How The Pioneer Woman lost her groove

I'm a fan of The Pioneer Woman blog.  Over the years, I've gotten so many ideas for meals from that site that I could honestly be thought of as some sort of groupie.  But lately, I find myself skipping over more than 90% of her posts.  Why the change?  As her blog has become more popular, as she has become more of a media darling with guest spots on The Bonnie Hunt Show, Good Morning America, and The View, she has let her blog slip.  A few weeks ago, she flatly stated that she was going to be doing a lot less posting on her blog.

That's a shame.  Because what she has chosen to do to fill in the gap is invite others to post on her blog.  There is a much greater portion of posts devoted to home schooling, which matters to me not at all.  There are reviews of meals others have posted on other food blogs.  There are posts by people I don't know, don't care about, and have never heard of.  It's like The Pioneer Woman has turned into the Huffington Post.  Lots of content, exceedingly little of it by the person who attracted me to the place, and most of the rest of it is just noise.  Unfortunately, The Pioneer Woman blog doesn't speak to me anymore.

The Pioneer Woman is now doing book tours and writing children's books and doing television.  You know what?  More power to her.  She deserves success.  But.  While she insists when she does write on her blog, that she is ever so much happier if she never had to leave her ranch and slip out of those holey yoga pants,  I'm really not buying it anymore.  The Pioneer Woman is no longer little ol' Ree Drummond from Nowheres, OK.  She is now THE PIONEER WOMAN, media maven.

I'm glad she's growing as a person.  I'm glad she's getting money for her efforts.  But I still feel a pang in my heart for the old Ree.  I'm going to miss her old site.  I'm really going to miss the recipes.

Sigh.