Perfect Pot Roast, thanks to the Pioneer Woman.

My new next door neighbor is really great. Our kids love to play, and I marvel at how much alike we are. Both of our husbands are JAGs, both of our first cars we bought for ourselves are VW Jettas that both of our husbands now drive to and from work. We both love Americana themed things, and we even have the same picture hung in the same place in our separate homes. We have the same interests, and I see that we do many, many things the same way. One thing we share is a love for cooking and baking. She has turned me on to a cooking blog called The Pioneer Woman.

Apparently, I am the last person on earth that has a love for cooking and baking that had not heard of her blog until recently. I mean, this lady is amazing. Her husband runs a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. She helps on the ranch, homeschools four kids, makes all kinds of delicious food, takes pictures of the process, blogs about it, as well as blogging about several other things besides cooking, writes cookbooks, has blog readers out to the ranch to cook with her....I mean, how do women do this? It doesn't seem like there is anything neglected in her life, except for maybe sleep. She didn't mean to become rich or famous, but is now both, at least in the cooking blog community. How come stuff like that doesn't happen to me???

My neighbor, Amanda, has The Pioneer Woman's cookbook, and she let me borrow it last week. I sat down, read it like a novel, then went straight to Amazon to order my own copy. I mean, this lady knows what's-what when it comes to cooking. I love that her recipes are real, and that she uses real, everyday, not-hard-to-find ingredients. It's hearty, wholesome food (she does feed cowboys, after all, and they ain't gonna eat no junk!). And she uses real butter and lots of it. You get automatic bonus points with me if you use real butter. And lots of it.

One thing I have always struggled with in my world of cooking is pot roast. I love a good pot roast. It is the ultimate comfort food, and I love to serve it on Sundays. Makes the whole house smell good and the oven or crockpot does all the hard work, which is nice on Sundays when we're supposed to be enjoying a day of rest anyway.

My mom makes a fabulous pot roast. She uses this dutch oven thing that has be at least fifty years old. I never remember having a pot roast she made that didn't come out of that pot. This past summer at Lamberts Cafe when we were at the beach in Alabama, I had some pot roast that was not better, but as good as my mom's. But after many, many attempts, I have never been able to make what I feel is a really good pot roast. Edible and fill your belly, sure. But nothing great.

Until last Friday. I decided I wanted comfort food on a Friday. I had a pot roast in the refrigerator and while reading the Pioneer Woman's cookbook, I found a recipe that looked divine. I have always cooked pot roasts in my crockpot. And I just could never get it right. They were always edible, but I could never get one where I pushed back from the table and went, "That was just an awesome pot roast!" Until last Friday night, that is.

I give all the credit to the Pioneer Woman and her recipe, and none to myself. My only regreat with this recipe is that I didn't buy a bigger roast. Lesson learned. If we would have had leftovers, they would have been great on sandwiches the next day. So I will send you here to her recipe, and give credit where it is due. Thank you, Pioneer Woman, for teaching me how to make a good pot roast. I promise I will never do a pot roast in my crockpot ever again!

Click here for The Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast Recipe

I also made her mashed potato recipe out of her cookbook. I used red-skinned potatoes instead of russets and left the skin on because we like extra fiber like that. And just for kicks, I sprinkled some cheese over the top. Holy schmoly. Just typing this and uploading these pictures makes me want to run right to my kitchen and cook another meal like this one.

Click here for the Pioneer Woman's mashed potato recipe.

I get way more excited about food than anyone probably should. I know this.

Calzones

I love Italian food. I love pizza, I love lasanga. Calzones are the most magical combination of the two. And the way I do them, they are so super easy. I have to share.

Some months back, a friend of mine shared a tip that she would buy pizza dough by the case from the snack bar counter at Sams Club. You get a box with several frozen, individually wrapped dough balls for cheap. I am forever converted to ready-made dough. While there are a lot of things I feel good and confident about in the kitchen, breadmaking is not one of them. And there is so much good frozen dough out there now, it actually tastes better than my version of homemade bread. And it's cheap, so why torture myself? If you like to make bread, I'm sure you have a favorite recipe you use, so go with that one. If you don't want to invest in an entire case or frozen dough balls from Sams or don't have the freezer space, but you're not a breadmaker, the 50 cent package of dough mix from WalMart that you mix with water isn't a bad substitute. But for this recipe, I am using the Sam's dough balls.

You can do all sorts of fun things with this dough: breadsticks, cinnamon rolls (post on those to follow!), pizza, calzones, rolls, etc. For a quick Saturday night supper, I did calzones. The base of the filling is always the same, but you can let your little imagination run wild with what to fill them with. Anything that can go on a pizza can go in a calzone. Here is the recipe:

Calzones

Dough:

Frozen dough balls, frozen bread loaves, thawed, or your favorite recipe, or 2 packets of dough mix

Filling:

1 1/2 cups Ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 t salt
1/2 lb motzerella, cut into cubes


I cut the two dough balls in halves, and it ended up making four huge calzones, which was great because all I had to do for lunch after church today was heat up the leftovers.

After cutting the dough balls into halves, I rolled each one out and placed two rolled out halves on two different stoneware cookie sheets. I spooned equal portions of the ricotta filling onto the dough, then loaded it down with ham or pepperoni. You could also add green peppers, olives, sausage, mushrooms, spinach and chicken...the possiblities are endless! But I had pepperoni and ham in the fridge, so that is what we had. I also added a few shakes of Italian seasoning as well.

Then you pull one side over making a half-moon shape and pinch it shut. I used scissors to cut some slits into the top of mine and brushed some olive oil over the top.

Then bake at 450 for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden. Serve with your favorite marinara sauce for dipping. A different spin on pizza night!