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.
11 comments:
I love that you titled it "attempt" lol.
Karin you crack me up. Good luck with your quest to become domesticated. Let me know if I can help.
For 30 odd years now, Mom and Dad have been making baked potatoes every Sunday night, and you never helped make them even once? It sounds like the Karma police are evening the score.
Your post was hilarious.
Ditto to Adam's sentiment you funny girl!! I was laughing so hard. But to help in your plight against the karma police, your big sister has a tip for you--microwave your huge potatoes first (try 5 mins) and then finish baking them in the oven. You'll still get the oven-baked taste and texture but in much less time! Just remember to poke some holes in the potatoes first--and I always bake them at no less than 425--I'm too impatient. Good luck!!
Or you can just cut the potatoes in half before you wrap them with foil. That's why we use foil, because there is a cut edge. (Why do you think we spent money on foil??!) Besides, who has room to eat a BIG potato and steak all at one sitting? Funny girl.
Hahaha . . . you're funny!! But I am proud of you for working on learning to cook. Keep it up. Don't get too frustrated. It gets better once you have a group of recipes that you're comfortable with fixing!
trust me...i feel your pain. I still burn Stauffer's Sensations or whatever those things are called.
I was hoping you would blog about it! It sounds delicious and I am sure it looked the same. It's hard to photograph food. Just leave it to the professionals.
Firstly, I love Pioneer Woman! I have her cookbook and I absolutely love every single recipe in it! In fact, I think we should have a Pioneer Woman cooking party, where everyone brings a Pioneer Woman dish! I don't think I could bake a potato either, so don't worry. I can barely make macaroni and cheese!
Hilarious! I guess you didn't notice how long Sunday dinner cooked--usually an hour and a half--because you napped on those days.
Scott's mom rubs crisco on the potatoe before she wraps them in foil. The crisco makes the skins soft. Even if you cut the potatoes in half, they still take a long time to cook.
The only way you'll get better is to keep trying it! Have fun! You've definitely learned to laugh at yourself already, and I'm sure we all have those moments.
Too funny! It took me back to the first meal I attempted- years ago- to cook for Keith- it was disastrous, ended in a similar line of me being in tears, and needless to say, I didn't return to the kitchen until I quit my job last year and embraced the housewife role!
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