Pleading Students

My students have been asking me (and rightly so), when are you going to post again? I honestly haven't been feeling the whole blog thing lately (I am soooo self-conscious about my photos...how silly is that), but after they made me feel so incredibly special on my birthday this week (flowers and baked goods - how sweet is that!?), I had to say I would post something.

It's not that I haven't been cooking lately. I've been cooking up a storm. And unbelievably so, I've been doing more cooking than baking. It's been prairie winter cold (read: extremely windy with bitter cold and the dreariest skies imaginable) and I start to want good, solid comfort food. And there has been a lot of it at this home.

So here is a list of what I can remember I've cooked lately with the links (seriously, self-conscious about my pictures so there are none).

You'll notice that most of these are from Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman. I got her new cookbook for Christmas, and I LOVE it. She seriously has good home-cookin' country food. I love it. She makes no bones about not worrying about the caloric content of her food. I also love that. So here is my ode to Pioneer Woman lovin' in the kitchen:

Braised Short Ribs - Heaven on a Plate

So deliciously wonderful. Mike actually put these together. The smell in our kitchen was, well, heavenly. This is such a great option if you want to have friends over for dinner, celebrate a special event, or serve a classy Sunday dinner. PW suggests cooking this with polenta with goat cheese stirred in. We've decided that we are not fans of the loose consistency polenta, so we won't be trying that again, but we will most definitely have the meat with mashed potatoes. Mmmmm.

Comfort Meatballs

Oh. My. Goodness. This is one dish that I will definitely be making again, and again, and again. The ultimate definition of "comfort". I typically don't do left-overs unless they are really, really, really good. Wouldn't even let Mike have any left-overs. I coveted them all. All day long. I couldn't wait to get home to my meatballs. So good. You have to try them. I think even vegetarians would be comforted by this food. (Ok - that is probably a stretch, but they are soooo good).

Chicken Pot Pie

She doesn't have a link for this meal, but it is in her cookbooks and worth the purchase. Actually, her pie crust recipe is worth the purchase. I've always loved making pie crusts. It is soothing for me. Relaxed. I can't help but thinking that I'm in the kitchen with Marilla Cuthbert. Wouldn't that be relaxing? So I have always taken pride in making my own pie crusts. But this winter my mother-in-law was raving about someone else's pie crust and how flaking it was. I want her to rave about mine! I know that is incredibly silly. I don't have the best pie crust. I know that. But I struggle when I am not the best. I always have. Yet another unfortunate trait about myself. So I decided I would try a new crust to compete. And let me tell you, I think this one could compete. My mother-in-law hasn't tried my new one yet, but I have confidence that I am up there with the best again. :)

Chicken & Cheese Tortellini Soup

This is not a PW recipe, but it is from her Tasty Kitchen experiment. This was a decent meal. It gets better with time. I might re-tool it a bit, but it isn't something I'm racing back to anytime soon.

Homemade Chicken Stock

Ok. This was a complete disaster for me. I don't know what I did wrong, but all the liquid evaporated out, and I was left with an over-boiled chicken (which by the way was extremely traumatizing experience of cleaning it for the pot). I might try this again because so many people say it's better homemade, but right now I'm not convinced.

Pat's Famous Beef and Pork Chili

This was such a great experiment for me. We had people over to watch the Olympics (and Mike could share with everyone his strange obsession with curling) and have Chili. Mike picked out this recipe and it was a hit! People LOVED it. They couldn't believe that it all, even the seasonings, came from scratch (which is something I can never understand because all I do is follow the instructions). This is a definite repeat. But be careful because we fed 8 people with this and it says it only feeds 4-5.

Cornbread

This was fantastic. Another PW recipe. We served it with the chili. And if you have a cast iron skillet, please cook this in it. You'll thank me. I know people can be very adamant about their cornbread, but thankfully everyone was in the not-sweet cornbread camp. It was good. Again, people were amazed it was baked homemade and not in a box. Believe me, it's just as easy as a box. And 10 times better. Try it this way at least once.

Blackberry Cobbler

SOOOO Delicious. And easy. I seriously made one for a group of people, and they ate it so quick that I whipped up (and I do mean whip) another one in a matter of minutes. Try it. You'll go back to it over and over again.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

This only gets better with time. You will want to claim these leftovers right away. (How do you spell left-overs? I keep changing how I think it should be). However, it makes a TON. I don't know who I was cooking for, but I cooked the full recipe for just Mike and I, and we were eating those leftovers for quite awhile. I wasn't complaining. It was delicious. But it was also ridiculous.

Dark Chocolate Orange Cake Balls

You've gotta make these. They are so good. Sinfully good. Sinful with a hint of orange. And don't forget a tidge of sea salt. It really brings out the flavor. Mike actually said that I could mix these in with my cookies of persuasion. Now that's a seriously big deal.

Ok - so I think I've got everything we've been making lately. Actually, I just remembered that it's not, but that is everything that is post-worthy. I hope that you enjoy these recipes as much as we have!