PW: Steak Fingers

I have no idea how I ended up finding this recipe last week.

Pinterest?

Sweet As Pie?

Facebook?

Just plain landing on The Pioneer Woman page and seeing it?

No clue.

I think it came to me in a vision.

But in any event, I bought the chop steak, or finger steak, or whatever it's called near you, and as tends to happen, I didn't get to cook it promptly.  Into the freezer it went -- and then this past Friday, Mick and I grabbed a few things to defrost to cook.  That was kind-of silly, because we knew we were not going to be home on Saturday.  We cooked Sunday and Monday and then, staring at me as it had done a week ago, was the tray of chopped steak, all alone in the fridge, waiting for some attention.

And slowly turning brown while it waited.

I made stuffed pork chops yesterday, and I've got a crazy-busy afternoon and evening ahead of me, so I got home from work just now and thought, "It's now or never."  I despise throwing away food. To me, it's the epitome of wastefulness, and I'm ashamed to say we end up doing it too frequently. I'm working on that. WE are working on that.

But back to today's lunch:  I loooooove country fried steak.  I also love pan gravies.  When I first started blogging and Sweet As Pie started, I made PW Chicken Fried Steak.  I was so excited about it, and it was nothing short of a disaster.  One of the reasons was that the steaks were just unbearably tough.

Today, my friends, I beat the ... bliss ... out of the chopped steak.

These are delicious!

Okay, so the plate doesn't photograph well, not one bit -- and to make it worse, I used my cell phone. But man, it's pretty and delicious in person.

And pretty delicious.

Best of all, from the time I walked in the door to the time I sat down and ate was one hour -- and that included emptying the dishwasher, checking the mail, and prepping and cooking the entire meal.

--Jen

Full disclosure: CAM was my breader-eggwasher-breader.  But still ... this is easy, quick, tasty, and (at least in person!) pretty. Also, the recipe called for two pounds of steak, but I only had slightly over one pound -- and we just about ran out of breading.  I'd do 1.5 times the flour mix if I made the full batch.

Sweet As Pie: Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup

This is a Sweet As Pie Pioneer Woman recipe from way back in April.

I even picked it, but I never had a chance to make it!

(False: I surely had plenty of chances; I just never got my act together.  I believe in honesty in blogging.)

In any event, today was one of the first real days that felt like summer here in Maine -- 82 degrees and humid.  The way our house sits (and due to my aversion to fans, which I can't stand because they are loud and make messes and just are always dirty), it was actually cooler outside than inside, but no matter where you were, it was warm.  Couple that with the fact that I made cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip muffins this morning, and that meant two things:

1. The air conditioner was on by noon, and 

2. that made the house chilly.

Jackpot!

So for dinner tonight, at long last, I made this soup.

WHM was on a birthday outing with his aunt and uncle, so CAM played outside and I prepped this.  

Pioneer Woman: Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup

Verdict: Delicious!  And, despite being hearty and made with heavy cream, it's not super heavy -- not inappropriate for a rainy summer day.  (Even though it was sunny and hot here!)

Cook it again: Absolutely. Mick and I even reflected that it would be a nice dinner with company, if we doubled the recipe.

Cost factor: Italian sausage is the most expensive.  We usually have heavy cream and kale and red potatoes in the house, but if you don't, then those are other factors.  $15ish?

PW says this is a recipe meant to mimic an Olive Garden recipe.  Since we moved away from Alabama, we haven't been to an Olive Garden, so I can't comment on whether this is a good effort -- but I can say without reservation that it's a darn good soup!

I didn't take any prep photos, so I will just recap here.

(Also, I'll insert a photo of the finished product, just so you can see how pretty it is.)

You need red potatoes, kale, milk, chicken broth, heavy cream, and sweet Italian sausage.  

Boil the potatoes and set them aside. Remember to slice the potatoes before you boil them! I forgot to do that, and the price I had to pay was trying to slice boiled red potatoes.  It wasn't easy to do that and have them look pretty.  (Not that they need to look pretty, but it's nice bonus!)

In a stockpot, crumble and brown the sausage.  When it's ready, drain any fat and add red pepper flakes, oregano (I used dried), salt, and paper.  Add two cups each of chicken broth, milk, and heavy cream.  (The recipe calls for half and half, but I don't keep that in the house. We go big!)

Simmer it all together for 30 minutes, and then add the kale and potatoes.

That's it! Delicious, pretty, and very filling.  

And for the record, even if it's nearly 90 outside, this is still worth it.

--Jen

Sweet As Pie: Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus

I was going to make this two weeks ago with Pioneer Woman's Whiskey Rib-eyes.  But my in-laws came up and we decided to cook the steaks on the grill, and then because I wasn't in the middle of the cooking, I completely forgot about the asparagus!

Thank goodness asparagus keeps pretty well in our crisper.

Even so, I knew this weekend that I was running out of time before I'd have to throw it away, and not much makes me as upset as throwing away food we never cooked.

This week I went to the grocery store but didn't like the steaks I saw, so rib eyes were out. But in the meantime, we bought a family-size tray of ground beef, because Mick ordered these

I'd like to attribute these photos but have no idea where I got them. If they belong to you, please say so.

from television and wanted to try them.

But then here it was Sunday afternoon, and we hadn't given any serious thought to the Stufz and I knew I needed to pack away the meat -- and cook that darn asparagus.

I decided it would be a good day for a meatloaf.

I checked our cookbooks and found this recipe from Pioneer Woman, and this one from Trisha.

(Note: I used the recipes from the cookbooks, which sometimes have slight modifications. In Trisha's cookbook, there is no ketchup glaze as shown in the photo in the link.  We did not make a glaze. Also, if you click both links you'll see that they both have the SAME photo. That's a shame, because we've made each of these at some point, and neither one looks like the photo!)

Trisha's just seemed simpler, and Mick and I were in the mood for simple -- or, if not simple, at least easy.  Besides, we've already made the PW recipe, and hadn't yet tried the one from Trisha's cookbook.  But really, it was the simplicity that trumped. This is our last day of winter break and neither of us felt like doing much of anything.  I even snuck in an afternoon nap!

Trisha introduces her recipe by saying she loves meatloaf, has tried quite a few, and really sticks with this simple, delicious version.  She's dead-on.  This is one of the easiest things you'll ever make and incredibly flavorful.

For our side we had bacon-wrapped asparagus (because anything wrapped in bacon is usually better, except that Mick and I tend to disagree with that because usually the bacon is soggier than we'd prefer).  Oh my goodness.  There is a strong chance we'll have bacon-wrapped asparagus for dinner by itself one night soon.  This was absolutely fantastic.

Naturally, neither CAM nor WHM would take so much as a bite, even though I tried to tell WHM that the sauce was made with his favorite black Chinese sauce (translation: soy sauce!).

Oh well. More for us.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus Bundles

Verdict: Holy awesomeness, Batman. Delicious. Pretty. Perfect if you're having company, or if you're not!
Cook it again: Yes. Tomorrow, if we had more asparagus.
Cost factor:  a bit expensive for a side, depending on sales.  Both bacon and asparagus can be costly if not on sale.

First of all, this is so easy that it's silly.

Trim some asparagus and group it into bundles.  Based on how many stalks we had, our bundles were 5-6 stalks.  (Think about how much a single person might eat and make the bundles accordingly -- if you have super skinny or super thick asparagus, that would play a role.)  Did you know you're supposed to hold an asparagus stalk at each end and bend it until it snaps?  Apparently that's the natural break point at which the rest of the stalk is not going to be good.  Mick and I learned that years ago and have used it ever since. But for the sake of pretty little bundles, I actually trimmed the stalks with a knife instead.

Wrap each bundle with bacon and set the bundles in a baking dish.

Trisha says to hold them together with toothpicks, but we didn't find that to be necessary.  Also, my pan is non-stick ceramic, but I don't think the bacon would stick no matter what baker you have, so don't worry about spraying it.

Then in a saucepan, mix a stick of butter, brown sugar, pepper, garlic salt, and soy sauce.

totally used the brownulated stuff again.  It melts a little differently, so I had to stir like crazy!

 When it bubbles to a foam, pour it over your asparagus bundles, and throw it in the oven.

Now, Trisha said to bake it for about 25 minutes at 400.  Since I had the meatloaf in the oven at 350, I put these in for longer, but on the very top rack.  I don't think that had any adverse effect.

Here they are, fresh out of the oven:

And here is our dinner.  Oh my goodness.

For the record, a little of the extra sauce drizzled on the meatloaf was also outstanding, and the bacon did get crispy enough to our taste.

For not wanting to really cook tonight, we ate like kings.  This was one of the best meals in a while!

--Jen

Sweet As Pie: Brownie Batter Cookies

This recipe is a Trisha Yearwood recipe that's not in either cookbook we have.  

But I sure am glad we stumbled upon it, because it's simple and delicious.

Trisha Yearwood's Brownie Batter Cookies

Verdict: Very yummy. A simple and tasty, thick chocolate cookie dressed up by chocolate chips.

Cook it again: Absolutely.  I *almost* doubled this to start with, and I really should have. We devoured these.

Cost factor: Hard to say. We have all this on hand, usually.

First of all, one evening you need to try to dig out your stand mixer from the mess that is your kitchen counter.

If you get a hankerin' to mess with your camera settings and try to get some one-handed action shots, pouring sugar is a good one to try.  Also, sing Def Leppard while you do it. Makes it more fun.

Add some butter.  Two sticks.

And brown sugar.

What on earth kind of brown sugar is that, you ask?  That's my favorite thing in the world, "brownulated" sugar -- granulated brown sugar.  Technically, the recipe calls for dark brown sugar. But technically, we don't have any.  And technically, our regular brown sugar is presently in brick form, even with the little ceramic disk that is supposed to prevent such catastrophes. So, brownulated sugar.

Seriously, I love brownulated sugar.  It melts more slowly if you're using it in other recipes (say, for a brown-sugar sauce for carrots), which can make it a bit tricky to learn to cook with, but it's fabulous for baking.

Melt an ounce of baking chocolate.

See the mushy shape of the bar?  I might have pre-melted it by leaving it on the back of the stove while the oven was pre-heating.

I also may have completely forgotten this was baking chocolate and licked my finger after scooping an ounce out.

Don't do that.  I thought I was going to die.  Then CAM tried it and her reaction was about the same as mine -- we would have gladly guzzled motor oil if it had been on the kitchen counter.  ANYTHING to get rid of that chocolate!

Add three eggs to your mixture, and then some cocoa powder/flour/baking powder/salt.

Nothing fancy.  Also, we ran out (!!!) of this mid-recipe and Mick was the hero who ran out in an icy rain storm to get replacement cocoa.

Mix it all up to form a batter ...

And when it's clearly a cookie dough, add the vanilla and re-mix.  (Yes, the recipe says to do that. No, I don't know why.)  And finally, fold in some chocolate chips.  (I took the paddle out after I snapped this, but don't mix them with the paddle.)

WHM made some "poop" comments, but seriously, this looked divine in real life.

Into the oven.  Trisha says to use generous spoonfuls, so I took her at her word.  The cookies flatten but keep their basic base shape, so if you make this you'll want to be sure the dollops are relatively the size and shape you want. I could have flattened these down a bit, but I wanted thicker cookies.

I took this picture in a super-dark kitchen at 10 p.m. but this is not a bad view.

This was a better, more accurate view.

So, that's all well and good, but how did they taste?!

These were very good.  The melted chocolate, cocoa, and chocolate chips allow you to call these triple-chocolate cookies.  They were delicious right out of the oven -- the chips held their shape but were just gooey enough.  Overall, these are flavorful without being too rich (I think a darker chocolate may have put them in that too-rich category).  They are just on the "cakey" side of "cake" cookies, and definitely have the flavor of brownies. But make no mistake: these are cookies, not small cakes and not brownies. They don't have that moist denseness (is denseness a word?!) of brownies, but have that cake-ish consistency.  Of course, I also made big dollops, so these were pretty thick, and that may have contributed to that cake-ish-ness.  Also,  I'm not sure if I over baked them or if they are supposed to be just the tiniest bit dry.  I wouldn't say the cookies were dry -- just, like the cakey-ness, on that side of the dividing line.  Certainly it was nothing some red wine or cold milk can't fix. And Mick, my resident "those are dry" expert, didn't feel they were too dry.

Evidence of their deliciousness: I have no idea how many cookies this recipe yields, because we ate the cookies as they came out of the oven for every cookie sheet!  I'd say a reasonable estimate is 4 dozen; more if you make smaller cookies. (Ours were pretty big, and thick, which we quite loved.)

I picked this recipe and I'm glad it came out well.  This recipe comes together quickly as long as you've got butter softened.  We'll add this to our go-to list (like Chocolate-Chip cookies are) -- easy to make, ingredients always all on hand, and instantly rewarding.

--Jen

Sweet As Pie: Tuscan Bean Soup with Shrimp

I just made this, finally, after buying the shrimp on Tuesday and letting it sit in the fridge for three days now.

It is fabulous.

Here's the deal:

Pioneer Woman: Tuscan Bean Soup with Shrimp

Verdict: hearty, flavorful, pretty, and spicy. Absolute win. Easy to make, easily doctorable in many ways to meet your audience, and serves a LOT.
Cook it again: Most definitely.
Cost factor: $22ish.  Shrimp is the big element, but the other things add up if they are not in your pantry.

I wasn't sure about this recipe, mostly because in her blog post, PW makes a comment about the shrimp part seeming weird.  She got inside my head!  But the truth is that I love hearty bean soups, I love shrimp, and the rest of this sounded pretty darn good.  I was game.

Then we went to BJ's Club and shrimp were out of control expensive, so I put this on hold a little bit. (Man, do I miss Costco!)  But that was last week! This week, the kids and I went to the grocery store and found a smaller bag of frozen, cleaned, easy-peel shrimp, so I jumped on it.

My kitchen was a disaster and WHM was playing at the sink while I made this, so I didn't take a photo of all the ingredients before I started cooking.  I'll list them here:

salt and pepper
onion and garlic and oil
shrimp
butter
dried parsley and dried oregano
fresh kale and fresh basil
two cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato paste
red pepper flakes
white wine
6 cups chicken broth
parmesan or romano cheese to grate

Mick has tended to keep kale in the house lately, so it was really a matter of making sure we had the shrimp, wine, and basil.  We shop at a local farm stand for most of our produce, and about a week ago we needed basil.  They don't give you just a little bit; they give you enough to live on nothing but basil for a month.  I hate that, mostly because I hate throwing it all away in the end!  So I was glad to have this recipe, which calls for generous amounts of basil.  Yay! (For the record, we will still end up throwing away more basil than we'd even eat in a year. Imagine a plastic grocery bag -- the kind with handles, that you'd get at checkout -- and FILL it with basil.  That's how much you get.)

All week I have been thinking that I needed to grab some white wine.  Yesterday we were in BJ's again, and I couldn't for the life of me remember WHY I wanted the wine. So, thinking that it was just for evening sipping while I read a book and watch tv, I decided to save the money and skip it.  Doh!  I needed it for this recipe!  Fortunately, you can substitute chicken broth, and I honestly don't think the recipe or flavor suffered at all for the lack of wine.

Anyway.  If I have to issue a warning about this recipe, it is to PREP ALL YOUR INGREDIENTS AHEAD OF TIME.  I always read a recipe and try to judge what I need to do up front and what can be done as I cook.  This recipe is extraordinarily easy, but everything happens pretty quickly in the beginning and at one point I had to turn the burners off because I couldn't keep pace.

To start out, you dice an onion and five cloves of garlic.  Cook them together for a few minutes and then add the oregano, red pepper, and tomato paste, letting the bottom of the pan get nice and "flavorful."

When you son says, "Mommy, you are booooorning dat," add the wine/broth to deglaze the pan and get all that flavor into your soup.

Then add the beans (rinsed) and diced tomatoes (straight out of the can).

Be warned: almost all my photos are blurry.  The steam messed with me!

Then add your six cups of broth, and you'll have this really, well ... soupy ... soup. Toss in some salt and pepper.

Let it simmer for about 30 minutes.   While it simmers, sauté up your shrimp with the parsley. PW used fresh parsley.  I can't keep that stuff for longer than the day I bought it, so I used dried parsley.  It looks so pretty, doesn't it?!

Now rip up some kale and throw it in.  Likewise the basil.  PW is not very clear on how much -- she says "a bunch."

Thing is, in our house kale doesn't come in bunches. It comes in bags.

So, just take a handful of handfuls and throw them in. I just kept adding it until it was all piled on top.  I was waiting for it to wilt like spinach, but it never really did.  Then I stirred it in, and quit when the whole thing looked pretty enough.  That's a nice descriptive standard, eh?  We're all about quantifiable data in these parts.

Then add some basil.  Lots.  

And that's it!

At this point, try to take some nice food stylist photos.  Realize you don't really have a very good lens for this, and deal with it.

Isn't it so pretty?! I did a decent job of (a) getting a good mix of stuff on the spoon and (b) hiding the disastrously messy kitchen sink! I did not do such a good job of making the focal point actually the food on the spoon.  Oh well.

Serve the soup with some parmesan shavings and a few of the shrimp on top.

To serve this to a large group I would probably back down the red pepper flakes a little bit, mostly because a little bit goes a long way.  As the recipe is, this is probably just on the wrong side of "too hot" for a regular dinner party. However, it's absolutely perfect for Mick, me, and anyone who likes spicy foods.

I feel like I've done not enough productive stuff this February break, but I've been so thankful for the time to cook. Our fridge and bellies haven't been this full in a long time! We've eaten well, relaxed, had ample hockey time, and now as the week winds down and this last weekend is busy with activities, I'm just starting to ramp back up to my usual work-time stress.  We can talk about that in a week.  :)

Go make this soup!


--Jen

Sweet As Pie: Chicken Poppyseed Salad

Things with Sweet as Pie seem to ebb and flow for all of us, and Jennifer over at Come Rain or Come Shine solicited an "open call" for picks this month.  I hate to ignore emails (I always feel like "what if no one answers?" -- it goes back to an old thing I read years ago that if everybody waits for somebody, nobody will come to help anybody ...) so I answered.  Full disclosure: I was really not timely in my response.  But, I ended up picking essentially a full meal's worth of recipes.  And guess what?  Three of my four picks made it to this month's rotation!

Up first: Trisha Yearwood's Chicken Poppy Seed Salad.

Chicken Poppyseed Salad Sandwiches
Verdict: Excellent. Pretty, flavorful, and super easy.
Cook it again: Absolutely. It's great for parties, too.
Cost Factor: $15-ish. You need celery, chicken, and grapes as the big items.

Now if you know me, you know that I love chicken salad.  (Before Chick-fil-A fancied up their chicken salad sandwiches, I used to go through the drive-thru and order one for breakfast!  Fact: CFA will make you WHATEVER you want, WHENEVER you want. So even though it was a lunch item, they'd ask if I minded waiting a bit and they'd make it. What made their CSS great was that it was on honey wheat bread, nothing fancy, and then toasted, squished flat like a grilled cheese, but not fancy enough to call it a panini!  Oh, the simplicity of that sandwich ... I'm salivating just thinking of it.  Sadly, they changed their recipe and presentation a few years ago now. I still love their chicken salad, but it's not the same. Actually, it's fancier than it used to be.)

Anyway.

Enough lamentations about the past and present Chick-fil-A chicken salad.

This one is a super easy, super pretty, serve-it-at-a-shower kind-of chicken salad.

What made me happy to pick this one is that we're on our February break here in Maine, and I thought it would make for a nice weekday lunch.  (Silly me, I should have known the kids wouldn't touch it. But Mick and I at least get to enjoy it!)

It also requires almost nothing we don't typically have on hand.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast -- something we typically have in the freezer
celery (50/50 on whether we have celery in the house)
4 cups of seedless grapes, halved (again, 50/50. But holy cow, 4 cups!  It seems like so much, but trust me. Also trust me -- this is essentially a full bag of grapes.)
sliced almonds (strangely, this is something we typically have in the house.)
poppy seeds
dill
salt and pepper
mayonnaise

Mick was watching tv, the kids were playing, and I decided to whip this up for lunch.  I boiled some water with bay leaves, salt, and pepper, threw the frozen chicken in and let it cook.  When it was done, I took the pieces out, rinsed them in cold water, and cut the chicken into a big dice.  (The recipe says to let the chicken cool before cutting it but I am nothing if not impatient.)

Then I simply diced the celery, sliced the grapes in half, added a pinch of salt and pepper and the rest of the ingredients, and mixed it all together.

Some of the ingredients seem like the quantities are a bit high.  For example, four cups of grapes?!  I did about 3, 3 1/2 and was very pleased with the balance in the end. So, use your judgment.  I followed the directions on all the rest, even when I was a bit scared about 2 full cups of almonds.  I was all-in.  It was worth it.

This is my only work-in-progress photo.  Sorry about that.

I know chicken salad really should cool before you eat it, but I couldn't resist.  I dug in.

Don't mind the sink accoutrements in the background. This was snapped with a cell phone.

DELICIOUS. I loved the crunch, the dill, the poppyseed ... all of it.

It makes a lot, too, so I eagerly await the chilled leftovers!

--Jen

Sweet As Pie: Spicy Chipotle Chicken Chili

Yes, this is another January recipe. But I made it before February 15, so it still counts, right?

PW: Spicy Chiptole Chicken Chili

Verdict: Hearty and spicy. Quick enough to cook, and easy to customize.
Cook it again: Yes.
Cost Factor: $16ish

This is a recipe that intrigued me for two reasons.  First, we typically have all the ingredients in the house.  Second, I love a good chili, and leftover chili is even better.

Here's what you need:

Sneaky orange snuck its way in!  Never fear: this is an orange-free chili.

For the record, that's a large onion, a beer, garlic, 2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can each of dark red, light red, and northern beans.

For the record, it doesn't matter what kind of beans you use. Those are just the ones I had and enjoy in chili.

For the record, PW says the same thing.

You dice the onion and garlic and cook them in some oil in until they are soft.  I used a stockpot, and that's another good thing about this recipe: it's a one-pot deal. While the onions and garlic are softening, you dice up the uncooked chicken. Note: try your hardest to pay attention and not burn the garlic and onions.  This part proved a bit challenging for me last night!

When the onions and garlic are soft, add the diced chicken to the pot. Stir it around in the pot with the onions and garlic, until the chicken is cooked on all four sides. (Not necessarily cooked through -- just browned/seared/whatever-ed.)

Then dump in most of the beer, and cook it until the alcohol burns off.

After a few minutes, you can dump in all the other players.  That would be the beans, tomatoes, and some seasonings (chili powder, cumin, and salt).

Stir it up, and add some chipotles.  I was so frustrated last night -- I thought I had three cans of chiptole peppers in the pantry, but when I went to grab them, it turned out they were green chiles!  Mick was kind enough to do an emergency grocery run.  The stupid chipotles were $4 a can!  He picked up three cans; we're not going to run out again for a while, because this recipe only called for a single can.  That gave us about 4 peppers, which was actually probably a pepper too many.  Chipotles in adobo sauce are SPICY. We didn't try to serve this to the kids, and certainly couldn't have served it to anyone who isn't keen on spicy food.  PW says to start small with the peppers and then add more to taste.  If you've never cooked with chipotles before, heed that advice!  We knew that chipotles are potent, but seriously: be careful. It id a very quick transition from hot to unbearable.

When all the players are in the pot, cover it and walk away for an hour.  I probably gave it 90 minutes -- I didn't really pay attention.  About 10 minutes before you're ready to serve, make a paste of the cornmeal and remaining beer (or crack yourself a new one and pour out the first little bit, which was definitely my approach to this step!) and stir it into the chili. Also stir in juice of one lime.  PW uses the beer/masa as a thickening agent and to add a mild corn undertone to the chili.  I have to admit that it worked as a thickening agent, but my sophisticated palate I didn't really taste the corn. Of course, she said to use masa harina, and I got masa something-something that was not harina. It's tricky, getting Mexican stuff up here!  So maybe it made a difference in the flavor, but if you don't do it you won't really miss it.

Here is the finished product -- served with cheese and sour cream.

It was exactly what you'd want from a chili: hearty, spicy, and filling.  I wouldn't say it was extraordinary but it certainly wasn't bad, and it definitely had some heat!  I'd make it again, at any rate.  Besides, it was nice to have this going on the stove while my friend Becca was hanging out with us on a low-key Friday night.  It was the perfect meal for that kind of evening -- 20 minutes of prep time, and then we were able to hang out and bust out the competitive Wheel of Fortune skills while dinner cooked in the background.  And then it was equally great to sit on the couch cuddled up with bowls of chili while we watched the Olympics ... so no, it's not extraordinary, but as an easy chili, it's definitely a keeper of a recipe.

--Jen

p.s. I didn't realize how blurry these pictures all were last night. I promise you that was not the beer ... it was operator error on the camera and a headache running in the background.  Better pictures next time, for sure!

Sweet As Pie: Spicy Whiskey BBQ Sliders

This was a January recipe and I procrastinated long enough that then I thought, "oh these will make perfect SuperBowl snacks."

Then PW said the same thing on Facebook and I was sold!

Then SuperBowl Sunday rolled around and I didn't want to do anything.  (Seriously, I am not even sure I got out of my jammies on Sunday. It was glorious! We had no plans, no party to throw or attend, and we just weren't into the fussiness of it all.)

So, I finally, finally made them for dinner today.  At long last, Mick and the kids and I went grocery shopping yesterday and picked up the few ingredients we needed, and Mick and I made these for dinner tonight.

(It's been a long month, with Mick's concussion, my parents here for a week, juggling other help for another week, then CAM getting strep, and now WHM sick with a terrible head cold.  You know I don't like grocery shopping here in Maine to begin with, but it really was a monumental project to contemplate recently, so going yesterday -- and going as a family -- was a huge, if bizarre to most folks, treat.)

In any event, I am so glad I finally cooked a real meal.  Here's the scoop.

Pioneer Woman Spicy Whiskey BBQ Sliders

Verdict: The best burgers we've had in ages. AGES.
Cook it again: Heck yes.  Maybe tomorrow. And you should cook it tomorrow, too.
Cost Factor: $15-ish

First of all, the recipe is brilliantly simple.  You need this small ensemble of ingredients, much of which you may already have on hand.

I was chastised by my friend Becca for using bourbon when I should have used whiskey in a previous recipe. So this time I grabbed some whiskey. I think this was good stuff. What do I know?!

For the record, that's a large onion, jalapeño slices, slider rolls, bbq sauce, whiskey, and two pounds of ground beef. We had one pound in the freezer already so I just defrosted it overnight, and then we bought a pound of ground pork yesterday.

Chop up that giant onion ...

Then have your helper form the meat into patties.  I chose to do a 50-50 mixture of ground pork and ground beef, which may be one of my better decisions in recent years. (For the record, I had it in my head that this recipe called for pork.  It turns out that it didn't, but we made the decision to use a 50-50 mixture anyway. I was afraid that the patties would be bland, and I was hopeful that the mixture would add flavor.) Why was I afraid that the patties would be bland? Because you don't add anything to the meat before you form the patties; you just make the patties and salt and pepper them on both sides. For the first time in ages, Mick and I cooked dinner together. That makes my heart happy, just like burgers make his heart happy. Win-win!

Our "sliders" were a little bit on the big side.  We took two pounds of meat and, as the recipe said, formed 12 patties.

In a mixture of butter and oil, we browned the patties, and then set them aside.

At this point, you're supposed to drain the grease and add the onion.  We skipped the "drain the grease" phase because there wasn't really a lot.  Then we cooked the onion about 5 minutes, until translucent.  I wish I had smell-o-vision, because it was incredible.  Or so I thought ...

... until we added half a cup of whiskey.

Oh my word, the house smelled amazing.

I could have stopped here and had whiskey onions for dinner, but I had other people relying on me to actually cook.  Well, and Mick was helping.  So, we pressed on ...

When the whiskey cooked off, we added a cup of bbq sauce (cheap-o store brand for us) and about a quarter cup of diced jalapeños, and then we set the sliders in the sauce.  We covered the pan and let the burgers absorb the sauce for a few minutes while we set the table and generally got ready to eat.  I'd like to say "while we got the sides in order," but the fact was our side tonight was potato chips.

Anyway, once we were done frying up those chips and seasoning them with truffle oil opening the bag of Lay's, we served each slider on a Hawaiian roll.  Straight up. Not even toasted, not even warmed in the microwave.

I am sorry for the blurry photo. Honestly, I snapped all of tonight's pictures with my cell phone and this one was an after-thought.  (The fourth burger from this plate was already on my own plate and half eaten!)

Holy deliciousness.  The burgers were divine.  The pork/beef mixture was flavorful in a way we've not had in a while, the sauce had some kick without being hot for the sake of being hot, and the whiskey gave it just the right undertones of ... well, what?  Wood-y-ness?  Smoky-ness?  It just added a depth of flavor that took the burgers from warmed-up bbq sauce with onions to something you actually made.

These were fantastically easy and "fancy" enough, and tasty enough, that you could serve them to guests and they'd be in heaven.

Just don't tell them how easy they were!

--Jen