My cookbook is out TODAY!! Ahhhhh

What the title means, aside from the obvious

Today is THE DAY!! It’s wild how a date can stick in your mind for months, feeling like it’s going to take forever to get there and then when it arrives, there’s the feeling of, wait a minute, how did this happen so fast?!

The book is officially published today after almost two and a half years in the making, so you can find it in bookstores (please send me a pic!) or will get it in the mail, likely today or tomorrow. Rather than obsessively checking my phone, doing my work or heeding my approaching deadlines, I’m spending the day with my cookbook in my favorite cala in Menorca, where I first saw the naked lady and decided to change my life in the first place (once you read the introduction, this reference will make a whole lot more sense).

It feels fitting to spend the day alone there, sitting quietly in the sun, watching the water and bringing my book with me for no other reason than to remind myself that it’s real. I have this secret belief that if I’m in a calm, happy place when my book arrives in the world, then with it will come the good wishes and prayers that I’ve been sending out that it’s loved, as it truly feels like a piece of my heart lives in this book. 

A few friends have said, “Well, you’ve done this before, so you know what to expect, right?” While that’s true, when I think about it, it still feels entirely different than my past experiences. For my first book, I had no idea what to expect. Most of me couldn’t believe my luck in having a cookbook published in the first place, so I already felt ahead of the game, and everything that happened was an exciting adventure. My second was more of a project that someone offered me than a book from the heart, so, while I still worked really hard on it, I didn’t feel quite as attached to it as I do to this one or my first one (which I also love dearly). Plus, I had just moved to Miami a few weeks before the second book came out and was currently processing the fact that I knew I had made a giant mistake moving there. It was a strange moment of the door closing behind the moving team, who had just delivered all of my stuff from storage, and I sat down on the floor and thought, “Oh dear, this is not right.” 

For this book, even though I know what to expect during this promotion process, I am so wrapped up in the book itself that I feel vulnerable and exposed in a way I haven’t before. I was given so much freedom to create this book that it feels like it truly came from me, rather than what someone else wanted me to write, which is incredibly lucky, but also makes it a bit scary. Plus, there is more pressure now with it being my third book as, realistically, the outcome of this book will determine my future career path, whether it’s writing more books or perhaps doing something entirely different all together. Frankly, I’ve been through so much change these past few years that it almost wouldn’t surprise me to veer off into something else, but I really love what I do so that would be a bit sad to have to change course. 

Of course, me worrying about all of this is completely unhelpful and accomplishes nothing, which is why I’m retreating to the water today. Am I running away from my problems? Absolutely!!

Distraction and quiet at their best

What I actually want to talk about is what the cookbook title means. You can likely surmise the gist as the recipes are simple to make, no matter your mood, and living fully means enjoying your life to the fullest. But wait, there’s more!!

What I find nuts is how everything has come full circle in a way I couldn’t have anticipated. This title was slotted for the introduction of the cookbook as it was originally named What’s For Dinner, as I think I mentioned before, but a cookbook by the same name came out last February in the UK, so we decided to change it. Cook Simply, Live Fully as a title actually came to me during the pandemic, I’m talking late March 2020, and I had no idea what to do with it. Maybe a food writing book? A collection of essays down the road? Once I wrote the introduction to this book, almost two years ago in Menorca, it felt like the right place for the name. (This was also when I wrote Turtle Life, which you’ll find in the book, too!) When we needed a new cookbook title, I proposed transferring it from the introduction to the team, and, to my surprise, they said yes. 

Now that I’m reflecting on everything that has shifted in the past few years, it feels a little eerie because it somehow sums up the intentional change that I made, even though I wasn’t really aware of it at the time (the beauty of hindsight). Hear me out. When I decided to upend my entire life, it’s because I knew that I wanted to live a full life, not a busy life, even if I couldn’t articulate it at the moment. This basically means an intentional living, (not an idea that I have invented by any means) where I choose what I say yes and no to, who I spend my time with, what I think about and so on. My days might be packed with things, and I feel tired at the end, but it’s things that make me feel full inside and that I’m happy doing, not things that make me feel like the life has been sucked out of me, and I’m so depleted and drained that I need to hide under the covers. In the dark. In total silence. (Not like I’ve done that before… or with a large glass of wine… ) 

That’s where the “Live Fully” part comes in; living life in the simplest way possible but embracing the adventure and unknown that comes with this idea of intentional living and change. Many people encourage this type of being in the world, it’s more that it finally clicked that I actually have the choice to live life as I want to rather than how I always thought it should look like. Obvious to read and know, yet much harder to actually act upon sometimes.

As far as this all relates to my cookbook, the “cooking simply” part can be the small intentional choice that we make to begin “living fully” by choosing a recipe or dish that best meets our needs at that moment. That’s why the book is organized by the energy you have to make dinner and your mood—I would love for you to take a second to see how you feel and then decide what to make, letting yourself be the guide rather than what “you think is right” or “what you should be making.” (Ignore the people and listen to yourself! Who the people are, I don’t know.)

Whether or not the above resonates with you or your eyes gloss over the text as this might echo some annoying self-help book, this cookbook is full of simple recipes that are delicious, fresh and flavorful, and I hope that you love them. 

How cute are these baby goats?!

Honestly, I mostly feel insanely lucky to be here right now, spending time in nature and seeing incredible things like these adorable baby goats that feel miles away from my worries. I went to a friend’s finca a couple of weeks ago, and, just as we were about to leave, one of his goats gave birth! It was truly an unbelievable thing to witness as was cuddling the little baby goat, still covered in birthing liquids, and trying to warm up its cold ears as it attempted to stand up and walk (sadly, the mother had rejected it, which is why it was curling up at my feet, and she also didn’t have any milk, so my friend is bottle feeding it). A good moment of perspective to get out of my head.

I hope that you’re having a lovely day wherever you are as I shut myself away from the world for a few hours, alone with my book, like the weirdo that I am.

Please wish my little book lots of luck in the world!! Xx 

Book Recommendation

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: This is the only book I’ve read since the last newsletter as it’s quite lengthy (just shy of 550 pages), and it’s a really good one. It dives into the opioid crisis in America, showing a clear picture of how it was set up and how so many people fell prey to it as well as the failings of the foster care system–much of it is a reimagining of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield. Overall, it was a sad but beautiful book with a great narrator and characters. I will say that the first 200 pages were emotionally tough and felt a bit in the realm of Shuggie Bain, if you read that book (also beautiful but wow so heavy). The similarities are in child sadness, as in the hardships some kids are forced to face at a young age, catapulting them out of childhood into the land of adult worries. Obviously, we don’t want anyone to feel pain and hurt, but I always find that it hits harder when it’s kids feeling that way. I’m not saying the book was all joy and no hardship post page 200, but those were the toughest for me to get through. I don’t mean any of this to discourage you from reading it, as I was sad the book was over when it was, and it’s one that I keep thinking about. There were lots of great points brought up in the book about how we treat one another and look down on certain people that I think were great, plus I loved his view of apartment buildings—”doom palaces” as I think he described them.

That’s all!! xx