Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pot Roast

This weekend I made my first ever pot roast. I wanted to make something special for Sunday dinner, and this recipe from my brand new Pioneer Woman cookbook (yay!) seemed just right. It was delicious! :) Everything turned out, and we had a nice Sunday dinner with some good friends.

After I we had sat down to eat, and I had all but polished off everything on my plate, I turned to Paul and said, "Oh no! I forgot to take a picture!" It was pretty sad. I probably wouldn't have been able to get a very good picture of it anyway, so instead here's a bright and beautiful one from thepioneerwoman.com:

I have now tried a few recipes from her cookbook, and I'm just loving it! The recipes are down to earth and very, VERY tasty (although not necessarily low in fat ;) ).

I served the pot roast and carrots with mashed potatoes. I decided to use some tips from Pioneer Woman's recipe for the potatoes as well. I added some cream cheese and used Lawry's seasoning salt to season them instead of garlic salt like I usually use. They were very creamy and decadent. I think I would have polished off four or five servings of them if they hadn't been so filling!

Here's the recipe for the pot roast. You can find a similar recipe (though she seems to have made a few changes, mostly simplification, for the cookbook version) on Pioneer Woman's site here: Perfect Pot Roast.

Perfect Pot Roast

Ingredients:

3-5 lb. chuck roast

2-3 T. olive oil

kosher salt

pepper*

2 onions

6-8 carrots (I used all 8 and they were YUMMY)

about 2 1/2 c. beef stock

3-4 fresh rosemary sprigs**

2-3 fresh thyme sprigs

*I noticed that the recipe calls for pepper in the ingredients but never tells you to add any in the directions. You can use it to season the pot roast if you want. I actually didn't use any, and it was still delicious.

**I had three rather large sprigs of rosemary, and the flavor ended up being a little strong. I think I'll use smaller sprigs next time.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Heat a large pot or Dutch oven (if only I had a Dutch oven! ;) ) over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and allow it to become very hot***. Meanwhile, prepare other ingredients. Generously salt both sides of the roast. Cut two onions in half from root to tip and then cut off the tops and bottoms and peel off the papery skin. Place onions in the pot and brown on both sides (about a minute per side), and then remove to a place.

Next, wash but don't peel the carrots and cut them into big chunks (about 2 inches). Add them to the pot and toss for a minute or two until they are slightly brown around the edges and have turned bright orange. Remove them to a plate or bowl.

Add another tablespoon of oil and allow pot to get very hot again. Sear the roast in the pot for about a minute on each side, and remove to a plate.

Then, deglaze the pot by pouring in 1 cup of beef stock, whisking constantly to remove all the brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Once everything is loosened, return the roast to the pot. Place carrots and onions on top. Then, pour beef broth into the pot to cover the meat halfway (I added a little more than that). Add the herb sprigs. Make sure to push them down into the liquid with a spoon so that they are fully immersed (to help spread the flavor).

Cover the pot and place in the oven for 3-5 hours (depending on the size of your roast--I actually had a 3 pound roast and I cooked it for just about 4 hours). Resist the temptation to peek in the pot while it's cooking. ;) When cooking time is over, check roast by sticking a fork in it. It should go in easily and the meat should be very tender.

Serve pot roast and carrots with mashed potatoes! :)

***So...if you're not very quick at preparing ingredients like me, I would cut the onions and carrots before turning on the heat for the pot. I turned mine on right at the start, and as I was getting the onions ready, the oil started smoking like crazy! It completely filled our apartment. If it wasn't for Paul's quick thinking (opening the door, the windows, and turning on the fan), our smoke detector would have gone off and woken up my sleeping toddler. THAT would have been a tragedy! ;)

YUMMY Cinnamon Rolls

I actually remembered this time to take pictures and not only the final product of these wonderful cinnamon rolls but a step by step process of how to make these cinnamon rolls. I honestly have to say I have been on top of it lately and I am quite proud of myself! :) Not only on this blog but on my own blog!

Melt in your mouth Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients: (3 different bowls, 4 if you count your mixer bowl, such as the kitchen aid)

First bowl: medium

3 cups of milk

2 cubes of butter

Microwave for 4 minutes or until butter is melted - let it cool down for a little bit before mixing the yeast and flour mixture to it.

Second bowl: small

3 Tbls of yeast

1 tsp of sugar

1/4 cup luke warm water (make sure it's not too thick, add a tiny bit more water if it's clumpy)

Let it rise until it literally doubles in size (it will foam up)

Third bowl: large

1 cup sugar

2 tsp salt

6 cups flour (my mom and I both use all-purpose- the blue bag?)

Mix together thoroughly

plus 5-6 cups of more flour later - you will add this after mixing all the bowls together*- I am just making you aware that there is 12 cups of flour total not just 6 cups like I initially thought

If you are mixing it using a wooden spoon use the third bowl as your main mixing bowl.

If you are using a mixing machine (kitchen aid) use that bowl and start my pouring in the Milk/butter bowl (first bowl) then the flour mixture (third bowl) then the yeast.

* My kitchen aid is small so if you have a larger kitchen aid you should be fine, but in my experience I started in the kitchen aid and I eventually had to dump the dough back into the third bowl and finish mixing it by hand.

Having mixing all of the bowls together the dough will be very sticky. But you are not done yet.

Add 6 eggs to the mixture- mix well.......*then slowly add one cup at a time of flour (5-6 cups)- I usually put five cups of flour into the kitchen aid then put the dough back into the large bowl then add the last cup. If you haven't already, place the dough back into the third bowl to let it rise. Once you add the 6th cup try not to handle the dough to much.

Before:

So try and mix the dough as gently as you can. The dough should be really soft. Not firm like homemade pizza dough. Soak a kitchen towel with very hot wa

ter (as hot as you can stand) and place on top of bowl, over the dough. Let it rise for at least 2 hours. It will double in size

After:

This is my third bowl or large bowl - Can you see the difference? - it doubled in size

Pull a third of the dough out of the bowl and place on a generously floured counter or table top. Gently roll out the dough using your hands not a rolling pin. You don't want to flatten the raised dough too much. Like I said earlier, try not to handle to much. It will look like a long oval.

Pour melted/soft butter on top, I like to use my hands, it's faster. Sprinkle Brown sugar (with my hands) and cinnamon on top of oval dough. You can also add nuts or raisins at this time if you like.

Roll up dough into a circle. Cut dough with dentalfloss. Just place under rolled dough, cross and slice. Do not cut with a knife, all that you will manage to do is flatten the dough. You want the dough to be soft and fluffy. I would make the slices smaller then I did. You will see how big I made them.

Before:

Place sliced cinnamon rolls on a greased cookie sheet. Let it rise another hour. I just let it rise over night. I did everything up to the point of letting it rise some more. That way you can wake up and all you have to do its put them in the oven.

After:

There's not a huge difference here but you can see that they grew a little bit. I made the cinnamon rolls to the right a little too big. Unless you like them big. I was able to make 2 dozen rolls but if you were to make them smaller I am sure you could make 3 dozen.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until the rolls look slightly brown.

Take out of the oven and brush melted butter on top. Drizzle glaze on top

Glaze:

2 Tbl butter

1 Tbl milk

A little bit of vanilla extract

Powder sugar (just keep adding powder sugar until you get a thick consistency. You don't want it too runny, but you want it runny enough to allow it to drizzle.

The FINAL Product! YUMMY!

Easy Dinner Rolls

So, Saturday night I made the dough for Melt-In-Your-Mouth Dinner Rolls and was way excited to have rolls the next night with the yummy soup I was making. In the morning I checked the dough and it seemed really dense so I assumed I put too much flour. I really wanted rolls that night so I looked online to see if I could find a recipe that would be done by that night. I came across this recipe and it had good reviews, so we gave it a shot. They turned out great! I will definitely have to make these again. Once again, my picture isn't very good, but there are lots of pictures with the recipe online.

Ingredients

• 1 cup water (110 degrees F)
• 2 packages yeast (Do not use the quick rising in this recipe)
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 1/4 cups flour

Directions:
Combine water and yeast in large bowl; let stand for 5 minutes. With wooden spoon, stir in butter, sugar, eggs and salt. Add flour, 1 cup at a time and beat in as much as you can (you will probably be able to use all the flour). Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Grease a 9x13 baking pan. Turn dough onto floured surface. Divide into 24 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth ball and place in rows in prepared pan. Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled. Bake at 375 degrees for 17 minutes or until golden brown.

* Brian also spread melted butter over the top before and after these were baked.
* We used all the flour it called for
* We put foil on top for the last few minutes so the tops wouldn't get too brown before the insides were done.

Oh, and the other rolls turned out after all, so we had A LOT of rolls :). Here's the original link again.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Dinner-Rolls-40633

Bride's Biscuits

(Again, sorry no pictures)
From the Essential Mormon Cookbook (Stan says it should be one of our standard works- I love most all the recipes-esp. the corn bread- just typing that makes me want to eat another warm slice with butter and honey)

I like these biscuits because you can leave them in the fridge for up to one week and make them as desired. Also, they fluff up really nice and do those layers like Grand's biscuits do.

1pgk dry yeast
1/2 c warm water
5 c flour
3 TBS sugar
1 TBS baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 c shortening or butter (I used shortening and they turned out really well)
2 c. buttermilk (remember you can make it easy 1TBS of lemon juice per c of buttermilk in recipe and then fill cup with enough milk to equal the liquid amount. sit for 10 min. before using

dissolve yeast in warm water. let stand 10 min (if making buttermilk do so now)
sift dry ingred. tog. cut in shortening.
comb. buttermilk and yeast mixture- add to dry ingred. working only until moistened
cover and refrig. several hours or up to a week
carefully roll out onto well floured surface 1/2 in thick (I worked the dough with flour before rolling it out to get the consistency I needed)
Cut with biscuit cutter (or a glass like I do)
bake on greased sheets for 15 min at 400* F

Makes 3 dozen biscuits

Chili Chicken Tacos

It's a new day with more new recipes! I'm going to try and post a couple recipes each day until I'm caught up. :)

This one was another Chef Britta masterpiece. I've had a lot of success with her recipes.

Chili Chicken Tacos
Ingredients:
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used breasts because that's what I had)
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 c. salsa, plus more for serving
1 to 2 T. canned chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped (a little goes a long way!)
1 T. chili powder
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
hard and or soft taco shells
other toppings, as desired (tomato, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, cilantro, etc.)


Directions:
Combine chicken, sliced garlic cloves, chiles, salsa, chili powder, salt and pepper in slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for four hours (or on low for eight hours). Shred chicken with two forks (it falls apart easily). Serve with desired toppings.

This chicken is really quite spicy, but it's yummy! The chipotle chiles are what makes it spicy, so if you want it to be more mild, you can put fewer chiles in. I put a whole 2 tablespoons in, maybe even slightly more, because I didn't know how spicy they were. And it was pretty intense! ;)

Here's a link to the original recipe (she has some great pictures of the process, you should check them out!): Chili Chicken Tacos.

Country Captain Chicken

It's been so long since I made this recipe! I haven't been very successful with the slow cooker recipes like I used to be. I have a bunch of recipes I want to try though, so hopefully I bring it out again soon!

This recipe, like most slow cooker recipes, was nice because I could put it together and let it cook itself. It had a little more prep than some other recipes that I've made, but it was a really good dinner. It had a surprising flavor, and both Paul and I enjoyed it.

Country Captain Chicken
Ingredient:
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs (I actually just used two boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into pieces)
2 T. flour
2 T. oil, divided
1 c. chopped green bell pepper (I just chopped up one smallish pepper)
1 large onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped (I actually forgot to put this in when I made it)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 c. chicken broth
2 c. canned crushed tomatoes
1/2 c. golden raisins*
1 1/2 t. curry powder
1 t. salt
1/4 t. paprika
1/4 t. black pepper

*Paul doesn't like raisins. But I had a feeling they wouldn't seem like raisins once they were cooked for hours and hours, and I was right. They really added to the meal, so I recommend putting these in even if you are apprehensive.

Directions:
Coat chicken pieces with flour, set aside. Heat half of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, onion, celery, and garlic. Cook and stir for about five minutes or until onion starts to get tender. Place vegetables in the bottom of your slow cooker. Heat remaining half of oil in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add flour-coated chicken. Brown for five minutes on each side. Chicken will not be fully cooked, but it will finish cooking in the slow cooker. Add chicken pieces to the slow cooker. Pour broth into the still-hot skillet. Cook and stir, scraping off bits of chicken or vegetables at the bottom of the skillet. Pour into slow cooker. Add tomatoes, raisins, curry powder, salt, paprika, and black pepper. Gently stir the spices into the tomatoes to disperse them into the mixture. Cover. Cook on low for 3 hours. Serve over rice.


Like I said, this recipe had a surprising flavor. It was very interesting and yummy. I highly recommend giving it a try at least once.

Grace's Fall-Off-the-Bone Ribs

It's me! I'm alive! I have a whole bunch of recipes to post because it's been so long since I last posted one. I don't know why, but I think I needed a little break. I'm ready to get caught up, though, so here we go!

This recipe is a family favorite in Paul's family. And I know why! These ribs are delicious and actually very easy to prepare.


Grace's Fall-Off-the-Bone Ribs
Ingredients:
1 rack of pork ribs
triple recipe of Ishimoto family Sweet and Sour Sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Wrap rack of ribs generously in foil. I should have taken a picture to give you an idea of what it looks like, but you just wrap the foil around and cinch it at the top like a little tent. Make sure the foil is crimped shut all the way across.. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 2 1/2 hours. (Yes, you do not need to season the ribs at all first. Don't worry, they turn out delicious!) Prepare Sweet and Sour Sauce. After 2 1/2 hours, open up the foil and flatten the rack of ribs if needed. Pour on about 2/3 of your Sweet and Sour Sauce (be generous). Continue to cook (with foil still open) for 30 minutes. At this point, increase the temperature on the oven to broil, and pour the rest of your sauce on top. Broil for about two minutes. This gives the ribs a nice charcoaled scent and seals in the flavor.


We served our ribs with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. It was a delicious dinner! And, you may be thinking that one rack of ribs is a lot for two people. Well........


Look at those clean bones! The meat really does fall right off of them. It was so yummy.

*Note: Paul and I bought an 'extra meaty' rack of ribs (it was labeled that way at the store). I highly recommend buying that kind because I get annoyed with ribs that have hardly any meat on them.

Creamy Italian Chicken

I am way behind on posting recipes! This is a recipe that I tried a couple weeks ago and it turned out great! It had a really good flavor and the chicken wasn't dry like I thought it might be. Plus, it's a crockpot recipe and is very easy. Basically, I highly recommend it.

Unfortunately the night that I made it we were in a hurry and forgot to take a picture of it until I had eaten half of it so it's not the best picture. So, if any of you try it, you could take a better picture of it and we could replace this one.

Also, I served it with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots on the side. The recipe tells you to serve it over noodles or rice. I think it would be good that way, but Becca likes mashed potatoes more.

Creamy Italian Chicken
Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
1/3 cup water
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) cream of chicken soup
1 can (4 oz.) mushroom stems and pieces, drained

Directions:
Place chicken in crockpot. Combine salad dressing mix and water; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on LOW for 3 hours (I flipped them halfway, but the recipe doesn't tell you to do that). In a bowl whisk together soup and cream cheese until blended (soften the cream cheese first). Stir in mushrooms. Pour mixture over chicken and cook for 1 to 3 hours longer or until chicken juices run clear. Serve over rice or noodles.

* When I bought a salad mix envelope I was confused because there were different sizes. It's supposed to be about 1.25 oz. Also, I put more like 1/2 cup water. I put a little extra because it didn't seem like very much water.

* Like I said, it was good with mashed potatoes. We used the yummy sauce as gravy. But just a warning, it was a pretty heavy meal that way.

Slow Cooked Pork Chops

You should all be very proud of me. ;) I did something with this meal that I have never done before. I took a recipe and completely changed some ingredients in it. I've made tiny changes in recipes before (in amounts or with something small and safe like the breaded pork chop recipe), but usually I don't mess with the spices because I don't know enough about them to know what is good. This time I did a bit of research online and made adjustments accordingly.

I got the original recipe here (another cooking blog I've come across). I first made it for Paul on Father's Day this year. Paul liked it, but I didn't like the dijon mustard taste. I thought it wouldn't come through, but I could still taste it. So, this time I tried to find substitutions for dijon mustard online with no success. Then, I found a couple recipes for homemade dijon mustard. I took some key spices from those recipes and used them instead of dijon mustard in this recipe. It turned out pretty good! The spices I added gave a good flavor, and it was nice not to have to taste the mustard.


Slow Cooked Pork Chops
Ingredients:
4 thinly sliced pork chops
salt and pepper to taste
1 apple, diced
1 medium onion, diced (the original recipe calls specifically for a yellow onion, but this time I used a white one because I prefer white onions)
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced*
2 bay leaves*

*These are the ingredients I added. The original recipe calls for 1 T. dijon mustard instead.

Directions:
Place diced apple and onion in the bottom of your slow cooker (CrockPot). Season both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper. Place the pork chops on top of the apples and onions (mine overlapped a little, it depends on how big your slow cooker is). In a separate bowl mix together the vinegar, brown sugar, garlic and bay leaves. Pour over the pork chops in the slow cooker. Cook on low setting for 4 hours. Remove and discard bay leaves before serving.

The main thing I like about this recipe is that the pork chops are so tender. They just fall apart with a fork. Overall, though, it's not my favorite recipe. I'm going to continue to look for slow cooked pork chop recipes, though.

Robin's Crockpot Lasagna

We have a 4 qt crockpot (I think that's right) and this recipe was a little bit too much for it...you can adjust accordingly for whatever size crockpot you have and how much your family eats. I also thought there was too much meat in ours, but you know me and ground beef: we don't always get along....Over all, I thought the dish was delicious and Bryce liked it too. It's a great meal to prepare for Sunday...get it all ready (you can even leave it in the fridge overnight, the noodles won't get soggy) and then turn the crockpot on before you leave for church and it's ready when you get home.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
jar of spaghetti sauce (Prego's Traditional is my personal favorite)
can of tomato sauce (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced (I used a garlic press for the first time! This probably made me more excited than it should have)
salt and pepper (to taste)
4 cups shredded cheese (your choice: mozzarella and cheddar are recommended)
1 1/2 c cottage cheese
1/2 c parmesan cheese
lasagna noodles (doesn't matter what kind)

Directions:
Cook lasagna noodle according to directions on box (we used about half a box)
In large saucepan saute onion
Add beef, garlic, and salt & pepper
After the beef is browned, add jar of spaghetti sauce
In medium bowl, combine the three types of cheese
Spread a layer of tomato sauce(This is where the optional can of tomato sauce comes in: you can either save out some of the spaghetti sauce or you can use tomato sauce) in bottom of crockpot (You may want to line the crockpot with tin foil or spray with Pam first for easier clean up)
Layer noodles, cheese, and meat 3 times
Top with noodles, and then top with cheese and tomato sauce (or just tomato sauce)
Cook on low for 3-4 hours