I Wrote A Cookbook, Reflection

I, Peggy Curry, wrote and published a cookbook. Can you believe it?! I cry just thinking about it!

The book is called Damn Good Gluten Free and it hit the digital market place on November 17th Huzzah! Huzzah! Click here to get your own copy. It’s got 140 gluten free recipes; all of which feature additional customizations for dairy free, vegetarian, vegan/plant based, and/or paleo diets. Basically, it’s the ideal cookbook for any household catering to various autoimmune issues, dietary preferences and foodies. Psst… you don’t have to be gluten free to enjoy this book! I shared how to make every day food easily adaptable and delish!

Anyway, as proud as I am about the contents of this book, I wanted to take a minute to get real with you, and reflect on the process of its creation. If this experience taught me one thing, it’s to believe in the “impossible.” Dreams can come true if you keep believing, keep creating, and just GO FOR IT! Trust me, if I can do it, so can you.

To be able to say that I am a published author is an amazing feat for me. Ever since elementary school, all I heard from my teachers, friends, and peers was “you can’t write.”

“You can’t write.”

“You can’t write.”

“You can’t write.”

Over and over again. I was made to feel stupid and hopeless. I was scolded, shamed—even ousted. As a senior in college, a professor once used my paper as an example of poor writing skills. In front of hundreds of students, I was humiliated by the very person I trusted to help me. It was a heartbreaking moment.

Writing professionally felt like an impossibility.

My first foray into the work force was as a Special Education teacher. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the best profession I could have chosen to improve my writing skills. I initially chose that path because I love kids and learning and I soon discovered a knack for connecting with my students. Along the way I gained confidence in my abilities overall—including my writing ability!

Turns out, the best remedy for my writing,  like most things in life, is simply practice… along  with a healthy dose of patience and perseverance. Because of my experiences, I always try to relate to my students. When you can appreciate and know someone’s pain, shame, and embarrassment, you can better understand their perspective and needs. This, in turn, made me a better parent, friend, teacher and mentor.

Nowadays, writing has become a creative outlet for me, almost to the same level as cooking! Which brings us back to Damn Good Gluten Free, my most ambitious cooking AND writing project to date. I’m bursting with joy over how much I love this dang cookbook. It took years of working and re-working the recipes, many sleepless nights, and a team of amazingly committed young women helping me… but now I can finally say: she’s here! DGGF has arrived kicking a screaming.

Bottom Line, it’s f*cking hard to write and publish a cookbook. The learning curve has been HUGE (which I suppose has been good for my brain LOL). Looking back, I can honestly say, birthing my 4 children felt easier. Each of my girls took 9 months. This book took over 12 years!!! Holy guacamole. What is now Damn Good Gluten Free has seen so many edits, revisions, re-imaginings, re-structurings, basically re-everything.

And let’s talk about the 3 weeks, 8-10 hour days it took to create each recipe and photograph it. Normally it takes months to shoot a cookbook! Our amazing photographer did it with me and our small team of helpers in 15 days.  I planned and cooked, Laura shot and styled 10-13 recipes a day. The team cleaned up and I’d prep for the next day’s shoot that night. Then we’d repeat. Neighbors, friends and family were well fed over the course of those weeks! Exhausting as it was, the photos in the book blow me away! It was important for me to have a photo for every recipe.

What kept me going? Faith, persistence, and my inner knowing that this book’s potential will help a lot of people. It’s been a bumpy road filled with challenges around almost every curve, but, hey that’s life, right? And life is well worth it all indeed!

Now it’s finally here! Throughout this process I’ve learned so much about what it takes to self-publish a cookbook. Plus, at the end of the finish line is a beautiful book I get to share with you! That’s definitely a blessing.

Damn Good Gluten Free is my legacy, heart, and soul all wrapped up into one beautifully packaged book for you to use. Does it have all my recipes, heck no, I have to save some for round 2, Rituals and Celebrations! (I got lots of goodness still waiting to come out! :)) DGGF captures the essence of what I’ve learned throughout my 34 years while raising a family, from kitchen organization to nutrition. And, of course, it showcases the first 140 foundational recipes that helped turn my family’s health around and bring joy back into our world. These are the tried and tested household hits that makes everyone ask, “Wait, is this gluten free?” Yup!

Regardless of where you may be on your healing or cooking journey, I believe this book can be a helpful resource for you. After all, it has been my trusty companion for quite some time, and its teachings have served me, our family and the hundreds of my students and clients well.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR COPY.

Kindle now available on Amazon!

Meg and I are big to helping local business so if you have a favorite bookstore, ask them to order you your copy. Our local bookstores both in Manhattan Beach, {pages} a bookstore, and in Steamboat Springs, Off the Beaten Path bookstore, are able to order you your copies.

Again, we thank you for being a part of our CGK family community. We are filled with gratitude and love.

May you be blessed this holiday season with health, nourishment and love.

From our heart to yours,

Momma Pegs xo