Chambers - Just Married

To George, my sous chef for life

Text copyright 2018 by Caroline Chambers.
Photographs copyright 2018 by Linda Pugliese
Illustrations copyright 2018 by Nim Ben-Reuven
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9781452166766 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chambers, Caroline, author.
Title: Just married / by Caroline Chambers.
Description: San Francisco, California : Chronicle books, [2018] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017049256 | ISBN 9781452166711 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Cooking for two. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.
Classification: LCC TX714 .C64195 2018 | DDC 641.5/612dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017049256

Photography by Linda Pugliese
Food styling by Mariana Velasquez
Prop styling by Jeanne Lurvey
Designed by Anne Kenady
Typesetting by DC Typography

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Just married is a delicious stage of life: one to be savored, and nurtured, and nourished to grow strong. With the memories of the actual wedding behind you, now is the time to begin your new life together, creating more memories. If youre anything like me, your most special memories usually involve food... sometimes just the smells of something familiar can transport you back to those times. Maybe you served something special at your reception because of its special significance to you as a couple. Maybe you first cooked a childhood favorite for your love as a gift. Perhaps a favorite relative slipped a guarded old family recipe scribbled on a worn notecard into your wedding gift.

Coming together at the end, or beginning, of the day to sharethoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreamsover a meal can be a very intimate and enriching experience. But who has time to cook? Problem solved... with the easy, delicious, and memory-making meals included here.

I realize that, more than ever, busy couples share the sometimes joyous, often burdensome, task of putting a meal on the table, as long gone are the days of doting housewives slaving over Julia Childs Beef Bourguignon for 7-plus hours. Often the first person home from work is on dinner dutyregardless of who holds the title of best cook in the marriage. Maybe both of you cook; maybe neither of you cooks. Just Married is here to help.

Ive created this book for both the couples who see Thai takeout on the couch in front of an episode of the latest HBO hit as a success, and for those couples who want to expand their culinary achievements. This collection of recipes meets every newlyweds requirementsquick breakfasts for busy workday mornings, slow recipes for sweet, lazy Sundays, quick and healthy salads and bowls, healthy and decadent soups and salads, dinners that take fewer than 30 minutes, more elaborate dinners for special nights at home together, inexpensive meals to entertain a crowd, and, of course, a few (sweet) surprises.

Demanding work hours, busy social calendars, and the pursuit of hobbies mean newlyweds often eat breakfast on the go and dinners in a hanger (hunger + anger) -infused hurry. Dont let this describe you.

My own newlywed story provides the backdrop for this cookbook. From the moment we locked eyes at a hog roast on a North Carolina farm, my relationship with my now-husband, George, has revolved around food. Our first dates consisted of lengthy drives to find the best Chinese food in the state as well as coaxing a Trader Joesassisted feast from old hand-me-down pots and pans.

For our one-year dating anniversary, George saved up to take me to Lantern, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful restaurant that would achieve a James Beard Award years later. Now, when planning vacations, our itineraries are meticulously planned around where to eatthe best banh mi in Vietnam, the most authentic haggis in Scotland, or the freshest fish tacos in Mexico.

For the first (many) years of our relationship, I was the family cook (it was only natural; I owned a catering business). When I sold my catering company to work full-time in culinary consulting in San Francisco, the new schedule rocked our (eating) world. In one of my first weeks back to a full-time office gig, I returned home around 8 p.m., exhausted from a day on my feet in the test kitchen. After kissing me hello, George asked, Whats for dinner? I almost hit him on the back of the head with the skillet that he should have been using to cook me dinner!

Instead, I put the skillet down and cooked us a delicious mealexplaining my every move to George, who had just received a major dressing down and was obediently scribbling cooking notes. George, for the first time in his life, was confronted with the task of occasionally grocery shopping and cooking for two. It became our ritual that, every day, as soon as I began my hour-long commute home, Id call to instruct him on how to start dinner. By the time I got home, the vegetables would be halfway through their roast, the chicken resting in a simple marinade, and whatever back-of-the-fridge ingredients could go into a salad would be gathered on the counter.

Even if I arrived home very late and George had already eaten, he always paused his own work to sit with me while I ate, and we talked about our days. We were coping with a move to a new city, a new and tiny apartment, new jobs, and new friends. This small shift in our cooking responsibilities and our dedication to eating dinner together helped us forge through an emotional and tricky transition.

Young couples undergo many changes in their first few years of marriage: buying their first house, changing jobs, moving to new cities, making new couple friends, even growing their new family with children. But one thing has remained constant, no matter what (or where) the dinner table isbe it outdoors where we ate year-round in Coronado, California, because a table didnt fit inside our 400-square-foot [37-sq-m] house; the beautiful oak table in the Peaks Resort lobby where we ate microwave-prepared meals during our summer in Telluride, Colorado; the furnished-student-housing table in our Stanford apartment; or the rickety old table with an old church pew for half its seating in our rundown Tribeca loftthat is the place where our young marriage flourished. Table or no table, hodgepodge or gourmet meal, families truly come together here.

So my gift to you is this cookbookall those notes and instructions to George about dinner and the results of years of trial and error in the catering business and recipe development world, compiled here, to make your precious moments around the table easy, delicious, and stress-free.

My guide to the perfect wedding registry is divided into three sections:

• Vital Tools are compulsory for easy, stress-free cooking for two.
• Nice-to-Have Tools include tools that help you cook for a crowd and in ways that are not particularly necessary, but add pizazz to your cooking repertoire (an outdoor grill, for instance).