oven bbq chicken and other yummy goodness

If you have never cooked and/or eaten anything from The Pioneer Woman, you haven't lived. 

Seriously.

The woman believes in butter. Need I say more? Oh, and she is also hilarious and takes mouth-watering photos of the food she makes. 

Last night, I simultaneously watched Julie and Julia and cooked some food from off The Pioneer Woman's website. The results were that I discovered a new favorite quote, and that the food looked (okay, and tasted) so good that I had to whip out my camera to capture it. 

These potatoes were divine. As in, I may-or-may-not-have-danced-around-the-kitchen-when-I-first-tasted-them kind of divine. Here is the recipe, but in reality I didn't really follow it. I would offer one hint: make sure to not go over the 15 minutes recommended before moving the spuds around...otherwise they will break up (like mine did). Of course, you can always eat the mangled ones before you serve them if this does happen...so maybe just ignore what I just said and go ahead and break those potatoes up! 

I don't even know what to say about this chicken other than, "Yuuuuuuuummmmmmm". I made a homemade BBQ sauce for it (get the recipe here) and it was literally the best thing I tasted all day long. I made the sauce (oh, and gluten-free brownies...but that is a recipe for another time) earlier in the day so it was all ready for me to put together in the evening.  The recipe for this Oven BBQ Chicken is also from The Pioneer Woman. (Seriously! The woman is a genius!) I think the only piece of advice for this would be to definitely let it cook until the sauce starts to brown. I think if I would have left it in a few minutes longer it would have been even more perfect.

I also steamed some broccoli to go along with dinner. Not only does cooked broccoli taste yummy (though the smell is seriously horrendous) but the final product of this plate looked impeccable (at least in my mind).

Drizzle some of the extra sauce from the pan over that chicken. You won't regret it. I promise.

Well, there you have it: Homemade BBQ Sauce, Oven BBQ Chicken, and Roasted Potato Wedges. A dinner fit for kings! 

"You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure - and when I say nothing, I mean nothing - you can come home and know absolutely sure that if you add chocolate to egg yolks and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort." -Julie and Julia

monster cookies

Today I made cookies. But not just any cookies...these were gluten-free monster cookies (rawr). And, because I had extra time, I decided to grab my camera and photography my process to share with all you lovely people. 

 First, I mixed up the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and baking soda.

Then, while the butter was melting, I drank coffee (of course). 

 And since the butter still wasn't ready, I snapped a shot of this (nearly empty) bag of cookies my best friend gave to me last night. (I promise it was mostly empty when I got it.) These cookies are seriously so good though...if you ever need a gift for a chocolate-loving-gluten-avoiding person (*cough* me *cough*) these will do the trick.

 A word to the wise...add the chocolate chips after the hot butter. Otherwise you will have chocolate cookies with no chunks of chocolate. (Or you could just add some chips before and some after and have super-duper chocolate-y cookies.)

 Mix that dough up and then throw it on a (greased) cookie sheet.

This was my first batch to put in the oven, and since I couldn't remember how much they spread out, I gave them plenty of room. They really don't spread out any, so go ahead and cram them on the sheet. 

 Don't bake them much longer than 10 minutes. I repeat: Do not bake them much longer than 10 minutes. They may not look done, but they are. Trust me. Give them a bit to cool completely and they will be perfectly gooey and amazing instead of as hard as a rock (like they would be if you left them in over like 11.59384893 minutes).

 If you don't feel like waiting till the cool completely, go ahead and enjoy them while they are warm and gooey and they fall apart in your hand. (Yum)

There you have it! Now go make me proud and bake some of these delicious things.

Monster Cookies

3 eggs
0.5 lb brown sugar
0.75 tsp vanilla
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking soda
0.5 cup butter
0.75 lb peanut butter
4.5 cups oatmeal
0.75 cup chocolate chips

Combine. Make balls of dough, then flatten. Bake at 350F for 10-12 min.

a no-gluten-allowed type of pizza crust (and sauce)

Over six months ago, I went gluten-free. My stomach has loved this choice, but my mouth has protested every time I put something in there that would normally contain gluten. So, naturally, I have been on the lookout for good (aka, doesn't taste like bland dirt + doesn't have 5,000 steps) gluten-free recipes. Last night I tried a new recipe for gluten-free pizza crust and, according to the empty dishes and the content looks on my family's faces, it's a keeper.

The recipe for the crust came from the Minimalist Baker, and the sauce came from Ree Drummond (who, by the way, is awesome). 

The only changes I would make to the crust is to make a 1.5 batch. That way instead of making an approx. 14in pizza + having some dough leftover, you could make two approx. 14in pizzas and make even more people happy with the delicious-ness! (Or you could just make a whole bunch of baby pizzas...that could be fun!)

Also, I have this really bad (that sometimes turns out for the good) habit of not really ever following a recipe. I promise I did with the crust, but for the sauce I took a couple detours. I added more herbs and spices (basil, cilantro, thyme, etc., etc.) and I blended the tomatoes before throwing them in the pot since I absolutely cannot stand chunks of tomatoes. Oh, and I threw in some homemade salsa too, just because I felt like it. 

Let me know if you end up making this + any changes you make + your people's response! And if you have any good (see above definition of good when it comes to gluten-free) gluten-free recipes, let me know, okay?