Ree Drummond's Blog, page 90

Beer-Braised Beef with Onions

I wasn't even sure what to call this. All I knew was, I made a pot roast and used beer for the liquid instead of broth or wine or water or consomme.

I wasn't sure whether to call it "Beer Pot Roast" or "Pot Roast with Beer" or "Beer Roast" or "Drunk Pot Roast." None sounded appealing. So I decided to go with a standard title for such a dish: Beer-Braised Pot Roast. And that's exactly what it is: Pot Roast with the beef braised in beef.

But then I changed my mind. It is technically a pot...

Layered Salad

This is a simple and beautiful salad, and a staple at potlucks and luncheons in my area of the country. You can vary the ingredients according to your taste and what you have in your fridge, and you can dress it up a bit with fresh herbs, Gorgonzola cheese—whatever makes your skirt fly up! The standard ingredients in most layered salads are lettuce or spinach (or both!) hard boiled eggs, crumbled bacon, grated cheese, green onions, and green peas, which are layered in a pretty glass bowl so t...

Fried Round Steak

You're just going to have to trust me on this one.

I've been living in the country, among picky kids and cowboys, for almost fourteen years. During that fourteen years, I have accumulated valuable knowledge about what people in my world will, and will not, eat.

They will not, for instance, eat poached Chilean sea bass. I can't close my eyes and wish for something to be so that isn't so. It just isn't going to happen.

They will, 100% of the time and without hesitation, however, eat fried round ...

Homemade Cinnamon Bread

I baked cinnamon bread last night.

I wanted it.

I baked it

And then, this morning…I ate it! I didn't want to be rude. To myself.

Juicy rationalizations aside, there are few things yummier than homemade cinnamon bread. Eat it sliced off the loaf, toasted and smeared with butter…or step things up and use it to make French or cinnamon toast. And take delight in knowing that no storebought version of this stuff will ever, ever compare.

Like, ever.

I left the raisins out, as I wanted to keep things...

Curried Chicken Pasta Salad

I had some visitors on the ranch last week. I made the beds, dusted the furniture, and did what any self-respecting hostess would do:

I bought 'em a bunch of ready-made salads at Whole Foods, stuck 'em in the fridge at the Lodge, and left my guests a note that read "Have at it!"

It's the kind of hostess I am.

Okay, listen. The visitors weren't here to eat my food, anyway. And I was busy last week, man—way too busy to cook and entertain. It's a ranch wife thing. And since I knew there was a...

Meexer Weeners

The winners of the big and strong KitchenAid mixers are:

#21052 MrsSoup: "Katherine de Roet. John of Gaunt's wife and an ancestor of Henry VIII."

#1870 Pink Passion Flower: "I would love to have dinner with Oprah, followed by Inyala Vazant, followed by Jane Austen – maybe starter, maincourse and dessert?"

#6689 Laura: "I could never choose between my two grandmothers, both of whom I miss intensely. Don't make me choose!"

Congratulations, winners! Contact prizes@thepioneerwoman.com to claim your l...

Big and Strong

Today, because it's Tuesday, because we're (Hallelujah) getting a huge rain this morning, because I'm cooking for a surprise birthday party tonight (Ssshhhhh! Don't tell!) and because I love ya, I'm giving away three (3) KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixers in this industrial (read: not shiny and red) "Imperial Black" color. It's big, strong…and gray. Need I say more?

 
Also included is this handy attachment set, which will allow you to grate, chop, grind, extrude, and solve many of the world's...

Portobello-Prosciutto Burgers

Yes, I'm married to a cattle rancher. Why do you ask?

This is definitely one of those recipes that leaves Marlboro Man and pretty much any self-respecting cowboy in the region scratching his head and wondering what its purpose on earth is. Mushrooms disguising themselves as beef: are you aware of this phenomenon? I have a mushroom recipe in my cookbook (I prepared it on the TODAY show a couple of weeks ago) that is so out of this world delicious, I can't even wrap my brain around it. That...

Simple Sesame Noodles

I'll be spending the weekend cooking some new recipes and making such a mess of my kitchen I'll want to cry and burn down the house and move. I'm really looking forward to it!In the meantime, because it's Friday, I'm bringing this, one of my all-time favorite recipes, up to the front. It's cool, easy, and the perfect thing to get us through the remaining days of this inferno some humans are referring to as "Summer".

 

Sometimes, simple is best.

Often, simple is best.

Most of the time, simple i...

Raspberry Crisp

This is the time of year when the recipes I make are often determined by the abundance of ingredients in my kitchen or fridge, and how quickly I need to get rid of them. For various reasons, I returned from my trip to New York to find pints and pints of raspberries languishing in my fridge. I'd already made Raspberry Cream Pie before I left last week, and I'm going to use most of the rests of the berries to make raspberry jam tomorrow. But last night I decided to whip up a quick baked fruit c...