Make a family recipe book
Use your computer to preserve your family's culinary history
Updated: June 23, 2005
A homemade recipe book is a timeless celebration of your family's culinary history, one that could include recipes, stories, pictures, and personal mementos. A family recipe book is part recipe collection, part scrapbook, part diary, and part family photo album.
There are many different tools you can use with Windows XP to create your recipe book depending on how elaborate you want to go. There are however some essentials that you'll need.
| • | A word processing program like Microsoft Word (or a publishing software program like Microsoft Publisher). |
| • | A scanner if you want to scan handwritten recipes. |
| • | A printer—color is preferable if you include pictures in your recipe book. |
| • | A digital camera is ideal for snapping photos of your own culinary creations and getting great photos to complement your different pages. |
Gather and organize the elements of your recipe book
The first step is to collect and organize everything you need to begin your project. Start by creating a folder on your computer devoted to the family recipe book. Call it "Recipe Book." Now create subfolders within this folder, such as "Pictures," "Recipes," "Mementos," "Stories," and so on.
Next, make a list of the family members you want to include in this book and make a note of the recipes you need to collect from them. You'll also want to note any special stories that you need to capture related to those recipes. You might also create a list of any pictures you need to take or scan to enhance these recipe pages.
If you don't already have your recipes on your computer, now is the time to begin typing them into your word processing software.
Get your pictures in order
Look at the list of recipes, photos, and memories you've created and start organizing your photos. You may have some that you've taken with your digital camera or others that you need to scan. You'll also want to keep in mind any pictures you still need. For example, you might have vivid memories of your mother in her kitchen and realize that you don't have a picture of her there. Take that picture the next time you visit. You may also want to take pictures of your family's favorite cookbook covers or related kitchen items. My grandmother had a flour bin that she used to hold and prepare ingredients for her famous homemade muffins. A picture of the flour bin would enhance the page with her muffin recipe in a very special way.
Scan your old pictures and recipes
Old pictures and fading handwritten recipes will add a real personal flavor to your book. Even if you retype some of the handwritten recipes, a picture of the original in your grandmother's handwriting adds a memorable touch to the page. If a recipe has been handed down over the generations of your family, scan photos of those relatives and use them to accompany the recipe or story. The goal is to immortalize these culinary memories and the people associated with them.
You can also try scanning special items like small cooking utensils that have been handed down through your family. Scanning the cover of an old family recipe books is also a great way to capture the imagery of each generation and is sure to stir a memory of those using your recipe book.
Add your comments to each recipe
This book is part of your family history, so be sure to write a short blurb to accompany each recipe. Perhaps there's a funny anecdote about one of the family dinners, such as when Grandpa fell asleep at the table after eating the roast beef, or when Aunt Sally enjoyed the Merlot a little too much.
Personalize the historical perspective of your recipes so future generations realize why something in your book is significant. If you include a picture of an old family cookbook cover, write a caption about the memories that the book has for you.
Lay out the pages
Once you've gathered all the elements—recipes, anecdotes, pictures, and scanned keepsakes—it's time to plan the layout of each page and get the materials ready for the book. First, organize the recipes by type of food (salads, pastas, desserts, and so on) or by meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and so on) or by family member.
To get ideas on how to do the layout, open up a cookbook to see how recipes are organized and displayed on a page. There are two approaches you can take in making your book:
| • | Each page contains a recipe and related images. |
| • | Two-page spreads that has related stories and photos on the left page and the actual recipe on the right page. |
Another way to think about how you approach the layout is by the type of page, like this:
| • | Recipe pages: Insert pictures of the dishes into the document you've typed a recipe into. You may want to also include a picture of the person associated with the recipe. |
| • | Memory pages: Tell your story on these pages. This is where you can place images of scanned handwritten recipes and add your own commentary to preserve your memories. |
Regardless of which method you choose to create your book, play around with the layout to create interesting and meaningful collages of pictures, stories, and the actual recipes.
Printing and putting it all together
Any color inkjet printer should do the trick, but invest in some high-quality paper, as you'll want this book to last a long time. There are many premium specialty papers available that would be ideal for this project.
If you really want this family recipe book to withstand the test of time, you can laminate each page before binding all of them together. This isn't such a bad idea as it may also prevent splashes in the kitchen from ruining your hard work. You can have this done at many office stores or copy centers.
While you're picking up printer paper, buy a binder and a three-hole punch. A binder is a good idea so you can easily turn the pages; the pages will also stay open for you to read the recipe while you cook, leaving your hands free to prepare the food. Buy a binder that is bigger than you need so the recipe book can grow over time. Finally, don't forget to create a cover for your book.
Have fun making this one-of-a-kind recipe book. You and your family will cherish this collection of savory memories for a long time.
 | Marc Saltzman is a prolific freelance journalist, author, and radio and TV host. He specializes in video gaming, consumer electronics, computer software and hardware, portable devices, and Internet trends. Along with his weekly syndicated columns with Gannett News Service,
USAToday.com
,
CNN.com
, and CanWest Media, Marc currently contributes to more than 40 prominent publications, such as Playboy, AARP – The Magazine, LA Times, USA Today, National Post, Microsoft Home Magazine, PC Gamer, and Electronic Gaming Monthly. Marc has authored 12 books and is a regular on-air technology expert on "Next @ CNN," an award-winning tech show seen on CNN and its affiliates.
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