The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl

{From the About Page on Ree Drummond’s latest venture, Tasty Kitchen}

She writes.  She home schools.  She takes pictures.  And, of course, she cooks.  But who knew she was a gorgeous head turner in a pair of size 8s?  How a woman who routinely makes love to sticks of butter manages to look so damn good will forever remain a mystery to me.

Good for her. She seems too nice and down to earth for me to begrudge her a pair of skinny genes jeans.  But, still.  Damn!

I bought it; did you?

I’ll be creative once I finish the 7th book in the Outlander Series. Has anyone else spent the summer reading each of the 870+ books in the series?  Yes, that’s roughly 5300 pages of 18th century historical fiction in three months for those of you at home who are keeping track.  My constitutional law professor would be so proud.

{photo via The Newlywed Diaries}

Yesterday on The Bright Side Project we featured Janice Rusnak of Papier Valise.  For those of you who are crafty, she needs no introduction.  She is the go-to shop for the little bips and bobs you need to complete your latest artistic endeavor.  She’s the craftista’s dealer, if you will.

I used to be crafty.  Creative, even.  In fact, in school there were two subjects at which I excelled–reading/writing and art.  Writing the Papier Valise feature reminded me of that, and how little crafting I do these days.  I’ve kind of become a one trick pony–if you consider staying up until 1am reading a trick a pony would do.

I’ve made up my mind to change all that.  Less reading, more action.  To that end, I’m going to start working on projects around the house a bit more.  I’ve already tackled one project, my kitchen back splash, which resulted in THE RED SHARPIE OF DEATH.  At first I hated it because every time I walked into the kitchen I thought SHARPIE!!  But since I was able to clean the furniture, I’m backing to thinking it looks pretty good.  I mean, Design*Sponge isn’t blowing up my inbox, but it doesn’t look like a bachelor pad, either.

This is where you come in.  Who are you reading now for design tips?  I have all the major players in my reader, and now I want some of the new kids on the block I may have missed during the decorating hiatus I took this last year.  Things I like: before and afters, real homes, reasonable budgets, and a healthy mix of modern and traditional.  Every other week I like a different style (no surprise that I am all over the map) but I consistently enjoy Jennifer and Wes at The Newlywed Diaries.   Jennifer always features a nice mix of modern and traditional that doesn’t seem so damn trendy (Hello, cow  hides, antlers, owls, shell rockers, quirky pillows, and ironic posters).  My favorite post hands down is Right Amount of Black, mainly because I am injecting more and more black in my home and love that Martha and I both have cream cabinets and soapstone counters in our kitchen.

So tell me who you are reading, because I need to immerse myself in creative people, get thoroughly intimidated, and then decide to do nothing because it won’t measure up to my insane need to do things perfect on the first try.

Kidding!

Sort of.

But, really, I do want to hear about your favorites.

I just finished a fun, yet impossibly hard quiz on Facebook thanks to my friend, Ange.  In fifteen minutes you are supposed to list fifteen books that will always stick with you. How is this even possible?!  I did my best, but this was sheer book torture.  Here are the rules I received and my original list.

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note–upper right hand side.)

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez
2. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig
4. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquival
5. The World According to Garp by John Irving
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
7. A Widow for a Year by John Irving
8. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
9. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
10. The Trial by Franz Kafka
11. The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyers {by no means fine literature, it did inspire me to start reading again and kept me on my diet during those rough first weeks.  consequently, this series will always have a special place in my heart}
12. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
13. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
14. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
15. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Bonus Short Stories: The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, and that one by Anton Chekov about the torture device.

As you can see, I couldn’t help but cheat and include some of my favorite short stories.  As you can also see, I forgot to include Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, anything by David Sedaris, and a few short stories by Jorje Luis Borjes.  I am telling you, this game is impossible.  Impossible!  I imagine as more of my friends on facebook do the quiz, the more titles I will remember.

Still, this got me all excited the way only books can.  At the  beginning of summer we came up with a strong list of light and fluffy, now we need to come up with an equally strong list of hard and chewy.  Books that everyone must read, at least once, because they are a testament to the genre, or make you think, or change your life and leave you better for having read them.  I know, it’s impossible, but we are going to try.  Then we are going to make this our Fall/Winter reading list.  While everyone else is buying long cardigans and plum eye shadows, we book lovers will be cruising the libraries and book stores.

In looking at my list, I realize that I must break it down by genre or the list will stand woefully incomplete.   Aside from the missing fiction I already mentioned, there are some nonfiction titles that deserve to be on there and, believe it or not, I do have some titles from law school I could add as well.

I’m going to list our Fall/Winter book list here for convenience.  I don’t expect I will be able to read all of them in one season since they aren’t light and fluffy.  Oh, and since the list is going to come from your suggestions, pony up!  If you decide to write your own fifteen on your blog, please link back here leave a comment so I can check out your list.

Fall/Winter Reading List {an ongoing project}

1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
2. The Winter of Our Discontent by Steinbeck
3. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
4. Mrs. Dolloway by Virgina Woolf
5. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
6. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

And these are books I found on my shelf–some I don’t know how I came to own?

1. The Crystal Fronteir by Carlos Fuentes
2. Saturday by Ian McEwan
3. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
4. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
5. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare
6. The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Something occurred to me shortly after my little freak out yesterday.  Perhaps, just maybe, I am tired because I am not sleeping.  What?  Wow!  An outstanding deduction on my part.  You see, ever since I read the books that shall not be named, I have been an incorrigible candy coated reader.  What started off as a dieting tip quickly became a replacement vice.  I not only read trash, I read trash constantly.  There are nights that I go to bed at 2:00am, simply because I have to find out how my latest romance novel acquisition turns out.

It’s a romance novel.  I can tell you how it will turn out: the same as the other 210 novels I have already read this month.  The guy gets the girl, and then the epilogue tells you they have kids. The End.

So is it any wonder, with me getting up routinely at 7:30am, that I am a bit tired and cranky?  Apparently I am tired enough that brain cells are beyond my reach.  I’ll have to survive on instinct, and so far it isn’t looking good.  My instinct made me read the following since June:

• Eat, Pray, Love
• Something Borrowed
• Something Blue
• Baby Proof
• Twilight
• New Moon
• Eclipse
• Breaking Down
• Midnight Sun
• McKenzie’s Mountain
• Morning Glory
• Honor’s Splendor
• Courting Miss Hattie
• Paradise
• If My Love Could Hold You
• Dream Man
• It Had to Be You
• This Heart of Mine
• Remember When
• Dead Until Dark

I’m too lazy to provide links, and it’s not like you’re missing anything other than the slow death of firing synapses.  The romance novels I actually pilfered from my childhood room at my parents’ house.  I’m not even sure some of them are still in print, which isn’t exactly a bad thing.

Oh, and I’ve started If I Stay, Love in the Time of Cholera, and today bought, The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zefon.  You know, because I need another book. Books have become as important to me as baking soda, tin foil, and a microwave once was to Robert Downey Jr., and this addict is nowhere near recovery.

So, let’s hear it for reading frivolously.  What have you been reading lately that you found deliciously light and easy?  I plan on finishing up the Sookie Stackhouse series, and maybe one day finish book II in the Outlander series.  I just can’t finish that second book, and I only have pages left to finish.

I heard about the Twilight Saga a year or so ago.  You would have to live under a rock (or a coffin! ba-da-dum) to have missed the collective sigh from teen-aged girls across the world.  What surprised me was that in that sigh I could also hear the moans of women, particularly mothers, in their 30s.

My first encounter with a vocal “Twilight Mom” happened last year during Mikey’s Thanksgiving feast at preschool.  The movie was set to release that night and she was positively apoplectic with anticipation.  She was helping my friend, Judi, and I set the table for 37 walking petri dishes when she burst.

“I just, I just, I just can’t even wait.  Are you Twilight fans?”  The last sentence came out in a heady rush.

“No, can’t say that I am.  I haven’t read any of the books.”  I couldn’t keep the smug tone out of my voice.  Hah!  You won’t catch me making such a stay-at-home-mom move like that.  Never.

“The movie tickets go on sale tonight and my friends and I are going to stand in line.  I was hoping I could just talk to some people about the series until then.  I just love it so much…”

A paper napkin slipped from my fingers and fluttered slowly to the knee-high table before me.  Judi and I shared a glance that said this woman might be one taco short of a combo plate.  I couldn’t resist playing a little bit with the crazy.

“I don’t really get the appeal.  So, like, it’s about a 100+ year old vampire having sex with a teenager?”

Twilight Mom gasped.  “Oh no!  Edward would never do that.  He’s a perfect gentleman.”

Okay.  Done playing with crazy.  I have a personal rule against antagonizing strangers who defend paper characters as real, living, people.  I call it The Rule of 5150, and I employed it immediately.

Months went by, and I continued to hear testimonies from devoted fans.  I was starting to lose my patience.  Mainly because I knew I would eventually have to read at least the first book because, petulant child that I am, I hate to be on the outside of a conversation.  I decided last Tuesday to pick up the first book and see what all the fuss was about.

On Sunday I finished book 4 and the draft of book 5 you can find on Stephanie Meyer’s website.  Then I watched the movie.

My metamorphosis into suburban stay-at-home-mom is almost complete.  Next week I am going to buy wedge flip-flops and capri pants.

I can definitely appreciate a man who puts books before Goldfish crackers.