Some people recall the exact song playing on the radio when a tragic event occurred. Others remember what they were doing with excruciating detail at the moment they met the person they fell in love with. I can call up with staggering, photographic clarity the first time I made a new recipe; how I prepared it, and most clearly, if my children ate it. Such holds true as I look back over four years at the first recipes I ever made from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
Macaroni and Cheese… This is sure to be a winner! EVERY kid likes mac and cheese. Right? Well, yes… and no. I somehow managed to raise kids who are connoisseurs of “The Blue Box”, if you know what I mean, despite having made a Herculean effort to expose them to real home cooking for the majority of their childhoods, not just the pre-packaged, American diet of dinosaur-shaped chicken and fish-shaped crackers. Ok, they ate a lot of that too, but it wasn’t the only thing on the menu! Ree’s mac and cheese was quite tasty, and as you can see from the picture, also quite cheesy. What it wasn’t is “creamy”. Or neon orange. The children wanted little to do with it. Melted cheddar on top notwithstanding, the overall appearance was lighter yellow and more like lasagna, cutting into even squares after baking in the oven to toast that top layer. Parent: 7/10, Kids: 3/10. (Confession; Mama likes a little more of the Blue Box influence herself!)
Now here’s a blast from the past that I am happy to revisit! With a title like “Beans“, I admit my expectations were low. How interesting could that be?? Well, as it turns out, VERY! Dried pinto beans had never had a place in my home before this, because I simply didn’t know what to do with them. My mother used to make navy beans with bacon or ham, which smelled pretty good and got my tummy rumbling, until she inexplicably threw vinegar into the pot. Ruined. With that bad taste in my mouth (forgive the pun), I wasn’t in a hurry to make beans for myself that weren’t of the “Pork ‘n” variety. Thanks to Ree, I discovered that what I was really making was a big ol’ pot of comfort. The recipe made enough to fill the freezer for nearly a year, and saved me from buying canned refried beans for any Mexican meal, or literally to just eat by themselves. To be clear, there was no “refrying” involved, just slow simmering with salt, pepper, and bacon, along with a list of “optional” ingredients: chili powder, cayenne, garlic powder and oregano. I used them all. So simple, yet amazing on the tongue. I opted to smoosh the whole beans slightly, much like making guacamole, so there would be two different textures. Since both kids ate the heck out of this, it’s a 10/10 for the whole family!
Best cake I ever made. Hands down. No competition. Frankly I don’t think my kids got to eat any of this because I brought Ree’s Chocolate Sheet Cake to work for a friend’s birthday. It did not make it back home. I had to take a picture of how the cake came out of the oven (in only 20 minutes! Sheet cakes have many advantages…) because I made coconut-pecan frosting out of personal preference instead of her standard icing. I plan to re-create this beauty with her chocolate pecan topping next time. I think the magic here came from melting the butter and swirling in the cocoa powder, then adding a cup of boiling water. I have never done that before in any other cake recipe, and I have no idea what function it is meant to serve. It’s the only “special” direction among otherwise ordinary ingredients and steps, so that must be the key. Seriously, I made this in 2017 and I still think about it today! From that moment on, I knew if Ree told me I had to stand on my left foot and hop in a circle while singing the national anthem backwards to make a dish, I’d follow her instructions, because clearly she knows some tricks that I don’t! 12/10!
Spicy Pulled Pork. Nothing fancy, nothing crazy; anyone can make this. Do yourself a favor, and do exactly that! The absolute best thing about this recipe is that you pretty much don’t have a role in making it delicious. Pulse the flavorings (fresh onion and garlic, a mess of dried spices) in a food processor until it’s a paste, then rub it on a pork shoulder to stick in a 300 degree oven. Turn on an extended-version “Lord of the Rings” marathon, and every time you swap out the DVD, flip the roast over in the pan. Eight hours later you will swear you can speak elvish, and you’ll also have a flawless pork roast ready to shred. It’s truly as easy as that, and by the way, it goes excellently with those Beans! (Side note: I think she used the term “spicy” very literally, as in there are many spices… Not one of them is “hot”, so if you want some fire in your pulled pork, throw in some cayenne!) Since we don’t care for “spicy”, 10/10 for us!
My kids are half-grown now, and it’s more difficult to get them to try all the new recipes constantly churning from my kitchen. They have “palates” nowadays, and one won’t eat fish while the other prefers snacks to actual meals. Though I miss the days of them being my little culinary guinea pigs, alas… we’ll always have Beans!
Have Book, Will Cook 