Start of the Journey

Literally. I've started the journey. But maybe a little background on the journey itself.

I've always wanted to write. I wrote storybooks about my Barbies and I wrote college essays as a sophomore just to have an excuse to write more. For my senior project I sat at home and wrote four (rather boring) chapters of a novel. Sadly, the novel never made it to completion - as I hit college I decided a novel about how much I hated high school might need a little work. I wrote a column for the newspaper in college. I called it "Clarification," - how clever am I? If you google search my name (stalkers) you still find my stories of beer pong and frat land. This is a bit embarrassing, but some credibility beats none.

Now you should also know that I'm not great at picking out presents. I like to give presents that people love, but I always fall short somehow. So for my mother's birthday this year I thought long and hard about what she would just adore. Granted, I could still make a finger painting for her and she would love it, but I thought I would do something more age appropriate. I also have little to no money. So I thought and I thought and I sat like Pooh Bear sits in his thinking spot, and I too was struck by inspiration, though Piglet was nowhere to be found. I would make a cookbook for my mother!



As much as I love to write, I also revel in cooking. And if the title didn't give it away - Stirring and Whirring will chronicle my cooking adventures, and how they fit in with my lovely struggling young life. My mother introduced me to cooking; she taught me how and she shared all her favorite recipes. What a great gift! I'd print out some of our favorite recipes, maybe put a photo or two of us in lamination and bundle it all up for her. What a freaking great daughter I am. But then I started thinking more. I didn't just want a pot of honey; I want the whole tree! We all know what happened when Pooh dressed up as a bee - but I decided my efforts would be a bit more successful.

So came the cookbook plan. It started as an ebook, and then a full published book, and now I have settled on self publishing through a website (I haven't decided which). A lovely coincidence is that my job at thepoint was asking for ideas from me to use on their website for campaigns. The big wheels kept on turning, and before long I realized I really could take this to the next level and get contributions of recipes from others to include in the cookbook. Others like my mother herself, her friends, our family, my friends, and even some complete strangers. A collaboration of recipes that celebrate the mother-child-food-birthday-extravaganza.

That's the journey I'm on now. I can't see it as clearly as a yellow brick road, but I can see that it will involve lots of recipe testing, lots of writing, maybe lots of frustration and hopefully some ridiculous stories. That's just a guess. But as I put myself through this you can follow along.

If you want to be a part of the cookbook see my campaign - you can join!