The Pioneer Woman Archives - I am a Honey Bee

This week Amanda and I are taking a break from our Thirsty Thursday’s posts so we each can bring you some different posts. Amanda has a giveaway on her blog and I have a post for the brand new Pass the Cook Book Club. Awesome right? But don’t you worry as we have some fantastic posts planned for March. 🙂

Kita of Pass The Sushi has organized this great group where she picks a few recipes from a cookbook for everyone to make. It’s a fantastic way of dusting off and cracking open all of those cookbooks we all own. I am so bad about buying new books to fill them up with post-it’s and then not doing anything with them. So I was really excited when I heard about the PTCBC because it would encourage us to cook from what we own. Anyway, the first book is The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier by Ree Dummond. Perfect since, as usual, I had that filled with post-its bookmarking recipes I wanted to try.

From three options we had, I decided on making the Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin. I remember my parents making it when I was young so I wanted to try it myself. I’m glad I tried it myself since it was super easy and made a great side for our dinner. It is a great side dish and I like that it has the possibility to take on a lot of different flavors so I can make a lot of varieties.

When Ree says it will be garlickly she is not joking! 3 cloves of garlic!!! I love garlic so it was perfect for me and went really well with the pork cutlets I made with it. The potatoes are soft and flavorful from the creamy sauce and the cheese on top was so good. This is going to be making a regular appearance on our dinner table.

I only made a few changes to the dish’s ingredients and cooking process. First I didn’t serve the side with the green onions just because I forgot them in the store. duh! I swapped the black pepper for white pepper because I love white pepper with creamy sauces. I increased the amount of milk because when I put the sauce mixture in the dish it didn’t cover my potatoes. Also, since it is 8 servings I knew we would eat the leftovers over a few days so I didn’t want the dish to dry out either. Lastly, I popped it under the broiler for a minute so the cheese would get browned and crunchy- which I love, so if you don’t want it to browned then just bake it and don’t broil it.

Be sure to check out what everyone else made!

If you love cooking then you should join Pass the Cook Book Club for some monthly cooking inspiration.

Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

2 tbs butter, softened
4 large russets, scrubbed clean
1/2 to 1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon flour
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
white pepper or freshly ground black pepper
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
2 scallions, thinly sliced

Process

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a 3 quart baking dish by buttering the bottom and sides.
Slice the potatoes into sticks, then into a small dice. Place the potatoes in the baking dish.
In a bowl, combine the milk, cream, flour, garlic, salt, and pepper; whisk to combine. Pour over the potatoes.
Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and and bake for another 20-25 minutes. Just before serving, sprinkle with cheese and bake for another 3-5 minutes to make the cheese melted and bubbly.
Serve hot and garnish with green onions, optional.

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To top off a relaxing day off from work yesterday filled with PJ’s, scrapbooking, eating cold leftovers, and a Jersey Shore marathon, I went to see The Pioneer Woman speak at The Coolidge in Brookline. The ever so lovely Ree Drummond was doing a stop in the area at Brookline Brooksmith for her new book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier. She was first doing a talk at the Coolidge (the most adorable independent movie theater ever (that serves wine!)) and then a signing back at the Brookline Booksmith.

I attended the speaking arrangement with Lena, Amanda, and Megan, as well as my coworker Rebecca. Rebecca didn’t know all too much about Ree so this was a perfect introduction to her as she explained her roots, 2-week obsession of Sun-in, and random musings along the way.

To start the night, Ree explained that she has been enjoying Boston but the stactic cling here is something she was struggling with. Her signature flowly tops just don’t work when they are clung to you. (I completely understand.) She shared her story of spraying starch all over herself, as well as her ride’s car, and rubbing her self down with drier sheets. I hope that she shares this on her blog. (updated! She did!)

Ree had a power point going on behind her as she spoke. Of course there was some Marlboro Man added into the mix.

And photos of the kids. As angels. From mall kiosks.

Ree explained that she started her blog in May of 2006 with some stories and basic photos from a point & shoot… and the rest is history. She explained how the blog grew from Confessions, to include Cooking, and more. At first she would start a new blog for new segments, like Cooking, but then she rolled it all into 1 place under the “The Pioneer Woman Umbrella.” The blog prompted 4 books, TV appearances on national news shows, and then her own cooking show on the Food Network.

To finish the night she sang to her One True Love… Charlie.

Amazing.

It was a fantastic experience and I am so glad that I got to attend the packed event. After Ree spoke at The Coolidge she went across the street for the book signing portion of the night. The line was insane so Rebecca and I grabbed her hubs from Sbucks and we had really good Thai food at a tiny shop down the road.

Perfect P-Widdy-Dub-Diddy-Diddy-Dub-Dub night.