'What Katie Ate ~ Recipes and other bits and bobs' on sale!!
I am thrilled to announce that finally my very first book, 'What Katie Ate ~ Recipes and other bits and bobs' is officially on sale in Australia and New Zealand!
The book has turned out really so very beautiful, I am hugely proud of what I achieved from the recipe writing through styling and photography to the final book design and out-putting it for print. I can't believe it was almost two years ago that the amazing Julie Gibbs at Penguin's Lantern division in Sydney invited me to come into her office and asked: "Would you like to write, style and shoot your own cookbook? I think it would be utterly GORGEOUS!"...
All in all it's a compilation of 107 recipes ~ approx. 50% new, and 50% recipes which have already featured on What Katie Ate in the past two years ~ 'my faves' so-to-speak, however I have re-shot most of the old pics to accompany the existing recipes. The book covers a wide range of home cooked dishes and simple ideas to make for friends and family and all food I love to cook for others and to eat myself.
The gang at Penguin over the past year were incredible to work with and I want to thank them all so, so much ~ Julie, Emily, Virginia, Katrina, Alysha. Megan, Daniel, Evi O, Ariel.
Ironically the on-sale date today is also my late Mum and Dad's 51st wedding anniversary and I like to think we'd be having a double celebration together if they were still around to clink a glass of the bubbly stuff with me today along with my husband Mick who has held my hand the entire way of this book and blog journey. He's the one behind the scenes making it all run as smoothly as it can be and an amazing support; hand model; washer upper at 1am, driver and hand holder. Mick is the man. He's also chief recipe tester and a damn fine on at that too! ~ especially desserts ;)
All images taken from What Katie Ate ~ Recipes and other bits and bobs © Katie Quinn Davies 2012
A few weeks ago I shot a few of my favourite dishes from the book as I thought it would be a nice idea to post them on the blog to celebrate the book going on sale, have a 'little party in my original Aussie home town' and look forward to the upcoming launch.
I did so in a beautiful studio in Melbourne ~ the city where What Katie Ate originally started at the perseverance of a photography tutor of mine; Mark Boyle. Mark, today looking at the book in my hands, I want to say a huge Thank You for seeing the potential in my work at the start back in 2009 and encouraging me to give a blog a go and too for coming up with the wonderful name "What Katie Ate" (next time I'm in Melbourne Mark, the drinks are on me in Prahran!).
The Establishment studios are one of the most incredible set ups I have had the pleasure to work in over the past 3 years. When I spied them a fair few months back I knew immediately I simply had to shoot the What Katie Ate cookbook launch shoot here for the blog. Run by one of the most respected interior and prop stylists here in Oz, Glen Proebstel and his business partner Rachael Hart; The Establishment Studio is Melbourne's only combined props, set building and daylight studio with three different spaces available for hire, each with their own personality. It was a dream to shoot in and suited me down to the ground. I can't wait to head back and shoot a few more stories in such enchanting surroundings.
When I planned the shoot I thought it also might be a cool idea to organise a little video for you all to get an idea of the goings one behind the shoot, it was a great day, albeit a very long one, so was fab to just chill out at the end of it all, tuck into the food shot over the day and start to look forward to this day and the great things which lie ahead for the book and the blog.
It took me a while to find a track I was happy to use on the video and finally I came across a really cool Sydney-based band called deerRepublic who recently wrote a great track called 'Young Reverie', I adore it and it's so catchy, I have it stuck in my head constantly at the moment and seem to have been humming it over and over for the past 3 weeks. Check out their site here and also here on iTunes where you can get a copy of their tracks, they're a great bunch of seriously talented guys and I'd put my money on the fact they're going to be a major young Aussie band to watch in the coming months both here and overseas.
The book is on sale at all leading book sellers in Oz and NZ and in 2 weeks it will be on sale in the USA and Canada ~ so incredibly exciting.
Ok MORE exciting news!!!
Right so I have been literally bursting to get this one out... Seeing as one of the most popular areas on the blog over the past 2 years has been baking and the fact the AUS and US covers feature photos containing baked goods... guess who came on board to offer one reader an amazing gift?
None other than the kings of baking equipment; Kitchen Aid Australia! The maker of most probably my most useful piece of equipment in the kitchen. They are so kindly offering one very lucky Australian or New Zealand WKA reader a brand spanking new Kitchen Aid stand mixer!!! Wooop!!! and Wahoo! :)
Valued at RRP AUD$749. The lucky winner can choose a mixer in any choice of colour.
To win simply leave a comment below telling me:
What's the first thing you would cook or bake using the mixer if you won?
Stateside/Canada readers don't despair, in order to make up I am giving away 5 specially signed copies of the AUS version of the book or the US one it's totally up to you to decided which one you'd like.
To win one of the books simply leave a comment below telling me:
If you had your own cookbook, what would you want it to be all about?
On an end note I want to let everyone know that the new redesigned blog is almost ready to go live. I had planned to launch it today complete with it's new logo and overall new navigation, platform, features, look etc etc. but decided to wait a week or 10 days and upload this post on the current site. There is one area I am just waiting to get bang on and then it's all systems go. It is looking great, super easy to get around and looking very schmick! The wait will be worth it :)
Here is the link to all the recipes from this blog post.
Note: All the recipes on this post will be featured also in the new site. The new site has it's very own recipe section so all are very easy to navigate and print out. When the new site is launched these word scribd documents won't be a feature on WKA anymore. At present they are just a handy way for me to get printable recipes out to you all. The new format is miles easier and more organised to use. I can't wait to set it live.Until my next post, I hope you all enjoy the book and thanks for reading the blog, without you following my posts and being part of its success there would be no first book!
So cheers from me and many, many thanks :) x
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