About three years ago, Ree Drummond&rsquo;s husband took their four young children for the day, and she had a little time to herself. </p><p> &ldquo;I had just weaned my fourth child,&rdquo; Drummond said. &ldquo;I wandered over to the computer and decided to put some pictures of the kids on for my mother to see. I didn&rsquo;t know what a blog was but thought she might enjoy that, too.&rdquo;</p><p> Drummond began chronicling her hilarious, sometimes poignant, trek from L.A. city girl to Oklahoma rancher&rsquo;s wife. </p><p> Today, those anecdotes have morphed into the wildly popular blog &ldquo;Confessions of a Pioneer Woman&rdquo; (www.thepioneer woman.com), which gets about 14 million page views a month. Time magazine recently included it in its 25 best blogs of 2009, and it also received the industry&rsquo;s coveted prize &mdash; Weblog of the Year.</p><p>Drummond is continuing her homespun journey with more recipes and tales from the ranch in her new book, &ldquo;The Pioneer Woman Cooks.&rdquo; We caught up with the author (who comes to Kansas City Monday) by phone.</p><p>The cookbook, which hit No. 1 this week on the New York Times best-sellers list, includes such recipes as ribeye steak with whiskey cream sauce, olive cheese bread, perfect pot roast and creamy rosemary potatoes. </p><p> Drummond has an almost cult-like following, with millions flocking to her blog to live alongside her as she wrangles cows, feeds ranch hands, home schools her kids and marvels at country sunsets. </p><p>Her blog is peppered with mouthwatering recipes, candid photos and pithy, sometimes side-splittingly funny observations about rural life, family, food &mdash; whatever is on her mind. </p><p>The native Oklahoman left in the late &rsquo;80s to attend the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she did the &ldquo;whole California thing.&rdquo; </p><p> &ldquo;There was just something about Los Angeles. I couldn&rsquo;t wait to get there,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I hit all the theme parks, hiked up to the Hollywood sign, discovered sushi and even became a vegetarian for a few years. I think I even went to class.&rdquo; </p><p> After graduating from college with a degree in gerontology, Drummond stayed in L.A. but eventually &ldquo;decided to regroup and go back to Oklahoma. &hellip; It was supposed to be a pit stop on the way to Chicago, where I planned to work or perhaps even attend law school.&rdquo;</p><p> But it was not to be.</p><p> One evening when she was at a bar with friends, she locked eyes with a rugged, muscle-toned cowboy, and before she knew it, was the wife of a fourth generation Oklahoma cattle rancher. She refers to him as the Marlboro Man (for the record, he doesn&rsquo;t smoke &mdash; he just <em>looks</em> like the Marlboro Man). </p><p> &ldquo;All of a sudden, I&rsquo;m learning about castrating cattle and taking the rectal temperature of steers,&rdquo; Drummond said with a laugh. &ldquo;It was a far cry from L.A.&rdquo;</p><p>Four kids, several dogs and a lot of cows later, Drummond said she is captivated by the country life. The closest town to the ranch &mdash; still 40 miles away &mdash; is Pawhuska, Okla., population 3,500. But she still has a little California in her soul.</p><p> &ldquo;I love the country but still say the sun rises and sets on a platter of sushi. Out here it&rsquo;s bait,&rdquo; she said. </p><p> Drummond said her blog and cookbook have allowed her to meet people from all walks of life. With book signings and events, she is traveling more than she used to.</p><p>&ldquo;I still wake up on the ranch, go to sleep on the ranch and when I get home, I still have a huge pile of laundry and cow poop on the porch.&rdquo; </p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">MONDAY, IN PERSON </span></strong><br /> <strong>What:</strong> Discussion and book signing with &ldquo;Pioneer Woman&rdquo; blogger and author Ree Drummond</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 7 p.m. Monday </p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th St.</p><p><strong>Admission:</strong> $27.50, includes one copy of the book and two tickets. Call 913-384-3126 or go to <a href="http://www.rainydaybooks.com">www.rainydaybooks.com</a>.</p><p></div> <hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> @ Log on to <strong>mom2momkc.com</strong> &mdash; click on &ldquo;Giveaways&rdquo; &mdash; for a chance to win a &ldquo;Pioneer Woman Cooks&rdquo; cookbook.</p><p></div>