The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays: 140 Step-by-Step Recipes for Simple, Scrumptious Celebrations - Ree Drummond

Ree Drummond—accidental country girl, award-winning blogger, Food Network personality, and #1 New York Times bestselling author—presents The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays, a fantastic collection of recipes, photos, and homespun humor to help you celebrate all through the year.

Ree shows you how to ring in your favorite holidays with inspired menus for breakfasts, brunches, lunches, dinners, parties, deliveries, and feasts, accompanied by fun instructions and hundreds of her signature step-by-step photos. Filled with creative and flavorful ideas for intimate dinners, group gatherings, and family meals, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays includes dozens of mouthwatering dishes (with nineteen recipes for Thanksgiving alone!), helping home cooks create a variety of delights.

Whip up a Resolution Smoothie on New Year’s Day; Whiskey BBQ Sliders and Dr Pepper Cupcakes for The Big Game; Glazed Ham for Easter; Watermelon Sangria for a sizzling Fourth of July cookout; and perfect Popcorn Balls on Halloween. For Christmas, Ree includes special homemade treats, including Caramel Apple Rolls, Christmas Rum Cake, and a selection of smile-inducing cookies, perfect for Christmas deliveries to family and friends.

Enjoy holidays all year ’round...Pioneer Woman style!

About the Author

"I'm a desperate housewife. I live in the country. I channel Lucille Ball, Sylvia Plath, and Ethel Merman. Welcome to my frontier!"



My name is Ree. I'm also known as The Pioneer Woman on my website, ThePioneerWoman.com.



Years ago, after living and working there for several years, I left the great city of Los Angeles . Fleeing a dead-end relationship with a surfer, I planned a much-needed pit stop in my Oklahoma hometown before beginning my new life in Chicago. While home, I met and unexpectedly fell in love with a Wrangler-wearing cowboy whose icy-blue eyes made me forget myself. Before I knew it, I'd canceled my Chicago plans, married the cowboy, and was bearing his children and chasing cows off my porch on his cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere.



Four children and thirteen years later, I still don't know what I'm doing here.



But I do know this: I'm exactly where I belong.



A former vegetarian and food-lover, it was a rude awakening to find out that cowboys don't eat seaweed. They don't eat salads unless they're piled high with ranch dressing, and they certainly wouldn't consider spicy Thai food the height of culinary bliss. They eat meat, lots of meat, with an occasional potato thrown in for balanced nutrition. I stood in my country kitchen and cried, mourning the beautiful things I used to eat. I stared at potatoes with disdain.



Then I picked myself up off the figurative floor, dusted off my apron, and figured if I couldn't beat 'em...I'd join 'em. I jumped right in, teaching myself to cook cowboy-friendly meals. Occasionally, I'd throw in some fresh basil to bring a little of my old life in. I'm still cooking today, and I love it more and more all the time.



Unless the family requests fried calf nuts, and then I start crying all over again.



One morning in 2006, my husband took all four of our small children to work cattle. In my pajamas, I wandered to the computer and started a blog, "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman." What started as a place to post the occasional photo or two quickly became a catch-all for rural stories, bizarre poetry, photography tips, and eventually, my step-by-step pictorial recipes. Now, nearly four years later, ThePioneerWoman.com is still going strong. I love sharing my crazy, silly life with the folks who stop by my site...and I love interacting with them. They're the best people on the internet.



My cookbook, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks", is a natural extension of the cooking section of my website. Using only simple and widely-available ingredients, I share my favorite, classic recipes from my website---along with a good crop of new dishes. I hope you enjoy it. It's homespun, homemade, and very stream-of-consciousness. It's me.



Thanks for stopping by!