Ree Drummond

The megapopular blogger and author will speak and sign books at Full Circle Bookstore to benefit the YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter.

A Bartlesville native who attended college in Los Angeles, Drummond is a city girl accidentally gone country after she fell for a Pawhuska cowboy she met in a dusty bar. Upon marriage, she moved to her husband’s cattle ranch, which proved to her that love really does make you do crazy things.

“My nickname came from my friends when they heard I was moving to the country, because they couldn’t believe it,” said Drummond. “It was a tongue-in-cheek thing.”

But the name became bigger than she could have imagined. In 2006, Drummond started the Pioneer Woman blog (thepioneerwoman.com), to document life on the ranch with her husband, Ladd; their four children; and a menagerie of pets. The site skyrocketed in popularity, leading to several New York Times bestsellers and a weekly Food Network show.

“It’s so much fun. Never in a million years could I have conceived the blog would have lasted this long or brought me to these opportunities,” she said.

Her first book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, focused on both food and family, while Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: A Love Story concentrated on her life. Food from My Frontier puts the spotlight on the food.

“It’s really chock-full. I wanted readers to get as much practical use out of it as humanly possible,” she said.

Drummond
provides a mixture of her own recipes, as well as ones from her mom,
sister and in-laws. However, she struggled to pick a favorite from the
cookbook, but mentioned that the gazpacho, beef stew and apple dumplings
were high on the list.

“Trying to choose a favorite recipe is like trying to choose my favorite kid,” she said.