Thursday, January 28, 2010

Adding a few twists......

OK, so years ago I had this great idea for a cookbook. I thought it would be a lot of fun to write a cookbook (and maybe even sell a few). But I really truly have always believed my recipes are just tweaked versions of other people's recipes. Now I know Simon Cowell preaches you should always "make it your own", but I couldn't see having Emeril Lagasse or Rachael Ray sue me because my recipe was just a wee bit too much like theirs. So my idea for the cookbook was to give people ideas versus recipes.

But it got too convoluted. There was no actual THEME to the book. I just couldn't see making it marketable since it wouldn't really appeal to the crowd that wanted to cook everything in less than 30 minutes or to the crowd that was so in love with butter they only wanted Paula Deen type recipes. I had a million random tips I wanted to share and I wanted it to make sense.

My first idea for the book was to show frugal shoppers how they could plan ahead and incorporate some time saving into that 10-pound family pack of ground beef they bought to save money. It would involve freezing some raw, making some freezable meals, and cooking a meal now that would allow some leftovers. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a cooking show than a cookbook.

But of course, all my random ideas were still a bit too convoluted for a cooking show. There wouldn't be a theme whatsoever. Show #1 would be the ground beef idea. Show #2 might be about making homemade baby food (something I did for all 3 of my kids). Show #3 might be about incorporating lots of veggies into a meal (bare in mind this was a few years before Deceptively Delicious came out). Show #4 may be about how to make homemade chicken stock, how to freeze it, and a good soup recipe to make at the same time that could utilize some of that freshly made stock. Show #5 may be "do ahead steps" for stay-at-home moms who were very hands on with their kids, yet wanted to put a good meal on the table. See.........way too convoluted. So I finally just gave up on the idea.

But since I now have this blog, and a few of you have already asked me via email for some of my tips, tricks & stock recipe, I figure I can finally do what I thought about doing years ago. And it might actually be appreciated in this format. Random tips intermixed with recipes. There won't be any rhyme or reason to it. Posts will probably still coincide with what I'm making in my kitchen that day or questions I get asked from friends.

Sorry, for rambling. Not exactly a recipe is it?

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