Inspired by the Frontier

I absolutely love Ree Drummond, also known as the Pioneer Woman. Ree and I hang out every Saturday morning. The only weird thing about this friendship is - she isn't aware of it. :) Does anyone else watch her show? It comes on at 10:30 ET on the Food Network. I just love to grab a cup of coffee and see what yummy things she's going to whip up. 

This past Saturday when my parents were in town, my mom and I watched Ree make rib eye steaks with onion blue cheese sauce, restaurant-style smashed potatoes, corn with pasilla butter and strawberry sparkle cake. We were inspired. Guess what we had for dinner that night? 

Hubby took care of the steaks, he is the meatatarian of the family after all. He also cooked the corn on the grill, minus the pasilla butter. We are not pepper/spicy people so plain grilled corn is fine by us. When cooking grilled corn we typically pull back the husks, remove the silk and then rub on butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then pull the husks back over the corn for grilling. 

Here are the recipes we used for the steak sauce, smashed potatoes and sparkle cake modified from the Pioneer Woman.

Onion Blue Cheese Steak Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 rib eye steaks 
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 stick softened butter
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 to 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

Directions

Melt 1/2 stick of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and then saute the onions until golden brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Pour in the cream, a dash of salt and pepper and the Worcestershire sauce. Let it bubble up, then add the blue cheese and stir together to melt, adding more pepper or Worcestershire sauce as you wish.

Spoon the sauce over the top of your steak.

Restaurant-Style Smashed Potatoes

Ingredients

• 5 whole large red potatoes
• 1 stick butter, softened and cut into pieces
• 1 cup pepper jack cheese, grated
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 5 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 whole green onions, sliced, plus more for topping
• Salt 
• Freshly ground black pepper 

Directions

Poke a few holes in the potatoes bake in a 400 degree F oven until fork-tender (45-55 minutes). Add to a large bowl and smash with a potato smasher.

Immediately add the softened butter, cheese, sour cream, bacon and green onions, and stir with a rubber spatula. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot. Great with steak!

Strawberry Sparkle Cake

Ingredients

1 store bought angle food cake

1 tub of Cool Whip

Filling:

• One 3-ounce package strawberry gelatin
• 2 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 pound package frozen strawberries

Directions

For the filling: Dissolve the gelatin in boiling water and add the strawberries, stirring to break up and mix the berries.

To assemble: Place the cake, wide-side down, on a serving plate. Cut a 1-inch layer from the top and set it aside. Cut around the cake 1 inch from the outer edge to 1 inch from the bottom. Cut around the cake 1 inch from the inner edge to 1 inch from the bottom.

Gently remove the section of cake between the cuts and pour in the strawberry mixture.

Place the cake layer back on top and spread the Cool Whip all over the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with whole strawberries.

Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

The Pioneer Woman made her cake and icing from scratch. Here are her recipes if you'd also like to make yours too. The store bought cake and icing are a quick and easy option and are still very delicious! 

Cake:

• 15 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cream of tarter
• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cake: Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until 

stiff. Sift the superfine sugar three times and add slowly to the egg whites.

Sift the cake flour and salt five times, and then fold slowly into the egg whites. Sprinkle in 

the vanilla and fold.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes in an unbuttered angel food cake pan. After the cake rises and 

begins to brown, cover with buttered paper. Remove the paper in the last 5 to 10 

minutes.

Set aside to cool completely, inverted on a bottle or jar that fits the cake pan.

Icing:

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• Whole strawberries, for decorating
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• For the icing: Whip the cream with the powdered sugar until thick.
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• Unfortunately, I was too busy eating the sparkle cake to take a picture of ours. But you can check out Ree's here. Her photography is way better than mine anyway. :) 

Have you made any of Ree's recipes? I'd love for you to share if you have! 

The Doyles