It might be an obvious thing to say, but when your book comes out, you hope that people will like it. I’m sure that even the most established authors have their dark moments of the soul. Will the critics pan me, will everyone decide that I don’t know what I am talking about?
So, when New Vegetarian started getting feedback, I admit that I took a deep breath before opening the e-mails.
You never know what people will respond to. Would the Sformato connect, or will people all flock to the Tagine? Will the desserts be the big hit?
So, I thought I would share this one. It seems that when the recipe for Mac and Cheese with Hidden Veggies, one of the recipes from New Vegetarian, was published in the Duluth paper, a hard working day care provider decided to try it out on one of the toughest crowds. Kids. Kids who hate veggies.
I give you the letter:
Ms. Doeden,
I am the owner of an in-home daycare in North Fargo and I wanted to write
you about your recent recipe for mac and cheese that included sneaky
vegetables. I made this for my daycare children today for our lunch and
they absolutely LOVED it! I hadn’t really planned on telling them the
secret in the noodles but they were eating it up so fast I felt I had to
share. Sometimes when I tell the secrets of the hidden good-for-us foods
they immediately stopped eating. Today, however, we had just finished
watching the latest Super Why! episode where Hansel and Gretel learn that
candy is a sometimes food and eating healthy foods keeps us feeling strong
so they just kept on eating. Today’s attendance included 7 children (plus
one infant). Included in that 7 are an 18 month old, a 3 year old, 2 four
year olds, one five year old and one little boy who will soon be 3 and hates
his veggies. He’s only been here for a couple weeks and came to us
absolutely refusing to eat any veggies. He has slowly started tasting but
today he ate three helpings of the sneaky mac and cheese.
I guess I mostly just wanted to say thank you for sharing this recipe with
the readers of the Forum.
Michelle Roeszler
Little Explorers Family Daycare
Fargo, ND
You can imagine how warmed the cockles of my heart are at this moment. I helped fake out a vegetable hating kid, and gave him a dose of cauliflower and carrots against his will.
Bwah-ha-ha. Ex-cellent. My plan is working per-fectly.
That, folks, is what makes this a great job.
http://www.agweek.com/articles/?article_id=100012882&property_id=3
When first the article that my book was based upon and then the book itself came out, I found that the many, many kind remarks I received from individuals, both in person and by email, more than made up for the drivel that was written by reviewers with agendas and often the inability, it seemed, to read.
My favorite example was the columnist in the NY Times that misread one sentence and then wrote an entire paragraph about why the book sucked. There were also the reviewers who chose to write about the book they would have written rather than the one I had written.
The comments from the people “on the street” were always much more enjoyable and honest.
Since I am in the same venues as with the last book, I am seeing people who bought the whole grain book and hearing about how they still use it and love it. That is huge for me.
Today we sold 45 books, I need a nap!