"the pioneer woman" news and stories

A few of the best links on the Web this week:

• Back-of-the-box recipes used to be basic -- but not anymore.
• Gwyneth Paltrow discovers the delights of fried Southern food and shares her "Quest for the Best Fried Chicken."
• The food bus is the latest take on the food truck even offers patrons a place to sit and eat.
• Unemployed? There's no law against using food stamps for gourmet provisions.

Suddenly, the little story of a woman on the prairie is not so little anymore. Ree Drummond, better known as The Pioneer Woman, is about to go Hollywood. Drummond's food-centric blog may be her claim to fame, but it's her serialized -- and sometimes soapy -- chronicle of her unlikely romance with her now-husband that has Tinsel town entranced. Columbia Pictures has optioned the book under the title "The Pioneer Woman," and Reese Witherspoon is rumored to be attached to the project.

It's not surprising: "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" has all the trappings of a big-screen rom-com, and Drummond has a huge built-in fan base. The book (which will be published by William Morrow in February 2011) captures the intoxicating nature of unexpected romance, and it's all the sweeter because it's a true story. After living in Los Angeles for years, Drummond made a pit stop to visit family in Tulsa on her way to live in Chicago. Days later, she met "Marlboro Man," an Oklahoma rancher with no desire to trade in his cowboy boots. Sparks fly; cue the swelling closing credits.

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.

Ree Drummond, better known in the blogosphere as the Pioneer Woman, divulges the details and dishes of her Oklahoma cattle ranch life that she shares with her husband, the "Marlboro Man," and her four children.

Now, she's taking her frontier out of the World Wide Web into a cookbook, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks." She took a moment to talk to Slashfood about her country cooking, during one of the stops on her book tour.

Slashfood: You're known for your down-home, hearty meals. Do you seriously eat that stuff every night?
PW: Well, we don't eat chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy every night. Gravy is probably a once or twice a month thing. Generally speaking, eating on the ranch with the cowboys is more of a refueling thing and they do work hard. They get up at 5 and in the summertime, sweat ... sweat so much.

But I do eat everything in my cookbook. It's just really about portion control. I don't do the Cheesecake Factory's portions of the chicken spaghetti, for instance. The guys work too hard to really be calorie-conscious or fat-conscious so if we really need to trim it down, it's all about portion.

Read the rest of our exclusive interview with Ree Drummond after the jump.

Many of vegetables, that they are at their very best when they're fresh, new, young and crisp. But oftentimes, we can't get to our veggies before they've lost some of the glowing exuberance that comes from being just off the vine or plant. And so we look for ways to make those bunches of broccoli and heads of cabbage delicious, despite their imperfections.

In the last few days, bloggers all across the internet have been posting recipes for ways to take these fall and winter veggies and make them heart-stoppingly delicious.

The Amateur Gourmet tries out Ina Garten's recipe for roasted broccoli and announces that it's the Best Broccoli of his life. Over at Grub Street, they're featuring the Broccoli and Cheetos dish that Chef Craig Koketsu makes at his New York restaurant, Park Avenue Autumn. Molly of Orangette is making a gratin out of Savoy cabbage and Ree the Pioneer Woman is using her trusty cast iron skillet to prepare a turnip gratin that would be perfect for Thanksgiving. I can't remember the last time vegetables have been quite so tasty!