My father had some unusual tastes in food to a kid hanging around wondering what all the fuss was in the kitchen. Burnt toast eaten with sunny side up eggs was one combination I remember. The smell of charred forgotten toast still makes me think of him. Scrapple. Corn pancakes. He also liked raw oysters, and it wasn’t until I was in my mid-30s that I learned to appreciate them.

My father grew up in hard times just after the turn of the 20th century, when men changed their shirt collars instead of their shirts, and bread that you sliced yourself was a few pennies a loaf.

One Father’s Day we made hamburger dogs and sunny side up egg cake for my father’s appreciation celebration.  The hamburgers were shaped like hot dogs. They were not too appetizing looking, but they did taste pretty good. I do remember it was a bit hard to adapt to the idea that hamburger meat shaped like hot dogs and eaten in a hot dog bun were still Father’s Day hamburgers.

The sunny side up egg cake was cute. It was a yellow cake with white frosting when you could get frosting in a box. I decorated it with a sunny side up egg by drawing an oblong outline in black frosting on the flat smooth top surface, and added a yolk of yellow frosting to complete the sunny side up effect.

This was all reminiscent of a time my father and I tried to fry an egg outside with a cast iron skillet using the hot August sun for heat, testing the axiom “it’s so hot you can fry an egg on the sidewalk.”  (It took awhile, but we eventually did get our egg cooked.)

I’m sure you also have some food memories of your father that would fit into your family cookbook. Just write them into the “People” template of Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software, and your family cookbook will come alive with some precious personal memories.

Happy cookbooking,

Matilda

Nothing is more frustrating that knowing you need to accomplish something with a software but don’t understand how to do it. Add a deadline, and waah! I can be in tears in no time.  (I tend to always think the problem is me, not the software.)  So when we created Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software, we tried to take the “tech” out so anybody could use it.

Some recipe softwares pack so many “value-added” features to their product bundle that you forget what you’re buying. In reality, most people want just a few simple functions upfront in a recipe software:

- Recipe templates that accept typed or cut-and-paste recipe entries
- Automatic formatting
- Ability to customize pages
- Results to be proud of
- Ability to get help quickly, if needed

Then, after making your family cookbook and including your favorite family recipes, it should also be easy to:

- Edit the family cookbook
- Easily print the family cookbook
- Create custom recipe cards
- Add photos and bios
- Add more recipes, if desired
- Search recipes
- Email recipes to others

We are the first to admit that other cookbook software does exist. However, WE strive to help you write a family cookbook in a friendly, less tech way that still enables you to obtain great professional-quality results.

Happy cookbooking,

Matilda

Sadly, so often these bonds grow when the daughter makes a cookbook in memorial to one who has passed on. If you are thinking about making a family cookbook, I can’t urge you strongly enough to use it as an opportunity to grow closer to those whom you care about.

Here’s the story.

A quote:

I wanted her to know the cookbook would live on and through that her memory and spirit would live on forever. When I gave her the news she just smiled and looked into my eyes and raised her hand with her fingers crossed.

I’m strongly considering carrying her cookbook in our store. It just seems in the perfect spirit of our company.