So here’s the last cooking secret I’ve been keeping! I was a recipe tester for “A Couple Cooks” cookbook from Sonja and Alex Overhiser! It’s a secret dream of mine to be a (paid) recipe tester. I’m detail-oriented, organized, and love following recipes and cooking so it seems like a good match. So when A Couple Cooks asked for recipe testers on Instagram, I signed up immediately. This was not a paid gig as they had several testers for each recipe, but I was happy to contribute, try some new recipes, and was excited to try something I’ve never done before. It was gratifying to contribute to someone else’s cookbook, even if just in a tiny way! I signed up to help with this project before signing up to be an America’s Test Kitchen recipe tester which you can learn about here. I looked back at my photos and emails, and I tested the first round of recipes back in October 2022! Two years are a long time to keep a secret! Especially about something I am excited about!!

For the first round of recipe testing, I made the salmon piccata (like chicken but with salmon), the French carrot salad, and the whipped ricotta crostini with hot honey. I decided to go for it and make it all in one meal since they kind of seemed to go together well. Each recipe was easy to follow, tasted great, and were not like any other recipes I’ve tried before! And it felt like such a special dinner to share!

For the second round, I made the Gouda cheddar ranch pull-apart bread. This is eyes-rolling-back good. I mean cheese! Bread! Ranch! All baked together and then you pull off pieces of tasty goodness! This would be amazing for a party or get-together.

And for the third round, I made the lentil soup with tarragon and herby rice. I have always wanted to try making lentil soup, as I do like lentils, but I just haven’t ever tried it. So here was my chance. It was a yummy soup with lots of veggies and great seasonings! And the herby rice was easy and simple. It was a great way to bump up a simple bowl of rice.

I’m excited to share this book with you all! Obviously it has recipes, 100 in fact, but there is a unique feature in this book. These recipes are all made and written to be cooked together. For each recipe, they use a square and circle to denote the steps that each cook completes to make the finished dish. I thought this was such a clever idea and a very clear way to delineate who is doing what.

I got my signed copy(!) at the cookbook launch party this week at our local bookstore, Golden Hour Books, and even got to meet Sonja and Alex in person! I told them I was one of their recipe testers (in a hurried and slightly awkward way since I was nervous!), and they thanked me for contributing to their cookbook. At the launch party, all the guests got to sign a copy of the cookbook that they would keep. So I found my name in the acknowledgements, underlined my name, and wrote a little note. And here is my name in my copy of the book!!! See!

This was such a unique opportunity and I hope to do it again sometime soon!

"A Couple Cooks" Cookbook Tester