Reflections on the Challenge

When I decided to start the recipe book challenge I didn't think much of it. In fact, more than being intimidated by it, I wanted to change the fact that of the sixty-five recipes in one of my favorite cookbooks I had only cooked thirteen.

You can imagine the number of recipes I have made in cookbooks I only sort of like.

Things weren't as easy as my over-confident side first perceived. I knew I could accomplish it, and that was the force that kept me going. Even so, there were moments I said to myself, "I'm never doing this again."

At least, not in such a short time frame.

So here it is. The run down of my thoughts on the challenge broken into a few simple categories:

Recipes I Predetermined Would Fail
Do you ever flip through the pages of a new cookbook and as you are mentally marking the recipes you want to try, simultaneously begin marking the recipes you know you will never try?

If I had not done this challenge, I know I would never have tried the following recipes. Granted, of them I would probably only make one or two again, with a few changes, but that at least shows that about 20% of things you think you won't like--you will.

Here they are: 
Olive Bread--would make again with less olives
Linguine with Clam Sauce--would make again, perhaps without clams
Jalapeno Poppers--too hot and too much of a hassle for me to make again
Burgundy Mushrooms--sisters loved them, would make them again for them!
Cheese Grits--never, I would never make these again.

Favorite Recipes
There are a few recipes in here that are of the original 13 that I had made before.* They include Katie's Roasted Corn Salad, PW's Meatloaf, Chocolate Sheet Cake, and PW's Perfect Pot Roast. However, here I mostly want to highlight some of my new favorites that I will, if I haven't already, make again.

*Note: I still made all these thirteen recipes again during the challenge.

Red Velvet Cake--the cream cheese icing alone is reason to make this cake
Buttermilk Biscuits--insanely simple and everything a biscuit should be
Oatmeal Crispies--the perfect melt in your mouth cookie when it's warm and crunchingly sweet cookie when not, please please please use chocolate chips in these!
Comfort Meatballs--like meatloaf in meatball form, and I defy you to recognize that there are rolled oats in there!
Guacamole--simple, delicious, make a bowl and it's gone guac

Recipes that Aren't For Me aka I'll Never Make Them Again
Some of these recipes fall into the category of "they just take too much time for what they're worth" while others were fails in flavor or quality.

Fried Chicken--far too much time and effort for what it was worth, especially when KFC does it just fine
Huevos Hyacinth--this one might be a personal preference but a slice of deli ham with some cheese and eggs isn't breakfast for me
Sherried Tomato Soup--too watery and sherry flavored 
Cornbread and Beans--lacked flavor

Recipes that Surprised Me
Some recipes I made with low expectations and in the end they surprised me.

Marmalade Muffins--I originally feared that they would be overpoweringly orange, thankfully they weren't
Chicken Pot Pie--this was so much easier to make and so much more delicious than I thought it would be
Marlboro Man's Sandwich--quick, easy, and delicious!
Egg-In-The-Hole--a detailed explanation of a classic
Cowboy Calzones--another easier than expected recipe, only addition I would make is to have some dipping sauce

Overall Thoughts

As I'm sure you've gathered, I have quite a few cookbooks. It would take me years to cook through them all. But this challenge has shown me, that although I stretch a little further in my cooking than the average housewife--there is so much further that I can go.

I wouldn't recommend cooking through a cookbook to just anyone. To do so, you must have a genuine desire to try new things, to attempt the difficult, and to set your own creativity on hold.*

*At least where the cooking is concerned. For presentation you can be as wildly artsy as you dare.

Also, you need to have the pocketbook for a challenge of this kind. While PW does frequently use many of the same ingredients in regards to her breakfast options and side dishes, when it came to main courses and desserts there was a plethora of variety--and in most cases, it was a costly variety.

Though I don't feel a oneness with PW as I believe that Julie Powell felt with Julia Child after cooking through her monstrous French cooking volume, I do feel as though when cooking her recipes I can gauge where she is going or what she might do.

It wouldn't be right if I didn't confess that at times the things I love about PW's cookbooks drove me crazy during this challenge. Whenever I get a new cookbook I read it cover to cover. For some cookbooks this isn't quite as entertaining as a PW cookbook, but I still do it regardless.

Yet the funny quips, detailed descriptions, and occasional sarcasm that are dropped in some of the steps of PW's cookbooks, after some time, would begin to aggravate me. This was usually my own fault. It mostly occurred during times when I was in a rush, hadn't prepped properly, or hadn't taken time to read the recipe through beforehand,

Though especially towards the end I wanted to be finished with the challenge, ultimately I look back on it with a sense of accomplishment. I feel as though I had truly owned the book The Pioneer Woman Cooks. If anything, it is always nice to have some sort of goal to work towards in life, whether it be big or small.

Recipe #63, #64, and #65: Prunes, Potatoes, and Chocolate

The day after Christmas I was feeling defeat. My goal had been to finish the recipe challenge on Christmas Day, and here I was with three recipes left.

Sure, I was only one day off. No big deal, right?

Still all I could think of were the days I put off making a recipe for the challenge. I thought I had so much time left, but when it came to the final week, I was scrambling. Juggling the challenge with trying to finish up Christmas shopping, wrapping Christmas presents, and getting the house in some kind of sane order--well, I guess I'm lucky I was only one day off.

Recipe: Prune Cake
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 40 min
Ease: 3
Taste: 6
Leftover Value: 7
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer!

PW's Prune Cake is in the breakfast section of The Pioneer Woman Cooks, however, the dust of the craziness of the holiday didn't settle until around 3 pm, so that is when I began to work towards finishing the recipe challenge.*

*Note: Yes, I did realize I had a chocolate cake left to make. And yes, I did realize that it would be just Hubby and me at home to eat these things...for dinner.

The most difficult* part of this recipe, you guessed it, were the prunes.

*Difficult, as in, added perhaps five extra working minutes.

The prunes are boiled to get them softened, and then are smashed before being added to the batter. I wasn't thrilled with their smell and was hoping that they would magically transform into clumps of sugar as the cake baked.

Sadly, they did not and when I ate the cake they remained my least favorite part of this cake. So much so, that my note in the book says, "could do w/o the prunes..."

I loved making the icing. In the recipe it looks terrifyingly hard, however, if specifically followed the ingredients literally work on their own to create this caramel colored icing that is poured over the warm cake.

I enjoyed it warm, but my sister-in-law (who we later would bring both the prune cake and chocolate sheet cake to at 9:30 at night) enjoyed it at room temperature.

Recipe: Chocolate Sheet Cake
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr
Ease: 4
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

This is one of the recipes from this book that I have made again and again...and again. In fact, I made it only a month previous to starting the recipe challenge. I made dinner for my sister-in-law's birthday and knowing the addictive wonderfulness that is this cake, she requested it as her cake of honor.

This cake is delicious warm or cold. If served warm, you must, I repeat MUST, have vanilla ice cream to serve with it. They pair so naturally, so beautifully, that I can't imagine forcing them to be apart. In my mouth, that is.

I don't know how the magic happens, but I have a hunch it has something to do with the cup of boiling water that is added to the cake mix.

The icing is poured over the hot cake and it is a flood of deliciousness.*

*Note: Make sure that the flood evenly disperses. It quickly begins to harden, and you don't want gaps of emptiness surrounded by mountains of icing.

I've noticed with baking this cake that sometimes 20 minutes leaves it a little underdone...like a fudgy brownie.

But, I'm not complaining about that if you aren't.

Recipe: PW's Potato Skins
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 2 hr 15 min (active and non active time)
Ease: 5
Taste: 5
Leftover Value: No leftovers!
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer (however, several timing changes must be made)

This recipe almost did not come to be.

This is the picture that I almost left you with:

But I refused to be beaten by potatoes. So I put on my big girl panties and told them, "I'm going to make potato skins out of you yet!"*

*Note: This really didn't happen. I sort of puttered around the kitchen shouting all kind of spud obscenities and then told them they were getting eaten whether they liked it or not.

The problem here is that 45 minutes was far too long for these potatoes to bake. Right away, let me tell you that 1. yes I did use russet potatoes and b. yes, I did cook them at the right temperature. She doesn't say to let them cool, and considering that in her Twice Baked Potatoes recipe they weren't cooled before slicing, I thought it would be okay.

Perhaps I just had difficult potatoes that day. Potatoes that knew just how close I was to the finish. Impostor potatoes.

It was difficult, but I slabbed them with oil and baked them for the extra time they needed. Then I threw the fixings on them:

And out of the whole crew, there was one, one cooperative potato skin.

Despite the potato carcasses scattered on the pan, Hubby and I ate every single last one of those beasts.

Then I felt a wave of freedom pass over me, knowing that my recipe challenge had finally come to an end.

Recipe #55: Enchiladas

Recipe: Simple, Perfect, Enchiladas

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hr 20 min

Ease: 5

Taste: 4

Leftover Value: There were leftovers, but no one ate them!

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain

I always get excited over enchiladas and then I realize a few bites in that I'm not a big fan.

Particularly of beef enchiladas.

The chicken and cheese ones tend to be my favorite, but even with them I find I have my limits. 

You'll have to keep this in mind as you read my review of this recipe. 

I think my issue is the corn tortilla and the enchilada sauce.

But enough about me and my issues.  Let's talk about PW's Simple, Perfect, Enchiladas!

There is a long list of ingredients for this recipe.  First, there are about six ingredients that go into making the enchilada sauce (primarily, you guessed it, Mexican red sauce). The meat mixture contains four different ingredients, and then there is "the rest"--six more ingredients that don't fall into the sauce or the meat category.

Despite the long list of ingredients, the sauce and meat are fairly easy to throw together.

It is the assembly that changes this from being "Simple" enchiladas to "Simply Impossible" enchiladas.

At least for me.  Perhaps you might purchase more cooperative corn tortillas.

Several of my tortillas did this to me after I fried  them "just until soft" as PW directs:

I assume I let them cook until a little too soft, but how can one know when a tortilla has reached true 'just softness'. 

While it was aggravating, I pressed on.  I had extra tortillas.  I could spare a few to tear.

Oh yes.  After frying the tortillas, then they must be dipped in the enchilada sauce.  

That was loads of fun, as you can see.

When it came time to fill the tortillas, I realized just how small corn tortillas are and that their size does not equate to the amount of filling I wanted per tortilla.

Folding them and arranging them in the pan led to a few more tears.*

*That is tears as in the verb- tear: to pull apart.  However, the noun- tear: the fluid appearing in or flowing from the eye as a result of emotion, especially grief, was close to occurring.

In the end, they looked as good as any beef enchiladas I have ever ordered in a restaurant.

And the taste was pretty much equal as well.

Meaning that at first bite I thought they were positively amazing.

But halfway through I realized I didn't like them.

It was then I wished I had a chicken enchilada to start eating.

Recipe #49: Lasagna

Recipe: Lasagna
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 2 hrs 10 min
Ease: 7
Taste: 7
Leftover Value: 5
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

I have been afraid of lasagna for a long time.

It intimidated me.

It haunted me.

My mother makes great lasagna and she is constantly perfecting her recipe.  She also is the one who reminds me when I think I'm going to make lasagna on a whim that it is an ordeal.

Ugh.  Who was the mother who coined the phrase, "Mother knows best"?

Because she was so right.

Note to self: Lasagna is not a meal to make when you are starving.  Lasagna is not a meal to make if you are in a hurry.  Lasagna is not a meal to make if you are impatient.

Perhaps this is why I have waited so long to make it.

Naturally, I chose to make it on a night where I was starving, in a hurry, and feeling rather impatient.

Thankfully, I had a cute cooking companion who was not one of those things.

The recipe calls for 10 oz of lasagna noodles--which somehow ended up being more than necessary.  In reality, it should have called for eight lasagna noodles.  This worked out in the end for me though because Hubby has a complete aversion to cottage cheese.  Originally, I wasn't going to cater to this picky nature---especially since cottage and/or ricotta cheese are essentials to true Italian lasagna. Despite this, I decided the extra noodles could be used to make him a mini lasagna made with only mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Here's something stupid that has happened several times to me during this recipe challenge (and let's be honest, during several of my cooking adventures over the past seven years): I forget to plan out how long certain things need to cook.

Such as the meat, seasonings, and tomato mixture that need to simmer for 45 minutes.

45 minutes!  

When you are hungry, 45 minutes is an eternity.

I tried to bide my time by prepping every other aspect of the lasagna including readying the pan and the cheese mixture.

But then, of course, once the lasagna was assembled it needed to cook for 35 to 45 minutes.

Impatience won out after the lasagna was finished cooking. As with most hot and potentially soupy items, lasagna should, and PW directs to let it, sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

I waited about 10 seconds.

Can you tell?

Regardless, the flavors were delicious.  The meat mixture was perfect...did I mention that I wanted to eat it with a spoon from the pan as it was cooking? It smelled divine.

The only change I would make is to add ricotta cheese to the mix.  Ricotta is amazing and completely necessary in lasagna.  

No matter what Hubby says.