Surprise!

I’ve already kept this secret for longer than I thought possible, so I’m just going to blurt it out: we wrote a cookbook.

I’m not talking about our iPad® cooking app, but a hardcover, 8- by 10-inch, 288-page full-color book stuffed with over 100 recipes and more than 900(!) photos and cartoons. Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans will be published by Andrews McMeel and available on December 17—just in time for the holidays!

I guess it’s no secret that I’m obsessed with cookbooks. Growing up, I dreamed of writing one, though I always dismissed the notion as insanely presumptuous even after this blog’s readership began to take off.

Then, two years ago, I suddenly started receiving inquiries from book publishers. Their unsolicited offers were incredibly tempting, but after much hand-wringing, I turned each of them down. At the time, Henry and I were up to our eyeballs in app development—not to mention our day jobs and parenting duties. If we threw a cookbook on top of our mounting pile of responsibilities, we’d drown.

It wasn’t until after the Nom Nom Paleo app was released (and more than a few pep talks from Henry and some of our good friends) that I started to come around to the idea of penning a cookbook. If we were to pour our hearts and souls into this project, however, we had to do it right. Henry and I promised ourselves that we would throw everything we had into this book: there would be no compromise on content, design, or quality.

So last year, my co-conspirator and I quietly began working in earnest on the book. When we weren’t working, parenting, blogging, or sleeping, we were developing, shooting, and writing recipes.

Every chance I got, I experimented with flavor profiles and tested recipes; meanwhile, Henry worked doggedly on the book layout and design—usually after a long day at the office. He also started plotting and drawing the dozens of cartoon illustrations featured in the cookbook.

Luckily, our publisher, Andrews McMeel, has been ridiculously supportive of us. Ever since Kirsty Melville and Jean Lucas reached out to bring us onboard, they and their colleagues have bent over backwards to work with us to realize our vision for this book.

A handful of close friends and family members have also been cheering us on—chief among them Melissa Joulwan and Dave Humphreys, who selflessly coached us through the publishing process while busily preparing their own new cookbook: the highly-anticipated follow-up to Well Fed.

Until now, all of us have kept mum about the Nom Nom Paleo cookbook. Henry and I didn’t want to unveil the book before it was finished, and frankly, we hate having to promote ourselves. We’d much prefer to talk about other folks’ books than our own.

But it’s time to let the cat out of the bag, don’t you think? At this past weekend’s Book Expo America in New York City, our cookbook was included in the roster of upcoming Andrews McMeel books, and some eagle-eyed readers have already noticed that Nom Nom Paleo is available for online pre-orders. Besides, I’ve never been very good at keeping secrets from you.

Honestly: I’m thrilled to share this news with you. I love everything about this book, and I think you’ll really dig it, too.

This isn’t just another collection of recipes; rather, it’s a deeply personal look at how I nourish my family while juggling competing responsibilities. Henry and I worked hard to make every page pop with personality, humor, and culinary know-how. This book doesn’t resemble any other cookbook you’ve seen before—and not just because it contains butt jokes.

For the details—including a list of all the recipes and a sneak peek inside the cookbook—visit book.nomnompaleo.com. There, you’ll also find links to retailers where you can pre-order copies of the book. Yes, I know it seems silly to pre-order a book months in advance, but this is important: pre-orders give our publisher an idea as to how many books to print. So to help us make sure enough copies are printed and no stockings are left unfilled, be sure to pre-order a copy (or twelve).

One more incentive to pre-order: between now (June 1, 2013) and the end of this month (June 30, 2013), if you confirm your pre-order number using this form, I’ll send you a link on July 1 to download some preview pages from the book—including recipes that have never appeared before on this blog (like the highly-sought-after Uova in Purgatorio). Deal?

We won’t start marketing the book in earnest until just before the release date, so don’t worry: I won’t be turning this site into an infomercial. After today, we’ll be returning to our regularly scheduled programming, and I’ll shut up about the cookbook until autumn. Of course, if you have any questions at all about the book (or just want to say hi), please put them in the comments at the bottom of this post; I’ll do my best to respond here.