Acknowledgments

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who made my dream of writing a cookbook a reality. Thanks to my agent, John Maas, for somehow understanding the essence of my original vision, which existed only in my head, and for helping me whip it into shape (pun intended!). Thank you to Andrea Fleck-Nisbet, publisher; Amanda Bauch, senior editor; and the rest of the Harper Horizon team for sharing that vision, believing in me, and then having the patience to guide me through this entire cookbook-writing process, which was brand new to me. Without you, this book would not have been possible. Thanks to fellow cookbook author Anne Byrn for your guidance and for gently nudging me in the right direction throughout the process and organizing my very scattered rough draft. Thank you to photographer Tina Rupp (I’m still pinching myself that you agreed to take on this project!), who made my recipes look far more mouthwatering than I ever could. And thank you to Cyd McDowell, who styled everything so beautifully and taught me how to make the perfect whipped cream dollop— kiitos! To Mimi and Star—those two weeks wouldn’t have been the same without you both. Let’s do it again sometime. A huge thank you to my husband, Mark, who not only ate way more eggs on demand than he likely wanted to, but who always steps in to take care of the chickens when I’m not around. Thank you to my mom for a million things, of course, but mostly for teaching me how to cook when I was so small I had to stand on a kitchen chair to see over the stove top. And lastly, thank you to my chickens. I think we all know why.

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