World of Love: Book Launch

It’s an honor to be co-authoring a book with my mom, Margaret.

When my first recipe book, Food of Love was launched, it was the result of an incredible state of flow and joy. Almost immediately after its release, I went gluten-free, and had to learn all over again how to cook and bake.

Our new book arrived via a similar creative surge in less than a month, after about a year and half of experimenting. This book has double the quirky humor, more beautiful inspirations in nature, and a continuation of the theme of biomimetic wellness. Our recipes evidence adaptivity to changing conditions, resource efficiency, and evolution for a life-affirming planet.

A 141-page book with 47 original recipes that span our Fijian roots and Californian wings, World of Love brings to life the shared love, humor, harmony, and abundance we experience when we cook together. Each recipe includes a personal story about our lives, family, and the continuous process of experimentation we embrace as learners on this epicurean journey. We lovingly chose photos of our dishes, and threw in some captures of our wondrous moments of mindfulness in nature with furry and flight-filled friends.

Like any good sequel, there is a lot of entertainment and a continuation of the story from expanded perspectives. Through miniatures, we explore our ingredients from new angles, appreciating the sheer beauty and magic in our world of food.

We hope to instill in every reader the same love and abundance we feel when we surrender to nature’s bounty, discovering tried and true, as well as new and fun ways to channel nature’s wisdom to nourish ourselves. Deepening our connection to the source of our sustenance in so many ways – physical, social, energetic, cognitive – is a practice we cultivate with gratitude and awe. Join us in our World of Love.

Cheers,

Marilyn

 

Our second recipe book, World of Love, visualizes a culinary journey that is Fijian, Californian, plant-based, gluten-free, and filled with quirky humor.

Our second recipe book, World of Love, visualizes a culinary journey that is Fijian, Californian, plant-based, gluten-free, and filled with quirky humor.

 

 

When Marilyn asked me to share some recipes of our favorite foods, I was nervous. Like her, I do not write down quantities of ingredients I use for cooking. I’m the person who disliked cooking when I was young and only learned to cook because I had to as a wife and mother.

My training as a health professional influenced my cooking style very much. Whenever, my son, Nicholas, as a child, wanted something fried, I would say “No” and his comment used to be: “Why can’t you forget that you are a doctor!?” But, I couldn’t. My family’s health and well being were my concern, as I had already seen too many people suffer due to unmindful eating habits.

As I explain in detail in a previous post, my daughter Marilyn started cooking interesting and tasty plant-based, and then gluten-free meals and they seemed like heaven on a plate. This was very exciting for me and led to an evolution in how we cooked together, taking my healthy eating vision to new heights. Our process of experimenting, and my re-reading of Food of Love encouraged me to start writing down my recipes.

We derive a lot of pleasure from cooking for ourselves, our friends and family. So, it was wonderful when our family members and friends started complimenting us on the dishes we cooked together. We knew we had to share these recipes with a wider audience.

Food is very much a part of our social culture and the world is just a village – we can reach out to anyone anywhere in the world using technology. Hence, it is good to share recipes that are cross-cultural. Various herbs and spices are available in most parts of the world, thus our fusion and adapted traditional recipes with variations can easily be prepared in many settings.

Most of us plan and prepare a variety of dishes we want to consume or share with loved ones. So why not cook something fun, tasty as well as health-giving? We encourage you to be adventurous and cook the nutritious meals from this book with your own flair. Share with us your experiences – we want to hear from you!

Have fun,

Margaret

 

MC Double Trouble - Margaret and Marilyn relaxing at the beach, celebrating nature.

MC Double Trouble – Margaret and Marilyn relaxing at the beach, celebrating nature.

 

PS. Learn about our other books on our website.