Briscione James - Just married and cooking: 200 recipes for living, eating, and entertaining together

SCRIBNER

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Copyright 2011 by Brooke Parkhurst and James Briscione

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First Scribner hardcover edition May 2011

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2010033053

ISBN 978-1-4391-6998-8

ISBN 978-1-4516-2557-8 (ebook)

Brookes Dedication

For Jamie, Parker Lee, and my mother
you always taste, you never complain, and you always inspire.

Jamies Dedication

For my top two sous chefs, Brooke and Parker,
who I learn from and love more every day.
And to my family for all the years of love and support.

We consider ourselves very fortunate to be with such a supportive publishing house. Who else gets to commemorate their first year of marriage with a collection of recipes? Nan Graham, youre the strong leader who always has a twinkle in her eye. Whitney Frick, youre the hippest, most thoughtful sounding board that we could have asked for. Thank you for your insight, your thorough edits, and your undeniable love of good food. And we are very thankful for our acquiring editor, Beth Wareham, who wasnt afraid to take a leap of faith. We hope weve made you proud.

Brooke would like to thank her mother for her love and patience and, more specifically, for a childhood filled with layer cakes and lattice-topped pies. Shed also like to thank Bill Contardi for six good years.

Jamie would like to thank Frank Taylor and Frank Stitt, who were willing to take a chance on a young kid, teach him how to cook, and introduce him to the world of food. He also thanks his family for their unwavering love and support, and for their relentless willingness to show up and eat.

JUST MARRIED & COOKING

JUST MARRIED AND COOKING is the foodie soundtrack of our lives.

Its as if we made a mixed tapefilling it with ingredients, flavors, textures, and memoriesand dedicated it to each other and to new beginnings. If a moment in our life together merits a song, then it also deserves a really wonderful recipe. Because cheesy popovers, sizzling skirt steak, and strawberry layer cake say as much about us as does our favorite Jack Johnson tune.

We knew we had to get down the flavors of our elopement and marriage in South Carolina, along the banks of the May River. We wanted to record salty afternoons at the Gulf when our skin tasted like a margarita glass (and our bodies were warm as hotcakes from the noontime sun). We needed to remind ourselves of the sweetness, the light, the reckless happiness of welcoming a baby girl into this world. Could anything replicate those newborn days? Jamie came close with his Nilla-laden, creamy New Baby Banana Puddingone of the stars of our Everyday Desserts.

But, of course, we didnt just write this book for each other. We wrote it for youthe newlyweds, the kitchen-shy, the would-be and budding cooks who need a little push. After you rinse and put away all the gorgeous new gear that friends and family have given you from your kitchen registry, youre suddenly going to realize that youll be sharing meals with someone for the next sixty years (at least!).

Budgeting, grocery shopping, cooking dinner for each other seven nights a week until old age what to do?!

We experienced the same mini-crisis, so we designed a cookbook that jazzes things up, making your kitchen and its bar stools the hottest place in town (or at least in your cul-de-sac). This is more than just a collection of recipes, its an instruction manual and tip sheet on how to make easy, elegant food at home. These chapters are our glam-on-a-budget plan for eating and entertaining well 365 days a year.

This book is organized into two sections. Life As We Know It is the workhorse, focusing on everyday dinners like Jamies rustic Eggplant and Tomato Gratin, an earthy platter of Pork Chops with Bourbon and Prunes, and big bowls of Whole-Wheat Pappardelle with Butternut Squash and Blue Cheese. We want you to mix and match our greatest hits, pulling a vegetable recipe from Fixins, or Second Thoughts, a protein from The Lighter Side, and a bake-on-the-run bite of something sweet from Everyday Desserts.

But every once in a while, we know that you need to slip into a pair of heels and a little knit dress and sip a champagne cocktail. So we created complete menus in the New Traditions section of the book to help you turn out showstopping plates and drinks for special occasions. Sicilian Lobster Salad, Crispy Skate with Spinach, Brown Butter, and Lemon, and our potent Blood Orange Old-Fashioned transform an evening with friends and family into an event. Our food is simple, but it might just inspire a new celebration.

At this point, you might be wondering, Who are these people? And why should I make their food?

Jamie is an alumnus of Daniel Bouluds 4-star kitchen and hes worked with some of the best chefs in New York City and the Southeast. He considers Frank Stitt, the James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef of Highlands Bar & Grill and Bottega, in Birmingham, Alabama, to be his culinary mentor. While Jamie was the chef de cuisine at Highlands, Stitt instilled in him a deep appreciation for the growing seasons as well as for the local, farm-fresh produce. Jamies take-aways as a young chef: nothing thats been unloaded from a plane can taste as good as what youve dug up in your backyard; what grows together, goes together; a little French finesse makes everything taste better. Hes one Southern boy whos just as comfortable stirring a pot of grits as he is searing a lobe of foie gras. And maybe its this combination of cosmopolitan and country that gives him a leg up on the culinary competition: when Jamie appeared on Food Networks competition series Chopped, he walked away the grand champion.

Brooke, for her part, grew up on the Gulf Coast surrounded by amazing Southern lady cooks. Her mother and her aunts cooked what they knew and cooked it well, always with style and love for big, bold flavors. Almost every dish that came from their kitchens featured the fruits of local waterssweet Gulf shrimp, briny Apalachicola oysters, line-caught flounder, deep-sea grouperor, simply, fruit that grew on the familys farm fence, like tiny, tart summer blackberries and sweet cherry tomatoes. Good, honest cooking was the focus of everyday life. So when Brooke moved to New York City after college, with the intent of pursuing journalism, its no surprise that she fell in love with the citys culinary scene and a handsome Alabama chef. Eventually, Brooke found a way to combine her two loves, writing and cooking, by publishing her novel with recipes,