Pioneer Woman's New Cookbook

I can't tell you how excited I was to finally get Pioneer Woman's new cookbook.  I highly recommend it.  It was such a tough decision to decide what would be my first recipe.  After careful consideration, I finally decided it would be...

Drum Roll...

Ranch Style Chicken and Twice-Baked New Potatoes... well, kinda.  But I'll get to that later...  I also did Parmesan Roasted Green Beans- if you haven't made them, you should... so easy and DELICIOUS (thanks for pinning, Emily!).

Blake and I just invested in a new grill, so not only was it the first time for the cookbook, but also the first time for the grill- what a BIG DAY!!!!

The chicken turned out amazing!!!  Make sure you realize you need to marinate it for 2-4 hours... the longer the better!  I almost forgot to do that... oops!

PW hasn't posted the recipe for the potatoes yet, so I will (hope she doesn't mind since we're besties):

12 new potatoes, scrubbed clean

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1.5 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese

1 tablespoon minced chives

1 garlic clove, finely minced

Salt and black pepper to taste

1.  Pre-heat oven to 375.

2.  Drizzle the potatoes with olive oil and toss to coat.

3.  Roast the potatoes for 20-25 minutes, or until the are tender and the skin is slightly crisp.

4.  Halve the potatoes.  Use a spoon or small scoop to remove the insides, leaving a small margin of potato intact.

5.  To the scooped-out potatoes, add the cream cheese, sour cream, monterey jack, chives, garlic, salt, and pepper.

6.  Mash until the potato mixture is totally smooth.  Give it a taste and add more salt if needed.

7.  Scoop the mixture into the potato shells.  At this point, you can cover and refrigerate until dinnertime.

8.  Bake the potatoes for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

9.  Enjoy!

*** So, you'll notice in the picture that my potatoes don't look like twice-baked potatoes.  Here's what I learned: I chose bigger red potatoes because I thought they would be easier to scoop out than smaller ones.  Since I am blonde, I didn't think "Self, you should cook these longer because they are bigger".  Big mistake... I think I needed to double the time on these.  The flavoring was still great, so I will still highly recommend them... just remember you need to cook them longer than it says!!!

My Recipe Book

So, I try extremely hard to keep my dorky-ness under wraps.  But occasionally, there just seems to be a time that I should share something with you... because even though it might be dorky, you're REALLY missing out if you don't have this.

And that's my recipe book.  

I completely stole this idea from some blog, but I feel like I am about to make it famous.

Here's what you need to get it going:

- A cute binder

- Tabs (I recommend the 8-pack)

- Sheet protectors

- Some really good recipes

I've labeled my tabs the following:

- Appetizers

- Salads

- Main Dishes

- Pasta (even though it's technically a main dish, it deserves it's own tab)

- Soups & Stews

- Sides

- Breakfast

- Desserts

It's really that simple!  

Now, ever since my obsession with Pinterest, I decided I needed to figure out how to incorporate this fantastic website with my recipe book... after numerous "trials and errors", I decided the following idea was the best: I use my laptop to follow the recipe the first time.  If it's good, it is printed and added to my recipe book.  If it's not good, it doesn't.  I know, it's pretty deep.  I can tell you I bet Blake is already tired of hearing "Is it recipe book good?" every time I make a new recipe.  

Hope you love your book as much as I love mine!!!

Alan's Birthday/ Creede's Concert

Last Saturday was so. much. fun!  In case you didn't know, Blake's brother-in-law, Creede sings and writes... I was able to hear him play one song a while ago and it was such a tease.  He's an attorney by day, so this is just what he dabbles in for fun, but he's so good.  Anyway, he played at a local bar here in Dallas, which happened to be on Alan's (Blake's best friend since childhood) birthday.

We all got there early to have some fried chicken (for those who wanted that), then the concert started:

One of the boy's good friends got engaged the night before.  He asked Creede to surprise his bride-to-be with their song (which is actually "Angel" by Beyonce).  Believe it or not it was soo good and the sweetest thing ever:

Afterwards, we hung around and had a bit more fun.  Blake's sister (Lori) and I tried to take a picture and there was the most annoying girl that kept photo bombing us:

 Finally, Lori put her foot down and told her to quit and we finally captured a good one:

I'm so lucky Blake has such an awesome family... they are so fun!

It was such a fun night... hope this is the beginning of a great Summer!!!  

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Hi Friends!

So I have been the worst blogger in the entire world... so sorry!  I know I am missing tons of posts, but figured I would start with St. Patrick's Day here in Dallas because it was So. Much. Fun!

I have been looking forward to this holiday since I've moved here... I have always heard that Dallas has one of the best celebrations and I was not disappointed!

Here's a pic of Blake and his cute friends:

Blake's friend, Grayson, lives right of Greenville, which is where the big party is.  He always hosts a super fun party where tons of people come.  It's full of games, fun, friends, etc.

Not only was it my first St. Patrick's Day, but also my first time to get the courage to color block... how "Dallas" of me!!!  You'll have to excuse my hair this day... pretty sure my blow dryer went out that morning and I was in quite the panic!  Hopefully my bright outfit takes your eyes off my hair.  : )

We never made it to Greenville, just stayed in the backyard all day.  : )  We then went to Capital Pub, a fun little bar by my house where the fun continued.

I hope all of you come down next year to experience the fun!!!  Color blocking required.  : )