Product Description

My name is Ree.

Some folks know me as The Pioneer Woman.

After years of living in Los Angeles, I made a pit stop in my hometown in Oklahoma on the way to a new, exciting life in Chicago. It was during my stay at home that I met Marlboro Man, a mysterious cowboy with steely blue eyes and a muscular, work-honed body. A strict vegetarian, I fell hard and fast, and before I knew it we were married and living on his ranch in the middle of nowhere, taking care of animals, and managing a brood of four young children. I had no idea how I'd wound up there, but I knew it was exactly where I belonged.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks is a homespun collection of photography, rural stories, and scrumptious recipes that have defined my experience in the country. I share many of the delicious cowboy-tested recipes I've learned to make during my years as an accidental ranch wife—including Rib-Eye Steak with Whiskey Cream Sauce, Lasagna, Fried Chicken, Patsy's Blackberry Cobbler, and Cinnamon Rolls—not to mention several "cowgirl-friendly" dishes, such as Sherried Tomato Soup, Olive Cheese Bread, and CrÈme BrÛlÉe. I show my recipes in full color, step-by-step detail, so it's as easy as pie to follow along.

You'll also find colorful images of rural life: cows, horses, country kids, and plenty of chaps-wearing cowboys.

I hope you get a kick out of this book of mine. I hope it makes you smile. I hope the recipes bring you recognition, accolades, and marriage proposals. And I hope it encourages even the most harried urban cook to slow down, relish the joys of family, nature, and great food, and enjoy life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28 in Books
• Published on: 2009-11-01
• Released on: 2009-10-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780061658198
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
#1 Denver Post Bestseller (Denver Post )

#7 Washington Post Bestseller (Washington Post )

#29 USA Today Bestseller (USA Today )

"Who needs Julia Child? I've got Pioneer Woman." (Baltimore Sun )

"Jokey and irresistible. Drummond's.appreciation for something as simple as well-made pico de gallo is infectious. Such attentiveness to basic cooking skills makes the book entertaining and useful." (New York Times Gift Guide )

"Drummond invites fans into her world with irresistible recipes and photos.. Here's a mom of four who can turn out a Perfect Pot Roast and make feasts for girlfriends that start with sangria and finish with crme brle. It's sweet and seductive: You'll want to plunge right in." (People )

an Amazon Customer Favorite Cookbook (Amazon.com )

"[Ree Drummond is] funny, enthusiastic and self-deprecating, making the book appeal to pavement-pounders and pioneer types alike [with] recipes like steak with whiskey cream sauce, leek and potato pizza and pico de gallo. As a portrait of a real American family kitchen, it works." (New York Times )

#1 New York Times Bestseller (New York Times )

#5 Wall Street Journal Bestseller (Wall Street Journal )

#6 Publishers Weekly Bestseller (Publishers Weekly )

#9 Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Bestseller (MPIBA )

"Drummond's writing style is closer to a good friend dishing out advice than an expert telling people want to do." (Denver Daily News )

"[Ree Drummond] whips up mouthwatering meals with easy-to-find ingredients (she's miles away from restaurants and supermarkets) and shares what living in a not-so-little house on the prairie is really all about. " (People )

About the Author

Ree Drummond began blogging in 2006 and has built www.ThePioneerWoman.com into an award-winning website, where she shares recipes, showcases her photography, and documents her hilarious transition from city life to ranch wife. Ree lives on a working cattle ranch near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, with her husband, Ladd, and their four ranch hands.

Customer Reviews

step-by-step picture recipes
In "The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl," Ree Drummond provides step by step recipes in categories like Starters (appetizers), In the Morning (breakfast), Dinner (lunch), Supper (dinner), and Sweets (dessert). There are also bonus sections like Sunday Dinner and Cowboy Dinner Party.

The book is full of colorful photographs, and starts off with an introduction where Drummond tells her story of becoming a country girl and learning southern cooking. Having graduated from a college in L.A., she goes back home with plans to fly to Chicago and start law school. However, her plans are disturbed when she meets Marlboro Man--the character to become her husband and a true cowboy--in an eatery one day. From then on, it's marriage, four kids, country life, and a long immersion into southern cooking. Throughout the recipes, Drummond includes pictures of her family and her country life.

The recipes themselves are delicious: roasted corn salad, morning cinnamon rolls, sour cream pancakes, buttermilk biscuits, onion rings, meatloaf, fried chicken, spicy pulled pork, flat apple pie, chocolate sheet cake, blackberry cobbler, and etc. Those familiar with Drummond's blog--which she briefly mentions in the book--may have known Ree's kitchen style, but for me it was a discovery. I was especially impressed by the fact that for each recipe, Drummond actually provides pictures of each step to supplement the text. As a beginning cook, I found this very helpful.

Initially, I was attracted to this book because of its cover, but I found the contents are equally as good. Recommended for anybody who wants to expand their cooking knowledge or simply loves southern cuisine.

My new favorite cookbook!
Being a new wife who had NO idea how to cook, I started searching the internet endlessly looking for recipes that I could actually serve to my picky, meat and potatos eatin' husband. I came across Ree's blog about a year and a half ago, and have been a daily reader since. She has made cooking fun for me, and not just a chore like I used to think of it. Her charm makes it seem like you're cooking (or in my case, learning to cook) with a friend, rather than just reading a boring description of a recipe. I quickly saw the advantages of the step by step photos that Ree uses on her blog, and also in this cookbook. In most of my cooking expierences, I would always wonder "is this how it's supposed to look?!" or "am I doing this right?". The step by step pictures have eliminated that worry for me. It's wonderful to feel somewhat competent in the kitchen now, and that's all thanks to Ree. I know that if I make one of Ree's recipes, it's guaranteed to be a success.
I think the best part of this cookbook is that the recipes are geared towards the home cook. I often buy cookbooks and usually there are only a handful of recipes that I would even try to serve to my family. With this book, I could see myself serving every one. And of course, they are delicious - and that's really the most important part.

Love, Love, Love Ree-just not the cookbook.
Ok Ree has a cult following-I know this because I am a member of it. I think her blog is a blessing and a curse because every reviewer seems to be comparing this book to it. Although, it's extremely hard not too -it's really not a fair comparison. The one thing I will agree with is that, I too, was surprised about how many of the recipes were duplicates from the website. I pre-ordered the book with high hopes and down-right anticipatory joy. So I will try to review the cookbook just as that-a cookbook. If I were to pick up the book without any knowledge of Ree Drummond I would have to say that I would be even more disappointed than I am being an avid follower of her blog. It seems that we are all a little more forgiving because we feel a kinship with her and wanted this book to do so well.

I passed the book to family members that knew nothing of her and was asked by them if the book was a "coffee table book" because it seems that the recipes get lost in the mix. I understand that photography is a huge part of her life; initially that is what drew me to her site. I completely understand including some photos in the book. My issue is not necessarily with that, but with what seems to be the EXACT same photos spreading across two page spreads. For example, upon closer inspection you see the photos of her children are SLIGHTLY different, and the spread with the rainbows are different, but not different enough or interesting enough to devote so much of the book too. I love the fact she includes pictures of every step of the recipe, but find the photos to be a little small to even notice the details. Which begs the question that if she maybe would have not included so many two-page photo spreads would she have been able to include bigger recipe photos and/or more recipes?

To summarize I was actually surprised looking at the index that there were as many recipes in the book as there were, because it literally seemed that there were only a few in each section-lost between numerous photo spreads. Perhaps if she wanted to combine so much of her overall life (i.e. stories and photography) she should have advertised the book as more of a memoir than just as a cookbook. On the positive side Ree's recipes (as always) call for easy to find ingredients-which I love, and her recipes satisfy my hearty (but picky) eating husband. My suggestion is to either thumb through a copy of this book at your local bookstore before purchasing sight unseen from Amazon, or stick to viewing her blog.