Writing a cookbook on NoS - advice needed!

marygrace · Post by **marygrace** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:33 pm

I just found out I'm going to be the main author of a cookbook that my magazine is writing. Of course, this is amazing and exciting news! but I will have to test and perfect about 70 recipes (desserts included) before Christmas time. Needless to say, this is a lot of work (it's in addition to all my other job responsibilities), but I don't think the workload will be the biggest challenge. Instead, it'll be balancing recipe testing with NoS! Since desserts aren't the book's main focus, I think I can probably confine testing those to S-days. But what about everything else? I want to come up with some kind of strategy, otherwise I'll start justifying every bite, lick, and taste--which would definitely set me up to gain weight.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

DaveMc · Post by **DaveMc** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:38 pm

Well, by my count, there are over 70 days between now and Christmas ... Is it possible to allocate one of your meals, each day, to testing a recipe? Even if some of the recipes are for things that would usually be snacks, you could group some together and make a meal of them ... And dessert recipes on S days, as you say. Sounds like a delicious few months! (If the recipes are good, that is.)

EDIT: Ah, but I focused on "test" and overlooked the "... and perfect" part of your question. Does that mean you'll have to make each recipe many times?

marygrace · Post by **marygrace** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:04 am

DaveMc wrote:Well, by my count, there are over 70 days between now and Christmas ... Is it possible to allocate one of your meals, each day, to testing a recipe? Even if some of the recipes are for things that would usually be snacks, you could group some together and make a meal of them ... And dessert recipes on S days, as you say. Sounds like a delicious few months! (If the recipes are good, that is.)

EDIT: Ah, but I focused on "test" and overlooked the "... and perfect" part of your question. Does that mean you'll have to make each recipe many times?

Ideally, I'd be able to get it right on the first shot. It might happen some of the time, but I don't think I can count on it happening all of the time!

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:48 am

I remember reading about some cookbook author who lost a huge amount of weight all while writing a new cookbook. He/she said that when testing recipes, he/she took a taste -- a small spoon or forkful. That's all you need to see if a recipe has worked. Taste and don't worry about it.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 12:39 am

When I had an issue with "bites, licks and tastes," I made some rules for myself about that.

It's legitimate to taste when cooking. It's not legitimate to use that as an excuse. So...

If I know what it tastes like, it's not a taste.
Leftover bits are not tastes.
A portion of more than a teaspoon is not a taste.
If I have made no changes since the last taste, I don't need to taste.

And I do a lot of baking on S-days, so I can ignore all that, lol!

marygrace · Post by **marygrace** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:51 pm

KCCC wrote:When I had an issue with "bites, licks and tastes," I made some rules for myself about that.

It's legitimate to taste when cooking. It's not legitimate to use that as an excuse. So...

If I know what it tastes like, it's not a taste.
Leftover bits are not tastes.
A portion of more than a teaspoon is not a taste.
If I have made no changes since the last taste, I don't need to taste.

And I do a lot of baking on S-days, so I can ignore all that, lol!

I really like these guidelines! Thank you!