Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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The Pioneer Woman Brings Cowboy Cooking To Food Network [Table Conversations: Ree Drummond]

Posted Aug 24, 2011 by Jeff Houck

Updated Aug 24, 2011 at 08:16 AM

I’ve been a fan of Ree Drummond’s outstanding Pioneer Woman blog for years. Spectacular photos, wry and at times hilarious writing, delicious food. All add up to a fantastic read.

So it was a pleasure to finally get to interview her for my Table Conversations podcast.

Ree turned out to be a great guest. I’m always fascinated to hear how people start their blogging life. Here’s how she launched:

“As a lot of blogs start, it really did start on a whim. I had no sense that it would continue very long. I just started it one dya when I happened to have the house to myself one day. It was just very, very gradual and I started posting photos and stories of my past. Then I started posting about country life. It wasn’t until about 7 or 8 months later that I shared my first recipe. When I first started my site, I certainly had no plans for any food component. It just evolved naturally.

“The first few posts were more, ‘Oh look, I put a photo on the Internet.’ Maybe a small caption. It wasn’t until 2 or 3 days into my site that I wrote a story. And it was only about an embarrassing moment from high school or college. It started as a scrapbook/diary.

“The food component started accidentally. I was about to cook my husband a steak. I thought, ‘Well, I’ve blogged about every other thing in my life, why not blog about this steak?’”

Last weekend, I went on a bit of Pioneer Woman binge, making her Perfect Pot Roast, (pictured above), her Smashed Potatoes and her My Favorite Meatloaf recipe. They were all outstanding and so easy to make. It’s always a blast to find a recipe source I can trust.

For more on Ree and her Food Network show, read my story about her from today’s Tampa Tribune.