It's all about the recipes.

For me, the best part about working on a cookbook is the recipe development and testing. Well, that's usually true. Sometimes the testing can be less than fun -- when I'm trying something for the 6th time and it's still not right. At that point I'm no longer enjoying myself.

The part I'm not as fond of is typing up the recipes. I procrastinate and can't do a long stretch without checking the eG forums and then Twitter and Facebook multiple times. When I wrote the last book I didn't have these distractions -- in fact, I spent a good chunk of time up at the lake doing nothing but typing.

Again, I think this probably has something to do with the self-publishing vs. using a publisher. No one's setting deadlines for me but me. So I'm trying to figure out how to lay down the law -- with myself.

I've been pretty good with the testing. Every day that I haven't been at work, I've been working on recipes. I've put all of my recipes into a spreadsheet so I can see what I have and what I still need. It's looking good and the end is in sight. I've made arrangements to take the rest of the week off from the family business. I'll spend the next few days working on recipes and there won't be much left on my recipe to-do list.

I'd like to take a couple of weeks cooking/baking the recipes that I wrote a few years ago. I haven't made some of them in 2+ years and I'd like to include weights -- something I didn't do then. Then it's on to typing.

I've tried to keep up with the typing. Typing as many recipes as possible between customers at the store. But I still have a stack of 20+ recipes that need to be typed, plus whatever I get done in the next couple of weeks. Then on to editing and writing the bits that go before and between the recipes.

There are so many things that I have to think about this time that I didn't give a thought to with the last book. I've started researching printers and shipping, layouts and photos -- but I can't devote a lot of time to these other areas until the recipes are done.

The good news is that I'm still on track and should be able to have the book done for Passover 2010, but there's a lot to do.