Frugal Feasts: The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

Photo by Ken Williams for The Concord Monitor

The Fru Gals are ridiculously jealous of a woman who lives on a remote ranch in Oklahoma, miles and miles from the nearest Target, and we are just not sure how that could even be true. It’s easy to see why we are irritated by Jennifer Anniston— she turned a bad hair day in 1994 into a signature look, a movie career and a 40 year old face that is as smooth, tan and shiny as a glazed donut. We suspect even a saint would feel the occasional twinge of envy when contemplating Oprah and her capacity to change lives for the better (not to mention her shoe collection). And don’t even get us started on Michelle Obama and those fabulously toned arms.

But Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman? Why should we be jealous? This gal home schools her children. God bless her but the only way we would even consider getting involved in a home school situation is if Dewey School were turned into condos. Ree lives in Oklahoma. We’re sure it is beautiful in a bleak and windswept kind of way, but it’s the Jefferson’s deluxe apartment in the sky that we covet, not a ranch in the middle of nowhere, thank you very much. She’s not even all that thin. So why does this woman fill us with spiteful envy?

One look at her blog and you’ll get some idea why we just want to hate her. Somehow she has turned a whole bushel of glamour-free, mommy-life lemons into the most delicious lemonade ever. Thepioneerwoman.com blog is nearly perfect.

All of the photos are gorgeous, unlike our blog which usually features some slightly blurry snapshots of badly-lit brown food haphazardly arranged on a wrinkled tablecloth (that we had to take with our cell phones because the camera battery is never charged). Ree’s blog also has a whole section devoted to home and garden projects and beautiful objects. Ranching must be a pretty profitable endeavor--hardly anything she features looks like it came from the Marshall’s clearance aisle. Ree also has advertisers, millions of followers and a remarkable number of expensive giveaways. But what really drives us crazy is The Pioneer Woman’s book contract. And if it weren’t bad enough that Reece Witherspoon is interested in playing Ree in the movie version of her true-life cowboy love story, she just published a cookbook filled with family-friendly recipes and amusing anecdotes about her life. We are as green and as grouchy as the Grinch.


Our friend Sue Rubin sent us a copy of the cookbook, and we could barely open it. For days it sat on the t took us a few days to even open it. There it sat on the counter, taunting us with its expensive glossy cover and fancy photographs while we summoned up the courage to peek inside. We’re here to tell you; it’s worse than we thought.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks is, we have to admit, great. The food is honest and good and the recipes are easy to follow, thanks to her step-by-step photographs. These days so many of us are struggling to find the best ways to feed our families without breaking the budget and despite all her money and fame, Ree really keeps it simple, and we have to love her for that. We also love her Le Creuset collection; this woman has more pieces of $200 enameled cookware than the front window of Things Are Cooking.

Not everything is perfect; the Fru Gals would like to point out that the meat loaf recipe is almost identical to Robin’s; it is just missing the garlic. Ree does not feel the need to add half a head to every recipe, silly woman. We are also not fans of her vaguely vintage-looking clip art doodads at the bottom of every page, but why quibble? The Pioneer Woman puts meals on the table that her family will eat and fans will cook. She has filled her book with the things that are important to her and her joyfulness comes through on every page; a good man, a gaggle of offspring, beautiful sunrises and pounds and pounds of butter. Well played, Ree, well played.

Just to prove that we are not driving the bitter bus, we’d like to give away a copy of Ree Drummond’s new cookbook to one of our readers. Just leave a comment on fruglfeastsblog.com or our Facebook fan page and we will pick a winner at random, to be announced in our next column.
Here’s a taste of what Ree’s book has to offer: A simple pasta dish that features frozen shrimp in a rosy cream sauce and a chocolate sheet cake that is moist and tangy, if a little on the thin side.

Penne Alla Betsy
Serves 4-6
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
We’d like to meanly note that the “alla” is Ree’s typo not ours!
1 pound penne pasta
1 pound medium shrimp
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
½ cup dry white wine
1 14.5 ounce can petite diced tomatoes, with their juice
1 cup half and half or light cream
½ cup milk for thinning
Handful of chopped fresh parsley
Handful of chopped fresh basil or 1 tablespoon pesto
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Peel the shrimp and set aside. Heat the butter and the oil together over medium heat in a medium sized skillet . Add the onion and cook until limp and glossy. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute, reducing the heat as necessary to keep the garlic from burning. Add the wine and stir until mostly evaporated. Add the tomato sauce and stir well. Reduce the heat to low and add the cream. Bring to a simmer. Add the shrimp, cutting into pieces if large, and stir gently.

Cook at a low simmer for 3-4 minutes, just until the shrimp turns pink and firm. Stir in the salt and pepper, and pesto if using.

Dump in the herbs and the cooked and drained pasta and stir to combine. Add a little milk if needed to thin the sauce.

Serve with crusty bread

Photo by Ken Williams for The Concord Monitor

Chocolate Sheet Cake
serves 15-20
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Makes 1 12X18 inch cake
For the Cake:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks butter
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder

In a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar and salt. In another bowl mix the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and baking soda. Mix well with a fork and set aside. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat and add the cocoa powder, stir well and remove from the heat.
Meanwhile, bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Add to the melted butter/cocoa mixture and whisk well to combine. Pour the chocolate/butter mixture into the flour and stir together. Add the egg mixture and stir until very smooth, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula to combine completely.
Pour into an ungreased jelly roll pan or rimmed cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the frosting:

2 sticks of butter
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
6 tablespoons light cream at warm room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 ounces powdered sugar
½ cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

Melt the butter over medium low heat and add the cocoa powder. Whisk well to combine. Add the cream, vanilla and sugar and whisk well to combine. Add the pecans if using and pour evenly over the warm cake. Spread quickly with a metal spatula. Allow to cool and serve to 15-20 grateful people.