We are the proud parents of our brand new baby book, Hero Dinners. (Okay, the full name is Hero Dinners: Complete One-Pan Meals That Save the Day. For a newborn, that seems like quite the mouthful, so for now we’re using her nickname).
The picture above is us, just a couple of days after giving birth. The labor and delivery went well, I am happy to report, and we were up and at ’em 24 hours later. In fact, we’re zooming all over the place in the next couple of months in order to introduce our little one to the world. Oh, and I guess we ought to introduce her to you…
Hero Dinners is a collection of 100+ recipes that each make a complete, well-balanced meal in just one sheet pan or skillet. It came about because at the end of the day, we want dinner to be a relaxing, satisfying and delicious experience– not the prelude to cleaning a whole sink full of dishes. But we’re professional cooks and spoiled eaters, and we aren’t willing to compromise flavor, texture or good nutrition in order to get dinner on the table.
After a great deal of experimentation, we created techniques that allow each element of the meal– be it the protein, vegetable or starch– to really shine. We don’t want our rice mushy or our potatoes crunchy, which is what happens if you throw everything on the sheet pan at once. We aren’t interested in dinners with muddled flavors or homogenized textures, so we figured you wouldn’t be either. We developed recipes that layer flavors and cooking methods in such a way that makes the most of the inherent characteristics of every ingredient.
If this all sounds a little theoretical, please forgive me. The bottom line is that you can cook rice in a sheet pan and have it come out fluffy (with just a little crispness at the edges, which we believe the cook lays claim to); cook a perfect medium rare hangar steak with crisp-tender roasted cauliflower; make the best pasta of your life by cooking it right in the sauce; and magically make a meal of pistachio-crusted salmon, Israeli couscous and garlicky spinach in just one skillet. These are just a few examples, of course– every single one of the 100 recipes makes a complete meal. (Oh, and we threw in a few bonus recipes for fun stuff– like a double streusel coffee cake and roasted pears with honeyed balsamic pecans– that also cook in just one sheet pan or skillet.)
We’ll be out and about to talk about and demo from the book and share tastings whenever possible. Please come say hello! Here is our schedule as of today, but check back on my calendar page, because we are frequently adding new locations.
April 3: Launch party in New York City (open to the public): Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, 28 East Second Street 6pm-8pm
April 4: Hero Dinners cooking class at Institute of Culinary Education: click here to register (Waitlist only)
April 5-7: Demos and signings at Woodloch Lodge Spa
April 10: Hero Dinners Cooking Class at Institute of Culinary Education: click here to register
April 14: New Jersey Launch signing at Bookends, 211 East Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 2-4 pm
April 16: Long Island signing at Book Revue, 313 New York Avenue, Huntington, NY, 7 pm
April 18: Westport Public Library demo and signing at Wakeman Town Farm, 144 Cross Highway, Westport, CT 7-8 pm
April 22: San Francisco talk and signing: Omnivore Books, 3885a Cesar Chavez Street, San Francisco, 6.30pm
April 25: Feast it Forward demo, talk and signing, 1031 McKinstry Street, Napa CA
April 27: Vroman’s Bookstore 695 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA, Signing and tastings 2 pm
April 28: Class at ICE LA (Institute of Culinary Education), 521 East Green Street, Pasadena (Event details to come)
May 8 or 9: Chicago (location and exact date tbd)
May 17-19: Signing at IACP conference in Santa Fe, NM (exact date tbd)
June 10-11: Demos and signing at Lake Austin Spa, Austin TX
I’ve been posting lots of videos and links to some of the nice media coverage we’ve been getting on our joint facebook page here, so please follow us if you don’t already. (We also have more information about many events on that page). There’s also lots on Instagram (@marge_perry), including an IG Live story we did today with the FeedFeed.
