Why Not Write a Cookbook?

One of the most popular sellers by any book retailer is the cookbook; any cookbook. Why? Surely we all own way more recipes than we can ever use. I’ve decided that if they’re still selling so well, don’t bother to ask why? Instead, make plans to enjoy the sales of your own cookbook contribution to the culinary world.

There will most likely be an audience for almost any type of cookbook you can think up. Appetizers? Yep, we all have a box load of those recipes, plus desserts, meats, vegetables, pasta, and on and on.

There might even be one using store bought dog food, for all I know – and no, I wasn’t referring to food for Bowzer, I was talking about people-food made from dog chow. Who knows? There already is a small cookbook available for making pet food for Bowzer and Fluffy, which I just happen to own, among dozens of others. And I don’t even like to cook. I’ve never cooked from most of the books I own. But give me a new cookbook, especially one that features lots of mouthwatering pictures, and I’m hooked for a day or so of browsing and dreaming (of eating the dishes after having someone else make the dishes for me).

Take a look at your collection of cookbooks and tell me you couldn’t write one yourself, or maybe that you’ve been thinking of producing one someday. One thing is for certain, we’ve all collected favorite recipes from friends and relatives from time to time, and some of us have even come up with our own versions of green bean casserole. If you love to cook, or hate to cook but have managed to survive anyway, why not write a book about it? Include your favorite recipes along with your own ideas about coping or making do when the cupboard is bare and you don’t want to drive to the supermarket.

Maybe you have some unique experiences, or a background that suggests an unusual perspective on cooking and serving. A “Back to the land” cookbook would be appropriate from someone raised in a commune or the environmentalist movement. “Cooking for a crowd” would be an easy topic for someone reared in a large family, or who cooked meals for and with an extended family. Everyone from the South who attended a rural church knows what “Dinner on the Grounds” means. They’re the get-togethers outdoors following church services where everyone brought a favorite dish that was shared among all the other attendees—in other words, a potluck. However, “Dinners on the Grounds” usually featured only the favorite recipes of families attending, while a potluck dinner suggests that something was hastily thrown together at the last minute.

I have one from a small town in Arizona that even includes a recipe for making corn liquor, or as we called it in the South, “mountain dew.” Not that I ever plan to try the recipe, but the book happens to include lots of recipes from grizzled miners and prospectors who share tips on basic survival cooking over an open fire.

Someday I plan to make a list of all my cookbooks, but the list still won’t include the dozens of recipes I’ve clipped from magazines and newspapers. I would just like to see how many duplications I have! And I have produced three cookbooks to date, one for a family reunion which was presold to the attendees and included old family stories; and one called “Pizza Through a Straw” for dental surgery patients who can’t chew. This idea came during my own seven months of surviving with my jaws wired and I can remember lying in a hospital bed on one of my many hospitalizations during that time and signing copies for other patients that the doctors had given them.

My last cookbook was a collection of my favorite recipes gathered from friends and family over the years. plus my own few creations. Included in the book were brief stories about where the recipes came from, and fond memories of sharing the dishes with friends. It wasn't written for the commercial market, so only about 50 were printed and distributed.