Coming Soon: The Cowgirl Chef Cookbook

I can’t believe I’m getting to write this post.

Let me just say it, OK? (I’m still getting used to this whole “author” thing.)

All right, here we go: My first cookbook will come out in the Spring of 2012, and it’ll be published by Running Press.

I’m so excited!

I’m also so terrified. Each day, I think, do I write, or do I cook? Or do I both? Do I cook first, and then write, or vice versa? Does what I wrote yesterday completely suck and should I redo, or should I just press on?

Press on, the smart girl voice in my head says. Go put your boots on and just do it.

Which boots? I say. Eagles? Comfy sandy suedes? Pink squarey toes?

This is how it goes, pretty much every day. Getting the right boots, the right coffee, and the right table at my Starbucks down the street (where I get free extra shots and line-cutting privileges, because I’m an addict a regular) must all come together – and luckily, most of the time, it does.

Sometimes I write in the kitchen, when I’m waiting for a tart crust to chill, or while I’m roasting any one of a number of veggies that I like cooked this way (most of them). Other times, I write at my desk in my office, under the watchful eye of Julia C. I also write on the metro rides to and from yoga early in the morning.

I’ve got a short deadline, and more than 100 recipes to test and write about over the next few months, so just know that if you don’t hear from me for a few days, I’m just in the kitchen, cooking. Or writing. Or hopefully, both.

And one more thing I’d like to say. Thank you. Thank you, each and every one of you, for reading my blog, for all of your comments, and for supporting what I’m doing.

I never dreamed that I’d move to Paris and start a catering/cooking class business, and then, start writing a blog, and a Cowgirl Chef column for Cowboys & Indians magazine and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, too. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be doing this, but as it turns out, this is exactly what I’m supposed to do.

I’m so grateful, and so happy about all of this, and I just wanted y’all to know. Now, I’ve got to go pick out today’s boots and get to work.