‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond Praises Her Friend for Helping Her Finish Her First Cookbook

The Pioneer Woman is known not only for her Food Network show but also for her cookbooks. Ree Drummond gets the credit for producing valuable guides for home cooks, but she gives a lot of the credit to her best friend, Cyndi Kane (also known as Hyacinth Kane). She says Kane gave her the support and motivation she needed to complete the book project. Here’s what Drummond shared.

Ree Drummond’s first cookbook

Drummond admits she didn’t know what she was doing when she wrote her first cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl. Rather, she learned as she went. She tells Design & Living magazine her background was in food blogging, so she had a lot to learn about the process of putting a book together.

“Obviously, I had no idea what I was doing,” Drummond tells Design & Living. “I had been a food blogger for a couple of years and taught myself photography.”

Drummond says she looks back on the photos in that first cookbook and she cringes. She wasn’t happy with her photography skills. However, she says she loves this book because it was her project.

That book came out in 2009, and I look back at the photos and I cover my face with my hands because the photos were not good, but I love it because it was me,” says Drummond. “I wasn’t trying to make it something it wasn’t, so I just did photos of my kids and my dogs interspersed with the food. Even though I look at it now and could say, ‘Oh this should be better,’ I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It was my first cookbook.”

Ree Drummond praises her best friend for helping her complete her cookbook

Drummond took to Instagram to praise her best friend for helping her complete her first cookbook. Drummond says she was getting closer to her deadline and Kane helped her get the book together just in time.

“Did I ever tell you that about 13 or 14 years ago, as the deadline for my first-ever cookbook loomed, my best friend Hyacinth began to lose actual sleep over how behind I was?” asked Drummond on Instagram. “I didn’t lose sleep, mind you, for I lived (and OK, still live) in the moment and figured it’d all work out in the end.”

Drummond says Kane was so stressed out by the fact that her deadline was quickly approaching that she jumped into action and helped out. She provided household support while The Accidental Country Girl worked on her book.

“She was (and is) a productive member of society and knew that deadlines were not just suggestions, and she could no longer bear the stress,” continues Drummond. “So, she loaded up her then-little kids, headed out to the ranch for I think about two weeks straight, and acted as my sous chef, prep cook, dishwasher, and encourager until I’d cooked (and photographed) every freaking recipe and finished the book.”

Ree Drummond’s friend has a new cookbook

Now, Kane has her own cookbook. Drummond posted a heartfelt message on Instagram, congratulating her on her success. “Fast forward to today,” says Drummond. “I got to be with Hyacinth in NYC the day her own cookbook launched—a cookbook born out of her efficient, resourceful, sensible, creative, and delicious approach to home cooking. The strange and wonderful rhythm of life is not lost on me, and I couldn’t be happier for my friend. Her book is called Save it Forward Suppers, and it’s brilliant. Congratulations, Hy!”

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