April 11, 2017

My New Cookbook – One Week at a Time!

Hi everyone, let’s have a talk.

Over the past few months I’ve made several hints about the fact that I’m working on a new cookbook. I’ve been at it for over a year now, and I’m on track to release it in 2018. I’m not quite ready to go into details, but I will say it is by far the most thorough and important project I’ve ever worked on.

It’s always been a challenge to keep this blog up and running, between traveling for my job in the US Navy and the general busyness that comes with being a husband and father of two children. And I have always appreciated the challenge of maintaining my “new recipe every Tuesday” standard since 2011, as it helps me plan and organize my cooking life.

But that standard has been increasingly difficult to maintain over this past year, as I have to find ways to divide my limited time between blog recipes and recipes for the new cookbook. In truth, it’s really slowed my progress down, but at the same time, I don’t want to disappear for an extended period of time, only to reemerge with a new cookbook – to me, blogs should be a continuous conversation, and I like engaging with you, my readers. So I’ve been looking for ways to keep The Domestic Man running, and relevant, while I prioritize my new book.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to devote myself full-time to developing recipes for the new cookbook, and each week I will share a new recipe that will later be included in the book, up until release date. Think of it like a year-long early access to parts of my new cookbook. I’ll also likely include recipes that I considered and developed for the book, but may not make it into the final cut.

And here is what I’m going to ask of you. First, I ask that you incorporate these recipes into your cooking lives, just as you always have, and please provide feedback in the comments – what worked, what didn’t, and so on. I’ll take your feedback onboard as I edit the recipes; consider yourself an official recipe tester! My hope is that you’ll find these recipes to be familiar friends by the time you see them in print form. Next, I ask you to bear in mind that some of these recipes will change as I go through the publication process, especially the photos. As with my previous two books, I’ll be teaming up with my dear friend Giang Cao for the book’s photography, and he will be taking on the majority of the photography duties this time around as I hunker down to research and write. The photos I share for each recipe here on the blog will be taken by me as I test each recipe, like the Boeuf Bourguignon photo you see above.

So what’s going to change for you? Not much, you’ll still get a new recipe every Tuesday. And you’ll also likely see that recipe again next year in my book, but with a new photo and some minor tweaks. Some of the ingredients might be a bit different from what you’ve come to expect on this blog; for example, if I’m sharing a traditional dish that calls for beans or corn, I will include those ingredients (albeit in the most thoughtful, healthful, and historically-appropriate way possible). Every recipe will continue to be gluten-free, and largely Paleo-friendly with appropriate substitutions provided.

And don’t worry, I’m not giving away the whole book using this method. Some back-of-the-envelope math shows me that by posting one new recipe from my upcoming book every week for a year, I’ll be sharing less than 20% of the book’s recipes – so you’ll still be 80% surprised with the new cookbook!

As we get closer to publication date I’ll definitely be sharing more info about the book, and will solicit for formal recipe testers, as I did for Paleo Takeout, sometime near the end of this year.

I appreciate your support, and understanding – I’m pretty excited to share this new food with you. We’ll start this new approach next week, with Boeuf Bourguignon. See you then!