Chew On This – Mario and Co. Replaces All My Children

I feel for the soap opera fans who are no longer able to follow their longtime “friends and neighbors” in Pine Valley every afternoon. I was never an AMC watcher, but there have been periods in my life when I watched soap operas.

Just as sons bond with their fathers over sports (and, of course, mothers and daughters and sons can do that too), mothers and daughters often have spirited conversations debating the pros and cons of the latest scandals (and coupling…and uncoupling) that played out in fictional towns all over (mostly middle) America. All My Children may come back online, but I can't help feeling that those most attached to their “stories" are not the types that would log in regularly for their online fix.

Anyway, it's a new age. The script is dead. Reality television is where it’s at, if by “at” we mean it’s where real cost savings can be found, compared to scripted dramas especially. Writers are marginalized and actors are replaced by "real" folks playing at real life, after being directed to engage in (usually controversial) behavior by producers.

The folks that come up with television programming are either really clever or sooo unimaginative that they always seem to take one reasonably good idea and spin and reimagine and transfigure it into something else that has the same basic premise. I suppose it’s like when some cooks say there are no new recipes in the world.

The history of U.S reality television IS a fascinating one, almost more interesting than the stuff itself. There were game shows and beauty pageants in the early days…and, of course, Julia! But starting with The Real World in 1992, Survivor in 2000 and The Amazing Race in 2001, the genre has really taken off. Those shows have spawned every variation of game, competition, lifestyle and food programming, which also owe a debt to the Louds on public television in 1973.

The Chew is a combination of The View - say those two together - alliteration is key in the subconscious planting of ideas - and any run-of-the-mill food segment you've ever seen on ANY talk show, with a little Rachael Ray verve thrown in and I suppose a dash of that vanity project on CBS known as The Talk, featuring the head honcho's spouse, Julie Chen. (I hate to even include that one on this list. It is so grating.)

None of the 5 hosts of the Chew is objectionable in his or her own right (actually the jury is out on the mostly unknown Daphne Oz), but did we really need a food/talk show?

Talking of Oz, I'm not sure what the daughter of a television doctor has to offer except good connections, and why Clinton Kelly, who is a fabulous style maven, is on a food show is beyond me. Wouldn't that be like having Emeril pick shoes for someone on What Not to Wear? I can’t imagine the hour will go by without a comment about Mario's crocs. Aside from those reservations, though, they have assembled a competent group.

Who doesn’t love, love, love Carla Hall? Obviously they're banking on her likability as appealing to whomever they think is watching television at this hour.

Michael Symon, Iron Chef, and fill-in on Dinner: Impossible while Robert Irvine was on his reputation-building sabbatical, has obviously been told to smile a lot and not scare the small children who are watching with their at-home caregivers.

And, of course, it will be hard to resist Mario. His food will always be good. Just one problem…where IS Mario? He was appearing by monitor from a golf course in Joisey on the very first day of his new show. Clinton, who plays the former Meredith Viera (currently Whoopi) part of the moderator, addresses that and asks Mario where he is. He’s at a charity golf tournament helping kids, so no one can be mad at him. (Speaking of playing The View parts, thankfully, there is no Elizabeth!)

Clinton starts of by saying that he and his friends always end up in the kitchen. HUH? I would have thought he would be giving seminars in his walk-in closet. But he’s a “style icon” now AND an entertaining expert helping people to be “a little bit more fabulous”.

Michael says his style of cooking is mid-Centrum. What? Is he cooking with vitamins for old people? Let me see if I heard that right. The closed captioning couldn’t get it either. I guess he means cooking from the Midwest. Or maybe he said barbecue and ribs? No clue. Maybe it was MEAT-centric? Dunno.

More introductions - Michael loves pork. (Maybe THAT’S what he said?) Carla is everyone’s friend in the kitchen. Daphne is the health and wellness guru. Clinton says that Michael is preparing the show’s first ever dish. Should I be more excited?

Michael made some ham-wrapped pork dish. I couldn’t tell if Daphne looked disapproving, but he served it on kale and beans. I DID feel uncomfortable when he served a bunch of audience members (at a beautifully crafted audience tasting station) and watched as they chewed their first bites. I felt sorry for them having to taste as he was standing RIGHT there. Luckily, no one spit it out.

Clinton introduced random food topics in the news à la The View's Hot Topics or host chat by Regis and Kelly or Katheeee Leeee and Hoda. Nothing all that riveting was discussed and there was much more gaiety and giggling than was warranted. Then Clinton spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME telling us what was coming up. (It’s like at the movies when they give you a wrap-up of the commercials you didn’t want to see in the first place.)

Rather than trying to pretend that Daphne's dad wasn’t instrumental in her getting this new gig, they actually bring him up in a segment of Daphne’s called Things My Dad Taught Me.

Dr. Oz even showed up to give his benediction to the new show and pronounce “what a great job they’re doing.” He’s happy they’re talking about food and “making it cool, making it hip...and making it affordable”. Barf.

But it WAS funny when he started talking about when Daphne was born and the shape of her head (WHAT?!!) and he sounded like any doting father. It was quite a humorous father/daughter moment. In a word, Dr. Oz was REALLY embarrassing and Daphne was REALLY embarrassed. It felt real and I liked both of them more because of it.

One bad thing - we’re more than halfway in and poor Carla hasn’t been given enough air time. Michael Simon had a segment about his favorite kitchen tools. He talks about the microplaner. Great information – about 5 years late….

Finally. Carla’s on. She’s talking about keeping junk around the house and her Betty Crocker recipe cards from her childhood. WHAT does that have to do with healthy, modern cooking? Oh, she is apparently remaking a Betty Crocker recipe. She’s making fried apple pancake rings and her introduction isn’t promising. She says you can use a box mix or a pancake batter from scratch.

This is a COOKING show, I thought, and the daughter of DR. OZ is sitting right there, not to mention an Iron Chef. Let’s banish all mention of pancake mixes.

Carla adds pumpkin pie spice to her pancake batter. OY! I’ve never actually addressed the pumpkin pie spice issue the entire time I’ve been blogging. Suffice it to say – DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY. Just mix up a batch in the following proportions:

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated

Carla adds lemon zest to the pancake batter (with Michael’s miraculous microplaner). Then she dips apple rings in the batter and places them in a hot pan. Not that much batter sticks to them, so it’s more like a battered cooked apple than a pancake with apple rings inside.

Clinton wants a Betty Crocker recipe box of his own and Carla exclaims loudly, “Clinton is SO coveting my box.” He gives a funny look, similar to how Andy Cohen looked when The Millionaire Matchmaker went all nutsy on him. Carla just carries on. She talks about making homemade syrup by reducing apple cider, but she does bestow a Betty Crocker recipe box on him at the end of the segment. 

In the end, the apple pancake thingies looked really good. But what about all that extra pancake batter? I think I would use these battered apple rings as a garnish on a regular serving of pancakes, but I liked the recipe (minus pancake mix). And I like her.

The last segment is Mario making pizza on the golf course (with a real live pizza oven alongside his demonstration area). I could watch Mario forming thin disks from pizza dough forever. His recipe is here. It’s strange that they don’t give you his actual method for making the dough in the website recipe. And I’m thinking there’s a mistake in the amount of salt. It says to use 2 TABLESPOONS for 3½ cups of flour. In another of his pizza recipes, it’s 1½ teaspoons of salt to 3 cups of flour. I usually use about 1 teaspoon to 3 cups of flour.

I suppose I liked The Chew more by the end than the beginning. In a way, I feel bad for all the effort that has clearly gone into producing this pretty, shiny new show, which is starting with the huge impediment of replacing All My Children. Will people heartbroken over losing their daily dose of Erica Kane really glom on to The Chew?

It’s kind of fun. Everybody is affable. Carla is her same lively self and I’m happy that she has been given a vehicle to reach a larger audience. Mario’s and Michael’s food, of course, will be stellar. But, frankly, I’d rather watch Carla on her own (half hour) show and refer to cookbooks or online recipes (or THEIR other television appearances) for M and M’s food. So in spite of the beautiful new set and this new grouping of personalities, there’s no reinventing the wheel here. And I imagine there will be many empty afternoons for Pine Valley supporters.

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Speaking of Mario, remember when I mentioned his beautiful panini pan? Well, here it is...just a few minutes old! 

 

  

I couldn’t resist it. It’s stunning, isn’t it? One thing, though, it is seriously heavy. The box said it weighed 17 pounds! (That does include all the packaging, but still...) 

Pioneer Women – Free Our Kitchens! Free Ourselves!

The Pioneer Woman with Ree Drummond

Cowgirls And Cowboys

Penne alla Vodka

Goat Cheese with Fresh Dill

Fig-Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula

Sangria

First, for all the Pioneer Woman lovers out there, sorry, but there IS a lot to object to. And for the Pioneer Woman haters, this post isn’t about objecting to PW’s very existence, it’s about her cooking! Well, actually, not completely. I can’t help myself from commenting not ONLY on her cooking, but also on the state of gender relations in the Drummond household and particularly the kitchen.

I kept thinking about last week’s show and I wonder if you’ll think I’m from another planet when I share with you my reading of this episode.

I’m actually kind of worried about Ree. I fully admit I may be overstating this, BUT I don't like the backdrop of male domination that permeates the show (and her family life). Clearly, the man rules the roost. Anyway, that’s the message I’m getting.

Ree starts out by talking about the husband-approved list of foods in her house. Of course, we all have to deal with likes and dislikes - one person likes meat, the other doesn’t and so on. But there’s a difference between food preferences and someone using his food tastes to control the other person. Call me crazy, but that’s how I feel when I hear how Ree talks about her husband.

Granted, I’m lucky that H will eat ANYTHING. (Thank you to the chef in the sky who brought him to me!!!) Wait, I misspoke…no beets…but that’s it. Honestly, though, my thinking is if I’m cooking it, he’s eating it.

The way that Ree proceeds - painting herself as the naughty child trying to sneak forbidden foods into the master’s dishes - also rubs me the wrong way.

She starts by telling us that one of the things her husband really hates is the taste of wine in cooking. So what does she do? She decides to pour half a bottle of vodka in a pasta sauce and get him to taste it without telling him what’s in it. Not only do I disagree with her juvenile machinations, but I also don’t approve of trying to hide that particular ingredient.

I’m not saying I’ve never been guilty of sneaking in a stray anchovy here or there, BUT alcohol is one of those things I don’t play around with. I don’t even use vanilla extract if there are any alcohol sensitivity issues.

For all I care, she can pull a fast one with goat cheese (another of her husband’s least favorite things); add rhubarb with abandon or pile the salad high with cilantro, but alcohol? NO, that is one food (or beverage) dislike that should be respected.

Maybe I’m playing both sides of the fence here, sticking up for both Ree and hubby, but playing hide and seek with liquor makes me uncomfortable.

Ree gets him on the phone and tells him to come on down (up?) to the Lodge to taste something she’s made, which is the (shhhh!) Penne al Vodka.

Ree tells us that there’s a place on her website where she lists the recipes her husband “approves” of. Uck! WHAT FOR! Why do we care what some stuck-in-a-rut guy likes (or dislikes)? Not that I’m ever going to spend the hours it would take to navigate the quagmire that is her website, but I particularly wouldn’t search for THAT.

Ree sautés onion and garlic in oil and butter and adds vodka to the pan and then reduces it. Ree says he can detect any wine in a dish, but the vodka has a “cleaner flavor” to it. I have no idea what that means. If she means that with vodka you’re left with basically no taste, but a faint rubbing alcohol flavor, then I get what she’s saying. She adds half a huge can of tomato purée.

Ree says it’s become a hobby to be able to move dishes over to the “Lad approved category” on her website. Does she mean “lad” like a young boy, so she’s infantilizing her husband or does she mean “Ladd”, as if that’s his name? No clue. Oh, it says “LADD approved”. Whatever.

Ree adds a cup or so of heavy cream to the sauce. This is funny. Remember with the sliders she said she added heavy cream “because she could”? Now she says it’s her ”prerogative” to add heavy cream. Actually, I think I get it. The one place where no one can be the boss of her is in the heavy cream department. You go girl!

Ree is also adding crushed red pepper, partially to hide any potential vodka flavor. She finishes the dish with salt and butter and she has confirmed that her husband’s name IS “Ladd”.

The music gets bold (threatening perhaps?) as we see the huge tires of Ladd’s vee-hickle rolling up. What's supposed to happen if he doesn’t like the penne? Seriously, I don’t like the whole vibe of this.

Ree is basically saying she's trying to make something that pleases her picky (and demanding) husband. AND just for good measure, she's going to sneak in alcohol, which she KNOWS he HATES. It just doesn’t sound like a good plan to me.

I understand that catering to someone with persnickety tastes is challenging. Obviously, you don’t want to waste time cooking stuff that people hate. On the one hand, Ree keeps a list of foods that he WILL eat; and, on the other, she’s making stuff that she KNOWS he wants to avoid. What’s up with that?

This whole thing of having dinner on the table for the man of the house is so retro-esque. The funny thing is that Ree and I aren’t too different in this respect. I often refer to H as The Master, which Ree doesn’t actually say, but she means. I cook (and plate and garnish) H's dinner most nights. You can serve your husband dinner because you love to cook and keep your own identity at the same time. Does that make sense? I guess it’s all in the attitude of the cook and the cookee.

The fact that I have dinner on the table for H doesn’t make me a domestic slave (even though I’ve been known to tell him it does). It makes me a fabulous partner who enjoys cooking and feeding those around me. BUT I’m not standing around having butterflies wondering if H will like it. OH! I haven’t told you about the part where Ree gets butterflies…

She finishes up the penne dish by sprinkling in some parm from a deli type container.

If she’s as loaded as you PW foes say she is, I sure hope that’s fancy freshly grated parmesan from a gourmet grocery store and not Kraft. (It was decades before I realized that Parmesan shouldn’t smell like old socks.)

The door (of the truck) opens. We see boots hit the ground. This really is a throwback. Listen to what Ree says: “Why do I have butterflies? This is not that big of a deal.” OMG. Aside from her strange sentence structure, she is really modeling an unhealthy domestic situation.

You might think I’m making way “too big OF a deal” (sic), but imagine you were a woman in a compromised situation where your safety was in question. Wouldn’t this make you feel uncomfortable? Wouldn’t it give you pause?

Think about the difference between THIS husband/wife relationship and Ina’s and Jeffrey’s for example. Seeing THEM makes me feel all warm and cozy and I have to smile. Seeing Ree quaking in her sensible ranch footwear makes me uneasy.

Okay, let’s see what happens when the Ladd comes in. Do you think the chaps mean anything? I've actually never met anyone wearing chaps before.

Ladd walks in, amazingly mild-mannered. WHAT was I worried about? Ree hands him a fork. I hope he’s not going to eat out of the serving dish. In my book, that’s almost as bad as taking away his wife’s autonomy.

He IS eating out of the big dish. He tastes. He chews. He considers. Ree says “I’m DYING. How do you like it?” He likes it. (Mikey likes it!) He says, “What is it?”

Oh gosh, here it comes. I have to look away. Ree says, (almost in a whisper) "Vodka. I thought you might be a little more receptive to the hard stuff.” “Vodka’s better than wine,” he pronounces as he turns and leaves. (Jeffrey always gives his Contessa at least a peck on the cheek.)

Alright, so what was the big deal? He seemed unfazed by the vodka. Actually, he seemed unfazed in general. I really hope his lack of enthusiasm had more to do with the camera in his face than anything else. Plus I’m not sure I feel sorry for her anymore. Maybe it’s Ree who is drawing these gender boxes in bold relief.

She continues the stereotyping by hosting a girls’ night with “not a morsel of man food in sight”. Did she really just say that? This is 2011. The worst thing is that her kids are being subjected to these stereotypes. Let’s hope all those nannies y’all talk about are giving the kids a wider appreciation of the world.

Ladd (she hasn’t said Papa yet) is going on some kind of a road trip with the kids and lots of cattle, so Mama can have her lady friends over. (I wonder which motel will take them all in.) But wouldn’t you think Ree would deserve a night out at Applebee’s or Hooters or whatever they have in rural Okie? (BTW, did you see this incredible story about Waffle House? What great Americans. I am so going there, if I’m ever where there is one.)

Ree tells us when there are just womenfolk, they like to eat…herbs. Really? I don’t mind a good herb or two, but honestly, I have never segregated my cooking in that way. One food for the guys, one for the gals. I’m really having a hard time with this. I don’t like what it says about the state of male/female relations and I don’t like the message it sends to youth and the not-so-youthed.

Ree digs herself in even deeper telling us she can have the food she’s not allowed to serve to her husband. (Okay, she didn’t use the word “allowed” but that's what she meant.)

Ree is making a goat cheese (hubsters doesn’t like that either) starter. She puts it in the freezer for a few minutes so it’s easier to work with. Basically the entire appetizer is chopped up dill into which you roll a log of chilled goat cheese.

Couldn’t we have a bit more pizazz? How about a toasted nut or two? How about softening the goat cheese, adding some garlic and chopped sun-dried tomatoes, rolling it back into a log and covering THAT with fresh herbs? Her recipes seem to me to be good starting points, but they often need more…a lot more.

Oh, Ree said one good thing. She said to leave the chopped dill on the cutting board for a few minutes to dry out a bit. THAT makes sense. (I hope Ree distributes little compacts to her friends at the table, so they can pick out the monstrous amounts of dill that will be in their teeth.)

She tells us again, “LADD does not like goat cheese AT ALL, so this is perfect for a girl’s dinner.” I’m sorry, but I can’t help reading more into that. I’m really hoping there is no undue friction that leaves mama a’scared.

Next Ree makes sangria. You will not believe WHAT GOES INTO HER SANGRIA! It’s shocking. First she puts in diced red and green apples. Not that they’re verboten in sangria, but they are the first fruit to get soft and brown and, really, does anyone LIKE apple skin? It’s certainly not the first thing I turn to for a festive drink. Then green and red grapes go in. DITTO.

PINEAPPLE is next. Huh?!!! If she adds Kool-Aid, I’m leaving! Orange, lemon and lime slices are added. That’s okay. BUT LISTEN TO THIS – OMG! She adds chilled RED wine AND THEN chilled WHITE wine. No me digas! Seriously, I am offended and I don’t have a Spanish bone in my body. (Actually, both my children are, or could have been, Spanish, since they were both born in the heart of Madrid.)

This is sounding like the worst sangria ever. Next Ree adds orange-flavored rum. Truthfully, I’ve never even heard of that. She got the orange flavor right, but the rum? Is that perhaps why she added pineapple?

This IS entertaining, though. I really like watching something that I have never seen before and could never even have imagined. AND there’s more. Next is the orange-flavored VODKA.

Listen, Ree, add what you want to your punch, JUST DON’T CALL IT SANGRIA. Call it Garbage Pail Punch. Sugar syrup goes in and it goes into the refrigerator.

We see Ladd driving cows around a field and there are children on horses without helmets. That is objectionable.

Next Ree makes pizza. I’m happy she’s making her own dough. The addition of FOUR tablespoons of olive oil, though, does seem a bit much. It’s also interesting that she leaves it in the fridge for up to FOUR days. That’s called a cold rise and it’s a good way to develop the flavor. But I’ve always frozen it if it has to be unattended for that long, and, remember, it becomes harder to handle the longer you leave it. I would give it 3 days at the max. Ree rolls out the dough as thinly as she can. She’s making a fig and arugula pizza.

Ree spreads fig preserves on her rolled out pizza dough. What a fantastic idea! I have to give Pioneer Woman her due.

I LOVE the idea of the fig jam on pizza. I rarely serve brie without it. I’ve added it to the bottom of little tarts (often with brie on top). I’ve served it on French bread underneath sausage rounds. I’ve substituted it for mango chutney, but I’ve never put it on pizza. What a great, socially acceptable way to eat more jam. How did I never think of that before?

Ree finishes up the pizza with fresh mozzarella slices. She bakes it at 500° F for 10 minutes and tops it with prosciutto and arugula afterwards.

Ree toasts her gal pals and says it’s nice to not to have consider the guys for once when cooking. They serve themselves the goat cheese. Then Ree serves the pizza. She calls it a “girl friendly pizza”. They all like it, but their sangria glasses are left half-filled. I don’t blame them.

One of the guests feeds the (male) doggie something and says to him, “Can you say girl power?” FINALLY, someone has gotten the message.

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I added some dabs of fig jam to my last pizza, which had chorizo, sautéed mushrooms and onions and mozzarella. It was a fabulous addition. It went well with each ingredient separately and melted into the pizza beautifully.

Giada Leaves Out A Step

Giada At Home with Giada De Laurentiis

Viewer's Choice: Vegetarian

Grilled Herbed Tofu With Avocado Cream

Whole Grain Spaghetti With Brussels Sprouts And Mushrooms

Goat Cheese, Lentil And Brown Rice Rolls

Curried White Bean Dip

I love that Giada was doing vegetarian dishes today. I tuned in late while she was making her Herbed Tofu. Basically, she drizzled some olive oil over the tofu (the recipe says to brush it on) and then she smothered it in Herbes de Provence. That would be okay if they were going to be used to scent your grandmother’s underwear drawer, but personally, I would leave out the lavender and just make a quick mix of thyme, oregano, rosemary and basil. I’d probably leave out the fennel as well.

Giada grills the tofu beautifully on a grill pan. That's a nice pan. Is it one of hers from Kohl’s? Let’s look. Mmm…I can’t find it. OH, that’s the problem. HER cookware is from Target. Today she’s using a Panini Pan, which comes with a lid to use a press. $71.99 is the online price.

May I digress for a moment? That looks like a fine pan. It’s made from enameled cast iron and looks nice and heavy. All 7 reviews were positive. But I recall a Panini Pan that is extraordinary in its beauty and heft. It was Mario Batali’s and I gifted someone that pan in a magnificent apple green. It was so shiny and so substantial and gorgeous that I regret that I didn’t buy a second one…for me! It appears to be in short supply on every website that has it. Would I really want a “used” one from Amazon? Ew, and it’s in persimmon anyway.

Oh, I found one, actually two. They call it pesto green and believe me when I say that that picture does not do it justice!

What to do? I am, at this moment, without a grill pan and it WOULD match a particularly attractive apple green Dutch oven that’s sitting on my baker’s rack... I certainly wouldn’t admit it here, but let’s just say that there is a chance that I could be grilling my own batch of tofu in a very special pan…sometime soon...(in 5-8 business days) IF I HAD ordered it…

Back to business, let’s discuss my unhappiness with Giada’s bean dip. I get that she’s trying to throw together a quick dip without a lot of fuss. But that doesn’t mean that it has to be a humdrum version of what it COULD be.

What’s Giada’s big crime? She commits probably my number one pet peeve in the kitchen. (I actually have about 50 number one pet peeves). Giada doesn’t cook the curry powder or the other warm spices she’s adding to the beans. She’s just cavalierly throwing the dry spices into the food processor.

I would add an additional, admittedly slightly time-consuming, step. Pour a bit of oil in a pan, soften a small onion in it and then add the curry powder, cumin and cayenne. Stir it over low heat for two minutes and add it to the food processor with the other ingredients for a spicy flavor that will taste fully developed and not raw.

One more thing…and I know this is just me. Typically, folks add twice as much curry powder as cumin to whatever they’re making. Giada doesn’t downplay the cumin as much as many others do. She uses 2 teaspoons of Madras curry powder and 1½ teaspoons of cumin. I would add even more - at least 2 teaspoons of cumin with the curry powder and cayenne to the cooked onions.

The finished dip looked fine, but you and I know it could have been so much better. I liked her homemade pita chips, but I might have jazzed them up a bit with a little chili powder added to the seasoning.

The recipes were pretty good this week, but the reminder of a certain pan that my kitchen lacked was particularly helpful. Thanks for the suggestion, Giada.

Note: Is it weird that the URL for Giada's bean dip says it's BOBBY FLAY'S recipe? http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/curried-white-bean-dip-recipe/index.html

What's that about, I wonder?

Ina's Hamburgers Top Pioneer Woman's

Both Ina and Pioneer Woman made burgers last weekend. Ina’s were prime beef with NOTHING added (which was surprising even to the Contessa). PW’s were “ground beef” with Worcestershire sauce and heavy cream. Ree gave no reason for adding the heavy cream, except to say “because I can”, which was pretty unsatisfactory.

I watched Ina’s show after Ree’s and something clicked when I saw that Chef Laurent Tourondel was using the highest quality prime beef for his hamburgers. It had 20% fat and he saw no reason for additional ingredients. I have no idea what kind of beef Pioneer Woman was using, BUT if you’re using a leaner beef, then adding heavy cream to it is an interesting concept.

Let’s think about this. When you eat a big, juicy fatty burger, what does it taste like? What’s the mouth feel? We know that "fat is flavor" and, unfortunately, for burgers, at least, the higher the fat, the better we like the taste. And we get a nicer caramelization, so maybe adding heavy cream to the meat could take the place of using a higher fat meat to begin with.

I tried it. I made Ree’s sliders (with Ina’s extras). I used ground sirloin, which has 8 to 10% fat and I added about 2 tablespoons of heavy cream to one pound of meat, plus a splash of Worcestershire sauce. I definitely didn’t mix it up with a wooden spoon, which Ree did. That’s pure idiocy. But I did like that she measured the sliders in a ¼ cup scoop and Ree’s yield was EXACTLY right - 8 sliders to a pound of meat. I liked her thumbprint idea too, which Ree says inhibits the burger from poofing up. Whatever…the truth is that beef hamburgers are not my first choice anyway. I usually roll with veggie burgers, which I LOVE, and then I pile on the other stuff, so the burger itself is inconsequential.

But DID adding cream to the leaner beef approximate what a fattier burger would taste like? Did it take it to the level of a full-blown, topnotch burger and was it worth the extra fat calories to add the cream? Honestly, no, but I think it did make the leaner beef taste better. And anytime you can improve the flavor and feel of something, then great.

It’s also question of which you think reigns supreme –the burger itself OR the total package of the burger with lots of delicious things on it. Each of us must come to our own conclusion. I’ve already said it’s the toppings that does it for me and I’d probably be just as happy eating them over a bowl of brown rice as a burger of any stripe. But if beef is your thing, then starting out with a higher grade (more fat) beef is probably the way to go and adding a bit of cream to lean hamburger meat is not going to cut the mustard.

In conclusion, the cream belongs more on a cobbler or in my coffee than in a burger.

Here are the recipes I used:

Ree’s Sliders

Ina’s Sweet Potato Fries

Laurent Tourondol’s Guacamole and Pickle Mayonnaise

Look at the pickle mayonnaise on the top bun running onto the plate? That stuff is good!

I put the slider on one bun, covered it with guacamole and a pickle slice. I added some bacon for good measure too. The pickle mayonnaise went on the other bun, along with sautéed mushrooms and onions and a slice of tomato.

Ina's sweet potatoes fries were good too. But she's right that they don't hold for long. Leftovers would make a good stand-in for the butternut in Ina’s Roasted Butternut Salad with dried cranberries.

Ina Asks The Perennial Question - What Goes Into A Good Hamburger?

Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten

BC Burger Joint

Seafood Stock

Seafood Chowder 

LT Backyard Burger

LT Guacamole Burger

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing with Bibb Lettuce

Baked Sweet Potato "Fries" 

Baked Potatoes 

Balsamic Onions 

Ina says she’s making “America’s favorite food” and “everything that goes with it”. Okie dokie, but then why is Seafood Chowder the first thing that she’s making? Not that I don’t love a good chowdah, but with hamburgers? Not the norm.

Oh, perhaps I’m misinformed (not the first time and probably not the last). Ina says chowder is a staple at old fashioned burger joints. Really? I must be really out of touch.

Ina brings out a huge container of juicy, peeled and deveined shrimp. (I just cannot bring myself to buy them that way. They’re SO expensive. But every time I’m standing at the sink with the little paring knife and kitchen scissors, I always think I’ve miscalculated that decision. If I’m buying a few, I think, oh that’s not so bad, it won’t take so long and if I’m buying a lot, I think there’s no way I’m paying that much for deveined shrimp.)

Ina places a ½ lb. of scallops and crab meat on the board and monk fish too. She cuts the monk fish into pieces and the scallops in half. For the base of the chowder, Ina has already cooked carrots, onions, celery, potatoes and corn in a stick of butter. Everything (but the corn, of course) is cut into a MEDIUM dice. That’s bigger than I usually do it, but it’s a good idea. It gives more heft to the finished soup. I also love that Ina cooks the vegetables long and slow. That’s going to bring out the sweetness of the onions and carrots.

Next she adds ¼ cup of flour to the softened vegetables and cooks it for 3 minutes. That’s good that she makes a point of the cooking time. I usually turn on my digital timer and put the burner on the lowest possible heat, stirring often. When I’m adding spices to softened onions, I also turn on the timer and cook the mixture for 3 minutes, or at least 2, to take the raw taste away.

Next Ina adds a quart of seafood stock, which she says you can make yourself from shrimp shells or buy it. Her stock looks gorgeous and rich enough to have on its own. I SHOULD always use shrimp shells to make stock, but I admit I usually use a mix of clam juice, vegetable stock and white wine. She adds the stock and brings it to a boil.

Oh listen to this!!! The Contessa just called me out! She says she’s tried substituting clam juice AND IT JUST DOESN’T WORK! WELL! I’ve used clam juice MANY times in chowder, (not fish soups, I admit, and this has some similarity to that, but I’m sticking with my clam juice).

Ina turns the heat to low and adds all the seafood and cooks the soup for 7 to 10 minutes. She says not to stir it too much. She readies 2 tablespoons of roughly chopped parsley. She adds 2 tablespoons of cream (of course, she does) and lots of salt (of course, she does) and pepper.

This is interesting. Ina is using that same type of big bowled wooden spoon to stir her soup as Pioneer Woman used to mix her sliders. I think Ina made the better choice of implement. Stirring soup is one thing, beating a ground beef mixture to death is another.

Ina serves herself the finished soup with a big sprinkle of parsley. You know what would also be good? Adding fennel. I don’t like licorice usually, but I like that flavor with seafood.

On to the burgers. Ina says she and Jeffrey love LT Burger in Sag Harbor. It’s run by Laurent Tourondel. (I wonder if HE has chowder on his menu. He doesn’t, but just look how yummy this menu looks. There are about a hundred things I would order.)

Ooh! She’s “convinced Laurent to come to the Barn” to show her how to make burgers.

He starts with prime beef which has 20% fat. Ina is amazed at what goes into the hamburger. Guess what Laurent adds to the ground meat. Absolutely nothing. Nothing at all, but excellent ground beef. Laurent says to pat it gently into burgers and not to compress it. He uses 7 oz. of beef per hamburger.

Oh wait, there IS some extra fiddling. Laurent brushes each hamburger liberally with soft butter and then gives it a good dose of salt and pepper. (I have to admit I’m cringing a bit, because of how he’s brushing on the butter. He brushed the butter on the hamburgers from a big piece of butter (in a bowl). Then he does it again and again. Of course, that’s fine if you’re not using the butter for anything else, but then why did he have to start with such a large amount. Plus, I’m looking carefully to see where he puts that brush. Please, oh please, have a little plate to put it on. Don’t put it on the counter where there’s lettuce and tomato. OH and it’s not only the brush I should be worried about! The hamburgers themselves are on Ina’s wooden board just inches from lettuce. Do you know how to say cross-contamination in French?

The hamburgers cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side on a hot griddle. Then Laurent shows Ina how to make pickle mayonnaise. I like it, although it basically sounds like tartar sauce. We see a video of him making it in his restaurant kitchen. Laurent mixes together mayonnaise and ketchup (oh maybe it’s more like Russian Dressing) with pickle relish and cornichons (bien sur!), Laurent adds some chopped pickled jalapeno and…Cognac! That’s exciting! He seasons it with salt (probably doesn’t need much - or any) and pepper.

Back to the burgers, they turn them and Laurent adds some slices of mecox cheddar on top. Then he makes guacamole.

He’s prepared the rolls by buttering them and then putting them on the grill for just a minute to capture some of the beef juices. BTW, Laurent says you know when they’re done when you press down and some juice comes out on top. (I’m trying not to make a fuss, but he appears to be plating the burgers ON THE VERY SAME BOARD WHERE HE FORMED THE RAW HAMBURGER.)

We practically drool as he assembles his hamburgers. The hamburgers go on the bottom bun. Laurent tops them with lettuce (which was inches from the raw meat), tomato (that was too). Laurent spreads some of his fabulous pickle mayonnaise on the inside of the top bun and THEN he adds some guacamole. AND there’s a pickle on top too. He closes the whole thing up and cuts it half to help Ina eat it. She’s says it’s amazing.

Ina moves on to side dishes. She wants to show us how to make real buttermilk ranch dressing, without the packet. She processes together scallions, fresh basil, lemon juice, Dijon, “good” olive oil, chopped garlic and lots of salt and pepper until really smooth. She adds one cup of “good” mayonnaise, Greek yogurt and buttermilk. She purées it all in the food processor.

I find that when adding a lot of puréed things to yogurt, it’s better to stir them in rather than processing the mixture, because the whole thing can get too runny. The fact that Ina is using GREEK yogurt makes that less likely, but I would still purée all those other ingredients with the mayo and then stir THAT into the yogurt and buttermilk by hand. Hers does look quite liquid-y.

To go with the dressing, which Ina likes to make it at least an hour in advance, she makes a salad with big wedges of Boston lettuce which she had plated with tomato wedges and few rings of red onion, (which could have been sliced thinner). She spoons over the ranch dressing. It looks fab. She adds (more) salt and pepper.

Next Ina is making sweet potato fries. She cuts halved and peeled sweet potatoes into long spears and places them onto a baking sheet. She drizzles them first with olive oil and then sprinkles over a mixture of brown sugar, salt and pepper. She bakes them at 450°F for 20 to 25 minutes, turning them once. Ina says they don’t hold as long as white potatoes do. She adds more salt. They look gorgeous.

Ask Ina is next. John wants a “sauce” for a hamburger to give it some “punch” Ina suggests balsamic onions and blue cheese. Sounds fantastic, but I wouldn’t characterize it as a sauce.

Daniel has the next question and wants to know why hamburgers are called hamburgers if they have no ham. Pardon my language, but REALLY! (Ina is so patient.)

The next questioner wants to know how to get soft, gooey brownies and how to store them. What in the blinkin’ world does that have to do with hamburgers?!!

Saint Ina calmly explains to underbake them just a bit to keep the center soft. She adds that when you fold semisweet chocolate chips into the batter, THAT makes them gooey. Huh? It does? How? I add chocolate chips to the best brownies ever made, but they don’t melt into the batter, so why would those make it gooier? It’s a Barefoot mystery, I guess.

Ina gives us an extra tip about storing brownies. She wraps the entire (uncut) pan of brownies (on the top and bottom) with plastic wrap. She says that keeps all the moisture out. Then she refrigerates them.

She wraps individual brownies in plastic wrap. Listen to this next tip, which is the single most useful thing I’ve heard in YEARS! Place the brownie on a diagonal on the piece of plastic wrap. Then pull the corners taut. By doing it on the diagonal, the plastic stretches more and you get a more airtight seal. OMG, I tried it and it’s true! And I consider myself something of a plastic wrap queen. I love making it so tight that a quarter could bounce of it. (Okay, that’s for sheets, but you get the idea.) I’ve been testing it on EVERYTHING I wrap with plastic – covering bowls, ears of corn, the end of a cucumber and it’s amazing! Thank you, Ina, for changing my life. (Doesn’t Oprah say that one of the secrets to a happy life is to be grateful for small things?)

The last question in Ask Ina is how to get a really crispy baked potato. She says not to wrap it in foil. Sorry, but duh, is there anyone who would do that and not understand that that would steam the potato?!! (That question was a real let-down after the previous one resulted in such astounding advice.)

Anyway, the Contessa method for a crisp baked potato - Use Idaho russets, scrub the outside well and bake at 350°F right on the baking rack in the over for 45 to 60 minutes. And, look! There happens to be a cooked one sitting in the oven. Ina makes a slit in the top, squeezes it open a bit and adds some butter with “lots of salt and pepper”. She eats it at her computer. Just what I love to snack on…

Pioneer Woman – Hate Her? Love Her?

Pioneer Woman with Ree Drummond

Surprise Birthday

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

Macaroni and Cheese

Sliders

Macaroni and Cheese and Sliders Bar

Chocolate Sheet Cake

I can't answer the question in the title, at least not yet, because I know very little about Pioneer Woman. I decided that, for once, instead of prejudging and listening to gossip and innuendo (some of my favorite pastimes), I would see for myself what I thought about the Pioneer Woman’s cooking. Because for me, it IS about the cooking. Would Ree teach me something on her new Food Network show that I didn’t know? Would she get me to look at an ingredient in a new way or even (I’m setting the bar quite low, I think) give me one tiny truc that I could walk away with.

And, frankly, although I’ve never met one personally, I AM predisposed to like Pioneer Women…in general. I like their sturdy, no-nonsense, get-it-done attitude. I am SO at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to bravery. I wouldn’t even let the exterminator take the bug calendar give-away out of his bag, it creeped me out so much. He was a little hurt and said kids really liked them, but I didn’t want so much as PICTURES of rodents on my counter.

Let's see what’s going on with Pioneer Woman, the show and its recipes - not the blog, not the gal herself, not her promotions machine, not the book, not the movie. Okay…maybe the whole thing is a tad annoying.

The episode starts. I’m thinking she had me at “Welcome to my frontier.” Am I really so easy and is that something that she often says?

I’ve never met anyone with a frontier before. And those kids ARE adorable, that cowboy husband IS hot and unless you’re going to tell me she got them from central casting, they have to be real. Don’t they?

I don’t get all the cow herding. What’s it all for? I thought you took cows somewhere far away to graze and then brought them back at night. They seem to be shuffling the cows around the house.

Ree’s making lemon blueberry pancakes. They're easy to put together – cake flour, sugar and baking powder are mixed together and lemon juice is added to whole milk to make it sour. (Of course, you could use yogurt or buttermilk too.) Hey! Ree just said that. I think we’re going to get along just fine, y’all. Sorry, wrong vernacular. What do they say in her parts? Yippee cow-ay!

Ree says to use whole milk, while the recipe on the FN website says evaporated milk. Actually, various reviews say there’s too much milk in general - 1½ cups to a little over 1½ cups of flour.

That’s actually exactly how much I use in my favorite pancake recipe (from the ORIGINAL New York Times Cookbook from the stone ages). The recipe calls for less milk, but I always bump it up to 1½ cups (at least).

Ree adds the egg to the milk with what she says is her favorite addition to any pancake recipe - lots of vanilla. The lemon zest also goes in and then the wet ingredients are added to the dry.

Ree tells us that when she was growing up, her mother brought her breakfast in bed for every birthday. My mother didn’t do that…not that she wouldn’t have…if she had thought of it, BUT I DO THAT FOR MY KIDS!

See? Ree and I are pretty similar, except MY hot husband definitely does not ride a horse to work every morning.

Oh, I jumped the gun. Ree says on a working ranch, when kids are working with their father from early morning, breakfast in bed doesn’t happen. But they’ll have the pancakes when they return from their chores.

More cow shots. I’m nervous about where those cows are going to end up. What kind of a ranch is this anyway?

Meanwhile, Ree is adding melted butter and blueberries (picked from the back 40?) to the batter. She pours the batter onto a griddle that’s been coated with more melted butter. (I have to say that doesn’t look like a griddle that been on the range for 25 years, but more like one she picked up from Kohl’s the day before.)

Ree uses a ¼ cup measuring cup for the batter. Then Ree tells us how she couldn’t imagine life without their wonderful 7 year old, Todd. Oh gosh, is he sick? Is there going to be some sad story coming about why they might have to go through life without him? Thank goodness, no. It was just a weird way to talk about her kid. Don’t worry me like that again, Ree! Did I mention that today’s show is food for Todd’s 7th birthday?

Ree fixes her “baby’s” plate for him with a big pat of butter on top and warm maple syrup from the stove. (I really shouldn’t skip that step when serving pancakes.)

Ree is driving up to The Lodge, where she’s planning a surprise birthday party for Todd. Is that a local hotel? Oh, that’s where friends stay and they have parties. (She’s certainly one-upped Ina’s idea of a next door Barn.)

I don’t like the idea of surprise parties for kids. Sometimes kids don’t do well when things are sprung on them. Plus isn’t he wondering why he’s not having a party? Just saying….

Ree says the great thing about The Lodge is that it’s always clean and ready to go. (I could see someone being slightly bugged by that remark.) She’s making mac and cheese. For some reason her mac and cheese recipe isn’t on the Food Network, but it’s here.

Ree starts by making a roux with butter and flour over medium low heat, as she explains that their kids’ birthday parties aren’t usually with 50 kids running around with piñatas. They are normally family affairs. I like that. Outside, the boys are spraying the cattle with water. I’m guessing these scenes are to add a bit of local color.

Ree adds the milk to the roux and cooks 2 lbs. of macaroni. (She kind of brags that that’s a lot. Really? H and I can scarf down a pound in one sitting or maybe two.)

Ree adds 4 teaspoons of dried mustard to the roux. She’s says if that’s too much, add half at first. Then she “takes it over the top” and adds beaten eggs.

I have to say I’ve added many things to white sauces – cream, tomato, curry, heels of onion...but never eggs. She tells us about tempering the eggs first, by adding in a bit of hot white sauce slowly and then adding the egg mixture very slowly to the white sauce.


Ree cooks it for at least 5 minutes, then adds a whole bunch of grated sharp cheddar. Very nice, but I love a bit of red pepper for a bite. Oh, she’s adding quite a bit of black pepper, so same difference. She adds the macaroni in and stirs it all together. She’s so impressed by the amount she’s made. Eh! She sprinkles extra cheese on top.

Okay, her presentation IS a little hokey. Her lines are delivered a bit deadpan. In a complete monotone, she says, “Have you ever seen anything like this macaroni and cheese?”

Actually, yes I have, and, sorry, Ree, but MY macaroni and cheese is SO MUCH better than yours. She is kind of sweet and homey, but there is a way to improve that recipe by leaps and bounds. Actually ANY mac and cheese recipe can be improved in this way.

This is what you do, no matter what recipe you’re using: 

Soften a chopped onion in the amount of butter that your recipe calls for in the roux. (Really soften it, without browning, by sweating it over low heat after bringing it to a sizzle. Add diced carrots and half a diced red pepper to the onion, if you want.) Raise the heat and add 2 big handfuls of chopped mushrooms. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes until they give up a bit of liquid.

NOW, just proceed with your recipe. Add the flour, cook on low heat for 3 minutes, stirring. Add any spices or dried mustard here. Add the milk, really slowly, stirring all the time. Cook, after mixture comes to a simmer, for 5 to 8 minutes or until thick. Then add your cheese. And can you imagine what a little bacon would do? Finish as usual by mixing the cooked pasta with the vegetable enriched cheese sauce and pour it into a baking dish. Sprinkle with more cheese and bake.

(Take this up a notch even more, by scalding your milk with the heel of an onion, a bay leaf and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg. It’s unreal. You can do this for every white sauce.)

Ree is making sliders with Paige (her teen daughter?) in the background taking a cake – a chocolate sheet cake, “her specialty” – out of the oven.

Let me get this straight. Is this a pattern on the ranch? The boys wrassle cattle and the gals make the grub? THAT I don’t love. Plus the girls were riding earlier, so does that mean that they have to do BOTH things, while the guys only do the outside stuff?

On to the sliders, Ree had added salt and pepper to her ground beef. Then she says we might be shocked by her adding heavy cream to the meat. Not really. I’m not bothered one way or the other. She says with sliders you only have a couple of bites for the taste to shine through, so the cream makes for “a rich experience”. That makes sense to me.

I hate that Ree’s using a big bowled wooden spoon to mix up the meat. I think it compresses the ground beef and doesn’t get it thoroughly mixed. Also, I don’t put wooden things in the dishwasher, which means this has to be washed by hand and there will be all those raw meat bits splashing all over the sink. (That’s the same reason behind not washing chicken. You risk getting more yucky stuff around the kitchen than you’re actually removing.)

Ree adds 6 or 7 dashes of Worcestershire sauce to the meat, again with the wooden spoon. Ree uses a 2 oz. scoop or ¼ cup measure to make the sliders. She forms them into patties and presses a thumb down in the middle to make a little indentation, so the slider doesn’t “poof” up.

Paigie has poured some kind of ganache-y icing over her sheet cake, which was baked in a really short-sided jelly roll pan, not a sheet pan. Interesting. I don’t mind that, because I prefer a bigger icing-to-cake ratio anyway.

The family is at the Lodge. Todd comes in and everyone shouts SURPRISE. He looks a bit flustered. I really don’t like this surprise idea. He opens his presents which include spurs and a rope for roping cattle. Wow, thanks a hunk…(?) Todd doesn’t look that thrilled. I suppose a Ken doll is out of the question, but couldn’t he have gotten a set of Lincoln Logs, at least? I guess they do that for real out on “the frontier”.

He calls his mother “Mama” and his father “Papa”. How could I teach my kids to do that instead of “Hey!” Or “You over there with the checkbook!”

Aren’t the presents supposed to be opened after cake? They really do things differently in Big Sky Country. Are they even IN Big Sky Country? Oh well, I like the way it sounds. Maybe they figure a typhoon will come down from the mountains and they want the presents opened first. I guess this isn’t the land of typhoons, but I bet they have some exotic weather events there. Wait! What am I talking about? An earthquake and a hurricane INLAND on the East Coast in the SAME week IS as exotic as things could be!

Meanwhile Papa is outside at a grill, which is the size of a barn, stoking up the charcoal. Is that the correct expression for what cowboys do with charcoal?

Ree tells us she could just serve regular sliders and mac and cheese, but she prefers to serve them with lots of toppings. Oh, THAT explains why her main recipes were so bland, because she’s going to put lots of goodies on top. She’s got peppered bacon (bacon that you add pepper to or bacon to which pepper has already been added? Dunno.) and slow cooked onions. And? Gorgonzola.

Hubby tells us the sliders should take 5 or 6 minutes a side to cook. I guess they like their meat completely dried out pretty well-cooked. (The recipe says 2 to 3 minutes on each side.)

Meanwhile, Todd is giving Gramps and Grandma big hugs (unless being on the range has aged Auntie and Uncle extremely prematurely). I DO agree with Ree that lots of family IS the best kind of birthday party.

Ree gets out the Gorgonzola and crumbles it up. I guess that’s it. Even with those toppings, I would still do my mushroom and onion thingie to the cheese sauce for the mac and cheese. Papa comes in with a massive platter of cooked sliders.

(It’s SO out of context, but I can’t help thinking of Barbra singing “Papa, can you hear me?”, while dressed in a Jewish boy’s clothes and yearning for Mandy Patinkin, who’s yearning for Amy Irving.)

Back to the birthday boy’s meal, there’s no green salad? No potato salad? No corn? I guess each person will just have 8 sliders.

Ree brings out the cake and lets all the kids decorate it with…guess what? Toy cows…and candy. Is that a big enough cake for everyone? Isn’t there any ice cream on the ranch?

At the end of the episode, we see Ree blogging about the party.

So what did I think of Pioneer Woman (the show)? There could have been more oomph to her recipes, as well as just more recipes. Where were the baked beans? Isn’t that de rigueur on a ranch? And what about grilled corn with something gooey all over it?

But, overall, I didn’t find too much to object to. Remember, that I’m coming to Pioneer Woman fresh. I never read her blog. I know she’s phenomenally successful and I saw her on a quick Today Show appearance awhile ago, but she really hasn’t been on my radar.

I could see how someone might think the whole Food Network show was a kind of vanity project, but isn’t that true any time you’re on television?

Others say she’s a sham and her real life is a lot cushier than we’re led to believe. Well, it already looks pretty comfortable to me and I can’t really object to PW (the show) if the only problem is that it isn’t real. Obviously, that poses no problem for me. If it did, I wouldn’t have 36 hours of the Real Housewives clogging up my TiVo. Note I said they were ON my TiVo, not that I had actually watched (all of) them.

Plus I have to ask this. Is it possible that the backlash against Ree is from sheer jealousy?

And, naturally, I don’t exclude myself from those who are bitter and twisted over her amazing success, but I must be softening in my old(er) age. I just don’t find that much to hate. And believe me there are people that I detest, often for no reason. Even though I am a renowned grudge-holder, Ree just doesn’t rile me up.

Do I adore her as much as Ina? No. Do I enjoy her as I do Paula? No. Do I feel as if I have as much to learn from her as I do from Anne? Definitely not. But I do respect anyone who achieves success based on hard work. Of course, if Ree started out with a silver spur on her boot, there’s less to admire than with someone like Martha. She’s worked her way up the food chain like a mad woman, and so has Rachael Ray, whose work ethic I admire, even if her cooking leaves something to be desired.

I’m not trying to be a goodie-goodie, but I think Ree on TV is fine. She’s kind of funny. I actually prefer her show to her blog, which I just took a look at. Frankly, it’s a little complicated. It looks like it’s perfect for someone with ADD. There are all kinds of little boxes and places to click and go. Do I go to Confessions or Cooking or Juice Bags(?)??? It’s just too much.

It seems as if it would take centuries to read all the entries and sub-categories in all the different areas and sections. I’m not quite ready to do a thesis on Pioneer Woman-dom, but if I ever am, I sure know where to go for more than enough material.

Note: My blogging buddy, Rachel wrote a really interesting post about Pioneer Woman and she has quite a few issues with Ree. One of the most serious is the lack of riding safety on the Drummond ranch. Of course, I know nothing about that and would only feel safe riding a horse if it was in a video game, but it sounds appalling to let children ride without helmets. Adults too. Oh gosh, am I going to have to start holding a grudge?