A Week in the Life

When people hear I’m a cookbook author, they usually say it sounds like fun, then admit they aren’t really sure what I do. That all depends on what stage of the book I’m in.

If a deadline is looming and I’m desperately trying to finish the text and recipes, it is not fun! I spend most days and many evenings, teeth gritted, eyes glassy, and brow furrowed, either fussing in the kitchen or staring at my computer screen. I spend my nights stewing (no pun intended) about the techniques that just won’t work, the pearls of prose the laptop ate, and, if—I’m especially tired and stressed—dreaming, in vivid, masochistic detail, about the wretched reviews my (yet unpublished) work has received.

On the other hand, if I’ve got a work just published (my latest tome, Kneadlessly Simple, came out in February), then the days are both varied and fun. I get to extol my book’s virtues to as many radio and television hosts and magazine and newspaper interviewers as the publisher can arrange. I also meet and greet people and autograph books at signings, cooking demonstrations, cooking classes, and other venues designed to publicize my pride and joy. After all, folks can’t want to buy my book if they don’t know it exists!

This past week was a little more hectic than normal, but fairly typical for the period devoted to getting the word out on a new book. A week ago Sunday I loaded my car with demo supplies and props and drove into Baltimore for two “Sunday chef” cooking segments on WBAL-TV 11. To take a look, click here and here .

Since my deadline for a cooking article on New York deli-style cheesecake was on Monday, I spend Sunday afternoon styling and photographing the starring cheesecake I’d made several days before and refrigerated. (I ate the slice I cut for the photo—it was g-o-o-o-d!) For some details on my struggles to defeat the cheesecake cracking gremlins, see my last blog entry.

On Monday, I photo-edited the pic and edited the story, then on Tuesday went to work creating some recipes for my next book and drafting some story ideas for a magazine editor. Wednesday a helper and I readied some breads and ingredients, and Thursday morning I toted them to Washington, DC, for another television cooking segment on WUSA-TV 9. The crew was very happy to polish off the loaves I’d brought and showed on the show!

My last appearance of the week was at a local farmers’ market, where on Sunday I demonstrated how easy it is to make “kneadless” bread and gave out samples to taste. I was showing how to make my double chocolate honey bread in the photo at the top. It was a gorgeous day, so after my demo I checked out the vendors at the market and bought a few herbs to put in my garden. I puttered in my yard the rest of the day.

I’m about at the end of the very busy new book publicity stage, so this past week I was mostly in my kitchen beginning to develop and try out recipes for my next book. It’s not due for a year, so I’m not panicked yet. I even took last weekend off and went with my son and grandkids to a Baltimore Orioles game! Yippee, they won!