We often get inquiries from customers about what type of paper to purchase for printing a cookbook on a home printer. Sounds like a straightforward question, but it can be a bit complicated because there are many types of paper out there to confuse you.

First, you want to choose a paper (aka “stock”) that fits the kind of printer you have. Some papers will say on the label that they are suitable for either inkjet or laser printers, or both. These papers have a better surface texture (aka “finish”) than plain copy paper, and they will produce nicer cookbook photos in either color or black-and-white. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes simple food is the best. The clever cook is one who adds spices, herbs and other inexpensive ingredients to simple food and ends up with a glorious dish that even food snobs cannot resist.

Often called international street food or peasant ethnic food (I hope because of its basic close-to-the-earth goodness), many of these savory simple food dishes are made of common staples such as grains, root vegetables, and tough scraps of meat that do well with patience.

Here are some of my favorite international simple foods:

Italian
Pasta with chopped tomatoes, chopped basil, olive oil, & freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Mexican
Beans & rice with cilantro and salsa.

Thai
Pad Thai noodles fragrant with lime juice, garlic, chiles, tamarind, and chopped peanuts.

Indian
Grilled chicken legs marinated with yogurt and at least seven spices.

Chinese
Hot Pot, a shared soup made with meats, seafood, tofu, greens, other vegetables, and condiments chosen by each person at your table.

Vietnamese
Bahn Mi sandwiches of cold cuts, pate, cilantro, shredded carrot & Daikon radish slaw, on crusty baguettes.

Arabic
Hummus sprinkled with sumac on pita bread.

Some of these simple food dishes are stunningly good and deserve a spot in your family cookbook. They were developed by budget-conscious cooks with inventive culinary skills passed down through many generations, and are indeed worthy of remembering. (I know I do at every opportunty!)

Happy simple food cookbooking,

Matilda

Preserving family treasures, including recipes for a family recipe cookbook or recipe scrapbook, can be a simple matter if you know what you’re doing. Ever since the Library of Congress lamented the loss of deteriorating books during the late 1980s, we’ve been hearing more and more about conservation techniques to save family heirlooms and museum displays.

Experts tell us that there are 7 basic enemies that haunt most keepsake preservation efforts. Here they are, beginning with the most harmful: Read the rest of this entry »

I use any excuse in the book to eat garlic, especially garlic mashed potatoes. So be it if I reek after eating a fine bowl of garlic mashed potatoes. 

Some Things to Know About Garlic
- One finely minced raw garlic clove releases more flavor and aroma because more surfaces are exposed Read the rest of this entry »

When adding biographies and family stories to my family cookbook, I always follow the basic principle of KISS (keep it short & simple).  To do this, I try to focus on one topic at a time when telling a tale, and avoid everything my subject discusses that is off the topic. This can be hard to do, especially when the subject rambles or hopskotches through years of a life well-lived. Read the rest of this entry »

I was looking for some inspired funeral food the other day to take to a grieving family, and was struck by the lack of local information on the subject.  I realized that churches could provide a great service for their congregations and the community if they could include a section in their church fundraising cookbook that explains the local traditions of funeral food and funeral etiquette. Read the rest of this entry »

As the weather becomes cooler and leaves begin to turn amber and red, it is time to pull out a favorite family recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies that my family has been making for many decades.

These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are plump, cakelike cookies that have a moist and delicious pumpkin flavor accented by chocolate pieces throughout.  I don’t know why, but they have a haunting flavor that draws me to them around Halloween time.  The ghosts of ancestors past perhaps, who baked these cookies in the embers of burned witches … (just kidding!). Read the rest of this entry »

My friend, Ruth, and I used to be so confused about how to cook in a convection oven. After all, we both grew up in areas where wood-burning stoves were common, so having an oven that blows hot air around was quite a breakthrough in cooking for us.

We now understand the technology of convection ovens: A little built-in fan circulates hot air around inside the oven, which cooks foods quicker and more evenly than a non-convection (or regular) oven. Read the rest of this entry »

“How much time does it take to make a family cookbook?” This is a question our customers often ask when buying our Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software.

The answer is as simple or as complex as our customers want to hear (we didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know.)  How much time it takes to make a family cookbook is dependent upon 5 important areas of discussion, which we ask right back: Read the rest of this entry »

I stumbled across a fascinating food pairing website the other day that I just have to share. It is a great resource for anyone who likes to cook, from professional chefs to food contest competitors and home cooks, on down to youngsters who are just beginning to explore the pleasures of culinary combinations.

The food pairing website was developed by a group of Belgian scientists who want to inspire new food recipes and groupings, and also to provide suggestions on what might be good substitutes for a particular ingredient when it is not available (or if one has allergies).

To test the food pairing website, I entered “pumpkin” in the search window, and read with some curiosity and amazement the result (noted below), which is based on scientific flavor and taste combinations that might be compatible:

Pumpkin can be combined with -
- Dairy: Butter, Cheddar and Gruyere
- Meat: Chicken cooked, San Daniele ham and Chicken roasted
- Chocolate, coffee, tea: Dominican Republic white chocolate, Tea black and Vanuatu milk chocolate

The search result on the food pairing website also comes with a visual “flavor array” that shows the relationship between the main ingredient and other ingredients that are compatible based on their flavor profile.  Some of the compatible food suggestions are quite unusual, and your imagination can certainly be creative.

Check out the food pairing website:  http://www.foodpairing.be/

Hmm, how about steam-grilled pumpkin slices over honey-drizzled basmatic rice garnished with grated Vanuatu milk chocolate? I’ll have to think about that before I add it to my family cookbook.

Happy cookbooking,

Matilda

Somewhere in my notes I had stashed away a scrap of paper scrawled with the words: October – Family History Month. The note was meant to remind me to suggest how great it would be to have a Family Cookbook Month instead.

Family Cookbook Month could be even bigger than Family History Month. Along with tracing one’s ancestry through the popular genealogy websites, families could get together to discuss favorite family recipes and preserve them in a family cookbook.

Families could use a cookbook software (mine immediately comes to mind) that already allows users the ability to include a family tree, complete with photos and biographies. Read the rest of this entry »

Is there a section in your family cookbook devoted to the age-old fundraiser known as a bake sale? If not, you might want to add these 5 tips for bake sale success into a new section devoted to such events, along with recipes for your favorite easy-to-make bake sale goodies.

With schools and churches having bake sales for fundraising, now is also a good time to review what makes a successful bake sale. Following are my 5 tips for bake sale success: Read the rest of this entry »

A loud pounding sound radiating from the kitchen captured my attention and curiosity. Upon arrival, I caught my husband using my best French chef’s knife to jab frozen mango Tang out of my favorite clear plastic Kool Aid-style pitcher. I wasn’t too happy about the potentials of his act: breaking the knife; breaking the pitcher, cutting himself.   Read the rest of this entry »

Once I had a potluck dinner party and no one brought anything. I was puzzled, in that I had specified the type of event in my invitation, both written and verbal. Guests said they didn’t know what to bring, and they knew from previous events that I would have enough food for an army anyway.

Guess what? That was the first time I had decided to stay on budget, not go overboard with last minute changes of mind and menu, and made just what the recommended per person serving amounts were. I made a very large pan of Lawry’s famous Sour Cream Tortilla Casserole as a side to barbecued steak and chicken.  I was horrified (mortified) when one guest asked if I had another pan made in the oven, since she didn’t get any!  (Everyone apparently assured her that I had more.) Read the rest of this entry »

During this week prior to Yom Kippur (High Holy Days), I am reminded of the many Jewish congregations that have put together sisterhood fundraising cookbooks for their charitable causes.

One sisterhood fundraising cookbook I ran across years ago included a light-hearted look at Jewish life and culture, with many funny stories from members of the temple sisterhood interwoven between the recipes. It was called “Chicken Soup,” (not to be confused with the best-selling Chicken Soup series), and most of the recipes fit into the following categories: Read the rest of this entry »

Every year after school starts a lot of groups look for fundraising projects for various schools, houses of worship, and community organizations. Let’s face it, fundraising for these groups is a never ending cycle, and it is particularly challenging in these economic times.

One thing I’ve learned over the years about fundraising is that people will donate generously if they perceive “value.” That concept can be further summed up as “getting something in return for my donation.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Cleaned the refrigerator today and was dismayed to find that I have depleted my supply of capers. No self-respecting refrigerator should be without a jar of capers (in my opinion).

You can do so much as a cook with so few of those salty little piquant pickled gems. My favorite caper-oriented dish is sliced chicken breast accented with a buttery sauce of lemon juice and …. capers.

Here are some other uses I have for capers that I have noted in my family cookbook:
- Deviled egg filling
- Caesar salad dressing
- Cream cheese spread
- Pasta salad
- Pizza topping
- Martini garnish
- Tartar sauce
- Meatball ingredient

What concerns me most about my lack of capers in the refrigerator is that I didn’t realize I was out of capers. Oh, my. Clearly I’ve been amiss in using my very own grocery shopping list pad! Or, at the very least I’ve been remiss in cooking with capers in general, and didn’t notice that I used the last bit of them. Either way, I’m bound to go on a great grocery store caper caper this weekend.

Happy cookbooking,

Matilda

As you probably know by now, our cookbook & recipe software is not like any other cookbook & recipe software. Some cookbook & recipe software is designed specifically for making cookbooks (that’s us!), and some cookbook & recipe software is designed specifically for managing recipes (that’s us, too!).  Our cookbook & recipe software combines the best of both worlds.

Why should you care? With the major gifting holiday season fast approaching, cookbook & recipe software offers a wonderful solution for those who like to give thoughtful gifts. Read the rest of this entry »

Every once in awhile, when I’m down in the dumps, I indulge in a favorite childhood delicacy known as a fried bologna sandwich. My fried bologna sandwich is pretty simple and doesn’t really need a family recipe or a family cookbook to prepare:

Fry a slice of bologna.
Add the fried bologna to a slice of bread.
Fold the bread in half (No mayo, mustard, pickles, lettuce, tomato required).
Eat the fried bologna sandwich. Read the rest of this entry »

There are many types of cooks. Some cooks are wonderful at creating new and unusual dishes with what’s in the pantry. Other cooks are more dependent upon recipes and products that are on the grocery store shelf. Still other cooks prefer the crafter method of making everything themselves (it definitely is one sure way to know exactly what you’re eating). Read the rest of this entry »

Some people think that creating a family cookbook is worse than going into labor. Can you believe that? They obviously haven’t tried Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software. I made sure that creating a family cookbook was not anything like labor of any sort, but fun and easy.

I can understand how some people might think creating a family cookbook is too complicated or hard. But it doesn’t have to be. With our easy to use software, you don’t have to do any organizing upfront before you start creating your family cookbook. Read the rest of this entry »

Hard to believe that we are nearly into the Labor Day holiday! The calendar pages for 2009 are flipping so fast that it seems like we are all in cartoon. If you plan to have a few friends and family members over for a Labor Day BBQ, why not make it a labor-less Labor Day BBQ?  After years of hosting labor-intensive parties, I got smarter, so here are my 10 tips for a labor-less Labor Day BBQ: Read the rest of this entry »

Have you had your catfish today? Apparently August is National Catfish Month. Didn’t you get the memo?

National Catfish Month seems to be the only “national month” designation for the month of August. (There are rumors that August is National Peach Month, National Watermelon Month, and National Sandwich Month, but I couldn’t confirm them.)

Other months have several “national” titles, such as September being designated National Mushroom Month, National Rice Month, National Biscuit Month, National Chicken Month, AND National Honey Month.

Such national observations are helpful for the particular industry they promote, and some even raise awareness.  However, a true national holiday requires an act of Congress to make it official.  So, if any of these commemorative days and months are actually government-sanctioned, the food industry must have some very busy lobbyists.

Below is a list of just-past “national” days in August.  Most of the days seem to appeal to those with sweet tooths, all except the mustard celebration on August 5.  (Note to President Obama’s critics, Grey Poupon Mustard is made by Kraft Foods , so it is American!).

To be fair, here are the celebration “days” we have already observed for the month of August:

August 1   National Raspberry Cream Pie Day
August 2   National Ice Cream Sandwich Day
August 2   National Ice Cream Soda Day
August 3   National Watermelon Day
August 4   National Chocolate Chip Day
August 5   National Mustard Day
August 6   National Root Beer Float Day
August 7   Raspberries ‘n Cream Day
August 8   National Frozen Custard Day
August 9   National Rice Pudding Day
August 10   National S’mores Day
August 11   National Raspberry Bombe Day
August 14   National Creamsicle Day
August 15   National Lemon Meringue Pie Day
August 17   National Vanilla Custard Day
August 18   National Ice Cream Pie Day
August 19   National Soft Ice Cream Day
August 20   National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day
August 21   National Spumoni Day
August 22   National Pecan Torte Day
August 23   National Spongecake Day
August 24   National Peach Pie Day
August 25   National Banana Split Day
August 26   National Cherry Popsicle Day
August 27   National Pots de Creme Day
August 28   National Cherry Turnovers Day

Just so we don’t lose out on the rest of the celebrations, here are the remaining designated “days” for the month of August:

August 29   More Herbs Less Salt Day
August 30   National Toasted Marshmallow Day
August 31   National Trail Mix Day

So looking forward to National Chocolate Milkshake Day on Saturday, September 12. My dear friend Ruth and I will make it a point to enjoy a favorite indulgence. Now if I can only remember where I put my appointment calendar to jot it down. Perhaps I tucked it in my family cookbook.

Happy cookbooking,

Matilda

Whew! Is it me, or is there a heat wave going around that just won’t quit. Or, do we blame these hot August nights on global warming even though Neil Diamond’s been singing about these hot August nights since the early ‘70s.

Nevertheless, these hot August nights can certainly be trying on nerves. There are several ways to cool down on these hot August nights, and here are some of my favorites, in no particular order: Read the rest of this entry »