I feel like that commercial for Beggin’ Strips…

baconbaconbaconbacon…BACON!

It’s a recipe I’ve adapted from Marcus Samuelsson’s brand new book, New American Table….recipe for Pasta, Bacon and Peas at Steamy Kitchen on TLC.

Must.

Make.

These.

Or let him…

Make them for you.

You might as well add flour and buttermilk to your grocery list right now.

Read more Pioneer Woman’s Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe on Steamy Kitchen on TLC.

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NEWS FLASH! The Good Bite team has announced their semi-finalists for the Quaker Awaken Your Senses Challenge! Vote for who wins $10,000 to give to their favorite charity!

This is one of those perfect perfect fall-winter recipes that you must make for Thanksgiving. Because it’s super-simple. If you’ve never made gnocchi before, please trust me that it’s easier than you think…please don’t be intimidated by the “gn”

Two throaty letters THAT close together sometimes scare me too.

But I promise you, it’s not bad at all. Here, let me hold your hand and walk you through it.

1. Mix together some canned pumpkin, lemon zest, salt, ricotta cheese, egg yolk and grated parmesan. In a separate bowl, add the flour. Now, here’s a secret shortcut. The recipe calls for “sifted flour” but I’m lazy. I don’t like to sift. I use a whisky-thingy to briskly whisk through the flour which breaks up any clumps. Does the same job. Plus, I like saying “briskly whisk.”

2. Add some of the flour (not all) You’re gonna mix with a spatula until the flour disappears.

3. Now add the rest of the flour and use your fingertips and lightly mix/knead. It’s a wet, sticky dough, but you’ll only do this for a minute. You can add more flour if it’s too sticky.

4. How do you know when you’ve added enough flour? Press your finger into the dough. It should be slightly tacky but clean. Then divide that dough ball into 4…and roll out with your hands one of the sections into a 1-inch diameter, long snake.

5. Cut into 1-inch pieces with a knife. Then you can use your fingers to lightly roll each piece to get them evenly sized. But seriously, this step is not necessary at all – you’ll be pan frying the gnocchi and any fancy handwork or groovy fork-marks will disappear anyways.

6. Heat a pan with some butter, add gnocchi pieces, fry until both sides golden.

7. After you fry all batches, clean the pan. Add new butter and olive oil. Fry the sage until fragrant. Remove and discard the sage. Then whisk in balsamic vinegar. Pour over the gnocchi. THAT’S IT!

8. Shave some parmesan and serve.

See, I told you gnocchi was gneasy.

Snickertini.

Peppermint Pattini.

Starburst Martini.

Almond Joy Martini.

See this sexy woman right here? (my husband saw this photo and said, “cocktails? what cocktails?!”)

This is Jessie Jane Lee, a very talented bartender who helped me mix, taste test some fantastic drink recipes for Halloween.

Come read all about it and the get recipes on Steamy Kitchen on TLC!

I know there are certain foods that I really shouldn’t mess with, one of them being fried chicken. And after all these years of cooking, last week was the very first time that I made real buttermilk fried chicken without tinkering, gourmetizing or ethnic-tizin’ with funky ingredients like panko, garam masala, five spice or corn flakes. Just fried chicken straight up. And it’s all thanks to my good friend Ree of The Pioneer Woman, who just came out with her very first cookbook called The Pioneer Woman Cookbook: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.

One of the best parts of blogging is the sisterhood bond that blossoms between us gals. Ree is one of my bloggah-sistahs who will bring over a bunch of cheap single-serve generic wine from the corner market in a brown baggie and chocolate candy to our hotel room and giggle until the late hours with the gals. I love that we’re both on our book tours at the same time, me takin’ on the big cities of the two coasts and she taking her entire family to blanket the middle of the U.S.

If you are lucky enough to be near any of the cities that Ree and family will stop at, please do go seek her out. She’s loving, genuine and I promise she’ll make you giggle too.

I promised Ree that I wouldn’t ethnic-tize her fried chicken and she promised me she wouldn’t try to country-tize my Chinese Broccoli and Beef when she cooked from my book! I’m proud to say that despite all the temptations of my spice drawer, I kept true to my word.

How to make Buttermilk Fried Chicken

After mixing the flour with the spices, pour in the buttermilk and milk mixture. Use a fork to stir it up a bit until it’s a crumbly, shaggy mess. Shaggy is good. Shaggy means maximum crisp, crunch and happy times.

Now take a piece of buttermilk-soaked chicken and cover it in that flour mixture. Notice I didn’t say “dip” – you want to press that flour into that chicken good! More flour = more happiness.

Heat up your oil and in goes the chicken, just a few pieces at a time so that it’s not overcrowded.

Now cover the pan up. I’m soooo cowboy. I own a Lodge!

Fry for a few minutes, uncover and remove the fried chicken to a baking rack sitting on top of a baking sheet. Once all your chicken is fried, let it bake in the oven to finish cooking.

Do you now see how shaggy = the highest form of enlightenment? This is Buttermilk Fried Chicken, unplugged, unaltered, unethnic-tized, ungourmet’d

Directly after the buttermilk fried chicken dinner, Andrew and Nathan wrote Ree a little note:

Dear Mrs. Pioneer Woman,

We love your buttermilk fried chicken. If you have any openings at the The Pioneer Woman Ranch, we will come work for you if you feed us fried chicken every day.
We aren’t cowboys, but we sure learn fast. I think we have the right skills and in fact our lives are very much the same as yours.

You wrestle cattle. We wrestle and beat up each other:

We can brush your horsies like we brush our friend’s pet pot-bellied pig, Wilbur.

We’ll even scoop porch poop for you. We scoop poop from our hermit crab tank.

And if Oklahoma is anywhere near the ocean, we can even catch dinner.

BIG HUGS & LOVE,

ANDREW AND NATHAN