This is not a recipe per se BUT it is a way to get a collection of all the best recipes for the rest of your life.
Interested? Yeah me too.
When I was pregnant with my first child I had the "oh shit" thought that a mom should know how to cook. Prior to this my husband and I's life was filled with sushi happy hours and every once in a great while me trying to be super domestic by cooking some culinary masterpiece (cue the crab cake disaster of 2001). But I wanted to be the mom like I had growing up, where as a kid I would smell delicious, home cooked food coming from the kitchen every night. Determined, I sent out an email to all of my family, my in-laws and closest friends, told them about my dilemma and asked them each to send me their most tried and true recipes and what both my husband and I grew up enjoying.
The family favorites started pouring in. So much so that I started putting them all into a Word doc to keep them organized. Then there were so many I started organizing them by category and before you knew it I had a self-made cookbook. It was nothing fancy and literally all done in Word, but the pages were filled with pure, mouthwatering gold. I wanted to share it with everyone that contributed so I printed copies at the local kinkos, had my husband click a funny cookbook cover pose, and gave everyone who had submitted a recipe a copy of the cookbook for Christmas that year. It was a hit! It was a great way for my side of the family and my in-laws, all of whom are spread throughout the country, to get to know each other better through their recipes. It was a way for my friends to connect with each other and with our families. Friends saying things like "I know I can trust any recipe from Aunt Kathy will be a hit!" The recipes weren't intimidating with titles like "Put on Your Fat Pants Casserole" or "Cuppa Cuppa, Canna Canna" (which is literally 2 cups of one ingredient and 2 cans of another and it is the best, bubbling side dish). It made me love cooking. It made me love what I cooked. It turned me into a baker as my boys got old enough to bake cookies with me. It was so popular people began asking for other copies to share or give as gifts that I printed more!
(You can see how well loved/used my 1st edition cookbook has been. This is my 2nd copy of it!)
After becoming a new mom I had all sorts of new mom friends in my circle that weren't around when I initially made the cookbook. Now we were sharing recipes and snack ideas over playdates, so five years later, I did it again. I made the 2nd edition! This time I had people submit them more carefully to cut down on the proofreading process (I was a busy mom of two now!) and had people pay for their copy of the cookbook. Then five years later I did a 3rd edition. We were living in Japan at the time and I enlisted the help of a cookbook creating platform. It was so easy I was kicking myself for not looking into this ten years prior. It didn't cost me a thing and everyone submitted their recipes directly to the website, so I just proofread through them all at once and then went to print!
I'm not saying everyone should make their own cookbook, but I'm not saying you shouldn't either! It is an awesome and easy family recipe collection keepsake, school fundraiser idea, or way to connect with your coworkers or whatever club or church you might belong to. I used Morris Press Cookbooks to make mine. Below is a copy of the initial email I sent out to get the ball rolling for the 2nd edition (yours would likely look different if you used a cookbook company because they have different instructions).
Happy cooking and don't forget to send me a copy of your cookbook after you go to print. :)
Hello Family & Friends-
For those of you that don't know, five years ago I put together the first Friends & Family Cookbook in hopes to upgrade my own cooking. It seemed like a long ways away when I committed to doing another one in 5 years- but the time has come! It has been SO fun to hear about everyone still using the cookbook, as I know I still have fun weekly as I try out new, delicious recipes from all that participated last time. I have been lucky to make so many new friends in the last 5 years that I am sending this to you all to see if you would also like to contribute to the next cookbook.
With that said, I am now officially ready to start accepting recipes for the next edition which I hope to complete before next Christmas. You can submit as many recipes as you would like (the more the merrier) and receive a copy for $15 (to cover printing and shipping costs). I hope to receive all of your favorite and best recipes! I will be sending out a few reminders, so if you are not interested please let me know or ignore my messages, but if you are interested, please keep the recipes coming starting now through this summer.
With each recipe please submit the category:
Breakfast Dishes
Breads & Rolls
Appetizers & Dips
Soups
Salads
Meats & Mains
Vegetables & Side Dishes
Desserts
Beverages
Miscellaneous
Also, include:
Recipe Name
Your name
City, State
It is VERY helpful if you can bullet point each ingredient at the top of the entry and then have the cooking directions below. If there is anything special you would like to say about the recipe too, I think we all enjoy that when we are working on your creation :).
Bonus points if you can use the following abbreviations as the standard guide for your measurements:
Cup = C.
Tablespoon = Tbl.
teaspoon = tsp.
Package = pkg.
Pound = lb.
ounce = oz.
I hope you can take a few moments in this boring January month to forget the New Year's dieting resolution and indulge in sending me your favorite recipes- I can't wait to start getting them soon!
Thank you! ;)
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