Susan Mallery - Susan Mallerys Fools Gold Cookbook: A Love Story Told Through 150 Recipes

Fools Gold Books by SUSAN MALLERY Christmas on 4th Street
Three Little Words
Two of a Kind
Just One Kiss
A Fools Gold Christmas
All Summer Long
Summer Nights
Summer Days
Only His
Only Yours
Only Mine
Finding Perfect
Almost Perfect
Chasing Perfect Fools Gold Ebook Novellas Halfway There
Almost Summer
Only Us
Sister of the Bride ContentsSpringSpringSummerSummerFallFallWinterWinterIntroductionI hosted my first dinner party when I was thirteen. Three friends and I decided it would be great fun. I would prepare a feast and they would join me for dinner and a sleepover. (These days dinner rarely leads to a sleepover, or at least, not the kind of sleepover we had planned, but at thirteen it seemed the ultimate in sophistication.) My mother took me shopping then bravely left me alone in her kitchen to prepare our feast. In no particular order, heres what I learned from that first traumatic experience: my aunt was wrong. Turning the oven to 350 degrees and baking whatever for thirty minutes does not apply to everything. That when a recipe directs you to apply butter and flour to the baking dish, its not a suggestion.

Orange chicken has nothing to do with cooking chicken in orange juice. And that while preparing a salad the night before because you have a gymnastics meet and wont have time before the party is fine, its not a good idea to put on the dressing that early. In other words, if youve never cooked before, follow the recipe precisely! The food was a disaster. There I wasthirty minutes before my guests were due to arrive and I had nothing to eat. Fortunately, Mom came to the rescue and suggested we order in pizzas. We dined in style, had a wonderful evening and a very successful sleepover.

All these years later, I still experiment in the kitchen, but Ive taken my cooking disasters to heart and learned from them. I stick with what I do best: plan ahead and keep it simple. This cookbook is filled with easy recipes for delicious food. A couple of recipes might challenge the beginner, but by and large, quick and easy is what I gravitate to. Like many women, Im too busy to spend hours in the kitchen. Im not a professional chef.

Im a home cook, just like you. I want to nurture my family and friends with spectacular event-appropriate food, with the least amount of time and effort possible. Im also a storyteller. I have always loved telling stories, especially romances. So much so that Ive turned it into a career. With more than one hundred romance books under my belt, I think its safe to say that Im in this business for the long run.

A few years ago, I started a new series in the fictitious town of Fools Gold. Its set in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Fools Gold is a friendly place with charming people who bring casseroles to their neighbors whenever theres a life event that calls for it. One or two weekends a month, the festivals held in Fools Gold bring street-food tastings to the town. Other days, residents can count on an outstanding meal from one of their terrific local restaurants. When a man behaves badly, the women meet en masse to trash him over decadent desserts and a slushy drink du jour.

The Fools Gold series started with Chasing Perfect and now the books number in the double digits. Readers seem to gravitate toward the recurring characters who make the town feel like home, even sending me their own suggestions for food at their favorite eateries in the town. And thus the idea was born to post on my website, www.susanmallery.com, specific recipes so that readers could enjoy the mouthwatering dishes I described in my books with their own friends, book clubs, family and, of course, love interests. One day my brilliant editor suggested I consider collecting all the material so we could see what we had. That material became this cookbook. Weve organized the Fools Gold recipes by season.

My cooking philosophy is to make things easy and delicious, using available ingredients. You will find plenty of recipes for your family and lots for sharing. But there is something else for you in these pages. A surprise. As I mentioned before, I am a romance writer. I love the idea of two people falling in love.

I adore the sense of community that occurs when two families are drawn together because of a powerful connection. Love heals, love inspires and when combined with delicious food, love is magical. Woven within the pages of this cookbook is a Fools Gold love story not available anywhere else. Its funny and flirty and my bonus gift to you. For those of you who adore Fools Gold, welcome back. For those of you who have yet to sample this small California town, I offer you a taste of what its like to throw caution to the wind and fall wildly in love.

Maybe over a Coconut Vanilla Snowball Cupcake. Regardless of how you came to have this cookbook, please enjoy the delicious recipes. And remember that important lesson from my first cooking experience: its not the execution of a well-planned meal that matters, but the sharing of delicious food with loved ones. And maybe the promise of an extra-special sleepover. Wink. Wink.

My best to you and yours. Happy cooking and happy reading. CHAPTERAna Raquel Hopkins knew for sure that Greg Clary was the most annoying man on the planet. He was the kind of annoying that got under your skin and made you want to scream. It was like being in the mood for guacamole, only to discover that someone had taken all your deliciously ripe avocados. Or worse, taken them and made their guacamole out of those avocados and now people were saying it was better than yours.

Thats how annoying Greg Clary was. Ana Raquel stared at the sign hanging from the rustic building at the Condor Valley Winery. The hand-carved square of wood said only Caf. So simple, so right. While shed been off studying the art of cooking, Greg had been working his way up the kitchen ranks right here in Fools Gold. Six months ago hed opened Caf in his uncles winery and the restaurant was getting rave reviews.

Everyone was talking about it. And Greg. After graduating from culinary school, she, too, had worked in restaurants, but hers had been in San Francisco. After a couple of years, shed discovered that while she loved making delicious food for people, she didnt love working in a restaurant. A visit to a street fair had introduced her to the magic that was street fooddelectable concoctions made in a mobile kitchen. Shed saved her money, bought an old Airstream and had it refurbished as her traveling kitchen.

Then shed brought it home to Fools Gold, where she planned to take the culinary world by storm. Only Greg had beaten her to the punch. Again. Seventeen years ago, when Ana Raquel was in the second grade, shed been chosen to be Cinderella in the school play. Greg had been picked to play Prince Charming and, in the end, hed gotten all the applause. In junior high, theyd both run for student council president.

Greg had won, leaving her with the runner-up vice-president position. In high school, shed been nominated for homecoming queen and hed been nominated for homecoming king. You can probably guess who won and who didnt. All of which she could live with, except for what happened the night of their senior prom. The fancy dinner and dance had been held at the Gold Rush Ski Lodge and Resort, just as it was every year. There had been a band and good food.