Get everything you need to put together a family cookbook binder.
We start with a white 3-ring binder with “Recipes” printed elegantly on the front cover and spine. If you want to use a custom front and back cover (made by our software or on your own) simply slide it into the clear plastic cover protector.
We selected a white binder because it will go with any of our software templates, and we went with a 1.5″ spine, so it can hold literally hundreds of pages of recipes. The binder is slightly oversized, so it will protect the included 12 index tabs from harm. This blank binder is manufactured in the United States, and it has a rugged D-Ring. It feels solid and reliable.
Next we include our handy Kitchen Conversion Cheat Sheet. It converts cups to ounces, tells you how to cook a steak, measures spaghetti, and a hundred other handy tidbits you’ll want at your fingertips.
Our third clever idea was to include a label sheet of 80 different categories for your cookbook. Why should you lump all your cookies into “Desserts” just because a cookbook tells you to? Our software lets you categorize your recipes how you want, and with 80 different category labels, our binder does too! Just peel off the 12 categories Read the rest of this entry »
This post may seem a bit early for some, but serious fruitcake-makers are already eyeing ingredients for their favorite Christmas sweet…the omnipresent fruitcake everyone loves to hate.
Included with my cookbook software is a wonderful heritage fruitcake recipe called Christmas Cake (English fruitcake) that has been in the family for generations. My cookbook software also comes with quite a few of my favorite recipes, but you have the option to keep them or not, as desired, for your own cookbook. (During the software’s development process we decided to include recipes to share so users could better visualize the end product they were making.) The family recipe for Christmas Cake takes time, but the end result is stunning. Read the rest of this entry »
“Our homemade family cookbook software is going to be very popular as families buckle down for a long, cold, hard winter of scrimping and saving instead of elaborate budget-busting gift giving,” I said to Ruth a few weeks ago as we sipped a cuppa and planned our Christmas gift shopping excursions.
Traditionally, we select the same day and time each week beginning November 1 until the week before December 25 as our “shopping” day. We always try to visit a different store, mall, or shopping center for variety and to keep our gift spending under control. We like to see the holiday decorations, have lunch, and get in the holiday mood.
“Yes,” Ruth nodded. “I’m afraid it is all back to basics now with our economy what it is. Your cookbook software not only makes a great gift at a reasonable price, it also builds wonderful cookbook gifts for others, too. It’s a gift that can keep giving!” Read the rest of this entry »
When making your family recipe cookbook, it is always a challenge to make the family cookbook recipe titles a bit more fun and exciting. This is because we get so used to saying “Grandma’s popovers” for the family recipe instead of something more exotic, such as “Miss Lucy’s Genuine Buttery Popovers.”
Likewise, “Grandma Harriet’s Blazingly Bold Riblets” is much more intriguing to family members perusing the family recipe cookbook than plain old “Spicy Spareribs.”
In my ever-present quest to clear out “stuff,” as the late George Carlin used to say, I found one of my old collective fundraiser cookbooks that had some serious baking tips and techniques nestled in the “Cake” section of the cookbook.
Although the collective cookbook was published a mere 31 years ago, some of the ideas must have come from still farther back in time. Yet, the basic helpful wisdom of the cookbook’s contributors, long gone by now, still reaches out across the decades to anyone who cares to be the best baker possible.
You might find these baking tips and techniques as fascinating and amusing as I did.
Baking Tips & Techniques
1. Creaming butter and sugar: A little hot milk added will aid in the creaming process.
2. After using the oven, leave the door open until the oven is cool so that moisture will not condense and rust the metal.
3. To decorate a cake without a decorator, cut an envelope from one of the top corners to the middle of the bottom of the envelope. Cut a little piece off the corner. Read the rest of this entry »
If you have as many cookbooks as I do, you know there usually is a section in the old-style family cookbooks called “Jams, Jellies, and Preserves.” Nothing compares with the happy homemade goodness of fresh fruit jams, jellies and preserves made during the summer and spread on biscuits or bread right out of the oven. Read the rest of this entry »
With the 2008 Presidential Election just around the corner, it seems appropriate to plan some Election Night grazing to enjoy while watching those many happy voting returns.
What a perfect time to work on your do-it-yourself family cookbook! Nothing else of consequence will be on television, or on the internet, to distract you. Why not take this opportunity to devote time to your important cookbook-making project (especially if you plan to gift your cookbook to friends and family for the holidays).
To help you spend more time using our cookbook recipe software, here are some simple Election Night menu ideas:
Election Night Snacks
These crisp no brainers get on the table fast and fill hungry stomachs quickly, so don’t refill the bowls until after dinner. Think about Chips & Salsa, Popcorn, Pretzels or crackers & hummus dip, or Vegetables & ranch dressing.
Election Night Entrées
You’ll want something hearty and flavorful, as well as easy so you don’t have to spend loads of devoted time preparing (thus freeing your time for cookbook-making). Consider Chicken and Noodles, Hamburgers/Hot Dogs, Lasagna, Macaroni and Cheese, or Vegetarian Pizza (all winners available in your local supermarket).
How do you make your own family recipe book without any family members knowing about it? Here are a few ideas that can help you make your secret family cookbook a reality (and end up being much easier than you may think): Read the rest of this entry »
This time of year, thoughts are turning toward what amusing ghoulies, ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties will show up on our doorsteps on Halloween night. Yes, it is almost time for trick-or-treaters to make their way to our front doors!
My favorite Halloween payout to these little extortionists is usually a non-frozen ice pop or two. I like ice pops because they are extremely inexpensive (a box of 100 for under $5); parents like ice pops because they are safe (if punctured by mean spirits, they leak); and the kids love ‘em because, well, they are kids and think I give them ice cream! Read the rest of this entry »
Creating a fundraiser cookbook for a local charity, church, school, or community organization has long been a respected way for groups to earn money to finance many worthwhile projects.
I have at least 45 fundraiser cookbooks from all over the country on my bookshelf. Some of them are my favorites, and I use them constantly for potluck dish ideas and volume cooking. (Yes, eventually I will pick out the recipes I like and add them to my own recipe collection in my own family cookbook. But for now, let’s focus on your fundraising goals.) Read the rest of this entry »
Once upon a time there was a good recipe software, and there was a bad recipe software.
The good recipe software was easy to use, had plenty of options, and left anyone entering data happy and fulfilled. The result of using the good recipe software was a quickly-made wonderful family cookbook filled with beloved recipes, family stories and photographs that illustrated the family recipes and family members, and a family keepsake worthy of future generations. Read the rest of this entry »
Want a simple chart to document when your mustard or mayo has gone bad? We’ve got a handy little condiment freshness chart.(We found it here, but it wasn’t very printer friendly so I cleaned it up.) Could look nice in your family cookbook.
It’s just a nifty way to know the skinny on when your condiment has turned on you.
A fascinating item in The Recipe Writer’s Handbook inspired this writing about the evolution of cookbooks and cookbook authors. As can be guessed, most of the few early cookbooks were written by men (from the late 4th to 14th centuries).
Around 1390, for example, a chef of King Richard II is credited with writing the first English cookbook (cookery book) called Forme of Cury. This book was actually a vellum scroll of recipes that included how to use exotic spices in everyday cooking. (The word cury is the Middle English word for cookery, and not a spice blend, I’m told.)
As literacy grew in the upper classes, women starting writing cookbooks and other running-the-household instructional books. These served to record the rich variety of food, tastes, cooking methods, eating habits, and even the local dialects. Some of the notable women cookbook authors through modern times have included:
Hannah Wolley (c. 1622-1674)
In 1661, she became the first female author to try and make money from writing and publishing a cookbook with her The Queen-Like Closet, or Rich Cabinet, which included easy-to-follow recipes. Read the rest of this entry »
Perhaps you are the family member other family members contact when they have a question about Aunt Betty’s apple crisp or Uncle Johnny’s barbecue sauce. You are the one with custom recipe cards and have vowed to make your own family cookbook with the beloved family recipes.
Does that make you the family food historian? Well, perhaps.
Review our 10 point family food historian character profile and see if you fall into the family food historian category: Read the rest of this entry »
There are as many reasons to make a cookbook as there are people. The 10 reasons to make a cookbook listed below are some of the top ones our readers and cookbook software users have told us:
1. Everybody loves my food.
Friends tell me I’m a great cook and that they would like to have my recipes. If I type it up once, I can print it a hundred times!
2. I need to get organized.
I’m tired of looking through 10 cookbooks, 5 drawers, a recipe card box, and under the refrigerator for all my recipes. Read the rest of this entry »
I like to use the brand names for ingredients in my cookbook recipes. Not because they are necessarily any better than the generic brands, but because they often produce a better recipe result, and therefore, make family recipes more consistent. Twenty years from now, if someone makes one of the recipes from your family cookbook, will they really get the same taste from a “cherry flavored gelatin” as they do from cherry Jell-O?
For example, if I want to make Tres Leches Cake, I will always use a certain brand name product (Eagle Brand) because I like the taste better. Believe me, I have experimented with assorted sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and whipped cream for the Tres Leches Cake ingredients, and there is a certain combination that is unbeatable together (and guess what, they all are the brand name products). Read the rest of this entry »
Last February I got a nice handwritten letter from a friend’s grandson who was studying the history and geography of major cities in the United States. He asked most politely if I would send him a postcard from my town so he could pin it up on the classroom bulletin board with postcards other students were getting from around the country.
This was such a brilliant class project that I couldn’t help but admire the teacher for coaching the students so well, and also for providing a wonderful activity and lesson that will be remembered long after the school year ends. Read the rest of this entry »
Ever wanted a free shopping list that was organized by grocery store sections? I put together a free, printable grocery shopping list that you can fill out online using Acrobat, or just print out and fill in by hand.
Definitely put a copy of this in your family cookbook as you build one with our cookbook software. That way all your family members can save time while making a grocery list too!
I hope you enjoy it! If you like it, you might also enjoy my family cookbook software, Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software, published by my company, The Cookbook People.
Many of my family recipes were tucked away in cardboard shoeboxes on well-worn recipe cards until I developed my cookbook software. The margins of the recipe cards were often decorated with cryptic comments and sage advice regarding the taste, texture, and preparation techniques that gave the recipe its unique place in the repertoire of our family’s cooks.
Such comments are wonderful insights from the past for anyone trying to recreate the family recipe, so make sure you include these observations and advice when creating your own cookbook. (In my Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software, scanned recipe cards can be included as a photo within the recipe page, thus retaining the “flavor” of the original.) Read the rest of this entry »
Remember those first few days of the new school year when teachers would ask students to write an essay on “How I Spent My Summer Vacation?”
Although kids these days may not be interested in such an assignment (due to its lack of texting possibilities), they might enjoy helping create a family cookbook based on all the places they went and all the food they ate during their summer vacation break (done on the computer using cookbook software, of course). Read the rest of this entry »
My dear friend Ruth has a way of irritating me like no other person can. I’m always the uptight one, but in contrast she is so mellow that she doesn’t even mind if I talk about her to strangers on the Web. That’s probably why we get along; the yin and yang of our 50-year friendship.
But now I think Ruth has overstepped my limits. She has volunteered me to make a family cookbook using my cookbook software for someone she met while waiting for her Fluffy at the dog groomers. Can you imagine that? Read the rest of this entry »
Like many family cooks who have visions of making a family cookbook using old original family recipes, family photos and family history, assembling my first family cookbook was quite a project.
Typing sometimes complicated instructions into my family cookbook format took me hours. I was always searching for the odd symbol or term that made the recipe more distinct from the run-of-the-mill recipes often found on the Internet (mine excluded, of course). There had to be a better, more automated way to expedite any future family cookbook projects. Read the rest of this entry »
As the summer winds down, some of my cookbook software blog readers may already be experiencing a different kind of “back to school” syndrome. The one where the kids are back in school, and you suddenly have time for those “someday” projects that have been swirling around in your head (you did write them down, didn’t you?).
With all the new-found time on your hands, maybe you can jump start your “make cookbook” someday project by inviting some friends over for a cookbook making party. A cookbook making party can be very entertaining, but without a lot of fuss. Read the rest of this entry »
Every once in awhile I get handwritten recipe cards featuring a recipe I have requested from a good friend or even a new acquaintance. I invariably file this card into my recipe card box for future reference.
Lately I have been including these recipe cards in my personal cookbook under the section heading “From Friends.” I do this especially if I have not tried the recipe, but want a quick way to find ideas when I need them. If I try the recipe and like it, I move it to the appropriate cookbook section, giving credit to whomever I received it from (see my copyright blog posted previously). Read the rest of this entry »
We received an inquiry this week from Mara Ruffino, who asks about copyrights and creating cookbooks. My answer is worth sharing with all of you since last month there was quite an online controversy between a blog and a food website that alleged one of its copyrighted recipes was being compromised. Here is Mara’s question:
Hi Matilda,
I am thinking about writing a cookbook and eventually publish it (not just in the family). I have been collecting recipes for a long time; some of them are my own and some of them “have no author,” meaning that I don’t know where I got them from. Therefore, I’m left wondering: how do copyrights work with cookbook recipes?
Thanks,
Mara Read the rest of this entry »
Create cookbooks and get organized! That’s right. You can create cookbooks and de-clutter at the same time!
Somewhere in the back of your mind you know there is a better way to organize all those recipes printed from the internet or clipped from newspaper food sections that you’ve been stashing away. Maybe you have a box full of them in a garage cupboard waiting to be tested, tried and perhaps tossed one day (I admit I still have one out in the garage). Read the rest of this entry »
Cookbook templates are such an easy and fun way to create cookbooks for you, your family and friends, and even for those fundraising projects that inevitably come up.
Using a cookbook template is a tried and true results-getting process steeped in many crafting traditions. For example, sewing hobbyists use patterns. Interior decorators use stencils. Painters and muralists use outlines. So using a cookbook template to automatically format a professional-looking family recipe cookbook makes sense.
When you make your own cookbook, you are all-powerful. You have no one to answer to but yourself. Of course, if you plan to make your own cookbook and give it away, others may offer a few words of “helpful advice.” My answer to them is what my favorite author once said to his critics: “Where were you when the page was blank?”
When you make your own cookbook, you can have high standards. Yours. You have the power to include whatever you wish. Or, not. If you think Aunt Bessie’s lemon pie doesn’t merit a page in your cookbook (because it’s too sweet and the meringue sweats and falls, every time), you don’t have to include it. (If Aunt Bessie wants to make her own cookbook, send her Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software.) Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t you just love to watch those television shows about different people’s lives? By adding biographical stories about relatives to your family recipe cookbook, you can create your own mini-series of sorts using characters from your own family history! Just imagine the amazement of family members when they find out Great Uncle Jack was a circus clown and a cross-dresser!
You probably know that many best-selling biographies (usually of the rich and famous) can span several volumes. In your family recipe cookbook, the biographies will be simple short stories about the people whose recipes are included in your cookbook, or about people in the family who loved the recipes. (Or whomever you want, really.) Read the rest of this entry »
As a child, I would love to read the scrapbook of poems that Aunt Sissy (my father’s sister) created from her poetry column in the local newspaper. Eventually, I came to have the scrapbook, and it brings back fond memories whenever I take a moment to reminisce. It is still one of my prized possessions, and one that I would never give away except to a family member.
Making a family recipe cookbook with my Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software is like digital scrapbooking in many ways. You add stories and photos to your recipes and family biographies. With our new feature of being able to print only one recipe per page, you can get even more creative and customize every page by adding your own special touches. Read the rest of this entry »
Queen Elizabeth’s hats or Paris Hilton’s pooch may be considered “style” by some of the fashionista set. (I won’t venture to comment further, lest the wrath of the Internet come my way.) And, “style” is a word often used in music, film, television, art and literature.
For us family recipe cookbook makers, however, “style” is the consistency of how your family recipe cookbook will appear, particularly how the recipes will appear. Recipe consistency makes your cookbook easier to read and understand. Read the rest of this entry »
There are lots of really good reasons to use Word. Making a family cookbook isn’t one of them. Here’s why:
1. It’s distracting. You will spend more time worrying about formatting your Word document than you will thinking about writing Cousin Dilbert’s Peanut Brittle recipe.
2. You won’t make your cookbook in Word consistently. Sometimes you’ll remember to Bold it. Sometimes you won’t. Sometimes the picture of the recipe is above it. Sometimes below it. With our cookbook software all the consistency is built-in for you. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you looked at your calendar lately?
Where on Earth has this year gone already?
I admit that mentally I am still somewhere in late May. My PDA, however, reminds me daily that we are smack on the verge of August. And that means we are turning the corner on, you guessed it, Christmas! It will be here before you know it.
If you are planning to create a family recipe cookbook as a Christmas gift, then I suggest you consider getting ahead of the game and start working now on putting your family recipe cookbook together using my Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software.
Here is a basic timeline to help you organize your thoughts and activities in time for Christmas:
August Select your family recipes and type them into the software’s Recipe tab. You may also cut and paste them from other documents or websites. Read the rest of this entry »
One powerful feature in using my cookbook software to preserve family cooking traditions is the ability to standardize family recipes that have been handed down for generations. Standardize the macaroni casserole so beloved by your grandfather? Sacrilege!
Not really. Let me explain.
Standardizing family recipes can be the single most important way to preserve the taste of the dishes over time (aside from creating the actual cookbook, of course). Read the rest of this entry »
If you are including family photos in your family cookbook, you probably have a few family members who are delaying your project because they don’t have a photo of themselves. You know the ones; they always look like a scared rabbit with the whites of their eyes showing (or with their eyes half-closed).
As the next generation, I cherish this cookbook. Once during the cold days of February, I craved my mother’s goulash so bad it almost brought tears to my eyes. Luckily, I had the cookbook and was quick to make the comfort food that helped me pass a blustery winter evening. Of course the recipe wasn’t made for one, so it basically helped me pass a blustery winter week.
Until that evening, the cookbook had been a nice family heirloom of sorts. Now, I look through it for ideas on easy stuff to cook when I have a free evening or need to take a dish somewhere.
The words of culinary wisdom found inside cannot be surpassed: “Gravy is NOT a beverage!”
The book tells a fun story about family members I see often and some I’ve never met.
We’ve built a pretty unique all-purpose printable kitchen conversion chart. A lot of nifty features arranged nicely on just two pages. (I’ve already printed out a copy and put it on my own refrigerator.)
• Converts cups, teaspoons, gallons, Celsius, and more.
• Charts how many cups will fit into different baking pans.
• Charts how long food can stay frozen
• Gives roasting guidelines for chicken, pork and beef
• Advises on how to cook a steak medium rare
• Extensive ingredient conversion list
• Two rulers (inch and centimeter)
If you are using our software to make a family cookbook, I strongly recommend you download this and put it into your book!
If you are just stumbling through, download and print it anyway! It’s the perfect kitchen reference tool.
You’ve waited 15 minutes in a line at Kinkos. You don’t mind, though. This family cookbook is a labor of love you’ve been working on for four months, and you are so excited to finally be at the point where you are ready to print out 25 cookbooks for your family, your friends, and most importantly your mom. You finally get your turn to place your order, and the magic crashes down around you like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
“Look, lady,” some pimply grandkid behind the counter sneers at you, “What paper stock do you want? How do you want it output? What weight you want? Doublesided or single?” He rolls his eyes. “Never mind. I’m on break.”
It doesn’t have to be that way. Although we offer print kits to allow you to make a cookbook at home for under $5.00, many want to avoid the hassles and headaches of printing their cookbook themselves. We offer printing services ourselves, but a lot of people would rather go to a printer.
So I thought I’d offer some advice on how to take back control of printing your cookbook at a local copy shop. You might still run into that pimply jerk, but at least you’ll be armed for battle:
1. Output the files to PDF. Your local copy shop probably doesn’t know what Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software is, and if you used Word (shame on you) they won’t like handling it anyway. Creating PDF (or Acrobat) files “freeze” the cookbook so text can’t re-flow to different pages and fonts can’t get lost. Nothing is more frustrating to printers and copy shops than missing fonts and files created in software they’ve never heard of. Download a free PDF creator following the link at the bottom of this page.
2. Take it to a good local print shop. I don’t generally recommend Kinkos as I personally find them to be overpriced and of mediocre service. Here’s a great Dave Chapelle parody that pretty much explains it (be warned, some strong although bleeped out language):
Ask around and find a good copyshop. I always like copy shops where the owner works in the store.
3. Ask for a heavier cover stock for the front and back cover, and 20lb text paper for the interior. There’s a huge variety of paper stocks out there, so why not be a little adventurous and go with a linen or a nice recycled paper. Make sure to have them use clear plastic sheets over the top of the front and back cover, as that will protect from spills. Fancier paper and the plastic sheets shouldn’t really add more than 25% to the cost to the job. If it does, seek a different printer.
4. If you have a limited budget, print a couple of cookbooks out in completely full color. Give those copies to the few people who will really care the most about the book. Your mother should definitely get the full color. For everybody else, just do black and white interior and color front and back cover. The number of color pages in your entire project will have a HUGE impact on the cost of the job. Plan on spending 3-5 times as much on a full-color cookbook as on a black and white cookbook.
5. Have them spiral bind it together. They may default to just using black, but if you ask a lot of print shops have a variety of spiral bind colors. Make sure you get it SPIRAL bound and not comb bound. Comb binding is like this:
Spiral binding is like this:
I hate using cookbooks that are comb bound because it looks cheaper (although it’s not) and it doesn’t lay flat on the counter when you wrap the page back. Spiral and comb binding cost about the same.
6. You can also save money by writing a printing specification and shopping it around to multiple printers to find the best price. A printing specification for your job might look like this:
“I need 20 8.5×11 cookbooks output from my PDF files in black and white double sided interior with full color doublesided covers. I’d also like an additional 5 cookbooks printed in full color throughout, also doublesided.
“For both versions, there are 45 interior sheets for a total of 90 pages of copying in the interior, plus the cover sheets. The interior sheets will be on 20lb laser text/gloss, and the cover will be 60 pound cover gloss. This is an 8.5×11″ book when finished.
“Please use a clear plastic cover sheets over the front and back for protection, and spiral bind each book with white spines (if available).
“Please provide for me a quote and an estimated amount of time it will take to complete the job.”
By writing up a printing specification like this, you can just print it out and hand it to three different printers, and they can each put a bid together on what it will cost. Most printers have email, so you can send them the specification and your PDF files without even having to go in the shop. Also, a printing specification takes some of the guesswork out of it for both the printer and you. The printer may be more inclined to give you a better price because he can tell you have your act together.
I guarantee that if you try three printers, one will be at least 25% less than the other two. However, don’t necessarily go with the cheapest. Also think about which one was the most helpful and which one has the best reputation. You might also consider having the copy shop you like the most print up a single book for you to see if it’s up to snuff.
I don’t have a lot of faith in samples that a printer has sitting around in his drawer. You don’t know if the copier used to make those samples is still around, or if that sample is just the very very best they can do. I’m not bashful–I’ll often ask to see a sample of a project they are working on right now.
Regardless, always always ALWAYS print out a single book before you print up 25 books. Look over it closely. Use it for a week. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll find something (if not many things) you’ll want to change before you do the 25 book print run.
I’ve been working with printers and copy shops for 15 years, and I know how intimidating they can be to the uninitiated. They tend to seem more rude and patronizing the less you know about what you want. But then a lot of us can come off more standoffish than we mean to in the heat of the moment.
No matter what, never let a copy shop or anyone else take away the magic of what you are doing. Making a family cookbook is a truly special and noble act. It can be a little easier if you go into the copying part of the job prepared for the experience.
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