This treasured book is very much a history of our family. It holds the recipe for the "Petit fours" my mother made for my father when they were newlyweds. It took her three days to make the genoise layers, butter cream icing, fondant to coat each little square of cake, and delicate icing flowers for the tops.
"M-m-m, these are good." My Dad said when Mom presented the pyramid of pastel colored squares to him. He propped his feet on the table, settled the platter on his lap and ate the entire stack of cakes in less than fifteen minutes. Licking the last crumbs off his fingers, he said, "Hey why don't you make me some more of these tomorrow?"
"Listen buster!" My mom said. "You can make them for yourself from now on, and take those dirty feet off my clean table. " And he did. It was the beginning of an enjoyable cooking collaboration and a long and happy marriage.

A few years ago in Los Alamos, I used our favorite family stew recipe and took a pot of it to a sick friend. When she took the lid off and smelled what was inside, she moaned with pleasure and asked what it was. "Its a rich meaty bourguignon with potatoes, mushrooms, bacon, and red wine. We call it Patrick stew." I said.
"Patrick stew? Who's Patrick?" she said.
"Oh, Patrick was our cat." I said.
My friend turned a little green around the edges. "You know, maybe I'm not so sick after all." She handed me back the pot of stew.
"No, no." I laughed, giving it back to her. "Patrick was our family cat when I was growing up in Indiana. It was his favorite food aside from cantalope. One of us made the mistake of leaving a warmed-over bowl of stew on the kitchen counter unguarded and came back to find Patrick, our long haired Himalayan, purring beside the empty bowl, blue eyes glowing. Since then we always gave him his own bowl and somehow along the way beef bourguignon became Patrick stew. This is made with beef. No worries, my friend."

These are just a few of our favorite food stories. We've gathered many through the years of cooking and sharing food with our family and friends. The Decadent Table represents three generations of cooks. Fred and Maryrose Wampler (the Granny Rose and Pa Pa of the bunch) live in Indiana, but have spent weeks at a time in Los Alamos helping to perfect our Decadent Table menu. Lisa Kratzer (the Mom) has lived in Los Alamos for more than twenty years and Daniel Kratzer (the Son) was raised here, left to earn a business degree and is back to help start up the Decadent Table. We all love to cook and hope to share the joy of sitting down to a delicious meal with all of you.

Sincerely, Lisa Kratzer