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I'm Ree Drummond.
I'm a writer, blogger, photographer, mother,
and I'm an accidental country girl.
I live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere,
and all my recipes have to be approved by cowboys,
hungry kids, and me.
It's a big morning of weaning calves
and shipping cattle,
and the guys are going to be hungry.
So, I'm making a rib-sticking Tex-Mex lunch
for the hardworking crew.
I'm grilling marinated beef and chicken
for fabulous fajitas,
slow cooking a steaming pan of fiesta beans,
and whipping up cinnamon ice cream
with sweet cinnamon crisps for dessert.
A perfect end to a long morning of work.
That hit the spot.
Welcome to my frontier.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
Are you alive, awake, alert, and enthusiastic this morning?
Yeah.
LADD: We're gathering, like -- about 750 cattle this morning.
I mean, it's going to be a gigantic bunch of cattle.
Let's go get 'em, guys. Come on.
We've got a big crew working this morning,
and they're going to have big appetites,
so I'm going to make a huge lunch,
a really delicious Tex-Mex spread.
And I'll start by making cinnamon ice cream
that we're going to have for dessert.
It is one of my favorites.
I'll start by measuring 3 cups of half-and-half.
This is my regular ice cream recipe
that I turn into so many different flavors.
Today, it's going to be cinnamon.
Okay, and then I'll add
2 cups of sugar to the half-and-half.
No wonder ice cream is so delicious.
Just look how it starts.
And then because it's cinnamon ice cream,
I'm adding four cinnamon sticks.
And I want to just warm this up slowly.
And that cinnamon's going to infuse
the half-and-half and sugar.
And then just to give the ice cream extra deliciousness,
I'm going to split a vanilla bean
right down the center.
Oh, I smell that vanilla.
[ Chuckles ] Oh I love that smell.
And then I'll use the back of the knife
to scrape out the caviar.
Now I'll take the vanilla bean pod
and put it in, too.
I'm not going to have too long
to infuse the flavors into the half-and-half mixture,
so I want to put as much in there now as possible.
I'll let that continue to heat.
Now I'll turn the mixer off.
I separated 9 eggs,
and I put the yolks into the mixer,
and I've been beating it.
The egg yolks are nice and light in color.
They look wonderful.
So what I'm going to do is temper the egg yolks.
I'll turn the mixer on low,
and I'll grab a little bit
of the hot half-and-half mixture,
and I'll just very, very slowly drizzle it in.
If I were to pour these egg yolks
straight into the hot mixture, they would curdle and scramble.
Terrible things would happen.
The ice cream would not turn out the way it's supposed to.
So this way, you're sort of easing the egg yolks
into being warm.
You just want to drizzle it in really, really slowly,
and then it doesn't shock the eggs
and make them freak out.
Okay.
I think those are sufficiently tempered.
So I'll take the cinnamon sticks out of the mixture.
Those won't do very well in the ice-cream machine.
[ Chuckles ]
And then I'll just slowly drizzle these
into the half-and-half mixture.
And I'm going to stir it the whole time.
This is the custard base for any ice cream I make.
It is so rich, so delicious.
Okay, this is going to thicken up in no time,
so I'm going to run to the drawer
and grab some ground cinnamon.
As I said, I want there to be cinnamon flavor everywhere.
I'm going to add this
right before it goes into the ice-cream maker.
Okay. Let me check this.
Okay. It has very quickly turned into a thick custard.
Now, I've got a fine-mesh strainer,
and then I'll just pour the custard in.
It is super, super thick.
And the great thing about straining it
is it'll get out any lumps.
I'll just stir it slowly
and let the good stuff drip through the strainer.
Okay.
I got all of that thick, marvelous custard through.
Now I'll pour in three cups of heavy cream.
I'll just eyeball it,
make sure I get in generally the right amount.
Okay.
I can't imagine why ice cream is so delicious.
I mean, look at this.
Now, to give it that extra shot of cinnamon flavor,
I'll add a heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
Just sprinkle it right in.
And the ice cream is going to have
little flecks of cinnamon all throughout.
It is a delicious concoction, but it's also beautiful.
Every time I make any kind of homemade ice cream,
I always swear that flavor is my very favorite,
except I really mean it this time.
[ Chuckles ] Cinnamon ice cream is my favorite.
It is delicious.
Okay.
Now it's time for it to go into the ice-cream maker.
Now this ice-cream maker
actually only holds half of this amount,
so I'll pour in half.
And it's going to take a little while to churn.
A lot of times, I'll chill this mixture
before I put it into the ice-cream maker,
but it's just barely warm, so it'll be fine.
All right.
I'll turn it on and let the ice-cream maker do the job.
[ Ice-cream maker beeps, whirs ]
LADD: This morning, what we're doing is we're going to gather
all the cows and calves together.
The calves are big.
Caleb, bend them this way, son.
Let's go. Paige, work with him. Right there. Bend him that way.
Come on.
Watch 'em, Halle.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch!
Hut! Hut! Hut! Hut!
I'm making fajitas for lunch, and I'm so excited about it.
I happen to love fajitas.
Well, everyone I know loves fajitas.
Let's face it. They are so delicious.
Grilled meat served with flour tortillas,
lots of fixings.
They are to die for.
I'm actually going to make beef and chicken fajitas.
And the first thing I need to do
is make a really delicious marinade
so the meat will be extra flavorful.
This stuff is good.
Olive oil first.
Then Worcestershire sauce -- nice and savory.
Lime juice, minced garlic, some cumin for great flavor,
and for heat, chili powder -- 4 tablespoons.
I'm not messing around here.
Then red-pepper flakes, salt,
a little pepper, a good tablespoon of sugar,
and then it's time to let the blender do the work.
Okay.
Oh, the marinade looks fantastic.
Now I've got some boneless, skinless, chicken ***
in one bag,
and I'll pour half the marinade in.
And then I have some delicious skirt steak in the other bag.
Skirt steak is my favorite kind of meat to use for fajitas.
It's so delicious.
It has great fat marbled throughout.
This marinade just needs to barely coat the meat
to marinate it.
You don't need the meat to submerge in it.
Okay. I'll just move the chicken around.
I want that marinade to completely coat
every single piece.
And I'll do the same with the skirt steak.
Now, just before the guys show up,
I'm going to throw all this meat on the grill.
It's going to be divine.
Okay. The meat's all coated.
Now I'm going to get it into the fridge.
I've got about four hours till lunchtime,
and that's a great amount of time
to ensure that the meat is really, really flavorful
when it goes on the grill.
Up next, it's fiesta beans for the Tex-Mex feast
and cinnamon crisps to go with the ice cream.
I'm grilling meat for fajitas,
then it's a real ranch-style lunch
for the hardworking cowboy crew.
The guys have been out weaning calves
and shipping cattle today,
and I'm making a big lunch.
I'm just finished churning the cinnamon ice cream,
and it looks incredible.
It's really, really thick.
I churned the first half earlier and got it into the freezer,
and now I'm just going to get the second half right on top.
After it churns in the ice-cream machine,
it's sort of like soft-serve ice cream,
so I've always put it into the freezer
to firm it up so it's nice and hard.
Now I'll just smear this over the top.
Okay. Ooh. I get to lick the ***.
All right. I'll get this lid on.
Now I'm going to serve this cinnamon ice cream
with cinnamon crisps.
That is a treat in itself.
All right.
I'm going to get this into the freezer.
It's going to freeze for two to three hours.
It'll be perfect by dessert time.
LADD: Get along. Get along.
Make a little noise.
Talk to 'em.
Hey! Hey!
Now that's a lot of cattle, Paige.
That's all right. Hey! Stay with the herd!
Stay with the herd! Bryce, ride up a little.
Hold up, Caleb. Hold up, Caleb.
Everybody else just make noise and wave your arms.
Hey! Come on, big boy.
Hey! Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch!
That's pretty good work.
Y'all did really good there.
Good job, guys.
Tex-Mex really lends itself well to big numbers of people.
And to go with the fajitas, I'm going to make
a big pot of fiesta beans.
It's basically just a big pot of brown beans
with some great spices, really colorful peppers.
Now, I soaked 2 pounds of beans overnight in cool water --
just left it on the counter.
That helps the beans cook more easily.
Okay.
Now I'll just fill the pot with cool water.
I don't always soak beans overnight before I make them
'cause I don't always have that kind of time,
but last night, I was thinking about the menu for lunch today,
and I remembered to soak 'em.
But if you don't have time to soak 'em, it's fine.
It just might take a little bit longer for them to cook.
Okay. That's good.
The water's covering the beans by about an inch.
I think that's good for now.
If they need more, I can always add more later.
Okay. Now I'll get the heat on.
I'm going to get it on high right now
because I want to bring these to a boil,
and now I'll add all the good stuff.
I've got some chopped onion.
I've been doing a lot of chopping
in preparation for this pot of beans.
And then I've got six cloves of garlic.
And then I've got three different colors
of bell pepper -- red, green, and orange.
One color would be fine, of course,
but I love to mix it up, I love the mix of colors.
Okay. I'll get all of this in here.
Now I have one big ol' ham hock.
You can get these in the meat department
usually in packages of two.
The ham hock's going to cook slowly with the beans,
just slowly impart the flavor to it.
If you don't have a ham hock,
you can always just use chopped up bacon
or even chopped up ham.
It's good, too.
But to me, there's nothing like a ham hock with beans.
Okay, now, I added some salt and a good amount of pepper.
Then I'll add a couple of tablespoons of chili powder.
And then I love to add ground cumin to my beans.
I have a little bit of a cumin problem.
I love it. [ Chuckles ]
I put it in weird things sometimes.
Pancakes? No, not really.
Beans? Yes. [ Chuckles ]
Okay. Now I'll just stir this around.
Ooh, it's going to be good.
Okay, now I'm just going to bring this to a boil.
Then I'll reduce the heat to low, put the lid on,
and let it simmer until lunchtime.
These beans are going to be glorious.
So far, this lunch is going off without a hitch.
[ Cows mooing ]
LADD: It's going really good.
We don't 'em in the pens yet, but we're almost there.
I tell you what. I'm pretty proud of our crew.
We've got six adults and six kids.
And we got 'em all gathered, didn't miss a one,
so you can't beat that.
It's a pretty sight with all those cattle.
So once we get 'em in the pens, we'll start sorting 'em...
[ Mooing continues ]
...and then we'll start weighing some of the steers.
And then after we get all that done,
we'll turn the cows back out.
Easy. Now, don't tear my gate up.
REE: Up next, I'm making cinnamon crisps
to go with the ice cream,
then firing up the grill
for the beef and chicken fajitas.
Then it's a full-on, frontier fiesta lunch
at the lodge.
LADD: Well, we have two loads of steers that we sold,
and the guy who bought 'em is coming with a couple trucks.
We get those loaded,
then we can go up to the lodge and eat lunch.
Ree should have lunch ready by then, so...
And I think everybody will be hungry.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
Help her out.
Whoop, whoop, whoop!
[ Shouts indistinctly ]
I've got kids and cowboys coming over for lunch,
so I'm going to finish up dessert.
Now I had some flour tortillas from the fajita spread,
and I used them to make a batch of cinnamon crisps.
They are a cinch to make.
All I did was pour about 1/2 cup sugar into a bowl
with about 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon.
Then I mixed them together.
Then I brushed melted butter
all over both sides of some flour tortillas,
sprinkled both sides with the cinnamon-sugar mixture,
and baked them in a 350-degree oven
for about 15 minutes or so
until they were golden brown and crisp.
I tell ya, these crisps are a snack in themselves.
They are so good.
But with that cinnamon ice cream,
my goodness, they're delicious.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
[ Laughter ]
All right.
I've got this glorious meat that's been marinating,
and I'm going to get it on the grill.
I'll start with the chicken
because it's going to take a little bit longer.
All of this marinated meat
is going to make the most delicious fajitas.
Oh! I love fajitas for a crowd.
It really is the perfect dish.
All right. Just a couple more.
Whew! This grill's hot. [ Chuckles ]
It's going to take the chicken about four minutes per side.
I'll keep an eye on it and make sure
it doesn't get too dark.
And then I'll wait to throw the beef on a little bit later.
[ Chicken sizzling ]
All right.
Now, I've got a bunch of flour tortillas,
and I'll serve those with the fajitas.
I wrapped them in foil, and I'm just going to put them
on a less-hot part of the grill,
and those will warm slowly.
The tortillas are just some of the fixings
I'm going to serve with the fajitas.
I like to serve a big bowl of grated cheese,
a big bowl of sour cream --
that's my favorite, I think --
and then, of course, a big bowl of pico de gallo.
Pico de gallo is always in my fridge
and it goes with just about everything.
And then I also serve jarred salsa
'cause it's just a slightly different flavor.
The kids really like it.
And then some shredded, green leaf lettuce.
I just slice it really thin with a sharp knife.
Then they can sort of make fajita tacos.
And then, of course, to squeeze over the top,
a dish of lime wedges.
Conveniently, the dogs joined me at the grill.
It's funny how that always happens.
Whew! This is cooking in no time.
Every now and then, I have to check and make sure
my eyebrows are still intact.
Okay. It's got great color on the outside.
All right. I'm going to go ahead and get the beef on.
It is going to be gorgeous.
Now, the beef doesn't take quite as long to cook
as the chicken.
I like to just throw it on, wait about a minute,
and then flip it over.
There we go. Big ol' slab of meat.
There is nothing prettier than that.
Second piece.
Skirt steak is really, really thin,
So really, just about a minute and a half per side
should cut it, so I'll just let the beef cook.
Then I'll flip it over, and I'll just keep moving forward with lunch.
Up next, I'm taking the meat off to rest
and throwing some delicious vegetables on the grill.
Then it's cowboys, kids, a Tex-Mex feast, and me.
For recipes from this episode, go to...
Hey, Dan. Thank you. Appreciate it.
All right, guys. Hey, y'all ready?
Let's go eat. I'm hungry.
Jump in the pickup. Let's go.
The guys have been weaning calves
and shipping cattle this morning,
and I'm making a great lunch for everybody.
I'm going to pull the meat off the grill.
I'm starting with the beef. I don't want to overcook that.
The chicken's also done.
It smells so good around this grill.
LADD: You hungry, Todd?
Yeah.
I got to keep an eye on these dogs.
They are pretty sneaky.
All right, now, to go with the whole fajita spread,
I'm going to make some delicious veggies.
I've got some sliced onions
and seeded and sliced bell peppers,
all different colors.
I just drizzled them with olive oil,
sprinkled them with salt and pepper.
And I've got this really awesome grill pan.
I'm just going to throw the vegetables on there.
The grill pan is nice and hot,
so it's going to start cooking them immediately.
This is my favorite way to cook veggies on the grill.
It keeps them contained,
but you still get that great grill flavor.
All right.
I'm just going to let the veggies cook,
and then I'll head inside
and pull this whole meal together.
This beef could not be more perfect.
This looks glorious.
And I smell that marinade,
and it really doesn't make it all that spicy.
It just gives it a great chili, smoky flavor.
The chicken looks fantastic.
It's still nice and juicy, but it's done.
The outside is just coated in wonderful color.
It looks fantastic.
Okay. Now, the beans look incredible.
I see all those peppers in there.
They're really, really soft and tender.
I'm going to take out the ham hock.
We don't need this anymore.
We've gotten all the flavor out of it.
Guess what? Lunch is ready.
LADD: You might want to take those boots off, boys.
Well, hey, guys. Look who's here.
Hey, honey.
[ Laughs ] Did Todd just call me honey?
He called you honey.
Are you guys hungry or what?
Yeah.
MAN: Smells good to me.
You want me to show 'em how to go through here, honey?
Yeah, you need to set the precedent.
Want me to lead the way?
All right. I want you to pig out, please.
And that's an order.
[ Laughs ]
MAN: Mm-hmm.
REE: You want some hot sauce, Tim?
Oh, good.
That hit the spot.
Okay, so, Alex and Paige were the tiredest.
Who was the hungriest?
I was the hungriest.
I was starving.
Who was the muddiest?
Probably me.
[ Laughter ]
Who wants dessert?
I do.
Me!
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Halle is a food stylist. [ Chuckles ]
REE: Cinnamon.
I haven't had these things since I left my mother's house
when I was 18.
Well, honey, that was a good meal. Thank you.
My pleasure. It's nap time.
[ Sighs ]
TODD: Hand in your plates.
Todd's doing dishes.
Thanks for doing the dishes, Todd.
No problem.