Mother knows best! Ree Drummond’s two eldest children — daughters Alex, 22, and Paige, 20 — are out of the house, but they always have mom to turn to if they need some help in the kitchen.
Drummond, 51, who also shares sons Bryce, 17, and Todd, 15, with husband Ladd Drummond, told Us Weekly exclusively that she didn’t exactly give her daughters a crash course in cooking before they headed off to college — “If I were a good mother, I would’ve done that!” — but she has since made up for it.
“Alex did not like to cook at all,” Ree said while discussing her expanded line of Pioneer Woman dog treats by Purina on Tuesday, February 18.
“She always loved to eat, but she didn’t have any interest. So I just took my cues from that,” the culinary pro added of her firstborn, who has since graduated college and gotten a job and apartment in Dallas.
Still, Ree has since made sure Alex has the kitchen essentials now that she’s living on her own. “Of course, I gave her Pioneer Woman cookware,” she said with a chuckle. “I just sent her a care package. It was a Pioneer Woman knife and Pioneer Woman cookware and all these fun things.”
The Pioneer Woman Cooks author also noted that since cooking has now become a necessity for Alex, she calls Ree “a lot” with various food-related questions. “She made brisket and it was really tough. I said, ‘Well, put it back in the oven and keep going until the fork can pull it apart,’” Ree recalled. “It’s fun, because she’s figuring it out. She has a built-in app in me.”
The Oklahoma native added with a laugh: “She can just call me if she has a question. She doesn’t have to search the internet.”
Ree also noted that both girls are more inclined to help out in the kitchen now whenever they do return home. For Paige, who is still in college, that means throwing together some tasty appetizers. “She’s really good at making a charcuterie board or little things to nibble on,” the Food Network star explained. “She gets bored very easily, so she wants to be doing things. She does it in the kitchen, which is great!”
And while the Charlie the Ranch Dog author says she isn’t cooking differently now that only Ladd, 51, and her sons are the only ones who remain at home, the conversation around the dinner table has certainly changed. After Paige left for college she recalled one such night, explaining, “We were eating. They were talking about who was going to play center on the team and the offensive coach was saying this about him. An I said, ‘I’m going to Tulsa to get my hair done tomorrow,’ And it was just silence, just crickets. They gave me an obligatory pause, and then they kept talking about the ball.”
Ree added: “I just remember it was that moment where Paige would have been, ‘When are you leaving? What else are you going to do? What are you going to do to your hair? When will you be back? Can I go? Where can we go? Are you going to shop?’ The boys love me. Ladd loves me. But they’re just not on the edge of their seat wondering what I’m doing at every moment like my girls were!”
With reporting by Brody Brown
