Cover Reveal for My New Book

Veg Forward is coming your way very soon! Pre-order it today!

Happy Wednesday!

First of all, thank you all for being here. I appreciate my Susanality community more than you can imagine, and good things are coming here in the year ahead. This is a perfect time for you to tell me in the comments what you’d like to see more of (video? ingredient deep dives like last week’s chile pepper round up?), what you’d like to see less of (for paid subscribers, would you prefer four meatier emails a month instead of the current six?), etc. I really want to know what you think!

As many of you already know, I’ve been toiling away for the better part of two years on a new book, Veg Forward: Super-Delicious Recipes that Put Produce at the Center of your Plate. I’m so excited (and a little bit nervous) to finally be able to share the cover with you (you all are the very first to see it!!), along with some important information.

The cover is an ECU (extreme closeup) of my heirloom tomato tart. You’re going to have to wait until the book comes out to see the whole thing! I had a feeling when I shot this photo that it was going to be the cover. I hope this is making you excited for summer and all that easy, breezy cooking!

Unless you’ve been through this process, there’s no way to explain how all-encompassing it is to write a cookbook. This is my fifth one, so I’d like to think I’m getting better at it, but it’s still very hard! 

This is my most personal book yet, and when I say that I don’t mean I’m revealing lots of personal details… no, this is a cookbook! What I mean is, that this book is the truest reflection of how I actually cook. I poured my heart and soul into it. It is a bit of a diary of the seasons. I worked on each recipe as the produce came into season, and I did all the photography myself (on my iPhone!) so it was a bit of a personal art project that I really hope you’ll enjoy. I wanted to capture all of the beauty and freshness in real time, and share my enthusiasm for veg-forward cooking with you.

These peas are the perfect example of why I wanted to shoot the book myself. I took this picture as soon as I got home from the farm stand so I could capture their beauty at their peak of freshness. It’s my love letter to vegetables.

The scoop on pre-ordering

This email kicks off the pre-order campaign for Veg Forward. I’m sure you’ve seen authors on social media (including me!) imploring you to pre-order their book. You might wonder why you should pre-order rather than just waiting. These pre-orders have gotten more and more important, especially as supply chain issues have become more common. It’s a great way to signal your support for the author and their book, so that the publisher has an idea of what’s coming (like how many books to print), and booksellers get an idea of how many books to purchase. All of that means more books are out there so more people can discover it. It’s the classic snowball effect!

Most importantly, it means you’ll have my book in your hands on the publication date, which is May 30th, 2023! Perfect timing to start getting inspired by all of the beautiful bounty that will be arriving in your farmer’s market or popping up in your garden this summer.

Have you ever seen more beautiful onions? They’re called Tropea onions, and are an heirloom variety from Sicily. One of the things I love about them is how you can cut them into neat little circles. Plus they’re mild and sweet.

I cut this tomato open for dinner one night, and immediately ran into my “studio,” aka the guest bedroom, to take a quick snap. I never found another one as pretty so I was glad I did!

This book is all about vegetable-focused cooking that is fun and exciting and not too complicated. To be honest, there are a few fruit recipes in the book too, because you didn’t think I could write a whole book and not include desserts, did you? That wouldn’t be very on-brand of me.

I would love it if you pre-order my book, and in return I will be giving you a gift for my gratitude. Still working on exactly what that is going to be. Maybe a cooking class on Zoom? Maybe a digital book with all of the great recipes and photos that didn’t quite fit? (That would be like getting a book and a quarter). Maybe both! Save your receipt and I will be back to you soon on that.

Click here to order.

Another onion to die for. These are just pink spring onions. Why do I get so excited by pink and purple produce?