Tip: Create A Travel Journal Or Baby Book
You can of course also use the photo book software to record other memories. For example, collect your best travel stories and photos in a travel diary, record your pregnancy in a pregnancy diary, or make a baby book in which you record all those wonderful first moments of your child with Baby Diaries. The Travel Diariesdiary app is for all adventures, moments, and stories that are worth recording, to never forget these beautiful memories.
Gather As Much Material As You Can
Though this is very similar to a few steps above, creating a tangible book versus an online version differs slightly.
Perhaps you were already planning to gather a lot of physical recipes, photographs, and other small elements to scan and upload to an online copy. The same goes for a scrapbook, you have a bit more freedom in that you can include real-life objects and tactile things like fabrics or even utensils.
Keep in mind, of course, creating a family recipe scrapbook with these elements means that there will only be one true copy.
This makes the book even more prized, yet some of your family may feel as though theyre missing out. You can resolve this situation by using your materials sparingly or by letting each of your family members rent the book for a bit at a time.
How To Create A Family Recipe Book
My husband Tom and I got married 33 years ago, and to this day, I treasure one of the gifts we received at our wedding.
This gift was a recipe book compiled by my sister, in her beautiful handwriting that includes recipes of favorite dishes from both sides of our family. This book contains everything from appetizers to holiday meals, and its become one of my go-to reference books during our 3+ decades of marriage.
My sister called it The Keepsake Recipe Collection, and it is one of my most special possessions.
Back in 1983, the year we got married, recipes were primarily shared using recipe cards, which were kept in a little box with index tabs marking each category: Appetizers, Breads, Salads, Soups, etc.. Knowing my need for uniformity and order , she found a small binder especially designed for this purpose, and used it to house this special recipe card collection.
Over the years, I have added new recipes that have become favorites, too so our favorite recipes book has grown and expanded over time.
Recipes are a special and completely unique part of our family heritage, and for many of us, the thought of losing them is heartbreaking. If youve ever watched the show Friends, youll know how tedious it can be to try recreate an old family recipe from memory.
But Ive got a simple solution for you, to make sure you never lose your favorite recipes: You can gather, restore, and protect those family favorites by creating a simple, sharable recipe book.
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Create Your Recipe Book
At this point, there was only one decision to make: should I go with a DIY scrapbook for my own recipe book or have them published in a sleek, professionally printed recipe book? Eventually, I decided on the latter, as I wanted these recipe books to stand the test of time, and having them published by a reputable printing service would give me a much more durable and robust product.
Here are the options I contemplated on:
- Old-Fashioned Binder
For a truly homemade, no-brainer option, simply take a three ring binder, some plastic page protectors, a bunch of tabbed dividers, and insert the photos and printed-out recipes into the plastic pockets. Sure, its inexpensive and handmade, but honestly, its a mere step-up from the recipe collection techniques my mom implemented for herself.
- Cookbook Scrapbook
I have some scrapbooking experience from my days making a secret shrine to the Backstreet Boys and creating cute friendship scrapbooks for my friends, so I know that doing it this way is just as much a time-consuming effort as it is a labor of love. So when I came across this darling little farmhouse recipe book, the temptation to forfeit weekends lazing on the couch watching a Netflix series marathon in favor of cutting, gluing, and searching for scrapbook papers and embellishments was strong. But in the end, I decided that durability was the most important thing to me, so the power of scrapbooking adorableness did not compel me into going this route.
- Recipe Photo Book
How To Make Your Cookbook Collection
Watch the video below and follow the steps to kick off your cookbook project. In the video below you’ll learn how to:
- Create a new cookbook
- Add a title and subtitle to your books
- Personalise your cookbook, including adding a dedication or introduction
- Choose a cover image from our collection of custom designs or upload your own image. In this step, you’ll find the selection of our NEW Christmas cover designs to make your own too
- You can make as many cookbooks as you like
- Create themes to make using your books easy. Examples include: 30 minute weeknight ideas, Kids favourite dinners, Simple slices
- Try to limit the number of recipes in your cookbooks to make them easier to print
- Does everyone ask you for your potato salad recipe, or Aunty Sal for her trifle? Take photos from your Christmas gathering, upload your own recipes, and give the family a copy of your Christmas Day recipes to share the fun and the feast of the day!
Recommended Reading: Chicken Salad Recipes For Weight Loss
Make Your Own Cookbook With These Free Templates
Its pretty hard to find a free cookbook template on the web but if you have a flair for cooking and if you really want to see your very own recipes on a cookbook to give as a gift or to put on your kitchens table for everybodys ready-use, you will surely find a way.
Last weekend, I decided to make my own cookbook. No, I am not a master chef, I just have The passion for great food thus Im pushing myself to prepare something delectable to eat at home. I mostly cook for my little boy since my husband is always at work. And contrary to what others say, I find cooking for my toddler easy, after all, kids are not born to be picky eaters right mommy?
In my desire to kick off a lifetime of good eating habits to Kyle, I have collated some simple, healthy and practical recipes for him . I tried to search for ready-made cookbook templates online so I could compile my not-so-long list of recipes but it was quite maddening to realize that there were only a very few templates available.
Just in case you feel like making your own cookbook too, here are the downloadable cookbook templates I found to ease your search. You can pick from these 5 templates available below:
Print Or Create Your Cookbook At Home
Before you hit that print button, you should give your printer a good checkup. Familiarize yourself with your printers capabilities. If your printer is already on its last leg or seems to struggle to print out a simple coupon, printing your cookbook at home may not make sense. You can easily send for prints instead from a professional printer, discussed below.
That being said, you can always upgrade your printer for the occasion. However, you should probably still try to print a few trial-runs in black and white or low-quality before hitting full send with an entire cookbooks worth of recipes. Printing at home is a worthwhile option if the majority of recipes are short and sweet.
After all, you want this to be a fun activity, not a headache. If your cookbook turns into something that takes up hundreds of pages thats amazing! But, however, you dont want all of the printing, binding, and packaging responsibilities to fall on you and your little printer. Its quite a bit to handle, and it can easily get expensive or time-consuming.
Read Also: Hey Google Recipe For Banana Bread
Order Your Recipe Book Or Share It Online
Is your own recipe book completely ready? Add a nice cover photo and read your personal cookbook one last time. Is it completely to your liking? For 23.40 you can order a softcover cookbook of 24 pages as a real printed book. Do you have hundreds of recipes? Travel Diaries prints books up to 298 pages, with a choice of sizes and cover types –view all prices of printed books. You can also share your recipe book as a digital cookbook with your friends and family or share it as a food blog with other internet users.
Collect And Capture Photos
There are a handful of options for accompanying your recipes with a visual. You can have the original chef send you a photo theyve taken, find a royalty-free photo online, draw a basic illustration, or take a fresh photo yourself. For the latter, cooking and photographing each dish over time is all part of the creativity process, so have fun with this step! One of our favorite pointers for how to make a family cookbook is to involve the kids or your spouse in the kitchen, allowing for their artistic input when styling in your shots. After all, we can all use new family activities! Whether you keep it messy and authentic or carefully staged , we find this step to be the most hands-on and imaginative.
Step 03
Also Check: Keto Recipes That Taste Good
How To Make Affordable Diy Recipe Books
Often, a gift you make yourself will be far more cherished than something you simply pick up from a store. A recipe book is a perfect example, and in this plan, you will learn about how to create one. The plan gives you lots of tips and advice about which materials to use as well as the kind of book to choose, and by combining these ideas with your creative input, youll be able to make a highly personalized version of your own.
Check this idea
Get All Your Files In The Same Place
Store all your freshly scanned recipes in a single centralized folder. Once youve imported everything, you can merge all your files into one PDF using the Merge tool in Acrobat.
Merge can combine multiple PDFs into one with just a few clicks. All you have to do is drag each of the individual documents into the Merge interface, where theyll be converted into a single PDF. From there, its simple to reorganize the pages into your preferred order.
Get work done. Anywhere.
Read Also: Aidells Chicken Apple Sausage Whole30 Recipes
Super Simple Recipe Book
A recipe book allows you to cook like a pro, and it allows you to keep the things and steps in mind! Make this super simple recipe book using thin plywood or 10 x 24 panels of 1/8 thick red oak, binder clips, and regular 8.5 x 11 papers! Give a nice wood finish to your wood panels! Details here plasterand
The Ultimate Kitchen Assistant
CookBook has an abundance of kitchen-ready tried and tested features our thousands of happy users love! Interact, view, scale, convert & update all in one place.
Cooking Mode
Intuitive cooking with page-by-page instructions & text-to-speech!
Scale Recipes
More mouths to feed? Scale recipes up or down to adjust the ingredients automatically.
Timers & Temps
Automatically detect & create timers from your recipes and convert temperatures between measures.
Interactive
Keep track off your progress within a recipe whilst cooking by crossing out and hiding completed ingredients and steps
Don’t Miss: Heart Healthy Recipes To Lower Cholesterol
Tip #3 Create Your Recipe
Now that you have your ingredients, how do you know what proportions to use?
I wrote a blog post a few years ago about a book that is the best guide to creating your own recipes.
The book is called Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. The codes in the book are the ratios that exist in most recipes. For example, think about a vinaigrette or salad dressing. As explained in the book, the simple ratio of the main ingredients is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. As long as you use that ratio, you can make any salad dressing with any type of olive oil, vinegar, and some fresh herbs. So rather than memorizing one recipe you just need to memorize the ratio to use to make your own vinaigrette. Isnt that the best cooking tip?
As the author states, When you know a culinary ratio, its not like knowing a single recipe, its instantly knowing a thousand. How simple is that?
If you are thinking this is what chefs use to create their recipes, then you are right. Its all about the ratios.
In the book Ratio, the ratio for quick breads and muffins is 2 parts flour to 2 parts liquid to 1 part fat to 1 part egg a 2:2:1:1 ratio. The author claims that, as a template for quick breads, the working parameters are: to use about equal parts, by weight, of flour and liquid with half as much each of fat and egg.
So how do you measure? The most accurate way is to measure by weight. You will need a food scale to measure by weight which has become a must in my kitchen.
How To Make The Home Sweet Home Recipe Mini Album
When you see the recipe book in this video, you wont believe it was anything to do with DIY it looks more like it was bought directly from a fancy store! However, this just goes to show whats possible with a little know-how and the right skills, and in this video, we learn how to make one of our own. Theres a list of materials as well as clear instructions for making the book and for us, if we can produce anything half as beautiful as this recipe book, well be super proud of ourselves.
Read Also: Homemade Hot Chocolate Recipe For One
Use The Code Foodie40 To Get 40% Off Site Wide Your Next Order
Snapfish also has different themes you can choose from when designing your photo book/cookbook, depending on what the occasion is. They have a specific Farm To Table Cookbook theme that includes fun foodie embellishments and backgrounds make gifts special for adult and kid chefs alike. Imagine adding your favorite family recipes in a book to pass down to your kids or grandkids? Wouldnt that be so fun and special?
Here are some details on their books :
- Easy to import photos from Facebook, Instagram, and Google Photos
- Perfect for everyday occasions, family gifts, and vacation keepsakes
- Glossy finish cover customizable with photos, text, and embellishments
- Archival-quality paper with a semi-gloss finish
- Perfect bound and printed in the U.S., up to 150 pages
- Available in five sizes
Here is how easy it is to create your very own book and a few examples of how I did mine :
The recipe for the mocktail is so easy to create with your kids. Plus with the abundance of rhubarb in my garden and farm stands, this makes it the perfect ingredient for this recipe. You can also interchange the main ingredient to anything that is in season too. I make the simple syrup with or without them for the week and kids mix their own mocktails when they want a lightly sweet fizzy drink.
Try the recipe with your favorite in season stone fruit or berry as well. The perfect staple to have in the fridge to add a little special flavor to any drink.
This post is sponsored by Snapfish.
Create Your Own Recipe Book
Is your kitchen full of magazine clippings and notes full of recipes? Or do you keep all your recipes for your favorite dishes in your head, so that no one else can prepare them? With our Travel Diaries diary software, you can quickly and easily create a digital recipe book. Collect all your favorite recipes, for yourself and for future generations. Fill your cookbook with recipes, photos, and stories associated with those dishes. Choose to have your book printed as a book with soft- or hardcover, as a gift for yourself or others. You can also choose to make your recipe book available online to inspire others.
Recommended Reading: Healthy Low Calorie Smoothie Recipes For Weight Loss
How To Create Your Own Family Recipe Book
Step One: Decide on whether or you want to do original or re-created recipes.
First up, you need to decide if you want to use the original recipe cards, or recreate the recipes in your own text .
There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. There is something wonderfully nostalgic about seeing a relatives handwriting and their older recipe cards, if you decide to use the originals but sometimes it can be a little hard to make out certain ingredients or instructions, if the cards were written quickly or in a shorthand script you no longer recognize. Its completely up to you, and you may need to do a little mix of both.
If you do choose to type out some of the recipes, you might want to choose an old-fashioned or vintage font, to lend your recipe book a little extra character.
Step Two: Request the cards from your family members.
Get in touch with your family and friends, and ask them to send their recipes to you for your special project. You will make digital copies of the cards or cookbooks for your book later, so make sure to tell people they dont have to give up their written recipes for good you just need to borrow them for a little while, and then theyll be returned.
If your relatives and friends are tech savvy, you can ask them to digitize their cards or cookbook pages by scanning them and send them to you via email or Dropbox.
Step Three: Re-create or gather the recipes.
Once youve got all the recipes on your list, gather them all in one place.