The Simply Happy Cookbook

Welcome to The Simply Happy Cookbook, the newest installment in our Happy Cookbook series. Three books on one theme—happiness? We’ve written a trilogy! One of our kids joked that we have become the Tolkiens of taste. Actually happy taste—based on the proven fact that we all have foods that can trigger deep memories of emotions and feelings that often transport us to a cheery place somewhere in our past.

Why do we call this The Simply Happy Cookbook? In the last couple of years, nothing has been simple. For stretches of time the only thing we had to look forward to was dinner before bed. So if that was the day’s highlight, it had to be great—but it couldn’t be too complicated.

For this book we’ve curated (SAT word popularized during the lockdown) one hundred more comforting recipes—with stories about why they trigger a pang of personal happiness to someone—and we engineered them to be as simple as possible to get on the table. With supply chain issues, we know some ingredients can be hard to get, so we use as few ingredients as possible, and we use some premade sauces and store-bought ingredients to save you time. And we have slow cooker recipes that taste like they’ve been stewing away all day—and they have—but they only take a few minutes to prep before you put the lid on and forget about them for eight hours.

These delectable dishes are made with pantry staples that are easy to get in every part of America. After our first cookbook, somebody wrote and said they could not find burrata cheese in their town, so Kathy and I made a note, and that’s now a requirement for inclusion in our cookbooks—every ingredient has to be widely available either in your grocery store or at your local Walmart. We checked at ours!

Because sometimes it feels like America has run out of things to cook, we dreamed up some new recipes that you probably won’t see anyplace else. We got sick of people never returning casserole pans when we’d take them a dinner, so we figured a way to have them eat the dish with our A to Ziti Loaf. Our Lasagna Grilled Cheese Sandwiches will change the way you think of grilled cheese forever. We think you’ll fall in love with Billionaire Bacon and Cranberry Brie, Bourbon Brisket in a Biscuit, Cast-Iron Cabernet Cheeseburgers, Jolt in a Jar, and German Chocolate Ice Cream Pie. And I don’t know any other cookbook that has recipes for Iowa Caucus Casserole, Mona Lisa’s Chicken, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Potato Salad, or Heifer in a Haystack Casserole. Don’t worry—no haystacks were used in the making of that hot dish.

The recipes and stories and ideas come from our family and friends, some of whom you may recognize: Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, Ainsley Earhardt, John Rich, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Paula Bongino (Dan’s wife), Susan Richie (Kid Rock’s mom), Melanie Luttrell (Marcus’s wife), Amy Baier (Bret’s wife), and Pete Hegseth.

Special thanks to Guy Fieri, who hired me to work a day in his chicken kitchen, and Paula Deen, the queen of Southern cooking—who humbled us when she whipped up one of our recipes on her show! Also, I can’t tell you how many people told us they’d bought our first two cookbooks—but they don’t cook! They’d heard friends and family members rave about the heartwarming and sometimes hilarious stories about our family, and they said, You’ve got to get it, and they did.

So this book has plenty of new stories you’ve never heard. You’ll discover how we almost named future White House correspondent Peter Doocy after a town in Tennessee. Find out which prominent Doocy family member arrived in our lives after a one-way trip on the fabled Orphan Train—and we still have no idea where they came from. Learn how Kathy’s eye cancer story helped save the eye and probably the life of a total stranger. Which Super Bowl quarterback helped one of our kids make a home run in a local rec-league game? We will reveal that shocker . . . and we all worried about our permanent records back in high school, so I called for mine—and you’ll be horrified what was in it!

With one story for every one of the hundred recipes, you’ll say, “Wait, there’s a cookbook in there too?” Yes, indeed . . . it’s two books in one!

Thank you to all of those who reached out to us with suggestions for this cookbook. We got an email from a viewer named Sue who reminded us that a lot of our readers are empty nesters—as Kathy and I are—and we should have more recipes for just two people. Sue’s right—so we’re presenting more recipes that make just a few portions, or are super easy to divide and make smaller quantities. Just know that leftovers are a gift from the cooking gods, so if you’re going to go to the trouble . . . you might as well make it double.

So thank you for picking up our latest cookbook! We hope you enjoy all these easily accessible recipes and memories from our family and friends. We know everybody’s life is still complicated—but we can all do something to untangle it a little. Just turn on the stove and turn back the clock.

Ultimately what we’re trying to do is help America come up with fun, interesting, delicious things to make for dinner—and maybe some great leftovers for the middle of the night. I know you’re thinking we’re not supposed to get up at 1 a.m. and have a snack—but if that was the case . . . why is there a light in the fridge?

#AskingForAFriend.

By the way—we love hashtags, because they remind us of waffles! And our new Red Velvet Waffles recipe.

Because I’m the longtime reporter and writer in the family, the recipes are written in my voice, but make no mistake—Kathy is the brains behind the operation. As a couple married over thirty-six years, we’re proof that behind every husband who thinks he wears the pants in the family is . . . the wife who told him which pants match his shirt. Sound familiar?

Enjoy, and remember, if you’re going to have three meals today, you might as well make sure one of them makes you simply happy.

—Steve & Kathy Doocy