Of Princesses, Frogs, and Really Delicious Pancakes

It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I love cookbooks.  I have an entire shelf in my kitchen devoted to them, and even then, I have to store some in my pantry and cupboards for lack of room. Books are not one area where I'm parsimonious. I'm always getting something from Amazon. And there's just something about the possibilities within a cookbook that I can't get enough of. 

I've got the classic stand-bys, like the Betty Crocker cookbook . I have cookbooks geared toward kids and cooking.  I still love the cookbooks from our vegetarian days (vegetarian or no, I think everyone should check out Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Incredible.)  I've got my bandwagon cookbooks, ones I bought because I followed the herd (Example: I got both volumes of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking just because of how hungry the movie Julie & Julia left me. BTW:  the beouf bourguinon recipe and the how-to on poaching eggs was worth the price of the first book alone!). While the bandwagon ones actually worked out, I've also got my impulse buys that weren't so hot. Never really did use that cookbook on making sushi...

 Then I've got my cookbooks that I use all the time and that I simply like to read. Enter the newest cookbook on my shelf that fits into that category, The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond.

I just discovered The Pioneer Woman and I just love her style!  Her recipes are just so down-to-earth and friendly - I'm convinced anyone could make them and have great results. I  must admit I was conflicted about getting the cookbook because all the recipes are on her site, but I bought it anyway.  Printed-off recipes just don't have the charm of a cookbook with splattered pages. 

I got the book almost a month ago for my birthday, but had yet to try any of recipes since my husband had been working crazy and late hours because of a deadline. Why go to all the trouble to make a dinner to just impress myself, right?  Especially when my toddler and I are totally fine with having spaghetti again.  Anyway, my husband's back to his usual hours, so I'm back to really cooking again and I celebrated by breaking out out the new cookbook.

I made the chicken spaghetti  the other night and I made her sour cream pancakes for breakfast yesterday morning.  The chicken spaghetti was really good, but the pancakes were ridiculous.  They're light and eggy and really different than my usual pancakes. And if you've read this blog for a while, you know that I love me a good pancake. Check out the PW cookbook - it's charming, approachable, and super-practical.  You'll find many recipes to fit into your frugal cooking repertoire, I'm sure!

Now onto the next matter of business....

I make no attempt to hide my nerdiness about certain things. Like Harry Potter.  Or Jane Austen. Or just about any period piece movie, for that matter (I'm currently obsessed with Masterpiece Theater's version of Jane Eyre).  Disney movies are yet another thing I'm completely, unabashedly nerdy about.  So, I thought I would mention an awesome link for a great deal on their newest release.

Lately, when Disney releases a new movie, they offer coupons on their website. Go to this link, click on the box next to The Princess and the Frog, and then print it.  It will get you $10 off the Blu-ray combo pack. If you don't have a Blu-ray player yet, don't worry!  The great thing about the combo pack is that it comes with a Blu-ray AND a DVD.  That way, people who plan to upgrade won't have to buy the movie twice. 

To get even more savings, buy the movie tomorrow when it comes out. Usually, place will sell new releases for less on just the release date.  For example, when Up came out a little while back, we printed off one of these $10 coupons and went to Wal-Mart to buy it. Just for that day, the Blu-ray combo back cost around $20 and then we used the coupon. So, we got the newest release on Blu-ray for only $10!  Now, I don't know how much stores will be selling it for tomorrow, but I just thought I'd mention it...