Comfort Classics
Tried-and-True Recipes from a Makersville Kitchen
Welcome to my kitchen, where nobody leaves the table hungry and there's always room for one more.
These are my comfort classics — the ones I come back to, season after season. Roy's Sunday pot roast. A sour-cream coffee cake worth a slow morning. Carol Ann's blue-ribbon apple pie. Seven recipes in all, every one tested in my own oven, written down plain, and meant to be shared.
Now, I believe in knowing exactly where everything comes from. I don't buy my meat at the store — haven't in years. And every recipe in this book came from someone who once sat at my table: a first husband with a great many opinions on my cooking. A neighbor who borrowed what wasn't hers. A clever woman from the book club. The dearest friend I ever had, who won the one blue ribbon that was always meant to be mine.
They're not all still with us, I'll admit. But I keep them the way I keep everything — with love, a place set, and not a single question answered. That's the lovely thing about cooking. Nobody's ever really gone, so long as you keep making their dish.
So pull up a chair. Stay a while. There's always room for one more.
the dedication
For Roy.
It's almost there, hon.