Tell me about the Pioneer Woman

[skankbiscuit]

I have sort of kind of seen her website now. What is her story? Yeah, I could dig around, but I want the FJ point of view on this. She seems really fancy to be a pioneer.

[Shirley MacLaine]

She's riiiiiiiiiiiich.

There are some pretty dedicated PW snarkers:

http://www.thepioneerwomansux.com/

http://www.pienearwoman.com/

[contrary]

yeah. she presents herself as all ranch-y and this anomaly of NY Career Gal Turned Midwestern Gal, but her husband's family is VERY wealthy.

That said, i do enjoy her blog. she has her tongue firmly in cheek, and i like her basset hound pictures.

[Beeks]

I keep hearing about how everybody loves her so I've checked out her blog a few times....I just don't see the draw.

[LilMissMetaphor]

She is loaded, yes. So is her husband. She tries to pretend she's just a down-home middle class American, but then she posts about how much she loves $200 tops and $50 coasters, shit like that.

I really have to point you to thepioneerwomansux and marlborowoman for the dirt on PW. If you're more a pictorial sort of person, Pie Near Woman is also hilarious.

Here's more on the horse situation I referenced:

http://www.thepioneerwomansux.com/2011/ ... ir-horses/

[GenerationCedarchip]

I like some of the recipes on the blog, but she seriously annoys me. Her folksy country girl shtick seems contrived and since she's actually very wealthy, it makes her come off as a phony to me. If she was a little more honest about who she was, I'd probably like reading more than just the recipes over there.

[contrary]

i was reading her blog for ages before i realized how rich she/they were.

knowing they're Very Wealthy did change my perception of her...it definitely makes her seem less homespun and more schtick-y.

[slickcat79]

I keep hearing about how everybody loves her so I've checked out her blog a few times....I just don't see the draw.

Me neither. I had some friends on another board who were HUGE fans, loved her recipes, etc. I never really saw the appeal. I don't live in the country (or want to), I'm not married, don't have kids (or want to), so I just feel no connection. I think my friends did get somewhat disillusioned once they realized that no one ever wins her big ticket giveaways except for her specially chosen blog friends.

I absolutely love Rechelle of Pie Near Woman-"I smell like money and I taste like butter" :lol:

Her whole backstory about being a big city girl who falls in love with a rancher and moves to the country falls apart a bit once you realize that she is actually from Bartlesville, OK. It's not that far from where her ranch is, so the idea that she could have been totally unaware of one of the largest land-owning families in the area is a little ridiculous too.

[acheronbeach]

I don't mind her. I like recipe blogs, and hers are well done.

A lot of people seem to find her irritating because she's rich, but posts a lot of folksy-Americana images and stories about raising cattle and living in the middle of nowhere. I don't mind it, because to me, she's a businesswoman who has carefully crafted a brand based on certain aspects of her life.

[Shirley MacLaine]

Her whole backstory about being a big city girl who falls in love with a rancher and moves to the country falls apart a bit once you realize that she is actually from Bartlesville, OK. It's not that far from where her ranch is, so the idea that she could have been totally unaware of one of the largest land-owning families in the area is a little ridiculous too.

Yeah, I dunno about the whole 'city girl' thing - she was raised in a wealthy community in OK (the constantly mentioned golf course in Black Heels to Tractor Wheels which I can't believe I've actually read), spent some time in L.A., then moved back to OK permanently. According to the book notes on Amazon, she was in L.A. for college? Meaning she was a lot younger than I originally thought at the beginning of her ~courtship~ story.

[Spider Burps]

Ugh. Her recipes sicken me and just suck. I'm going to preface this by saying that I'm an above average cook; I never have trouble following recipes and I often make things up as I go along. I intended to become a chef, but seizures kept me from doing so. ANYWAY, I made her enchiladas way back when (2007 or 2008?) because I was won over by how authentic she claimed they were because she got the recipe from her Mexican grandma or someone like that and they SUUUUUUCKED. Oh, how they sucked. They were the suckiest suck that ever sucked and were the blandest, greasiest, soggiest things I've ever made. My fiance grew up eating Italian food made sans-garlic (a sin, I know) and can tolerate pretty much anything as long as it has salt on it... He made me promise to never make another recipe from her site ever again unless I was trying to tell him that I was breaking up with him.

Sooo, yeah. That -one- recipe plus how obnoxious she got when she started the great "lodge remodel" made me decide I disliked her and those snark sites only solidified my beliefs.

...Wow I said suck a lot in this post. :P

[clarinetpower]

I come from a state with a lot of rich people. They walk around in seed caps and overalls, and use Scott Tissue because it's the best value.

So yeah, that doesn't bother me.

But I just don't like her style. The recipes I've actually tried haven't been amazing. She's all about the food porn, but I'd rather get my food porn from DavidLebovitz.com. It's fraaaaaaaaaannnnnnnncccccchhhhh food porn.

Edited because my html tags don't work here and that is just stupid.

[BlackHawk]

I don't know anything about her personally (had no clue she was rich) but I do like some of her recipes... though I do alter a lot of them to fit our style of eating. I was given her cook book for christmas one year and haven't found a whole lot of use for it.. though I did make her chocolate cake for my best friend's fiance and he loved it. That said, all I know is she's a brand now and seems damn good at branding herself and her family. It's worked for her!

[browngrl]

I don't blame her for being rich - hell if I could pull in a million a year blogging and cooking I would be happy. I do like the pictures of her dogs and cats. I work best with visual instructions (pictures just work for me) - I do like her presentation of recipes. My husband and I generally like her recipes (once I tart them up with way more spice). However, I just found out about the horse situation and THAT does trouble me. I have no time or patience for people who abuse animals - in fact I would prefer if animal abusers would go directly to hell (after I cut them of course). So I shall have to think about whether I want to use her recipes anymore.

[Librul]

I hate the Pioneer Woman but love the Pie Near Woman parody! Her recipes are really unhealthy and are similar to DuggerCooking, in that they use a lot of prepared foods combined with something else. Kind of like Semi-Homemade, but with cowboy hats instead of the drink of the day. (Take a jar of Prego and...)

Also her breathless obsession with her tingling hiney and her incredibly hulky hulk Marlboro Man become sickmaking after awhile. It's like she's perpetually under the bleachers making out during the football game, and wants you to watch.

I have friends in Oklahoma who worship her, but I don't get it, myself.

[Shirley MacLaine]

Also her breathless obsession with her tingling hiney and her incredibly hulky hulk Marlboro Man become sickmaking after awhile. It's like she's perpetually under the bleachers making out during the football game, and wants you to watch.

[SunnyAndrsn]

She doesn't bother me, and I will read through the recipes. I occasionally crack up at her, but wouldn't say I'm a devoted follower. I don't comment and I don't enter her contests.

I agree that most of her recipes are not that great. I've gotten a few good ideas that I've tweaked to our liking but that's it. Anything that I've tried where I've specifically followed her recipe has not worked out to our tastes. However, I have gotten a few good ones over at Tasty Kitchen, from other contributors. The butter chicken recipe is very good.

[hoipolloi]

Is she fundie-lite? I notice that she seems to be buddies of a sort with some of the fundies we snark on, judging from sporadic twittter exchanges.

Maybe it's just a mega-mommy blogger being nice to lesser ones.

[slickcat79]

Is she fundie-lite? I notice that she seems to be buddies of a sort with some of the fundies we snark on, judging from sporadic twittter exchanges.

Maybe it's just a mega-mommy blogger being nice to lesser ones.

I think she plays at being fundie-lite. I think she's just an average, nominally christian, never-thought-much-about-it vaguely religious person, but she sees value in catering to the christian homeschool set. I would say most (if not all) of her hardcore followers are at least fundie-lite.

[Shirley MacLaine]

I didn't know she had a show on Food Network? I'm checking out clips now on youtube. Seems fairly heinous.

OsGKYKLyLFE

'the top three recipes guaranteed to elicit marriage proposals'

She talks a lot about 'man-pleasin' food' in this clip, and the gendering of food is really interesting to me.

cowgirl friendly: potato leek pizza, creme brulee

man-pleasin'/cowboy-friendly: chocolate sheet cake ?????

I mean, I'm used to hearing that masculine = MEAT FOOD MAN LOVE STEAK, but chocolate sheet cake? And I've heard that it's unmanly (these concepts are so stupid it hurts my brainstuff) to want a salad or a yogurt, but creme brulee? Is it just that men = 'uncomplicated' foods? Does Marlboro Man have the general tastes of a nine year old?

[Creaky Mom]

She seems like a nice person who took what she has and used it to start a business.

Her recipes are cardiovascular nightmares.

She appears to be putting on weight of late and maybe succumbed to botox.

[oscar]

One of my disabled cousins loooooooves the PW visual instructions, because she finds it hard to follow recipes without pictures to guide her. I thought it was my cousin's cooking I didn't particularly like, but then I tried some of the Pioneer Woman recipes myself. I'm not a big fan.

It seems to me like Pioneer Woman is happy to let herself be perceived as Christian/fundie lite if that's what brings her money. She's a very slick marketer.

[keen23]

Does she still have a Food Network show? I know that my major source of Pioneer Woman info is actually from Pie Near Woman, so I don't know much of her "real" story.

[Nurse Jenna]

She isn't fundie 'cause I read an interview with her in Ladies Home Journal (I think) and she said she and the cowboy met in a bar.

[contrary]

yeah. i think it's the fact that she has more than two kids, homeschools, and PRESENTS herself as somewhat farm-y (vegetable gardens, hanging laundry, and the like) that make her appeal to the fundie crowd.

she certainly never says anything explicit about it, but i think she's happy to keep in a gray area if it helps her brand.