Ground Control to Major Mom

From 2008 02 12 Bo…

Tonight I made “Boot Track” cookies for dessert for the family. I saw the recipe in Eating Well magazine a few months ago and told myself, “I need to make that for the family.”

The recipe called for whole wheat pastry flour, which is an unusual find, but today I came across it at Whole Foods Market (Bob’s Red Mill brand) and decided to pick some up and give this recipe a shot.

What a hit! Jake isn’t a big chocolate fan, but Dave, Timmy and I really enjoyed them. The recipe made 36 cookies, and I’m counting 20 remaining.

The ingredient list is so yummy, and I didn’t feel guilty letting the gang chow down on them. Each cookie even has a gram of FIBER! You use a standard waffle iron for the grid pattern, although comments on the recipe’s web site suggest that a Pizelle maker or a Belgian waffle iron will work, too. When all’s said and done, the cookie is supposed to look like a boot track with a dusting of snow on top.

From 2008 02 12 Bo…

The batter will be almost as thick as chocolate chip cookie batter. Use two teaspoons to put one dollop of batter on each quadrant of the waffle iron.

From 2008 02 12 Bo…

From 2008 02 12 Bo…

After 1 1/2 minutes, the 4 cookies will be soft like fresh waffles. Use a non-stick-friendly spatula to remove the cookies to your cookie sheet.

From 2008 02 12 Bo…

From 2008 02 12 Bo…

Finally, dust the cookies with powdered sugar. YUM!

Note: if you’re making these for company, your best bet is to dust the powdered sugar just before serving. The oil in the cookie will make the “snow” effect look less fresh after about 15 minutes. But they’re still most delish!

I’d read about the Pioneer Woman’s Buttery Thyme Bread on earlier blog posts and it sounded pretty good. When she posted the recipe earlier this week I was really interested to see how it tasted. So tonight we had the leftover Jack Daniel’s roast, this bread, and some glazed carrots.

You can check out her pictures, and then check out mine and laugh.

For starters, I couldn’t find that Wonder Frenchef stuff she showed on her blog, and our local Kroger’s freezer cases are full of pre-buttered, pre-garlicked bread. That was okay… I picked up some Pillsbury French Bread in the dairy case instead. Baked it up, let it rest for about 5 minutes before I sliced it in half lengthwise.

From 2008 01 29 PW…

I couldn’t bring myself to put 1 whole stick of butter on EACH side of the loaf — I COULD NOT DO THAT! So I put about 3 TBSP of butter on each side. It was all I could muster. Since the bread was still hot from baking in the oven, it didn’t need to spend long melting the butter in the oven at 350 F, as her recipe suggests.

Meanwhile, I went outside to pick my fresh thyme (I know, you might have remembered that I said my only surviving herb plant right now is my rosemary. I lied. I found some scraggly sprigs of thyme on my otherwise-dead-looking plant). Enough to do one side of the bread, but not that other. That’s okay, my kids probably would have freaked if I served THEM bread with herbs. Chopped up.

From 2008 01 29 PW…

So then I cranked up the broiler and let ‘er rip. It took about 4 minutes and the chirping of my smoke alarm…then it was most perfect.

Sprinkled on the herbs and served it up.

From 2008 01 29 PW…

The verdict — my near-dead thyme was good, but I think some larger, fresher leaves might have been better. Otherwise, the buttery goodness was a hit at the dinner table, with or without the herbs. Enjoy!

Tonight I used up the rest of my blueberries and made Pioneer Woman’s Cobbler #2.

It was a half recipe (I only had 3 cups of berries), which worked out pretty well, but this cobbler is definitely less sweet that Cobbler #1. That’s probably why PW insists that this one be served with vanilla ice cream. She’s definitely right! I didn’t have any on hand tonight, but I’ll pick some up tomorrow.

So here are some pictures:

From 2008 01 23 As…

Juicing the berries. See the lemon on the right — it’s been squeezed and zested.

From 2008 01 23 As…

I think my dough was a bit stickier than PW’s.

From 2008 01 23 As…

Before…

From 2008 01 23 As…

…and after!

*Okay, who knows where that one is from???

(Margaret, you can’t answer…I know you know this!)

So this evening I took that chuck roast out of my fridge and plopped it on the grill. In accordance with the recipe, I seared both sides on high (about 5 min. each side) then turned the grill down to low and gave it 25 minutes on each side on low.

I guess I should back up some in this story…

At about 4:50pm, I turned on the grill. Our gas grill is circa 2003, a Charbroil “Hybrid” grill (perhaps you see a trend here with hybrids?) that not only is a propane grill, but it also has an insert for using charcoal. We only do the charcoal thing about 15% of the time. Anyway, the ignitor is broken, so we have to take the riskier approach in turning on our grill: power up the gas, turn on the burners, and stick a lit lighter into this little hole at the bottom. Usually, this isn’t too bad…we have one of those stick lighters with a flexible neck, so we just crane the neck into the hole, and flick the lighter on.

For some reason, today it decided to grace me with a fireball. The sides of my hair were hanging down a little, so the ends got slightly singed. My eyebrows took it a little, too…but no visible damage. Since my hair has a pretty blunt cut, I don’t think there’s any visible damage to it, either. Just stinks horribly.

Back to the story — after the searing process, I stabbed the probe end of my thermometer into the roast and set the temperature alarm to 140 F — medium rare!

Of course, what good is the temperature alarm when the thermometer was outside, and I was inside preparing the rest of dinner?

When I gave the roast its flip after the first 25 minutes on low, I couldn’t help but take some pictures of how good looking this was becoming. The meat had taken in enough of the dark marinade to darken quite a bit, and the grilling was making it even darker in color. Nice!

From 2008 01 23 As…

From 2008 01 23 As…

From 2008 01 23 As…

The center of the roast was 125F when it was time to flip it over.

After the 2nd side did its 25 minutes, I checked the thermometer and it was reading about 138. Due to “carryover”, I decided it was a good time to take the roast off the grill and bring it inside to rest. I brought it in, tented it with foil, and by the time I was done tenting, the thermometer was up to 140 and the alarm beeped (“MOOOOM! Dinner’s ready!” — my boys’ typical response to any alarm in the kitchen).

From 2008 01 23 As…

From 2008 01 23 As…

(Pay no attention to how dirty my thermometer/timer looks here, it’s grubby from my meaty hands, and has since been cleaned 🙂

I worked so hard on a good roast, I merely served it up with salad and rosemary ciabatta rolls (like that bread you get at Macaroni Grill?) The guys devoured the meat…the boys complained about the rosemary flavor to the bread. Whatever.

I think this would work out really well on a London Broil.

So tonight I’m going to use my other chuck roast. When I bought the chuck roast expressly for the Pioneer Woman pot roast recipe last week, I found a great buy-one-get-one-free special, so the 2nd one has just thawed and is ready for action.

(NOTE: The pot roast was delicious, but I think I might have gone a bit nuts on the rosemary. That’s the only herb left that hasn’t been killed by the drought.)

I’m hesitant to make the exact same recipe twice in a row, so as much as we loved the PW Pot Roast, I searched for something different. And different this will be…Jack Daniels Chuck Roast! The roast is now marinating in my fridge and we’ll grill her up tomorrow for dinner. I can’t wait!

Bathing in my recently-cleaned fridge…

Note how I stuffed the roast into a small dish, to squish the marinade up the sides as high as it will go. Maximizes the surface area getting soaked. I should only require one flip tonight just before bed…or tomorrow morning, depending on when I remember.

Pioneer Woman I am not when it comes to close up photography. I was trying to show the lovely marbling of my roast, but instead you’re mainly seeing plastic Ziploc bag. Oh well.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga of Patricia’s attempts to show the world her cooking prowess…or lack thereof.

So tonight I attempted PW’s Blackberry Cobbler #1 recipe. I attempted it earlier this month without the self-rising flour and it was not quite what we were expecting. I don’t even think I posted about it, it was so disasterous.

So this week I picked up a small bag of self-rising flour (I’d never purchased it before) and tried it again. It was a hit! I used the remainder of my frozen blackberries from when I went pickin’ in June, plus a cup-or-so of frozen blueberries from the same trip.

In the Oven…looks just like hers (the cobbler, not the oven — don’t look at the oven), doesn’t it?

However, unlike hers, the batter on the edges began rising so high, it enveloped the fruit almost entirely.

The edges browned quite a bit before the center had a chance to set. You like my Pooh Bear potholder? I do. I like how he’s staring at the cobbler, looking a bit puzzled. I have placemats & napkins to match. I think it’s the only thing I’ve ever purchased from Stein Mart…Beavercreek, OH, circa 2000. But back to the cobbler.

Here’s a serving — I say, the gloppier it looks, the better it tastes. And it was quite the winner in the Vollmer house yesterday and today…and probably tomorrow too.

So today I made a 7-Layer Jello dessert for the family.

I’d never made one before, and really didn’t know much about it. As usual, it was Paul who suggested the recipe, and as usual, I fouled it up somehow.

How was I supposed to know that you’re supposed to make it in a 9 x 13 pan and cut it into squares, like this example Paul found for me. Like the bad potato dumplings, I blame the recipe which didn’t come right out and say what size container to prepare the dessert. So now I know for next time.

So why am I calling it the 6.5 Layer Jello dessert? Because the first layer wasn’t ready before I aggressively poured the 2nd layer in. And they mixed. Oops. But I learned from my mistakes (something I pride myself in, by the way!) and the rest of it turned out pretty great.

I put it in a clear bowl, which the boys enjoyed looking at, and cut it into these silly-looking wedges. Go ahead…laugh! At least my boys enjoyed it and gobbled it up, except the red cherry-flavored Jello. The added Knox gelatin makes this a fine finger-food dessert for parties.

Maryann: I think I’ll make a pink/red one for the Valentine’s Day party? Cut into 2″ x 2″ squares?

From 2008 01 14 Se…

From 2008 01 14 Se…

From 2008 01 14 Se…