I want to thank everyone. To write a big long list with all of your names. Because it’s hard to believe that I have gotten to where I am, and I know that I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for you.
You know who you are if you’re reading this. You, among many, have inspired, helped, and cared for me along the way, getting me to this moment where I am writing these very words. As I continue to cook, to style food, to photograph, and to write, I will slowly but surely thank you all individually, because for all that you have done, and much more, I am so incredibly grateful.
With that said, I want to begin giving thanks with this first book by acknowledging my childhood. I grew up in Minnesota, where we made forts at our cabin in the woods, climbed trees in the summer, and flooded the backyard with water to skate on in the frigid winter months. We shucked the corn we ate, said please and thank you, and when eating in the farmhouse, we joined the clean-plate club without fail. I am thankful for those who raised me this way: my grandparents, my parents, my aunts and uncles, my cousins and my brother. Thank you to those who instilled in me what it means to be “Minnesota nice” and for teaching me that a Midwestern upbringing is special.
Thank you to my incredible culinary and creative team at Prime Publishing: Tom Krawczyk, my photographer and videographer and Chris Hammond, Judith Hines, and Marlene Stolfo, my culinary test kitchen geniuses. To word masters and editors Bryn Clark and Jessica Thelander. And to my amazing editor and friend, Kara Rota. This book was a team effort, filled with collaboration and creativity that reached no limits.