Running....Cooking....

I ran 8 miles at the river on Sunday. It was beautiful/icy/slushy/snowy/fun. The west side of the river around Zink Lake was pretty nasty. It was more of a work out than it normally would have been due to all the ice dodging and hopping thru snow banks. I bit it hard at the (dry) Pedestrian Bridge but I was able to finish the rest of the run. I wished I would have had water with me and I could have used a snack.

The cooking is wearing me out. Yesterday I decided I'd tackle 4 of Pioneer Woman's recipes. 3 were pretty easy and one made up for it. Here's the low down.

Beans: Ronnie's review...very good. These were simple but the recipe stands out as a winner because they cook fast.
Cornbread: Ronnie's review...good, but didn't reheat well today. Ok, so he says that, but he went for leftovers. That, in and of itself is a good sign. I think it was well worth the trouble. Texturally, much better than the mixes.

*Make it in a cast iron skillet but DO NOT grab the handle of the skillet when it's on the stove top.

You may think the burn dressing is a little extreme, but I do have a flair for the dramatic. Plus, I have some burn dressing skillz thanks to Jonathan.
PW's Breakfast Potatoes: Ronnie likes fried potatoes with his beans. I don't know if this was his momma's deal, or maybe Bronda's. I tried real hard to be true to the recipe but I couldn't bring myself to use that much fat. My review: These are AWESOME. I usually don't like fried potatoes b/c they're so greasy. These are baked ahead of time so they're not on your stove for long. I'm sold on this one.


And now...for the finale...PW's CINNAMON ROLLS. These are not easy. These are HAYELL to make, in fact. This recipe stretched my culinary skills, so I guess that was good. I've never scalded milk but now, I know how. The recipe makes over 6 pans and I came out with 2. Umhmm. It wasn't cake, I'll tell you that. When the 2 pans came out of the oven though, ...they were good. Ronnie loved them. Reheated beautifully in the microwave. I'll keep plugging away at this recipe until I master it.


I really like this whole Pioneer Woman cooking deal. It's going to give me license to cook things that I normally wouldn't get away with(linguini with clam sauce), but hey...I have to cook it...cause P Dub's put the recipe in the book, yo. I'm no dummy, ...I've started with recipes that I know Ronnie will love. Now he's a P Dub's lover too and he'll likely have a tolerance for sherried tomato soup since "she" said it's good.