Ree Drummond - The Pioneer Woman Cooks

I had no idea any other kind of life existed. Still, I decided my experiences needed a little broadening. I blazed straight to Los Angeles for college, attended USC, and drank in all the wonderfulness of the city. I lived large, vowing never, ever to live away from a large city for the rest of my life. I loved the energy, the people, the pace. circa 1986 Then, after living and working in L.A. post-college, I took another leap of independence by choosing not to follow my longtime college love to San Francisco and instead, to briefly move back to my hometown. post-college, I took another leap of independence by choosing not to follow my longtime college love to San Francisco and instead, to briefly move back to my hometown.

I sold my futon and my Rollerblades, waved goodbye to the ocean, and headed back home. Itll just be a brief pit stop , I told myself. A pit stop on the way to the rest of my life. I had no idea how prophetic that would be. Once home, I immediately began making plans to move to Chicago, where I decided Id work while applying to area law schools. Then, late one night during the Christmas holiday, I met a group of childhood friends for drinks at a local dive.

Thats when I saw him the cowboy across the smoky room. We exchanged several glances, a few nervous stares. Soon we found ourselves talking into the night, my knees growing weaker by the minute, my gaze fixed on his icy-blue eyes. He was like no one Id ever met beforeserious, sexy, quiet. Certainly nothing like the golf-crazed, Izod-wearing boys Id grown up withand definitely nothing like the surfers of Southern California. We parted ways that night, and my plans for Chicago plowed forward.

But his image was burned into my psyche. Two weeks before my move to Chicago, the cowboy, the Marlboro Manesque character Id met in the smoky bar, called and asked me to dinner. That date turned into a second, which before too long was a fifth, then a sixth. By the seventh date, Id canceled my move to Chicago, and before I knew it we were married and having babies on his isolated cattle ranch fifty miles from my hometownand a million miles away from anything Id ever envisioned for my life. I had no idea how Id gotten there. More than a decade and four kids later, Im still adapting to life as a ranch wife.

I have cows in my yard daily, piles of horse manure on my porch, and a dusty pile of clothes that reaches the ceiling. I still cant saddle a horse. I freak out during tornadoes. And I havent eaten sushi in ages. My life in the country has been one long transition. Food has been a huge part of it.

A former vegetarian and food snob, Id spent my years in Los Angeles sampling all of the diverse culinary options the city had to offer: Italian food, Thai food, Indian and Greek food. Every meal was an adventure for mea life experience. Culinary boredom was never a problem. Once married and living in the country, it was a rude awakening to find out that cowboys dont eat Ahi tuna. They dont eat ginger-sesame noodles. They wouldnt touch sushi with a ten-foot pole.

Cowboys eat meatlots of meatwith an occasional potato thrown in for balanced nutrition. What have I done? I asked myself, as I whisked my first skillet of sausage gravy. I cant cook like this. I cant live like this! I spent a month mourning my old life. And then I decided if I couldnt beat em, Id join em. And I set out to create delicious foodfood that would allow me to tickle my cooking fancy, but still make the cowboys hearts go pitter pat.

These are the recipes I share in this book. My food is flavorful, simple, and abundantthats the style of cooking that works in my life. Its decidedly not noncaloriccowboys work too hard to warrant that. And its always, always crowd pleasingthe recipes Im sharing with you are tried and true, and have made many a persons taste buds sing. I love cooking. I love raising a family.

And I love country life. It isnt worry free or cushy. It isnt seamless, easy, or without challenges. But its perfect for me. As someone who grew up smack dab in the middle of modern society, its a daily reminder of a simpler timea time when folks worked the land, when take-out food was the exception, not the rule; and when decency, kindness, and hard work were the measure of a persons success. (Not that Id mind a Starbucks in our north pasture.) I hope you get a kick out of this book of mine. (Not that Id mind a Starbucks in our north pasture.) I hope you get a kick out of this book of mine.

Its not overly polished or glossybut then again, neither is my life on the ranch. I didnt have a staff of assistants to help me; I took all my own photos for this book, and used nothing but the natural light in my kitchen. I had friends do the illustrations, and used clip art Ive collected through the years. Its nothing fancy. But it comes straight from my heart. Thank you for allowing me to share my world with you.