A week with the Pioneer Woman: Day 2

A week with the Pioneer Woman: Day 2: Food From My Frontier
A couple years after I discovered Ree Drummond (meaning, I bought a copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl at Costco), I was surprised but happy to find Food From My Frontier in about the same place at the same Costco. This should tell you two things about me: one, I shop at Costco often (honestly, it's only once a month) and B, I don't get out to bookstores nearly as often as I should, as evidenced by the fact that I found both of these great cookbooks in the same warehouse where I buy paper towels and Ritz crackers in bulk. 
What surprised when I saw the book was that The Pioneer Woman had more recipes to offer. The first book, I felt, was a nearly complete volume of midwestern comfort food. It turns out I was right on one count: it was nearly complete. Looking back these many years later, it shouldn't have surprised me that Ree Drummond had crafted a successful brand, and this would be the first of many sequels to come. I was happy to see the second book for exactly that reason: if there were two, there would likely be a third if sales were good. I was happy to do my part and snatch up a copy.
In Food From My Frontier, we see photos from Drummond's ranch house for the first time. This is also the location where she would start filming her Food Network show, and I got to visit it!  I went to the ranch on a road trip to Powhuska, Oklahoma last spring (I'll share some pics on Day 7). In the book, there are more pictures of her kids, a few years older, and the dogs, livestock, and beautiful scenes from the Oklahoma ranch. And of course there are plenty of pictures in the step-by-step instructions for all the recipes.
Much of the appeal of The Pioneer Woman is the longing of city people to lead a simpler life on the ranch, to get back to a time when when families worked together on shared projects, and ate together at communal meals. Drummond makes it all seem so easy with the pictures of life on the ranch, with kids and dogs and cowboys enjoying life on the midwestern plains. Of course, she does suggest that the mornings are wicked early, she's in the kitchen much of the day, and the ranch life is exhausting.  Still, the appeal is there, and it's easy to buy into a part of that dream.  Drummond is also a talented photographer, and she took most of the wonderful photographs throughout the books.
A bigger part of the success is the recipes are tasty, the pictures help illustrate what's happening in the process as you prepare the recipe, and the ingredients are commonly found. Plus, it's really easy for suburban households on a busy schedule to make tasty meals using the recipes from the Pioneer woman's frontier.
A few highlights in this cookbook that are still bookmarked and that I've made in my own kitchen include: Orange sweet rolls (p. 14 - 16), basic chicken salad (p. 50 - 51), sloppy joes (p. 58 - 59), French onion soup (p. 84 - 85), restaurant-style salsa (with the help of RoTel!) (p. 92 -93), fried chicken tacos (p. 162 -  164), Shepherd's Pie (p. 168 - 169), white chicken enchiladas (p. 186 - 189), and buttered rosemary rolls (p. 228 - 229).  
Food From My Frontier also contains my absolute favorite return to time-and-time again ice cream recipe: blackberry chip ice cream. Drummond tells the story of a friend who brought her some Graeter's ice cream from Ohio. I lived in Columbus for a year back when I worked in television news and was addicted not just to Graeter's ice cream, but to that very blackberry chip ice cream flavor. I've even had it flown in packed in dry ice. A couple summers ago I stopped in Columbus for a double scoop, then loaded my cooler full of ice and drove across several states to bring some home to my freezer. The original is just that good.  And to be honest, this version on pages 263 - 265 is a really, really close proximity. This recipe alone has saved me hundreds of dollars in shipping costs getting Graeter's flown to me! Just writing about it makes me want to whip up a batch and enjoy.  Side note: this ice cream on top of warm brownies, or between two double chocolate chip cookies, is about as close to heaven as you can get. In my opinion, of course.
Drummond closes this cookbook with some recipes on canning, something I didn't use until my own gardens took off a couple years back. There are two canning recipes: strawberry jam and sweet lime pickles.