Since starting Mike’s weekly cooking challenge, I have been slowly making a cookbook. My grandma’s recipes are written out on old, fading paper, and many of them are literally falling apart. I want Annie to have copies of everything, so while I am scanning my grandma’s handwritten cards, I am also typing out every recipe into a word document. I found a great free template for this and it’s been really easy to slowly add a page to the book each week.
Speaking of cookbooks, I was reading this awesome booklet on handmade Thanksgiving ideas, and it occurred to me I should also make seasonal cook books – both my family and Mike’s family have lots of great holiday recipes. So I will be taking lots of pictures of food this week. And taste-testing. Mmmmm.
I am no great shakes when it comes to food photography, but I do well enough by following the basics. Use solid-colored dishes (white if possible), use natural light (or lots of artificial light – my kitchen doesn’t get any natural light), and take photos when your food is “fresh,” meaning, as soon as it’s done. Getting in close to capture little details doesn’t hurt either.
savory monkey bread
Getting a picture of the finished product is key! I have forgotten to do that way too many times.
I have eight finished pages so far that I have in a nice binder.
I printed them out on 8.5 x11 photo paper, but brochure/flyer paper would also work really well.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the idea of printing them off into a cookbook! I’m just storing my recipes and photos online for now on my blog, but I’d love to print them off someday!
Annie´s last [type] ..Biscoff White Chocolate Chip Blondies
The template link did not work. I have lots of handwritten recipes and many of which I have tweaked quite a bit. (I never add onions!) I’d love to set up a cookbook using an easy template.
Rebecca´s last [type] ..Next Step Moving
gah, I do NOT know what happened there! It should work for you know – it prompts you to download it, it’s a word doc.
Your recipes are saving my life seriously because the kitchen is uncharted territory (except the eating part lol) so thanks from both me and the ones I’m feeding
The template download didn’t work for me either.
It is fixed!
You know all those great photo sites that so many photo books have available now? (shutterfly, snapfish, etc) You can not only concoct your own cookbooks using their templates, you can take all these photos from your step-by-step blogposts and incorporate them!
In my mind, that would make a MUCH more Awesome cookbook to pass on to Annie and any other children than just a “normal” written cookbook with pics of the final product. Seeing pics of her parents (and herself) when they were “young” would make it a momento as well as recipes.
Just another idea. Your cooking blogposts are so great I know if I was your kid (not in a creepy way) I’d love to have this as an adult.
I love reading your recipes have printed some out and hope to try them soon. If you sold your cookbook I would buy a copy for sure
. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your fam!
Love,
Michele Wallace
I thought of you when I read today that Corso dropped an F-bomb on the air! :p
I see Lisa got here first – I immediately thought of you when I heard about the F-bomb, how I wish you had been there.
What a great thing to pass down to Annie
How about printing and selling your cookbooks as a fundraiser for Friends Of Maddie? Maybe even just as a pdf where people could download and print the cookbook to save shipping costs… Just a thought!
I think this is an excellent idea
!
why is it called monkey bread? love the tagline btw “burning food since…”
gayatri.life.unordinary´s last [type] ..St. Joseph’s Convent – Questions Answered
I just want to tell you I had an excellent experience printing a family cookbook through http://www.tastebook.com. You should check them out – You can personalise the recipe pages, adding photos etc to each page (which I did). I collected recipes from everyone in my family (aunts, sister in laws etc) and put them together with recipes from my (now deceased) grandmother as well as some of my favourites that I use regularly. I printed 12 and gave them to all the people that contributed recipes…
I can send you a link so you can see what it looks like…
Sorry for the shameless plug for my day job, but I thought this offer was a perfect tie-in for your fab cookbook idea:
If anyone is in the Chicago area, Calumet Photo is offering a food photography workshop on 12/3 at its Oak Brook store. Enter “foodie” as the discount code and you can get $15 off the $50 workshop fee.
http://www.cvent.com/d/gcqjnz
Thanks!
mom-mom-mom´s last [type] ..The Ultimate Week According to a Nine-Year-Old Boy
I collected recipes from everyone in my family (aunts, sister in laws etc) and put them together with recipes from my (now deceased) grandmother as well as some of my favourites that I use regularly. I printed 12 and gave them to all the people that contributed recipes
Alexendra Stan´s last [type] ..Best way to win the lottery
What a fabulous idea! I have such a mess of recipes that Ive printed off the net, that are crambed in an overflowing binder……
Thanks for sharing the great idea and the tips. Your book looks fantastic!
Lanie´s last [type] ..Yesterday
Such a great idea! I’m going to get started on one for my daughter.
I’ve started putting photos in a seperate folder along with my recipes. My local supermarket has an photobook creator. my plan is to combine all my favourite photos and recipes and upload them and then the book is created and mailed to me.
Becca_Masters´s last [type] ..Wired
This is awesome!
I may be just totally lame, but how do you add more “recipe” pages?
{ 1 trackback }