How to Put Together a Family Recipe Cookbook
Putting together a family recipe cookbook is an excellent way to share favorite foods, document history and ensure that delicious dishes will remain in your family for generations to come. A family recipe cookbook makes an excellent wedding, Christmas or birthday present. By compiling a cookbook, you are ensuring that your family members' personal recipes will be available for your children and grandchildren. While making the cookbook, you will also have the chance to reconnect with long-lost family members. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Compose a letter to your family members explaining that you are making a cookbook. Reach out to your family members by regular mail or email to ask them to send you their favorite recipes. Gather some biographical information about each family member so that you can include it in the cookbook. Also, verify the correct spellings of first and last names.
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Gather family photos. Go through your photo albums and scrapbooks to choose images that capture specific food-related family gatherings, such as picnics and holidays, to include in your cookbook. If you don't have enough, ask your family to send you images from their personal collections. Including family photos will enhance your cookbook by making it more intimate. Make sure to include each family member's name by the appropriate pictures so future generations will recognize them.
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Type the recipes into a template. After you have gathered all your information, format it into one computer file that you can send to a printer if you choose to do so. Alphabetize the recipes, and include your family members' biographical information beside each one. If you are making the cookbook as a gift for someone, type a tribute or dedication for the front page.
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Categorize the recipes, and make title pages and tabs for each section. Include images in the appropriate places; you may choose to put them beside the recipes, or you can dedicate a photo section in the back of the book.
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Print your cookbook; you have several options on how to do this. You can print the pages on your home printer, punch holes in the sides of the paper and compile the pages into a three-ring binder. You can also take a CD file to a office supply store, such as Staples, and have the pages printed and bound. You can also choose to have your cookbook published through an exclusive cookbook publisher, which may be more costly than the other options.
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