The Family Cookbook Project

Author: Bill Rice

  • Family Cookbook Project’s Chip Lowell Recognized for Great BBQ

    Family Cookbook Project Co-Founder, Chip Lowell took third place in the BBQ Competition at the RVA R.I.M.B.Y Festival (Right In My Back Yard) in Richmond, Virginia. This is the second year in a row that Chip has been recognized for his outstanding BBQ.

    This festival is about Building Community and Encouraging Adventure and benefited Beyond Boundaries, a Richmond-based non-profit specializing in guiding participants with disabilities on outdoor adventures. While this year’s festival was canceled because of the pandemic, the BBQ competition went on with the judges traveling to the participants’ homes to be wowed by the outstanding BBQ of the competitors.

    A masked Chip Lowell is far left in this photo

    The BBQ Competition featured North Carolina style pulled pork. Chip fired-up his large Green Egg smoker and slow cooked his Boston Butt to perfection. He also added Memphis style glazed spareribs and Mexican street corn to complete his entry.

    The judges awarded Chip third place overall for his efforts and he is already looking forward to competing again next year.

    Chip uses his BBQ expertise to manage the popular Facebook Group BBQRibsRecipes.

  • Scary and Fun Halloween Recipes

    Our Family Cookbook Editors have contributed more than 2 million recipes since FamilyCookbookProject.com started in 2004.  Most recipes are every day tried and true recipes that the family grew up with for generations. Some are specialty holiday recipes that only were made once a year.

    Here is an assortment of Halloween recipes for your to try with your family this October 31st. Click on the image to be taken to the recipe.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect, preserve and share food memories by creating their own printed personal cookbooks. He is the author of The Wellfleet Oyster Cookbook (Available on Amazon) and the Cape Cod Cocktail Cookbook, both created using FamilyCookbookProject.com. He is also editor of the Donovan Family Cookbook, now it’s third printing.

    Follow Family Cookbook Project on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest!

     

  • 2020 Cookbook Printing Deadlines For The Holidays

    Giving the gift of a beautiful personalized family cookbook is something that many, many of our cookbook editors are looking forward this holiday season. As such, this is by far the busiest time for printing your cookbook.

    Here are some deadlines to know about to make sure you have your cookbook print orders in hand when you want them:

    • Thanksgiving: Sunday, November 1st
    • Christmas: Monday, November 30th

    So now is the time to contact all of your contributors with your Reminder Tool and tell them to enter their recipes now before it is too late. We recommend using a recipe submission deadline a couple weeks ahead of your deadline. So for Thanksgiving, give your helpers a deadline of October 15th in order to give you time to review the recipes, make sure all of the extra spaces are removed and words are spelled correctly, and still have time to place your order before the printing deadline.

    And don’t feel you need to wait for the absolute deadline to submit your order either, those days and extremely busy and cookbooks are printed on a first come, first served basis. So the earlier your cookbook order is placed, the sooner you will have your cookbooks in hand.

    Family cookbooks make wonderful gifts for family and friends alike. The effort you put into your cookbook now will pay off for your entire family for years to come.

  • How to Get Your Recipes Into Your Family Cookbook

    Many people who have entered recipes in the past into a word processing program, like Microsoft Word, often of ask us for a way to import these recipes into Family Cookbook Project.

    Unfortunately, there is no automatic way to import these recipes into our system because each source uses its own layout and there is no way for us to identify what information needs to needs to be entered into our fields.

    Cut and Paste

    The good news is that it’s quick and easy to copy and paste a recipe into Family Cookbook Project using cut and paste on your computer.

    Here’s how: Simply highlight all the ingredients in your source document and hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the “C” key on your keyboard. Next go to “add a new recipe” in your family cookbook site. Click in the ingredients box and now hold the Ctrl key while pressing the “v” key. This pastes what you have copied into the field. Repeat for title, directions and notes and you are done!

    This process also can be used to import recipes from other websites. However, remember to credit the source of the recipe in your recipe notes.

    Scanning recipes

    Another way editors look to add recipes is by scanning. The problem with scanned recipes is that the system can not read the text to create titles and indexes and other parts of the cookbook. The computer just sees them as photos.

    Here is a blog post that should help answer your questions:

    http://family-cookbook-project.blogspot.com/2014/03/scanning-recipes-into-cookbook.html

    Moving recipes between cookbooks

    If want to transfer recipes from one cookbook to another, you can do so by using the Recipe Transfer Tool.  Go to Editor Tools>Publishing Tool. You will find the link at the bottom of the page since it is still in the testing (beta) phase. This tool offers step by step instructions on how to move your recipes to the new cookbook.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • 2021 Old Farmer’s Almanac Recipe Contest – Five or Fewer Ingredients

    Every year, The Old Farmer’s Almanac holds a recipe contest with cash prizes.

    This year, they are looking for great simple family recipes with five or fewer ingredients. In past years they have looked for Appetizers, Pastas, orange recipes and Dips and Spreads.

    And it’s easy to enter. Entries must be yours, original, and unpublished. You can’t be a professional chef and you can submit only one recipe per person.

    The deadline for entries is Friday, January 22, 2021.

    Cash prizes are awarded to the best recipes that fit into the category “five or fewer ingredients.” First place wins $300; second prize wins $200; third prize wins $100.

    Got a great recipe that’s made with five or fewer ingredients (not including salt and pepper) and that’s loved by family and friends? It could win!

    Learn more and enter at: https://www.almanac.com/old-farmers-almanac-recipe-contest

     

  • Remembering Loved Ones With A Family Cookbook

    The loss of a mother or grandmother is a difficult time for most people. The love and nurturing they provide is something that we will never forget is always to be cherished.

    One way to memorialize a loved one who has passed, especially someone who was responsible for cooking for the family, is to create a family cookbook in their honor.

    Often collection of recipes in the form of a recipe box, magazine and newspaper clippings, or cookbooks with pages marked is a great place to start creating a cookbook in someone’s honor.

    Another way to gather recipes is to reach out to families and friends and ask for which foods that person was known for. Getting others to share recipes and memories adds a lot to the process and to the final product.

    When entering recipes into the system, remember to write personal notes about why this recipe reminds you of the person you were honoring. It could be memories of when they’ve made that recipe or serve that recipe or just examples of food that they loved.

    Including lots of photos is also a great way to make your special cookbook a tribute to the one you love.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • Recipes Are More Than Cooking Instructions

    Everybody knows that recipes help us make the dishes that we want to eat, however they can be so much more than just that.

    Behind every recipe you love is a story to be told.

    People love to learn more about a recipe before making it. How the recipe came to be, what things can be changed in it and why it is important in your life.

    At FamilyCookbookProject.com our recipe form includes a space for personal notes. These notes allow you to tell your recipe story to others who you’ll share it with.

    Here are some ideas of what you can put in the personal notes of a recipe:

    • How are you first came across the recipe period
    • When you first served the dish.
    • Ingredients that can be switched out to make it healthier without affecting the overall result.
    • Memories of other people serving this recipe before you.
    • Side dishes or other food that accompanies it well.

    So next time you enter a new recipe into FamilyCookbookProject.com, remember to share its story.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • Invite your friends to start their own cookbooks

    Invite your friends to start their own cookbooks

    Since 2004, Family Cookbook Project has been helping people just like you create customized cookbooks and preserve your family recipes for future generations.

    We get many of our new cookbook editors from referrals from current cookbook editors and this is where you come in.

    Help us continue to spread the word about Family Cookbook Project by telling friends and family who might want to start their own cookbooks about us and. Have them go to FamilyCookbookProject.com and try a free personal version of the software. If they like it, they can upgrade to the full version.

    By continuing to grow, we can continue to offer an improved experience to all of our customers, including new cover options, easier navigation, and new design layouts.

    It is our hope that you love our software so much, that you will help us spread the word.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • How To Create a Mini Cookbook

    Do you have a lot of recipes of a specific type? Maybe you love to make cookies or pies or cakes. You can create a “mini cookbook” to organize your recipes and even share with family and friends.

    With a few as 10 recipes, you can create a single category cookbook or multiple categories within a theme.

    For example, as the bartender for our family I am often asked what cocktails I can make. I show them my “Fabulous Family Cocktails” – a cookbook of 27 beverage recipes and let then choose what I can make for them.

    Around the holidays our “Family Cookie Recipes” cookbook comes in real handy when getting ready for a cookie swap!

    Next, I plan on creating a BBQ mini cookbook and giving it out as gifts for Christmas to my friends and family.

    To create you own mini cookbook, go to the Production Center on your editor page and select “more cookbooks”. Here you can create your own mini cookbook and even import your recipes from your main cookbook using our recipe transfer tool.

     

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

  • How to Create a Multi-Part Recipe

    How to Create a Multi-Part Recipe

    Have you ever had a cake recipe that really needed a specific frosting? Or a meat recipe that required a special sauce? Wouldn’t it be great if a a recipe could have sub recipes attached to keep them together?

    Many of our editors have asked for the ability to have multiple sections or steps in recipes. We like to listen and have added it! Now you can have up to 5 “sub” recipes or steps within a recipe, each with its own set of ingredients and directions. Example? You have Carrot Cake and you want a section for the “Cake” with its ingredients and directions, then “Cream Cheese Frosting” with another set of ingredients and directions.

    To use this feature, simply go to Add Recipe or Edit an existing recipe. First check the box for “Show subtitle and make a multi-part recipe” right under the contributor field. This will add a field for sub-recipe title.

    Using our example above, here is where you would add your carrot cake ingredients and directions.

    Next, click on the green button to “Add new sub recipe”. This will add fields for a second set of sub recipe title, ingredients and directions for your Cream Cheese Frosting.

    You can add up to five sub recipes for your overall recipe.

    When you are done, make sure to click on the green button on the bottom of the page to save your recipe before moving on to your next recipe.

     

    Bill Rice is founder and Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories through customized printed cookbooks filled with treasured recipes. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!