Making a cookbook (coffee, Chocolate cake, homemade, meals)

[Rathagos]

I went back several days/weeks in this Forum, so if the question was asked back before then, I apologize.

I have 4 kids (2 boys (22 and 16) and 2 girls (15 and 11). I am the primary cook in the family, and the kids love much of what I make (although, obviously they don't all love the same dishes.. that would be too easy! )

My oldest is in his final year of college and said (kind of tongue in cheek) that I should put together a small cookbook with all the recipes I know (or can put together) so that I can give each one of them a copy so that they can cook the meals they liked that I made as they grew up.

I thought that was kind of a cool idea... I could take pictures of the meals, etc. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be a cute graduation gift for each of them. Problem is, I have no idea how I could go about doing that. I'm obviously not going to a major publisher for this. Anyone have any ideas or done anything similar to this? Kinkos?

Thanks for any advice y'all have to offer.

Rath

[findinghope]

the place i used to work had a fund raiser and it was cookbooks. many of us submitted recipes and they were printed (dont know where), but it was kind of a ring binding in plastic.
so yeah, i would think that you could get it done at an office store that does printing. i love the ring binding cause you can fold the book over and the pages stay open better than a traditional book.
also have the pages laminated, cause cooking gets messy!

just me again jabbering away--you must get sick of me! lol

[kelsie]

Rath, I self-published an Italian cookbook 2 years ago. I started writing my recipes in Microsoft Works. My friend who is a computer expert formatted each recipe to fit 8 1/2 x 11 pages. It took over a year to complete with editing. I have a copyright #, which took a few months, then brought it to a reputable printer. It turned out beautiful. Take into consideration everything you want to do will cost extra money, color photos cost the most, laminated pages, different types of binding. I am in the middle of my second book now. It really is a lot of fun. Go for it and enjoy the adventure. If you have any other questions that I can answer just email me.

[MICoastieMom]

I mentioned somewhere in the forum that my Coastie son, who knew the cooking basics, kept calling me from his first posting, a small boat station on Lake Superior. They had a cook who worked Monday - Friday, had to fend for themselves on the weekends. He quickly learned that he was more adept in the kitchen than the rest so every two weeks, when his section was on duty I would get a call wanting my recipe for chicken and dumplings, or chocolate cake, or baked macaroni, and so on. I began compiling them, and asked my mother to share some of her special recipes with him as well.

This led to many conversation between her and I recounting funny incidents associated with mealtimes, like the time my then 5 year old sister got mad at Daddy for making her clean her plate on her birthday, so she put radishes on top of his slice of strawberry shortcake; or the time my mother and aunt walked out of our kitchen only to discover that Daddy and my uncle had laid strips of wallpaper across the already set table and were mixing the wall paper paste to hang the mural my mother wanted in the dining room!

About that time, we lost my sister to cancer and in going through old photos for her memory boards, we realized not only how many pictures there were of our immediate family but of the extended family; and how many were taken around the table at weddings, and wakes, and reunions, and birthdays, and anniversaries, and picnics, and that few of the grandchildren and great grandchildren had seen them.

Our plan now is to match the stories and the pictures with the recipes so that every grandchild and great-grandchild will get a copy. I want to laminate the pages and bind the pages with a Cerlock binding so the book stays flat. I hope they will become treasured momentos to be passed down.

[buckhead]

You could start off by making it purely an electronic product. This can be done as simply as collecting you recipes in text format in a folder on your PC. As you take photographs of the food, preparation steps, etc., you can link the images to the recipes or insert them directly using most word processing programs. If you're reasonably proficient in Microsoft Word or other similar programs, you can create your basic template(s) for use in entering the actual recipes. If you like a large format, use 8 1/2 x 11 inches as your "paper" size since that is standard for most business letters and such and the paper itself is readily available and economical. An important consideration is the ultimate output itself; YOU can set the font size to be as large as you wish which can be an advantage for those with poor eyesight or ease of use by any user when having to read the recipe from a distance. With a standard format that you develop it will lead to easier editing as you go along and permit you (if you wish) to transfer the files for compilation by other parties, e.g., office supplies store copy center. Transfers to any third party can be accomplished easily via CD-ROM or over the Internet. Arranging your copies at home can be done by catergory, recipe number, etc. within a single or multiple folders. Of course this is done to aid YOU in the collection, organization, and editing of your recipes. You can add comments, corrections, anecdotes, references, etc. to each recipe as it occurs to you. Because you are initially putting it all together in electronic form, you can easily share the files at whatever stage you have with those whom you wish BEFORE you print the final product. Realistically your collection will always be a work in progress, so until you are ready to print at least a first edition of your recipes it is nice to be able to share at least some of your things with others on an interim basis.

I have quite a number (about 1,400) of my recipes done up as I describe above. Because of the way I created my file names for each recipe and the categories to which I assigned each one, I can select any I wish to share and just send those files. At this point I am considering using a database manager to assign (invisibly) a file ID to each recipe to aid in resorting or categorizing them further in the form of an outline, but that is another project for the future. As it is now each recipe is treated somewhat like a standalone page in a book, just being that the book itself is electronic. As I have discovered you might find that your recipients LIKE the idea of having an electronic copy of each recipe, giving them the freedom to print hard copies should they so desire prior to the actual availability of the final product from you.

When you are ready to go with the final product, you can set your final file(s) up with page breaks, inserted images, etc. The less editing and compiling that has to be done by others will result in lower costs for that aspect of the job. The use of color, photographs, paper stock, binding, lamination, etc. all add to the cost of course, as well as press set-up if your are using a traditional press type printing operation. Turning out a small number of copies this way can be quite expensive, while using the copy/print services on laser printers at a copy center/office supplies store will likely be more economical. You just have to determine how grand you want your final product to be and who has the best facilities to deliver that product to you in the time-frame and the cost limits you desire.

I hope my take on this has not overwhelmed you. Good luck on your wonderful idea.

[darling876]

I was looking for the same thing not too long ago and here are a couple of sites that I found useful. Create-A-Cookbook
The service that I actually ended up using was Make your own book with Blurb
more because I am also creating a coffee table book of some of my favorite pictures I have taken so far and did not feel like using separate services.
Both have layout templates set up and so on which makes it very easy and avoids the hassle of going through Word and the issue of sizing etc.

If you are only trying to do a cookbook however, I'd probably recommend the allrecipes service for the ease of it.
It is a lot of fun creating a book like this and it is always a good gift option as well.

[NicoleJ]

If you click around enough on allrecipes, you'll find a link on the right side to a service that puts together your own cookbook. No minimum order. Can't remember the name though, sorry.

[Miborn]

Put them in a binder and slip the recipes into the plastic protectors. So when he is learning how to cook the recipe it is protected in clear plastic.
you cold decorate the binder with pics of him as a kid in the kitchen or buy a binder with a motif that is appealing to him.

[cynwldkat]

Originally Posted by Miborn

Put them in a binder and slip the recipes into the plastic protectors. So when he is learning how to cook the recipe it is protected in clear plastic.
you cold decorate the binder with pics of him as a kid in the kitchen or buy a binder with a motif that is appealing to him.

I think this is the way I'd do it! It's much more "homemade" and personal. It would last as long as any "book" too. Unless you plan on publishing the book why bother getting it done by a professional? As this poster pointed out---you could decorate the binder with your own ideas. Much more personal and imaginative!! And the cost would be a fraction of what it might cost you if you had it done professionally! This would be something that could be handed down in your family and treasured for many years to come. The whole idea of making a cookbook is great! Just my personal opinion!

[mamagator54]

I made a cookbook for my niece a long time ago. What I did was typed up the recipes that my mother had made that she loved, added a few of mine and used different colored paper and some paper with prints on it to print out the recipes. I then put them in a photo album (it's nice having the recipes in plastic). Throughout the "cookbook" I had made copies of family photos and added little stories that I was sure my niece would enjoy reading. Like how her Grandpa met her Grandma in Australia during WWII, along with their wedding photo and a copy of their marriage license.
She loved it. Not only did she get the recipes she wanted but was able to learn more about her heritage.