I wonder...

What would happen if I cooked my way through the Pioneer Woman cookbook?

First of all, let me not get too ahead of myself. Thanksgiving home with my family was full of fun, gallbladder drama, long chats with wonderful friends, beautiful days at the lake, quality time with my family, and some of the best food I have ever eaten. Seriously, the time with my family was great, but the mashed potatoes my mom made are what I am dreaming about. Second source of inspiration is my beautiful roommate, Lindley, the talented artistic and gorgeous filmmaker who happens to be turning 23 on Wednesday and desperately needs a birthday cake!

The girls at the lake

My serious table decorating skills

The spread (ignore the brussel sprouts, my mom was the only one who ate them...you might also want to take note that everyone could have had their own pie. RIDICULOUS!)

I got inspired to begin this challenge when I was sitting on our couch telling Lindley about how I spent most of my Thanksgiving break eating the pioneer woman's recipe for mashed potatoes as if they were the only food on planet earth. Then I busted out my cookbook, read the ingredients, and drooled. Then I giggled to myself because Ree had just tweeted that Jillian Michael's was kicking her butt. (Jillian kicks my butt all the time) Then I decided to bake Lindley her chocolate sheet cake for her birthday. Then I decided to watch her Thanksgiving throwdown with Bobby Flay for the 500000th time. I am a stalker. That is just the way it is. Yes, I realize I just started 15 sentences with the word then and as a 4th grade teacher that is entirely inappropriate, but I just wanted you to understand to fluidity of my obsession with all things Ree Drummond.

With this said, I will begin my quest to becoming a wonderful cook by baking, chopping, frying, sauteing, grilling, but most especially eating everything in The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook. I am a planner type, but also a busy woman so the rules are as follows:
1. I must cook everything in the book (its small, it all tastes good, this is a no brainer)
2. I must take pictures and blog about it
3. I must be a good friend/neighbor/teacher/or girlfriend and share these goodies with others

Those are the only rules...no time limit!!!! I wonder what will be my favorite...

I wonder....

When I will stop making excuses?

Excuse #1 for not blogging: It was summer, I was student teaching, I had no idea what I was doing/where I was living/ where I was teaching, basically didn't want to write the most depressing blog known to mankind

Excuse #2: I got a job teaching 4th grade and OMG it was so overwhelming. Oh boo hoo you are fine.

Excuse #3: Things settled, but I had nothing to say. Where in the world was this blog going? This is where the time crunch began. I don't know how many times I made excuses and said that I would start blogging on "Monday" while I simply refused to accept any blog I followed that didn't update every other day. Simply ridiculous.

So with that said, I may not have anything interesting to say, but I refuse to be a quitter! Like my mother has always taught me, "sometimes you just need to put your big girl panties on."

I'm sure this blog will be filled with stories of 4th grade boys fighting in reading class, excerpts from the lovely writing my students do (I'm not lame, come on, just the funny stuff), cooking disasters and triumphs, romantic weekends with Brian, and of course the many adventures of my fun Nashville crew. I hope you stay tuned...