Bingo 19: Horses
I figured that The Pioneer Woman Cooks Food from My Frontier would have some mention (and pictures) of horses; I was right. I figured this cookbook would be pretty basic bad for you comfort food; I was right.
I’ve seen the tv show, and I figured the cookbook was going to sound a lot like that. I was wrong. I’m not sure why, but the attempts in the narrative bits between and above recipes trying to sound friendly, cutesy just end up sounding cliché, and like someone is trying too hard. For example, in the instructions for making doughnut from scratch (long because there’s step by step words plus pictures): “Step 13: Use a doughnut cutter (or two concentric biscuit cutters) to cut out the doughnuts. Step 14: Did I just use the word concentric correctly? I sure hope so.” {Eye roll emoji} I was also irritated by the occasional unexplained sexist labelling of some recipes. There’s these little cowboy and cowgirl icons that show up next to some titles. Why is steakhouse pizza for the boys, and Thai chicken pizza or fig-prosciutto for the girls? Girls get berry French toast, guys get breakfast pizza. Why is mushroom and leek quiche girly, but apparently bacon and onion quiche is manly? Shrimp is girly in one application, but ranch chicken is dude-ly. Asian hotwings are for the girls, but the whiskey-mustard meatballs are for the guys. Slopy joes are for boys, but spinach salad is for girls. Twice-baked new potatoes are for men, but brief stuffed mushrooms are for ladies. Met get drip beef sandwiches and the ladies get gazpacho. Pasta with pesto cream sauce for the girls, and chicken parmesan for the guys. His burger gets bacon, cheddar, jalapeno; hers gets mushroom, pesto, onion, blue cheese. At least this one contains the instructions: “Boys may eat Her burgers. Girls may eat His burgers. To do away with gender stereotypes, you may put all of the ingredients on one burger, and just call it a day.” And yet, girls get Caprese salad, but spicy Caesar is for all.
At least most casseroles and ice creams are for everyone? Seriously, I don’t quite get some of this. And it’s dumb. Especially the “Knock You Naked Brownies”; guess which icon’s on that one? At least the photo of Ol’ Yeller is kind of cute; that would be “the oldest, shortest and yellowest horse on the ranch”. That and both cold brew coffee and orange rolls are for everyone; so is mac and cheese.