how can i make a homemade cookbook for my grown children who want mom's cooking?

Question

my kids want to cook my recipies

Answer 1

That is a cute idea! You can really have fun with a project like this. I guess the first step would be to compile maybe your top 10 recipes and write down the ingredients and detailed instructions. If you have a hard time trying to figure out how to explain a step or something just off the top of your head, you could maybe cook a few of the foods in the recipes and just write down the steps as you go along. Once you have all the recipes compiled, you could maybe type them up all fancy and even go to Kinko's or somewhere to get them professionally bound. Then your kids will have an heirloom from you that they can cherish forever and pass along to their own kids someday. My grandma kind of left behind her recipes- she had this really old cookbook from the 1940s with her handwriting in all the margins, like little notes on how to do certain things in the steps. It is extremely useful- my only problem is seeing her handwriting makes me a little misty. Your kids are lucky to have you!

Answer 2

That's a great idea. All I would think you'd need is the recipes with the proper cooking times, and some good quality pictures of the finished meals. Cafepress.com is a place where you can have books bound at a low price, or you can just make each page half the size of an 8 x 11 and then fold it over and staple it in the middle. I'm sure they'll appreciate it. :)

Answer 3

Sit with them. Compile a list of all the favorite recipes.


If possible, cook them one by one. If you have a digital camera, you can photograph them for the cook book, or use a regular camera and make color copies or prints. If there is an artist in the family, that person could draw the recipes, if you like.

Then type the recipes, or write them neatly. Place the name of the dish at the top of each page, then picture, then recipe. Print, in color, on thicker than normal paper, or copy the ones done in your handwriting on a color copier. Have each page laminated, or put them in protective sleeves.

Punch holes and mount in three ring binders-- one for each child. Use dividers to organize appetizers, soups, main courses, side dishes, desserts, drinks, etc.

If you use a binder that has those clear sleeves in front and back and sides, you can create a cover quite easily. On your printer or a color copier, place a family picture face-down in the center, and the words "____ Family Cookbook" (or other title) underneath (or you could personalize each with a photo of just you and that child instead of the whole family photo, but I have another idea for that, too). Then, behind all this, create a collage of recipe pictures, family photos, and/or other family memorobilia (the best ones are pictures of family from years past actually eating the food, if you have such pictures). Copy one cover sheet for each cookbook. Use the same title piece and some more memorobilia to form the art for the binding (you might also use a reduced family photo there). On the back, insert a copy of a letter to your whole family, a sort of blurb about the book like you see on books in stores, bordered by edges of photos and memorobilia.

Inside, enclose a table of contents first and a letter to each child with a picture of you with just that child second. Voila-- you have a fantastic family cookbook to last for generations!


Now I need to sit down and make one, too!

Answer 4

Write down EVERYTHING that you do, no matter how minor.
When I moved out of state, and asked my Mom for her beef stew recipe, she left out a LOT of details. Not intentionally, but she just didn't think about them when we were on the phone.

Include brands (if you buy certain brand name products) and sizes.

Be very specific about measurements and cooking times.
Grandmom makes cakes from scratch without using measuring cups or clocks. That doesn't help me any!

While I can now make my Mom's beef stew, I still like hers better. Your kids will still come over for dinner!

Answer 5

If you want to do it all by hand it would mean a lot to them.I wish I had a hand written cook book from my Mom.Just get each one a photo album and buy some index cards to fit it.Hand write the recipes that you know they like.Believe me they will cherish it now and then.Put some photos in them of you with a meal you cooked displayed.Have fun with it,and don't forget to put where you got the recipe and the date you wrote them out..

Answer 6

WOW!!!!That is such a great mom thing to do!!!! Put down your favorite memory of each dish. Such as the first dinner you made for their dad. Or this was your son's favorite dish when he was 5 and wouldn't eat anything else for a month. I know I love hearing stories from my mom and grandma about their favorite recipes. Include your favorite pictures of the kids helping in the kitchen, banging on pots and pans when they were 3.

Answer 7

go to www.recipezaar.com and open up an account, you can save all of your recipes there and then you can print them out for a basic cook book and add, edit, delete, or update all you want. If your'e really good on the computer with tasks and stuff you can make a cover using pictures and different fonts and add a title and stuff and personalize it for each child. it could be done for free if you know your way around the computer.

Answer 8

My mom made books like this for my brother and me. She did it the hard way. Even though she has a computer, she went and bought two spiral bound notebooks and hand wrote the recipes. It made it very personal because even after she dies, we'll have these notebooks with Mom's handwriting in them. :)

She picked out all the recipes she knew we loved then organized them by course (breads, desserts, main dishes, etc.), alphabetized them, then wrote them out long hand in her sections. She skipped 10 pages or so in each section (in case we wanted her to add more recipes later :)) and then used those little stick on index dividers and hand wrote the name of the section.

Answer 9

I used a three ring binder. I use the regular school dividers to make the different sections. Typed up the recipe including any special tips and then slip it in a plastic page protector.

Add extra protectors in the booklet so the kids can add recipes of their own.

I did this for my two daughters as well as myself. It's great because you can simply remove the recipe you are making and it stays in the protective sleeve to keep it from getting dirty.

It's also good because you can continue to add and remove recipes as the booklet grows keeping it up to date and still in order by sections.

Answer 10

That is so nice. I wish I had asked my mom to do that. Maybe you could make a book as a combination recipe/scrapbook. With things reflecting family memories. You could use different handwriting styles for each recipe, pictures, etc. Good luck! Such a nice idea.