CHS '00 Grad Releases Cookbook/Memoir

Cathy Erway started with an experiment born out of necessity, and it turned into her first book, "The Art of Eating In, How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove."

After college, the 2000 Columbia High School grad and Maplewood native moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to work as a freelance writer and editor. Finding herself without much surplus cash to eat out, Erway started a blog titled Not Eating Out in New York in 2006. She wrote cook-at-home recipes designed to save diners cash. "It was something you could have as an alternative to takeout every night," said Erway, 29. "Every recipe is my own, original creation."

Two years later, a literary agent from Gotham/Penguin books asked Erway to turn her blog into a manuscript. The book will be released on Thursday, Feb. 18.

"It was a challenge," Erway said. "I had to think about what direction to take." She ultimately settled on a combination memoir and cookbook format, listed her recipes chronologically and explained their inspiration.

Erway said that she supports organic food farming and shopping locally both for political and health reasons. That ethos fuels many of the recipes in her book. "It's something I believe in," she said.

She explained that she comes from a family of cooks and has been drawn to the way meals bring friends and family together since she was a child. This was part of the inspiration to start her blog—as was a desire to break out of the cycle that many New Yorkers fall into: coming home from work, feeling too exhausted to cook and shelling out for takeout that's often nowhere near as good or nutritious as a home-cooked meal. "You're empowering yourself if you do it yourself," she said.

Recipes on the blog include sweet potato gnocchi with arugula and hazelnuts, herbed feta and tahini dip, bulgur and freekeh pilaf with roasted butternut squash, Tuscan kale salad with honey mustard vinaigrette and pomegranate, and peanut butter and chocolate chip ice cream. She also includes tips on how to turn inexpensive and often maligned food items, such as ramen, into an exciting meal.

With each recipe Erway tallies up the cost of the ingredients and rates each recipe on both a health scale and an environmentally conscious scale.

So dedicated was Erway to her project that, starting in 2006, she went on a self-imposed "restaurant fast." For two years she did not eat out and instead focused on creating recipes. Though she's since ended the fast, Erway said she now eats out only rarely.

The reaction to her blog was mixed, she said. "A lot of people wrote to me saying they loved it," she said. "Other people thought it was sacrilegious, talking about not eating out in New York."

Erway said that she gears her recipes toward those who don't cook very often, and even those who consider themselves bad cooks. "They're all just fun recipes," she said.

Her tale sounds slightly similar to the story of Julie Powell, who cooked her way through Julia Child's cookbook, blogging about each recipe. That project eventually turned into a book, and later the movie "Julie & Julia."

Erway said she was well aware of Powell's project. "I thought it was really cute when I heard about it," she said. Still, she said her project isn't comparable. Rather than working her way through a cookbook, she dedicated her blog and book to innovating practical, new, healthy recipes.

Powell, in turn, wrote a blurb for Erway's book in which she praises her for being "passionate about sustainable living and eating."

Erway anticipates doing a book signing at Words in Maplewood, though no date has been set yet.

In the meantime, she continues to blog and is optimistic that her culinary curiosities will lead to more writing jobs. "I hope to keep writing about food," she said.