A cookbook on a shelf looks so matter of fact. Here I am, here are my recipes. From the outside, it looks like everything was perfectly planned and executed. But the back story, that’s where it gets interesting: smeared and splattered kitchens, spreadsheets, late nights, nixed recipes, and lost sleep. What’s it like to produce a 100 recipe, full-color photographed cookbook? It’s a total LABOR OF LOVE. Oh yeah, and Alex and I brought home a newborn baby in the middle of all that (!). With a few days until our new Pretty Simple Cooking cookbook launches (February 6!), we’ve been reflecting on a few things we learned from writing a cookbook, having a baby, and surviving to tell the story. **Order it now! Pretty Simple Cooking . 1. It takes a LONG time. Cookbooks published the traditional route—with a publisher, not self-published—take a long time. Years. This is something that Alex and I didn’t fully appreciate until we entered into the process. It’s been four long years from th