Mom and I are still recovering from our whirlwind weekend in Oklahoma at The Pioneer Woman‘s Ranch, but I wanted to share a few more snapshots of our time together there. As a fly on the wall, you would have seen a lot of this: sitting, talking, eating, drinking and laughing.
And of course I had to have a little poke around the kitchen.
I almost smuggled this amazing KitchenAid stand mixer into my bag. It was painted by Nicole at Un Amore. What’s better than getting a KitchenAid? Getting one painted like this. Check out her site for more wonderfully distinctive designs.
Then I found this drawer. Wow. Just wow. I don’t think I have ever wanted to decorate a cookie or a cupcake so much in my life! Really: who has a perfect drawer full of sprinkles?
Of course Charlie made a celebrity appearance, but he basically slept through the whole thing. He’s the luckiest dog on the face of the planet. We all loved on him. Big time.
After reading Ree’s blog for four years, this weekend was particularly exciting for me. It’s not every day that you get to meet the powerful women who inspire you!
But fortunately for me, I have a mom who inspires me every day. I was so proud of her as she talked to the women about her food philosophy–how it doesn’t matter if the cheesecake cracks or the bread burns. Food is important (and ideally we want delicious food), but ultimately food is a means to an end: being together with the ones we love.
Meet Pattie and her mother, Harriet. These ladies were a hoot and a half. Great stories and full of laughs. They also brought Ree and Mom goody bags with gifts from the Philadelphia area like Philly’s t-shirts, Tastykakes and Hershey’s Kisses. How sweet is that? I totally stole one of the t-shirts. Even wore it on the plane home.
And there were these terrific women! On the bottom left we have the lovely Alice and her friend Angie (top left) both from Los Angeles. They also bought great goody bags filled with cute aprons, bath salts, and sweet treats from Trader Joe’s. On the bottom right are Brittany (who has a photography blog called 360-something) and her grandmother, Sharon (top right). They brought us salmon all the way from Oregon!
There are no pictures of the delicious dinner we ate in the evening because I was taking pictures with Ree’s camera while she was busy. But the shrimp ceviche, carnitas and flan were the perfect meal for the ranch. All crowd-pleasers. I think you’ll be able to find more of the recipes we enjoyed at dinner on Ree’s blog in the coming days (or in Mom’s book, Perfect One-Dish Dinners). In the meantime, here is the recipe for the salmon we enjoyed at lunch. But, as is often the case, the weekend was less about the food and more about the people.
Photo by Ree
Ree and her family were positively warm, welcoming and wonderful. Mom and I enjoyed every minute spent with all these ladies. Sometimes it’s just good to be with girls. And cook. And drink, talk, laugh and share. We did all that in spades this weekend. A big thank you to Ree for hosting us and to all the women for making the trek out to cook with us. It was a privilege.
i don’t need Vegas. don’t need the hottest club in town. i, too, just need a couple days with my girls to cook, eat, drink and laugh! looking forward to re-creating those meals from Pam’s One-Dish cookbook!
Wow! That looks like it was an incredible weekend. And the sprinkles drawer just adds to the greatness. 🙂
Looks like you lovely ladies had a wonderful time. Ree seems to be the kind to make you feel right at home. Thanks for sharing!
Since she could only take one friend, “Lovely Alice” had your mom sign her fabulous One-Dish Cookbook for me, which definitely eased the pain of not sharing the weekend with all of you. I look forward to my own dinner party and wish I could invite you!
Maggy:
Great post. You are so sweet. Oh and by the way, I brought three t-shirts for you, your mom and Sharon. You just got the first pick! That shirt was meant for you all along, ’cause you looked great in it. Now if you don’t want to let Sharon in on it, you might get two out of the deal.
You were so fun to be with and I enjoyed our time together. I hope we see each other again before too long!!
Oh Maggy, I am absolutely green with envy that you got to have this wonderful experience! It all sounds magical! thanks for sharing with us! Hope you come to Nwe Hope soon, so I can get the insider infos <3
What an awesome post, Maggy! I feel a bit overwhelmed that you linked to my blog – you are too sweet!! 🙂
What a lovely time! You’ll remember it forever. There’s nothing like bonding with great gals.
So sweet Maggie. I have a strong feeling mom’s proud of you too!
I’m almost “pea green with envy”, but I know someday my turn will come with a great bunch of girlfriends!! How about you all coming my way to Wisconsin(cheese country) someday????? Warning, winter is bitter cold, so maybe spring or fall??? LOL!!!
I am so happy for you, and so sad I couldn’t be there! I was hoping to take my dear s-i-l who has survived an aortic aneurysm 3 years! Maybe next time….
That looks like a dream weekend!
I can’t wait to try recipes from the cookbook when I have my whole family at our WI cottage. So glad Ree mentioned it on her blog.
It looks like you had an amazing time with a fabulous group of women.
What a fun weekend it was, and so nice to see the post and comments here..so glad that I braved the (un)friendly skies. Pam & Maggy, thank you for the inspiration, I am having guests Friday, looking for a white wine sangria receipe as we speak…
It was so great meeting you guys! The food was outrageously good!!!!! I got online yesterday and ordered 6 of your mom’s cookbooks. 🙂