Ode to Pioneer Woman

Hello!  Greetings from the beautiful (and frigid) state of Kansas.  We are cousins, Jo and Louise, and we share a common obsession:  Ree Drummond's book, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks".  We discovered it separately.  Jo learned about it from her lovely mother-in-law.  And Louise, or Lou, stumbled upon it while perusing a local bookstore.  We also really enjoy the movie, "Julie and Julia", and thought it would be fun to do our own hick-ified version!

In the past year, we have started cooking together, along with our special guys.  Jo is married to Mr. Fabulous Wonderful (a nickname earned in college) and has a "Shaun-the-Sheep"-loving son, The Bean.

And Lou is dating the greatest fella she's ever met, known to The Bean as Uncle He-Man.

Uncle He-Man and Mr. Fabuful were college roommates.  After several years of living in various parts of the Midwest, we all ended up in the same area.  Thus began weekend get-togethers, filled with cooking and fun (and weight gain).

Our challenge for 2011 is to cook through "The Pioneer Woman Cooks".  Buckle up!  Here we go!