Get Cooking with the Pioneer Woman

Many of you might be familiar with the "Pioneer Woman Cooks" show on Food Network.  I have to admit, I was a little reluctant to watch it---I was trying to figure out what I had in common with a woman who lives on a ranch and cooks for hundreds of people????  Fear not--the Pioneer Woman is just like your or I!  the Pioneer woman, (aka, Ree Drummond) has an interesting story.  She lived for years in Los Angeles, and then made a pit stop in her small Oklahoma hometown on her way to a new, exciting life in Chicago.  On one fateful night during her visit, she met the Marlboro Man, in her words "a mysterious cowboy with steely blue eyes and a muscular, work-honed body"...and before she knew it, she was in love.  They married and moved to his ranch in the middle of nowhere, where Ree was thrust into taking care of animals, four young children, and often a host of hungry ranch hands.  Ree Drummond calls herself an "Accidental Country Girl and Ranch Wife," and her new book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks is a collection of photos, rural stories and lovely recipes that have defined her experience in the country.  The recipes have full color photos and step by step instructions all with the goal of helping you, and other urban cooks, slow down, remember the joys of family, nature and great food and enjoy life.  Check out more from the pioneer woman at her blog,  www.ThePioneerWoman.com

     Eat Drink Delta by Susan Puckett is a hungry traveler’s journey through the soul of the South.  According to Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors of The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern Cookbook,  “Finally!  A book devoted entirely to the foodways of Mississippi’s Delta—cradle of the civil rights movement, birthplace of the blues, and a confounding culinary region where stuffed grape leaves cozy up to barbecue, tamales to fried green tomatoes, and kibbeh to lemon ice box pie.  Puckett makes sense of it all—town, by town, kitchen by kitchen, dish by dish—in an engaging travelogue that takes the reader to family-run roadhouses, seasonal tea rooms, postmodern bistros, and out-of-the-way juke joints.  In her sojourns, Puckett charmed the best recipes out of the region’s cooks, making this not only the best insider’s guide to the area but a superb Delta cookbook as well.”

     With colorful photos and interesting writing, this is a great book for an armchair traveler.  And since some of the places mentioned are relatively close, I’d have paper and pen handy to make a list so I can get out of that armchair and give them a try.  There is a chapter on Vicksburg covering the city’s favorites along with some recipes.  Alas, the recipe for the glazed carrots they make at Walnut Hills is not included.   Is your favorite listed?  Check it out and see.

Zombies Anyone?

     I have become a fan of the zombie genre and  "The Walking Dead" TV show on AMC is still a few weeks off.  V. Zeto, author of The Return Man (an awesome novel of zombie angst) doesn’t have anything new coming out.   The “World War Z” movie isn’t coming out until this summer.  So what to do, what to do…I find I need something to chomp on and I found it in the YA section!

     The YA section contains books that, according to the ALA definition, are written for readers between the ages of 12 and 18, but they are finding that books are marketed for as low as 10 and as high as 25.  I read from this section myself and often see other adults doing the same.

    The book that caught my attention had a striking cover.  It depicts the bottom half of a girl in a cheerleader outfit holding a bloody, dripping axe and the book is entitled Undead by Kirsty McKay.  The day of the school trip, when the bus comes to a stop at a roadside restaurant, everyone gets off and heads in for lunch.  Everyone, that is, except Bobby, the new girl, who stays behind with Rebel-without-a-clue Smitty. 

     Then hours pass. Snow piles up.  The sun goes down.  Bobby and Smitty start to flirt.  Start to stress.  Till finally they see the other kids stumbling back.  But they’ve changed and not in a good way.  Straight up, they’re zombies! So the wheels of the bus better go round  and round fast, because that’s the only thing keeping Bobby and Smitty from becoming their classmates’ next meal.  It’s kill or be killed in these hunger games.  Heads are gonna roll, and homework is most definitely gonna be late.

The Husband List

I am really not a fan of romance novels--it is the genre I read the least and I usually depend on other staff members for their insight into the "best" romance novels that are housed in our library.  I am, however, a big fan of Janet Evanovich and her Stephanie Plum mystery series, so when our ILL Librarian presented me with Evanovich's latest novel, The Husband List, I reluctantly agreed to read it.   Written jointly by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly, The Husband List is set in New York City in 1894.  Caroline Maxwell, a young American heiress, would like nothing more than to be able to be set free in the world like her brother Eddie and not have to sit at home suffering through endless parties and soirees in order to find a suitable husband to marry.  Caroline successfully fends off every potential suitor until her mother sets her sights on Lord Bremerton, soon to be the Duke of Endsleigh.  Caroline longs for adventure, passion, love and an unconventional suitor, Irish-American bachelor (and Eddie's best friend) Jack Culhane.  What follows is a tangled story as Jack and Caroline fight to be together, fend off bad experiences and somehow navigate the rules of Newport and English society.  The story is fun, the heroine is feisty and I am truly surpised at how much fun I had reading this story!  So go ahead and take some advice from me---try a romance novel like The Husband List---you won't be disappointed!