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I'm Ree Drummond.
I'm a writer, blogger, photographer, and mother.
I live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere,
and all my recipes have to be approved by cowboys,
hungry kids, and me.
Here's what's happening on the ranch.
I'm making a top 10 list of the things I love.
On the food front, there's got to be pasta,
so I'm making fancy mac and cheese
with a four-cheese sauce
and layers of bacon, onions, and mushrooms.
It's fantastic.
Bacon-wrapped filet definitely earned its place on the list,
and it wouldn't be a list of loves
without chocolate, right?
Heavenly cream-filled cupcakes really hit the spot.
Moving to drinks -- of course, I love wine,
and a cool, fizzy wine spritzer is always a treat.
[ Barks ]
Join me on my love list countdown.
Maybe some of them are on your list, too.
Welcome to my frontier.
-- Captions by VITAC --
For someone who didn't grow up in the country,
I love this ranch more than any place on Earth.
I never, ever could've imagined that I'd live on a cattle ranch,
but now, I can't imagine living anywhere else.
I don't know what it is --
the peace, the quiet, the horses, the cattle...
[ Moos ]
...the wide-open spaces.
I love everything about this place,
and I am never leaving.
No, it's true. I'm never leaving.
I love pasta.
I've loved it all my life, ever since I was a little girl.
I'll eat any shape and size --
fettuccine, linguine, rigatoni, penne, tagliatelle --
I could go on and on --
and of course, from my childhood, macaroni.
I'm gonna make some macaroni and cheese,
which is one of my favorite childhood dishes,
but I'm gonna step it up and make it fancy.
Now, I've got eight slices of bacon that I've been frying.
I stopped just short of the crisping stage --
I still want it to be slightly chewy --
and I'm just gonna cut them into chunks.
This macaroni and cheese
is gonna go into the oven at the end,
so if the bacon is too cooked, it'll be too crispy.
This way it has a little room to continue cooking.
All right, now, I've also got a skillet full of onions
that I've been sautéing in butter.
Two onions -- I just sliced 'em up,
threw them in here with butter.
They've been going for about 20 minutes or so,
but wait, there's more.
I've got some mushrooms roasting in the oven.
I just cut a bunch of mushrooms into quarters,
drizzled them with olive oil,
sprinkled them with salt and pepper,
let 'em roast till they were nice and cooked.
Now it's all about the sauce.
I make the most ridiculously delicious cheese sauce
for this fancy mac and cheese,
but it starts with just a basic white sauce.
I whisked together 4 tablespoons of melted butter
with 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
and cooked it for a minute or so.
Then I poured in 2 cups of whole milk,
whisking constantly,
and cooked it for about four minutes
until it was thick and bubbly.
Then, to make it deliciously creamy,
I added 1/2 cup of half and half,
a teaspoon of salt,
and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.
Then I tempered two beaten eggs
by adding some of the hot sauce in with a fork.
Then I stirred the tempered eggs into the sauce.
The tempered eggs
just add a little more richness to the sauce,
as if it's not gonna be rich enough.
All right, now it's time to add the cheeses.
I've got about 3/4 cup of grated parmesan,
3/4 cup of gruyère,
which is one of my favorite cheeses.
It's so sharp and flavorful.
And then I've got about 3/4 cup of fontina cheese,
which is really nice and creamy.
Speaking of creamy -- 4 ounces of goat cheese,
and I'm just gonna crumble it in.
Now I'm just gonna stir it around
and let the cheeses melt into the white sauce.
It already looks spectacular.
Now, the macaroni should be ready.
So I'll just throw the hot macaroni
right into the pot,
and of course, any kind of pasta will do for this.
Penne is really great, but I love macaroni and cheese.
It makes me feel young.
Now it's time to assemble all this wonderfulness.
I'll bring the onions over,
and then I've got a casserole dish
that I smeared with lots of butter,
and I'm gonna start by adding half of the onions
to the bottom of the dish.
I love this because, instead of mixing all the ingredients
into the macaroni at once,
I layer it in the pan, and that way,
every single bite of the macaroni is different.
All right, the onions
are evenly distributed in the pan.
So, I'm gonna give the macaroni a stir,
and I'm just gonna [grunts] pour half of it in.
This is a lot of macaroni.
I've been lifting weights lately.
Save the other half for the end.
Now I'll just smear that over the onions,
and then next,
I'll put half the mushrooms on top.
I am a mushroom nut. I love them.
Okay, now, I've got some gorgonzola cheese
because I didn't think there was quite enough cheese
in this [chuckles] macaroni and cheese dish.
And then I'll end the first layer
with a sprinkling of bacon.
All right, now I'll start another layer all over again.
All right, I think I've used all my ingredients,
so it's time to put this in the oven.
It needs to go in a 350 oven for about 20 to 25 minutes,
just until everything sets together
and the bacon is really sizzling on top.
Oh, pasta, I just love it.
Now, while that's in the oven,
I'll tell you about another thing
on my list of loves -- sunrises.
I saw a gorgeous one this morning.
They rock my world every single time.
I love taking photos of country life,
and one of my favorite subjects is definitely the sunrise.
I've seen some beautiful sunrises on the ranch,
and whether they're orange, red, yellow, or pink,
they always start my day off right.
If I see a gorgeous sunrise, I grab my camera and go.
What I'm gonna grab right now is a bowl.
I'm getting hungry,
and the macaroni and cheese is almost ready.
Up next on my love list, it's wine,
and a spritzer is perfect to sip with the fancy mac and cheese.
On the food front, there's bacon-wrapped filet
and heavenly cream-filled cupcakes,
and I'll be sharing my other loves
from the four-legged to the two-legged variety.
Oh, pasta -- It's definitely on my list of loves.
Oh, my goodness.
The fancy mac and cheese looks just perfect.
I'm gonna dish myself up a big bowl.
Oh, my goodness, how good does this look?
Now, one thing that goes really well with pasta --
chilled white wine.
It is definitely on my love list.
I love to cook with wine.
Just a splash or two of wine
takes a sauce to the next level in pasta dishes.
I love it the moment the wine hits the hot pan.
Oh, that smell is incredible.
Wine really is the secret ingredient.
Of course,
nothing beats a straight-up glass of wine,
but for something a little light and fizzy,
I love a white wine spritzer.
Fill a wine glass halfway up with super-cold wine.
Then just splash in cold club soda
or lemon-lime soda
until the glass is three-quarters full.
Take a tiny slice of lime
and put it on the rim of the glass, and that's it.
Spritzer -- cold, light, and refreshing.
I got my spritzer, I got my mac and cheese,
I got my basset hound, and I've got my remote control.
That checks off a lot of the things on my love list.
I love gardening.
It's been a love of mine for years.
I love flowers, of course,
but what I really enjoy planting are vegetables.
I love eating the things I grow and growing the things I eat.
It makes me feel satisfied.
It's great that the girls like gardening
and help me water and weed.
It feeds my soul and makes everything feel alive.
Yep, I love my garden...
except in the winter, when there's no garden to love.
Of course, any list of my loves has to include beef.
I live on a cattle ranch, after all.
I'm making bacon-wrapped filet.
It's my very favorite way to eat beef --
the best thing in the world.
I've got a beef filet steak.
I am seasoning both sides very, very liberally
with salt and pepper, really pressing it in there.
Now, I've got the skillet going on high,
and I'm gonna throw in a little bit of butter...
[ Sizzles ]
...and a little bit of olive oil.
Now, a filet on its own is positively delicious,
but wrapped in bacon, it's positively fantastic.
I'm gonna take one piece of bacon,
and I'm just gonna wrap it around the beef.
I'm gonna just stretch it slightly when I wrap it around
because I want it to be really, really secure,
and when I get to the end,
I'll just grab a toothpick, and I'll just stick it through,
getting a little bit of the steak behind it.
All right, so, that's nice and secure.
Is that a glorious sight or what?
Bacon-wrapped beef.
All right, the skillet is smoking -- literally.
So, I'm just gonna stick the filet
right on the pan, and I'm just gonna sear it
for about a minute or two on both sides.
Shake it around. I don't want it to stick.
Now, it's at this moment that I want to confess
that I used to be a vegetarian.
It's true.
I was a vegetarian for about seven years
before I met my cattle rancher of a husband.
How's that for irony?
And in fact, I was a vegetarian when I met him,
and then he cooked me a steak in sizzling butter,
and I took one bite, and I knew it was meant to be.
I knew I had a future both with him and beef.
[ Chuckles ]
Ooh, it's nice and brown on the first side,
so I'll turn it over.
That's exactly what I want -- as much color as possible.
Now it's as simple as putting it into a really hot oven.
It's about 450 degrees for about 8 to 10 minutes
till it's medium rare.
Time's up for the steak.
Oh, it smells so good.
I cannot wait to sink my teeth into it.
Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to
'cause it has to rest for five minutes.
Patience is a virtue, and I'm so glad I waited
'cause this is gonna be so good.
My favorite part is cutting into the filet
and feasting my eyes on what's inside.
Oh, my goodness, look at that.
You can see why this was on my list.
Mmm. [ Chuckles ]
Mmm.
Up next, it's chocolate.
You knew that had to be on the list.
I'm making heavenly cream-filled cupcakes to die for.
Then there's horses, dogs, and my whole crew.
I love 'em all.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
This has always been strictly a cattle ranch
until about 10 years ago
when we started taking in wild horses,
and now the cattle share the ranch
with the wild horses.
It's amazing how different they are.
The cattle are calm and docile. The wild horses really are wild.
Of course, not all the horses on our ranch are wild.
We've also got our beloved, wonderful, perfect ranch horses.
These are the guys that carry Ladd and the kids
whenever they work on the ranch.
They're our best friends and our constant companions.
There is nothing like a good ranch horse.
Isn't that right?
[ Smooches ]
To celebrate my love of all things chocolate,
I'm making heavenly cream-filled cupcakes,
a really rich chocolate cupcake
with a really yummy, creamy filling.
Now, I've got two sticks of butter
melting in the saucepan, and I'm adding 4 heaping --
as you can see -- tablespoons of cocoa.
For the cupcake batter,
I'm using just a classic chocolate sheet cake batter.
My mother-in-law gave it to me
when I became engaged to her son,
and I use it for cakes, cupcakes,
anything that needs chocolate cake.
So, I'm gonna turn up the heat just a bit,
and I'll just pour a cup of boiling water
right into the butter-chocolate mixture.
Now I'm just gonna crank up the heat to high,
let it bubble until just under the top of the pan,
and then it's ready.
Now I'm gonna pour the chocolate mixture
into the dry ingredients.
I just stir together 2 cups of all-purpose flour,
2 cups of sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Now I'll just pour the chocolate mixture
over the dry ingredients, and I just stir it as I pour.
I don't want to mix it totally. I'm just folding it together.
Now I'll just drizzle in the wet ingredients,
and I'll tell you what's in here --
1/2 cup of buttermilk, 2 whole eggs,
a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of vanilla...
...then I just stir it all together.
Okay, the batter's perfect,
so I'll bring over the muffin pans.
Now, I'm just gonna use a 1/4 cup measure,
and I'll pour in the batter.
I'm just gonna fill them just over half full.
I'm gonna get these in the oven.
The cupcakes just need to bake at 350 degrees
for about 15 minutes, just until they're set,
and while that happens,
I'm gonna go see what the dogs are doing.
Basset hounds are my life.
I seriously cannot imagine being without a basset.
They're just so floppy and wonderful.
Bruiser is not exactly the typical basset hound,
but we call him an honorary basset brother.
He has a lot more energy than they do.
[ Barks ]
They're wonderfully floppy, unapologetically lazy,
and hilariously entertaining.
Come on, Charlie! [ Laughs ]
[ Charlie whimpers ]
REE: I wouldn't want to live in a world without basset hounds
or honorary basset hounds, for that matter.
While I would love to sit here
and play with these guys all day --
and sometimes I've done that --
I got to get back in the kitchen.
All right, Charlie? You stay here.
The cupcakes are all cooled, so I'm gonna move on
to the wonderful, rich, chocolaty ganache
that I'm gonna spoon over the top.
It starts with a cup of heavy cream,
and I'll just pour the cream into a saucepan.
Now I'm gonna add 1/3 cup of light corn syrup.
It just gives the ganache a nice glossiness,
a little bit of extra sweetness.
And then I'll just add a teaspoon of vanilla.
Now I'll let that heat up, and I'm gonna move on
to the chocolate, which, of course,
is the star ingredient of ganache.
I've got 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate.
I'm just gonna chop the chocolate into chunks.
Okay, now I'm gonna put the chocolate
into a glass bowl.
Now, the cream mixture is nice and hot,
so I'm just gonna pour it right over the chocolate.
If there is a more beautiful sight on Earth,
I haven't seen it yet.
Now it's just about stirring the mixture
until the chocolate melts
and it becomes smooth and creamy and perfect.
It is looking so good.
Up next, there's one more heavenly element
to the chocolate cupcakes -- a luscious cream filling.
It is utterly divine.
Then I'm dishing out the remaining spot
on my love list.
For recipes from this episode, go to...
To honor my love for chocolate,
I've made heavenly cream-filled cupcakes.
I've got the cupcakes done, the ganache is ready,
so now I'm moving on to the cream filling.
This filling is really easy to make.
I'll tell you what's in it.
In the bowl of an electric mixer,
I added 1/2 cup of butter
and 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening.
Then I whipped it together
until they were light and fluffy.
Next, I sifted together 4 cups of powdered sugar
with 1/8 teaspoon of salt
and added it gradually to the bowl.
Then I drizzled in 1/4 cup of whole milk,
1½ teaspoons of vanilla,
then beat it all together until it was light and fluffy.
Then I just piled it into a piping bag,
and it's ready to go.
So, I'll just grab a cupcake, turn it over,
and then I'll insert the tip
just about halfway through the cupcake,
and then I'll squeeze really gently.
I want to fill it with as much filling as I can
without bursting the cupcake open,
and when it looks like it's just about to start bulging,
I pull it out.
All right, got 'em all filled with cream,
and now for the ganache.
I'm just gonna spoon it over all the cupcakes.
The ganache just coats each cupcake
so it's really rich chocolate on the outside
and that creamy filling on the inside.
If you want the cupcakes completely coated,
you can dip the cupcakes right into the ganache,
but that takes a little more time.
Speaking of impatient, I'm just gonna go for it.
Oh, yeah, that's doing the trick right there.
[ Chuckles ]
All right!
Now, I've just got to let these set,
then I'm gonna pack 'em up,
grab the dogs, and head back to the house.
Ladd and the kids are there,
and they're gonna be all over these.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
[ Laughs ]
[ Shouting continues ]
At the very top of my list of loves, of course --
my family.
I love 'em, I think I'll keep 'em,
and they are gonna love these cupcakes.
Who wants a cupcake?
BOYS: Me!
What kind have you got? Oh!
I'm in the mood for a cupcake.
I love these cupcakes.
I love you guys...
ALL: I love you, too.
...and I love cupcakes.
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.