Multiple things are inspiring this post - so hang with me here.
This past Saturday, I traveled fifteen hours to my cousin Kevin's wedding.
It wasn't really fifteen hours - but again, that's what it felt like.
Hear me now people...this wedding was beautiful. If I were to do my wedding all over again, it would have been just like this wedding. Cassandra's dress was beyond beautiful, the weather was perfect, the red velvet cupcakes were delicious, there was southern barbecue (fried okra and all!), delicious Red Hook beer...
...there was cute babies....
...a wonderful Mother-In-Law cabin...
...a green house...
...and an amazing...I mean AMAZING barn.
Rustic. Feminine.
Old. Yet, modern.
I wanted to throw down a sleeping bag and just live in this barn. I'm not even kidding. They had to drag me out by my ponytail. I refused to leave.
Sure, it may be a tad drafty in the winter - there were cracks all around....however, I would be willing to submit to frostbite if it meant that I were able to live with this beautiful floor.
I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I also love the openness of a "barn" design in a home. Throw a few twin beds up in the loft, build you a nice kitchen on the main floor, and you're set to rock and roll, baby. It's so homey and full of life!
Okay - so these are the adjectives we have so far: pretty, feminine, natural, rustic, simple. Stick those in your back pocket...and let me explain point two.
Point two is this. My dear brother-in-law, J-Money, aka: Jeremiah, aka: Jermaine, and I got to talking about food last night. And you know me, I looooove to talk about food. He was reading from some internet site about how a "healthy" diet consisted of vegetable oils, low-fat and low-sugar processed foods, and avoiding fatty animal products (ie: red meat, cheese, butter, etc.).
Ahh! There are so many things wrong (in my humble opinion) with this advice! Where do I even begin?!
I started to explain to him the horrible, chemical process in which vegetable oil (corn, soybean, etc..) is made. I began to rant on the benefits of butter versus margarine, lard versus shortening, soaked flours and whole grains versus quick breads, honey and rapadura versus white sugar, first cold-pressed olive oil versus vegetable oil, healthy & rich high quality animal fats versus "low-fat" prepackaged garbage...
...and then I got to thinking.
I need to write a cookbook.
And not just a cookbook - a cookbook/life/gardening/natural home book.
I want to write a book that incorporates rustic barns, pretty chandeliers, tips on growing your own food, bulk foods information...and cows grazing in pastures. There must be bovines involved. There will be pretty silverware and local produce. There will be farmers markets and sources. There will be textures. Colors. Tastes. We need inspiration! We need beautiful pictures of our food, menu ideas, meal plans, dainty tablecloths, and an easy, application as to how to integrate slow, whole foods into our everyday lives. We need a go-to guide for day to day cooking: for recipes and for encouragement.
So here's what I need:
1. A publisher
2. $20,000
3. I think that's it.
If you have either #1 or #2, I would greatly appreciate you sending them to me. A publisher might be hesitant to crawl in a box and be shipped to the great Pacific Northwest, but they'll warm up to it in no time - I promise.
I'm seriously contemplating this people. I know it would take a ton of time and dedication. How the heck do you even begin something like this? How do you get published? I have no idea how I would do it, or how to even begin. But writing, and cooking, and barns, and cows, and whole foods, and pretty pictures, and high quality cookbooks...well...they're just what I love. And if I write a "life" book that could potentially inspire others to find enjoyment in such things...well, that would just ROCK.
What do YOU think?!
