anneofcleves

Hi everyone. It feels like forever since I’ve been here. Life’s been busy between work and the usual stuff. Hope all are well! I do still have my fascination with Ree and her quest to take over the prairie, if not the entire world. And there is always her food (yark). I’m watching a Ree-peat now and thought of y’all. p.s. I had no idea she has added packaged foods to her empire. Learned something new already!

I can’t believe Ladd married her. She adds cream to linguini with clam sauce. One of the most perfectly simple pasta dishes, and she, predictably, adds cream. I’m surprised she didn’t add bacon.

The episode was Big Game, Big Food. More like Big Game, Absurd Portion. It’s like she’s cooking for people with eating disorders, which is not at all a joking matter. So the spaghetti and meatballs uses three pounds of meat to make three, one pound meatballs. To serve 6-8 people, according to the recipe. OK, that’s dumb, but so is she. And while we are on dumb, isn’t Texas toast just more thickly sliced commercial white bread that costs more than regularly sliced commercial white bread? Why not save your fans some money and tell them to buy regular old cheap white bread? Her gigantic pizza slice comes out looking like a misshapen, poorly cut piece of pizza, that she then carves up into random polygon type shapes to serve. Dumb. The worst was the stupid mile high burger that was just a hot mess of everything your cardiologist doesn’t want you to eat, vertically stacked with a wood skewer. If someone served me that and expected me to disassemble that prior to eating I’d want to stab them with the skewer. I couldn’t bring myself to watch her make dessert. I may be close to giving up on watching her. She’s clearly given up, so why should I contribute to her ratings? It’s not even snark worthy, it’s just laziness.

We will expect a full, online fashion show, fully accessorized, with you and your friend in Pioneer Woman fashions! Do it before you eat!

You guys, it’s halla-pee-nuh. Rhymes with tuh-may-tuh. And puh-tay-tuh. Emphasis is always on the “uh.” :-p

I had the same thought. I’m lazy and don’t peel potatoes much, only when I make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, and would rarely have enough of them for a batch of roasted skins. Just like with her chicken skin idea. If I buy chicken with skin on it, I cook it on the chicken and eat it. It’s always a good idea to use food in ways to reduce waste, and I think she offered some good basic tips. This does seem like a departure for Food Network, who historically has had so many shows where hosts are wasting a lot of food during prep.

Wow, that’s pretty close, isn’t it? Ree added her usual glob of cream cheese, but other than that it looks like Alton’s. I guess it was leftover week on FN, because all the shows seemed focused on using things up. I can’t imagine doing what she did with pie crust to make those cheddar crackers -they would be so greasy, especially if served with that cheese dip. I like cheese like you wouldn’t believe, but that’s overkill.

I always picture Ree driving through Pawhuska like a presidential motorcade - a line of black SUVs traveling very close and at a high rate of speed. As the vehicles slow to park, the camera crews hastily pile out of the vehicles and scramble to get in position to film Ree delivering cookies to the homeless shelter or elderly shut in. Now, thanks to hearing of all of their traffic tickets*, I’m envisioning a few dead bodies along the way as she mows them down in the parking lot of wherever they’re shooting. * The cynic in me is not surprised to hear of all the unpaid parking tickets. I think that with that level of income, fame, and local celebrity a massive sense of entitlement, and downright cheapness about how they spend THEIR precious money, emerges in some people. A lot of stuff gets published about her that, I’m sure isn’t true, but for whatever reason I can totally picture this one.

How (why?) do I keep watching? I love educational programming and like watching cooking shows, and when I sit down to watch tv I pretty much default to news and how-to shows. I have no expectations that I will learn a thing from Ree or be inspired to make anything she demonstrates, and it’s a mindless bit of downtime to watch just because it’s there or just for snark. In other words, I have no good reason for why I watch her other than to waste a little time. It shouldn’t bring you down, though, and if it does you should take a break from it, Lura. I say this to myself every time I watch the news but can’t seem to tear myself away from American politics.

That’s a perfect description of the rye bread pizzas. My mind went to cat food on cocktail rye. The ground beef buying at the grocery store is totally ridiculous. She’s mentioned before how they have sides of beef processed and frozen, which makes perfect sense given what they do and how far out of town they live. She made a big deal out of this during one episode that focused on using the lesser, tougher cuts of beef for stews or slow cooking or something. Did anyone notice how fancy the store was when she was shopping? Did Pawhuska Hometown Foods get a facelift?

Bolognese sauce has whole milk in it traditionally, tabloidlover. She got that part right.

Another ode to hamburger. Sigh... Yeah, that polenta lasagna might be one of the heaviest things she’s ever made. I love both Bolognese and polenta, too, but combining them in a lasagna is really dense. How about a nice little slab or dollop of polenta, a spoonful of Bolognese, and a few shavings of parm? That way all the great sauce is not lost in all the cheese of a lasagna. She made a meat sauce that looked fine. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a classic Bolognese. I know there are many, many variations but most that I’ve seen use pancetta, use less tomato (because it’s not really a red sauce), use white wine (again, because it’s not really a red sauce), and do not have all the additional herbs she threw in. Of all the things she doesn’t add pancetta (or bacon) to, she chose this recipe. She does trick us sometimes. Her hair no longer looks human. It’s like long, stringy clown hair.

I think the Drummond boys resemble their dad quite a bit.

Bwahahahaaa. Now there’s a testimonial.

Doesn’t it? ?