'Pioneer Woman' Takes Top Honors in Bloggie Awards

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Mar 2nd 2010 @ 3:00PM

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Oklahoma's Ree Drummond, author of the Pioneer Woman blog and The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook, has captured the top award in the 2010 "Bloggie" awards, NewsOK.com reported.

The Pioneer Woman won the 2010 Weblog of the Year award for the second year in a row. Winners were announced via Twitter (of course), and Drummond's blog also won awards for writing and design.

"I was really touched to win it not just this year but last year too," Drummond told Slashfood. "It's a community-driven award. It's not a committee of blog experts, if there is such a thing, judging and determining winners. It's just truly community."

Drummond began blogging in 2006, chronicling her life as a city girl and mom of four making her way in the country. Along the way, she began writing about food and simple but delicious country cooking.

"It wasn't until about 7 or 8 months into it that I was getting ready to make a steak and thought 'I'll take pictures of this just for fun'," she told Slashfood.

Her tutorial on how to make a steak got an enthusiastic response from readers, so she continued to post recipes in a step-by-step format with photos.

The online recipes gave way to her first cookbook, full of man-friendly meat recipes. She also added a few "cowgirl" foods, like her leek and potato pizza and Penne a la Betsy, a pasta favorite featuring shrimp, lots of cream and white wine, created by her sister. "That seems to be a universal chick-food favorite," she said.

"If men weren't around, I would just eat pasta, salads and pizza all the time... and crème brûlée," she said. But you won't see bananas in a Pioneer Woman recipe. "I hate them. It's the only thing I hate."

Up next, Drummond is writing a second cookbook that will have a more elegant touch, she said, while still focusing on simple, step-by-step recipes, as well as a childrens' book about her belligerent basset hound and a memoir that tells how she met her cowboy husband.

"I don't feel old enough to write a memoir," the 41-year-old told Slashfood. "But blogging is my true love...I like the stream of consciousness. Wake up and let the wave of the day take you."

Filed Under: On the Blogs, Interviews
Tags: ree drummond, The Pioneer Woman, the pioneer woman bloggie award, the pioneer woman cooks