Steve Doocy - The Happy Cookbook

Sally Doocy

My birthday is like Groundhog Daysame cake every time!

The simple smell of a pot roast can do that, because most of us are blessed with the ability to remember things with our noses.

But its not just an aroma that can trigger a smile, it can be something random. You wont understand this until youve read the cookbook... but whenever I open a car trunk, I think of our wedding cake.

If I see the word bourbon, Ill recall the White House official who bakes with a hammer.

And when I hear the word mahi-mahi Im back on our Hawaiian honeymoon after three days of not speaking to each otherthat by the end of the trip we were giggling about, thanks to a miraculous invention called wine.

Every one of these hundred-plus recipes makes somebody smile, so theres a story that explains that at the beginning of every recipe. Some have profound reasons, others dont have a cosmic connection, they are simply things that make somebody feel good on the inside.

Because Kathy and I have been married for over thirty years, many of these dishes arrived in our lives accidentally; from our dental hygienist, a flight attendant who washed her hands with vodka in the pre-Purel days, the 4-H club, the back of a soup can, a scene in a Nancy Meyers movie, a church cookbook, a colonial kitchen, a daughters boyfriend, two White House press secretaries, a very famous rock star, a very famous golfer, a TV sitcom director, an honest-to-goodness American hero, and, of course, our family.

Heres the best news for you: Sometimes just being reminded about something sublime is enough to tide you over until you have the real thing again. Youve got your own lifetime of experiences to rewind, so are you ready to read our stories and make our foods and see if they jog your memory? If so, soon youll see a car trunk and also think wedding cake.

Besides, what do you have to lose? As Erma Bombeck once said, Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.

Most of us go through life eating three meals a day. Starting now, try to make at least one of them happy.

Enjoy!

Steve Doocy

Sally Doocy

W HEN I WAS HOSTING AN NBC SHOW called House Party in 1990 we had a young chef from a New York restaurant come to our Studio 8H at 30 Rock and prepare one of his favorite recipes on TV. It was so clever and delicious that when he invited Kathy and me to his restaurant for her birthday, we jumped at the offer. It was decades before OpenTable, and I was never good at planning ahead, and it might be free!

When we got there we quickly spotted half a dozen boldface names from Page Six. Everybody looked rich and famousand actually, most probably were. We were parked momentarily at the bar next to William F. Buckley and his wife, Pat. Both had highballs in hand as they were glamming it up with a couple who looked like they had a cul-de-sac named after them in Greenwich.

The matre d soon seated us at a table for two next to Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, whom wed seen on TV for years but never met, and it was really awkward, because my TV show aired at 9 a.m. weekdays opposite her show, Regis and Kathie Lee, and they were killing us in the Nielsens. Taking the high road, I introduced the Doocys to the Giffords, and they could not have been nicer, but I am 100 percent positive they thought we were tourists from Akron just living it up in Fancy Town.

Then that unknown chef who invited us to his restaurant came over to chat. We had never heard of him thirty years ago when he was the executive chef of New Yorks original Le Cirque, but today Daniel Boulud is a restaurant rock star and one of the greatest chefs in the world. We met him when he was just getting started on his meteoric journey. Its that same feeling of satisfaction one might have if theyd bought Amazon stock at $8.

The future-famous Mr. Boulud came out midway through our first adult beverage and told us that the reason wed not been shown the menu was that he was making us dinner himselfwe should just sit back, relax, and enjoy whatever came through the kitchen door. But first he asked us what we didnt like. Kathy said she loved everything. My dislikes? Tetanus shots and ABBA. Bad jokeit was probably the foie gras talking. I dont know how my joke translated into French, but I believe that no ABBA was harmed in the production of my meal.

Had Instagram been invented in 1990, I would have shocked the room and taken pictures of the five courses. There were cheeses and caviar, and things were sauted, flambed, and poached to perfection. Adorable petite portions meant wed have room for a showstopping filet served with a sauce Im planning on having every day in Heaven. After a bottle of Champagne and a bottle of Chardonnay, Daniel sent over the ultimate New York dessert: a jaw-dropping three-foot-high spunsugar and chocolate rabbit cake roughly the size of Selena Gomez.

Meanwhile, Kathie Lee and Frank finished their sponge cake.

It was official: In perhaps the coolest dining room in the Big Apple, a lot of those jaded New Yorkers looking our way seemed a little pea-green jealous. Perhaps they wondered, Who is that guy, and why does his wife get the big bunny birthday cake?

In fact it was Kathys thirtieth birthday. But when it was time to present her with a gift I apologetically told her Id been really busy at work trying to beat