‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond Makes a Special Meal for Valentine’s Day 2022

The Pioneer Woman made a special dinner just for her and Ladd Drummond. Ree Drummond whipped up a romantic meal just in time for Valentine’s Day 2022. Here’s a rundown of the delicious food she cooked for her husband.

1. Ree Drummond’s dark chocolate cherry loaf cake

Drummond says this is a “special” dessert that requires little effort. She uses a superhero shortcut to make her dark chocolate cherry loaf cake. Instead of making the cake from scratch, she uses boxed cake mix. Drummond says the best part of using a boxed mix is that you can add the ingredients you like and customize the recipe to fit your taste.

For the chocolate cake’s “add-in” ingredient, Drummond adds dark chocolate chips. For the frosting, she uses a pink frosting made from powdered sugar, milk, cherry preserves, and red food coloring. Drummond is a fan of this frosting because it contains cherry preserves, but it doesn’t have a strong cherry flavor. She warns home cooks against overdoing it with the cherries. After spreading the icing on the loaf cake, Drummond sprinkles chocolate chips on top. You can find the complete ingredients and directions here.

2. Ree Drummond’s grilled tomato and Caesar salad recipe

For Valentine’s Day Drummond does a “fancy spin” on the salad she usually makes. She says she usually makes grilled tomato and Caesar salad. For this recipe, she not only grills the tomatoes but also the lemons and the lettuce.

Drummond starts with a head of romaine lettuce. She brushes the cut side of the lettuce with olive oil and sprinkles salt and pepper on top of it. She does the same thing to the tomatoes and lemons.   

Next, Drummond places the lettuce, tomatoes, and lemons cut-side down. After that, she makes caesar dressing for the salad. Drummond starts by placing anchovies in a food processor. She adds minced garlic, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, and Dijon mustard.  

For the next step, Drummond adds Worcestershire sauce along with salt and pepper. She briefly runs the food processor so she can mix the food. After that, Drummond checks on the vegetables to make sure they don’t get charred.

She then finishes the dressing by slowly adding olive oil to the food processor while she pulses the machine. The last ingredient Drummond adds is Parmesan cheese. You can find the complete ingredients list and directions here.

3. Ree Drummond’s crispy herb-crusted chicken cutlets recipe

Drummond uses three dishes to help her with what she calls a “breading assembly line.” The Pioneer Woman places flour, salt, and pepper in the first dish. She adds a beaten egg and milk to the second dish. For the third dish, Drummond adds panko crumbs along with chopped oregano, thyme, and rosemary in addition to salt and pepper. She says you can also add Parmesan cheese to the mixture if you’d like.

Next, Drummond begins breading the chicken. She dredges the chicken in flour first, followed by the egg and milk mixture, and then the herb crumb mixture. She says it’s important to pat the chicken and make sure it gets thoroughly coated.

 For the next step, Drummond heats up butter in a skillet. She places the breaded chicken into the skillet. After a few minutes, Drummond turns over the chicken cutlets. She warns home cooks not to cook the cutlets too long because they will get dry. As soon as she takes the chicken out of the skillet, she sprinkles them with sea salt. You can find the complete ingredients list and directions here.

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