20 recipes down, 99 to go!

@story Catherine Frederick

@recipe The Pioneer Woman

Brown Betty

Bam-ba-lam! I love that song!
Be sure to save this recipe in your "super fast and easy deserts" file. Seriously. Do it now. This is a delicious, and fast recipe from The Pioneer Woman: Food From My Frontier Cookbook (pages 250-251), using all natural ingredients from our favorite store in the world: OZARK NATURAL FOODS! If you live in Fayetteville, you're LUCKY because chances are, you're just right down the street from ONF and if you don't, then plan a day to Fayetteville and do some shopping there - it really is that good and so worth it! 

As always, skip on down to the bottom for ingredients and how-to if you wan't to miss the story that follows - which you don't. Just sayin'.

Hubby said this was kind of like bread pudding, but since I don't eat ANYTHING with pudding in the title, I disagree. Warm apples, coated in butter and brown sugar with  wheat bread and a tiny bit of sweet cream. Yeah, I'm down with that. 

Start with delicious wheat bread- I chose the Colorado Cracked Wheat by Rudi's- 'cause they make the best breads of any kind- I dare you to disagree. 

 

First cut it lengthwise, then turn and cut it again so you have lots of delicious wheat cubes. Go ahead and sneak one, or three, no one is looking. You know you want to.

I forgot to take a picture of the chopped up Granny Smith apples - sorry. 
Here is what your bread will look like. Start layering the bread and apples in a oven dish- I sprayed mine with a bit of Olive Oil - no sense in adding more butter to this dish. My apologies to The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond and Paula Dean. 

See, there really are apples in there. In between each layer, sprinkle in some brown sugar. Keep layering until you run out of each. 

This is straight from the oven. It looks delicious and IS delicious. Warning here: even though it calls for 2 sticks of butter - for the love of everything holy, only use one. If you use two your cardiologist will hunt me down and kill me, and you'll end up with a heart attack at the bottom of your empty bowl. 

Mix up a little bit of heavy cream with a touch of sugar and drizzle over the top while it's nice and warm. Grab a spoon and enjoy. Don't worry about what you'll do with the leftovers - there won't be any!

Ingredients:

3 whole Granny Smith Apples

7 slices Wheat Bread

3/4 cups Regular Salted Butter- Organic

1-1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar- Organic

3 Tablespoons (to 4 Tablespoons) Water

Directions:

Peel and chop 3 apples. Slice bread into a small cubes. 

Coat a small baking dish with olive oil, or butter if you're feeling frisky.
Add 1/3 of the brown sugar, 1/3 of the apples, and 1/3 of the bread. Repeat these layers twice more, ending with the bread.

Slice butter and lay slices all over the top of the bread. Sprinkle dish with water and a little more brown sugar, and bake in a 375-degree oven, covered in foil, until done – about 45 minutes. Remove foil in last few minutes of baking to brown the top.

Top with a mixture of heavy cream and sugar or ice cream- YUM!

Carnitas Pizza

@recipe The Pioneer Woman

@story Marcus Coker

Okay, this cooking stuff just got real. Today's blog is Carnitas Pizza from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier (pages 150, 151), and it's not for wimps (or for people in a hurry). There's a lot to this one, kiddos, so buckle up your kitchen seat belts and get ready for a bumpy ride. I also suggest some Italian (ish) music on repeat. 

If you want to get right to the recipe, which I DON'T recommend, you can scroll down to the bottom of this post.

@ story Marcus Coker | 19 Recipes Down, 100 To Go!

Check out the finished product! If you want a tasty pizza like this, you'll need to get all your ingredients from Ozark Natural Foods. Simply the best! Oh, and you'll also need to give up a couple days of your life. Don't worry, it's worth it.

Day 1. We begin by making pizza dough. Start with warm water, olive oil (this kind, not this kind), flour (and plenty of it), yeast, and salt.

Add the yeast to the warm water. Don't be alarmed. It should smell a little funky.

The recipe called for four cups of flour. Since I didn't have any measuring cups, I stole (um, borrowed) some from my parents. Then I ran out of flour around two and a half cups. I didn't think that would be a problem. But I was wrong.

Flour, meet salt. I'm sure you'll get along famously.

 That's the olive oil. I think it looks like a Rorschach test.

Thank God for blenders (and for the parents who let me use this one).

This is where the warm yeast water gets added in (and mixed together some more). Things should be pretty thick, but mine ended up kind of runny (like oatmeal). Oh well, we live and learn.

The inside of bowl has been covered in olive oil, but you can't tell. It's like magic. The dough goes inside. Here's what happened when I tried to transfer the dough from one bowl to the other:

Once that was finally done (and I washed my hands), I grabbed the plastic wrap.

Wrap up the dough, then put it in your refrigerator for a day or two.

I was hoping a night in the cold would thicken up the dough, but it didn't.

Day 2. Look at all these fine ingredients. There's even a roast in there somewhere. I know, I know. It's like a Where's Waldo game. Here's a video with a preview of the day's events:

I didn't have an personal assistant to help shoot this video, so I ended up with a plastic baggie in the corner of my little film. The plastic belongs to a bag of english muffins, which just happen to be delicious. Check them out.

It took me three phone calls and three different women to figure out how to prepare a roast. Get ready, because you are about to become the recipient of our combined wisdom and experience. Don't you feel special?

FIRST: Rub the roast with the spices. (I forgot this step, so you'll see how I fixed that problem soon enough.)

THEN: Start by heating canola oil in a pot, then searing both sides of the roast. A few minutes on each side should do.

Add plenty of juice to flavor the meat. I used mango, but most any kind will do. If you feel like being creative, I'm sure it's very empowering to try new things. As for me, I'll stick with the directions.

Here's where I remembered to add the spices (chili powder, cumin, oregano, and salt). Honestly, I don't think it made any difference. Once I found a lid for the pot, I put it in here:

That's right, it's called an oven. I set the temperature on 300 degrees and left the roast for five hours. The recommendation was four hours, but I can't quite adjust to the idea of dinner at 4:30, despite my parents' recent fascination with cafeterias and senior citizen discounts. I just checked the roast a few times to make sure there was plenty of juice left. No one likes a dried up slab of beef.

Five hours is a long time. So it's going to help if you have a hobby, something like reading, knitting, or eavesdropping on your neighbors. Personally, I decided to run to the store and get some more flour.

Once I added another cup and a half of flour, my runny pizza dough was looking better. My next task was to spread it out as thin as possible, so I decided to put down some wax paper and cover it with flour. The more the better, because it keeps the dough from sticking to whatever it's touching!

I had to figure out a way to get the dough from the wax paper to the baking sheet. Here's what happened when I tried:

I think it was the cursing that took place after the video stopped rolling that finally convinced the dough to come off the wax paper. Actually, all it takes is getting a corner started. (Kind of like the sticky price labels my grandma "forgets" to take off the presents she buys me at Christmas.)

Now, doesn't that look nice? But wait, there's more.

Who's ever heard of tomatillo salsa? Not me. I know it looks like "How the Grinch Stole My Italian Red Sauce," but it really is amazing.

What's a pizza without cheese? Sonny without Cher, that's what.

My next step was to add some sauteed vegetables. While cutting them up, I learned a couple things.

Surely this cooking business will get easier at some point. Anyway, I added some olive oil to a pan, tossed in the veggies, and this is what things looked like a little while later:

Admit it, you're hungry already.

This is what went in the oven. Here, I'll prove it to you.

I put the roast on a medium heat on the stove top and shred it with two forks. I honestly don't care for roast, but this was smelling delicious. Tender and juicy. Yum Yum.

I cranked up the oven to 375 degrees and ended up leaving the pizza in for almost twenty minutes, a bit more than recommended. But hey, my crust was pretty thick.

This is what I did with some green onions while the pizza was baking. Once the pizza was finished, it looked like this:

Next I generously topped it with the roast (and plenty of the juices). Then I sprinkled the green onions on top and went in search of a pizza cutter (that I don't own).

Any big knife will do! I cut the pizza into squares, set the table, and prepared to feast.

I got so busy eating that I forgot to take pictures and video. Here's what happened when I finally got around to it:

So maybe if you're in a hurry, you call delivery. But if you want a treat, this can't be beat. (Yes, I just rhymed. Get over it, then come back for more.)

Ingredients for Pizza Crust

1 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast

4 cups All-purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1/3 cup Olive Oil

Preparation Instructions for Pizza Crust

NOTE: PIZZA INGREDIENTS IN THIS RECIPE ARE FOR 1/3 OF THE PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE. USE LEFTOVER DOUGH TO MAKE OTHER KINDS OF PIZZA!

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.
In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise for at least an hour. Use right away or store in the fridge until you need it. ***It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

Ingredients for Carnitas Pizza

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3-4lbs. chuck roast

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 12oz. cans pineapple, papaya or mango juice

1 recipe for pizza dough

olive oil, for drizzling

1 cup jarred tomatillo salsa, plus more for serving

12 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced and sauteed until golden

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced and sauteed until golden

3 green onions, sliced

sour cream, for serving (optional)

guacamole, for serving (optional)

Instructions for Carnitas Pizza

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Mix the chili powder, cumin, oregano & salt in a small bowl.
3. Rub the spice mixture on both sides of the roast.
4. Heat the canola oil in a large pot over high heat, then sear both sides of the roast until nice and brown, about 2 minutes per side.
5. Pour the juice into the pot with the meat.
6. Cover and roast for about 4 hours, until falling apart.
7. Use 2 forks to shred the meat then return to the juices.
8. Roll out pizza dough into a thin rectangle.
9. Drizzle baking sheet with olive oil and transfer dough to the baking sheet.
10. Spread tomatillo salsa thinly all over dough.
11. Lay mozzarella slices next, then yellow onion and pepper.
12. Bake pizza for 12-15 minutes (*book does not say at what temperature-I did 500 degrees as that’s what her other pizza recipes said)
13. Lay the warm shredded meat on top, making sure to get plenty of the juices on as well.
14. Sprinkle with sliced green onions and slice into pieces.