Pioneer Envy

This is a spoof on one of my favorite bloggers — The Pioneer Woman — who writes about life on the ranch, homeschooling, photography and has made her claim with her wonderful online recipes, full off dozens of photos for each recipe.

Tonight, I cooked. And, that, my friends, is the headline and the punchline wrapped into one nice little package. I cooked.

Halibut and horseradish mashed potatoes with winter greens

Peel and wash potatoes, preferably red or white. I bought Yukon Gold.

PLUNGE the peeled potatoes into cold salty water to prevent browning.
Then dice into even pieces. Boil until translucent and tender.

Crack open a beer. Preferably a better beer than this. Or, even better, a glass of wine.

Cooking bacon is nowhere in the recipe; however, I couldn't resist.
This is our favorite, easy cleanup way to cook bacon.
I chopped it up and mixed it up with the kale and some balsamic vinegar.

Mash, or — if you have an awesome sister-in-law who gives you a ricer
— rice the potatoes into a huge heap.


BUT WAIT! Don't forget to save a cup of the water you cooked the potatoes in.

Add olive oil, salt, pepper, water to desired consistency and horseradish.

This is my favorite kind of horseradish.
Steam greens. I used kale but the recipe calls for Swiss chard. Anything bitter will work.
Coat the halibut with olive oil and salt.
Cook fish in skillet over medium heat flipping once until white and flaky.
Set the halibut on the bed of potatoes and greens.
Drizzle with balsamic.
Serve.

For the kids I left aside some potatoes, fish and greens and bacon in separate piles without all the seasonings. Sawyer tried a bite of everything. And, he actually loved the fish.
Arden ate the bacon.