Mallory and Tyler – We hope your wedding went well last year, and congratulations on your one year anniversary! Hope you love your new bridal recipe collection.
All the best
Erin
Check out the Bliss recipe box here and the Bumblebee recipe cards here.
Sarah Whinnaker had the stressed out look of an engaged bride-to-be who suddenly feels like six months wasn’t nearly enough time to plan.
“I’m giving up on the wedding cookbook, Erin. It just isn’t going to happen. There’s no way I’m getting it together with everything else going on.”
“Your mistake,” I replied, “is in trying to get your wedding cookbook done in time for your wedding.”
She stared at me like too many young people stare at too many old people. “You just don’t understand. There’s so much to do.”
“So why not let your guests do some of the work?”
“What?”
“Have you sent out invitations yet?”
She sighed. “Not until next week.”
“Print up a card to go with your invitations. Just a business card size will do. On it, write (in the same style as your invite, if you like): ‘The Bride And Groom wish to make a Jefferson Family Wedding Cookbook after the wedding. Please write on the attached recipe card your own favorite recipe that you think they would enjoy. Also, please mention if you’d like a copy of the finished Jefferson Family Wedding Cookbook mailed to you as a memento.”
She stared at me for a moment. “Wow. What a great way to get everyone involved! I could put your cards out on the plates at the reception, and people could fill them out then too. It’d be a great way to get people talking to each other. My aunt will be sitting next to Jeff’s sister, and they could share casserole recipes.”
“And,” I continued, “a few months after the wedding, people would be getting a keepsake in the mail that they never got at a wedding before.”
She looked positively gleeful. “I’ll take photos from the disposable cameras at the wedding and use them to decorate pages! Maybe use a formal wedding pose for the front cover!”
Her eyes fell. “Oh god! The disposable cameras! I need to get them too!”
And just like that she marched away, mumbling about Kodak and Polaroid. I guess there’s only so time you can give a bride with just six months left to get ready.
Here’s a nice story from a customer about their own wedding cookbook. Just scroll down a bit.
If you are thinking about making a wedding cookbook, please look at my cookbook software. Also, here’s the engraved wedding recipe binder shown above.
Since Chelsea Clinton’s wedding reception featured vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes, this kind of food is now well on the way to becoming a staple of mainstream American cooking.
But if you thumb through your family cookbook, you’ll probably find more vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes than you might have imagined.Continue reading
Do you know someone recently engaged? Looking for the perfect and one of a kind gift? Something that will say WOW? Look no further! we have some very lovely Cutting Boards. You can have it engraved to make it very personal or if you know what the love couple likes you can go with a standard design. We have many laser cut designs to choose from. You can see the entire personalized cutting board collection here.
Make a young couple very happy with a unique gift straight from the heart.
Erin
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.
3. I want my mom’s ginger snaps to be enjoyed by my grandkid’s grandkids one day.
My uncle’s/grandmother’s/grandkid’s recipes need to be saved and enjoyed for future generations.
4. Feed my ego!
I have always wanted to have a cookbook published.
5. I need one more book!
My cookbook collection is too big, but I could pick out the recipes I like from all of them and then give the extra cookbooks away.
6. The handwriting is on the wall (and I can’t read it!)
I would like to take all those handwritten scraps I have in my recipe box and make them easy to find.
7. Reunion coming!
My family is having a reunion /wedding soon, and a cookbook of family recipes would be a fabulous keepsake.
8. Fundraising!
My church / company / club / non-profit does such great potlucks, we should make a cookbook and sell it to make money for projects / supplies / charity / promotions.
9. Who wants to scroll with (literal) butterfingers?
The recipes on my computer are sometimes inconvenient to use, so I want a hard copy to refer to when cooking.
10. I need to save money.
I need inexpensive gifts to give for the holidays, and I can print out 10 cookbook gifts for under $10 each.
If you are reading this page, most likely you are thinking about your own reasons to make a cookbook: fundraising, preservation of family traditions, ego, downsizing, personal-touch presents for others.
No matter what your reason is to make a cookbook, any time is the perfect time to start your cookbook making project. Be sure your choice of cookbook making software offers a variety of options. We are partial to our own Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software, but there are many options available for cookbook makers. Be sure to choose the one you are comfortable using, suits your purpose, and is easy to operate.
Happy cookbooking
Erin
With Mardi Gras festivities officially underway in New Orleans on Feb. 24, it seems only fitting that we let the good times roll with a better understanding of Creole and Cajun food. The spicy delights of both cuisines are finding their way into my current cookbook project, which is creating a family cookbook collection of regional American foods.
The last time I was in New Orleans (or Nawlins, Nola, N’orluns, if you prefer), I attended a wedding. It was some time ago, and I managed to sneak away from the pre-nuptial activities one morning to have breakfast at Brennan’s. It is still the most expensive single off-the-menu breakfast I have ever eaten, and it was glorious.
While dining in New Orleans, it never really bothered me that various dishes I ate while there mostly came from two very different French-speaking cultures: Creole and Cajun. While I’m not going to discuss the history of the region, suffice to say that Creoles are considered descendants of immigrant colonials from Spain and France, while Cajuns are descended from French Canadian exiles.
Their two very different origins make for some very interesting dishes, some that I’m including in my family cookbook collection. Here are some ways to tell the difference between Creole and Cajun food:
Characteristics of Creole Food
– Spanish/French colonial influence with African and Italian undertones
– From cosmopolitan city dwellers (The French Quarter)
– Rich glorious sauces made with herbs and mild spices
– Lots of butter, cream and high-end ingredients
– Jambalaya will be reddish and made with tomatoes
– Not usually hot in spice intensity
– Can be quite showy, colorful
Characteristics of Cajun Food
– French Canadian influence with French and Southern undertones
– From country swampland dwellers who fish, trap and hunt (The Bayou)
– Features local victuals, such as alligator, possum, turtle
– Ingenious rustic gravies made with inexpensive ingredients (port fat, spices, fresh garden patch pickings)
– Jambalaya will be brown, without tomatoes
– Usually hot in spice intensity, and may be blackened
– Generally modest one-pot food, plain and simple
As I’ve said, which cuisine I eat is of little matter to me as long as it tastes good. And I haven’t had a single thing in New Orleans that I didn’t like. I can’t wait to add several more Creole and Cajun recipes to my new family cookbook collection of regional American foods. I bet you might enjoy doing the same thing!
Happy cookbooking,
Erin
Check out these gorgeous Made In the USA recipe boxes. They can be personalized with your own name or wedding date on them. See the cherry recipe box selection here.
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.
Here are 5 ways cookbook templates can help you have more fun making your cookbook:Continue reading