Forward
Food is a wonderful thing. From the preparation to the serving of the meal there are so many enjoyable aspects that it is hard to say what my favorite part of food is. Many people enjoy the feeling of having made something with their own hands, or presenting a dish that is almost a work of art to look at. Others enjoy the fellowship that is often find in the kitchen (be that an indoor kitchen around a stove, or outdoor kitchen around a grill) or at the table eating with family and friends. I love all of those parts of food, but for me my favorite part is enjoying the meal with family and friends. It’s one of the highlights of my family vacations to sit around the table with all of us (on the Sheehan side that’s 12 if we are all there) and enjoy the conversation and story- telling (my Mimi is one of the best at this) over a good meal. The longer the meal lasts the better.
Following that I love to present the food well. I get this almost purely from my Nannie. Not that I ever have, but if I served her a bad meal and it looked good she would still sing it’s praises. Matching dishes, flatware for each course, table cloths, and candles will all be found at my tables. I also like to make sure the plate has good colors. I’ve even been known to cook something I didn’t necessarily like to get the color I wanted on a plate. My wife (Becky) laughs at this side of my cooking, but for me its part of what makes the meal enjoyable.
And of course there’s the actually eating of the food itself. I’ve often said while I ate beef tenderloin that I just wished I had two stomachs to fill instead of one. Sometimes food just tastes so good it’s hard to stop. People often ask me how I started cooking and I tell them I woke up one Saturday morning and mom was still asleep. If I wanted something to eat that was warm I had to learn how to cook so I did.
From there I’ve had a lot of teachers. My dad loves to cook and the majority of it I picked up from him (he in turn learned a lot from his mom and a hunting buddy named Jeff Rousey who will be mentioned throughout the book). My mom also taught me about how to make practical meals; the kind of stuff that tastes good but isn’t too difficult to whip up when you’ve been working all day. And lastly there’s my wife and her family. My wife’s family is all about trying new recipes and baking. My mom had about eight recipes she used on a regular bases. Every week you were guaranteed to have spaghetti, a pot roast, and usually a casserole that was made and frozen beforehand. My wife (who’s sister never repeated a meal the entire first year of her marriage) keeps asking me how I never got bored, but I just tell her if you’ve found a good thing why change? But as for my wife’s side of the family they always find new recipes; which is good because they are always discovering new things. They’ve also taught me most of what I know about baking. In my family it was a pinch of this and a little of that. In her family they use the back side of knife to even off 1 cup of cake flour, ( I didn’t know there was cake flour until I was married) and they use rubber spatulas to get all the oil out of a measuring cup ( I always thought they were for icing cakes).
So with all these influences there is definitely a good mix of recipes in this book and few of them are entirely my own. They’ve all been passed down to me from different people, but all of them are tried and true and guaranteed to please people while you sit down and enjoy a nice long meal together. So pull out the table cloth, set the table, call your friends, and enjoy some food.
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