Pretty Simple Dinner Party!

Have you ever met someone and they unexpectedly turned out to be a really amazing person? Just out of nowhere? I’d been following A Couple Cooks, the beautiful food blog by Sonja and Alex Overhiser, for a while, including their in-progress story journey towards having a baby. Despite cancer and miscarriage, the story has a happy ending–the adoption of their baby boy Larson! I left a comment on the blog congratulating them, and Sonja surprised the daylights out of me by emailing me back! Not only did she thank me for the comment, but she seemed truly interested in me and my life, and gave me a sweet compliment about Bear & Bug Eats. As someone with a fledgling blog whose photos are too dark and whose comment system is wonky, I deeply appreciated her kind words.

Sonja reached out to me again recently to ask if I’d be interested in participating in the launch party for their first cookbook, Pretty Simple Cooking! (She also gave me some tips on baby name tools, which I appreciate. We have a running list, but no names that are sticking out to us as of yet.) They threw a virtual Pretty Simple Dinner Party, which involved hundreds of people from across the country and several from outside it, making dishes from Pretty Simple Cooking and enjoying time with their family and friends.My “dinner party” was very loose. I previously tested the Corn Muffins and the Vodka Sauce (from the Ricotta Gnocchi alla Vodka) and loved them both, but in the end, we were super busy and most of our friends were out of town, so we kept it to just the two of us. In fact, the only thing I made from Pretty Simple Cooking was this Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake. It’s so good, it’s on my birthday menu. Also the corn muffins and vodka sauce are both on next week’s menu, so…it’s a good cookbook, is what I’m saying.

The only hitch? You have to get the cake recipe by buying the cookbook. I had posted the recipe here briefly, and then Sonja reached out to let me know that it isn’t on the approved sharing list–essentially it’s so good they are keeping it under lock and key. Which is fair, because it is a gorgeously easy and delicious recipe. In fact, even if this was the only recipe you ever used out of Pretty Simple Cooking, I’d say you would still have gotten your money’s worth, because I’m 99% sure that you’ll be making it for the rest of your life.

I will tease you by saying that it’s only FIVE ingredients. If that isn’t enough to convince you, I don’t know what would be. It also includes a very simple method of melting chocolate, which I thought was fantastic for anyone who’s nervous about the process. Also if you like food porn, this book will make you very very happy.

Thanks to Sonja and Alex (and Larson) for throwing such a fun event (see a roundup of other parties here!) and for sharing Pretty Simple Cooking with the world!