Get it On In The Kitchen‪!‬

Last year (1976) some 400 new cookbooks were published in America.

Do we really need another cookbook?

Do you?

We think you might.

This is a cookbook for people who like to entertain – the kind of folks who enjoy feeding their friends and who tend to end up talking and laughing in the kitchen. It’s a book for people who love good, hearty food and who don't like staring primly across the table at one another in some stuffy restaurant.

The book was originally a joint Christmas card idea: a collection of recipes to be shared among good friends. Somehow the idea got out of hand. Now, a year and a half later, Get It On In The Kitchen has run 480 times over budget. The authors, in conjunction with Dr. Charlene Martinsen, Home Economics Professor at the University of Washington, have spent 2500 hours collecting, testing, and clarifying these recipes.

Despite the time and effort that has gone into the completed work, we like to think the original concept – good food shared with good friends - is the essence of this cookbook.

And, because a lot of the early dishes were submitted by people we know, we thought we'd include over 100 recipes from people you might have heard of – people like Princess Grace, President Ford, Trisha Cox, Glen Campbell, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Ronald Reagan, Governor George Wallace, Senators Percy, Muskie and Jackson. Even Henry Kissinger’s staff is represented. So here it is - as the cover suggests - a bountiful banquet for gourmandizers who just happen to like to get it on in the kitchen.   

It’s now 2016. Do I still think there is a need for a new release of Get it on in the Kitchen? Without a doubt!

We sold Get it on in the Kitchen from the back of a VW bus forty years ago. We travelled from Seattle to California, stopping at books stores all along the way.  We offered the books individually and in boxes of ten.  Overwhelmingly, we were greeted with  warm welcomes and a purchase from the great people who sold books in towns large and small from the Great Pacific Northwest to California.  

It was a special time for us as we cooked our way through thousands of recipes. We fully expected to be interviewed on the Johnny Carson Show and to be famous as hosts of our own cooking program. 

Thousands of copies and forty years later, we still love to get it on in the kitchen. We may be a little slower now, but the enjoyment of sharing good food with good friends and family has never been better. - 

We hope you have fun with our anniversary edition of Get it on in the Kitchen. Keep in touch and visit us at getitoninthekitchen.com and join in on the fun and conversation with us at Facebook and Pinterest. 

John Henry Lysaker