16/2021

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After a much longer than anticipated hiatus from baking and cooking for the blog, I am excited that this weekend I am planning to make no less than 5 (yes, 5!!) recipes. All of which are Barefoot Contessa recipes.

Today I am going to make one of the two cookie recipes that I’ve been eyeing for sometime. I plan to use the duck eggs that I talked about in an earlier post. I’m really excited to work with them!

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