Pioneer Woman Attempt #2 - SUCCESS!

Last Friday night was my second attempt at a Pioneer Woman meal, as well as my second attempt at making a baked potato. And I must say what a success! I conquered the potatoes! Take that potato karma police!

David's mom and sister were out of town so we invited David's dad over for dinner. I decided to make Pioneer Woman's Hot and Sweet Drumsticks, with baked potatoes, and roasted thyme carrots (also from Pioneer Woman). It was all so delicious! I even liked the carrots! I usually hate carrots but am trying to eat more vegetables so I thought that Pioneer Woman's recipe of covering them with evoo (for all you non Rachael Ray fans that is extra virgin olive oil), thyme, and roasting them in the oven might hide the nasty carrot taste enough for me to eat them. And it did. However, David did not like the mushiness of them - he likes the crispness of uncooked carrots.

But the best part of the night was the baked potatoes. I even cooked three of them this time. And did not burn my finger. Which is still scarred from last time - possibly for the rest of my life. The magic number was an hour and ten minutes at 350. Sorry to toot my own horn, but I was very excited that the potatoes actually cooked this time!

And while I am rambling about food, I just have to say that Carlee's penne rosa recipe in the Dynes Delights Cook Book is amazing. I have made it twice in the past month and David and I love it! So good! So thank you Carlee!

Valentine's Day!

David and I finally got to celebrate Valentine's Day together this year - although we went out on Saturday night rather than Sunday. For both of the past two years, David had a construction management competition in Reno on Valentine's Day. Valentine's weekend starting with me going to work that Friday. Shortly after arriving, these roses were delivered to my office! So thoughtful of David!

Then on Saturday, David had to work all day long until about 4:30. He came home from work with a box of chocolates in hand and we got ready for dinner. David doesn't think Valentine's Day is a real holiday so he likes to just do a really nice dinner and not really do much of the present thing. We recently bought David two suits so I bought him two ties to match them as a Valentine's present - although again David insisted that boys should not get Valentine's presents I just couldn't resist. We decided that we wanted to try out the restaurant Chef's Table in Orem. It is supposedly the nicest restaurant in Utah Valley and I had always wanted to go there just to try it out. Sadly, I forgot my camera - I was positive I put it in my purse!

My dish was really good. I ordered the steak with a mango chutney sauce. That steak was amazing, and the mango sauce was even better. David, however, chose his dish poorly. He claimed he was in the mood for something light, so he ordered the halibut fish. He did not like it so much. Especially not for the price. So if you ever find yourself in Orem, Utah at Chef's Table - make sure you go with one of the steak items. We then had creme brulee for dessert. I had never had it before and all I could think of was the bit on "My Best Friend's Wedding" about jello and creme brulee. It was okay but not that great. But overall the atmosphere at the restaurant was nice and romantic and the service was great. The food just may not have been worth the price.

Then we went home and David surprised me with the movie P.S. I Love You to watch. What a treat for me! David hates chick flicks but he managed to stay out on the couch with me the whole time! Of course he was asleep for 99% of the movie but that's okay!

It was nice to get to dress up, have a nice dinner, and watch a girly movie while eating way more chocolate than I should have. Thank you for a great Valentine's Day David!

Pioneer Woman Attempt #1

Ever since the new year, I have started to really get in to cooking. Maybe now that David and I are both graduated and real adults, I'm just naturally wanting to fill that "housewife" role. Anyway, I had heard several of my friends mention the cooking website, thepioneerwoman.com so I finally decided to check it out last week. I am obsessed! Not only are her meals simple and delicious looking, but she is hilarious to read and she posts step by step pictures of what to do. Exactly what a new, inexperienced at cooking housewife needs. If you have never checked out her website - do it now! Seriously, I'm obsessed.

So I chose three recipes to try out. This past Friday I set out to make the first one - grilled steaks with an onion blue cheese sauce. The steaks were easy enough to cook - I just used our George Foreman grill. Although does any one else notice that the George Foreman grills really dry out the meat? I really want to buy a grill pan that goes on the top of the stove. Pioneer Woman uses one so they must be wonderful. The sauce was super easy - my kind of dish. You just saute the onions, then add a cup of cream, and then 1/2 a cup of crumbled blue cheese. It was delicious! I am not the biggest blue cheese fan but mixed with the steak it was amazing. Here is Pioneer Woman's picture of the dish. David told me to remove the picture of my steak. Although it tasted delicious, my photography skills are lacking and he said the picture I took made the steak look like a cowpie - but I promise that it was delicious to the taste.

That is not the end of my cooking experience, however. The steak and sauce were great; my attempt at baking a potato - not so much. I know this is sad to admit, but before last Friday I had never baked a potato. I even had to call my dad to ask how to do it. I put two giant potatoes, wrapped in foil, in the oven at 375 degrees. Thirty minutes went by and not even close to being cooked. Another 15 minutes and still raw as ever. We decided to go ahead and eat the steaks. At that point I upped the oven to 425 degrees. Another thirty minutes and still not cooked! After another ten minutes, I pulled out the potatoes, thinking they were cooked. As I pulled them out, I burned my finger on the 425 degree oven. After waiting an hour and a half for potatoes and burning my finger, I was starting to get emotional. I sliced one of the potatoes in half and saw that only the very outer rim was cooked. The inside was still completely raw. And that was the straw that broke the camels back. I just started bawling. And my finger suddenly started burning. David had no idea what was even happening. He just came over and wrapped his arms around me and ordered me to put the potatoes down. What a mess I was! At that moment I had an "ah-ha!" moment. My dad cuts the potatoes in half before cooking them. I was so mad! For anyone keeping score: potatoes: 2, Karin: 0. Don't worry. My next pioneer woman dish is her "Hot & Sweet Drumsticks." And what better to pair with chicken drumsticks than a nice big baked potato.

To Shop or Not to Shop

I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I am not good at online shopping at all. I would much rather go to the store and try on the clothes. When it comes to swimsuits, however, it seems all the good swimsuits can only be found online - which is very frustrating. I have a rather long torso, so finding swimsuits that fit is really hard for me. After looking around online, I decided to buy this swimsuit from Victoria's Secret.

I was a little worried that it wouldn't be long enough for my torso so I anxiously waiting for it to come in the mail. Well, it came in finally and I tried it on. The length was no problem. The problem is that the cups are about half the size they are in the picture. There could be a wardrobe malfunction at any moment in this swimsuit!! So if anyone knows any secrets to online shopping - especially swimsuit shopping - let me know!!

And to update my office Biggest Loser challenge, after gaining 0.4 lbs, the next week I lost exactly 0.4 lbs putting me back to my original weight. How weird is that? I had even worked out for thirty minutes every day that week. Who knows. I kinda of slacked this week and have only worked out once so I may be eliminated this week. We'll see.