Off the Menu
Authors: Stacey Ballis
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Romance, #Contemporary Women
Off the Menu
“A wonderfully joyful ode to good food, best friends, tough choices, and great love.
Off the Menu
= one delicious read … that comes complete with recipes! So much fun.”
—Alison Pace, author of
You Tell Your Dog First
“Smart, sexy, and delightfully buoyant,
Off the Menu
is, in a word, scrumptious. Stacey Ballis has managed to capture happiness between the covers of a book.”
—Quinn Cummings, author of
Notes from the Underwire
Good Enough to Eat
“
Good Enough to Eat
is like a perfect dish of macaroni and cheese—rich, warm, nuanced, and delicious. And like any great comfort food, Stacey Ballis’s new book is absolutely satisfying.”
—Jen Lancaster,
New York Times
bestselling author of
If You Were Here
“Witty and tender, brash and seriously clever, Stacey Ballis’s characters are our friends, our neighbors, or, in some cases, that sardonic colleague the next cubicle over … Her storytelling will have you alternately turning pages and calling your friends urging them to come along for the ride. And in Stacey Ballis’s talented hands, oh what a wonderful ride it is.”
—Elizabeth Flock,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Sleepwalking in Daylight
“A toothsome meal of moments, gorgeously written, in warmth and with keen observation,
Good Enough to Eat
is about so much more than the magic of food; it’s about the magic of life.”
—Stephanie Klein, author of
Straight Up and Dirty
and
Moose
The Spinster Sisters
“Readers will be rooting for Ballis’s smart, snappy heroines.”
—
Booklist
“A laugh-out-loud hoot of a book. Jodi and Jill are amazing characters. They are challenged by balancing their business lives with style, charm, and grace. A must-read.”
—
A Romance Review
“Filled with characters so witty and diverse yet so strong in their passion for friends and family that they could easily be our best friend or favorite aunt … Women of every age will relate to Ballis’s clever yet unassuming story.”
—
RT Book Reviews
Room for Improvement
“For those who say ‘chick lit’ is played out, all I can say is think again. Stacey Ballis proves the genre can be funny, honest, clever, real, and, most importantly, totally fresh.”
—Jen Lancaster
“More fun than a
Trading Spaces
marathon. One of the season’s best.”
—
The Washington Post Book World
“Rife with humor—always earthy, often bawdy, unwaveringly forthright humor.”
—
Chicago Sun-Times
“A laugh-out-loud novel that will appeal to HGTV devotees as well as those who like their chick lit on the sexy side. One of the summer’s hot reads for the beach.”
—
Library Journal
“In her third outing, Ballis offers up a frothy, fun send-up of reality TV. Readers will have a blast.”
—
Booklist
Sleeping Over
“Ballis presents a refreshingly realistic approach to relationships and the things that test (and often break) them.”
—
Booklist
“
Sleeping Over
will have you laughing, crying, and planning your next girls’ night out.”
—
Romance Reader at Heart
Inappropriate Men
One of
www.Chatelaine.com’s
Seven Sizzling Summer Reads for 2004
“An insightful and hilarious journey into the life and mind of Chicagoan Sidney Stein.”
—
Today’s Chicago Woman
“Ballis’s debut is a witty tale of a thirtysomething who unexpectedly has to start the search for love all over again.”
—
Booklist
“Stacey Ballis’s debut novel is a funny, smart book about love, heartbreak, and all the experiences in between.”
“Without compromising the intelligence of her readers, Ballis delivers an inspiring message of female empowerment and body image acceptance in her fun, sexy debut novel.”
—
Inside Lincoln Park
Berkley Books by Stacey Ballis
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
THE SPINSTER SISTERS
GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT
OFF THE MENU
STACEY BALLIS
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
•
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
•
Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
•
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
•
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India
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Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
•
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2012 by Stacey Ballis.
Excerpt from
Good Enough to Eat
by Stacey Ballis copyright © 2010 by Stacey Ballis.
Cover photo composition by S. Miroque. Photos: “Housewife presenting freshly baked chocolate muffins” by trgowanlock/shutterstock; “Jack Russell terrier dog on a white background” by Erik Lam/shutterstock.
Cover design by Rita Frangie.
Text design by Laura K. Corless.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley trade paperback edition / July 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ballis, Stacey.
Off the menu / Stacey Ballis.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-101-58109-4
1. Administrative assistants—Fiction. 2. Celebrity chefs—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.A624O34 2012
813’.6—dc23
2012008568
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
This book is dedicated with my whole heart to my extraordinary husband, Bill, my true
b’shert,
who showed up right on time and made everything in the world bright and beautiful and possible. You are the magic in my life every day, and I am the luckiest girl in the world. Thank you for everything you are, and everything I become when I am with you. I love you more than Pamplemousse.
For Payton and The Lucky Dog,
and in loving memory of Willy and Otis
Acknowledgments
As always, my work is made possible only because of the support of my amazing family, now supersized! With much, much love to Moms and Dads—both Ballis and Thurmond—Jonnie, Deb and Andy, Jamie and Steve, Rebecca and Elizabeth, Oliver, Kalie, and Quincy. A merry group recently made much merrier.
And since blood doesn’t make it better … the Schayes and the Schnierows are all in my corner, and I’m always grateful. Ditto all generations and iterations of Gault, Adelman, Srulovitz, and Heisler.
Nothing works without my friends, and I am so blessed that you are all way too numerous to mention by name, but you absolutely know who you are, and if you are wondering if I mean you, I totally do.
Special mention necessary for the inspiration and support of my Wonder Twin Jen Lancaster, and our lunch girls, Gina and Tracey. Some of the characters in this book would not exist without Harry and Penny and Scott; thanks, guys, for letting me co-opt your witty turns of phrase and charming personalities. And for all of my dear and talented writer gal pals, thank you for help with titles and talking me off ledges!
To my very dear friend who just happens to also be my agent, Scott Mendel, thank you for everything, always.
To Wendy McCurdy, editor extraordinaire, who believed in this book as much as I did, it was great to have you with me.
To everyone at Berkley/Penguin, especially Leslie Gelbman and Melissa Broder and Katherine Pelz, and the entire sales team, thank you a million times for all you do.
To some of my favorite chefs—Michelle Bernstein, Stephanie Izard, Gil Langlois, Susan Spicer, Allen Sternweiler, and Michael White—thank you so much for letting me mention your names and reprint your recipes and, most important, for all of the delicious.