I need your help. I have a classic white layer cake in this book made with White Sonora wheat. It’s a pretty solid recipe, but it doesn’t have an icing yet. Can you help me pick one?
1. Rhubarb & Pistachio VOTE
2. Vanilla Cream & Mixed Berry VOTE
3. Matcha & Strawberry VOTE
4. Lemon Curd & Coconut VOTE
5. Rose Water & Pistachio Cream VOTE
If your answer is “none of the above,” add your suggestion in the comments below.
This was the best year and the worst year to write a cookbook.
It’s the best year, because I’m trapped at home and home is the best place to write and test recipes. It’s been the worst year because there is no longer any childcare and it’s impossible to work AND parent at the same time. It’s the worst year because all the uncertainty has exposed my latent anxieties. It’s the best year because the antidote to my anxious doom-scrolling is to put down my phone and create something. It’s the best year because all my neighbors are working from home and they are happy to taste everything I make at any hour. Flops included.
March has been a good time to reflect on the last 12 months. In the past 12 months we’ve done our share of covid-exposure-quarentines, work-from-home desk shuffles, school cancelations, everything cancelations, family members with covid, family members recovered from covid, and more online flour orders than we’d ever seen before. And I know you all have experienced some version of this as well.
As I reflect on this year, I’ve come to the conclusion that is was a great year to write a cookbook. Because there is never a good time. I realized that there will always be a certain amount of uncertainty and less than ideal conditions.
Did you know, I had a cookbook deal five years ago? But I ended up backing out of it. I was 37 weeks pregnant with my first baby and felt so overwhelmed that I decided to return my advance and shelf the project. Little did I know that a whole new level of overwhelm was about to come into our lives in the form a cute little baby boy.
Now I have three children and a brand new cookbook deal. And I’ve come to realize that the feeling of not having enough arms or hours in the day is here to stay. So I might as well write a cookbook and feel like the luckiest person in the world for getting to work on my dream project this year as hard and unconventional as it has been.
Cookbook Club Round Up
Are you part of a cookbook club? It’s my dream to start one someday with a monthly dinner party. In the meantime, here’s a round-up of all the virtual cookbook clubs you can join. Would you join one?
Stained Page is a newsletter devoted to Cookbook news and recently launched a cookbook club. The club focuses on older classics instead of most recent pubs.
This one isn’t a club technically, but it has to be mentioned. Hard Cover Books is a subscription box of hard to source and specialty ingredients that go along with a cookbook. I discovered it because our flours are often featured in their boxes. There is always a baking book, vegetarian and omnivore book. So something for everyone. I think it would make a fantastic gift.
This is a great one to start with. The club is a group on Facebook and members share photos and notes on what they’ve been making. It’s always so motivating to peek into other people’s kitchens. This months book is a classic: The Silver Palate Cookbook.
This is “The 1st Instagram Cookbook Club” and comes with pretty fantastic photography. This month’s book is Hawa Hassans’s In Bibi’s Kitchen.
*This newsletter does not contain any affiliate links or sponsored content of any kind. If you want to support my work, you can always buy my flour or buy my book when it comes out. Thanks for reading!