Momma Reiner Kimberly - Sugar, Sugar Every Recipe Has a Story

Sugar, Sugar copyright 2011 by Kimberly Reiner and Jenna Sanz-Agero. Photograph on page 268 copyright 2011 by Ben Pieper. Photographs on pages 26, 100, 121, 132, and 211 copyright 2011 by The Sugar Mommas. All other photography copyright 2011 by Sara Remington. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC
an Andrews McMeel Universal company
1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106

E-ISBN: 978-1-4494-0910-4

APPR

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011921501
www.andrewsmcmeel.com

For all photos except on pages 26, 100, 121, 132, 211, and 268
Photography by Sara Remington
Photography assisted by Kass Medeiros and Shay Harrington
Food styling by Erin Quon
Food styling assisted by Alexa Hyman
Prop styling by Kami Bremyer
Author photo by Sharon Suh
Cover design by Julie Bames

Design and art direction by Julie Barnes

www.sugarsugarrecipes.com

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I, Momma Reiner, wish to dedicate this book to the Reiner Boys: Daddy-O, Big Reiner, and Little Reiner. For some crazy reason my children believe I can do anything, and I choose to believe them. Thank you to the friends who kept me motivated and inspired me with their boundless creativity. I am grateful to my Momma for all the times we made fudge together, which eventually led to this book.

I, Momma Jenna, wish to dedicate this book to my grandmother and all her daughters, especially my Momma, who taught me to bake and how to love completely (and that somehow, sometimes, they are the same). I share that love in my own kitchen with my husband and son, who both manage to make me feel like a Rock Goddess and, even without sugar, make every day the sweetest I have ever lived.

We, The Sugar Mommas, wish to thank our contributors, for opening their hearts and homes to us (that includes all the honorary Sugar Mommas in Jackson, Mississippi!), and the amazing women at www.ModernMom.com. We thank Cyndy Frederick-Ufkes, our professional recipe tester, and our family and friends testersespecially Alicia Dougherty, Joanne Piccolo, and Michele Steinlauf. We must not forget the carpool kids who tasted every recipe and crinkled their noses, spit things out, or declared Mmmm from the backseat. Thank you to the Los Angeles DWP boys who kept the water flowing, taste-tested countless cookies, and even submitted a recipe. Thanks also go to: Jane Dystel, for becoming the GPS on our sugar bus; Helen Levin, for providing a fresh set of eyes when ours were weary; Lane Butler, for polishing us up like jewels; Julie Barnes and the rest of the Andrews McMeel team; Lisa Wagner; and Matt Yates. To everyone else, thanks for supporting us or getting the hell out of our way.

Every recipe has a storya creator who brought it to life. My fudge came from a family recipe, passed down from generation to generation. The most important part of the fudge was the memory of making it. My mother recalls making fudge with her great-aunt. I enjoyed making fudge with my mother. I cherish the times my sons stood on chairs stirring the fudge pot and licking the spoons. I love the smell of fudge soup: butter, sugar, and milk, softly boiling. I am always flattered when my friends start asking in early fall, When is the fudge coming?

After sprinkling my fudge around our seaside village for a few years, a neighbor asked if she could sell it in her gift shop. In a blink, Momma Reiners Fudge became a cottage industry. I was completely unprepared when a call came and I heard the words, You are being considered for the O List. Momma Reiners Fudge skyrocketed when it appeared on the famed O List as one of Oprahs Favorite Things and, later, on the Rachael Ray Show. I even had the good fortune to swirl fudge and dip marshmallows alongside Martha on The Martha Stewart Show.

During that roller-coaster ride, I spoke to people across the country who told me about their favorite family recipes. It wasnt just the recipes I coveted; I wanted to hear people recount their sugar story. The seed was planted to write this book.

I started on this quest by word of mouth. First, I approached my book club. One gal said she ate a strawberry cake in Mississippi that was from an old recipe. So I rang that home baker up. While I was on the phone with the host, I learned about a pecan pie that was believed to have originated from a slave and been passed down two generations to a granddaughter named Lucinda Bell. My heart palpitated. Lucindas pecan pie took me through history. The recipe had never been written down. I knew instantly that I had begun a journey to collect old sugar recipes and their stories before they faded away. What started as a sugar voyage turned into a documentary of American heritage.

Once the project began, I turned to my pal and law school classmate, Momma Jenna. After Jenna relayed her story to me of inheriting her grandmothers cookbook, we realized we shared a passion. So I said, Hop on the sugar bus! And she did, thank goodness. I have big, crazy ideas, and Momma Jenna has a really huge brain and a dose of common sense. She became kitchen co-captain, and together we became The Sugar Mommas. Since we are fellow sugar floozies in endless search of sugar contentment, it became clear that this book needed to be written together.

Why sweets? The family dessert is always legendary. No one wants to brag about Brussels sprouts! Sugar is like rocket fuel, projecting butter and flour into a different stratosphere. It takes you to a place where people get happy. They laugh, tell stories, stash leftovers in their purses, and guard their sacred sweets.

Why the stories? We could have just published sugar recipes, but we wanted to bring them to life. When we discovered Native American bourbon balls originally made with firewater, the recipe jumped off the page. When we heard about picking wild blueberries on Cape Cod, we could just picture the pie bubbling underneath a trickle of homemade vanilla ice cream. When we learned of a Mississippi woman eating her dessert while soaking in the bathtub, we perked up. The rituals and legacies behind the recipes we chose drew us in. These stories were vignettes providing glimpses into family lives, histories, and traditions. Above all, though, they were about the wonderful characters we stumbled upon along the way.