A strange thing happened on the way to the kitchen...

**Lady_V** · 01-20-2008, 10:08 AM

I had an epiphany today while I was walking in to my kitchen a few minutes ago... I am going to write a cookbook!

I have a ton of recipes scattered all over the house in notebooks, 3x5 cards or scraps of paper. I am going to actually compile them in to one place.

The majority of them are frugal, most are things I created on the fly and my family liked them so I scribbled them down on whatever was handy before I forgot what I used.

I don't plan on selling it, mostly to have it for me, and pass it down to DD. It will be a constant work in progress... but I may give them out to family/friends for the holidays. I called the ex, he said I can use his copier and I only have to pay for the paper and toss $5 towards the ink if I am going to be making over 1000 pages.

I don't know if I am going to type them out or just make a template and copy that and hand-write it. All I do know if that I am excited because I will finally have some organization to my kitchen creation chaos!

**AmyMCGS** · 01-20-2008, 10:09 AM

Sounds great! I think it would be a neat, not to mention frugal, gift for your friends and family next Christmas.

**Libby** · 01-20-2008, 10:12 AM

I think thats a wonderful idea....great hand me down - if you know what I mean

**lwlynch** · 01-20-2008, 10:16 AM

That is a great idea. I always wished I had my mothers cookbooks that she wrote her stuff in...

**Momto2Boyz** · 01-20-2008, 10:27 AM

THat is a great idea! Dh has been trying to talk me into writing a cookbook, and I've been thinking about it.

My stuff is scattered everywhere too. When we first got married, I took a magnetic page photo album and used that for recipes. So just an idea for you...it worked really well, to keep things together!

**emily_hope** · 01-20-2008, 10:44 AM

I think that is a marvelous idea and will be a treasure for your DD.

**ballylarkin** · 01-20-2008, 10:48 AM

That's a great idea. Scott's family did that and last Christmas his mom gave me my very own copy

**Lady_V** · 01-20-2008, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by Momto2Boyz

I took a magnetic page photo album and used that for recipes.

The downside of the magnetic albums are, you really can't add pages to them, and they are not archive friendly. Eventually the paper will turn yellow and fade off and the pages will no longer stick. Great idea for small albums, but unfortunately won't work for me. (I am hoping that my DD will add to it and pass it down too)

**Jskell911** · 01-20-2008, 11:15 AM

Great idea! I would love to have a handed down family cookbook.

**bluebird728** · 01-20-2008, 11:23 AM

Just a thought... I recently discovered that you can enter private recipes on the allrecipies web site. Perhpas you could create a "Friends and Family" account and put the recipies on that?

They are also advertising a way to publish a cookbook based on the recipies you have in the system. That would probably be more expensive than printing your own, but though I would through it out there as an option.

**Ceashels** · 01-20-2008, 11:27 AM

Thats a wonderful idea. I think anyone would love to have a copy of that given with a "sample" recipe from it. Are there items you could preblend to give as part of the gift?

**Squirt** · 01-20-2008, 11:34 AM

I collected recipes and made a cookbook at work a few years ago. We gave all the profits to needy families- it was a big hit.

The problem was I did it myself in Word and it took forever! I searched and found several sites which have premade cookbook designs and methods of producing them which would have been easier and more durable than the one I made. I was just too short on time to do it.

I highly suggest using a place like that (or allrecipes) so you end up with a sturdy product and save yourself the agony of layout, printing, and buying paper and ink. Don't forget you will probably be printing double-sided and maybe on a book that is 1/2 the size of a large sheet of paper. You have no idea how hard it is to arrange the recipes the way you want in a layout like that. Most likely, it will take more than a set of ink cartridges to print one 1,000 page book.

Good luck- it sounds like a fun project and a great idea!

**miss_thrifty** · 01-20-2008, 09:01 PM

My MIL has all her recepies and ones he got from others written on the cards with the name given from that person on themm in a photo album. But its the ones with stcky back and plastic goes on top. so incase she makes mess , just wipes off the plastic.

**zakity** · 01-20-2008, 09:34 PM

My mother did that. She wrote them out long hand because this was 20-25 years ago. She made it for herself in a three ring binder. She copied the pages and made my sister and I a copy. I am glad that she did because I have used a few recipes out of it.

**qtkitty** · 01-20-2008, 11:00 PM

If you type it up .. then you could publish it electronicly and sell it online... i know you said you were not going to sell it, but you could give all the money you make to a charity or put it towards your childrens educational funds or something.