Art and a Cookbook

“A Cookbook for Katie” by Daphne Simpkins is not your average cookbook. The recipes are laced with history (of ingredients and family dynamics), suggestions for ways of doing things (creating cornbread with crust, making meringue, separating eggs—it’s a sin to throw yolks away, they are given to the dogs, one yolk per dog, including the neighbor’s dog, Mr. Mooney) and woven in between delightful stories.

Several months ago Daphne asked if she could reference my work in the book. The reference is in the last essay “The Bride’s Room.”

“Standing in front of a series of carefully crafted drawings, I experience Melissa Tubbs’ exquisite work on the wall. They are architectural drawings of specific locations of this building. Deceptively austere, they draw you into not the place they represent but into a timelessness, a serenity so peaceful that I can hear the whisper from heaven, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ In those pictures I enter that stillness and know a deeper way of breathing, of being, but once I turn away I find myself wondering about the artist who capture those still moments. I deduce that the artist has a pure heart, and I wonder what that feels like and if she sees God. The Bible says that pure-hearted people do.”

On one hand it’s amazing for me that I could be seen as pure-hearted, on the other hand, that is what creating art is all about--making a profound connection deep within a person for the better. My hope is always that it would be true.

This is a delightfully good read. As Daphne says, “…eating and recipes always come with stories. That’s one of the reasons they taste so good.”

Get your copy at bookstores and on Amazon. As a matter of fact, beginning on Valentine’s Day you can get a free Kindle version of the book on Amazon.