PW Time - low carb!

 

Hi guys, it's time for another PW recipe :-) I wasn't sure what to make from the book this week but then it came to me rather quickly when I was thinking of what to do for dinner last Friday night.  I think I've mentioned that I'm watching my carb intake right now, and this week Jason got on board with me and is following a low carb diet too - super happy about that. 

I decided I would do a nice steak for dinner on Friday night, Cheryl had grilled some the weekend before and topped them with Gorgonzola, we had a simple spinach salad with it and it was delicious. And all very low carb (Cheryl is following low carb too).  I wasn't intending to do anything from the cookbook that night, thought I might try the biscuits or something over the weekend, but then it came to me. . . . Steak with Whiskey Cream Sauce!!!

Earlier this week I'd been browsing Ree's cooking blog and came across this recipe - Grilled Ribeye Steak with Onion and Blue Cheese Sauce

 (photo courtesy of The Pioneer Woman)

I even read her other post about how to grill a steak, which you can see HERE.  It all looked very simple enough, and I remembered that she had a similar recipe in her cookbook. I didn't have blue cheese in, but I did have some whiskey, so here's my Ribeye with whiskey cream sauce, 

 I have to say that I was cooking this after 9pm when I'd had one or two glasses of wine (ok, so it might have been three!), so I didn't get many pictures. But as I said, so simple to do.

 While I was grilling my steaks 'the Ree way' I sauted some onion in a pan with a little butter, then added in a little whiskey and cream - that was it! To be honest, I don't think I even measured anything! I poured my sauce over the steak , rather than sitting the steak on top like PW does - cos that's just how I like it :-) 

Verdict: DELICIOUS! We both loved it.  And the great thing is, this is very very low carb. In fact the only carbs in it are in the onion! I would definitely do it again, but I think I'd like to try her onion and blue cheese sauce too.

Scrapbooking Fun and a GIVEAWAY!

When Kristen was young, actually, before she was even born, I used to scrapbook. It was something I was introduced to by a new friend/neighbor, when I first moved to the States over 12 years ago. I went along with her to a friend's house who was hosting a Creative Memories Party. I was instantly hooked. Then along came Kristen and I had tons and tons of baby photos to play with and create wonderful scrapbooks. I made one of her first year, one of her second year, I made a Christmas family album, a school album, then moved on to creating vacation albums too. I loved it. At one point I even became a Creative Memories consultant and hosted parties myself!

But then, we moved to Texas, and I didn't find any friends that scrapbooked, so I eventually put my supplies away and didn't make any more albums. And that's how it's been for the last 6 years. Until just recently!

Just recently I was contacted by a lovely lady from a company called My Memories. It's an online scrapbooking company. I've heard of digital scrapbooking software actually tried it once I think a few years ago, but couldn't really get the hang of it and just didn't seem interested in it. The lovely lady, Liz, asked if I would like to try their scrapbook software and host a giveaway for it on my blog. Well, I'm here writing about it, so you know what my answer to that was  :-) (keep reading for how to win your own copy of My Memories Suite version 2).

I've been playing with the software all week. I have to say when it comes to new software I'm usually pretty, urmmm, 'not smart', for want of a better word. I have to take things slowly and if I can't figure something out in the first 5 minutes, I usually get pretty angry. Thankfully, that didn't happen with this software. I found it pretty easy to create my first page . . .

As you can see I picked some photos I took last year when Kristen was learning to horse ride. There are lots of premade pages to choose from but also lots of embellishments to add too. This page already had the side paper on it and where to place the photos and text, and a green box for the Title. All I added was the little blue flowers and a paperclip (just to give it my personal touch!) :-) Scrapbooking the 'old way', I could be sitting for hours thinking of how I would arrange my page,s then once I decided I'd have to cut out my paper, and crop my photos . . . . oh my gosh, I had none of that to do here. It was so quick and easy. 

I made another page with the photos from Kristen's first day of school last week. . . . and it doesn't always just have to be an album page, you can create calendars and videos, make a dvd and add music, cards, posters and lots more.

Check out this link to Youtube to see more  http://www.youtube.com/user/MyMemoriesSuite

I'm really rather excited now, after all these years and doing nothing with the photos I've taken (other than store them on my computer in folders), I'm really eager to start creating pages and designing albums, so I can get them printed. They'll make great Christmas gifts too. There's also so many other digital paper packs that I can purchase, I'm having a great time browsing them all at My Memories.com

So, would you like to try the  My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software? You could win your own copy - a $40 value by entering my giveaway below.

1 entry - visit MyMemories.Com and tell me what your favorite digital paper pack or layout is. 

extra entry - Like My Memories on Facebook

extra entry - Follow My Memories on Twitter

That's 3 chances to win :-) And if you aren't the lucky winner but want to give digital scrapbooking a try, use this special coupon code STMMMS5368 that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!)

I'll announce a winner on Saturday September10th.

Wine Time!

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday so I thought I'd pop on here this morning and do a wine post :-) Looks like I'm not actually managing to do these every week, so I'll just do them as and when I have something to share with you. This week I bought two new wines to try. Last night I tried this one (of course, with Cheryl - I cannot try a new wine without getting her opinion on it) ;-)

Pine Ridge Wine (you can find their website HERE). This is a Chenin Blanc + Viognier (which I pronounce 'von-yay', but have no idea if that's how you say it!!), the chenin blanc is a sweet wine but this wasn't too sweet because 21% of it is viognier. It has peach and honeysuckle flavors from the Viognier and crisp apple, pear and citrus from the Chenin Blanc. I was surprised that I actually could smell and taste the peach (and yay, I didn't look at the back of the bottle before I tasted). Cheryl got hints of citrus when she tried it.

I picked this wine because the first house we ever bought when we moved to the USA was on Pine Ridge Rd! It brought back sweet memories of my new life in the States.

The other wine I picked (but I haven't tried yet) is this one . . . 

Isn't that a cute label :-)  And of course we're still in 'flip flop weather' here in Texas (and probably will be all the way through to October!) so this will be fun to try next weekend.

I have to share this bottle with you - Cheryl opened it last night to try and I have to say, it's the best Merlot I've ever tried. 

This is a huge discovery for me (I'll definitely buy it again- Cheryl got it  from Costco) because I've never liked Merlot. They've always tasted too dry for me and very 'oaky', and LOL, I've always said it tasted very 'furry'!! But this wine wasn't like that, and get this - I actually tasted 'black cherry' (and not the usual blackberry taste that I get from a Cabinet) and that is what it said on the label :-)  I'm getting pretty good at this wine tasting stuff! Highly recommend this one.

I asked Cheryl last weekend to take a picture of my new dress and shoes - this is from her Iphone so it's not very clear (the shoe pics were totally blurry, so I'll get a photo of them next time). I got the dress at Ross and it was actually a gift from Cheryl because a couple of weeks ago she bought me one from there that she thought I might like (she's an awesome friend like that!) but it turned out too small, so I took it back. Couldn't find the dress in a larger size, so I got this one instead :-) 

 I also have to share with you the pretty cuff I wore with it - Susan will recognize this! I won it in a giveaway at her blog last year some time - it's made from a vintage man's suit and is adorned with beautiful lace and a hand sewn silk rose, and tied with a silk ribbon.

Well, I must be off. Hope you all have a great weekend. I have a giveaway coming soon - if you like scrapbooking or have wanted to try digital scrapbooking, you're gonna love it!

Fall Creations

 The lovely Kristen over at Kristen's Creations is hosting her first 'Share Your Creations' Party today. It's similar to her Show and Sell, but she's changed it up for anyone to share 'anything' they've created (not just what they're selling), although she still has allowed us to share things we've created that we will sell!  I thought I'd join in today and show you a few things I've been creating this week for my Etsy shop.

I popped out to Hobby Lobby earlier this week and decided to buy some 'Fall Yarn'! It's still hot here in TX, but there's still a feeling that Fall is on it's way, perhaps because we're up earlier each morning and I'm getting to feel the cool 70 degree weather before it hit's the 100's later in the day! Whatever it is, it's putting me in the mood for Fall Knitting :-) 

Last year my Pumpkin hat was pretty popular, so I'm listing it again and can do other sizes if needed. Using the same lovely orange yarn, I knit this pretty little girls hat . . .

I think it looks super cute and will be a great addition to any little girl's 'wardrobe'. I've got some cowls to list soon too, like these I had last year - a gorgeous chunky cowl knit in a 'fan and feather' pattern (which looks rather lacy).

I love this oatmeal colored yarn and I've got a chunky pair of fingerless mittens to list in the same yarn - it's just a matter of taking the photos, which I'm hoping to do this weekend. Also to list is another cowl like this . . 

 

and I also have it knitted in a lovely 'Fall' color, a beautiful blend of browns, orange, sienna and burnt umber - it looks gorgeous. After I have a few new things listed for Fall I will get on with my Christmas gift knitting :-) It certainly keeps me busy!

Welcome back PW!

Actually what I really mean is, welcome back to 'cooking with The Pioneer Woman' :-)  I hope you'll join me each week as I continue my way through Ree's wonderful cook book and trying her delicious recipes. 

And of course you can watch along with Ree on Saturday mornings on her new show on FoodNetwork. It airs at 11.30am/10.30c. I saw the first episode last weekend when Ree made her yummy chicken fried steak. I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I will have to make it soon as it's hubby's favorite too. 

This week I chose Maple Pecan Scones from Ree's book. But I'm actually calling mine Praline Pecan Scones. . . I'll explain why in a minute ;-)

Making scones is pretty simple, you start off with dry ingredients, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Then cut in 2 sticks of cold butter until you have crumbles.  Add in some chopped pecans, and then to that you add 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream and one egg! Ree certainly can give Paula Deen a run for her money when it comes to butter and cream (and in other recipes, Mayo), that's for sure! You can tell these scones are going to be decadent, can't you?

Once everything is combined, roll the dough to a 10" circle and cut in to 8. Wow, all that butter and cream and I'm only getting 8 scones? I don't even want to think how many calories are in each one!!

Bake at 350 for about 22-26 minutes. Now, here's where I messed up! I set my timer but forgot to hit start - then I popped over to Cheryl's to see if she had any maple extract for the icing. She didn't have any, but she did have some Praline Liqueur! So I used that, hence the reason my scones are called Praline Pecan. But when I got back, probably after 10 minutes, I wasn't sure exactly how much longer to bake the scones, because the timer hadn't actually started. Ree did say not to let the sides get brown, so I had to just guess, and to be honest, I think I could have left them for at least 3 or 4 more minutes. They weren't undercooked, but I just still felt like they could have had longer in the oven.

Once they have totally cooled you whip up a batch of icing (I only used about half the recipe because I didn't have a full 1lb of confectioners sugar, and even then I had too much of it, so I would suggest you not do the whole recipe for the icing, you really don't need it). I sprinkled nuts on some (which was optional) and left the others plain. 

Verdict: These got great reviews from EVERYONE :-)  I tried one myself (actually only half, didn't want to ruin my low carb weekend) and took some next door to Cheryl. Her Dad tried one and said it was 'heaven', and her teenage son tried one and gave me two thumbs up. Jason also thought they were delicious. Kristen. . . . well, she doesn't like nuts so didn't care for the scone, but she sure enjoyed cleaning out the icing bowl!!!

So, if you want to impress your guests this weekend, serve them a batch of these scones. If you don't have the cookbook, check out THIS recipe for Vanilla Bean Scones on Ree's website, I'm sure they will be just as delicious. 

Our Weekend

Hi guys, I'm happy to see that most of our friends on the East coast got through Hurricane Irene with not much damage and just a short power outage. Glad everyone is safe.

We had a great weekend (despite the horrible heat of over 110 degrees!!) and I actually took my camera out with me (so I'd have something to blog about this morning) ;-)  First off, let me share something I made on Friday  - for the past couple of weeks I've been watching my carb intake. I've actually been trying to stick to the Atkins diet and limit my carbs to just 20 per day. I was doing ok, but then last week we had book club night and of course I just couldn't not taste all the wonderful food we brought. I had a couple of days eating whatever I wanted and suffered the consequences with a 2 1/2lb gain on the scales by last Monday morning! SO, I jumped right back on low carb again the next day, and I started browsing Pinterest for some recipes - I also made a 'low carb' board :-)  One of the recipes I found was this one,

It looked like a loaded baked potato chowder, but it said low carb so I knew it couldn't be potatoes. It is actually a Creamy Cauliflower soup with Bacon, Cheddar and Chives. If you click the picture above it will take you to the recipe.  So I tried it, and here's mine . . .

It was super thick and super creamy, really rather decadent tasting and I could only have a small cup full. But I really liked it. Jason tried it the next day and even he said it was good (considering it was cauliflower!). I like the 'pretend mashed potatoes' that you make with cauliflower so I knew I'd like this. Even Kristen said it was nice, although she didn't ask for a bowl, just had a spoonful of mine!

On Sunday we went out for brunch. A rare occasion for us, usually I make brunch at home on the weekends with eggs and bacon and homemade waffles. It was rather nice having it all made for me this weekend. We went to IHOP, Kiki's favorite for breakfast cos she loves the smiley face pancakes!

I was being really good and stuck to my low carb, and had the sampler platter . . . 

I asked for some toast instead of the pancakes and allowed myself one slice of wholewheat (to dip in my yummy eggs) :-)  Jason, (who said he's going to start low carb today with me!!!!!) had what I'd call a 'last supper'! Huge glass of orange juice AND his favorite Chicken Fried Steak, along with gravy, eggs, hash browns, and pancakes! What can I say?!!

After we ate, we took a drive through the old neighborhood we used to live in. It's a gated community with beautiful hill country views. (for those of you who don't know, we moved from there about 5 years ago because we thought we were going to move to Denver with Jason's job. We rented for 6mths after we sold our house, then decided we didn't want to leave TX, so we bought the house we are in now, in what I call a 'normal' neighborhood where Kristen can ride her bike and play outside with friends).

Our old 'hood' has had a new section added to it which we really had never seen. There are some gorgeous homes in it, all well over half a million $ - and yes I did manage to snap a picture.

Yesterday I also made a recipe from PW's cookbook. I'm going to share that with you all tomorrow. Did any of you see her new show on Saturday? What did you think? And what did you do this weekend?

Book Club Friday

Hi everyone, I thought I'd join in with Heather again this week for Book Club Friday. I'm still reading Harry Potter, and loving it!  I finished the third book last week and we watched the 3rd movie - The Prisoner of Azkaban, last weekend too. It was a little more scary for Kristen, poor thing didn't even want to go to the bathroom on her own after she'd watched it. Not sure she'll want to watch any more after this one until she's a bit older? 

So, this week I'm reading book #4 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.It's over 700 PAGES!!!!

 Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards. And in his case, different can be deadly.

700 pages? Wow, I can't remember when I read such a long book!  This one is a little more slow going for me, not that it's not good, it's just that I'm not getting much time to read this week except for half an hour at bedtime. I want to read through it quickly, so I can watch the movie too, but it might take me a couple of weeks at this rate. Still, I'm enjoying them. I feel like I can't even think about reading any other kind of fiction til I get all these books finished with? But who knows, I may take a break and read others in between.

This week has gone really quick. Kristen seems to be having a good first week at school. She brings homework home for the first time today, and they have until next Friday to complete it. I'm curious to know what kind of homework she gets as a 5th grader. Homework in the past has always seemed pretty simple and basic, it hardly seems worth doing at all!

I'm going to try and make a PW recipe this weekend too, and I think I might try to start sharing them on Monday morning. I figure the weekend is a good time to make them, because if we can't manage to eat them all (or don't want to eat them all because of the calorie content!, we can always share it with the neighbors) ;-) Still leaning towards the scones, but I need cream and maple extract in first. 

Have a great weekend. I'll be back Monday.