How about a couple of holiday templates, such as, Fall…pumpkins or fall leaves, Christmas…holly & berries, snowflakes.

I did a Christmas Holiday book and wound up using holiday stationary for my paper. Lucky for me I didn’t do 40 cookbooks like my family cookbook. I only did 12. Could get rather costly!

If I think of more, I’ll be back!

BeckyF

I really liked the Heritage best but I chose Fruit as I was making a cookbook just for Pies and Pastries and wanted a colorful front page.

A Holiday style would be great. I have “auctioned” off cookbook projects at several of our P.E.O. auctions. The winner gives me her recipes (via email!) and I format them into a “Matilda’s” cookbook style. Two of the ladies were making their cookbooks as Christmas gifts for their families. So – A holiday format would be great. Also, as an alternative to printing at a print shop, check into http://www.Lulu.com. If you upload the whole project as a PDF, the prices are not bad at all.

I choose the Patriot template because I am writing a cookbook based on reciepes with true home town values and deep roots in our American heritage.
I am using the template to self publish a cookbook for resale and I would like to see the Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook tag removed from the final printed pages, or at least give users the option to remove it.
At this point I am creating the book with your software and then having to retype every reciepe in a word compatable program removing the tag. For me it creates a lot of extra work and expense. Regardless I continue to use your software because of its ease of use in lay out and and construction of the cookbook. This is the perfect software for the individual making a family cookbook, but has a few draw backs when constructings a commercial book.

I searched for hours trying to find the right program/company…came across this software and it has been wonderful ever since! It is user friendly, uncompicated with terrific features and personalizations which I love!! My only suggestion:::I would LOVE to see newer templates–a polka dot one/damask pattern, just something more updated! The fruit one is really the only one I liked!

I would like something to go with my title ” Favorite recipes I’ve stolen from other people

I thought the software was O.K. but it was not very user friendly if you wanted to have different sections with separate recipes in them. I had to do a lot of editing and when I took it in to get printed, we (the printer and I ) had to do a lot of juggling to make things work. It could be made a lot better. Still, even though I had to do a lot of extra work, I am pleased with the results.

I love your software. I used a combination of the Heritage and Woodcut templates for a set of 5 books with family recipes to give my children and each recipe had a story with it. It would be nice to be able to have a foreword or a dedication page but I managed to make it part of the recipes in alphabetical order. I would like to see a nice family tree template. My cookbook was such a hit with a few close relatives that more have requested it. I would also like to see more options for printing formats such as duplex printing with even and odd pages for printers that do not have duplex capability.

I have made 2 other family cookbooks. One every 10 years or so. This was the easiest yet. Really is a great way to keep in touch with family. Getting photos and recipes, especially from the young ones who were too young to care last time.

Can you PLEASE make all of the templates into 1/2 pages.. I made 55 ccokbooks for my sister to give to her family and it would not have been possible doing full pages. The program is fantastic, but the 1/2 page choices were limited. I have to say the fruit did make a great cookbook and it was so personal..Thank you again

I really love this program, as I am starting my 1st family cookbook. I agree that the half page choices are limited. I did like it that I was able to copy & paste from my recipies I had emailed to me. I do not think the program is compatible w Vista, I cannot print the artwork w my vista laptop & had to retype everything on another computer.

I would like to see a template that would go better w family. Perhaps simple lines around the page w little family stick figures. I also like the holiday stuff

I also used the half page and would like to have more choices for formats. I chose the storybook because it was black and white with a little color. I would appreciate page numbers in the contents and when I used the spellcheck in Word the corrections did not carry back to Matilda. Don’t know what I did wrong.

I just turned 51 and I still dream of my grandmothers cooking. When I think back on it she never cooked anything that I did not like. But her chicken and dumpling were to die for, so, so good!

Ingredients

1 whole roasting chicken or fryer
salt & pepper to taste
About 2 cups of plain flour (do not use self rising) flour.
1/2 cup (approximately) Crisco shortening
milk
salt and pepper to taste

Put Chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Add salt & pepper. Cook on medium heat until chicken is done. Remove chicken and pull off bone. Add chicken back to broth. Bring to a simmer.

Directions

Mix flour and shortening until crumbly, add milk a little at a time until soft dough forms. Roll dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into squares.
Add milk to simmering broth. ( Not sure how much, I just pour it in until I see it roll back to the top)
Drop dumplings in one at a time. Do not stir, just use a spoon and push dumplings down into broth. Cover pot, but leave lid slightly ajar to prevent boiling over. Bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 15 minutes or until dumpling is dry when cut in half. Enjoy!

Serve with mashed potatos, cornbread, Moms Creamy Mac and Cheese, Greens, Fried Okra, Cream Style Corn, Deviled eggs, Green Beans or Stuffing. No matter what you choose you cannot go wrong!

Hi Matilda’s!!

I used your product to print over 30, 300+ page books this past Christmas. I loved the product! the only thing missing was page numbers in the index…. how close are you to accomplishing that task? I’d love to have an upgrade when you get there. I’d also like to see more options in the half pages. Thanks
Sally

I also would like to see page numbers on the contents page. This is my first cookbook, which I am just loving the software but I’m scared when I go to print that it will not be layed out exactly as I like since everything is alphabetized. Don’t get me wrong I love the automatic alphabetizing but I am making so many categories, ex; cookies, pies, candies, etc. that I would like to also be able to put those recipes into a main catagory of Desserts. I would also like to see more template ideas, more updated looks. I like Amy’s idea of simple lines around the pages or simple line designs in the corners. I also would like to see a wine theme or two since my kitchen is decorated in the wine theme. I wish I could also add more family pictures on different pages (where ever I want) like Microsoft word.
Something else that I think would be nice is I plan to creat another cookbook for my self once this family cookbook is finished, instead of clicking on each recipe I want on which cook book I wish there was an option of cookbook 1, cookbook 2, etc.

P.S. Has the problem been fixed with page numbers? I printed out a few recipes for a friend the other day and it gave me page 1 for each page. I’d like to be able to just turn that off entirely.

i was thinking some “retro” type templets.. or polka dots, squares, something fun but not exactly “themed”.

Several of my college friends and I gather together twice a year for several days each year. Many love to go the Pacific Ocean so I used the Faith template as it was the closest template I could find for our purpose for the cookbook plus it was simple.
A family, friendship simple type template would be nice. I also like the holiday ideas.
I did really liked being able to put a picture with the recipe.
Some parts of the program were cumbersome although useable. I would like to be able to change the sections around in the Contents, without being creative, and be able to put in my own page numbers on the Contents page and recipe pages. Another alternative I would like is to be able to type the recipe clear across the page without the columns.
I have finished the friendship cookbook and one says she is enjoying it so much that she is reading it like a novel.

I have used different ones for different people. I also used different ones for sections of the cookbook. I have also made my own.
I have tried to put to a PDF or other program but the whole outlook changes to a table.

I used the half-page traditional to save space and cost. I made my own contents page and added a numbered index which was a lot of work. I added a family history section (since this cookbook included 5 generations) and a pictorial family tree all the way back to my great-great grandfather. My book was a little over 300 pages front and back, both black and white and color, and cost about $14 per book. I bound them in a 3 ring view binder that I found at a great price online and hired a local printing company to print, punch and collate for me. I had them finished for Christmas last year and everyone loved them. It was a lot of work, but something I am very proud to have done. This is my second family cookbook. The first one I did on a manual typewriter about the same size book. This software made the job much easier.

Jeff, thanks for the chicken and dumplings recipe. My family loves comfort food and I plan on trying this when the weather is cooler.

I used the Fruit template. I found the software easy to use, however, a spell checker would be nice. Also, if you could choose to not have page numbers it would be make nice. When I convert my book to pdf file, I have to remove the page numbers because of re-sorting the book in the order that I wanted.

I also would like some fun, colorful ,themes.
Bold colors, such as chocolate brown, pinks, and blues.

I made over 25 books using the Traditional template. I found the software somewhat easy to use. The only hang up I found was I tried to incorporate both land line phone numbers and cell phone numbers, but had a hard time with placement on the final printout. I have a number of relatives out of state and wanted to make sure everyone had up to date information…..our new comment now is when in doubt (needing an address or number) “Check the cookbook!” Already working on phaase 2 cookbook for next year.

I used the Storybook template. With the colors, it was really lovely and nostalgic. My cookbook was a hit and I have had lots of requests from friends. This year, I have found a recipe or 2 that I would like to give to people to add to the cookbook. I have also had some of my family members contribute new family recipes that they found for the book. I would like to run these off with the template and add to the existing cookbook. I haven’t tried it yet so maybe this won’t be a problem, but I have worried that the additions will have a page number on it and will throw the rest of the cookbook off kilter? I’m hoping there will be no page numbers on the new pages so they can be added and people can handwrite the recipe in the correct place in the table of contents. I don’t really want to print out all 200+ pages again to make a new cookbook just because I added some new recipes. All and all though, I loved using this software. It was easy and the completed project was attractive.

Page numbers in the Table of Contents would be wonderful. And please add an alphabetized index! That’s the biggest thing I miss.