In January, 2007, I jotted down and idea in my red, go-everywhere notebook:

“something to meld comics & cooking. Either a cookbook done in sequential panels or a story that integrates food & cooking w/a story.
–Beyond Funyuns & Dew, What to Feed Your Raiding Party?”

I kept coming back to the idea over and over, revising what it would be. Everything from food based on the era and cultures of golden and silver-age comic book characters to a fictitious food memoir before finally coming back to the heart of the idea, and settling on the subtitle as the real title and letting that be my guide.

What to Feed Your Raiding party is targeted at 150 pages (give or take a few), will have 50-75 recipes divided into 5 sections: (in no particular order) appetizers and snacks, grilling, soups and stews, loafs and casseroles, sweets and beverages. Each section will start off with a comic story starring a core ensemble (a girl, a guy and his dog) who are sent off on a quest or adventure having to do with the chapter at hand.

Why gamers?
Well, I’ve always found RPGs fascinating but I’m not actually a gamer myself. I’m more gamer-adjacent (technical adviser to the book is my boyfriend, a long-time table-top gamer). I have, however, observed quite a few weekly games and I noticed that food was always present, but it was usually junk food, take-out or greasy snacks and soda. Yet, most of the gamers I know DO enjoy good food so I wondered if it was a matter of time (maybe cooking seems too complex but, really, rolling-up that perfect character isn’t?) or know-how: maybe what is needed is a player’s handbook, of sorts, for the kitchen!

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that game manuals and cookbooks have a lot in common, it’s just a different vocabulary. So WtFYRP? will feature basic nutritional data in gamer-friendly terms (calories are health, protein is strength, carbs are dexterity–things like that) and the ingredient lists will be presented in chart form with serving options for 4, 8 and 12 for as many of the recipes as possible. In addition to the recipes and the comics, there will be illustrations throughout the book demonstrating knife skills, cooking tips and tricks so that the kitchen becomes demystified and, maybe, we’ll start seeing more home cooking around the table.

Despite the inclusion of nutritional data, this isn’t meant to be a health-focused book. Granted, I’m a healthier-type cook myself, so recipes will lean that way, but we’re not talking tofu and wheat germ, here, we’re talking about making cooking fun–the health benefits are icing on the cupcake.