Find Your Writing Niche: Recipes and Cookbooks
Most newspapers have a Food section highlighting local produce, festivals and fairs with their food specialties, such as North Carolina’s Oyster Festival, the Blueberry Festival in Burgaw, N.C. and the Blue Crab Festival in Little River, S.C.
If cooking and clipping recipes are your thing, consider contacting a magazine or newspaper with your “special” recipe. “Taste of Home” is one of the many magazines that asks for reader contributions. Keep in mind that the recipes have to be “your own,” not copied from a cookbook or adjusted with a few minor changes.
Another outlet for getting your recipes in print is contributing to fundraiser cookbooks. I have a dozen “best recipes” cookbooks from schools, churches, civic and other organizations and have my recipes in a half dozen of them.
It’s not easy compiling a recipe:
- Ingredients must be accurate
- Amounts have to be included
- Step-by-step is crucial
These Web sites help:
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-write-a-recipe-58522
http://lifeyourway.net/how-to-write-your-own-recipe/
When it comes to compiling your own cookbook, you have to be quite expert. Check out Patricia Gambarelli. Studying her cookbooks helps see how recipes should be written. She wrote “Pasta for Men Only” and followed it with “The Four Seasons of Gourmet Entertaining.” Her Web site is http://patriciagambarelli.com.
More information is at:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/07/writing-your-ow/
http://www.gourmania.com/articles/writeckbk.htm
And keep in mind:
http://diannej.com/2010/adjusting-a-recipe-doesnt-make-it-yours/
thank you!@Lauren: Totally agree. I’ve given up on produce from you-know-where, not only beacsue of distance but also lack of flavor.@Paul: Many thanks! You have a gorgeous website which I’m very much looking forward to keeping up with.@Nicole: Thank you! I am the same with cauliflower. The funny thing is that I thought I didn’t like it until a couple years ago. Now I can’t get enough.@Jennie: Oh, thank you! Glad to hear it.And to all: My intent here is really to make it a conversation. There are so many great recipes out there, and so much to do with produce that I probably don’t know about! Looking forward to seeing this develop and unfold.
Love the article!
Thanks, Lillian.
I love writing.
Hope you’re doing well.
JAM