Alvarez Ryan - Husbands that cook: more than 120 irresistible vegetarian recipes and tales from our tiny kitchen

More Than 120 Irresistible Vegetarian Recipes and Tales from Our Tiny Kitchen

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This book is dedicated to youmay it bring a smile to your face and joy to your kitchen

Ryan and Adam

Ryan

Food is love.

All my life, food has been a way for my family to express affectionwell, most of my family. My older brother David would tell me that I wasnt actually related to them, that I was found in a Dumpster behind the local Albertsons under a pile of wilted lettuce, because clearly, with my baby-blond hair and blue eyes, I did not fit in with the rest of our dark-haired, brown-eyed family. Much of my childhood was spent in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother, learning how to cook by their sides, and while their methods could not have been more differentmy mother has shelves overflowing with cookbooks while my grandmother never followed a recipe in her lifethey both shared the same love of cooking.

Even as an infant, I was interested in everything my mom did in the kitchen. When I was fussy, she would calm me down by putting me in a baby backpack while she washed the dishes. I would peer over her shoulder, intently watching all the actionand to this day, I still enjoy doing dishes, which is fairly helpful since Adam and I dont have a dishwasher. She encouraged my interest from the beginning, teaching me how to measure ingredients, how to follow a recipe, and techniques for everything from boiling an egg to baking a triple-layer cake. Her collection of cookbooks was diverse, featuring dishes from around the world, and when I moved out on my own, most of my recipes came from her.

My grandmother, on the other hand, cooked only by memory and intuition. Born in Argentina, she lived her adult life in Cuba before immigrating to the United States, so whenever I would visit my abuelita, her kitchen was filled with delicacies, from chilling in the fridge. Every time I walked in the door, she greeted me with warm hugs and laughter, and the first question in her cheery Spanglish was always, You got a hungry? And my answer was always yes.

When I first met Adam, I was still a baby: a bright-eyed nineteen-year-old freshman at USC, just out of high school. I was living in cramped university housingwith antisocial roommates who never seemed to leaveso our only opportunities to cook together were at his tiny bachelor pad in Hollywood. He had only one pan in his kitchen, and we had to chop ingredients using a butter knife, but some of our most memorable meals came from that one-room apartment, sitting on the floor around an old coffee table. Three years later, once I graduated from college, we decided wed had enough of the cityespecially driving around for nearly an hour every day looking for parkingand moved into our first apartment together, with a full-size kitchen and two parking spots!

I did most of the cooking at first, but we both shared a love of food, and anytime we followed a recipe, we would take detailed notes on ways to improve it. Eventually, the collection of loose papers grew so out of hand that we organized them into a three-ring binder, each page filled with meticulous corrections, scribbled reminders, and numerous handwritten changes. That green folder, which still sits on our kitchen shelf, became our go-to cookbook containing all our favorite recipes. Eventually, Adam became so inspired and interested in the process that we began to split the cooking duties: every week we planned recipes and candlelit dinners to prepare for each other, and once he joined me in the kitchen, we never looked back.

In January 2015, I casually mentioned to Adam, I think Id like to start a cooking blog, and he immediately replied, I want to do it with you! We were photography novices, so it took us a few months to shoot food photos that were publicly presentable (our early pictures are kept in a hidden folder on our computer titled Do Not Open and for very good reason), but on April 29, 2015, we jumped into the world of blogging and officially launched Husbands That Cook.

Since we started the site, weve written hundreds of posts, but this book represents something special. Most are recipes weve never shared with anyone beforealong with dishes that brought us together, like the ), but the remaining 125 recipes have never been seen before. Adam and I spent a delicious year roasting, toasting, testing, and tasting them, and every single one received an enthusiastic Mmm! from usand our neighbors, who were the lucky recipients of our extra treats. Were excited for you to try them all, so come join us in the kitchen, pour some cocktails, and lets get the cooking party started!

Food is love, and this is our love letter: to each other, to our families and friends, and to you.

Enjoy!

Adam

Hello! Im happy youre here! I am happy to be here!

Youre probably wondering, who are these drop-dead gorgeous guys on the cover, and what is this cookbook all about? Light a few candles, pull up a comfortable chair, and allow me to tell you the story of how it all began

Never in a million years did I think that I would one day write a cookbook. In fact, when I was in my early twenties, my friends used to tease me, saying I should open a restaurant dedicated entirely to microwaveable cuisineI was that good. I didnt even like cooking until recently. I never had interest in following a recipe, felt overwhelmed by a messy kitchen with piles of dishes, and was intimidated by my lack of experience. Sound familiar? If youre anything like me, it is my goal to rid you of your cooking fears and show how fun and rewarding it can be!

Music was my life until just a few years ago. When I was still in diapers, I would pound away on the family room piano my dad won on an episode of Hollywood Squares. I begged my parents for music lessons, and at every recital, I was the eager student with his hand in the air requesting to perform first. I spent hours every day practicing and making up songs, and at age twelve, I became obsessed with musicals, landing lead roles at the community theater in plays like Grease, Bye Bye Birdie, and A Chorus Line. My parents supported me through every artistic adventure, despite the fact that I had a difficult time paying attention in class and was quite the handful growing up!

On the last day of high school, I formed a rock band with my best friend, and we made a career of it for almost twenty-five years. Youve probably even heard some of our music! Our band, The 88, had songs featured in dozens of TV shows, movies, and commercials, and if you ever watched the NBC sitcom Community, you heard our theme song start the show every week. In 2010, our dreams came true when we got the call to be the opening act for Ray Davieslead singer and songwriter of the Kinksand joined him onstage during his set to play classic Kinks songs on multiple tours throughout the United States and overseas. We accomplished more than I could have ever imagined, but life had other plans in store for me.