The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl Hardcover – October 27, 2009

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!

A great cookbook. She has many substitutes for ingredients you might not have on hand. For instance: Out of buttermilk? Add vinegar to a cup of milk and let it sit awhile. This cookbook was a Christmas gift to my friend who has dozens of cookbooks. She told me that she loved it and that it was a classic everyone should have. High praise indeed!

I am really picky about humor, authors, recipes, media hype ... Most hoopla is much ado about nothing these days.
BUT the Pioneer Woman DELIVERS. Big Time! She's FUNNY, and Real, and Down to Earth, her recipes are fantastic. Count me as a fan. I love her blog- EVERYTHING about it. The art, the photos, the way she pokes fun at herself. She feels "like a sister"... I have her book "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" and it is like hugging a friend when I hold it. seriously. With her cookbook, Now I will always have a friend to hug in the kitchen, too. And I usually cook quite well in my own crazy way, without recipe books - but this one is a MUST for me. With her delicious recipes, fantastic photography where every step has a photo-, even an inexperienced young cook will look like a master in his or her kitchen. Great item for bridal showers, girlfriend gifts and ooooohhhh hubby--- did you see this on my Xmas WISH LIST? What a great gift. If you know about her, then you understand. If you are just discovering her, well GIDDY UP, cowpoke!
UPDATE 12/25/12
Received this for xmas... (big smiley face) - and HUBBY couldn't put it down! He became a fan from just flipping thru the pages... Actually, he went thru every single page and loved reading it all. The recipes are wonderful- but they are just PART of why this book is so great. He's reading her "black heels" book now and I am putting her 2nd recipe book on my BIRTHDAY wish list!

I'm a big fan of Ree Drummond. Her recipes are simple and delicious. They are good for the accomplished cook and the novice. And like she says, they're good for kids and the cowboys in your life.

This is my kind of cookbook. I LOVE pictures. There are few cookbooks that have step-by-step pictures out there so I was grateful this has so many images of what my food is supposed to look like. I will buy more of her books in the future!

This was a great addition to my cook books. I love that her recipes don't call for odd ingredients that I would never have and I love her easy to follow directions.

Excellent...Pictures of food bring prepared, easy to follow directions. This book is just perfect! I have too many good things to say about it. Recipes we've tried so far, turn out Wonderful. Looking forward to the rest.

we love her recipes (or most of them) great delivery from dealer easy deal