(guest post)

The kitchen is the heart and soul of most houses – it is where you come to eat, connect and share time with your friends and family. This is exactly as it should be, yet it can also wear the room down – dozens of guests, screaming kids and hungry adults will age a room much faster than you would imagine. With a few simple touches, like new cookware or a splash of paint, you can make this room as pleasant as it should be.

Painting your kitchen is the best way to make it feel new again – by stripping off old layers you will be able to give it a nice bright appearance that will make all your conversations and meals more pleasant. Re-painting will also strip out some of the smells that the room has no doubt accumulated. Of course this is a bit of pain as you will have to cook around your paint job, so plan to do it at a time when life is slightly less hectic.

Your appliances and cookware also have an impact on the feel of the room – indeed, no one will notice a bit of dirt if their eyes are drawn to your collection of beautiful appliances, cutlery and dishes. Picking up a new set of non-stick pans, utensils or knives can make your room a bit more exciting – for you and your guests.

Finally, you can consider doing something drastic and ripping it all out. Kitchen conversions are expensive and a lot of work, yet there are the most effective way to spice up your entire home. Imagine replacing your worn down kitchen, with a beautiful environment replete with marble and perfectly designed cabinets – it will truly change the feel of your house.

Following is a paid guest post and a great store for my UK readers!

BHG (Better Homes & Gardens) now offer a line of non-stick hard anodized cookware, priced at the affordable $149 for a 13 piece set.

I’ve owned a few sets of hard anodized and was happy to review.  It felt weighty but not so heavy that your wrists are about to break from lifting a pan (and I’ve had those sets before).  All the handles on the pans and lids are covered with the silicon grips to avoid the heat and easier gripping.  It’s oven safe up to 400′ and has glass lids to see how your food is cooking.  Cleanup is a breeze and while you can put them in the dishwasher, I always recommend hand washing.

This set includes:

• 1 covered saucepan with lid 1.5-qt.
• 1 covered saucepan with lid and steamer insert 2.5-qt.
• 1 covered Dutch oven with lid 4-qt.
• 1 covered stock pot with lid 8-qt.
• 1 skillet 8.5″
• 1 skillet 10″
• 1 covered deep skillet with lid 4-qt.

See the video for a closer look at the set.

I cooked a few things with the set and felt that everything cooked evenly and I was able to clean it up easily.  For the price and the amount of pieces, I definitely recommend the set.

What type of cookware do you use?  Do you find that some sets cook better than others?

Disclosure: This cookware set was sent to me for review as part of my participation in the Walmart Mom program. All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be…..surely you guys know that by now;)

I’m actually not a big fan of ribs but you can bet they are very popular around the cowboys.  I’ve one set of ribs in my life that were to die for and that was at Sticky Fingers in the Carolina’s, right Mom?  Man they were good but they were all meat and dry rubbed which is quite the opposite of what my man enjoys.

I recently bought my guy a Masterbuilt smoker for our 17th anniversary and man does he love it!  He’s smoked chicken, jerky and now ribs.  There is a version that is a little more cost-friendly but doesn’t come with the digital timer and that has proven to be quite handy for us.  We soak some wood chips, add our food, and cook until done.   Once you set the timer, it goes off when it’s done so you don’t have to worry if you happen to forget which can easily be done when something you’re cooking calls for a minimum of 6hrs.

We didn’t do anything special to these ribs.  We used short ribs and basic seasonings.  We cooked them in smoker for about 3hrs, wrapped them in foil and smoked them another hour and a half.  They were falling off the bone and very succulent.  No dryness to them but instead, moist and packed with flavor.

Do you use a smoker at all?  If so, what do you smoke in yours?

When Wilton asked me to do a review, I had no idea all the wonderful goodies they would be sending would be so fabulous and make little man go CRAZY!!

As a long time user of Wilton, I honestly knew this review would be biased because well, I have always loved them.   My son’s 4th birthday was so special because of his cowboy cake, made in a Wilton pan. He talked about that cake forever and still remembers it. He’s 16 now.

Wilton, in my opinion, represents outstanding quality that is built to last for years and years; products that can be passed down for generations.

In the package they sent me, there were gels, sprinkles, cupcake wrappers and toppers, the fabulous new UltraGold round cake pans, muffin pan and more.  I was so excited because I was going to make such a pretty cake using it all!  Well, that didn’t quite happen.  As you will see, little man (my 3yr old) decided that he wanted to do it all!  I haven’t seen him that excited since he got his first saddle.

We used cakes mixes and icing that I had lying around the kitchen so I immediately was able to get started. I began with making the batter for the UltraGold Round Cake Pans first, then the batter for the cupcakes.

And then I baked and baked some more.  While waiting for everything to cool off, little man about drove me crazy asking,”are they done, I want to help you”. It was annoying but yet so adorable to see how excited he was.  Finally everything was out of the oven and cooled.

My cakes came out perfect, cooked evenly and I had no problems at all getting them out of the pans.  Same for the cupcakes.  I decided to ice the cake and cupcakes because  I know little man wanted to do ALL the decorating. I’d be darn lucky to get in anything of my own.  Wilton sent us several different kinds of cupcake sprinkles, sparkle gels, wrappers, and toppers!

Little man had a hard time deciding which ones he wanted to use so of course, he used everything.  He just piled it on here and there, licking his fingers inbetween applications.  It was a sight to see now and one that I’ll never forget.

Overall, the Wilton line is excellent. From the sprinkles to the UltraGold cake pans, it was all perfect, as I expected it would be.  Wilton should be a part of everyone’s lives, directly or indirectly.  Tyler loved that cake at the young age of 4, not because it was Wilton, but because it was his favorite thing, a cowboy and Wilton made that possible.

I know this post has a lot of photos but I took even more and have compiled them in a whrrl slideshow.  Enjoy and I’d love to hear your Wilton story if you have one and if you don’t, get one!

My weight loss goals this year include more healthy recipes and taking baby steps to going green, so having the chance to try this grill pan out made me more than happy.

Some facts you should know right away about this line that makes it special, is that it is 100% PFOA FREE!  A very important factor for people living green.  The line is dishwasher safe and can go in the oven up to 500′.  It’s of some of the highest quality you can find out there and the company, Scanpan has been around for over 50yrs and has a very good reputation.

Believe it or not, I have NEVER owned a grill pan.  *gasp*  We grill outside all the time but during the winter and on ugly days, it’s nice to be able to use the grill inside for some healthier eating.  Today we decided to do hamburgers and of course my husband took over because the one thing he cared about, was the grill marks!  Men!

The handle does get hot (because it’s oven safe obviously) but lucky for you, they provide you with a handle sleeve.  What I cared about though, was the cleanup.  Am I right??  You know how grill pans or anything with grooves can be a pain to clean right.  I was very pleased with the cleanup with this pan.  I had no trouble at all and the food had been there for about 3hrs so it had time to “stick”.

Everything cooked evenly, the grill marks turned out great, and cleanup was a breeze.  Definitely a great pan and if you care about living green, eating healthy, and high quality cookware, then this line is for you.  I cook nonstop for my family and for the ranch cowboys so I need cookware that will last.  It is slightly on the pricier side but you get what you pay for.  I’m all about quality and the Scanpan Professional line fits the bill.

Want to win one? Well lucky for you, I have a Scanpan Grill Pan to giveaway to one lucky reader! Valued at about $150.

TO ENTER:

Leave a comment on this post telling me what you would cook in your grill pan OR what steps you’re taking to eating healthier or live greener.

Additional ways to enter. You may do one or all but each one you do should be left in a separate comment.

• Blog it and tell me how bad you want this baby!
• Tweet it and include @ACowboysWife and the link to this giveaway.
• Stumble it and/or Facebook it.
• Subscribe by Email or by Reader!

This giveaway ends on March 30th (which happens to be my birthday) at 10pm CST,  or until comments are closed.  For more info on how I run my giveaways, read the “official rules“.

Just because I have time to cook all day, doesn’t mean I want to.  Or maybe we need a meal ASAP before we head out the door.  This has got to be one of the coolest pans ever!  Meet the Fissler Blue Point Pressure Pan Set.   You can grill, sear, saute, steam and pressure cook in this one pan.  Whew, that’s a mouthful! It’s no lightweight either!  Very heavy pan obviously built to last.  Fissler is some high quality, German Cookware that is making it’s way to the good ol’ USA with a punch!

This time around, I decided to use the pressure cooker feature.  I read in the manual that when you are releasing steam, it’s not hot.  It was right!  I was leery but I stuck my hand in front of the steam (but please don’t do this at home people) and it’s wasn’t hot at all.  Now that’s a SAFE pressure cooker for sure!

This is a 4.2 quart size skillet and I must say, my Beef Stew recipe was enough to feed 8 so I had no problems fitting it all into this pan whatsoever.  For those of you who don’t know this; pressure cookers not only cook faster, they keep your food’s flavors, minerals, and vitamins where they belong,…in the food! And with the basket for the steamer, you can also cook healthy.  So cool!

Okay, to the recipe!

30-Minute Beef Stew

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5lbs stew meat
• carrots
• potatoes
• Tomato Sauce

DIRECTIONS:

Since my stew meat was thawed and in small pieces right out of the package, I threw all ingredients in together. Yep, ALL of them.  If you have round steak that you are cutting up or even using a little frozen, I recommend you cook the meat, carrots and sauce together first for about 20 minutes and then throw in the potatoes for the final cooking minutes.

I cooked mine for 30 minutes!  No shorter, no longer.  The thing about beef stew, is that it creates it’s own flavors and by using the pressure cooker, even more natural flavor was there.

That’s got to be the easiest meal ever!  The pressure cooker worked like a charm and the release valve worked perfectly and cleaning up was easy as pie.  I couldn’t ask for an easier recipe with a better pan! 

Do you pressure cook?  Would a pan like this fit into your cooking lifestyle and what feature would you use the most?  Steamer, fryer, searer, or pressure cooker?

 THIS CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY OVER!  tHANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING!  wINNER ANNOUNCED THIS WEEKEND!!!

Added: You can also gain 5 extra votes by voting this blog as the best food blog!!! 

It’s time for my 1st contest here at My Wooden Spoon!! I’ve been wanting to do this for some time now but was waiting for the right time. I think this will be a great way to start the New Year:) and the requirements are super easy to do!

The Contest:

All you have to do is copy and paste the paragraph below in a post. Leave a comment to your entry here at this post just in case the trackback thing doesn’t find it. You can get bonus entries or still get the chance to enter if you don’t have a blog, just read at the bottom.

The Paragraph: This is what you copy!

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!
****Stop Copy****

The Prize:

The winner will receive a brand new
Hamilton Beach 4.5-qt. Eclectrics Stand Mixer, Pineapple Yellow!!

About the mixer:

From Hamilton Beach’s “Eclectrics” line, this all-metal stand mixer comes with a host of accessories – a Flat Beater for cakes and cookies, a Dough Hook for bread and a Wire Whisk for whipped cream or pudding. The 4.5-qt. stainless steel bowl comes with a Pouring Shield that helps prevent splattering while in operation. The pouring shield has a built-in chute for adding ingredients. Powered by 400 watts, the stand mixer has a two-way mixing action to ensure all ingredients are incorporated into the mix. The quick-release, tilt-up head assists when removing the bowl. 9 x 14 x 14-in. When you’re ready for a kitchen re-do, don’t call in the carpenters! Instead, “counterscape” your kitchen with Hamilton Beach’s retro-designed, affordably priced electrics in happy, sun-saturated colors. Their “Eclectrics” line includes updates to those classic appliances from the 1950s. All of their “Eclectrics” are available in six colors: Apple Green, Moroccan Red, Pineapple Yellow, Intrigue Blue, Sugar White and Licorice Black.

The Rules:

Simply copy the paragraph above exactly, with links in place, into your entry post. Leave a comment here on this contest post with the url to your entry. You can earn extra entries by doing the following:

• Stumble this contest post.
• Blog about this contest copying the paragraph.
• Subscribe 2 My Wooden Spoon.
• Subscribe to my other blogs feed. Here’s the list to those:

Subscribe 2 A Cowboy’s Wife (acowboyswife.com)
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Silicone is one of the hottest cooking products out there and it’s no wonder. The easy cleanup alone is worth the buy in my opinion but the fact that it cooks evenly is icing on the cake.  Here’s a few small items that are on my silicone wish list.

Gotta have the spatulas!

Gotta have the baking mats!!

Gotta have cooking gadgets:)

And you gotta have the brush!

What’s on your silicone wishlist??  Are there some cool silicone gadgets that you use or have seen and want to buy?  Lemme hear them:)