Meet my favorite cookbook; The Pioneer Woman

Meet my favorite cookbook The Pioneer Woman by Ree Drummond.

Ree is the author of The Pioneer Woman Blog that I have followed for a few years now trying to win one of her Nikon Cameras…ok and because I love nearly everything about this adorable woman, including her Tasty Kitchen with thousands of recipes. Ree blogs about making the transition from being city girl in Los Angeles, to being the moderately agoraphobic ranch wife and mother of four in Oklahoma. Besides chronicling her adventures on the ranch, and her Basset Hound named Charlie, she writes about homeschooling her kids and includes some pretty delectable recipes.

For those of you who are just now hearing about Ree, she is no ordinary blogger.

I just can’t boast enough about this woman. She recently published a BEAUTIFUL cookbook which hit #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. We’re all so proud of her. “We” meaning her fans, and her un-authorized apprentices. She has taught us how to cook, take great pictures, use Photoshop, love our hubbys, and craft a joyful home and garden. You can check out her blog here.

She is the blogger many of us other bloggers aspire to be… someday… when all of our blogging dreams come true.

And as I told you, her Cookbook… oh my…

My first venture in her cookbook after I got it in my hot little hands was this cute little Egg in a hole!

It’s full of delicious recipes, with step by step photos on every page.

She is married to a cowboy whom she lovingly refers to as the Marlboro Man. Her cookbook is filled with down-home comfort food, and fantastic country cookin’ that she learned to make while feeding a slew of hungry cowboys.

Look at this recipe for Red Velvet Cake! I can’t wait to try some cupcakes this Christmas. This one is going to get me off those darn box mixes and into the adventure of making cake from scratch.

I love to give the book as a gift, in fact I got to give it to my adorable friend this weekend for her bridal shower! Brooke, I hope you fall in love with this cookbook like I did!

a treasure from the box

My husband is certifiably obsessed with cookies. Any kind, any flavor, anytime, anyplace. It’s almost as if I can hear him in the cookie monster voice saying “me want cookie”, except in his case it would be “cookiessss” because one is never enough. If you remember in one of my past posts we played with the thought of going out for Halloween this year and Kyle would have been the cookie monster and I an adorable little chocolate chip cookie; it would have been perfect but time is of the essence and it has quickly gotten away from us.

Have sweets in the home at all times is the #1 requirement in being Kyle Grider’s wife. I can even tell you where some of the best cookies in town are…Sugar and Spice, Off Main Deli, Subway, and last but surely not least the Holiday Gas Station. Yep the gas station has some of the best mouth watering cookies. Lucky for me really anything sweet will do! A common resort to cookies is the Orange hostess cupcakes where you get a big delight in every bite.

Last night I got a “would you mind making that white chocolate snack mix?” followed by an “I will help you”!

So this is the Grider treasure box…

This is what I got out of the box…

And here is the treasure!

Taking all zucchini donations…these cookies rock!

Tis the season that Zucchini runs amuck. The zucchini situation seems to get out of control right about this time of year. Those who grow it have buckets and buckets that they can’t even give away. The friendly green summer squash has been running rampant in farmers markets and in our family gardens the last few weeks. After sautéing with onions and baking the vegetable several different ways that my father taught me, I was itching for a creative recipe to make a dent in my zucchini stash that my step dad bought over from their garden.

I love zucchini bread, and I know you will find this hard to believe but so does Kyle! If you don’t know my husband, he is not a fan of anything green, and as you take note, most veggies are green.

I have always noted how seamlessly the green veggie goes into a sweet baked good. Needing a treat to bring to a cookout, I found a recipe for Chocolate Chip zucchini cookies and modified it a little bit because we didn’t have any coco in the house, nor did we have butter flavored Crisco.

These tasty little bites were a hit: they definitely have a light cakey texture, so don't expect a particularly firm or chewy cookie. It's more like a little freeform muffin, which I like! They're also ridiculously moist. And the best part: this sweet goodie doesn't taste like zucchini at all! My little family devoured them in no time! I am eating one of the last ones as I sit here and finish this blog post.

So if you're looking for a yummy alternative to zucchini bread, or you're looking for a solution to the Attack of the Zucchini, try these cookies.

½ C Shortening
½ C sugar
½ C brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 ½ C flour
2 hot coco packets (no mallos, we even used sugar free)
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ¾ C zucchini
1 C chocolate chips
Cream shortening and sugars; add in egg and vanilla; add in all dry goods; fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.Bake 8-10 min on 350.

On the not so healthy side I would like to make beer battered zucchini slices. Oh how heavenly they sound dipped in ranch!

Off to eat more cookies, have a great day!

Credit Union Land

So a tidbit about me: I work in the marketing department at the Credit Union I have been a member at since I was like 2 years old. In fact one of my coworkers remembers me crawling across her desk when my mom and dad would come in for banking services. I get teased because my account number only has 5 digits instead of the 6 most the members have now. It is a great place to call my home away from home.

I am passionate about the Credit Union difference. The difference between a Credit Union and a Bank is that we are member owned, and we are bottom line just people helping people. It is so great to give a loan to that single mom that badly needs a new car because hers is on its way out, and 4 other financials before us have turned her down…let me tell you how great that feels!

And guess what…in credit union land we no longer have the pony express delivering our mail. We’re not just your granddad’s credit union anymore. In early 2011 BFCU will have one of the most state of the art online banking platforms known to man, above all financials…even the big guys!!! AND wait till you see our newly designed website…ooohhheeeee she is puuurrrdyyyy!

For the past couple of days I have been given an opportunity to attend the Montana Credit Union Network Conference, oh how well we ate!

But if you’re anything like me you walk out of those things with 1,000 ideas and feeling link a million bucks! Heck you may even feel like you can fly! Wow we are on top of the world!

But really, I truly got so many great ideas and cannot wait to implement them. I also got to hear some incredible speakers and learn from some of the best! It is amazing what Credit Unions do for our community.

Today, on work time, I get to go to my daughter’s school and tutor reading for 1 hour…see isn’t that awesome!

Family Game Night

Sunday night we decided to break out the board games and have a family game night. We ate pizza and played Sorry. We let Maci choose the game and she chose Sorry, a game papa just got for her for her Birthday, and she won! We baked a frozen pizza at home that was just a Wal-Mart brand pizza and I must say relatively tasty! I think I will buy that again.

We like to play games and one thing I notice is the since of fulfillment that Maci has when we all play together. It is time devoted to each other, a time where nothing else matters.

It is important for your kids to experience winning and losing and at our house we have all done a little of both!

But it is more than just a game. Besides the laughs and fun we have playing the game, we are also actively stimulating Maci’s mind. All games have some sort of educational benefits that are very helpful for young children. Most early games cover counting, number recognition, colors, and even letters. Playing board games with young children also teach about following rules, taking turns, and patience.

I think we just found ourselves a Sunday night ritual!

Happy 7th Birthday Maci

My little sunshine turned 7 today; well at 2 something this morning. I thought of getting up and eating a sandwich and some Doritos to celebrate. Oh how I will never forget that sandwich and nacho cheese Doritos and the taste of that diet Pepsi as it hit my lips. I have gone to Billings Clinic numerous times to have a turkey sandwich since then and I just can’t find one that tastes as fine. Nor can I find the fruit platter my sister and I shared/inhaled the next morning…it was heavenly! Chrissy and I wanted to order another one, but were not sure that would be appropriate considering the size of the first one. I would have had to have been one VERY hungry new mama.

Maci had her Birthday party celebration on Saturday with about 30 of her friends and lots more family. I am beyond blessed to have such great friends and family to help her celebrate what she called THE BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER!

We had her party at Frances Park just a few blocks from our house. It is a park nestled in the neighborhood that is extraordinarily beautiful and a great adventure for the children with lots of trees, a huge yard and toys that even the adults played on. The weather could not have been more perfect, a sun shinny 80 degrees October day, and we don’t always get that lucky.

I also decided to make her birthday cake. We found what we wanted online but after doing a bit of research with a few local bakers I decided to try it myself. I had quotes anywhere from $50-$75. So Call me Cathryn Grider AKA. Ace of Cakes Duff Goldman! I did it!!!! And here it is…..

Thanks to all who helped us celebrate, I appreciate it more than you know!