I hosted my first dinner party when I was thirteen. Three friends and I decided it would be great fun. I would prepare a feast and they would join me for dinner and a sleepover. (These days dinner rarely leads to a sleepover, or at least, not the kind of sleepover we had planned, but at thirteen it seemed the ultimate in sophistication.) My mother took me shopping then bravely left me alone in her kitchen to prepare our feast.
In no particular order, here’s what I learned from that first traumatic experience: my aunt was wrong. Turning the oven to 350 degrees and baking whatever for thirty minutes does not apply to everything. That when a recipe directs you to apply butter and flour to the baking dish, it’s not a suggestion. Orange chicken has nothing to do with cooking chicken in orange juice. And that while preparing a salad the night before because you have a gymnastics meet and won’t have time before the party is fine, it’s not a good idea to put on the dressing that early. In other words, if you’ve never cooked before, follow the recipe precisely!
The food was a disaster. There I was—thirty minutes before my guests were due to arrive and I had nothing to eat. Fortunately, Mom came to the rescue and suggested we order in pizzas. We dined in style, had a wonderful evening and a very successful sleepover.
All these years later, I still experiment in the kitchen, but I’ve taken my cooking disasters to heart and learned from them. I stick with what I do best: plan ahead and keep it simple. This cookbook is filled with easy recipes for delicious food. A couple of recipes might challenge the beginner, but by and large, “quick and easy” is what I gravitate to. Like many women, I’m too busy to spend hours in the kitchen.
I’m not a professional chef. I’m a home cook, just like you. I want to nurture my family and friends with spectacular event-appropriate food, with the least amount of time and effort possible.
I’m also a storyteller. I have always loved telling stories, especially romances. So much so that I’ve turned it into a career. With more than one hundred romance books under my belt, I think it’s safe to say that I’m in this business for the long run.
A few years ago, I started a new series in the fictitious town of Fool’s Gold. It’s set in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Fool’s Gold is a friendly place with charming people who bring casseroles to their neighbors whenever there’s a life event that calls for it.
One or two weekends a month, the festivals held in Fool’s Gold bring street-food tastings to the town. Other days, residents can count on an outstanding meal from one of their terrific local restaurants. When a man behaves badly, the women meet en masse to trash him over decadent desserts and a slushy drink du jour.
The Fool’s Gold series started with Chasing Perfect and now the books number in the double digits. Readers seem to gravitate toward the recurring characters who make the town feel like home, even sending me their own suggestions for food at their favorite eateries in the town. And thus the idea was born to post on my website, www.susanmallery.com, specific recipes so that readers could enjoy the mouthwatering dishes I described in my books with their own friends, book clubs, family and, of course, love interests.
One day my brilliant editor suggested I consider collecting all the material so we could see what we had. That material became this cookbook.
We’ve organized the Fool’s Gold recipes by season. My cooking philosophy is to make things easy and delicious, using available ingredients. You will find plenty of recipes for your family and lots for sharing. But there is something else for you in these pages. A surprise.
As I mentioned before, I am a romance writer. I love the idea of two people falling in love. I adore the sense of community that occurs when two families are drawn together because of a powerful connection. Love heals, love inspires and when combined with delicious food, love is magical.
Woven within the pages of this cookbook is a Fool’s Gold love story not available anywhere else. It’s funny and flirty and my bonus gift to you. For those of you who adore Fool’s Gold, welcome back. For those of you who have yet to sample this small California town, I offer you a taste of what it’s like to throw caution to the wind and fall wildly in love. Maybe over a Coconut Vanilla Snowball Cupcake.
Regardless of how you came to have this cookbook, please enjoy the delicious recipes. And remember that important lesson from my first cooking experience: it’s not the execution of a well-planned meal that matters, but the sharing of delicious food with loved ones. And maybe the promise of an extra-special sleepover. Wink. Wink. My best to you and yours.
Happy cooking and happy reading.
