The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Not too long after I started The Big Stick I was posting about some alfredo I had made the night before and one of my commentors left me a link to this dish for pasta with a creamy tomato sauce and shrimp. My wife and kids don’t like seafood but they fell in love with the sauce and it has become a regular request in our house. It makes me feel like a famous chef when I hear them singing its praises to our friends and extended family, even though it’s so easy to make I can’t claim credit.

I was a decent cook before finding that recipe, but my cooking has gone to a new level since then. The site that I owe my cooking success to is The Pioneer Woman, a blog started by a stay-at-home mom who lives on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma. Her blog is like an urban (rural?) legend that the rest of us bloggers talk about in hushed whispers.  We think, “Maybe someday I’ll have that kind of traffic and make the big bucks on advertising and get a book deal.” The truth is that Ree Drummond captured lightning in a bottle with her site and while there are successful imitators, her unique blend of photography, cooking and stories about an amazing place she calls home is impossible to duplicate.

My favorite feature of Ree’s site is her cooking section, where she posts recipes for simple, satisfying food that makes you think of your grandmother’s cooking and temporarily forget your waistline. We’ve tried a lot of the recipes at our house (so many that my wife claims I’m in love with the Pioneer Woman and rolls her eyes whenever I tell her where I got the idea for tonight’s dinner).  The high percentage of these recipes which find their way into our ‘keep’ folder is a testament not only to Ree’s skill in the kitchen but also to her style of showing the cooking process step-by-step which is a big help to mistake prone chefs like myself.

Yesterday Ree’s first cookbook went on sale. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl will probably find its way onto our kitchen counter soon and I’m man enough to admit it. Spend some time over at her site. Check out the recipes and I dare you to try a few of them. Start with the pasta, then the Crash Hot Potatoes and then the Marlboro Man sandwich. If you’re still not convinced, your taste buds are beyond my help.