Cicero: Blog gets ex-city girl TV show

One of my favorite food blogs is "The Pioneer Woman" written by Ree Drummond, who describes herself as "a desperate housewife. I live in the country. I channel Lucille Ball, Vivien Leigh and Ethel Merman. Welcome to my frontier!" Over the past five years at pioneerwoman.com she has chronicled her life as a city girl who became a rancher's wife and mother of four in Oklahoma; it's a wonderful blend of humor, poignant family farm stories and intriguing recipes with beautiful step-by-step directions.

Now she'll get an even greater audience with a Food Network series (named after the blog) that premieres at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Drummond will wrangle horses and Lemon Blueberry Pancakes, perfect pot roast and fig, prosciutto and arugula pizza. She'll be demonstrating her version of Chicken-fried Steak on the first episode.

CHICKEN-FRIED STEAK

Meat:

3 pounds cube steak

1 cups whole milk

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons seasoned salt

teaspoon paprika

teaspoons cayenne

1 teaspoons ground pepper

cup canola or vegetable oil, for frying

1 tablespoon butter, for frying

Gravy:

cup grease from the steaks

1?3 cup all-purpose flour

3 to 4 cups whole milk

teaspoon seasoned salt

Ground pepper to taste

Begin with setting up an assembly line of dishes for the meat: milk mixed with the eggs in one dish; flour mixed with spices in one; meat in one; then have one clean plate at the end to receive the breaded meat.

Work one piece of meat at a time. Season both sides with salt and pepper, then place in the flour mixture. Turn to coat. Place the meat in the milk/egg mixture, turning to coat. Finally, place it back in the flour and turn to coat. (So: dry mixture/wet mixture/dry mixture.)

Place the breaded meat on the clean plate, then repeat with remaining meat.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add butter. Drop in a few sprinkles of flour to make sure it's sufficiently hot. When the butter sizzles immediately, you know it's ready. (It should not brown right away, though; if it does, the fire's too hot.) Cook meat, three pieces at a time, until edges start to look golden brown for about 2 minutes each side. Remove the steaks to a paper towel-lined plate and keep them warm. Repeat until all meat is cooked.

After all the meat is fried, pour off the grease into a heatproof bowl. Without cleaning the pan, r

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