Category Archives: Book

Author, Baking, Book, Cookies, Cooking, e-Book, Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, Product

Guest Contributors to MYODGC

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I’d like to tell you a little about my book…

What you see here is Eryn’s actual thumb!

More than that, I’d like to tell you about some great people who  supported my project along the way — they believed in me and made contributions to my book — and it goes like this….

Everyone needs good food, and people connect with others over food. This makes community and it is one of the foundations of civilization — seminal to our individual humanity.

For my first book, Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, I asked a number of my friends — each one a unique individual — to contribute recipes and chapter openings.  Each person responded with gems — each one a true gift — and through these writings and these folks the sense of community was brought out in my book. I’ve been getting Thank You copies delivered to these wonderful folks, and yesterday I found that this copy reached the hands of my friend Eryn in Montana. contributions

Among other entries in Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, Eryn shared how she flavours her coffee using essential oils — something I knew Absolutely Nothing About before she sent me her writing, which came as a complete surprise! Eryn’s contributions can be found in the fourth chapter of my book — which includes coffee, a throw-back to the 1960s with Russian Tea*, applesauce, and Blueberry Buckle. I’m glad to have gotten a copy of my book to Eryn to say Thank You for her contributions, and she seems to be happy with it too 😀
(*Russian Tea being one of her submissions as well!)

The guest writings in my book are a true gift that enhanced my book and brought out the community element — it would not be the same without these great folks! Not just Eryn but a long list of folks you can read about in the opening of my book — available now in paperback and as an e-book on Amazon.com. contributions

All the Best & Happy Holidays to you and yours
~ Don

Announcement, Book, e-Book, e-Publishing, e-Reader, Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, Progress, Update

Darn Good Cookies E-Book Publishing UPDATE

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Immediately on the heals of publishing “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” this past October I dove in to making an e-book version of this first publication.  With some tips from my friend and self-publishing coach, Tom Trimbath, along with ideas I gleaned from a few e-articles on the subject*, I made strong progress in a few week’s time.
(*this article in particular)

Bulldoggedly!

For the past couple of weeks I have been awaiting a review of my work on the e-book version — and last night I received it BACK! There were positive comments on my work along with some constructive questions — questions about things to correct and things to improve that I was unaware of.  I have worked over this list and my document doggedly since last night –I believe I have fixed everything, I have improved a number of things, and I even included a few recipe tweaks that I didn’t mention in my paper book. My understanding is that this work is or should be close to done. I would like to get one more check-over and my aim is to have the e-book published before the holidays at the end of the month — likely sooner!
(*PSST* — I also plan to make an audiobook version of Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

In the meantime I have kept myself busy working on one of the future books I have conceived — and I have to say, I have made some SMOKIN’ PROGRESS.  The funny thing to me (/cue laugh track) is that I didn’t intend on working on this book until I had a few other works published ….. but something about it grabbed my brain and wouldn’t let it go!

^^^ It can be kinda like this ^^^

I’m having a little too much fun working on this future book idea.  New recipes have been devised, experimented with, and are taking form.  Exciting elements to this book have been added in that I didn’t think of before.  There are a few select people I have shared the details of this project with and they’ve gotten on-board to help.  This book feels like it’s writing itself!

So when will it be ready…

Perhaps ….. Fall 2019?

Announcement, Book, Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, Update

CORRECTIONS to MYODGC

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OOPS!

It is said that there is no perfect book and that every book has an error in it somewhere.  Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies has been out for a month now and I have found a few mistakes — as follows.

If you find others, please let me know.

PEANUT BUTTER BISCOTTI

The recipe reads “4 cups – 480 ml All-Purpose Flour”.  There is a mistake in the conversion to metric and it should read “4 cups – 960 ml All-Purpose Flour”.

COOKIE SQUARES ERRORS

The conversion for 2 1/3 cups flour is frequently incorrect.  It often reads 650ml while it should be 560ml.

This can be found in the following  Cookie Square flavours – Almond Cranberry, Brunettie, Butterscotch Blondie Coffee, Cranberry Orange, Dirty Blondie, Lemon, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Strawberry Lemonade.

ASTERISKS TO NOWHERE

In “Chris & Arne’s Fabulous Cheeseburger Soup” and “Chris & Arne’s Fabulous Chicken Bacon Burger Soup” you will find asterisks (you know — these ***) next to “cheese” in the ingredients.  There is nothing below that these lead to.

Baking, Book, Cookies, Experiment, Real Food

Beat Your Black Friday Blues

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~ The Loved & Loathed BLACK FRIDAY ~
What Are You Doing?

this is linked with shameless self-promotionAre you hitting the Black Friday sales?  Hiding out, staying home, and avoiding the chaos?  Or are you busying yourself with something else today?

Aside from drinking coffee and enjoying some leftover Thanksgiving PIE, I’m at home working on a few future-book-projects. For the past week+, while the e-book file of my current recipe book is getting reviewed for me, I’ve kept myself busy making progress on a few future book projects. One of these calls for me to create some NEW COOKIE RECIPES — which couldn’t have me More Pleased! Black Friday

I enjoy the creative process of imagining new baked goods and bringing them to fruition — it puts me in my element.  Get an idea, figure out how maybe to make it, give it a go, possibly fail, try again, and then … finally … FIND IT!  For the book I am chiefly working towards, I want recipes with finished baked goods with serious visual and taste-bud POP.  Cookies that delight the eye, that the hand can’t resist picking up, and makes a mouth smile from a promise fulfilled.  If a cookie could have the electric ambiance of a rock concert, THAT would be THESE COOKIES!  Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies available on AmazonBlack Friday

As you know from my first book — Make Your Darn Good Cookies, published last month on Amazon — I gratefully accept recipe submissions.  If you have a cookie recipe you’d like to submit for possible publication in one of my future books — and in this case a recipe that to you looks and tastes like ROCK’n’ROLL — please run-don’t-walk to e-mail your submission to me.

Can cookies be Rock’n’Roll?
OH YEAH!  I think so…

Do you want to do some experimenting, too?  Download my FOUR FREE COOKIE RECIPES from my recent book, go get in your kitchen, and have some FUN!

Baking, Book, Cookies, Film

Godzilla Monster Cookies?

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As you know from when I produced cookies along with the recipes in my recently-published book “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” I made two types of Monster Cookies — Bigfoot and Chupacabra Monster Cookies.  They were a HIT!  Godzilla

My Bigfoot Monster Cookies feature peanut butter, oats, choc-chips, and m&… er, a candy-coated chocolate.  My Chupacabras are focused around peanut butter, oats, dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.  I slapped a signature name on these for some savvy marketing and things were good to go.  Bigfoot was a familiar local name while Chupacabra fit with the white chocolate chips for fangs and dried cranberries for red eyes that the creature is sometimes noted as having.  Godzilla

I would like to make a number of different Monster Cookies after different beasties — cryptozoological beasties like The Loch Ness Monster and the Jersey Devil, mythical beasties like Krampus, and then today when I had a BRAINSTORM ….. in this case, I’m thinking …. FILM!  Godzilla

So here’s my question ….. What flavours would you think of for a Godzilla themed Monster Cookie?  What kind of cookie base would it have, what highlight flavours (candies, spices, etc)?

Comment below!