Ballis - Big delicious life: Stacey Balliss most awesome recipes

I am not a famous chef. You have not seen me on the Food Network or the Cooking Channel. I have not competed on Top Chef, Chopped, or The Next Food Network Star. You have also not eaten at my restaurant, as I dont have one. The truth is that Im not actually a chef at all. I have no formal training, and learned everything I know about cooking at my grandmothers knee, or from reading cookbooks and cooking magazines, and watching food television. And from practice. Lots and lots of practice. Im just a passionate home cook, and unless you know me personally, you have never tasted a single thing that Ive made. I write about food, both on my blog, The Polymath Chronicles, and in my novels. My heroines are chefs, and food becomes another character in my books. And when I began writing Foodie Fiction in earnest, it was important to me that my readers be able to re-create the dishes they are reading about, so I started including recipe sections at the back of my novels.

Okay, also... I have always wanted to write a cookbook, and so I figured that was my best shot at sharing the recipes that were in my heart.

Here is what I think about cooking. It is both an art and a craft. The craft can be taught. If you can read a recipe and follow simple directions, you can cook things successfully. The ability to riff on that, or make it up as you go along, that is the art, and some people naturally have it, and some dont. When I am developing recipes, it isnt about the books or the blog. It is about me and my husband and my family or friends. It is about the simplicity of Wednesday night dinner, and the marathon that is Thanksgiving. I cook with love for the people I love, and my cooking sends a message. Its about sustenance, both physical and emotional. Its about bringing the people in my life comfort in tough times, and celebration in good times. Its about creating happy everyday moments and special memories.

Sometimes its about solving a problem, how to make a specific dish work for a specific type of eater... making a comfort food dish healthier for someone who is dieting, or figuring out how to serve the needs of a pal who is vegetarian or diabetic. Sometimes its about re-creating a memory, an old family dish whose original recipe is lost. Sometimes, one of my favorite things to do, its about flipping the script on a dish that someone thinks they hate, but just because theyve never tasted a delicious version before. Ive converted many a doubter to the magic of brussels sprouts.

The recipes in this book are the Directors Cut of the recipes from my novels. They include over forty lost dishes that were mentioned in the books but we couldnt include in the recipe sections for space considerations. And while Ive organized them in sections connected to the novels from which they came, for ease of finding them for my readers who are familiar with the books, you will find on the following pages two indexes for ease of navigating. The full recipe list, in the order in which they appear, and an index that organizes the recipes by main ingredient or recipe type, follows. That way, if you want to find the Mea Culpa Muffins mentioned in Good Enough to Eat, it is a quick look, and if you are staring at a chicken in your fridge and need some inspiration, you can just as easily find all the chicken recipes! This cookbook is a recipe resource. There are no beautifully propped and staged pictures of food, or long stories about where the recipes came from. If youre curious about something, feel free to find me on any of the social media outlets and ask for the backstory, Im happy to share! I hope that this will become a go-to in your house when you want to woo your sweetie, try something new, switch up your Tuesday night, or host your next (or first!) dinner party.

I strongly recommend adopting the chef trick referred to as mise en place or everything in its place. First and foremost, read the recipe through from beginning to end, especially since some of these are better if made the day BEFORE you are actually going to eat them! Then gather all of your ingredients at once, and measure them out. If something needs to be prepared in a certain way, peeled, chopped, toasted, etc., do all of this prep work in advance. That way, once you begin cooking, you wont have to stop to go find something or do any extra preparations.

And most important, use your heart to put your own spin on things. While the baking recipes need to be followed to the letter, that whole chemistry thing and all, the rest of the dishes should reflect your personal taste. If something calls for chicken stock, but you are a vegetarian, swap it out for either vegetable stock or water. If a recipe includes wine, but you dont want to cook with alcohol, you can use stock or water or maybe even a fruit juice in its place. Hate broccoli? Use a vegetable you love. Dont have shallots but there is an onion lying around? Switch it out. Feel free to play, and if you make an alteration you think will rock my world, I hope you will get in touch to let me know so I can try your version.