Cooking Without a Plan

Improvisation, optimism, and the sound of crickets

Have you ever worked really hard on a project—put time into it, thought it turned out pretty good—just to watch it fizzle out?

That’s where I am right now. It’s that hollow, what-now feeling you get when the confetti settles, and no one noticed the parade.

Let me back up.

I get these daily email blasts from Medium.com, an open online publishing platform where Rick and I have a few things available for people to read and, hopefully, enjoy. The emails list articles that Medium thinks I’ll like, each with a short description.

A few weeks ago, one of them featured a woman who said she started making money by writing short eBooks and selling them for $9.99 each. She used AI to ask her questions, answered them, then edited the results, added visuals, and uploaded to Gumroad. Easy, right?

That got me thinking about how I already have a system I never bothered to name.

A couple of years ago, I joked on Facebook that my cooking style is basically like being on a TV competition show. I’m handed three seemingly unrelated ingredients and told to create a meal.

“You have sea bass, artichoke hearts, and blue corn chips… Bake!”

That’s pretty much how I approach most of the meals I make—unless it’s a holiday or special occasion.

“What’s thawed out? What’s in the pantry? What do I feel like eating?”

AI told me there’s actually a big market for cookbooks about not sticking to a recipe—basically, the way I already cook. Busy moms don’t have time to pull out a cookbook and follow every step. They have maybe eight minutes of “free” time where no one is tugging on their clothes, yelling for help, or being suspiciously quiet. Being able to grab a few things, put them together, and have dinner ready in 30–45 minutes would be a small miracle.

That’s when it hit me: this isn’t just my habit—it’s a survival skill.

Okay, I thought. That’s the book I’ll write. That’s the book I live.

So I had AI ask me the questions, I answered, and I spent hours on the touch-ups. Formatting takes time. I bought a program to make visuals of my spreadsheets so they wouldn’t be, well, boring. I designed a cover image. Finally, it was ready—and I uploaded it to Gumroad.

When I hit “publish,” I sat back grinning. My first eBook for sale, out in the world at last!

And then, reality.

The one thing I hadn’t paid any attention to in my excitement came back to bite me: I need to advertise this somewhere.

Oops.

I may be the Queen of cooking without a plan, but I don’t have a single social media page about cooking—not Instagram, TikTok, Lemon8, nothing. So where do I tell people about this book?

Well, that’s a major hiccup.

So, I’m doing what any self-respecting creator without a plan would do: I’m improvising.

If the idea of the eBooklet sounds interesting—or if you know someone who’d love it—here’s the link:

👉 gumroad.com/l/ahwdn

It’s up on Gumroad for $7.99—less than takeout, and way more satisfying.

You have chicken breasts, canned sliced beets, and an apple.

Bake!