Huevos Hyacinth (Pioneer Woman)

**Another installment in my cooking my way (s l o w l y) through Pioneer Woman's cookbook.**

I made this recipe a few weeks ago for a breakfast for myself. (Huevos is Spanish for Eggs. I knew that, but I did check with my friend Google Translate.)  (Hyacinth in the title refers to a friend of Ree's, the Pioneer Woman, who made up the recipe.)

Anyway....

It's very simple: layer ham or turkey, a sliced tomato or salsa, crack an egg over that and add some grated cheese, then bake.

You may notice that you can't see any tomato or salsa in the photo. That would be because I didn't have any tomatoes and the salsa just didn't sound good that particular morning. I woke up that day with a nasty headache that just would not go away.

Overall, it was very good. I would make this for company. I'd have to do a few changes, though. The salsa or tomato would make a good addition. Also, I used a pretty thick slice of ham that left the bottom of the dish quite watery. A thinner slice of ham or turkey would likely work better.

Marmalade Muffins (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition through my Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.**  
(believe it or not)

Remember that my girls (daughter and daughter-in-law) and I were working our way through Pioneer Woman's cookbook? (You can click here to see all the other installments.) My last post on that was way back in August! Gulp. The girls and I talked about it over Christmas break and decided that I would carry on the torch alone. They are super, super, super busy with their schooling (They are learning to become a pharmacist and a doctor. I really don't understand why they think they are busy. ha.) (Actually I totally, totally understand.) I asked Hubby if he would bravely try some of the recipes that I had initially passed on to one of the others because I knew he wouldn't like them and he agreed to. I should probably have the pizza delivery guy on speed-dial just in case. I'll do my best to make my way through cooking all the rest of recipes in Ree Drumond's cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks, just don't know how long it will take me.

There were just a couple of recipes left to finish up the breakfast section of The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
This was a muffin recipe. Ree calls them Marmalade Muffins, but there really isn't any marmalade in them. Just orangey yumminess.

The cast of characters:

The first step is to cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg. I should have taken a wider shot to show my 27+ year old hand mixer. I got it for a wedding shower present and have used it for all those years (except for the three years we lived in Singapore).

As I was doing the creaming, I remembered working hard at this step when I was a little girl. I loved to bake even then. I would mix and stir and mix trying to get it all blended, then take the bowl to my mom and ask her if it was good enough and she would take the spoon and somehow magically make it even more smooth.

The ingredients for these muffins are pretty basic. Butter, sugar, egg, flour, baking soda, milk. The really yummy part is the addition of orange zest. All I had on hand were some clementine oranges. I don't know if the zest is the same as a regular orange or not, but these were tasty just the same.

The recipe made 24 mini-muffins. That's a few too many for just two of us, so I made half a recipe and got out one of my mini-muffin pans. But it ended up making.... 24 mini-muffins. I must have different definition of mini than Ree. I guess it's a good thing I didn't make a full recipe!

To finish off the muffins, mix together some brown sugar and orange juice squeezed from the oranges that were zested and pour over the hot muffins and let it soak in. Again, I don't know if it made a difference that I used clementine oranges or not. They seem to be just as orangey as regular ones.

So, the verdict was...

I liked the muffins without the  orangey-syrupy stuff. I thought that made them too sweet and too sticky. The plain muffins were very delicate and I loved the orangey flavor.

Sour Cream Pancakes (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition from Megan AND me for our Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.** 

When Megan (daughter) and Zach (her hubs) were here a few weeks ago Megan and I made Pioneer Woman's Sour Cream Pancakes. For Breakfast. Yes. You read that right. I actually helped make breakfast! It was great fun to work together with Megan. (I miss that girl very much.)

Anyway....

Back to the project. Here is Megan "approving" of the ingredients we assembled. :) (That would be sugar, flour, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, sour cream, and eggs)

We mixed together the dry ingredients with the sour cream. It was very thick at this point.

Next, the wet ingredients were mixed together and then added to the dry ingredients.

Here they are sizzling away on my very old griddle. We melted some butter first to grease the pan and to make it extra yummy, of course.

Oh, and I thought I'd throw in a picture of Megan and Zach's dog, Charley, watching the action outside. I think he just liked to have different things to look at. :) He didn't help with the pancakes, nor did he eat any. He just wandered around the table to see if any one would share. :)

Back to breakfast.... Here's the finished product along with some bacon. We all liked the pancakes. They had a bit of a different texture than "normal" pancakes. Megan says that that the texture was smooth and a little more dense since the recipe didn't contain oil or baking powder like most pancakes. (She's a pancake expert since it was a simple, quick supper for her last year during her first year of marriage and first year of Pharmacy school.)

(Have any of you tried baking bacon in the oven instead of frying it on the stove top? I did for that morning and it was quite simple. And I think it cut down on the lingering bacon smell afterwards.)

Maple Pecan Scones (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition from Megan for our Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.**

Let's start out this post by explaining a little bit of my pickiness about scones. I think it comes from working at a coffee shop in high school that had the best scones. I have no idea what it is that makes them so perfect. I can't stand an overly crumbly scone. Or one that tastes just like a cookie. Or one that has virtually no taste at all. Needless to say, when I embarked on the adventure of making these scones I was excited but ready to be disappointed.

Here's the ingredients:
I used 1% milk instead of whole milk for our health's sake.

Dry ingredients:
Cut in the butter. I always get excited when I get to cut the butter into something because that usually means the final product will be full of buttery goodness. Yum!
Cream and Egg
Everything mixed together ready for formation into scones. Ree said not to worry if your mixture is very crumbly. But I felt like mine was a little too crumbly because I ran into some issues later on.
Form the pile of crumbs into a dough with your hands and then roll it out.

The process of taking the cut scones off of the cutting board and transferring them to the baking sheet was ridiculous to say the least. Most of them crumbled all over the place. I was worried at this point. But I took some time and reformed the scones with my hands after they were on the baking sheet. That worked really well. Next time, though, I need to figure out a way to make them less crumbly at this point because I wasted way too much dough. Probably 1.5 scones worth.

Here's the aftermath:
Now the best part. The icing. This icing is especially delicious because it has maple flavoring and a splash of coffee in it.

Wonderfully golden (but not overdone) scones!
The finished product:

I decided to do a little experiment. I love warm scones so I assumed these would be best straight out of the oven. The one I ate straight out of the oven was too crumbly for my taste. It needed to have more integrity in the dough. The recipe technically says to wait until they're completely cool, put icing on, and then eat. Surprisingly, the cooled scone was much better. I think the ingredients were able to bond together more and form a less crumbly scone. Perfect amount of sweetness in the scone and the icing.

Seriously delicious. I will make these again for sure.

French Breakfast Puffs (Pioneer Woman)

**Another great addition from me for our Cooking Through PW Cooks Adventure.** 

Saturday afternoon I made some breakfast food. Afternoon is the best time to make breakfast food, in my opinion. Why? Because it's not morning.
These French Breakfast Puffs are really simple to make. You do the basic mix the dry ingredients together and then the wet ingredients, then combine. Easy stuff. My mom taught me this when I was 9 or so. The muffins have a bit of nutmeg in them for some yummy flavor.

I like to use my ice cream/cookie scoop to fill the cups in the muffin pan. So quick and easy!

The muffins are baked until slightly golden brown. I took this picture to show my awesome tool I use for get muffins out of pan. I won it years (decades?) ago at a Tupperware party. If I remember correctly, its intended use is for potting plants. I remember the forked end was supposed to be used to aerate the soil or something like that. I have always used it when I bake muffins. It works great!

The next steps are what make these delectable... The warm muffins are dipped, yes dipped in melted butter and then dredged through cinnamon sugar. Oh my. Yummy!

Ree, The Pioneer Woman, says these freeze well and are just as yummy warmed up in the microwave. I have some in the freezer and will test that out.

Egg-In-A-Hole (Pioneer Woman)

**My daughter, daughter-in-law and I are cooking our way through Pioneer Woman's cookbook and writing about it here. Today's entry is from my daughter-in-law, Amanda.**

This is a really yummy and easy breakfast recipe! Since I made it six months ago (oops), I've made it for my husband several times again because it's a good hearty recipe for when you don't want cereal.

Here's the huge amount of ingredients:

First, cut a hole in the bread. Use a biscuit cutter if you're sophisticated, but if not, use a knife and cut a wonky hole.

Pretty!

Butter and cast-iron are a beautiful thing. Toast the bread and crack the egg in the middle. Or, put the egg in a hole! So clever.

Yums!

Daily Photo Journal -- May 26 (Pioneer Woman - Migas)

My next recipe to tackle in The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook was something called Migas. Ree says that they are known in the Southwest and describes them as "an exceedingly flavorful scrambled egg dish."  Since I'm a Midwest girl, it's no wonder I've never heard of them.

These "exceedingly flavorful scrambled eggs" have onion, red and green pepper, tomatoes, and jalapenos in them. A quite unique ingredient is corn tortillas that are fried until almost crispy.

I actually think I'd like the corn tortillas more crispy. They were hard to cut up (Hubby to the rescue!), and they seemed kinda mushy in the mix with everything else.

Here's a shot of everything cooking:

The finished product on my plate with Monterrey Jack cheese and cilantro added. (Oh, I love cilantro!) I also added an avocado to my plate.

The verdict? It tasted okay. 

When I make something new, I ask two questions: 

1) Do you like it? 2) Should I make it again? 

The answers to this dish are 1) Yes and 2) No.

(Sorry, Ree)

Daily Photo Journal -- May 14 (Pioneer Woman Breakfast Bowls)

Today's Daily Photo Journal is about my next entry in our cooking adventure through Pioneer Woman Cooks. If you forgot, because, really, it has been an eternity since I posted about this, my daughter, daughter-in-law and I are cooking our way through Pioneer Woman's cookbook and writing about it here. I have no excuse for slacking off because I'm not the one who is in Pharmacy School or Medical School. I haven't been studying my brains out so I can someday help with the health with their fellow human beings like Megan and Amanda. 

Maybe that's it, my brain isn't near as active as those two amazing young women... anyway...

Today for lunch I made Breakfast Bowls. I would say that I doubt seriously I would ever make these for breakfast, because it took me quite a while to do all the chopping and assembly and, hello??? Breakfast? That comes quite early in the day, you know! (Mornings and I don't get along very well.) (But, if you know me or have read this blog for very long, you are well aware of that.) (I'm not quite as energetic as my sweet, newlywed daughter.)

So I spent the late morning chopping onions, baking a potato, chopping tomatoes, slicing up leftover breakfast sausage links we had in the freezer, crumbling bacon, breaking open eggs, grating cheese (which honestly took about 10 seconds in my oh-so-cool food processor), slicing basil, and chopping mushrooms (Ree doesn't call for these in her recipe, but they were in the fridge. This is the kind of recipe you can add almost anything you want to it.)

After all that hard work is done (I suppose if you really wanted this for breakfast you could spare yourself all this intensive morning labor and do all this work the night before. At night. Like a sane person would do.)

The ingredients are layered in an oven-safe bowl. I used a Grab-It bowl. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the all and top off with cheese and throw it in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

It turned out quite yummy! (I think I could have baked them a little longer.) Hubby says it was the perfect dish to have after working in the yard this morning on this cold and rainy spring (?) day.

PW Breakfast Burritos (Pioneer Woman)

Megan, here. These breakfast burritos were a little bit of an adventure. A few days prior to making these, my hubby was having a hard night and I lovingly promised him I'd get up and make him pancakes the next morning. For those of you that don't know, he gets up at 5:20 and leaves for work by 6:00 every morning. I'm usually up to see him off by 6:00. However, 5:30 rolled around the next morning and I was less than enthused about getting up to make pancakes. My amazing husband patiently said, "It's ok honey, you can keep sleeping." And I did. About 4 days later (on a Sunday morning) I finally fulfilled my promise and made these breakfast burritos! But of course I didn't look at the directions until I started to cook and failed to realize that the potatoes had to bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Needless to say, I didn't allot that much time, so I had to take some shortcuts to get us to church on time.
Here's the yummy breakfast sausage being browned:

Then I combined 5 (!) eggs, a cup of grated cheese and green onions and set that aside.

So here was my trick to getting these done in less time. Instead of baking the potatoes, I microwaved them for about 10 minutes. It worked reasonably well. I felt like the only downside was that the potatoes were a little too mushy to chop up very nicely. But then again, everything just gets mixed together in the end anyway.
And here ensues the mixing: The breakfast sausage, red bell pepper, breakfast potatoes and the egg mixture. Can you say unhealthy? But man....it was delicious.

Topped with some salsa and washed down with OJ. You could even add some extra cheese on top if you wanted.
We also had a little bit left over and I decided that these burritos were just as good (if not better) reheated. So don't be afraid to make a little extra!

Buttermilk Biscuits (Pioneer Woman)

It's Megan again!
I made these delicious biscuits for a weekend lunch along with some sausage gravy that my husband whipped up.

I've always loved the biscuits my Mom often made for us when we were growing up so I was anxious to learn how these compare (and I think she is too). This particular recipe included both shortening and butter. I cut the cold butter into smaller pieces to make the blending quicker. In the end, the thing I liked most about the biscuits were the tiny chunks of butter in the final product... really makes for a "melt in your mouth" kind of biscuit.

Helpful hint! If you don't own a circular biscuit/cookie cutter, just use a glass! It worked wonders. Now I just want to save a few bucks and always use a glass.


The verdict? My Mom's are better, but that's just my personal taste (or maybe I haven't mastered this recipe quite yet). I like the fluffiness of my Mom's biscuits over the flaky-melt-in-your-mouth-ness of these.