FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS

I’m thrilled to be offering my free ebook to you! So many of you have requested my recipes through the years, it was time to quit foolin’ around and get serious. Instead of digging dog-eared, food-stained recipes printed on index cards from my little red recipe box one at a time, I’ve put together a complete collection of my favorite recipes for you to enjoy. Compliments of the chef.

When my cookbook SOMETHING WARM FROM THE OVEN was published in 2002, I didn’t know what to expect. Would my readers be scratching their heads wondering why a novelist was publishing a cookbook? There was also the matter of marketing it. I’d done loads of publicity in the past for my women’s fiction titles, but I was a novice when it came to publicizing a cookbook. Booked on a whirlwind tour of food shows and TV appearances, I found myself on panels with world famous chefs and renowned cookbook authors, and doing baking demonstrations on camera in three minutes or less while trying to string together coherent sentences (not easy to pull off!). Somehow I survived, and along the way discovered the readers of my novels not only embraced me as a cookbook author they loved my recipes. In the decades since Something Warm from the Oven was released, I’ve received scores of emails from home bakers from all over the world in praise of my recipes. Whenever I post photos of my baked goods, or notice of an upcoming promotion for my cookbook, on social media I get comments from bakers who’ve either tried the recipe or wish to try it. Just as ingredients need certain other ingredients to properly bind, the sharing of recipes has bound me to a community of home bakers that spans the globe. It’s a beautiful thing, and something that gives me great satisfaction. I come by my hobby honestly. While I was growing up, I learned at my mother’s knee. It seemed Mom was constantly 1 cooking or baking for her brood of six. She made all her own bread. One of my best memories from childhood is coming home from school in the afternoons to the sight of bread dough rising or the smell of bread baking in the oven. My idea of a fun day was to spend a Saturday or Sunday in the kitchen baking cookies or cakes with my sisters. I learned through trial and error, with some epic fails along the way. After mastering the basics, I went on to gain more complex skills. My crowning achievement came when I cooked for the late Michael Batter‐ bury, founding editor at both Food and Wine and Food Arts magazines and a well-known figure in the foodie world. I hosted him and his wife at a dinner party at my home. He seemed to enjoy the meal I’d prepared, but his eyes lit up when he took his first bite of the strawberry-rhubarb pie I served for dessert. I’d sourced the strawberries and rhubarb, the first and freshest of the season, at my local farmer’s market. I’d made my crust from the scratch, using the recipe for my Never-Fail Pie Dough. Michael savored his bite of pie, then looked at me and said, “Tell me about this pie.” He ended up commissioning a piece in Food Arts on my pie-making techniques. After that whenever I encountered a chef who looked down his or her nose at me, the home baker who had the audacity to publish a cookbook, I would mention my article in the prestigious Food Arts magazine and watch their jaw drop. The recipes in this collection are a mix of old favorites from Something Warm From the Oven and recipes I’ve created or adapted in the years since my cookbook was published. Each one is lovingly crafted and tested. I hope you enjoy them.

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