I Met The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond!

So, I have been following the Pioneer Woman's blog, it is actually a full blown website now, for about a year and a half. I stumbled upon her site while searching for scrapbook fonts of all things. I was instantly hooked and could not stop reading. I tried tons of her recipes, all with raves from my family, took her advice on photography and photoshop, and laughed at all of her stories of life on a cattle ranch. I read her entire series on how she met her husband, Marlboro Man, and their dating life and wedding. I feel like I know her. She's someone I could hang out with. She could be my new BFF.  My husband calls me a stalker. 

I couldn't wait for her cookbook to come out. I was checking the site a while back and saw that she released the dates for her cookbook tour and sure enough, she was coming to St. Louis! I ran out and bought the cookbook the day it was released and patiently waited for the day to come for me to meet her. In the meantime, I tried about 15 recipes from the book, all successful.  See the picture below of the signed page - it has a food stain on it :)

I drug my friend Anna down to the signing with me. We got there 2 hours before it started to make sure we got a good seat. I read that in previous cities people waited 4-5 hours to meet her and have their book signed. They even moved the event from it's original location at Left Bank Books to Christ Church Cathedral in order to have more space due to the popularity of this event in other cities.  We got to the signing and were in the second row! So we waited. And waited.

Finally, she came out. And she was just as delightful in person as she is on her site and as she was on the Bonnie Hunt Show. Marlboro Man and 2 of her punks (adorable sons) were with her and they were quite entertaining, did I mention they were super adorably cute?  She did a question and answer session (even did her Ethel Merman impersonation) for about and hour then started signing books. She signed my book, I had my picture taken with her, then Marlboro Man signed my book and was kind enough to take a picture too. Bryce, her older son who is 7, even asked if he could sign the book - so cute! To top it all off, she gave a t-shirt to everyone. Anna and I had a blast. I am so excited I got to meet the Pioneer Woman.

If you have never been to her site, go there now.  If you don't have her cookbook, get it now.  You can thank me later :)