Book Review: The Pioneer Woman Cooks—Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl

Edited by Tara Fitzpatrick

by Ree Drummond
William Morrow An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Oct. 2009, $27.50

A lot of food blogs are morphing into cookbooks lately. With its step-by-step photography and down-home voice, the Confessions of a Pioneer Woman blog is one of the best.

Ree Drummond, a red-headed, funny, self-deprecating mother and wife of a cattle rancher, has won three blog awards for the design and writing of her addictive blog.

Her cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, is like having the blog on paper, and that's a good thing. The same personal take on ‘cowboy food’ (lots of ground beef dishes) and ‘cowgirl food’ (more veggie-based entrees and salads) is in the book, as is the great photography and fun asides about living on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma.

“After years of living in Los Angeles, I made a pit stop in my hometown in Oklahoma…met Marlboro Man (Drummond's husband), a mysterious cowboy,” Drummond writes. At the time, she was a strict vegetarian, but “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 small children.”

Visiting Drummond in her kitchen (well-appointed with fancy cookware; she's not really roughing it out there) is a good way to see the cowboy life, and also a great way to find some simple, fun, and tasty recipes. Don't miss the sandwiches, baked goods, and innovative pasta dishes, all with that cowgirl kick.