A recipe for success
When I was in Toronto last week, I had the enjoyable experience of meeting an enthusiastic bundle of energy, Greta Podleski. She and her sister, Janet, are making their dream come true with their cookbook Looneyspoons.
Some of you will have heard, seen, or met Greta and/or Janet as they have been interviewed by Peter Gzowski on Morningside, and appeared on CBC’s Venture, Dini Petty, Canada AM, Eye on Saskatchewan, Camilla Scott, Real Life and also on the Home Shopping Channel.
Read Also
Proactive approach best bet with looming catastrophes
The Pan-Canadian Action Plan on African swine fever has been developed to avoid the worst case scenario — a total loss ofmarket access.
Greta’s hobby has been cooking since she was a youngster and pulled her chair up to the kitchen counter to cook with her mom. According to Greta, Janet on the other hand would call herself a “culinary disaster,” who can even burn a salad. However, Janet loves to write and has composed poetry from the age of six or seven. This book, Looneyspoons, is the ideal combination of both their talents and interests to fulfil their dream.
Since there is a new cookbook written every five hours, they didn’t want to write just another cookbook. They wanted this book to be completely different from any other cookbook ever written. How to do that was the challenge. They decided the missing element from most cookbooks is humor. They wanted to take the topic of healthy eating and make it fun.
Low fat is intimidating
Greta said people who are told by their doctors and health professionals that they need to lower their cholesterol, lower their blood pressure or lose some weight are often intimidated by low-fat cooking. People find this serious issue to be a real challenge. Greta and Janet wanted to cover the basics, creating a cookbook that is easy to digest with down home cooking for the typical Canadian.
The book includes the hearty, popular comfort foods that people are used to, using staples you can buy at the local grocery. Their goal is to keep people eating the same things that they are used to, only in a healthier fashion.
The sisters wanted to create a book that was fun, easy to work with and would make people laugh. They wanted to avoid the dieting mentality and use an 80-20 rule. (Make healthy low-fat, high-fibre choices at least 80 percent of the time, and don’t reprimand yourself for having the extras 20 percent of the time.)
They did lots of homework. The book was checked by doctors and dietitians, who endorsed the need for such a book, and commented that it was information-packed and a good tool to recommend to their patients. There are not only low-fat recipes, but health information, nutritional analysis and 300 cartoons.
Greta said one of the most satisfying moments was when they received a letter from a reader who said this book had changed her life. She bought the book when it first came out, and she’ll never be the same. After a lifelong struggle with weight and weight-related family diseases, this woman has changed to a more healthful way of eating. She feels better, has higher self-esteem and has lost weight, dropping four dress sizes.
In the beginning…
How did they get started? Imagine two sisters with infectious enthusiasm and energy living together in the same house. In May 1995, Greta moved in with Janet and her husband, and the two sisters started working on the book. They quit their jobs, working on nothing else for 14 months.
Janet was the desktop publisher, doing the research and writing, adding humor wherever possible to make the cookbook more palatable. Greta developed, cooked and tested the recipes in the test kitchen in the basement. Their main test subjects were Janet’s husband and a nearby cousin’s family (with four kids aged five to 13 years.)
They used their RRSPs, life savings and credit cards to buy the food, write the book and hire the cartoonist. At one point, they were absolutely desperate for money. Hydro bills and phone bills had to be paid. They decided to have a garage sale.
Greta spent all morning baking 200 low-fat muffins (with only two muffin tins) to draw in the passersby for the garage sale. They hauled out everything that could move – TV, golf clubs, furniture, Janet’s wedding dress, and even at the last minute drove the car up on the lawn and sold it for $5,000. They netted $9,000, and were able to pay off some bills.
Greta said they did everything that David Chilton, author of the all-time best-seller, The Wealthy Barber, tells you not to do. When they needed advice about how to get the book on the market, they decided to consult Chilton.
They called the number in his book and after speaking with them for a half hour he told them to come to Kitchener-Waterloo. Since they had sold the car, they hopped the train to meet with Chilton.
After 31Ú2 hours, three pieces of low-fat cheesecake, and a look at their 100-page business plan, David convinced the two women to self-publish their book.
He thought they had a winner, and so David, Janet, and Greta became equal partners in Granet Publishing. David’s mother told him it was the best cookbook she’d ever seen; her bridge club friends loved it. David dived headfirst into their business, spending more time on Looneyspoons business than his own book.
Sept. 16, 1996 was the official launch date for Looneyspoons. It was on the national best seller’s list in the first week, and has been for 35 straight weeks so far. They have sold 150,000 copies in eight months. Their book has gone to Greece, Hong Kong, Africa, and Australia.
Their goal, as stated on the wall in the office in Janet’s basement, is one million copies sold. In September 1997, the American edition will go on sale, and Janet and Greta will do a 22-city publicity tour in the U.S.
As Greta says, “Everyone likes to eat. Everyone likes to laugh. It’s a perfect combination.”
Here is the cheesecake recipe, with only four grams of fat per slice:
Say cheesecake
11Ú2 cups crushed 375 mL
low-fat graham wafers
1 tablespoon sugar 15 mL
1 egg white 1
1 cup low-fat 250 mL
(1%) cottage cheese
2 cups low-fat 500 mL
sour cream
1Ú2 cup sugar 125 mL
2 tablespoons 30 mL
all-purpose flour
1 egg 1
2 egg whites 2
2 teaspoons vanilla 10 mL
1 can (19 oz.) 540 mL
cherry or blueberry pie filling or fruit to top cake
Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).
Spray an eight-inch (20 cm) springform pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together graham crumbs and sugar. Add egg white. Stir until well blended. Press crumb mixture firmly over bottom and part way up sides of springform pan.
Bake just until edges feel firm and dry, about eight minutes. Be careful not to overbake. Set aside to cool. Reduce oven to 300 F (150 C).
In blender, process cottage cheese and sour cream until smooth (about one minute). Add sugar, flour, egg, egg whites and vanilla and process again until well blended.
Pour filling into pie crust and bake about one hour and 15 minutes, or until edges are dry to touch and centre jiggles only slightly when pan is shaken. Remove from oven and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate for at least five hours before serving. Run a knife along inside edge of pan and remove sides. Serve with pie filling or fresh fruit on top.
Makes eight large slices.
Per slice (with cherry pie filling): 281 calories, 3.6 g fat, 53.7 g carbohydrate, 11 g protein, 234 mg sodium, 31 mg cholesterol. Calories from fat: 11.1 percent.
Looneyspoons by Janet and Greta Podleski, published by Granet Publishing, Inc., Ottawa, is available at most bookstores or by calling
1-800-470-0738. There is a discount for quantity purchasing.
