The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl

Ree Drummond's cook books are impressive!First, the quality of her books is top notch - nice thick pages, beautiful photography with the step-by-step processes, maybe something I didn't need but still impressive for those that do, simple uncomplicated recipes which are easy to read and a winning personality that comes through on every page. Her recipes are down home, old school good and delicious. She cooks like my grandmother cooked - simple, uncomplicated, get the job done with delicious results. I never remember as a child having a bad meal at my grandmother's table.You think maybe we have lost something in this country when it comes to cooking? Between the media, medical profession and the food manufacturing (especially the soy growers) industry, which has influenced the first two, we have been driven like cattle down a path of very unhealthy eating for decades. Chemicals, soy additives and hormones have replaced fresh, organic and healthy foods. People have become lazy and negligent about what they eat and most of the time reach for something easy and quick. No wonder so many people are over weight and unhealthy. Remember meat producers do use a bizillion pounds of soy byproducts in cattle, pig and chicken feed annually and we eat the byproducts of that adulterated feeding habits.There is nothing wrong with butter instead of chemical laden margarine. Whole milk is good and has good fats and nutrients. Good quality lard, bacon and beef is healthy for us. Chickens raised w/o hormones and grass fed should be the norm in our diets. I believe that Ree tries most of the time to avoid adulterated foods but if on a rare occasion you wish to indulge in a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie made with Cool Whip and Oreo cookies it probably won't kill you if you maintain a healthy diet the other 99% of the time. Love many of her recipes but not all of them so one has to be their own best judge when it comes to the foods they cook and eat. Her Fettucini Alfredo is natural with nothing but cream, butter and cheese - nothing wrong there. Her soups, stews, meats, roasts, salads, pasta and most desserts are all made from natural products so what can be wrong with that - good, delicious, healthy and nutritious fare. I might avoid Cool Whip but the rest of her recipes are worth the try. Clearly her family burns a lot of calories throughout their day and therefore can consume more food including desserts than many of the rest of us sedentary folks so be mindful that maybe a dessert after every meal is not in your best interest or a plate full of mashed potatoes loaded down with cream cheese. Some of her recipes are best reserved for special occasions or once in a while. I'm a great cook but I know one thing, after many decades of avoiding making pie crusts, with many failures in the past using oils and being the embarrassment of my Grandmother, I finally was successful using her recipe for making a pie crust using BUTTER! It was delicious and a real testament to her photos, techniques and ingredients.Love her books, recipes, appreciate her warm friendly manner, the obvious closeness of her family and her willingness to share all of this with the rest of us. I'm a fan and will continue to be one as long as she sticks to what she knows best - good down home cooking!

You won't really find anything new here, though there are some newish suggestions to old standards.My husband is a country boy at heart, and our five boys LOVE the hearty, stick to your ribs fare that The Pioneer Woman dishes up. I have all her cookbooks, and break them out often when I'm in search of some crowd pleasing grub. From this particular book, I'll review these recipes:+Buttermilk Biscuits-I don't know if I did something wrong here, or if this recipe just isn't our thing, but I wasn't a huge fan of these. Mine came out VERY dense and heavy, not something we want in a biscuit. And though we ate them, the ones we make from a bisquick box are better. That being said maybe my baking soda was past it's prime-I'll give them another shot at some point.+PW Breakfast Burritos-Made with hash browns, sausage, eggs and some other yummy goodness these were a hit! My kids gobbled these up, my husband had seconds and they even went for leftovers the next morning. (I made these for dinner one night) THAT is my definition of a good recipe!+Simple, Perfect Chili-Here in Virginia we're having a rough time getting into the Spring frame of mind. Most likely it was that foot of snow Mother Nature dumped on us last week, but no matter, a good pot of chili is a cure all for the winter blues. And this one was YUMMY! Nothing different here, except for the inclusion of Masa-a type of Mexican corn flour-it added a bit of thickness that was very welcome on a cold night. A keeper!+Chocolate Sheet Cake-I got this recipe off her website a few months ago and made it one weekend just to try it out. And boy is it SWEET! I LOVE chocolate, but even I could only eat a small piece, and since it didn't have that fudgy texture and taste that brownies have, it was a bit much for me, but my younger kids loved it!All in all, there are more winners here than many cookbooks have, and even the few recipes I've made that we weren't huge fans of weren't inedible, just not good enough to replace what I already have in my arsenal.Love the pictures as well, and the funny little anecdotes in the recipe add a bit of a laugh to your food preparation! Worth the money!

Good

Fantastic

Lo compre hace tiempo porque da unas recetas muy ricas. Lo único es que son para gente que tiene una actividad física alta porque tanto las medidas como los ingredientes están adaptados a su familia que trabaja en un rancho. Genial para un día especial. Salen muy ricas

Pour celles qui comprennent l'anglais, un vrai plaisir de cuisiner à l’américaine style western.rien à voir avec le McDO!!! Ces recettes ne sont pas pour maigrir, mais pour se faire plaisir, surtout en hiver.Jusqu'à présent toutes les recettes ont eu un vif succès! Essayez les cinnamon rolls ! vous m'en direz desnouvelles...Yummy.

I am a fan of the author's blog, which is a wonderful resource. Ree Drummond writes her blog with a huge amount of tongue-in-cheek humour and great photos that follow each step of each recipe. One could not possibly go wrong following one of her recipes. Her first cookbook is written much in the same way....with a good amount of humour, wonderful photos (the author is also the photographer), and great recipes that are a blend of country style, ethnic and other mixes. That Ms. Drummond is smitten with her ranch life, her Marlboro man and her kids is obvious, both in the cookbook and on her blog. If you are looking for a cookbook that contains only recipes, you may just be disappointed in this book. However, if you are looking to experience an adventure whilst looking for a perfect recipe, you'll love this book.