I’ve been waiting for all technical difficulties to lie dormant, all connections to ignite and the stars to align. It’s come together and now I have to do my part. I have no other choice but to honor the commitment I made to myself. I must write a blog. I say that with equal parts terror and excitement. My promise was that once I finalized my second cookbook deal and the new RFD website was launched this would be the perfect time to chronicle the writing of my new cookbook. So without much adieu, here goes. I’m not quite dancing in the streets yet, but I did pop open the bubbly…. to celebrate a new journey.

Back in 2005, when I put my first book, The Real Food Daily Cookbook together, I always thought my second book would be The RFD Dessert Cookbook. Over the last few years, instead of organizing my pastry recipes in book form, I developed a full fledge pastry dept within my restaurant company. I built a state of the art bakery kitchen and expanded the original RFD location in Santa Monica, CA to include a bakery café. The cafe is a showcase for our baked goods and small works of sweet art as well as a groovy meeting place for like minded people who gather daily to eat and converse. My mission is to build the reputation of the RFD bakery for being the go-to place for vegan cakes and pastries. We’ve expanded our repertoire of special order cakes, such as birthday, anniversary and wedding cakes. Not only are our entire cake offerings vegan and organic, we’re now at work on a line of gluten free cakes, cookies and cupcakes—a subject near and dear to my heart. I’ve a lot to say on the topic, as I’ve been eating gluten free for eight months now. I’ll share more about this at a later date—um— I mean blog.

My new book with working title: Real Food Now, Modern Meatless Meals for Eco-Friendly Eating will be published by Andrews McMeel Publishers in the spring of 2011. Andrews McMeel is a boutique-publishing house based in Kansas City as well as London and Sydney. The story of the two men who started the company is a good one. Read about it at: http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/about.html
Kristy Melville who is the publisher at AM was also the publisher at Ten Speed Press. 10 Speed published The RFD Cookbook on October ‘05. Kristy took a keen interest in what I was doing back in the early 2000’s and offered me my first book deal. I didn’t get to work with her during the making of the book as she left 10 Speed to go to AM. When my agent was shopping this cookbook project, Kristy and I re-connected. It felt both ancient and familiar. Besides being offered a great deal, something just felt right, well, I admit, I felt the love and that always feels too good to pass up. I love the cookbooks AM has published – many of them regional and heartfelt such as John Besh’s My New Orleans. (see John’s book on AM site.) One of my favorites is Cake Wrecks. This sits on my coffee table and is the source of lots of laughter. Check out this book and blog: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
One last thing about this is the Kansas City connection. I grew up a tad further south in Memphis. There are many similarities to these two cities from the blues to barbeque. KC has a blend of both Southern and Midwestern roots which I can resonant with and I spent a fabulous weekend there once while driving from NYC to California. Now, really I didn’t choose AM because of Kansas, I chose them because I think they will have my back and help me produce a great book.

Real Food Now is a cookbook with about 100 plus quick and easy modern recipes.
There will be lots of factual and fun supportive text on how to create delicious and doable meatless home cooking that is environmentally conscious, deliciously fresh, and up-to-the-minute.

Stay tuned as I share my journey of creating recipes and living my life while writing my new cookbook.