Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Cookbook Wishes and Carb-Laden Dreams

(You have to read the title with Robin Leach's accent, or it won't work.)

I've been spending most of this month (other than keeping busy and fulfilled working on taxes and laundry and dishes and feeding chickens and vacuuming and reading and painting my nails and more laundry and dishes and basketball games), working on the as-yet unnamed cookbook project that I undertook last year, which I have elegantly and creatively named: The Cookbook Project

I can't seem to come up with a name--at all--so, if you have any ideas for a cookbook other than "The Book" or "Stef's Big Book of Recipes for People Who Can't Cook Good", I'd love to hear them.  My creativity doesn't work that way very well.

It's slower going than I expected, but I've got a system for entering recipes that is working, and it's coming together.  I have about 200 pages already, and I'm *cough* not.even.close to finished, and I keep remembering more recipes to include, so I'm hoping it doesn't turn into like 900 pages of "WHAT? WHY IS THIS SO BIG?!?" and end up costing a million dollars to publish.

And it's making me hungry, plus it's making me want to bake.  So today, I worked on the book, but only after making a lemon meringue pie AND some New York rye bread.  I haven't had wheat since before Christmas, but I tried a piece of that bread just out of spite.  I mean, you can't not eat it, when it's hot out of the oven.  What if there's something wrong with it?  I need to know, right?  RIGHT??

And it's turning out that everyone we know is still waiting for a copy or two.  My deadline of May to have it finished *feels* realistic, but it's a little nerve-wracking because I still need to go through and somehow make sure the proof-reading is right, so no one ends up making something and realizing that...shouldn't there be SUGAR in this cookie recipe? 

Originally it was SUPPOSED to be just a gift for my girls, so they would have every single family favorite recipe that we love, all in one place.  But it turns out, since I love to cook, and I've been cooking and baking for a long time, there are, um...a LOT of recipes to add.  Which means lots of typing.  Or lots of time scanning and then cutting, pasting, editing, correcting and cursing.  I had one recipe that I tried to scan, cut, and paste that took me so long yesterday that I started feeling all restless and irritable and jumpy, especially knowing that I could have TYPED this recipe directly already, like, 48 TIMES.  WTH??  Sometimes technology just--gets in the way.

Anyhoo.

It's also slow going because my wrists and hands are kind of sore, because I haven't spent this much time typing since my 200+ wpm medical transcriptionist days, so obviously the last thing I feel like doing is writing blog posts.  Plus...none of my stories have formulated into blog-worthy cohesion in my head yet, which is my own highly developed way of knowing when I feel like writing one down--I start telling myself the story, in my head, and if it...feels...like I should write it down, I do.  It's all very highly evolved and sophisticated.  *snort*

Also, everytime I look up a recipe that has pictures, especially the ones I haven't made in a long time--suddenly I'm craving all of them.  So, now, on top of working out and dieting, I have visions of almond puffs dancing in my head!


And sourdough bagels!!


And caramel-raisin cinnamon rolls with extra gooey sauce!!!


 Ahhhhh, carbs!!!  It's like a torture test of willpower.  This from a woman who could live on wheat and dairy products and nothing else.  I have never craved a carrot stick in my entire life.   not.  once.

aieeeeeee

Just needed to get that off my chest.

Carry on with whatever you were doing. 



Ever start a project that makes you crave food you should not be eating? 

4 comments:

  1. I would buy that cook book.

    I don't cook often...but I do enjoy reading cookbooks for fun.

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  2. Thanks, Michelle-- I'm having fun adding all our favorite things to it, so I can't wait to use it myself. :) I had no idea it would turn out to be such a large undertaking, though...it will probably end up being about 400+ pages.

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  3. I would like to be added to the list for the cookbook. Or... you could send a draft to a publisher and then we could all buy your cookbook, making you independently wealthy and spawning a career on the Food Network. If the Pioneer Woman can do it, so can you!

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    Replies
    1. Hi girl! Check under your tree next Christmas... ;)

      Seriously, I think it will be available on Amazon through the book program I'm using, once I figure out the whole photo/copyright issue.

      Just think. In a year, we could be sitting around my indoor pool between tapings of my Food Network show, having Pita Pit, and laughing about those days working at the mill. muahahahaaa ;)

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