This.was.amazing. I would eat this every day if I could. Fact.

Make some linguine…

Heat up some oil and butter, PW’s fave.

Add some garlic.

And then, some clams…mmm…clams.

And some more clam juice.

And add some lemon.

And add some cream.

And some more clam juice (order may not be true to what we did… ;))

Now you take your pasta.

Add your clam sauce.

Then you want to eat, but not yet! Not before Mary gets a good close up. I include this not because of me, but how pretty Corelyn looks. Just look at that smile!

Enjoy, with two besties, and eat until you can’t eat any more. (Then, drink some Sangria.)

Thank you Mary, for the gorgeous photographs!!!

At November’s book club meeting, we invited our friend MMC over early to take some photos for us! They came out beautifully – here are a few of our delicious Sangria…

Take some fruit. Leave out the fruits your friends are allergic to, so they can join in the fun!

Add some booze.

And then some more booze.

Realize the pitcher you’re using isn’t going to be big enough. Transfer to a sauce pot.

And some wine for good measure.

And add a little more wine…

Let the wine and the fruit do it’s thing for an hour, or two, or overnight.

Put it back in your pitcher. It’s like you never stored it in a sauce pot. So much prettier this way. Serve to a group of book club ladies ready to discuss this month’s book (for about five minutes, until we move on to brighter and better things…)

Last weekend, we came two steps closer to completing the Pioneer Woman Challenge and spent a full day cooking up the braised beef brisket (about 4 hours) and burgundy mushrooms (9 hours).

Step 1. Mix up a delicious marinade, and let the brisket sit for 24 to 48 hours. Check.

A full day and half later, I got up in the morning to get the mushrooms started simmering. First I washed 4 pounds of white mushrooms and tossed them in my biggest stock pot. Added some butter.

This is what my morning looked like. Empty butter carton, 4 pounds worth of empty mushroom containers, and COFFEE.

Add a liter of red wine, some bouillon cubes, some water and spices to the mushrooms in the stock pot.

Get started simmering! Let it simmer for 6 hours.

Meanwhile, that brisket had time to cook on low heat for almost 4 hours.

Lookin’ good.

Scrumptious.

We did our best to remove the top layer of fat.

Take a closer look.

What’s that? You want an EVEN CLOSER look at all that tender, juicy goodness. Okay!

PW told us it would fall apart as we cut it, and she was right. We ate this IMMEDIATELY. There are no more pictures because it didn’t last that long.

Long after the brisket had been prepared, eaten and enjoyed, the mushrooms were still simmering. After 6 hours, we uncovered them and let them cook a few more hours.

Finally done!

We ate them on a salad, because we needed some greens, and these mushrooms were packed with flavor.

As we have already perfected the pizza dough, we weren’t worried about polishing off the potato-leek pizza or cowboy calzone. “Next pizza night” was what we said. So we waited, and waited, and that pizza night didn’t come…our busy lives got the best of us, and pizza night never came! So we had to throw our own…here are our results.

Layer your dough with potato.

Add a layer of mozz, then a layer of leeks.

Followed by some bacon…

And finally, some goat cheese…

done…and delicious…

And now, for the calzone…

Corelyn stuffed…

And into the oven…

Welcome, friends. We hope you like it, and that you’ll stick around…