52 Reasons

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well.”
From A Room of One’s Own published October 24, 1929
by Virginia Woolf, 1882 – 1941

My husband, Carl, and I met Annie in approximately the year 2000 while she was charismatically managing, hosting, tending bar, waitressing and whatever else needed doing at a local restaurant. We recognized her from her newspaper column photograph in which she wrote a weekly recipe.
We had followed her column for quite some time and asked her if she would be willing to cook for us. We were working long hours. She was!! She delivered meals for us several times a week leaving her creations in our refrigerator. It was magical to come home to see what was for dinner. We came to appreciate her recipes even more because we were sampling them. That led to saving clippings of our favorites that went into our folder marker “A la Annie.”
When we had occasion to prepare something wonderful, we would consult our folder. We learned, early on in our relationship, that whenever Annie is, a party follows. This folder was a cookbook in the making. After we retired, I began photographing Annie’s recipes as a way of serving to enchance her column. The idea of a cookbook was always on the horizon.
We watched and experienced Annie’s cooking prowess developing over the years, her talent and artistry always having been evident. The book you hold in your hand is the culmination of years of hard work, experimentation and celebration.
Virginia O. McCoy
Grosse Pointe Woods and Glen Arbor, MI

“So perhaps the best thing to do is stop writing Introductions and get on with the book.”
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh