In the Dark No Longer

It seems I'm always a day late and a dollar short when it comes to knowing what's hip. I'm really okay with it, since I have friends and sisters who try to keep me up to speed. My sisters kindly rescued me from my Mom Jeans a couple of years ago and introduced me to the boot cut (and indigo wash). Now my good friends have clued me in on the blog that apparently everybody is reading: The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Did you know about this? Apparently, I'm the last woman on earth to not know who Ree Drummond is. I had proof of this last night when I accompanied two of my dear friends to a Pioneer Woman book signing at the Tattered Cover. We had a little trouble parking. There was not one space to be had in the multi-story parking garage; so we cruised the surrounding neighborhood trying to find a spot, finally landing one about six or seven blocks away. The whole time, the girls kept saying, "Do you think all of these cars are for the book signing? Surely not!"
The answer to that my friends, is yes. When we got into the store we hopped into line thinking it looked long but not unmanageable, only to discover that the part of the line we could see was just the upstairs part of the line! It snaked down two separate staircases and joined up in a big room where people were crammed in (it was hot in there - so hot!) waiting for books to be signed. It took very little convincing for Nikki and I to decide that it was not worth waiting in line - especially since they had sold out of the book (okay, to be fair I didn't even know who the gal was prior to last night, so of course it took zero convincing for me). Michelle was a great sport about it. I could see in her eyes that she would have gladly waited in that line until the second coming, but then, she isn't phased by things like hours-long lines - she does more in a typical day than I think of doing in a month.

In the end, we each bought a book and went to the cafe to sip tea, cocoa, and coffee and chat about all the things that we moms chat about when we get a rare night out together. It was such a treat. I think I smiled the whole time, and I know I laughed harder than I've laughed in awhile. So thanks girls, for getting me out of the house, and for bringing me up to speed on what seems to be the hottest thing going in the world of cooking blogs.

If you want to check out the Pioneer Woman for yourself, click here:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/

As for me, I think I'll be checking in on it often for recipes. They look to be just the kind I like: simple ingredients, easy-to-follow steps, and LOTS of butter (real butter). Then again, you probably already knew that since I am the last person on earth to know about her blog!