The Family Cookbook Project

Category: FamilyCookbookProject.com

  • The Holidays Are The Best Time To Collect Recipes

    Creating a family cookbook is a very satisfying event. However getting everyone Else in your family to contribute their favorite recipes is always one of the challenges to printing your cookbook in a timely manner.

    However, the holidays are a great time to motivate your contributors and gather lots of incredible recipes.

    The holidays are known for two things: gathering together with friends and family in parties and dinners, and bringing out tried-and-true family favorites that don’t necessarily get made during the rest of the year.

    Look at Christmas cookies for example. How often do you make Christmas cookies in July? Have you ever made a plum Pudding for September? how about a roast turkey with stuffing and all the sides including cranberry sauce for a nice Wednesday evening meal? probably not. These are all safe for the year and holidays.

    The other aspect of holidays are large gatherings, being a holiday party or a dinner with extended family. Often people bring side dishes and appetizers and desserts as they are part of the meal.

    This is a great opportunity to let people know what you like and ask them to contribute that specific recipe to the family cookbook. They will feel proud that everyone loves their dish and will be more likely to contribute it knowing people will enjoy it.

    Asking people face-to-face is always a great way to get recipes, however reminding them via email after the holidays is also an important follow-up. Family Cookbook Project has a reminder tool that will allow you to select the people you had spoken to during the holidays and remind them to submit their recipes. This is a good time to Osco ask them to enter additional recipes that they 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!

  • 7 Steps to Create a Perfect Family Cookbook

    7 Steps to Create a Perfect Family Cookbook

    Creating a treasured family cookbook has never been easier.  The Great Family Cookbook Project was developed to make the process easy to understand and accomplish.

    Here is an overview on the simple steps required to create a personalize family cookbook.

    Step 1: Complete account set up – Here you will complete your contact information and set up some basic information like your cookbook submission deadlines for your a cookbook account.

    Step 2: Invite contributors – Here you can invite friends and family members to contribute Recipes to your cookbook. If this is a personal cookbook you can skip this step.

    Step 3: Start adding recipes – UN your contributors add as many recipes as you want in your cookbook.

    Step 4: Send reminders to your contributors. Regular emails will help remind people to submit their recipes by the deadline.

    Step 5: Design your cookbook – Here you pick a color pick a layout format and determine what will appear in your cookbook.

    Step 6:  Add photos to your cookbook – Using our photo editor you can upload photos to your cookbook to specific recipes or sections.

    Step 7: Get your cookbook ready to print – Once all of your recipes are entered now it is time to lock your cookbook edit the recipes and order your cookbooks.

     

    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!

    

    

     
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    It’s Easy to Follow Family Cookbook Project on Social Media
    
			
    Family Cookbook Project is not simply a cookbook Publisher, it’s a community where individuals and families gather and share recipes and food memories.
    

    We have created a system that makes it easy to gather and publish your family food traditions. However we also try to give valuable advice on how to make your cookbook better, how to create better recipes and even how to better understand cooking.
    

    There are many ways to learn how to build a better cookbook. Here are just some of the ways you can follow us on social media.
    

    Facebook
    

    Follow us on Facebook to get interesting recipes from our editors, ideas to improve your cookbook and general cooking tips.
    

    We also have specific pages created for barbecue recipes and cookie recipes, be sure to follow those pages if they are of interest.
    

    Pinterest
    

    Cooking and recipes are one of the largest categories being shared on Pinterest today and Family Cookbook Project has 18 different boards filled with great recipes and cooking tips and ways to improve your cookbook. Some of the more interesting recipe categories include Food Guys Like, Recipes from Around the World, Let-us Eat Salad, Big Shrimp Recipes and even What’s for Breakfast.
    

    Instagram
    

    Family Cookbook Project has just created its Instagram account and will be sharing recipes and tips on this platform as well.
    

    Twitter
    

    If you don’t follow any of the other social media platforms then you will find us at Twitter with the same great information. Follow the hashtag #familycookbookproject
    

     
    

    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!
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    How to Write A Great Recipe Title
    
			
    Your recipe title is the single most important element of your recipe. This is because your title is a headline, and the headline in any type of content has one special and powerful property.
    

    Think about how you read a cookbook looking for a recipe to try.  You don’t start in the front and read every page like a novel then pick the one you want. No, you scan the pages looking for a photo or recipe title that catches your eye and looks interesting!
    

    Of all the elements in your recipe, the title has the greatest power for grabbing your readers’ attention and the greatest responsibility for enticing them to continue and read your recipe It follows that the better your title, the higher the chance of turning a recipe scanner into a recipe reader (and ultimately a recipe user).
    

    For a recipe title to be effective it needs to consider several things:
    

    Grab Attention – Like any headline you need to grab the readers attention.
    

    Describe the food being prepared – “Gruel” is one of my son’s favorite dishes, however it no one outside the family knows what it is. Including the main ingredient of the dish and even how it us prepared make the title more useful. “Baked Hamburger Gravy” would be a more descriptive title for our gruel.
    

    Be different and unique – If you have seen the recipe title before, it does not belong on your recipe!
    

    Include the source – In family cookbooks, certain people are associated with certain recipes. Grandma’s Apple Pie or Lou’s Lemon Bars help the reader image exactly what dish you are referring to. It just does not help anyone who is not at family gatherings!
    

    Sell the sizzle as well as the steak – This means to highlight the benefit, the reason why this recipe is worth making.
    

    Recipe titles that address cooking and eating needs are more likely to seduce the reader into the recipe itself. A good title clearly shows the reader which of their cooking and eating needs the recipe addresses. Every readers’ need is different. For example, it could be for something indulgent or something low fat, or something quick and easy or something sophisticated and thus involved, or something refined or something rustic.
    

    Consider the following recipe titles: ‘Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies’, ‘Quick ‘n’ Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies’, ‘Grandma’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies’, ‘Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies’. Notice how each title addresses a different need and even appeals to different audiences. Quite simply, as the chocolate chip cookie examples show, it’s all down to the words you choose for your title.
    

    With a little thought and imagination, your recipe titles can stand out and make your readers give your recipes the attention they deserve.
    

    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!
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Cookbooks for Kids
    
			
    

    One of the reasons we works so hard on a family cookbook is to preserve our favorite recipes for future generations. It is equally important to help that next generation develop a love of good food and cooking at an early age. That is why Family Cookbook Project created a simple cookbook just for the kids in your life.
    

    Kids Cookbook Project lets you create your own customized cookbook for the special little one in your life. Simply enter your  child’s name and choose boy or girl and immediately preview them in their own special personalized Cookbook! We will then print your full color customized, personalized kids cookbook. It’s just $24.95.
    






    Keep Kids Interested in Reading …put them in the story! Every child loves a story. A good story helps them to explore their imagination. A great story has them as the main character and holds their interest in reading. That’s what we do! …Kids Cookbook Project makes great stories about children with your child as the main character. And we make it easy and simple to do …as simple as 1-2-3.
    

    As the holiday’s approach, this would make a great personalized gift for the youngsters in your life. To learn more and to order. visit Kids Cookbook Project.
    

    

     
    

     
    

    Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories. Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!
    



    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    The Easiest Way to Preserve Family Recipes
    
			
    Family members may look unrelated, live in different areas, even have different political views. But even the most diverse family can be united by love of their family’s unique food traditions.
    

    Until now, the tradition of the family cookbook has often been handwritten on note cards, hastily scribbled on napkins during family gatherings or jotted in lovingly preserved notebooks, yellowed with age. Like everything else it touches, the Internet is revolutionizing family-recipe gathering.
    

    “Food is an integral part of who we are as individuals, as members of society and as members of groups within that society,” says Bill Rice, founder of the Family Cookbook Project, a Web site that helps thousands of families compile their favorite recipes and publish their own cookbooks. “From Aunt Edna’s pot roast to Grandma’s special pecan pie, family recipes create common ground and wonderful shared memories.”
    

    The Family Cookbook Project uses proprietary software to help budding cookbook authors compile, edit and organize their family’s recipes online. By creating an account at www.familycookbookproject.com, users can send an invitation e-mail to family members asking them to contribute favorite recipes for the book.
    

    Family members then sign on to the “editor’s” account and enter their information, eliminating the laborious process of collecting and re-keying recipes. Once all contributions are in, the editor then uses the site’s software to edit and organize the cookbook. Editors can choose from a variety of personalized covers and divider pages for their spiral-bound book.
    

    The cost of creating a family cookbook is just $19.95 for up to 10 contributors or $29.95 for an unlimited number of family contributors, plus the cost of printing. With a low minimum print quantity of just 50 books, families print and many cookbooks as they need and give others as gifts..
    

    “Although some of our more enterprising editors sell their family cookbooks on eBay,” Rice points out.
    

    To get started compiling your family’s recipes and publishing your own family cookbook, visit www.familycookbookproject.com.
    

     
    

    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!
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Family Cookbook Project Now offers WW SmartPoints on recipes
    
			
    Family Cookbook Project, an online leader in the creation of personalized printed cookbooks, has added the ability to include WW SmartPoints® on recipes being added to a user’s collection of recipes.
    

    WW (formerly Weight Watchers) SmartPoints* is a system where every food and drink is assigned a point value, and you receive a certain number of SmartPoints to allocate however you’d like every day and week. SmartPoints is designed to help guide you to a healthier pattern of eating every day.
    

    “Living a health lifestyle and eating right is what WW SmartPoints are all about,” says Bill Rice, Founder and Co-Publisher of the Family Cookbook Project. “Family Cookbook Project has added a field to It’s easy-to-use Add a Recipe form so that users participating in the Weight Watchers program can have an easy way to include the SmartPoint value when adding a recipe to their online recipe box. These recipes can them be printed into a personalized cookbook including all of their favorite recipes.”
    

    WW’s science-based SmartPoints system assigns every food a number based on four components: calories, saturated fat, sugar, and protein. The higher the number, the more sugar and saturated fat the food will have. The lower the number, the less it will have. The reason for this is that numerous studies have confirmed the benefits of eating less sugar and saturated fat, and more protein—not just for weight loss, but all sorts of other healthy reasons too.
    

    Family Cookbook Project editors can turn on WW SmartPoints® by going to the Recipe Center and clicking on the link “WW Smartpoints Use/Show”. There are two settings: one for allowing contributors to add WW SmartPoints® to a recipe and another to include SmartPoints in the printed edition of the cookbook.
    

    In addition, Family Cookbook Project is developing a simple to use calculator that will calculate the SmartPoint value of a food simply by entering information from a food’s packaging. We expect this to be introduced early next year.
    

    With over 4.6 million users, WW is the most trusted source of weight loss guidance in the world. Family Cookbook Project believes their success is based on meeting the ever-changing needs of our valued customers. “This is just one more example how Family Cookbook Project is putting our customers first,” added Rice.
    

     
    

     
    

     
    

    *WW SmartPoints is a trademark of WW International, Inc. and are not associated with Family Cookbook Project, LLC.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Holiday Printing Deadlines for Family Cookbook Project
    
			
    The holidays are right around the corner and family cookbooks make a great gift for family and friends – and it is the busiest time for Family Cookbook Project in terms of printing cookbooks for families.
    

    If you plan to have your cookbooks printed by us and received by Christmas, the deadline to order and make payment is Friday, November 29th. There will be an extended deadline, but expedited shipping will be required. Let us know if we can help!
    

    If you need your family cookbook for Hanukkah, the print deadline is Friday, November 15th.
    

    So get your contributors to submit their final recipes and start reviewing everything to get your cookbook ready to print before the holiday deadline to have a wonderful family heirloom to share for generations.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Meet the Guys Behind Family Cookbook Project
    
			
    Bill and ChipFamily Cookbook Project was began 15 years ago and was developed by two friends who both love cooking and food.  Bill Rice is the father of four and has worked on his family’s genealogy for more than two decades.  Over a wonderful summertime family meal on Cape Cod, Bill and some of his family decided to create a family cookbook.  Bill turned to his long time friend and programming expert Chip Lowell to develop a simple website to facilitate the project.  The site was such a hit with Bill’s family, the two decided to offer it access to other families looking for an opportunity to create a lasting family heirloom.
    

    Both Bill and Chip brought a strong understanding of web development, marketing and the need for top notch customer service to help the development of Family Cookbook Project.
    

    Bill Rice is an entrepreneur and the President of the Web Marketing Association. He brings a strong marketing and usability focus to the development of the website and it’s products. He also has written much of the text for the site and many of the blog posts (including this one!). He is an avid photographer and a senior contributor on the TripAdvisor website.
    

    Chip Lowell is the technology guru behind the programming of Family Cookbook Project. He is also the Director of Sales and Marketing at CodeBlue Technology, LLC, based in Richmond, Virginia.  CodeBlue provides IT services throughout Richmond and central Virginia. Chip is also a grill master and loves to spend his free time (if he had any) in his back yard with his wife Sally trying new recipes on his Big Green Egg grill.
    

    In 15 years, we have had more than 88,000 cookbook editors use our system to collect and create online cookbooks for their family, friends, church, school, group or as a fundraiser. More than 222,000 contributors have submitted over 1.6 million recipes so far and hundreds of new recipes are added every day.
    

    So when you wonder why all of our customer service is usually done via email, it’s because we both have day jobs. However, Family Cookbook Project is a passion of ours. We love to be able to help promote the concept of personalized cookbooks for families and fundraising efforts.
    

    If you don’t already have an account, make your own personalize cookbook at www.FamilyCookbookProject.com.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Cookbook Printing in 8.5″ x 11″ now available from Family Cookbook Project
    
			
    For many years, Family Cookbook Project has been helping individuals and families create and print wonderful cookbooks in the traditional 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch size. However, every once and awhile we get asked “how about an 8 1/2″ x 11″ size printed cookbook?”
    

    After a lot of programming and work with our printers, we can now offer full sized 8 1/2″ x 11″ printed cookbooks that use all of our available professionally designed covers and layouts.
    

    From Layout & Design you can click for cookbook size on the main options, and if you click Binders on the additional options, it shows there, as well.  Once a size is set, all previews/downloads show your cookbook in that size.  This is also helpful for those of you that want to print on your own to your home printer on full size paper!
    

    The cost per cookbook will be higher that the traditional sized cookbook because of the increased paper costs. However the Printing Cost Calculator has been updated to show the pricing for both printed size options.