Ballis - Off the Menu

A wonderfully joyful ode to good food, best friends, tough choices, and great love. Off the Menu = one delicious read that comes complete with recipes! So much fun.

Alison Pace, author of You Tell Your Dog First

Smart, sexy, and delightfully buoyant, Off the Menu is, in a word, scrumptious. Stacey Ballis has managed to capture happiness between the covers of a book.

Quinn Cummings, author of Notes from the Underwire

Good Enough to Eat

Good Enough to Eat is like a perfect dish of macaroni and cheeserich, warm, nuanced, and delicious. And like any great comfort food, Stacey Balliss new book is absolutely satisfying.

Jen Lancaster, New York Times bestselling author of If You Were Here

Witty and tender, brash and seriously clever, Stacey Balliss characters are our friends, our neighbors, or, in some cases, that sardonic colleague the next cubicle over Her storytelling will have you alternately turning pages and calling your friends urging them to come along for the ride. And in Stacey Balliss talented hands, oh what a wonderful ride it is.

Elizabeth Flock, New York Times bestselling author of Sleepwalking in Daylight

A toothsome meal of moments, gorgeously written, in warmth and with keen observation, Good Enough to Eat is about so much more than the magic of food; its about the magic of life.

Stephanie Klein, author of Straight Up and Dirty and Moose

The Spinster Sisters

Readers will be rooting for Balliss smart, snappy heroines.

Booklist

A laugh-out-loud hoot of a book. Jodi and Jill are amazing characters. They are challenged by balancing their business lives with style, charm, and grace. A must-read.

A Romance Review

Filled with characters so witty and diverse yet so strong in their passion for friends and family that they could easily be our best friend or favorite aunt Women of every age will relate to Balliss clever yet unassuming story.

RT Book Reviews

Room for Improvement

For those who say chick lit is played out, all I can say is think again. Stacey Ballis proves the genre can be funny, honest, clever, real, and, most importantly, totally fresh.

Jen Lancaster

More fun than a Trading Spaces marathon. One of the seasons best.

The Washington Post Book World

Rife with humoralways earthy, often bawdy, unwaveringly forthright humor.

Chicago Sun-Times

A laugh-out-loud novel that will appeal to HGTV devotees as well as those who like their chick lit on the sexy side. One of the summers hot reads for the beach.

Library Journal

In her third outing, Ballis offers up a frothy, fun send-up of reality TV. Readers will have a blast.

Booklist

Sleeping Over

Ballis presents a refreshingly realistic approach to relationships and the things that test (and often break) them.

Booklist

Sleeping Over will have you laughing, crying, and planning your next girls night out.

Romance Reader at Heart

Inappropriate Men

One of www.Chatelaine.coms Seven Sizzling Summer Reads for 2004

An insightful and hilarious journey into the life and mind of Chicagoan Sidney Stein.

Todays Chicago Woman

Balliss debut is a witty tale of a thirtysomething who unexpectedly has to start the search for love all over again.

Booklist

Stacey Balliss debut novel is a funny, smart book about love, heartbreak, and all the experiences in between.

Chatelaine.com

Without compromising the intelligence of her readers, Ballis delivers an inspiring message of female empowerment and body image acceptance in her fun, sexy debut novel.

Inside Lincoln Park

Berkley Books by Stacey Ballis

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

THE SPINSTER SISTERS

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT

OFF THE MENU

STACEY BALLIS

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

PUBLISHERS NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright 2012 by Stacey Ballis.

Excerpt from Good Enough to Eat by Stacey Ballis copyright 2010 by Stacey Ballis.

Cover photo composition by S. Miroque. Photos: Housewife presenting freshly baked chocolate muffins by trgowanlock/shutterstock; Jack Russell terrier dog on a white background by Erik Lam/shutterstock.

Cover design by Rita Frangie.

Text design by Laura K. Corless.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

BERKLEY is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

The B design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Berkley trade paperback edition / July 2012

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ballis, Stacey.
Off the menu / Stacey Ballis.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-101-58109-4
1. Administrative assistantsFiction. 2. Celebrity chefsFiction. I. Title.
PS3602.A624O34 2012
813.6dc23
2012008568

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

This book is dedicated with my whole heart to my extraordinary husband, Bill, my true