My new (!!) cookbook + two sneaky recipes
And a Happy New Year to you all!
Hello hello! Yesterday, I *officially* announced my new cookbook, Cook Simply, Live Fully, which comes out in April, and I’m so so excited about it! I was given the most trust and freedom with it compared to my other books, so it has a special place in my heart and is my favorite one yet. I think, for this reason, I have a hard time summarizing what it’s about in one sentence. Maybe you feel this way too, but when something is particularly special or close to me, be it a person or a thing, I find describing them/it to be very challenging. How am I supposed to narrow it down and simplify something so wonderful and important in one sentence?! This is when I usually stumble and search awkwardly for an answer—I’ve never been very good at sales or pitching. So, please forgive me as I try to sum up this book below.
In many ways, this book captures the unexpected life journey that I’ve been on the past few years, uprooting my life to leave NYC after 14 years when I fell in love with the island of Menorca. I don’t think my publisher, agent or I had any idea how my life was going to unfold and, ultimately, influence this book. While it may have felt chaotic and uncertain at so many moments, I think it made it even better than I could have imagined when first dreaming this up. Mostly I think because I started writing it and shaping the tone and personality while in Menorca in the spring/summer of 2022 on what started as a two week visit and ended up being a seven week unplanned solo writing retreat.
With all of my stuff in storage in NYC, except for my knife kit, I was bouncing around different Airbnbs, wondering at moments what I was doing with my life and how I’d ended up here without a home base or a plan, not knowing a single person or even speaking the language. Yet, I was the happiest I’d been in a long time and that energy and joy was infused into this book. I think because I spent so much time alone, I began to pay close attention to my mood, energy level and emotions, and listening to them rather than forcing myself to do what I thought I should be doing. I wanted to start living my life that way (definitely still a work in progress) and realized that’s also how I decide what to eat and cook—it boils down to how I want to feel during/after I eat and how much energy I have to make the meal.
And that’s how this book is set up: to give you the options to choose what you want to make based on your mood and energy level.
That was my one-line pitch about the book—did I nail it? (I might have also deleted two full paragraphs before sending this.)
What I really wanted to talk about though is the cover. As you can see, it’s illustrated simply with a sprinkled trail of salt and a lemon as a nod to the core of the book, which is about cooking simply and honestly in a way that makes the most sense for you at that moment (maybe that’s my one-line explanation?). I want to talk about it because having an illustrated cookbook cover as a US author is unusual and feels noteworthy for that reason.
This article by Charlotte Druckman does a fantastic job of explaining the reasoning behind this and why cookbook covers for the same book are different when published in the US and UK. Most US books have a food photo or a famous person with food on the cover, while the UK tends to go the other way. As someone who devours and collects cookbooks, I love a thoughtful illustrated cover, but I never imagined I’d actually have one
Like most books, coming up with this cover was a long process—there were many people involved, lots of conversations, video calls, phone calls, emails and so on, which I think spanned a full five months until we settled on a cover.
For this book in particular, I think it took so long partly because it has three distinct sections, so we didn’t have one photo that felt like it captured the essence of the book. We started with photos, trying numerous formats, color schemes and so on, but nothing quite hit. On a cookbook photo shoot, there is usually half a day or a full day dedicated to the cover. While the idea of one is loosely discussed before, that time is also for trying options, be it different dishes, locations, outfits and so on, so that there are, well, options, to discuss post shoot. While the cover options we took were beautiful, they tended to stick to one section versus the other and also didn’t make the book standout, which is equally as important. The cover is the way to grab someone’s attention, whether they are passing by it in a bookstore or scrolling online, which is why there is so much discussion about it. If we had a photo of me putting a sheet pan down on the table, then that spoke a bit more to the Coffee Table Dinners and At The Dinner Table sections, leaving Lap Dinners in the dust. But how to include the lap dinners, too? You’re probably not going to buy a cookbook if it’s just a photo of my lap with a bowl in it, and that’s also not the entire book. And, how would a sheet pan photo set it apart from so many other books promising easy weeknight meals? Even having a photo from all three sections on the cover felt chaotic and would look odd as a thumbnail online. It felt like we needed to somehow cover the span of all different moods and meals in one photo, which is a lot to expect from one photo, even if it’s a gorgeous one
When we finally decided to try an illustrated cover, we used the directive Bold Simplicity to try and capture the book’s core with the caveat that it should also feel fun as that’s the tone of the book and important to me as a person (yes, I know I use the word fun a lot, but I can’t help it and truly mean it).
And I’m so happy with where we landed. Lemons and salt are both simple yet powerful (and bold!) ingredients—easy peasy, lemon squeezy also happens to be one of my favorite phrases. The sprinkling of salt is playful on the page, and magenta is not only my favorite color but also the color of the old school kitchen ruler I use to measure vegetables when developing recipes. I think I purchased it at a CVS on Seventh avenue in NYC many, many years ago and still use it today and travel with it. Once I can, I’ll show you the spine of the book as we have an illustrated ruler there (and also in the interior) so that you can easily measure vegetables when a recipe calls for ½-inch piece of ginger or potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces. It might be one of my favorite parts of the book as it’s so fun! And hopefully also helpful.
There’s so much more about this book that I love—it has a wine pairing chart where you can look up the dominant ingredients in a recipe and get a wine recommendation to take to your local wine store or type in online (thank you to Allegra Angelo for writing it!). There’s also a vegetable cooking chart cheat sheet with basic instructions on how to cook broccoli/carrots/mushrooms/bok choy and so on, so that you can round out a meal with another plate of vegetables. Also all oven recipes are set at 400 degrees so you can easily swap things around and have the cooking instructions and timing to do so. The Lap Dinners section doesn’t have traditional measurements as you’re encouraged to grab a spoon and scoop—though I do give instruction, I promise you’re not just left to figure it out yourself. (See, how could I explain all of the above in one or two sentences?! Truly I have no idea.)
I will say that if you do preorder it a) thank you so much as that makes a huge difference in how the book is sold in stores and online and b) please save some type of receipt as we are doing a giveaway with Le Creuset (2 large Dutch ovens and 2 large braisers!), and you’ll get a pretty PDF of bonus recipes, too. More on that later!
For now, I will leave you with two recipes from the book that you can try out if you want to give it a spin before ordering. I’m going on a Vipassana course today, so I will be offline with my computer and phone tucked in a locker somewhere, both of which I’ll get back on the 14th when I’m released. In the absolute best way, I think these next few months before the book comes out will be a bit hectic and exciting, so I wanted to take some time to get quiet and grounded before. Apologies for any delays in responses and wishing you all a wonderful 2024! Xx
Book Recipes!
Smashed Turkey Burgers with Sumac Onions + Parsley
Caramelized Onions + Eggplant with Tomato Orzo
Hope you enjoy!! xx
Also, if your email begins with “mars”, please check your inbox or spam, you won the cooking class! Or, please let me know if you’re not interested/I’ll wait until I’m back and then I’ll select someone else if I don’t hear from you. Thank you! xx
This looks super exciting, congrats!