How to make a bridal cookbook

Here is a great idea next you need to plan a bridal shower for a friend or family member - a bridal cookbook!

One thing every new bride to be needs is great recipes to feed her family. Both families as well as friends can help get this started by contributing recipes as part of a bridal shower!

Here's how to do it:

When you send out your bridal shower invitations, include a link to your family cookbook project cookbook, use the Invitation Tool and add everyone's email. This will send everyone a link that will allow them to contribute their recipes. Set a deadline for entering recipes about three weeks from when the invitations are sent. Remember people will also wait until the deadline!

Get both of the mother's to contribute the most recipes if possible. This way both the bride and groom with have lots of recipes that they grew up with in their cookbook. Using Family Cookbook Project's Custom Categories Tool, you can even create a special category for each mom's recipes.

As the recipes are being entered, start planning how the cookbook will look.

Cover - Family Cookbook Project offers several cookbook covers specifically for bridal cookbooks or wedding cookbooks. You also can create a custom cover with the name of the cookbook and a photo of the couple.

Write an introduction - The best bridal cookbooks will have an introduction written by the individuals giving the bridal shower. An introduction can be used wish the couple well wishes and to talk about the importance of family.

Add Photos - Photos can help bring your cookbook to life. You can add photos of the lucky couple on top of recipes, or create custom pages to highlight photos of the bride and groom as they were growing up and while they were dating.

Finally, it is time to print your cookbook. Make sure you give yourself enough time to order your cookbooks and have them printed, at least 3-4 weeks if possible. Be sure to order enough copies for each attendee as well as several extra copies for family members that can not attend the event.

For the event, make some of the dishes from bridal cookbook and serve them at the event. Include a place card with the dish name and include the page number from the cookbook.

Finally, if you are looking for a great wedding favor, try creating a Wedding Cookbook for your family and friends!

Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

March 3, 2014

Anatomy of a Great Recipe

One of the keys to a great family cookbook is to have great recipes that your family and friends have come to love. Here are some simple tips to help you capture the magic of the food you make.

1. Use catchy titles. Using a catchy title will make your recipe sound more interesting. It is more interesting to people when they see the title “Gooey Triple Chocolate Cake” rather than just “Chocolate Cake”. When you are writing a title for a recipe, try to think of not only what the final dish will be, but what makes it special as well.

2. Include photos. Using images in your recipes can allow the person reading your cookbook to see what the final dish will look like and give then a guidepost to follow. Next time you make one of your special dishes, snap a quick photo and add it to your recipe the next time you log in.

3. Be specific with your Ingredients. For many cooks, include a can of crushed tomatoes in your recipe and they know exactly what you mean or maybe not. Tell them to include a 12oz can of crushed tomatoes and everyone will know exactly what your recipe needs.

4. Use step by step instructions. You might have made this recipe a thousand times, but someone new will need detailed directions for how to do it. Remember to include pan sizes, cooking times, the order that ingredients are added and how to tell when a dish is done. Also adding how many servings a recipe can make will help with meal planning.

5. Add personal notes. One of the things that make a family cooks so important is that it helps to capture the family traditions. Include a note with each recipe about how you first were introduced to the recipe and when it is typically served in your household. It makes the recipe more interesting and more meaningful to later generations.

Chip Lowell is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

February 10, 2014

Sharing Family Traditions

One of the most important reasons for starting a family cookbook project is to preserve the family food traditions for future generations.

This about it. Growing up, was there a special dish you grandma use to make when the family got together? Did an aunt who lived in a different part of the country serve different interesting food when you visited?

Have you tried to make that dish, but it never quite seems the same? Don’t you wish you had her recipe (not that she wrote anything down!).

This is why FamilyCookbookProject.com was created. To help families come together and share stories, member loved ones past, and eat great food!

Another way we can help preserve our family traditions is to learn more about are ancestors and family members that can before us. Knowing more about the people in our family helps us to better understand our family history and why certain food traditions started.

For many, many years, I have learned about my family tree with the help of ancestry.com. I have found many long lost cousins and we are working on a family reunion later this year. I have really enjoyed searching for and meeting relatives that I have lost touch with.

Here is a way for you to start looking up your family members using free records available on Ancestry.com. Of course if you pay a small fee, you will get access to hundreds of thousands of records that will greatly help your search.

However it is free to get started. Just enter a family member’s name and location below to get started:

Learn more about the
people in your family story:
your ancestors.

If you have an issue with the box above Try Ancestry.com FREE with a 14-Day Free Trial

Preserving our family food traditions is only one way we save our family history for our children and our grandchildren.

Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

January 31, 2014

Two Great Magazine Offers from Family Cookbook Project

At Family Cookbook Project,we are always looking for ways to save you time and money in the kitchen. Here are two special offers that you might like.

We were able to secure a great deal on a wonderful cooking magazine for our editors. You can get a full year of CookingLight Magazine for only $5! This I the lowest price on the web! This offer is available for a limited time at MagazineOutlet.com. Click the link and enter the code CKJUST5 to receive your special price.

This is another magazine we love and you can get 12 issues of Bon Appetit for only $12. Save 80% for the entire year! Subscribe Now.

January 10, 2014

What’s for Breakfast?

Breakfast Pizza Cups

Family Cookbook Project is please to announce the launch of a new Pinterest Board – What’s for Breakfast? Here you will find the best ways to start your day from the editors of Family Cookbook Project.

Pinterest is a social media site that allows users to share photos that appeal to them. It’s not surprising that recipes and photos of food are one of the largest categories on Pinterest.

Already there are 19 fantastic breakfast recipes including Breakfast Pizza Cups by Trenton Wilken from his Trenton’s Cookbook, Hawaiian French Toast by Katie Sechrist from Katie Kay’s Kitchen Cookbook and Breakfast Hash from Nana and Amy’s memories cookbook.

Additional recipes will be added on an ongoing basis.

Follow our new board at http://www.pinterest.com/cookbookproject/whats-for-breakfast/

Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

January 8, 2014

5 things in your kitchen – that plan to destroy your kitchen!

Here’s a fun guest post about your kitchen items that you haven’t considered! Fun read! Remember to add your great holiday recipes into your recipe box and cookbook at Family Cookbook Project!

The Fridge…
(Image Source| Credit)

What you expect from a fridge:

– for it to keep your food cold, or else there’s little difference between it and a table.

– to keep your food fresh, because that’s what fridges do. Are supposed to.

– for there to be a nightlight, please, thank you. Very important for munchies in the middle of the night, no?

Your fridge’s evil plan!

– to leave an iceberg of Titanic proportions in your freezer compartment, such that it’ll take days, (nay, years), to defrost. “Frost free? What’s that?”, your fridge chuckles.

– to make like the sun and thaw your food when you explicitly asked it NOT to (and it explicitly agreed)

– to hide your food in places you never knew existed (labyrinth, anyone?) until you start to smell something verrrrrry wrong each time you open the fridge door.

How to prevent your fridge’s disobedience:

– ~~every night, read poetry to it~~Defrost and declutter it on a regular basis so it feels loved and cared for and feels less of a need to rebel in order to be noticed.

– Make a note of its insurance and warranty and stick both dates on the fridge door to ensure they’re both always up to date.

– Every week or so, have a rummage through to ensure nothing should be in the bin rather than the fridge.

2) The Oven…
(Image Source| Credit)

What you expect from an oven:

– heat up fairly quickly and not think it’s your fridge

– warm your food thoroughly. Cooked through. Piping hot. Steam curling out seductively from your dinner when you cut into it, like it’s in an advert.

– not burn your food

Your oven’s evil plan:

– to take AGES warming up, to the extent that you start considering perhaps the food’ll warm up quicker if you breathed on it yourself

– to cook your food deceptively. Piping hot on the outside. Cold on the inside.

– burn your food whatever temperature you set it at, because once your oven makes up its mind, it makes up its mind.

How to prevent your oven’s disobedience:

– test your oven’s sensor on a regular basis (you’ll need an Ohm meter). It should be at a healthy 1050-1100 Ohms at a room temperature of 15-27 C. (p.s.: disconnect from mains before testing)

– keep insurance/warranty up to date. Ovens have an uncanny way of misbehaving the minute these expire.

– If you have a non-electrical oven, check your pilot light often to make sure there isn’t anything covering its port (bits of food, residue from what you used to clean the oven). You can clean the port with the aid of a small wire.

3) The Sink…
(Image Source | Credit)

What you expect from a sink:

– for it to like water

– for it to express how much it likes water by letting it pass through effortlessly

– for it not to leak

Your sink’s evil plan:

– to develop an allergy to water

– to be extremely receptive to food

– to leak at the most inconvenient of times as it’s psychically attuned to your diary.

How to prevent your sink’s disobedience:

– leave it to have an overnight heart-to-heart chat with some liquid drain unblocker (or vinegar and bicarbonate of soda).

– put it on a strict water diet by buying a sink strainer

– have a second diary as a decoy

4) The Washing Machine…
(Image Source| Credit)

What you expect from a washing machine:

– for it to actually wash

– to stick to the cycle you set it at, because it likes and respects you

– to be noisy but courteously so

– to physically stick to one spot

Your washing machine’s evil plan:

– for your clothes to come out dirtier than when you put them in the wash

– to wash twice as long as you initially set it, sometimes longer, depending on whether it’s a full moon or not

– to make as much noise as possible…and move around just as much (“Hello. Only me. Just passing through”, it says as it rattles past you towards the hallway).

– to collaborate with your sink to give you the motherload of swimming pools when you come back from the shops

How to prevent your washing machine’s disobedience:

– After each wash, leave its door slightly open to air it out. It stops stale smells from taking up residence.

– Once every month, give your washing machine a service wash. Put the machine on a spin (temperature: hot) with nothing in it but detergent. It’s like a detox.

– if it’s not sticking to its cycle and/or it really is that noisy and it’s happened a few times, check your warranty/insurance and see if it can get fixed or replaced.

– tell it you’re sorry, even though you’ve done nothing wrong. Sometimes, that’s all a washing machine wants to hear.

5) The Toaster…
(Image Source | Credit)

What you expect from a toaster:

– to be sensitive towards all slices and forms of bread and treat them all equally

– to pop up/stay down when it’s supposed to and to know the difference between the two

– for it to toast bread in an unburnt fashion, unless you explicitly ask it to

Your toaster’s evil plan:

– to burn everything, even at the expense of its own demise

– to adamantly refuse to pop up/stay down when it’s meant to

– to have a complete and utter disregard for the current economic climate and make you buy twice as many loaves of bread as you actually need because it insists on burning every slice to a crisp.

How to prevent your toaster’s disobedience:

– Crumbs collect at the bottom and might be one of the things your toaster’s moaning about. Clean it out on a weekly basis. (again, disconnecting it from the mains first.)

– Toast slices that are of the same size. Lessens the likelihood of burning.

– If the lever is faulty, check there aren’t any bits of food blocking it or the thermostat playing up.

This guest post was contributed by Kit Stone; a leading provider of beautiful bespoke kitchens.

December 20, 2012

Make a Halloween or Holiday Recipe Book Time!

Trick or Treat!

As we prepare for the holiday season, many family cookbook editors are working to finalize their projects in order to give as gifts this year. Cookbooks must be submitted for printing before the deadline of Thursday, November 1st to receive your cookbooks by Thanksgiving. Friday, November 30th is the deadline to guarantee delivery without expedited shipping before the Christmas holiday.

So now is the time to contact all of your contributors with your reminder tool and tell them to enter their recipes now before it is too late. We recommend using a recipe submission deadline of November 15th in order to give you time to review the recipes, make sure all of the extra spaces are removed and words are spelled correctly, and still have time to place your order before the printing deadline.

Family cookbooks make wonderful gifts for family and friends alike. The effort you put into your cookbook now will pay off for your entire family for years to come.

Get Our iPhone or Android App
Announcing our new App for iPhone and Android! You don’t always have to have a printed cookbook to use your recipes – you can always access them from the web on any PC, Mac or iPad with a nice larger screen. But what about your phone? Well, now we have an app for that! Here are links to get the one for your phone:
iPhone App here Android App here

Check out our Cookbook Accessories Shop
Need a great extra to go along with your cookbooks – like a nice cookbook stand? Check out our Accessories Shop powered by Amazon!

Refer-a-Friend and Make Some Cash!
Want a little extra money? Refer a friend or two our way – they’ll get 50% off our Lifetime Membership and you get a $50 Gift Card to Amazon.com! Click here to sign up!

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 party:

This recipe for Halloween Party Punch, by Micki Clark, is from The Clark Family Cookbook. Search for more great recipes here from over 400,000 in our family cookbooks!

Halloween Party Punch Recipe

Contributor:	Micki Clark

Category:	Appetizers & Beverages

Ingredients:	1 3oz. pkg orange gelatin 2 c. boiling water 1 6oz can orange juice concentrate 1 46 oz. can unsweetened pineapple juice 1 qrt. ginger ale

Directions:	Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Mix orange juice with three cans of water and add to gelatin mixture. Add pineapple juice and chill. Add ginger ale just before serving. Makes 30 1/2 cup servings

Tips to Ease the Holiday Hustle

(NewsUSA) – The holidays are supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but they may also be the busiest. As the guest list grows, so does the grocery list, not to mention the piles of laundry and dirty dishes.

But there’s no need to be a Grinch. Turn on the holiday cheer by taking advantage of some simple tips from the experts in Whirlpool brand’s test kitchens:

· Prepare ahead. Over-estimate the number of guests expected to attend, and bring full recipes to the grocery store to make sure every ingredient makes it home. This can help you avoid being a plate short or having to dig out old frosting for the last batch of cookies.

· Make sure the refrigerator can handle the shopping list. French-door refrigerators offer wide shelf space to keep large cakes and deli trays fresh leading up to the big holiday meal. A side-by-side refrigerator may fit the bill if fresh ingredients typically fill the shopping cart.

· Make it a team effort. Kids can help wash potatoes or arrange platters, and everyone can help clean up. Also, keeping recipes handy in plastic sleeves ensures everyone is on the same page.

· Put appliances to work for you. Convection cooking allows you to bake potatoes and roast turkeys much faster than a traditional oven, while a double oven range can cook two different meals at once, toast crusty breads or keep one dish warm.

“Holiday cooks no longer have to play musical pans when trying to broil steaks and warm rolls at the same time, thanks to new double-oven ranges,” said Monica Teague, senior manager, brand experience, Whirlpool. “In addition, knowing how to properly load the dishwasher can ease clean-up once everyone is stuffed. Greasy pots and pans go on the bottom rack face-down or at a slight angle for optimal cleaning, and delicate stemware stay up top, where water pressure is not as strong.”

· Don’t overlook laundry as guests shuffle in and out. Pre-sorting clothes into designated baskets for lights, darks and whites can streamline the process, while some of latest features enable consumers to do laundry at times that fit their hectic holiday schedule.

Fit in a quick nap — and a load of laundry — before the guests arrive. The holiday season will feel more “Hava Nagila” than “Bah, Humbug.”

For more information, visit www.whirlpool.com.

Editors Ideas – how to keep your contributors motivated

The holidays are here. 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 in November or December – and get all their email addresses so you can add them to your book. Have fun!

What they are saying

“I LOVE the website…it is so easy to use and the e-blast feature has made managing this project a breeze!”
–Susie Dvorak, The Kadavy Family Cookbook

Famous Quotation

“Non-cooks think it’s silly to invest two hours’ work in two minutes’ enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.”
Julia Child (1912 – 2004)

October 19, 2012

4th of July Cookbook and Reunion Time!

Happy Independence Day, U.S.A.! It’s 4th of July and family reunion time! If you are planning to have your family cookbook ready for your reunion, make sure to allow 2 weeks for printing and delivery. If you have a tight time crunch, let us know and we’ll see what we can do to help.

If you don’t plan to have your cookbook ready for summer – no problem! Right now is the perfect time to get everyone involved – and print your book for Thanksgiving and the holidays!

We wish you and yours a great holiday – have fun and how about fixing a few items from your family cookbook!

If you get a chance, we’d love for you to “Like” us on Facebook. Just visit our home page http://www.FamilyCookbookProject.com and click the like button in the middle right – thanks!

Here is a recipe we tried recently for a fun dessert:

This recipe for 4th of July Banana Smores, by Cheryl Botkin, is from Family and Friends Cookbook, one of the cookbooks created at FamilyCookbookProject.com.

4th of July Banana Smores Recipe

Contributor: Cheryl Botkin

Ingredients:

Bananas
Chocolate Chips
Small Marshmallows
Graham Crackers

Directions:
Pull one section of peel back from banana, but leave attached.
Scoop out center of banana, just enough to where it looks like a boat.
Fill banana with chocolate chips and marshmallows.
Cover with section of peeled back banana and wrap in foil.
Put bananas filled and wrapped in foil on the grill.
Let set until marshmallows and bananas melt.
Remove from grill and top with Graham Cracker crumbs.

The Great Family Cookbook Project has surpassed 400,000 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!

Do you love BBQ Recipes? Check out this list of over 600 BBQ recipes and treats we created!

Enjoy!

July 3, 2012

It’s Halloween time! Remember to add fun tricks and treats to your family cookbook.

As we prepare for the holiday season, many family cookbook editors are working to finalize their projects in order to give as gifts this year. Cookbooks must be submitted for printing before the deadline of Thursday, November 4th to receive your cookbooks by Thanksgiving. Tuesday, November 30th is the deadline to guarantee delivery without expedited shipping before the Christmas holiday.

So now is the time to contact all of your contributors with your reminder tool and tell them to enter their recipes now before it is too late. We recommend using a recipe submission deadline of November 15th in order to give you time to review the recipes, make sure all of the extra spaces are removed and words are spelled correctly, and still have time to place your order before the printing deadline.

Family cookbooks make wonderful gifts for family and friends alike. The effort you put into your cookbook now will pay off for your entire family for years to come.

Family Cookbook Showcase: OurCookbooks.com
Our new website to help our editors sell their cookbooks online, Family Cookbook Showcase at OurCookbooks.com, is ready to go. Whether you are using your cookbook as a fundraiser or just have a few extra copies that are taking up space, we will make it easy for you to make them available.

If you already have had you cookbook printed, please go to your editor account and click on the “Publishing Tools>Sell Your Cookbook Settings” link. Here you can enter some basic information and have visitors order cookbooks directly from you. When all of your cookbooks are sold, simply come back and turn off the free listing. It’s our way of helping you to get the most for your cookbook dollar.

If you have not yet printed your cookbook, it will be made available to you after your order has been sent to print.

The Family Cookbook Showcase is part of a more comprehensive cookbook marketing package that is being put together to help editors sell their cookbooks.

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 party:

This recipe for Halloween Party Punch, by Micki Clark, is from The Clark Family Cookbook. Search for more great recipes here from over 250,000 in our family cookbooks!

Halloween Party Punch Recipe

Contributor:	Micki Clark

Category:	Appetizers & Beverages

Ingredients:	1 3oz. pkg orange gelatin 2 c. boiling water 1 6oz can orange juice concentrate 1 46 oz. can unsweetened pineapple juice 1 qrt. ginger ale

Directions:	Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Mix orange juice with three cans of water and add to gelatin mixture. Add pineapple juice and chill. Add ginger ale just before serving. Makes 30 1/2 cup servings