Today, my guest is Diana Stout, college professor, organizer, workshop leader, and the most recent recipient of Mid-Michigan RWA's Angel Award for outstanding service to writers and the chapter. She's also my friend.
Diana is here to share the background of her cookbook. Here's Diana Stout.
Behind the Scenes:
The Inspiration of Why I Wrote the Book
Back in
the late 70s, I discovered I was allergic to a number of foods that were
pervasive throughout the majority of processed foods. One such food was onions,
which gave me three-day migraines, and this was before Imitrex came on the
market. I had no choice but to cook from scratch and to make my own mixes, such
as chili and taco seasoning mixes.
I started
keeping my recipes in a notebook. Over time, I included recipes that I couldn’t
find in cookbooks: recipes from neighbors, from the back of boxes or in
magazines, recipes I changed, and those I created from scratch.
In 2006, needing
a meaningful but mindless easy task, I created a recipe template and spent the
summer typing them all up. My two daughters and I proofed the recipes, which I
then printed and put into notebooks for our use.
At the end
of 2015, I retired and early in 2016, I set up my production company, Sharpened
Pencils Productions, LLC.
I began finishing and publishing various writing projects. In 2017, after
publishing two more projects, I looked for my next project, wanting one that
was close to being done. The cookbook was it.
I discovered
that there were lots of tiny details that had been overlooked. For instance, in some places I used package and in others I used pkg. Uniformity was required, so I found
myself in one week going through the cookbook no less than 46 times. Each read
for just one specific purpose of correction. In one day alone, I had 14 drafts
in 16 hours! To say I wanted the thing done was an understatement.
Finally finished,
I uploaded it online for publication. Unfortunately, it would take another week
and seven uploads because a small piece of coding--and from a different place
every time--was getting stripped in the uploading process.
Definitely,
the book became a challenge, but now that it’s finished, I’m quite proud of the
result. My
newest favorite recipes are Butterbeer, Diana’s Easy Lobster/Crab Fish Bisque,
and Diana’s Pralines. When someone asks, Which
one is your favorite? my response is that I can’t choose. There are so many
favorites!
Blurb
The Super Simple Easy
Basic Cookbook
represents my all-time favorite recipes, and I’ve used them all at one time or
another. Additionally, I’ve included comments—a history if remembered. The
recipes are about simple foods, real foods, that can be assembled and cooked in
a relatively short time to accommodate my busy life and even my not-so-busy
life. The truth is, unlike so many other women I know, the kitchen is not my
favorite room in the house.
That
said, this cookbook is for everyone: those who do love to cook, those looking for something different, those who are
beginners, and those who, like me, love to eat but hate to cook. My suggestion
is to make it your book. Add
ingredients you like, remove those
you dislike. Experiment, substitute, and write in the margins. After all, that’s how this cookbook evolved.
Excerpt - a recipe
My
father and I loved the bread pudding made at Old Country Buffet, and after a
few different experimentations, this recipe came pretty close to the pudding
they served at the time.
Ingredients:
7-9
slices of bread, torn into pieces
3-4
eggs, beaten lightly
1/4
cup butter, melted
1/3
cup sugar
3
1/2 cups milk
1/2
cup raisins
1-2
tsp cinnamon, or to taste
Directions:
Mix
all ingredients in a casserole dish or 13x9” baking dish, gently.
Bake
at 400° F for 1 hour.
Best
when eaten warm but can be eaten cold.
Options:
Top
with a frosting drizzle. To make mix a little milk with some confectionery
sugar until a thick, but runny consistency. Drizzle onto of warm bread pudding
once it comes out of the oven.
For
variety: add 2 c. chopped cored cooking
apples (about 2 medium apples)
LINKS
Barnes
and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-super-simple-easy-basic-cookbook-diana-stout/1128495469
BIO
An
award-winning writer, Diana Stout has written in multiple genres, fiction long
& short, non-fiction, for adults & children, as a playwright,
columnist, blogger, author, and screenwriter. She's served as an academic
reviewer, contest judge for multiple writing organizations, and is a former
English professor. Today, she's returned to her creative writing roots and is
most proud of publishing her epic fantasy, Grendel’s
Mother. Current projects include writing a novella series, publishing
several scripts, plotting a historical drama, and reprinting some romances. She
invites you to learn more through her Sharpened Pencils Productions website,
which will lead you to her four blogs:
·
Behind the
Scenes with Diana Stout & Featured Guests -
interviews of those connected to the writing world
When she’s not writing, plotting,
researching, or watching movies, she enjoys jigsaw puzzles, lunches with
friends, filling her bird feeders, and listening to the sounds of nature as she
sits in her little secluded garden patio.
