WIN Pioneer Woman’s Cooking Essentials!

Disclosure: The author (that’s me) received a gift package from Land O’Lakes, including two cookbooks, a whisk, a slotted spoon, tongs and a full-value coupon redeemable for LAND O LAKES^® Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt, for recipe development and review purposes. All opinions are my own.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, let’s talk butter.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a major fan of butter. Besides being incredibly healthy, it just plain tastes awesome. On just about everything. That’s why I was excited to be able to test and review some new butter from Land O’Lakes.

Pioneer woman has teamed up with Land O’Lakes to help sing the praises of one of their new products: Butter with Olive Oil and Sea Salt. Last month I was lucky enough to be able to attend a webinar hosted by Ree, in which she detailed some of the wonderful qualities of butter, its history and how to cook with it.

It was so informative and fun, and the folks at Land O’Lakes even sent me a thank-you package with some awesome items (more on that later). When I couldn’t find any of the butter in our little town, Land O’Lakes sent the butter straight to my door. Yep, I was impressed.

To test out the butter, I decided to see how it performed in baking. Using my buttermilk biscuits recipe as a base, I substituted the olive oil & sea salt butter for all of the fat, added a bit of rosemary and brushed the tops of the biscuits with extra virgin olive oil. They were simply scrumptious. My sisters-in-law and I gobbled them down (spread with the olive oil butter & honey, of course) before Reuben could give them a try. Poor guy was rather disappointed.

Final Breakdown of What I Think of the Butter:

• Because there is some oil in this butter, it comes to room temperature faster than “regular” butter, which is quite handy.
• I was a bit skeptical when I heard about this product – it’s “adulterating” my perfect food, I thought. And whereas I think it’s an awesome idea to pair olive oil and butter, I wish Land O’Lakes would have used extra virgin olive oil, which is much healthier.
• As for taste, it’s lovely. I would say, since there’s only one less gram of saturated fat in the olive oil butter than regular butter (olive oil is mostly monounsaturated fat), it’s still mostly butter. Thus, the olive oil doesn’t overpower the butter flavor, it just complements it slightly. It’s wonderful spread on bread and crackers. The sea salt is also a nice addition.

But on to the giveaway. Land O’Lakes will be giving away Ree’s Cooking Essentials (the same package I received) to one lucky Cooking for Seven reader! The winner will receive both of Ree’s cookbooks, a whisk, a slotted spoon, tongs, and a full-value coupon for Land O’Lakes Butter with Olive Oil and Sea Salt.

Here’s how you can enter to win:

Leave a comment on this post answering the following question: What’s your favorite use of butter and/or olive oil?

Rules:

• US residents only, please.
• Only one comment per person allowed.
• You must leave a valid email address in the comment form so I can contact you if you win.
• Giveaway ends Wednesday, July 25th and 12:00 noon, Central Time. No comments will be considered for the giveaway after that time.
• Using random.org, I will choose one winner. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be selected.

Good Luck!

Biscuits + Gravy

To view the pictures and recipes, please visit Buttered Side Up.

When I was a little girl (around eight or ten) I would always request Biscuits and Gravy for my birthday. To me, there was no meal more delicious.

Hot, homemade biscuits.

Crumbled, ready to received some gravy goodness.

Cornbread, Old & New

Back in May of 2009, I first posted about my favorite cornbread recipe. I had the watermark thing going. Looks like my blog name is hovering over the piece of cornbread.

Here’s my take on it approximately 1.5 years later.

For step-by-step photos, check out my guest post on the Tasty Kitchen Blog.

Maple Apple Pecan Bread

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We have been blessed with a multitude of apples this year. It’s wonderful to be able to, after a hard run, pluck an apple from our trees and enjoy a sweet reward.

It’s also wonderful to have so many apples on hand, ready to create something delicious. Like pink apple jelly. Or this scrumptious Maple Apple Pecan Bread.

A Collection of Quick Breads

Seed-Cake

Hello! I’m still here…just…very…busy. August always seems to become that way. I have a lovely Grandma’s Cooking School post planned (apple strudel), but until I have the time to get it up, allow me to offer you some lovely quick breads from the archives.

Honey Pecan Pear Bread

Banana Nut Bread

Date Bread

Maple Cornbread

Banana Poppyseed Bread

Have a lovely weekend!

Date Bread

A week or so ago Mom made a trip to our favorite co-op. She brought back many delcious things, including some chopped dates. When she noticed me mixing them into my oatmeal, she protested and expressed a desire for date bread.

I was more than happy to oblige. So I found a recipe from a trusted source and gathered the required ingredients.

Confession: I made two mistakes while preparing this loaf. And it still turned out great! Gotta love Joy of Baking.

1) I added too much flour. Don’t ask me why. I just didn’t trust my usual, fail safe method of weighing the flour. So I had to add 1/4 cup of milk at the end of mixing. Surprisingly the extra mixing didn’t turn the bread into a brick.

2) I completely forgot to add the walnuts. The bread was sitting cozily in the oven when I noticed the walnuts, sitting on the counter, toasted, chopped, and ready to be used. Oh well. I took it in stride. 🙂

This bread was very moist and soft, even though I used all whole wheat flour. If you are leery of 100% whole wheat bread, simply use all-purpose flour in place of all or part of the wheat. Serve plane, with butter, or cream cheese.

And the word from Dad, the date hater: “That’s pretty good date bread.” Wow. It must be good.

.

Date and Walnut Bread

Adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces (225 grams) pitted dates, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (240 ml) boiling water
• 2 cups (8 ounces) Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 1/2 cup Sucanat, demerara, or brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1) To prepare the dates: In a large bowl mix the chopped dates with the baking soda and a pinch of salt (1/8 teaspoon). Pour 1 cup of very hot water over the dates, stir, and leave to cool to room temperature (about 1 hour).

2) To make the batter: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.  Set aside.

3) In a food processor place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon. Process to combine and then add the butter. Process until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the chopped walnuts.

4) In a separate bowl, whisk the egg with the vanilla extract.  Fold the flour mixture and beaten egg mixture into the cooled dates (with their water). Stir until combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes. Place on a wire rack and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Gently slide a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Or, if you will not be using the bread immediately, when the bread has almost completely cooled, wrap well in plastic wrap and place in a zippered bag to store.

Makes one – 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf.