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NEW YORK — As a child, Ricky Lauren dreamed of being a cowgirl. She would sit at home on Saturday afternoons glued to the television set, watching her favorite heroes — Dale Evans, Roy Rogers, John Wayne — shoot ’em up on the plains and ride off into the sunset. “I always wanted a big brother who was a cowboy,” the fresh-faced blonde says, sitting in the posh Ralph Lauren offices in Midtown.
While she may not have been able to conjure up her fantasy sibling, Lauren did finally secure her own home on the range and the idyll to go with it. For the last 24 years, she and her husband, Ralph, have owned Double RL Ranch, a sprawling compound in Ridgway, Colo. This week, she releases a book, “Ricky Lauren: Cuisine, Lifestyle and Legend of the Double RL Ranch” (Assouline), which is a love letter of sorts to the state, including serene photographs of expansive fields, vivid stories about the time she spends there and scores of recipes for Western-style cuisine.
A devoted journal writer, Lauren has long recorded tidbits about her three children (Andrew, David and Dylan) and reflections on the nature that surrounded her. “When something strong was in my mind, something I really wanted to say, I just would jot it down and start elaborating on it,” says the former English major. “I enjoyed it. I never thought I wrote anything too important until I read it a long time afterward.”
Lauren was raised in New York, the only daughter of Austrian immigrants. Her father grew up in Vienna around the time American novelist Zane Grey’s Western-themed books were in vogue, and Lauren credits her dad’s passion for them with igniting her own curiosity about cowboy culture. “I know children in Europe were fascinated by Grey’s stories of the American West, so in a way I had a little bit of that infecting me, too,” she says.
Of course, when she met Ralph over 40 years ago, she never dreamed their lives would become the picture of Americana that it is today. While they were dating, he would give Ricky tests, like which jean jacket she liked better in a store window and why. She contends he was only joking, but from then on her life became centered around things like grommets and contrast stitching. “But then he had to listen to me talk about Shakespeare and Chaucer, too,” she laughs.
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The couple spent years collecting Native American rugs and pottery and eventually began looking for acreage to buy out West, finally coming across Double RL. “Toward the very early part of having the ranch, I remember Ralph telling me that he drove up the road and came around the corner and saw the mountains early in the morning,” Lauren recalls. “The sun was coming up, and he said it took his breath away.”
In the early part of their marriage, Lauren cooked all the meals for the family, and many recipes in the book are ones she’s collected from her mother and mother-in-law. They have of course been adapted, since these days the family is more health-conscious; for example, they now lay off butter and cream, and most nights the Laurens dine on fish or lean steak from the cattle they raise on the grounds. “Maybe for a treat,” she says, “we’ll do something that came from one of our mothers, like Wiener schnitzel.”
For the most part, the family keeps to themselves on the ranch, opting to spend time together rather than play host to a revolving cast of visitors. They horseback ride in the summer and fall, cross-country ski in the winter and shop nearby farmers markets for fruits and vegetables in the summer. When friends do come by, however, Lauren is the ultimate hostess.
“Ricky always anticipates, before you even formulate it, your wishes and your desires,” says Françoise Labo, a confidante since the Eighties. “She creates events, she proposes visits, runs, horse rides, motor trips, movie screenings, so that every single day becomes a special day.”
In other words, Lauren encourages her guests to find the magic in the West she’s always seen. Or, as she puts it, “When you have an experience and you love it so much, what good is it if you have it all alone? If you can share it with people, then you enjoy it so much more.”
Nana’s Brownies
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
6 oz unsweetened chocolate
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
Frosting:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2 oz. confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
rum or brandy, to taste
walnut halves
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 13x9x2-inch pan. Melt butter, chocolate and sugar in a double boiler.
2. In a small bowl, beat eggs with vanilla extract.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add chocolate and egg mixtures and stir in walnuts.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool before frosting.
Frosting:
1. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler. Remove from heat.
2. Mix in all other ingredients, then spread evenly on cooled brownies.
3. Cut into squares and decorate with walnut halves. Refrigerate. Makes 24.