Brick Wall. Meet Forehead.

Some days, I have to wonder about just how bright I am.

I write my own blog. I write about food I make. I use cookbooks I bought or that were given to me. So, essentially, this all about me, me, me, me. (no comments from the peanut gallery!) When I think about it that way, I have to wonder why in the world have I been making it so darned hard to write about my last few cooking adventures?

Well, after whining about the lack of visits from my writing muse, she swung by and gave me a swift kick to the seat of my pants, told me to stop crying and reminded me that I make the rules around here.

Oh. Yeah. Duh.

Turns out that trying to write one blog entry about a weekend's worth of cooking adventures while visiting my parents was not my brightest idea. Far from it when you consider the fact that the three different meals didn't even necessarily have the same cookbook in common.

For the record, I've scrapped four versions of a post while trying to cram too much into it. I swear. You'd think I wasn't a professional in the communication field at that rate. How embarrassing.

Now that I'm past my own, self-imposed, dumb-as-all-get-out, brick wall writer's block, I feel like I can move on and write a few different posts about delicious goodies such as Apple-Pecan Pie, Cream of Chicken Soup, Cactus Jack Biscuits and Bacon Pineapple Muffins.

Exicting, huh?

Now, if you'll excuse for me for a bit, I have to go get some ice for my forehead. It feels like it's been bashed against a brick wall one or two times recently.

And you thought I was kidding, didn't you?

Below is a note I received from my Dranny after my last attempt at frying:

"Can you not find a meal without the frying bit??? Or at least use the much safer electric skillet to make things a little less dangerous for you anyhow. haha"

Just like I said. She's simultaneously horrified by my insistence on frying without parental supervision and dying of laughter.

Gotta love that about my family. =)

Recipes for an Expedition!

When you start out on a cooking challenge like the one I've set for myself, surely you can expect to learn a few things.

For example, I've learned that grease burns hurt like all get out. I've learned that I'm not fan of pimento cheese as prepared by Bobby Deen. I've learned that simple recipes aren't always as simple as they appear. I'm sure there are some other lessons learned so far, but you get the point.

You might also be able to say that this cooking challenge is a bit of an expedition. And, for the purposes of this posting, I plan to do so - if only because it goes so well with the title of the cookbook I used for my most recent adventure. Namely, I used one cookbook titled "The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark: Recipes for an Expedition."

I've had this cookbook for a while and it epitomizes one type of cookbook I adore, which are those that deliver more than just a collection of recipes and that tell a story about the recipes' origins and their place in history or a region.

The Food Journal is derived from the journals of Lewis & Clark as they traveled west to explore the Louisiana Purchase as well as their return east. It begins in 1801 with their meeting in Washington, D.C., with President Jefferson and plots out their course chronologically, including recipes, lists of provisions, excerpts from their journals and much more - nearly all of which is focused on food, food and more food.

Living on the Missouri River in Omaha, this cookbook has even more meaning to me because I'm able to visit a park dedicated to the expedition's crossing of said river. Very cool in my nerdy-ish opinion.

In any case, I decided that I had to use one or more recipes from The Food Journal because I've promised to loan it to a friend of mine who shares my love of cookbooks like this. So, this blog and these recipes are dedicated to her (she knows who she is). I only wish I'd had enough forethought to have invited her over for dinner before diving head first into these recipes.

I will say that I purposely selected recipes that could be dished up as a complete dinner. However, what I didn't realize was that I had selected a collection of recipes that also vaguely resembled a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. All in all, I think this is very appropriate. The Lewis & Clark expedition had much to be thankful for and subsequent generations are much beholden to their hard work and bravery.

Okay... Enough of that! On to the food!

The Lewis & Clark menu consisted of Roasted Cornish Game Hens stuffed with Sweet Potatoes; Hominy and Sunflower Cakes; and Peas with Mint-Butter Sauce.

The cornish game hens were easy-peasy to fix. I seasoned them with salt and pepper; stuffed 'em with some chopped up sweet potatoes; poured a bit olive oil over the tops; and then put 'em in the oven to bake for about an hour and a quarter.

And, apparently, in my case, when it comes time to carve them, the messier the better.

The peas were easy too. Peas brought to a boil for a few minutes with some chopped scallions tossed in for the last minute and tossed with some salt, butter and fresh chopped mint.

The Hominy and Sunflower Cakes were a different story.

First off, they required the use a food processor. I have a mini-food processor. No biggie there since I've learned the art of processing in batches.

The problem came into play when I had to fry them. Ugh. Frying. On my evil, electric-coil stove top. I would have used my electric skillet, but figured it wasn't worth the effort for a such a small batch of hominy cakes.

Yeah... That was stupid. Course, maybe it's just plain ol' stupid for me to be frying considering my recent history (see here and here).

Oh... And let's compound the matter by taking into account the fact that I was frying CORN! Hello! Corn and high temps equals popping! Doh!

Quite frankly, I'm sure my parents are simultaneously horrified and dying of laughter over my seeming inability to fry anything on my own.

Anyhow, by the third batch of hominy cakes (see pic at right), I had turned the heat down low enough and poured off most of the frying grease in order to minimize the damage I could do.

Luckily, hominy cakes like these taste fine even before they're fried and frying them just added some extra zing thanks to the sunflower seeds. And once I added the boysenberry jam as a topping, I had nearly forgotten that I nearly lost a couple of more patches of skin and maybe even an eyeball to this dish.

Ahh... The joy of cooking... It really is an expedition and one that I'm enjoying in all its facets.

I've been away for a while. This is why.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I wish I could tell you I was doing something fun, but that's not the case.

I was in Garner, NC, after an explosion at one of my company's plants. Three people lost their lives, many others were injured and countless lives have been forever changed.

There has been a lot of news coverage regarding our plant, where we make Slim Jims, so I won't go into details. However, I do want to say that during the last couple of weeks, I've learned so much about the strength and grace of my ConAgra Foods family in Garner and elsewhere as well as the Garner community as a whole; and I'm absolutely humbled by what I've learned.

Lastly, I hope you'll consider making a donation to the ConAgra Foods Garner Plant Fund, which is being administered by the United Way of the Greater Triangle. The United Way has waived its administration fees for this fund, which means that 100 percent of the money raised will go to employees at our Garner plant and their families.

Chicken Pot Pie Made Easy

Have you ever made a dish that had you wondering, "Really? Are you sure about that?"

I have.

Paula Deen's "Hurry-Up Chicken Pot Pie" from her "The Lady & Sons, Too!" cookbook was one of them.

All in all, this was a pretty straight-forward dish to make. Better yet, it allowed me to adhere to a few of my rules, including the new-to-me and the waste-not rules. The chicken I used was from my Pecan Chicken dish (recipe also by Ms. Deen), and I think it gave the dish some extra oomph. Plus, I haven't made this dish before. Although, I have made tamale pies, which are sort of similar, but not really.

The "Do what?" moments starting to come into play when I made the biscuit topping. First of all, the recipe called for the "Lady & Sons Biscuit Mix." Now I don't know about y'all, but I don't have that in my cupboard and it's not stocked at my grocery store. However, I made a calculated guess and went with my beloved Bisquick instead.

I got a little worried as I poured the biscuit mix across the top because it seemed to sink into the layers of veggies, chicken and gravy; and then made the peas float to the top. All of my doubts about this being a successful dish were then compounded by the recipe's directions to pour an entire stick of melted butter on top of the dish.

Uh... An entire stick? Yep. An entire stick.

Oh. And the addition of two hard boiled eggs seemed odd to me too. In all honesty, I don't think I've ever had a pot pie that had eggs in it. But as we all know, there's a first time for a everything.

Anyhow, you bake this little concoction up and then serve while piping hot.

And this is the part where I learned, again, not to doubt Paula Deen. Dished up, it was not the prettiest thing I've ever seen. But it was hearty and delicious. I suspect that it would make for a much nicer dinner in December as opposed to June, but whatever.

Oh... Please note the presence of vegetables. Lots of them. Peas. Carrots. And a big ol' side of broccoli. My mom would be so proud of me.