Ever made your own cookbook?

Rosyrain

Rosyrain

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My mother started giving me her and my grandmother's old recipes when I first moved out of the house. Now that I have been on my own for over a decade, I have compiled a lot of recipes that are just stacked up in a notebook, in no particular order mind you. I was thinking of creating my own cookbook for the kids and was wondering if any of you have ever done this before? My idea is to make the whole thing out of scrapbook pages, even though I do not scrapbook.
 
I haven't done this, but a friend of mine who is a nutritionist has done so. She has a variety of her own slimmed down versions of popular recipes. I think she had a local publisher publish them...but that reminds me..to look to see if she may have any of them on Amazon. I think she has written at least 4. She has a way to make nearly everything...without so many calories.
 
Easy to do so these days. There are websites where you can create the book and then send for however many copies you want - with prices starting at around £8 (12 US dollars) per copy. I may get round to it some time!
 
I have had done it and had them printed and binded at the local printer here. It was quite nice when it was done. I had it made for my sisters. I like the idea of scraping it though. I am not a big scrap booker but I have done it in the past and really enjoyed it. All the best to you! If you decide to do it you will have to post some pictures for us to see!
 
I have my grannie's cookbooks as well as her cookery scrap book which is a folder with cut outs in it that were never stuck in.

I have a similar system. We always cook from a paper copy of a recipe. If we like the recipe and make it once, then it makes it to the cookbook with any modifications needed. If we make it routinely, then it gets stuck into the cookbook properly. Often there is now a digital copy as well, just in case (but mostly because my old cookbook was scanned in and destroyed when we sold everything to cycle around the world). Now, I have gone back to a paper copy of everything which I much prefer. I am on book 2 again! :o_o:
 
Rosyrain said:
My mother started giving me her and my grandmother's old recipes when I first moved out of the house. Now that I have been on my own for over a decade, I have compiled a lot of recipes that are just stacked up in a notebook, in no particular order mind you. I was thinking of creating my own cookbook for the kids and was wondering if any of you have ever done this before? My idea is to make the whole thing out of scrapbook pages, even though I do not scrapbook.
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Sounds like a great idea. I have not made any but it would be a treat to put together my own book. I just think, I won't find the time nor do I have the patience. Still I won't say never.
 
It's not mine but ours, in this house we share the knowledge. I am compiling the recipes of our dishes, mostly original that we had inherited from our parents although my husband has a greater contribution than mine. But what to do with that? I have no plans whatsoever with my cookbook but to serve as my reference aid when I have to cook and I seem to forget the ingredients or procedure. Besides, when we are thinking of what to cook, I always check on my cookbook for our list of dishes. In other words, it is only for personal use.
 
When I was still single and working every payday I always buy cooking and baking books and other reading materials related to cooking. That is why I may say that I had invested already many cookbooks. At the same time I had compilation of copies of the old recipes of my grandmother and mother which they are the one who had made and that had been tested to taste good with the passage of time. Actually having all of this great sources and references for cooking I do not have the plan anymore to make my own cookbook.
 
Over the last few years, my husband constantly tells me "write your recipe down!". He says this with a little frustration, because it is rare that my food ever tastes the same more than once. I experiment in the kitchen and don't follow a recipe to a tee, which is dandy and all since my hubby enjoys the outcome. However, I never remember what spices and herbs I used the next I want to create it.

My mom has always had a cookbook she wrote in, and now I think I will too. I just need to keep a notebook beside me in the kitchen.
 
Lupa06 said:
However, I never remember what spices and herbs I used the next I want to create it.
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I have a blackboard on the kitchen wall and when I create a new recipe I jot down a note on there regarding it. It doesn't have to mean anything to anyone else, and usually doesn't but it allows me to record and refine the recipe until I'm happy with it. Then it can be written into my cookbooks in enough detail for my husband to follow it.

The blackboard also gets the shopping list written on it and bring magnetic has hospital appointments and the likes stuck to it as well. I would be lost without it!
 
I collected family recipes for my sister when she got married and compiled them into a cookbook for her. At the time, I just printed everything and put all the pages in a 3-ring binder. Nowadays, you could easily use a photo website like snapfish or shutterfly to create a printed, hardbound book. We have a mount for my tablet in our kitchen so my husband made a recipe website for me to hold all our recipes. I was wasting so much paper printing out every recipe that I was using, so now I can either pull up our recipes online (and in the grocery store if I need to find ingredients) or pull up other recipes online and read off the tablet without printing them out.
 
I still have those recipes I clipped from books, magazines and newspapers. I think it is about time to organize them and create my own cookbook. I do not have anything handed to me from past generations which I wish I had. Secret recipes would make a profitable business.
 
The problem I have with the recipes I create is that I hardly ever think to write them down. I need to start doing that so that I can pass them down to my kids. Lord forbid something happens to me and my tasty recipes go with me to the grave, that would be a shame. I was thinking of typing them all out so that they look nice and clean and then making a fun book with them.
 
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