Latest / Cookbook Love Podcast / Episode 386: From Diagnosis to Cookbook: Emily Maxon's Journey to Real Food, Every Day

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Episode 386: From Diagnosis to Cookbook: Emily Maxon's Journey to Real Food, Every Day · Cookbook Love Podcast

0:02
You are listening to the Cookbook Love podcast with Maggie
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Green, episode number 3 86.
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Welcome to the Cookbook Love Podcast.
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A podcast that celebrates cookbook readers, buyers,
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collectors, writers and clubs.
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And now your.
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Cookbook author, culinary Dietician, and Cookbook writing Coach Maggie Green.
0:31
Hi everybody.
0:32
Welcome back to another episode of the Cookbook Love podcast.
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How's everybody doing today?
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Hope you are all doing well.
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By the time this interview airs, we will have.
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Finished and are probably still sitting in the middle of, uh, the
0:48
effects of a major winter storm.
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Very cold weather predicted for next week, so I don't think
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it's gonna melt anytime soon.
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But I do hope that if you were affected by the storm, you are safe, warm,
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fed, and that everybody is doing okay.
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As a result of the winter storm, I have an interview today with Emily
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Maxon, who is the author of her newest book, real Food, every Day.
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Emily lives in Minnesota, and ironically, there was snow in the background
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in her yard as we were talking, so I know that people in Minnesota,
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the upper parts of Michigan are.
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Um, and many other states are always looking at snow, but here in Kentucky it's
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not that much of a, um, issue on and off.
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It melts and then comes back.
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But I think we're gonna get a whopper this weekend.
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So Emily is a trained chef and food lover and her life-changing Crohn's
1:45
diagnosis at the age of 28 introduced her to the specific carbohydrate diet.
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Emily used her years of experience as a chef and a caterer.
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Made it her mission to create recipes that met the diet's rigorous
2:00
guidelines to help people feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally.
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Today on the show, we talk all about Emily's journey to cookbook writing,
2:11
cookbook publishing, as well as her tips for aspiring cookbook authors.
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So without further delay, let's dive into this interview with Emily Maxon.
2:24
Hi, Emily.
2:24
Welcome to the Cookbook Love podcast.
2:27
Thank you so much for having me.
2:28
It's great to be here.
2:30
Yes, very excited to have you here today to talk all about your
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beautiful book, real Food, every Day.
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But before we dive into talking about the book, why don't you introduce
2:39
yourself, tell everybody a little bit about who you are and what you do.
2:44
Thank you.
2:44
Um, my name is Emily Maxon.
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I am from Minnesota.
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I have a husband and two adult children, and they're married and both live in the
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state of Florida with their husbands, which, um, with the weather we're
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having right now, I don't blame them.
3:00
Uh, so great place to visit this time of year, but.
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I am a recipe developer and cookbook author.
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Uh, I did go to culinary school a long, long time ago, and after taking some time
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off from working in food and restaurants, raised my children and then got back into
3:21
recipe developing and writing cookbooks.
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So I just came out with my second book in October.
3:27
Yeah.
3:27
Wonderful.
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And it's a beautiful book.
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Excited to talk about that today, but why don't we kind of start at the beginning
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and, uh, what led you to, uh, the culinary space and, you know, developing recipes
3:38
and wanting to share these with people.
3:42
Yeah, well, when I was in my late twenties, I was newly married and I
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was, had my own catering business.
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I was enjoying, um, doing that catering for people, small groups.
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And I, one morning had severe abdominal pain and it just.
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It was excruciating.
4:01
It was the kind that was debilitating.
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I could barely move.
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So I called my mother and she drove me to the emergency room and at
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the, at the hospital there, they thought, well, it seems like you
4:12
must be having, uh, uh, your appendix burst, it sounds like appendicitis.
4:17
And they did an ultrasound to take a peek at the appendix and they couldn't
4:20
find it, but they thought, this is what we're pretty sure what's going on.
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So.
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They whisked me in for surgery to do what they thought was
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gonna be a routine appendectomy, which takes about 45 minutes.
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And my husband had made it to the hospital at that point, and uh, he and
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my parents were waiting and had been two hours and they hadn't heard anything.
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So they went in, went up to the information desk and asked about
4:46
me and how things were going and.
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They called into the operating room and the nurse reported back that they
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had just finished removing part of my small intestine, and now they're
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working on my large intestine.
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And that was of course, a shock to my family, having been told
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I was having an appendectomy.
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So.
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Four hours later I came out of surgery and they told me that when
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they went in to remove the appendix, they found disease in my intestines
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and that they had sent tissue to pathology and they were pretty sure
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it would come back as Crohn's disease.
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And that is exactly what happened.
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They, the diagnosis was, I had Crohn's disease.
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I spent two weeks in the hospital recovering from that surgery.
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And then followed up with a gastroenterologist after I got out
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of the hospital and learned about Crohn's disease and started on
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medication to manage the disease.
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I was told at the time that I would.
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Should plan to have multiple surgeries throughout my lifetime that it was
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a disease that affected everything from your mouth to the other
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end of, of that system and that.
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I could possibly have a difficult time having children because the, the type of
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surgery I had and the different things that those, that disease can cause.
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So it was so disheartening and um, just really hard to hear as a young adult just
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starting out on a married life that I was gonna be navigating this awful disease.
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And so I spent the next 10 years, uh.
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Treating it through conventional medications would take visits to the
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hospital, be when I would have flares and be in a terrible amount of pain.
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Uh, fortunately, um, a huge blessing.
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I was able to have children.
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As I said, I have two adult daughters, so that was a wonderful
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thing and I was pretty good during the pregnancies, but throughout.
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The next 10 years I kept, I'd take a medication for a while and it would
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work and manage the disease, and then it would stop and I would get
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sick again and have these flares, and then I would have to start a new
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medication to manage the disease.
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And I continued that, what I call the pharmaceutical ladder, climbing
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from one medication to the next to the next, managing the disease and
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trips in and out of the hospital.
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And then.
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I had a, a naturopath I was seeing told me about.
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Uh, diet called the specific carbohydrate diet that she had
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found was having, uh, people were having great results with that.
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People who had things like Crohn's disease or colitis, different digestive
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diseases, diverticulitis or just irritable bowel syndrome, that it
7:50
was really helping people with that.
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So I read the book and it was, it was a book called Breaking the Vicious
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Cycle by Elaine Gotchu, talks about the specific carbohydrate diet.
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So I read.
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The book, and it was very interesting.
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It made a lot of sense, but it was very restrictive.
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There were so many things you cannot eat if you were to follow this.
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And I was, at the time, my disease was being managed fairly well, so I
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kind of filed it away and thought, oh, that's good information to know.
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Uh.
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But then after a while I started to get sick again and thought, you
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know, I'm kind of tired of these medications and the potential long-term
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side effects of different cancers and things that go along with the
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different medications I was taking.
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So after much prayer and talking over with my husband, I decided to follow
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this specific carbohydrate diet.
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And the theory behind the diet is.
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You eliminate multi chain carbohydrates because they're hard for your system
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to absorb if it's diseased or your intestines are not working properly,
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and so you have just these simple chain foods, which is, well, I guess to say.
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You, you cannot have any starches, sugars, grains, anything processed, anything.
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Um, store-bought.
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Just really just basically meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, some legumes, uh,
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sweeteners were honey and fresh fruit.
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Those were about all the things that you could have on this
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diet, so very restrictive.
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Um, and if you follow it, they recommend one to two years your intestines can heal
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and then you can tolerate food again.
9:43
Yeah.
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Because those long, those chains I guess, require certain digestive enzymes or
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things that have, that our body needs to produce to like break the chains up,
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break emmen half, or, you know, divide them so that they're easier to digest.
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And I suppose the theory then the e the more simple.
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The food that's introduced into your digestive tract, the easier
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it is for your body to digest it.
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Um, but carbohydrates sound like they were the thing that were specifically like
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what some of the most troubling food for someone who had this particular disease.
10:17
Yeah, exactly.
10:18
So it was, I had to limit, other than fruit and vegetables, I couldn't have
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any starches, potatoes, rice, milk, milk.
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Dairy products.
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I couldn't have, I could have some, um, lactose, low lactose things
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that were naturally low lactose.
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The cornerstone of the diet was a homemade yogurt that you ferment for 24
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hours, uh, 'cause it eats good bacteria.
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Eats all the lactose Yeah.
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But very minimal dairy.
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Yeah.
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So you were open to trying this, uh, and what were the results?
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Yeah, so I ended up doing it and I followed it for 18 months.
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Strictly and I was able to heal my gut, and that was 17 years ago.
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I started the diet and after the 18 months, I introduced foods that I couldn't
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have while I was in that restrictive period back into my diet and was
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able to tolerate them and I have not.
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I have been on medication for 17, going on 18 years now since
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I did that to reset my gut.
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Wow, that's amazing.
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Amazing.
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So I'm sure, you know, when something like this happens to us, it's true of
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anything that we like, feel, like, has really like been a life changing thing.
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We wanna tell people about it.
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We're like, you have gotta try this.
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If you haven't tried this yet, you have to give it a try.
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It could be shampoo, it could be a conditioner, it could be, um, I have
11:40
some kind of nail polish or, uh, like a top, the top coat that like dried.
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Dried it like immediately I'm like, oh my, you gotta try this.
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So I'm sure you felt that way about this if you met people or new people
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that were facing the same thing.
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Um, it's incredible that food was able to do that.
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Um, you told me before we started recording, then you kind of started
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sharing some of your recipes online.
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So let's talk about that evolution and um, how were you sharing them, them and
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connecting with people that you were, um.
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Talking to through the online space?
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Yes.
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I started a blog and I just started sharing recipes and telling a little
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bit about what I was doing and the different recipes that I was making,
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and I was surprised and a little bit on, um, Instagram or Facebook,
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and I was getting, you know, a lot, hearing from a lot of people that
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were struggling with similar things.
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Was some information out there on the internet about, through other blogs
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about people having success with this and not a lot of recipes out there.
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So I started sharing that and was hearing from people who had, uh, digestive issues
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that this diet was helping them as well.
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So after doing that for a while, I decided, you know, I think I would
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like to write a, a cookbook and include some of these recipes and.
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So I started to to work on doing that.
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That's kind of how it went from my experience to sharing it with other
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people, seeing that it resonated.
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And it's one of those things where once you find, I had
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never heard of Crohn's disease.
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I had never heard of the specific carbohydrate diet.
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But once I did, then I started to hear about all these other people
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that had something like that.
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Yeah.
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And, um, when, at the time, what was your way of, uh, were you blogging
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like on a WordPress platform or, yes.
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Using, I don't know, social media or Pinterest or some way to, uh,
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drive traffic to your, uh, blog?
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Yeah, I just used WordPress and I honestly, at the time,
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I wasn't really looking at.
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I don't know, driving traffic.
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Yeah.
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It was just, it's honestly kind of just an organic thing and then talk And
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people just found it through searching.
13:58
Yeah.
13:58
Yes.
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Yeah, and, and then just talking to people in my community.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
14:04
Yeah.
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So, um, and the first, this is the cookbook that we're here to talk about
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today is actually your second book, right?
14:10
That's correct, yes.
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So tell us about the first book.
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So, the first book is called Emily's Fresh Kitchen Cook Your Way to Better Health.
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And in that book, I shared my journey, what I shared a little bit with you
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about how I got the Crohn's disease and how I healed from it through the diet.
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And so I share.
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A bunch of recipes that I ate while I was on that diet.
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What helped heal me great.
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I took a lot of our family favorites and just, you know, rewrote them
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so that I could tolerate them.
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And that came out in April of 22.
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And yeah, so after I wrote that book and got it out, I was just motivated.
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I felt like there was so much more that I had learned in that
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experience that I wanted to share.
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So I immediately started working on the second book.
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The real food every day.
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And that was published in October of 25?
15:07
Yes.
15:08
Yeah.
15:08
Very good.
15:09
So, um, let's talk a little bit about cookbook writing and what did you find
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out or what was different about writing a cookbook versus sharing recipes on a blog?
15:20
Yeah, that, um.
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I don't know.
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The way I work may not be how a typical cookbook author works, so
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I just would cook, create a recipe.
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I kept a notebook in my kitchen and I would just start writing
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down what I was making and I would write my recipe and then I would.
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Test it probably two to four times and have my husband taste it multiple times.
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And then once I felt like it was where I wanted it, I would then,
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um, type it up on my computer.
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And then I had an editor that I worked with and I would shoot maybe.
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I'd wait till I had about four recipes, shoot 'em to her.
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She would edit them and send them back to me.
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And then I just filed them.
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And it wasn't, I didn't have any special like, oh, I'm gonna work on appetizers
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this month, or I'm gonna work on, I just did what I felt like eating or what I
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was cooking for myself or for my family.
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And that's how it evolved for me.
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And then once I got about.
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You know, I would schedule photo shoots with my photographer, um,
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to come over and take pictures as I was creating the recipes.
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So once I had about eight recipes, she would come over,
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we would shoot for a day or two.
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To get the shots and then just file those away.
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And the whole process took about three and a half years for each book.
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And once I had all that, then I started working on the extra content and I would
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have things edited as I went along.
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And then of course, once pulling it all together, another full,
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um, proofread and edit again.
16:59
Yeah.
17:00
So what about your journey to actually getting the book published?
17:04
Yes.
17:05
So getting the book published, I was looking for an agent and I had taken a
17:10
class on how to find an agent and was getting ready to write the query letters.
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And I used to belong to a woman's coworking space called
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Modern Well in Minneapolis.
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And that, uh, was founded by a writer and a writer's group was there.
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So there were a lot of other writers there.
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Not cookbook authors, but um, other authors.
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And two of the women there.
17:35
We're starting a publishing company, a hybrid publishing
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company called Publisher.
17:41
And so when I was getting everything together to send to agents, she the one
17:48
of the said, Hey, we are opening this and we would love to look at your book.
17:54
And so that's how it kind of.
17:57
Fell into my lap that way.
17:58
Of course, it was a hybrid publisher.
18:00
Totally different than having a publisher.
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I haven't gone the traditional route.
18:06
By getting an agent and having the agent shop publishers for me,
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um, I understand there's a lot of rejection and that that's hard.
18:14
It can take years.
18:16
I don't know how, how did you, how you did it, Maggie?
18:18
Yeah, so, um, I did not use an agent.
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I did use traditional publishers.
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Um, and I think you're right.
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I think.
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Many people are afraid of rejection.
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They're afraid of taking something that is so personal and near and
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dear to their heart and putting it out there and somebody saying no.
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The fact that there's a, like some people might call it a gatekeeper into the
18:41
publishing space, but one way I try to encourage people to think about agents.
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That they might be able to do for you if you're willing to face the fear of it.
18:51
Right.
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Um, I always say fear isn't really gonna hurt us.
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It's really, it's an emotional response to a no.
18:57
But that.
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If you have a topic that you really want to try to find a publisher that
19:05
might be able to extend the distribution beyond what you might be able to do or
19:10
what a hybrid publisher might be able to do, or if you really want someone
19:14
to help you negotiate a contract with.
19:16
A publisher.
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Um, agents are perfect for that, but I always say everybody's
19:21
publishing journey is different.
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Just like we're all different and, um, different people are willing and
19:27
able to do different things and hybrid publishing, I think, and based on
19:32
all the books that I've seen over the past, uh, five or six years through
19:36
doing this podcast, it's, it's.
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Beautiful books produced, uh, through hybrid publishing and publish.
19:42
Her specifically focuses on publishing women, correct?
19:46
Correct.
19:46
Yes.
19:47
Yeah.
19:47
Their focus is women.
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Yeah.
19:49
And I think they vet their books, which means that, you know, they're,
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they're wanting to have high quality authors, they wanna produce high
19:57
quality books, and, um, that helps to elevate everybody when that happens.
20:05
So I don't, I think that the three main ways that I hear are either
20:08
true self-publishing, traditional publishing with or without an agent.
20:13
Um, depending on if the publishing house takes solicited or unsolicited proposals.
20:18
And then the third way hybrid, um, talk to a lot of people that
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have done any number of those.
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And I think that at the end of the day, I think the author needs to be really happy
20:29
and pleased with what they decided to do.
20:32
Yeah, because that comes through in the way we talk about our books.
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I agree.
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And for me that that worked out really well.
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I main, one of the things I liked from my understanding from other authors
20:44
is I maintained creative control.
20:47
Yeah.
20:47
Worked with me.
20:49
Yeah.
20:49
And they were a very helpful, knew all the things that I wouldn't have
20:54
known in the self-publishing on my own.
20:58
You know, they helped get the ISBN number, all the things laid out.
21:01
Design.
21:02
Yeah.
21:02
The, the only thing is then, and then I own it.
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Like I get, you know, it's correct.
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I just paid them to help set it up.
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Correct.
21:11
And then it's all on me.
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But that also means my own marketing.
21:15
Yeah.
21:16
My own sales, my own distribution, all of that.
21:19
Yeah.
21:19
So it's a big difference there.
21:21
Yeah.
21:21
Yeah.
21:21
And I think that, um.
21:24
Any, with any publishing relationship that we have, self, traditional,
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hybrid, um, the marketing part of the book is something that the author.
21:34
Is very actively involved in, um, gone are the days when that's like something
21:40
we don't think we need to worry about.
21:42
It's, uh, it's part of, it's part of what we do and our book kind of
21:45
becomes like a little companion for us and everything that we do, you
21:49
know, the books are, uh, part of.
21:51
Part of that journey.
21:52
So the marketing part, I think no matter which way you go, you're gonna have to do,
21:56
but that directly ties into the community that you've built or the audience that you
22:00
built before you even wrote your books.
22:03
Yeah.
22:03
People that knew you because of your blog.
22:05
People that knew you in your community, maybe people that knew you
22:08
because of your catering business.
22:10
You know, we build up these relationships with people that we can really leverage.
22:14
To connect with new readers or to turn them into readers, and then that directly
22:20
connects to the, to the marketing.
22:22
So it's kind of like the marketing takes place before and after the
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book gets written, don't you think?
22:28
I, I agree.
22:29
Definitely.
22:30
Yeah.
22:30
Kind of need to build that beforehand.
22:32
Yeah.
22:32
And then it, hopefully it grows.
22:34
That's right.
22:35
That's right.
22:36
So, um, how is this book different than Real Food Every Day from your first book?
22:42
Yeah.
22:42
With Real, so.
22:44
I wanted to include some more information and once I had gotten my
22:49
gut balanced and was eating things, I was eating things that I couldn't
22:53
have during that strict diet period.
22:56
I was really wanting to maintain the health that I had had gotten back.
23:01
So I focused a lot, looked into a lot of what helps create a healthy
23:07
gut biome, what kind of foods are important, and fiber is just
23:12
key in maintaining a healthy gut.
23:15
And so I wanted to include more fiber.
23:18
Uh, recipes, more ways to improve fi, add fiber to your diet.
23:22
I also wanted to include information on how to read labels because I
23:27
couldn't have so many ingredients.
23:29
I became just a meticulous label reader, and I was shocked to find
23:34
out how many additives are in foods that you think are just tomatoes.
23:39
No, there's a, you know, a lot of tomato products have so many other
23:43
additional ingredients we don't know about, or lots of other things, or the
23:47
few cheeses I could have, like hard cheese if you got it already grated.
23:53
There's a lot of, uh, cellulose and things in there that I couldn't
23:56
have where grating a, a block of cheese would've been okay.
24:02
Was okay.
24:03
And so learning about these ingredients I wanted to share so people.
24:08
Could be made aware of what they are actually eating.
24:11
And so yeah, more high fiber, health, gut friendly recipes.
24:16
Yeah.
24:16
So when I hear about like a specific carbohydrate diet or having like, uh,
24:21
some sort of irritable bowel, all ulcers of colitis when I of fiber, uh, I'm sure
24:27
a lot of people think, well, that's not something that you could have right.
24:31
We probably need to make it a soft diet.
24:33
A lot of, you know, not a lot of residue or roughage in the diet.
24:38
Um.
24:38
Talk about the introduction of fiber.
24:40
Was it something that you initially couldn't have and then you had
24:43
to reintroduce it over time?
24:44
Or was it really a key part of your healing?
24:47
From the very beginning for me, I, in the very beginning, I had to be a
24:53
little careful with the extra roughage that comes with the cruciferous
24:57
vegetables and things like that, and I got into making smoothies.
25:02
I kind of, and when I first started blogging was that.
25:06
Pureing that spinach and things in with strawberries and almond
25:10
milk and bananas to be able to get those nutrients without it.
25:14
If my intestines were inflamed, yes, if you're, so, it can be hard to have
25:19
those high fiber things, but once my gut was balanced out, I, you know, or
25:24
once I started to get into it, I, I didn't have any issues with things.
25:29
And so I know it's different for everyone.
25:32
We're all different in just kind of navigating that, uh,
25:36
through trial and error a little bit, I guess in the beginning.
25:39
But for me then, once my gut was balanced, fiber is a great thing
25:45
and I wanted to just keep, make sure I was getting enough of it.
25:49
Yeah, and I think the thing about this book with the real food title every day,
25:53
it's really a book that anybody could use.
25:55
This isn't limited to just people who have, um, some sort of, um,
26:00
irritable bowel or ulcerative colitis.
26:02
It's something truly that any of us could cook out of.
26:06
Absolutely.
26:07
It's just simple, healthy recipes for anyone interested in just eating
26:11
a little healthier or just wants easy recipes to make every day.
26:16
Yeah.
26:16
So when you think about some of the recipes that are in the book
26:19
and maybe some things that we might typically eat that would be
26:22
more processed or prepared, um.
26:25
Which ones did you really feel like maybe you cracked the code on?
26:28
Being able to do it in your own kitchen.
26:30
Make it easy and make it approachable so that we don't
26:34
need to buy the processed food.
26:38
Part, you know, the component of it, we can just make it at home.
26:41
Would anything stand out in your mind as some of the recipes that
26:44
really, uh, you're like, okay, this is, we can do this at home?
26:48
Well, I think a lot of the baked goods, you know, oftentimes we buy
26:52
packaged cookies or muffins or things like that, those special treats that.
26:58
Can be simple to make in your own kitchen, and I made some ingredient
27:03
swaps that I learned because of things I couldn't have while following that
27:07
diet, but using almond flour and coconut flour and applesauce and
27:12
honey to make a delicious muffin that.
27:15
It's gonna be nutritious for you and tastes delicious, like
27:19
a baked good, um, that you would buy at a store or a coffee shop.
27:24
I also think the salad dressings and condiments, there's a lot
27:28
of junk in those in the store.
27:30
And just recipes to make your own mayonnaise, make your own vinegarette
27:36
and different sauces for, um.
27:40
To add to your food?
27:42
Yeah, I'm just envisioning the salad dressing aisle at
27:45
the supermarket where I shop.
27:46
I mean, there's just bottles and jars of prepared salad dressings
27:52
and some may not have a ton of additives, but a lot really do.
27:57
Uh, the other thing I think about, uh.
28:00
If I were to buy, like look at two soy milk side by side, or even two, think
28:04
about even something like cream cheese.
28:06
One might not have any additives in it and the other might have a lot.
28:11
So I think you touched on the label reading and um, I think once you
28:16
learned that though, didn't you, just like you knew categories of food that
28:20
were really probably a little bit more troubling, like the salad dressings.
28:23
Mm-hmm.
28:25
Yes, definitely.
28:26
And I learned that you can't trust the front of the label.
28:29
It's all marketing.
28:30
You just turn it around and get in the habit of reading
28:33
what those ingredients are.
28:34
And before you know it, you'll just have, you'll know what your favorite products
28:38
are that fit the criteria that you wanna have for what you're gonna eat, right?
28:42
So I think the initial research of it may be a little bit more time consuming,
28:46
but once you land the products, you know, you like 'em, you know they work, then
28:50
they're just kind of your go-to staples.
28:54
Yeah.
28:54
Yeah.
28:55
All right, so we got salad dressings, you said the baked goods.
28:58
What kinds of things did you use in the baked goods to replace
29:00
some of the, um, carbohydrates that you were trying to avoid?
29:05
You mentioned coconut flour and almond flour.
29:09
Um, tell us what else.
29:11
Yes, so I would make with coconut flour, almond flour, and then for
29:15
sweeteners, I would use honey and applesauce, or I use coconut sugar and
29:20
cookies and maple sugar or maple syrup.
29:23
So a lot of the sweeteners I would use either, uh, real butter
29:29
or I grass fed butter or, uh.
29:33
Palm shortening that was made from palm fruit.
29:37
You know, palm tree, palm fruit that is not hydrogenated.
29:42
Uh, things like that, which were different than your typical,
29:45
uh, vegetable oil shortenings, refined sugar and white flour.
29:50
Yeah.
29:51
Yeah.
29:51
And you also have a whole section on different kinds of, uh, there's
29:56
appetizers, cocktails, uh, the, the mi, the table of contents
30:00
really spans, um, in addition to, um, it spans the whole, the meal.
30:08
Um, it could be things that you eat outside of a meal, things
30:12
that to be included with a meal.
30:14
So you really try to, um, include a wide variety of things, which
30:18
I think is important because.
30:20
When you're faced with something like this, you wanna be able to eat
30:23
different foods at different times.
30:26
Yeah, I agree.
30:27
I think it was, it was important to me to cover all those categories
30:32
and, and with the drinks and the cocktails, you know, just how to
30:37
make 'em a little bit different with.
30:39
A fresh fruit juice or a honey simple syrup instead of refined
30:44
sugar or, um, things like that.
30:47
So, yeah, I mean, you wanna be able to set out an appetizer that everybody can
30:52
have if you're entertaining, because today, whether you have a digestive
30:56
disease or not, it's so different now when you invite people over for
31:00
dinner or you're cooking for family.
31:02
It.
31:03
It's very customary now to ask, do you have any dietary requirements?
31:06
Do you have any allergies?
31:08
And there always seems to be someone in the group who does.
31:11
And I wanted to include recipes that can be adapted for someone who's
31:16
dairy free or vegan or whatever.
31:18
So I tried to do that in all of the categories.
31:22
Yeah.
31:23
So in 2025 and now in 2026, what are you finding is working, uh, with your audience
31:30
and meeting people to, um, get out and talk about your book and promote it?
31:35
You know, I have been, I've been doing book signings.
31:39
I've gone on local television.
31:41
That is super helpful.
31:44
Uh, going to the local stores and.
31:47
Meeting with people and offering to do book signings.
31:50
'cause people love to meet the author and get a personalized signature.
31:55
So I've been doing a lot of those things and just posting
32:00
on social media different.
32:02
Now it's all videos, so reels and just.
32:06
Updates.
32:07
And then also through my email newsletter, you know, from my
32:11
website, people can subscribe.
32:13
So that's a great way to let people know about things.
32:16
Uh, let them know about book signings, give them a new recipe,
32:20
get people to subscribe there.
32:22
Yeah.
32:22
Are you still actively blogging?
32:25
I, you know, it's.
32:28
I probably post a recipe once or twice a month.
32:33
Yeah.
32:33
So yeah, I've been reading about the effect of, um, searching on AI or
32:39
chat GPT, the effect it's been having on food blogs and whether people are
32:44
really clicking through or they're just finding recipes, uh, through a search.
32:50
You know, right there, whatever.
32:52
The say, Che, GPT, whatever it spits out.
32:55
But the good news for cookbook authors then is that if people aren't really
32:59
going to the blogs, uh, they are looking for curated sources of recipes that
33:05
they can trust from people like you who, uh, cook these over and over,
33:09
develop them, create a book around a common theme, and then publish 'em.
33:14
And, um, I think that's good news for cookbook writers.
33:17
That's great news.
33:18
I didn't realize that.
33:19
That's good to know.
33:21
Yeah.
33:21
Yeah.
33:21
So, um, it's not so great for people who have food blogs that have
33:26
like a lot running a lot of ads.
33:28
Uh, 'cause not as many people are viewing them.
33:31
But, um, I think for cookbooks it's been good.
33:34
And it's funny you mentioned baking.
33:36
I think that was a very, um.
33:38
A lot of sales of baking books recently, um, in 2025 in
33:43
particular in the cookbook space.
33:45
And you know, I think that, um, it's part aspirational, but you're right.
33:49
Like if you go to a coffee shop or you go out to a bakery maybe in,
33:53
uh, your town, it's kind of neat to be able to think that you could re
33:56
create some of those things at home.
33:59
Yeah, definitely.
34:00
And for me that was something like in my first book, pumpkin Bread,
34:03
like I missed pumpkin bread and I was like, I have to figure out how to
34:06
make a nice slice of pumpkin bread.
34:09
The things that you would get at a coffee shop or something.
34:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:12
And of course we're in the perfect time of year for baking, uh, winter time.
34:16
Um.
34:17
Snowy weather, cold weather.
34:20
Um, it's, it's truly a great time of year to stay indoors and bake.
34:23
And there's something about January, of course, December, you know, people
34:25
might get into it for the holidays.
34:27
But, um, still a lot of really nice things that you're, um, able to bake.
34:31
I see a peanut butter cookie that is in your book that looked really
34:34
good, the spicy maple pecans.
34:37
Um, a lot of the sweet treats really do seem like they would be appealing.
34:41
And, um, add that fiber that you're talking about that
34:44
people need, uh, for, um.
34:47
Helping to heal as well.
34:50
So something about, um, when we're working on a book like this and we're
34:54
raising a family, talk a little bit about, um, people often think, well, you
35:00
know, did you have to cook two meals?
35:01
Were you, uh, cooking for yourself and for them?
35:04
Or was there a way that you were able to bring it all together?
35:08
Well, when my children were younger and I was doing the blogging
35:13
and working on recipes for that, followed that diet, they would eat
35:17
mostly what I, what I was cooking.
35:20
I would maybe add a thing or two.
35:23
Like if I couldn't have rice I, I mean, I would still make some rice
35:26
for them or something like that.
35:29
But when I was doing the cookbooks.
35:32
Writing for the cookbooks.
35:33
My girls were much older and they had a more diverse palette and they were happy.
35:38
They, they were pretty health focused and were happy to eat what I was making.
35:42
So for me, you know, it wasn't as big of an issue.
35:46
I only really needed to make one meal with a, maybe a few extra
35:50
things that I couldn't have.
35:52
Yeah, and I think that's pretty, one of the neat things about writing a cookbook,
35:56
um, is that you can a lot of times serve.
36:01
What you're developing, uh, to your family.
36:04
And they can be your first taste testers, let you know what they think, and then,
36:08
uh, you can work on and tweak things, you know, as they go along, sending them out
36:11
for other people's, um, testing opinions.
36:13
But, um, I always just used our dinner time and our family time is a time to
36:19
try new things and see what they thought.
36:22
Yeah, that definitely do that.
36:25
I've done that.
36:25
That's super helpful.
36:26
And then when I photograph what I worked with Baylin Fleming, the
36:30
same photographer I worked with for both of the books, she's phenomenal.
36:34
We would shoot the food and I had already had it three or four times, so
36:39
I would send all that food home with her and her young boys and her partner.
36:43
They would eat that and they.
36:45
Um, you know, I would get good feedback from them too.
36:48
Yeah.
36:49
Yeah.
36:49
Amazing.
36:50
Well, it's a beautiful book and, um, I congratulate you on your second one.
36:55
And I think that, um, it's kind of interesting when you get in
36:59
the mode of writing cookbooks, it kind of becomes part of your life.
37:02
It becomes part of who you are.
37:05
Um, tell us how cookbooks ha, other than the healing part of
37:09
it, how has this changed, uh, who you are and your life in general?
37:15
Oh, wow.
37:16
That's a great question.
37:17
Um, I, I think it's just, I'm just more aware of recipes and cooking in general
37:25
and just more in tune with what people are eating, what people are serving.
37:31
I, it, it just interests me all that much more and how different
37:36
processes of how people make things.
37:40
I would say it's just heightened my, my interest.
37:45
Yeah.
37:45
In food in general.
37:46
Yeah.
37:47
Yeah.
37:47
I think it does.
37:48
It kind of gives you a whole new set of eyes and, um, you know, I
37:51
might, I always use the example like if my, once I head to, um.
37:57
My mother had a friend whose husband was ill and my mom made chicken salad and I
38:02
delivered it over to this woman's house.
38:04
And when I took it in, you know, she was very appreciative, but she started
38:08
talking about chicken salad and.
38:11
How she made it and the kinds of things she liked to put in it.
38:13
And it's kind of funny, like you said, once you start to get into this like tune
38:18
in your ears to like, oh, this is gonna be interesting 'cause now she's gonna tell
38:22
me like what she might put in her chicken salad as opposed to what I might do.
38:26
And I think that it just, uh, really proves the point that a
38:29
lot of people are, uh, cooking.
38:32
A lot of people like to talk about food, interested in food.
38:35
I sometimes think maybe it's just us because we are cookbook people, but.
38:40
I I think that, uh, food is out there.
38:42
People have to eat.
38:43
People wanna feel good in their bodies, they wanna feel better.
38:47
And I know for you that was the motivation from the beginning, but, um,
38:51
food really is so healing in so many ways and, um, I think it's just amazing
38:57
that you were able to, uh, take care of your particular, uh, disease with
39:03
through what you eat and what you cook.
39:06
Thank you.
39:07
Yeah.
39:07
Yeah.
39:07
I'm very grateful it was, yeah.
39:10
I'm sure after being on 10 years of medication, it
39:12
probably felt like a miracle.
39:14
It did.
39:15
Definitely.
39:16
Yeah.
39:16
So, um, as we're wrapping up, a question I like to, uh, talk to all
39:20
my guests about is other cookbooks.
39:22
As you know, we're surrounded not just by food and cooking, but
39:25
other people writing cookbooks.
39:26
Is there been any cookbooks in your life that have been influential
39:30
or always like on your counter or ones that you love to turn to?
39:35
Oh, that's, it's a hard question to answer because I mean, I love cookbooks.
39:40
I collect them.
39:42
They're very inspiring to me.
39:44
I typically do not make a recipe out of a cookbook.
39:47
I just like to page through read ingredients.
39:51
Um, look, if there's any different type of method that I haven't
39:54
thought of or known about before.
39:56
And of course pictures.
39:57
I love the photography, seeing the food.
40:00
Um, so many books, so many cookbook authors.
40:03
I just love what they do.
40:05
Um, I, I think.
40:10
Ny his books, he does simple Jerusalem plenty.
40:14
He has so many books.
40:15
They are just beautifully done and he just is so creative with vegetables
40:21
and that's inspiring to me, uh, to, to.
40:24
See what he does from his perspective.
40:27
I think Ina Garten's, barefoot Contessa books are just classic.
40:32
She knows how to, she always has delicious food and it's simple.
40:37
She doesn't over complicate it.
40:39
It's very accessible to people.
40:41
So I think her books are great.
40:43
Um.
40:44
When I was struggling with the Crohn's disease, I remember getting, and,
40:50
and I had started cooking this way on the specific carbohydrate diet.
40:54
I remember seeing Danielle Walker's book Against All Grain.
40:57
My sister had it, and she has a similar story to mine, um, with a digestive issue.
41:04
She was sick and followed.
41:06
Uh, I, something similar to what I did, and that was inspiring to me
41:10
because I saw another author out there who could write a whole cookbook.
41:14
On doing that.
41:15
And that was the first time I thought, you know, I could write a
41:18
cookbook, I could take what I've been blogging about and put it in a book.
41:23
So that was inspiring to me as well.
41:25
So those are great.
41:26
There's so many.
41:27
Yeah, there are a lot.
41:28
Those are great ones.
41:29
And um, it is amazing how cookbooks, um, really can be
41:34
changing for people that use them.
41:36
Um.
41:37
For you being introduced to this.
41:39
And I think it's important for me to mention though, if anyone that's
41:42
listening that's suffering from any sort of irritable bowel or intestinal
41:47
upset, you know, always follow the advice of your healthcare provider.
41:52
Um, food is certainly, uh, therapy and medical nutrition therapy, you
41:57
know, that goes along with this.
41:59
Um, and that we are.
42:01
Sharing Emily's experience with it, but everybody has a different
42:05
journey that they're on and um, this might work for them.
42:09
It might not.
42:10
I think it all is very individualized.
42:12
Absolutely.
42:13
I couldn't agree more.
42:14
We're all different.
42:15
This is my story.
42:16
This is what worked for me.
42:18
Um, but it could be different for other people.
42:21
Yeah.
42:21
Yeah.
42:22
Very good.
42:23
Well, um, how can everybody connect with you online?
42:27
You can find me on my website, Emily's fresh kitchen.com or on
42:33
Instagram at Emily's Fresh Kitchen.
42:37
And yeah, those would be great places.
42:39
Great.
42:40
Very good.
42:40
Well, I can't thank you enough for, uh, coming on the show, telling us all about
42:45
your beautiful new book, real Food, every Day from Emily's Fresh Kitchen.
42:51
So, um, enjoy the rest of your.
42:53
Winter time in Minnesota and uh, great.
42:57
Good luck with everything related to your book.
42:59
Thank you so much, Maggie.
43:01
It was great chatting with you.
43:04
Thank you so much for joining us today for this episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast.
43:08
Again, all the links can be found in the show notes@www.cookbooklove.co.
43:13
And if you are interested in writing a cookbook of your own, please check out the
43:18
free cookbook writing masterclass called How to Get Paid to Write a Cookbook.
43:23
It is designed specifically for food or nutrition experts,
43:27
and you can check that out at www.cookbookwritersacademy.com/free.
43:35
So that's it for today's episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast.
43:38
This is your host.
43:39
It's Maggie Green, and until next time, have a great day
43:42
and keep loving your cookbooks.
43:49
Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love podcast.
43:51
You can find out more information@www.cookbooklove.co.