Gourmets 50 Most Influential Women in Food # 21 Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Women

Cinnamon Toast the Right Way!

I have missed the past several weeks of posting on Gourmets 50 Most Influential Women in food. We have been enjoying some vacation time. Although I'm still away, I had to join in this week for Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Women. Most people in the blogging world know about Ree Drummond. I have been following her blog for several years. She began blogging in 2006, writing about topics such as ranch life and homeschooling. Then she posted her first recipe, a tutorial on "How to Cook a Steak". The thing I like most about Ree is her very relaxed way of writing, her sense of humor always comes shining through. You won't find a lot of gourmet recipes there but, you will be entertained and find quick, wonderful family fare.

Ree Drummond's blog "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman", describes her daily life as a rural wife and mother. Her very popular blog won honors at the Weblog Awards (the Bloggies) in 2007, 2008, and in 2009 was named Weblog  of the year. With 13 million page views per month, I would say she is the queen of bloggers. Her cookbook "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" was published that same year. And in April 2011, the Food Network announced that Ree would host a daytime television series on their network. Her show "Pioneer Woman" premiered in August.

Because I am away, I chose something very simple to spotlight Ree. I made her cinnamon toast. She blogged about the controversy over making Cinnamon Toast the Right Way in April 2010! It was quite a funny piece, where she wrote about Approach #1, Approach #2, Approach #3 and Approach #4 for making the perfect Cinnamon Toast. I always made my cinnamon toast with approach #3 but now I have learned that I was doing it all wrong! According to Ree this is Approach # Gross! THE ABSOLUTELY WRONG WAY to make cinnamon toast. Who knew? I love reading Ree's blog for this very reason....She is funny!
To be absolutely honest her approach was way better then mine. I really loved the way the butter melted into the bread. So if you want to try the right way to make your cinnamon toast, here is the recipe.

Butter, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla mixed up and ready to spread

Bread with butter-cinnamon spread

Just out of the oven

OK,  Ree was right...YUM!

Cinnamon Toast the Right Way

by Ree Drummond

Ingredients

16 slices Bread (whole Wheat Is Great!)

2 sticks Salted Butter, Softened

1 cup Sugar (more To Taste)

3 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (more To Taste)

1/8 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Smush softened butter with a fork. Dump in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg, if using. Stir to completely combine.

Spread on slices of bread, completely covering the surface all the way to the edges.

Place toast on a cookie sheet. Place cookies sheet into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until golden brown and bubbling. Watch so it won't burn!

Remove from oven and cut slices into halves diagonally.

Thanks to Mary of One Perfect Bite for this wonderful challenge. These bloggers are also featuring the recipes of Ree Drummond.  Hope you'll check them out. They are all very talented ladies.

Mary - One Perfect Bite 
Val - More Than Burnt Toast
Joanne - Eats Well With Others
Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
Susan - The Spice Garden
Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey
Heather - girlichef
Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney
Jeanette - Healthy Living
April - Abby Sweets 
Katie - Making Michael Pollan Proud
Kathleen -Bake Away with Me
Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen
Sue - The View from Great Island
Barbara - Movable Feasts
Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds
Amy - Beloved Green
Jeanette - Healthy Living 
Linda - Ciao Chow Linda 
Linda A - There and Back Again
Martha - Lines from Linderhof
Nancy - Picadillo
Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits,
Veronica - My Catholic Kitchen