I'm breakin' it down

Well hello again! I have spent most of my time this week thinking of the actual structure of this book. I started with, "Okay, okay, Elisabeth, calm the excitement down just a notch. Now HOW are we actually going to make this? Do I break it down in chapters of breakfast, lunch and dinner? Or by protein? How many servings per recipe? Should that be consistent? How about production? How many recipes do I need to write and produce a week? How many weeks to I even have to do this?!". Needless to say, I had a lot of questions to answer, and I've started with creating a breakdown of the format of the book itself, and how exactly will I need to execute this in the time frame we have to complete this thesis. So, here's were I've started:

Elisabeth’s Cookbook Breakdown:

1.     Cover

2.     Title Page

3.     About This Book

4.     Table of Contents

a.     Chapter 1: Poultry

                                               i.     15 recipes

b.     Chapter 2: Beef

                                               i.     15 recipes

c.      Chapter 3: Seafood

                                               i.     15 recipes

d.     Chapter 4: Pork

                                               i.     15 recipes

e.     Chapter 5: Vegetarian

                                               i.     15 recipes

f.      Chapter 6: Dessert

                                               i.     15 recipes

15 recipes x 6 chapters = 90 recipes total

As of today, February 5, 2013, I have a total of 11 weeks until this thesis needs to be presented.

Depending on the time needed to actually produce/print/bind this cookbook, I am hoping to work consistently for 9 weeks, leaving the last two weeks for production.

90 recipes / 9 weeks = 10 recipes per week.

What this means is that I will need to be writing, cooking, and photographing 10 recipes a week for the next nine weeks, while simultaneously creating my spreads and iconography for the book itself.

Why 90 recipes? Because I want this to actually be a BOOK, not a cheap floppy “10 Minute Dinners” brochure you pick up at the checkout line at Kroger, but an actual book with a hard cover.

I am also looking into publishing companies to get estimates on pricing for a book of this size. I’ve also been researching into using the website GoFundMe.com to see if I can get any donations/investors to help me actually publish this cookbook and potentially sell it after if I am satisfied with it enough. My thought process for this cookbook is to actually make a product that can stand alone and overshadow what is already out there. I want this book to be as fun to read and look at, as it is to eat the dishes that it has inside.

I have decided that I want this book to be really fun, spunky, and an experience. I don’t want the stuffiness of Martha Stewart. I want this book to actually represent who I am and my personality; outgoing, goofy, creative, and maybe a little dorky. But I’m totally cool with that, haha.

With my premise of this book being, again, “Feel Good Food”, whether that be feeling good mental, physical, or emotional, I want this and all the recipes inside to be approachable. I don’t want Easy, Hard, or EXPERT LEVEL recipes, I want all of these to be easily made despite the techniques, because again, I am going to be illustrating and photographing every step, as well as educating on the processes and techniques. I want to remove the phrase, "I can't cook" out of the English language.

Until next time fellow foodies,

EB