Win a signed copy of my new cookbook Cook from the Heart : Food for every mood

Alida Ryder Cook from the Heart

My second book has been out for a few weeks now and I am so overwhelmed by the response of the media, friends, family and readers. I am so incredibly happy because I love this book so much. The fact that others like it, really is like the cherry on top. I’m very proud of this book and feel like the photography and styling is the best I’ve ever done and the recipes are all ones I love. Through this post you’ll see a sneak peak of what you can find in the book.

 White chocolate Champagne cupcakes

Arancini

With that (and Christmas right around the corner), I thought it only right that I share the love with you guys. I’m giving away 6 copies of my new book and for the first time ever, 2 of those copies are up for the take by International readers. As most of my readership is based in Northern America and Canada, I think that’s just fair. Locally (South Africa), I will be giving away 2 English and 2 Afrikaans copies. All signed. All with one of the custom-made spoons we had made for the launch of the book. These spoons are so drop-dead gorgeous and everyone who sees them falls in love instantly.

Wooden spoons

 Spaghetti Fritters

Gorgonzola Gnocchi

As Cook from the Heart is a book all about emotion, all you need to do to enter is to comment with what emotion inspires you most to cook/eat and what you like to cook/eat when you are experiencing that emotion. Also please add your location to your comment and if you are local, whether you’d like the English or Afrikaans version of the book. This giveaway will be open until Friday 6 December 2013 and winners will be notified by e-mail (so please make sure the e-mail you use is correct). {Sharing this post on your social media channels will give you an extra entry.}

 Peanut butter Chocolate cake

I thought I’d also share some pics of my lovely media launch with you. I decided to give the table a big food influence and got some help from an amazing friend with a gorgeous vegetable garden. I’m so utterly in love with this rustic, casual yet chic style of table decor.

Vegetable table decor

Charcuterie Platter

Carrot centerpiece

Artichoke centerpiece

Artichoke flower

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92 Comments

  1. I love the challenge of coming up with something new. I love making food that is good and healthy. I’m excited when I pull something out of the oven or off the stove and know that it came out just right. I’m biting my nails as the family tastes the food I made then doing a happy dance when they like it.
    It’s love that inspires me the most, I think. Love and memories. Whenever a memory strikes, I feel inspired to make the dish from that memory. The family chicken ‘n’ dumplings, meatloaf, apple pie, cheesecake, or just a ‘throw everything in the pan and hope it comes out good’…
    But I cannot cook eggplant. It just doesn’t like me.
    My biggest challenge has been to come up with carb-free dishes since my husband is diabetic. You try cutting out potatoes, bread, pasta, rice, and cornmeal breading…

    I live in Greenville, TX. It’s a small town and it’s hard to get ingredients sometimes.

    I know that you aren’t doing the giveaway anymore, but I wanted to share anyway.

  2. What inspires me to cook is love! I love cooking for those I love and the appreciation I get back. 🙂 I really love making pastries and roasting savoury dishes! I enjoy eating them too! 😀
    I am from Kenya and would love the cookbook in English.

  3. I have the biggest sweet tooth known to mankind 🙂 so I love to cook when I have cravings. Nothing is more satisfying than making my own sweet treat, and munching all the goodness on the way to completion. I also love to cook after watching a cooking program, It’s inspiring and exciting and I just am so happy when cooking. Food, cooking, eating is my happy place and I can’t wait to try new recipes, using my work colleagues as guinea pigs for, no one objects 🙂 I am from Cape Town and would love to win an English version of your book.

  4. I wish I could say I’m more of a cook (although I yearn to be) but I definitely enjoy eating the most. the emotion that comes to mind when the enticing fragrance of great tasting food lands on my nose is ecstasy. my sense of smell is overwhelmed and my imagination goes wild, making my taste buds crave the only conclusion: the food into my mouth for a satisfactory bite! sometimes one bite is enough while other times I yearn for more. living in NYC I’m surrounded by the world’s different flavors making happy explosions in my mouth. 😀

  5. PMS: I think your Angry part of the book will be perfect for PMS following with Lazy food.

    Rich Chocolate with a bit of chili.

    (Australia: english)

  6. Cooking is an occasion for me and the desire strikes me when I feel inspired. I spend most of my time creatively cooking around the holidays when it feels more like joy and less like a chore.

    I’m in the USA!

  7. I dearly would LOVE LOVE LOVE to win a copy of your book. I just found you recently, as you know (through Brittany Gibbons) and I love to bake myself (and take pictures), so am IN LOVE with your baked goods and pictures. I think you’re awesome. (Also ADORE your wooden spoons!!).

  8. There are so many emotions. …happiness is when I am bonding with my daughter getting the kitchen messy, full of flour while we bake cupcakes. Love when I make a huge pot of breyani for my husband, family and friends because I know how much they enjoy it.

    Port Elizabeth

  9. Cooking made me feeling very sad for many years: I tried so hard to cook healthy meals for my husband and children and they did not want healthy meals, they hated my vegetables and wanted fast-food and things made in factories, not kitchens … Since a year or so, cooking makes me feel happy again, I bought a crockpot, new cookware (cast iron) so I can cook more healthy (no teflon) and my husband is starting to like my cooking 🙂 All five kids live on their own now, with their own families and I love to see how they want to cook healthy!! I would love to have an Afrikaans version of your book, I do have English cookbooks but because Dutch is my native language (I live in Enschede, the Netherlands) I love to try recipes in Afrikaans 🙂

  10. I am most inspired when I am happy and inlove. The thought of going home to my husband and taking time to be with each other and sharing something great to eat, which we have cooked together creates memories. We love cooking anything new and try to do so each day. Our favourite is pasta, comfort food for comforting emotions 🙂

    I am based in Durban, and would LOVE an English version of your cookbook to go next to your first cookbook!