Meeting PW

Yesterday, Monie and I made the trek to Houston to the Blue Willow Bookshop Pioneer Woman Cookbook Signing. It was quite the adventure!

I was first introduced to the Pioneer Woman blog a few years ago through another blog that I happened upon. I suppose I was reading from close to the beginning (the website was way different, only one page with everything instead of all of the tabs, etc.) I told Monie about her I guess about a year ago and told her she should read her Black Heels to Tractor Wheels story. She now keeps me up to date on the Pioneer Woman as I am not getting to read her site as often as I used to. When Monie mentioned that she was doing a book signing tour with her cookbook we knew we had to go meet her. It was funny that the bookstore owner that introduced her told a story about a PW reader that said something about "Her friend Ree" to her husband and he said, "She doesn't even know you". When you read her blog you do feel like you know her, so crazy, I guess that is what is so interesting about blogs. I have loved learning about her life, what life as a ranching family looks like. I have also loved trying out some of her recipes, some of my favorites are Oatmeal Crispies, Yogurt Cream and Berries, Crash Hot Potatoes, Potato Bundles, Apricot Bars, Blackberry Cobbler, Lasagna, Meatballs, Steak Bites, Blueberry Muffins, Apple Brown Betty, Chocolate Sheet Cake , creamy herbed potatoes, mashed potatoes , creamed spinach, not your granny's mac and cheese, I am sure there are others, but those are the ones coming to mind. She helps turn non-cooks into cooks; she has helped Monie start cooking more and the way she does her recipes on her blog (and her cookbook) is so great with all of the pictures.

So, yesterday...

We left Bryan- College Station at 7:45 and got to the bookshop right when they opened at 9:30 for the signing tickets. Then, we headed over to Georgia's Market (very cool place for all you Houstonites) where the booksigning was going to be. We got in the line to wait until the seats were set up for her to speak. Everything worked out so well, we probably had to stand in line behind about 5 people for about 30 minutes or so. Then we got seats on the end of the second row to the right of the stage. We all just hung out until PW came out around 1 pm. She sat on the little stage and they did a Q & A and then she sat to the right of the stage right in front of us to sign the books. They called different colors in a certain order and only that color group stood in line. Claribel did so well... she took a few short naps and we all just hung out. When it was finally our turn it was pretty ridiculous... I didn't even know what to say and Monie introduced us. She had also brought a bottle of wine from Messina Hof and so she gave that to her from her sister's vineyard. I have never been to a book signing before, but I thought it was pretty different that Monie was bringing her a gift... well, she was not the only one- she had several boxes of goodies from her fans... I am so glad we went, but we both laughed afterwards on the way home about how ridiculous we felt about how we behaved. I just stood there... thankfully Monie was there :) It was all so organized and we were out of there by around 4:30.

naptime waiting for PW

I wish I would have gotten CBel to smile at Ree (she is just so darn cute with that toothless smile)... oh well... She was getting to the end of her rope ready for the nice nap she took on the way home anyways.

Thanks Pioneer Woman!

It was really nice to meet you and I am excited about cooking more recipes out of your book!

and I really loved the necklace you had on- really neat!