Creating a Family Cookbook Project

The Family Cookbook Project has won both a Publishing Standard of Excellence and a Family Standard of Excellence in the Web Marketing Association’s 13th annual WebAward Competition for Web site development. The Family Cookbook Project creates personalized cookbooks for individuals, families, church groups and schools. This is the fifth consecutive year that Family Cookbook Project has been recognized for their Website excellence.

“The Great Family Cookbook Project is a website dedicated to helping families collect and preserve cherished recipes into a printed cookbook that can be passed down from one generation to the next,” says Chip Lowell, Co-Publisher and Technical Director of the Family Cookbook Project. “We are proud that our efforts have been recognized by the Web Marketing Association with this WebAward. We will continue to develop our site to help families, schools and church groups create both online and printed cookbooks that become treasured heirlooms.”

The Family Cookbook Project Website was started as a project in 2003 to help one family collect and organize a family cookbook. Overwhelming feedback from those who used the website led to its continued development and public launch. Currently, more than 12,400 groups have started family cookbooks using the website and have entered more than 267,000 individual recipes.

More than 2,000 sites from 45 countries were adjudicated in 96 industry categories during this year's WebAward competition. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology. The competition was judged by a team of independent Internet professionals representing a variety of relevant disciplines of Web site development. Judges included members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, creative directors, corporate marketing executives, content providers and webmasters.

The Family Cookbook Project is dedicated to helping individuals and families collect and preserve the time-honored recipes that are so important to our family traditions. The website at www.familycookbookproject.com provides step-by-step instructions and online tools to create a valuable family heirloom. Personalized cookbooks are also used by schools and church groups as important fundraisers. Groups looking to create cookbooks for fundraising efforts, can also check out www.cookbookfundraiser.com.

Posted by Bill at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's September and Back to School time. Time to get "everyone on the bus" and helping on The Best of the Family Cookbook Project Cookbook!

Well, Summer 2009 has come and gone. Hope you had a great one! Fall is coming officially on the 21st - but it's feeling like fall already with school back in session. So - time to get everyone busy adding and trying yummy recipes to your cookbook.

Believe it or not, the holiday season is almost upon us. Since family cookbooks make a wonderful gift, it’s no wonder why that is by far our busiest time of the year.

Thank you for using our state-of-the-art system to help create your family heirloom cookbook. We have valued your business and hope to continue to help you with your family or group cookbook.

Tips for Making a Holiday Deadline

In order to make sure you receive your cookbooks in time for sharing with your friends and family for the holidays, here are some tips from Family Cookbook Project.

Use the Reminder Tool to email contributors to enter in their best recipes so they can look forward to cookbook for the holidays.

Set a deadline so everyone knows when their recipes must be submitted by – and make sure you leave a few days for those contributors that will want to add a recipe or two after the deadline!

You do not have to wait until your recipe collection is completed to start working with the Publishing Tool. Pick a cover from our professionally designed assortment or design your own. Select your layout type face and dividers – just remember to click the save button and the system will remember your selection.

Don’t wait until the last minute. While our digital printing allows for some of the fastest turn-a-round times in the industry, printing is done on a first come first served basis. We are expecting and are prepared for a lot of editors to have their cookbooks printed in October and November. You don’t want to be the last in line – so place your order early!
Right now is the perfect time to get everyone involved - and print your book for the holidays!

Time to Reorder?

Need extra cookbooks for holiday gift giving? If you were planning to print more copies of that fabulous cookbook you created, now is the time to place that order!

Coming Soon to Family Cookbook Project

We are really excited here at Family Cookbook Project. Our site continues to help families, schools and churches bring people together to create wonderful cookbooks to share and treasure for years to come. To date we have editors have created more than 8,000 cookbooks with more than 49,000 contributors and nearly 200,000 recipes!

In the next week or so, we will be adding a "Facebook" type of email alert to help you get contributors involved. When someone adds a recipe into the system, all your contributors will get an email with the new recipe title, contributor name and a link to login and add a recipe. It won't be overwhelming - just one email per login session. Each of your contributors can also turn off notifications if they like, too. You as editor can also just turn off the whole feature from 'Edit Your Cookbook'

Featured recipe from the database

The Great Family Cookbook Project has a huge amount of public recipes in the system thanks to you! If you need a fun recipe idea that's not in your own cookbook, go to our home page and use the search function to see what's available - lots of good eats!

Here is a recipe we tried recently for a fun dinner side dish:

This recipe for Cheesy Squash Casserole, by Jayne Chapman, is from The Chapman Family Cookbook. Search for more great recipes here from over 200,000 in our family cookbooks!

Cheesy Squash Casserole Recipe
Contributor: Jayne Chapman

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Category: Vegetables and Vegetarian Dishes

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Ingredients: 4 lbs. yellow squash sliced
1 medium onion diced
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
2 cups cornflake crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
1 (10 1/2 oz) can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 c. grated cheddar cheese

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Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook squash and onion in lightly salted boiling water until soft (about 20 minutes on medium). Drain and mash. Add all other ingredients but cheese and mix well. Put mixture into round baking dish and top with cheese. Bake 20 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly.

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Number Of Servings: 6-8
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Editors Ideas - how to keep your contributors motivated

The holidays are coming. Remember, it may take a full 3 weeks to get your cookbooks at this time of year - so start today! When you do get together in the coming weeks, bring a printed recipe or two from your cookbook and hand them out. Let folks know that you plan to print the book soon - and get all their email addresses so you can add them to your book. Have fun!

Posted by Chip Lowell at 11:02 AM

(NAPSI)-Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation day or other special time for you and yours, you can make it even more savory with a delicious meal.

To help, there's a brand new cookbook with 300 recipes, such as:

• A sumptuous brunch: Dreamy Orange Waffles, Baked Puffy Cheese Omelet with Peach Salsa, Overnight Blintz Bake or Cheesy Vegetable Quiche.

• Lunch or dinner might include: Slow Cooker Burgundy Stew with Herb Dumplings, Skillet Chicken Parmesan, Oven-Fried Pork Cutlets with Apple Slaw or Impossibly Easy Quesadilla Pie.

• Special sweet treats: Peach-Praline Tart, Fudgy Frosted Brownie Cookies or Impossibly Easy Toffee Bar Cheesecake.

• Take breakfast to the next level: Bisquick, the nation's bestselling convenience baking mix, makes it a snap to prepare Pear'n Ginger-Topped Waffle, Scrambled Egg Biscuit Cups or Carrot-Walnut Coffee Cake.

"The Betty Crocker Ultimate Bisquick Cookbook" (Wiley) offers plenty of stress-free cooking inspiration to make any meal you prepare-brunch, lunch or dinner for Mom or Dad, a birthday celebration or just a get-together of family or friends--a good time.

This posting is sponsored by the Family Cookbook Project which helps families and small groups create personalized cookbooks that are easy and affordable.

Posted by Bill at 05:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(NAPSI)-Weekends and vacations can offer many wonderful opportunities for quality family time without the distractions of busy weekday schedules. Here are some easy and inexpensive ideas:

• Take a nature walk. Bring a book to help you identify birds or wildflowers. Take a picnic lunch.

• Make a scrapbook or collage of your favorite pictures.

• Play a game together. Be sure to choose one in which younger players can compete evenly with older players, such as the Ruckus Card Game, winner of seven toy industry awards, including Dr. Toy’s 10 Best Games.

Part of the game’s appeal stems from the quirky graphics (Monkey in a Bottle, Pig in the Attic and the like) and nonstop action that often have players laughing out loud. The game also owes much of its multigenerational popularity to its speed and simplicity.

Learn More

For more information, visit www.funstreetgames.com or call (800) 901-9820.

This posting is sponsored by the Family Cookbook Project which helps families and small groups create personalized cookbooks that are easy and affordable. Creating a family cookbook is a great activity for the whole family.

Posted by Bill at 07:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(NAPSI)-Few things say "I'm thinking of you" at holiday time like homemade cookies and shortbread. Here are two recipes, each made with that nifty nut, the macadamia.

CHOCOLATE SNOWBALL COOKIES

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

¾ cup packed light-brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup Hershey's® Special Dark® Chocolate Cocoa or Hershey's® Cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons milk

¾ cup finely chopped Mauna Loa® macadamia nuts or almonds

¾ cup Heath Bits 'O Brickle Toffee Bits

Powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Beat butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until blended. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda; add with milk to butter mixture until well blended. Stir in nuts and toffee bits.

2. Refrigerate until firm enough to handle, at least 2 hours. Heat oven to 350° F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely; roll in powdered sugar. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

KISSABLES® CHOCOLATE CANDIES MACADAMIA SHORTBREAD

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

⅓ cup packed light-brown sugar

2½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup coarsely chopped Mauna Loa® Dry Roasted Macadamias

½ cup Hershey's® Kissables® chocolate candy in red, green and white colors

½ cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350° F.

2. Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl until creamy. Gradually mix in flour and macadamia nuts. Knead mixture until it holds together and can be pressed into a ball.

3. Divide dough into 4 portions. Shape dough on a lightly floured surface into four 10-inch long rolls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Make a ¼-inch deep grove down the center of each roll. Cut each roll diagonally into 1-inch slices, but do not separate slices. Press 3 to 4 chocolate candies into groove of each slice.

4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until surface and edges are lightly browned. Cool 10 minutes on cookie sheet on wire rack. Recut slices; cool completely.

5. Stir together powdered sugar and milk; stir until smooth. If necessary, add additional milk, ½ teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency. Drizzle over cookies; allow drizzle to set.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

For these and other recipes, visit www.hersheys.com.

Something to throw together are these Chocolate Snowball Cookies. While you're at it, give a hug to this recipe for Kissables Chocolate Candies Madadamia Shortbread.

This posting is sponsored by the CookbookFundraiser.com which helps schools, churches, community groups and other groups create community cookbooks that are easy to make and earn money for your organization.

Posted by Bill at 09:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of our fundraiser cookbooks from CookbookFundraiser.com has hit the news with their success!

"We are so thrilled with the outcome of our cookbook project. Originally I had thought that we would do the printing of our school cookbook in a traditional way, as I have more than two dozen years in publication production. Another PTA mom suggested finding an online vendor, and after searching the possibilities, I found your site to be the most user friendly and cost-effective solution.

"What we liked most was the ease in allowing folks to enter their recipes directly online. From there, we could go in and edit the entered data to be consistent. And at the time of completion, I could go in and manipulate the recipes to fit the pages, making the most of space and economics! You give so many options.

"The printed project turned out beautifully! Our custom photographs, including the cover, turned out awesome - a real selling point. We got unexpected benefits from extensive media coverage, boosting sales and necessitating a reprint within only a couple of months of our original printing - be sure to order enough up front - the final product has been in serious demand. We made more than $1,500 from our first printing, and expect even more from the 2nd printing. Thank you, CookbookFundraiser!"
- Cheryl Madden Brown, McKee Elementary School PTA, Oakdale, PA

Here is the link to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article Fresh Find: McKee Elementary School Recipe Collection

Way to go McKee!

Posted by Chip Lowell at 04:28 PM

(NAPSI)-Baking cookies with your kids and their friends is not only fun, it's a nice way to spend quality time together. Remember to take your time. Cooking with kids is as much about the process as it is about the end result. And, the end result in this case is a batch of holiday cookies that are as good to look at as they are to eat.

SNOWMAN AND TREE CUTOUT COOKIES

(Submitted by J. Gottfried from Ohio)

Prep time: 45 minutes

Bake Time: 7 to 8 minutes per batch

Makes: 3 to 4 dozen cookies

Dough

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 cup butter OR margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 egg

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Frosting

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

¼ cup water

4 teaspoons meringue powder

¼ cup Karo® Light Corn Syrup

Green food coloring

Assorted decorations

¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

For dough, mix sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until dough is completely chilled.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Divide dough in half. Roll each half ¼-inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into snowman and tree shapes using cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake until edges are light brown, about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire rack.

For frosting, beat sugar, water and meringue powder on low speed just until combined. Beat on high for 4 minutes or until soft peaks form. Add corn syrup; beat 1 minute longer.

Tint half of frosting with green food coloring. Frost cookies with green and white icing. Use melted chocolate to form snowmen's hats. Decorate and let stand until frosting sets.

Corn Syrup Tips

A question often asked is whether corn syrup serves any function in recipes besides sweetening?

Corn syrup serves different functions in different types of products and in recipes. It controls sugar crystallization in candy, prevents the formation of ice crystals in frozen desserts, enhances fresh fruit flavor in jams and preserves, sweetens and thickens relishes. Corn syrup balances sweet and sour flavor profiles, and is therefore an ingredient in many Asian dishes.

When brushed onto baked ham, barbecued meats, baked vegetables or fresh fruit, it is an ideal glaze. Corn syrup helps hold moisture and maintains freshness longer in baked goods. Karo can also be poured over waffles, hot cereal and pancakes. Enjoy most of your favorite Karo recipes with Karo Lite Syrup that has 33 percent fewer calories and no high fructose corn syrup. This new product makes it okay to indulge in that favorite holiday treat or find a new treat that you can make all year-round. For best results in candy and no-bake cereal bars, use original Karo Light or Dark Corn Syrup.

For more recipes and tips, visit www.karosyrup.com.

Cooking with kids is as much about the process as it is about the end result. The idea is to have fun and spend a nice afternoon together.

This posting is sponsored by the Family Cookbook Project which helps families and small groups create personalized cookbooks that are easy and affordable.

Posted by Bill at 07:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)