Let's Talk: A Second Look at the First-Ever, All-Goat Book

OK, breathe deeply. Don't hyperventilate. It's just a wheel of goat cheese that's been put on a cedar plank and grilled until it's smearably fantastic. (And yes, I might hyperventilate. Again. I already did when Bruce first made it. Head back, gargling, in that Homer Simpson sort of way.)

Actually, this photo represents just one of over a hundred recipes in our new goat book. It's going to be out 4/1/2011. And it's already up on amazon here.

And that's just one of the shots in the book. Not mine. Please. I can barely point a camera in the right direction. Instead, that's one of over forty by the fantastic Marcus Nilsson. (More about him here.) And the shot was gorgeously styled by Angharad Bailey. (More about her here.)

And that cheese? It's Humboldt Fog, the creamy, luscious goat cheese from Cypress Grove, up in northern California. You can learn more about them here. If you've had Humboldt Fog, you know what I'm talking about. Now cedar-plank it. Heaven.

Frankly, I am so pleased that we get to spread the gospel of goat. There's never been a book like this one. It's everything goat.

• Meat--the world's most consumed meat (and sustainable like mad, too)--tons of curries, moles, simple pan sautés (goat chops with blackberries, anyone?), goat burgers, and tons more things to do with ground goat.
• Milk--more people drink goat milk worldwide than any other milk (and it's the easiest milk to digest)--with lots of recipes for the likes of goat milk corn pudding, goat flan, and frozen goat yogurt.
• Cheese--a complete introduction to goat cheese-making, the physics and chemistry of it, as well as a full guide to dozens of goat cheeses made across the globe, and then recipes like this one--as well as Briwat (deep-fried goat cheese pillows with honey and black pepper), goat cheese quesadillas, goat cheese cheesecake, and goat cheese brownies.

Not to mention all those stories. Like my first time tasting goat meat. For now, let's just say that it involved Farah Fawcett Majors. And Bruce's first time. Let's just say it involved the Jewish Forward.

I ask you, how can you turn a book like that down?

For starters, Bruce and I will be at the second annual goat festival at San Francisco's Ferry Terminal Market on 4/16/2011. Come see us! We'll be cooking up a storm at 11:00 a.m.

But long before that, I'm going to keep giving you sneak peeks at the book. Just as with our ham book (it's here), this one is written in my voice, swirling around Bruce's crazy-good recipes.

I believe the goat book's first line is also a first for cookbooks. "I lied while wearing make-up." Can you name another that starts that way?

Fort Celery

Last week, Bruce and I have passed a rather auspicious milestone. In just over ten years at this food-writing career, we have crafted, developed, and tested over 5000 recipes.

That's nuts. 

Such a moment could only occur because of eighteen books and counting (that's way more than one a year--almost two a year in fact), zillions of feature articles (just now doing three features in a row for COOKING LIGHT this very week), four national columns running at different times over the years (and The Every Day Gourmet still up and going strong on weightwatchers.com), and even a couple cookbooks for persnickety celebrity types who insist on confidentiality agreements.

If you do the math, you'll realize that ten years = 3650 days--so we're talking more than one published recipe created every day. Sheesh. And my fat hips' damnation.

Was every recipe a winner? By no means! Sure, there are lots of great ones. Wait until you see the grits and ham casserole up this week on the blog. But oh, do we have some great stories.

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