Holtzman Rachel - Twenty dinners

CHRIS

This book is dedicated to my friends who, many times, have waited for hours for me to finish dinner. But most of all, I dedicate my work to my mother, who passed along her love and knowledge of cooking to a young, hungry kid and showed me how fun and rewarding it is to feed your friends and family.

ITHAI

To my family, friends, and anyone I ever have or will share a meal with. Meet you there.

This book started when Ithai showed up at a barbecue in Chriss backyard and jumped in to help cook. Wed met before through mutual friends, but it was once we got into the kitchen together that things clicked. We shared a passion for making good food happen and feeding our friends, but in a laid-back way. After that night, if there was a party we went to, wed end up being the guys in the kitchen. Wed get in there with no agendawe cooked with whatever was handy and riffed off each others ideas. Wed experiment with new flavor combinations or try out something wed read in a book, always wanting to learn more.

The kitchen was just where wed rather be, but it always turned out that was where the real gathering was anyway. Our friends werent sitting around the table waiting for foodthey were helping prep or clean or just hanging out with us. There was no Dinner will be served at eight oclock. It was more like Okay, open another bottle of wine because we forgot to put the burgers on. It was delicious, fun, simple, and it couldnt have been more relaxing.

These days, Chris spends most of his time on tour with his band, but whenever he comes back, one of the first things that happens is we start up the grillno matter what time of yearand get all our friends together. Its a great excuse to cook up a big cut of meat and reconnect. Aside from turning out some tasty things for dinner, we really like how happy our food makes peopleespecially when we put out great classic dishes or childhood favorites like rib eye steaks or roast chicken but do them up with a little something extra, like potatoes roasted with duck fat or kale salad with brown-butter pine nuts.

Every step of the way, our friends have come along for the ride, which is what makes every meal that much more special. They show up at our impromptu dinners, let us take over their kitchens, are eager recipe testers, and contribute to our gatherings plenty of booze, records, firewood, desserts, and good conversation. More than the food, thats what getting together is all about. So many of us have moved away from the families we grew up with. But its our friends who become a family of a different kind. Bringing everyone together to share a meal, stories, laugh, complain about work or the subway, or just generally put folks day behind them is what we consider a truly family affair.

Thats why we wrote this book. Its a cookbook, yes, of twenty big dinners worth of recipes, our favorite techniques, and points of inspiration, but its really about giving you the ideas and tools to make these kinds of gatherings happen for you and your friends.

We cant tell you how many times weve been cooking and someone has said, I could never do that. Or how many times one of us has asked a friend to do some cutting, cleaning, or check on whats happening on the stove and gotten a totally freaked-out look in response. Simple things like cutting up an onion or blanching some green beans seemed intimidating. Or worse, wed watch friends run back and forth between a cookbook and the stove, too stressed by a recipe to enjoy what they were doing or spend time with the people around them.

So we set out to change that.

Instead of taking over the kitchen to make dinner, we invite everyone to help. We dont want to cook for our friendswe want to cook with them. We want to get our friends to drop all the hang-ups they have about making something good to eat. And to do that we would show them what weve both learned through a lot of cooking: That great meals happen when you get rid of the idea that they have to come from a fancy chef or restaurant or strict recipe. That cooking can be easy and easygoing. That blanching is really just a fancy word for cook for a few seconds in salted, boiling water. That in the time it takes to peel the plastic off the top of a tub of dip, they could grill some zucchini, hit it with a little olive oil and salt, and serve that instead. Or poach an egg. Or make a vinaigrette for a simple salad. That simplicity is whats impressive, not flipping out over ridiculously complicated dishes. That no one said dinner has to start and end at the table (or even make it to the table). That another beer / cocktail / bottle of wine goes a long way in erasing any culinary miscalculations. And most important, at the end of the day, that its just making something to eat.

So how do you cook great food and have a good time doing it? For us, it starts with nailing the basicslearning how to prepare ingredients, understanding how they taste, and thinking about how each ingredient will ultimately turn into something you want to eat. All you need are a few techniques in your repertoire, some high-quality ingredients in your pantry, and maybe a few friends to help shuck, peel, dice, or babysit the action on the stove. From there, its really just about dancing a little more in the kitchen.

Look, were not chefs. We dont run restaurants and were not in a professional kitchen working dinner service every night. We do all this stuff at home, which is why we believe that you can do the same. Neither of us pretends to have some golden key to culinary excellence, but what we do have is experience. Weve been able to learn from our mistakes, and now were passing that on so you dont have to get there the hard way. Weve also picked up really great ways to get the most out of what were cooking, and the simplest, most straightforward methods to do it. But our goal isnt only to get you cooking the perfect steak (which you will) or knowing how to make your own pickled vegetables (yes, even that)were going to help you trust your own instincts so you can just get in the kitchen and jam.