Douglas - Americas most wanted recipes kids menu: restaurant favorites your familys pickiest eaters will love

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ISBN 978-1-4767-3491-0 ISBN 978-1-4767-3492-7 (ebook) To Nia and Ryan, words cannot express how much Daddy loves you.

After five books and 1.2 million copies worldwide, I felt sure this one should feature dishes that kids love, that they look forward to eating when they dine out with their families. It was my son and daughter, after all, who inspired me to leave the corporate world years ago to become a cookbook authorto teach other parents around the world how to prepare the restaurant meals their families enjoy but in the warm comfort of their homes. I wanted to be the dad to my kids that I wished Id had growing up. In 1971, there was a pretty young girl from a rough area of Queens, New York, named Sharon. Like many teenagers, Sharon started hanging out with the wrong crowd and made some poor decisions, one of which was succumbing to peer pressure that led to recreational drug use. At that time, New York City was a lot different than it is now.

The streets were flooded with heroin, and the crime rate was one of the highest in the country. By the mid-70s an estimated 200,000 people abused heroin in New York City. Sharons drug use eventually led to heroin addiction as well. In 1972, her parents checked her in to a rehabilitation clinic in Harlem to get help. It was there that she met a handsome and charming young man from Yonkers named Ronald. Ronalds reason for being in rehab was a bit different.

He was a heroin user as well, but he was also a dealer. At that time, Ronald was involved in one of the biggest drug busts in Westchester County history with several mob-associated gangsters indicted. He pleaded down in court to being a user and got sentenced to attend rehab as part of his plea deal. Sharon and Ronald became good friends while in rehab and supported each others efforts to get clean. They eventually started dating and fell in love. It was a happy time for them.

In April of 1974, they got marriedshe was only nineteen years old, and he was just twenty. In August of that same year, while expecting their first child, Ronald went missing for several days and Sharon could not get in contact with him. Ever since they had been together, he had never gone more than a day without at least calling her. She feared for the worst. A few days later, she got a call from the police informing her that Ronald had been found dead on a rooftop in Harlem. Evidently his past had caught up with him.

When they found him, he was badly beaten and overdosed with heroin. It was thought to be a homicide, but police never discovered who did it. So there was Sharon, a nineteen-year-old, newly-wedded, pregnant mother who had just lost her husband. Life had dealt her a cruel blow. Six weeks later in October 1974, she gave birth to a baby boy whom she would name after her lost love, Ronald. If you havent guessed by now, Sharon is my mother, I am Ronald Jr., and this is how my life story began.

Having been born in October 1974, I missed meeting my dad by about six weeks. My mother spent the early years of my life in a deep depression after losing her first love so suddenly. She relapsed into heavy drug use. Much of my childhood was spent living at my grandparents house without seeing my mom for days at a time. I would often sit by the window crying, waiting for her to come home. Statistically, I had a slim chance of succeeding in life.

Neither genetics nor environment was on my side. The pain from my early years motivated me to never do drugs, and I promised myself that my kids would never have to go through what I did. Fast-forward to 2004. I married the love of my life, and my daughter, Nia, was born. I had a good job on Wall Street working for JPMorgan Chase and we had just bought our first home. Everything seemed perfect, but it wasnt.

I was working sixty to eighty hours a week and the only time Id get to see my daughter was for an hour or so at night and on the weekends. The best part of my day was coming home and hearing her precious little voice yell out, Daddy is home! before she went to bed. I wanted to provide for her, but I felt like I was becoming the absentee dad I had vowed not to be. That was the realization I needed. In 2007, a month before my son, Ryan, was born, I finally decided to leave the rat race for good and focus on RecipeSecrets.net and Americas Most Wanted Recipes full-time. Since then Ive had the freedom to be home with the kids and play an active role in their lives.

And if youre wondering, my mother has cleaned up her act and is an awesome grandmother. She spoils them rotten, and our family bond has never been stronger. She has taught me what its like to overcome adversity and survive whatever hard times life sends your way. She was also my inspiration in the kitchen having shown me the fundamentals of cooking at an early age. I truly hope that Americas Most Wanted Recipes Kids Menu, as well as the other books in the Americas Most Wanted Recipes series, brings you as much joy as its given me.