by Melissa Ford
I have made Adam the meal that, for me, embodies home. My grandmother used to make it the first night we came to visit, and it always made me feel as if she had been thinking about me the entire time she was waiting for me. Making this meal makes me feel like I can honestly say that I really know how to cook for someone I love.
To roast the chicken, first I peeled the onions. I juiced a lemon and placed the rind inside the bird’s cavity. I melted butter and rubbed it lovingly into the skin, my Hebrew school teacher’s voice be damned. I prepared the thyme, de-stemming the leaves. I snapped the carrots, rondelled the celery, cubed the potatoes, and chopped the parsnips. I splashed wine into the roasting pan, added crushed garlic cloves before trussing the chicken’s leg together with cooking twine. I sprinkled pepper and pinched the salt.
And after all of that is done, I hear the buzzer.
Smiling, I open the door and welcome Adam in.
Acknowledgements
Despite being a writer, it is difficult to sum up into words the enormous gratitude I feel towards the people who made the book possible.
Thank you to Deborah Smith and Debra Dixon at BelleBooks (as well as the rest of the BelleBooks team) for taking a chance with me and for loving Rachel with your whole heart. Seeing the book through your eyes made me fall in love with the story all over again. I could not have asked for a warmer, effusive, and inclusive team to bring this book into print.
To Katherine Fausset, the most patient agent in the world, who always knows the right thing to say at the right time. And to Jay Neugeboren, my mentor, who believed in my fiction before I believed I could write fiction.
To my sister, Wendy, who is nothing like Sarah in this book, especially since her cooking would make Martha Stewart weep with envy. Thank you for lending me your daughter’s name, and for not only being an incredible mother, but passing along your lessons learned to me. To Jonathan, the anti-Richard, for your enormous heart. And, of course, to Olivia, who gave me my first foray into aunthood and is the coolest ten-year-old I’m lucky enough to know.
To my brother, Randall, who is only like Ethan in the sense that he always has my back and has, on many occasions, dragged boxes of books up and down stairs for me. For all your advice and notes; I could not have done this without you. And frankly, I wouldn’t have wanted to do it without you.
Thank you to my parents for being nothing like the Katzes (except that you store much of our stuff in your basement). You always make the time to listen to me, and you’ve given me the space to write. Without your help, these books would just remain in my head. A special thank you to my mother, who taught me how to cook and ate that first loaf of uncooked French bread simply because she loves me. And to my father who passed along his imagination and way with words.
My most enormous thank you goes to my husband, Josh. Without him, you would not be holding this book. He is the one who knows with a simple look that I am in need of a hug, who makes me ice cream in the Espresso Royale mug, and who plucks the solutions out of thin air. Thank you is too small a word to give to him in exchange for all he has given me. I love you.
And lastly, to my children. It is no secret that I struggle sometimes with letting you grow up, but it is only because I love you so much, and you change so quickly. It feels like every day is a goodbye and a hello. I love the silly faces you make and the dances you do when you burst into my room while I’m writing, and I always pause to take a mental snapshot. Those moments capture your true selves—your uninhibited laugh, your curiosity, your creativity. I know you need to grow up, but please also hold on to the people who made me Scoobee, the paper vampire, and rocket clocks.
About the Author
An amateur chef and popular blogger herself, Melissa Ford is the author of the award-winning website, Stirrup Queens. Melissa completed her MFA at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is also a contributing editor at BlogHer. Ford lives outside of Washington, D.C. with her writer husband, Joshua, and their twins. She is currently at work on the sequel to Life From Scratch.