Blaming the Pounds on Writing

I decided to put together a cookbook as my first self published eBook. Since then I've been testing out a few different recipes that are inspired by a single cookie. Luckily, I have some taste-testers to help out, but I've gained several pounds while testing the mixes as I go along.

The cookbook has been requested by friends and family to assemble all my cookies, muffin, and bread recipes together. I don't expect it to sell even 100 copies, but making it available by eBook will make it easier for everyone who's had a particular cookie or muffin to get the recipes in one fell swoop. It will also be a nice exercise in formatting for the various sites.

Baking is my hobby, not my profession, nevertheless I've been told I make “evil” goodies. They are evil in the sense that they will call you from the kitchen to come eat them and you can't possibly eat just one. Some of my favorite recipes have been nicknamed “Satan” and one of my newest recipes has been called “Heaven”. It will be fun to include all the nicknames that the recipes have been given.

I wish there was a way to deduct my pounds like I can deduct expenses from my taxes. The tax man would probably want proof of my weight before and weight after with increases along the way attributed to each trial. Maybe if I gave each pound a name I could deduct them as dependents?

Nah! That's too much work, think I'll make another batch of cookies instead.

A Temporary Change of Direction

So, I'm taking a quick detour off of my Jess Barker series to do a cookbook. Yes, I am aware there are 300 gazillion or so cookbooks out there. This one is being done at the bequest of many friends and family members who've asked for recipes like the "Satan" muffins, my banana bread, and several cookie recipes.

I did ask first. And the consensus was most would buy at least one copy for $0.99 on Amazon. My mother want's a print copy so I will have to format it for print-on-demand as well.  The formatting will be a learning experience for certain. Not sure how I'm going to make that work, but I'll figure it out.

Stories on some key recipes and my "philosophies" on making the particular recipe sets will be added in as part of the book. My great-grandmother used to just take handfuls of flour, sugar, and whatever else until it was "just right", she didn't measure. I take after her a little bit on some things, but for the most part I have all the measurements down.

There will be one component lacking though, and that is pictures. Because to do pictures means I have to make a batch of every cookie, muffin, and bread recipe I include. That's a lot of pictures and I'm most definitely NOT a good photographer.  I might be able to sweet talk a friend into doing a photo shoot for me, but I'll have to have everything made up and trek it to his studio.  And then I'd have to figure out how to include them in the electronic and POD copies.

Too bad I have a full time job, these is going to take a lot of research!