Finally Giving It Away.......

[Lana]

When my younger sister (I am 17 1/2 yrs. older) was still in high school (mind you she turned 29 last month) I started her a cook book written out in just a lined journal. Well, I have added to it ALOT of the years and so much that I use it as my reference to our favorite recipes. Time to time she would ask about it and when we need a recipe we ask where is Mirandas book-- it is showing a few signs of usage and I told her I would do her another one but she wants this one. Anyway tonight she is having her oldest daughters 5th b'day party and I am FINALLY going to PART with the book and wrap it to surprise Miranda. I am postive she will be shocked. There are still some pages for her to write her favorites. She would look at it from time to time when here. I just finished making copies of the recipes I needed. I have started my DD and DS one. DOING much better. I write the same recipe in each of theirs when I work on them.

 

[jackfrosty]

That's a fantastic gift! My niece is an awesome baker and she's only 14! I'm going to give her a baking recipes book(hopefully with her nanny's recipes-in her hand)and add a baking basket with custom apron,cookie cutters etc. Hopefully with some funky stuff-she's a funky kid!
My sister is 16 years older than me and I'm always calling her for advice!(not just on cooking!) It must feel great to be giving her recipes to her now! Congrats! :applause:

 

[momof4]

Too funny that it took so long for you to give it to her! And that you were still adding to it all these years! What a great gift! I'm sure she will treasure it and your kids will treasure theirs.

My cousin and I have talked about doing one for our kids for a long time. She has now started on hers but I haven't - her mom passed away recently and I think that got her motivated because all of a sudden everyone was asking who's bringing the potato salad, who's bringing the buttercream torte, etc. It seems that certain people in the family are known for a specific recipe and it would be a shame if future generations lost that connection.

 

[christmascreations]

Too funny that it took so long for you to give it to her! And that you were still adding to it all these years! What a great gift! I'm sure she will treasure it and your kids will treasure theirs.

My cousin and I have talked about doing one for our kids for a long time. She has now started on hers but I haven't - her mom passed away recently and I think that got her motivated because all of a sudden everyone was asking who's bringing the potato salad, who's bringing the buttercream torte, etc. It seems that certain people in the family are known for a specific recipe and it would be a shame if future generations lost that connection.

That happened when my grandmother passed in May 2006. She found out she was in stage four cancer and wouldn't have long to live so started compiling her recipes but unfortunately she passed MUCH sooner than we expected. I moved down to Florida the next month and had the job of making her recipes for the first holidays without my grandmother. My Aunt was as helpful as she can be and we found that some of her recipes were mentally tweaked and not written down so as we prepare to make "albums" for all the cousins and Aunts ans Uncles my Aunt and I have to make sure ALL the recipes will work.....lol This is going to be an interesting year. I think we will try the cream puffs, cannoli filling, and pizzelles for Easter since we didn't get to prepare them for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year!!!

We are looking into getting those stands that you flip the photos and using that as the "cookbook album" for all the holiday dessert recipe and placing some photos in there as we sort through them all!!

 

[Holiday Joy]

What a wonderful gift for you and your sister, Lana! THAT will be the cookbook everyone will want to have passed down to them!

I scrapbooked some of my Mom's most fondly remembered recipes for my sisters and brothers as Christmas presents for my siblings the year after Mom died. I added old holiday photos, memories of Christmases past as dictated to me from my folks, and gave my brothers and sisters a chance to send me a holiday memory. I covered small scrapbooks with Christmas fabric and entitled it "A Smith Family Christmas". It was well-received.

I'm not doing anything quite so elaborate with my recipes. I'm just printing them out on the computer, sticking them in page protectors and putting them in a three ring binder. If there's something special about one of them, I'm adding a footnote (these are the muffins that David won a blue ribbon on at the fair. . .) My goal is to eventually organize them in several smaller binders, and to copy the recipes for each DK as they start to ask how to make this or that.

 

[crazymo]

This is a project I have been thinking about starting for myself and my two kids. I am debating between using a blank cookbook from Gooseberry Patch that has all the dividers et., you just write in the recipes, or doing an online one that they print up in spiral bound hardcover form for you. The hand written would be considerably cheaper, but it would be an awful lot of work. They printed one would be alot of money, but would be really neat looking (you can add pictures etc.). May be one of my personal goals for March or April!

 

[Lana]

My sisters is a Precious Moment lined journel, but the kids I did order two of the GB Patch "My Favorite Recipes" to write in. My aunt wants us to do a family cookbook.

 

[chrisaholic]

I bought a recipe binder. It has all those intro/info pages that a normal cookbook has, along with the different food dividers, plastic cover pages go go over the pages you are reading the recipes from, and a pocket for each section to put recipes in. I designed a recipe page to type my recipes on. When I mentioned it to my sister, she sent me her favorite recipes, plus all of our mom's old recipes she had. It sort of snowballed from there... I bought five more binders and an now making copies for my two and her three children!

 

[JayOkie]

The family cookbooks are truly a treasure. I have one that is tattered, and while NOT 'family', my g'mother has recipes in it (fundraiser for her ladies' group at church years ago).

When my oldest g'son was a HS Sr, I bought him a cookbook (simple recipes) for Christmas. Then when he graduated, knowing he was college bound, I made a collection of family recipes. Called it "Cooking with Grandma and others".
Just a simple 3 ring binder with sheet protectors, & added some blank protectors so he could add recipes from his mom if he wanted. He did when he asked questions one day, & my sis & I started giving him basic recipes verbally...he had us write them down (roasts, etc) I added some starter equipment, like meas. cups/spoons, spatulas, etc.

With a bunch of g'kids, each one has gotten this gift for graduation. I've added some recipes as I've tried/liked them. And, as someone said, I've added notes about the person "my cousin from xxx" or "Granny dreamed this up" or "This is SO good". They're not hard to do...I typed them in Word, labeled, saved. The grandson to graduate 07 was thrilled!! Easy to add to or change graphics for the next one to graduate. Have had or will have one a year the past 6 yrs til 2010, then a slight break, & we start again Ahhh, the beauty of being able to 'save & print' :-0

We've done two family reunion cookbooks for mom's dad's side, & both have been very well received. I reach for them 99% of the time.

Happy eating, everyone!!

 

[catnipper]

Friends, Family and Food

It was 11 years ago when I took a desktop publishing class and our second quarter assignment was a special project. The instructor gave us an idea that involved writing critiques on restaurants--very expensive. I suggested a cookbook as I had my great-grandmother's recipe box as an inspiration. I knew there were things I wanted in a good cookbook. He asked for a proposal at the next class and I was off and running!!

Two days later I drug in my overloaded backpack with cookbooks, notes and list of possible recipes--about 150 of them. The assignment got an A and I was typing full time just to get the recipes in the book in 8 weeks.

 

[Lana]

Catnipper, good project for a class.

Well, I was doing good on the ones for my kids back a couple years ago.....but have fell off.
DD gets married in May so maybe for next Christmas I will try to finish it or some type of book with favorites in it. She has been with Ryan over 8 years so I know of several of his favorite that I make too so I can add them.

In '09 and '10 I did each of my nephew a handwritten cookbook. Had about 40 recipes each in theirs.

 

[luludou]

We did this with mom... using a spiral notebook. Most recipes are type, but a few are handwritten and we added pictures. Some family recipes, but we don't have that much - nothing left from either grandmothers.. so mostly from mom, me and my sister. We gave one to each of the grandkids last year. There are blank pages, so we added a few recipes in the stocking last year and will be adding a few this year too.

I love the idea of a photo stand for desserts!

 

[jampss]

Great Lana!

I am making that an idea for DD18 who is vegan and we do raw foods ... but she's always asking "how is this made?" So, this is on my To Do List for a Christmas present. Someday, sniff, she'll be off on her own and needs to know how to cook ... or un-cook! LOL