Five Marys Family Style Cookbook
My Five Marys Family Style Cookbook is here! After 2.5 years in the making, I’m so happy to have it in my hands and share all of these recipes with you!
I always knew I wanted a big family. I grew up the oldest of four in Menlo Park, California, in a close family that has been in the state for six generations, many of them in agriculture. The four of us understood from a young age that family comes first, and between holidays and reunions, we spent lots of time with aunts, uncles, and grandparents. My parents were each one of five, so that made for a lot of cousins, and growing up, I loved every part of it - the chaos, the huge gatherings, the constant celebration, and the COOKING!
In these pages, you’ll find some of our family’s longtime favorite meals and traditions, divided by season into entire menus you can re-create at home. There’s everything from the prime rib feast (page 71) we make on Christmas Eve at my parents’ house in Menlo Park, to my great-grandmother’s famous homemade ravioli (page 267). You’ll find the birthday meal (page 231) that my girls request every year without fail and the beef pasties (page 217) we pack for rodeo competition lunches.
While the recipes vary in seasonality and preparation time, they’re all great options for feeding a crowd. To me, the menus feel festive without being fussy, and because our celebrations often revolve around all-day projects like branding and sheep-shearing, there are a few menus you can make almost entirely ahead of time. You don’t have to be branding to enjoy our Branding Day Dinner (page 249), but a Long Day Manhattan (page 252) really does taste better after a long day!
Much like raising livestock, creating a cookbook is a labor of love. I’ve so enjoyed compiling our family’s traditions and some new favorite recipes in this book for you. I hope you find some comforting, deeply flavorful food that’s nice enough to slow down for, but casual enough to enjoy any night of the week. When our work is done on the ranch, we enjoy the food our land provides, mostly outside, always together. I hope that sharing our family’s experiences, recipes, and traditions inspire you to create your own. And I hope that as you start your day and face challenges - or the ‘always somethings’ come up no matter where you live - you remember our family motto: Be kind. Don’t whine. Be tough. And then kick your feet up and enjoy a hearty meal and well-earned drink at the end of the day!
We had such a special weekend in Menlo Park at my parent’s house the weekend that the cookbook was released. Their backyard is perfect, so it’s always fun to decorate for any kind of gathering. We packed up the van with lots of cookbooks, spice rubs, spun honeys, and shibori throws and set them up outside for a little cookbook signing party :) It was great to meet in person and get to chat with people about the book!
As an extra treat, the Simple Goodness Sisters joined us and set up a beautiful table with their delicious cocktail syrups… you’ve gotta check them out!
Later that night, we headed to my friend Courtney’s house for another cookbook launch party! She was so nice to host - and she even made a bunch of treats from the cookbook for people to have along with their Simple Goodness cocktails! Such a blast to see friends from my ‘old city life’ :)
Thank you all SO much for supporting the cookbook and sharing your excitement with me… ENJOY! :)