Category: FamilyCookbookProject.com

  • Getting Started: Step By Step Instructions To Create Your Perfect Family Cookbook

    Getting Started: Step By Step Instructions To Create Your Perfect Family Cookbook

    Be getting the process of creating your own personal cookbook may seem daunting at first, especially if your computer skills are not strong.

    However if you just take things step-by-step you’ll be done before you know it.

    Here is a step-by-step list of the things you need to accomplish to create your own printed family cookbook.

    Step One: Establish Your Account –  Creating an account on FamilyCookbookProject.com is fairly straightforward and only takes a few minutes. Answer a few questions and you’re ready to go.

    Step Two: Enter Recipes –  The first thing you should do once your account is established is to enter some recipes into the system. This will show you how easy it is to type the recipe in. If you have already typed your recipes into a word processing document, like Microsoft Word, you can actually cut and paste your recipes directly into the add a recipe form. You can also add photos to some of the recipes to make them pop off the page.

    Step Three: Get Some Help – If you are creating a personal cookbook and not a family cookbook, you can skip this step. To add contributors to your cookbook you need to have their name and email address. Go to the ad a contributor section and enter the name and email there. When you push the blue invite button, they will receive an email message asking them to submit recipes. You can personalize the message you sent them if you wish.

    Step Four: Pick A Cookbook Cover – FamilyCookbookProject.com offers more than 50 professionally designed cookbook covers for you to choose from. In the design center, select cookbook cover and choose the cookbook cover that you like best. Don’t worry you can always change your cover up until you place your print order. You can also create you own design and upload it if you wish. (Hint: This can be moved to any step you wish as it can be done at any time! This is also when you will pick your category dividers.

    Step Five: Pick Your Recipe Layout – The recipe layout dictates how all of your recipes will be laid out on the page, including size, tight face and other features. At anytime, you can select a new layout and see how the recipes will look. You can also change the recipes layout for an individual recipe to make it better fit on a page.

    Step Six: Consider Adding White Space Filler -You can choose to add helpful hints and white space filler to your cookbook. Helpful hints will appear on the backside of your dividers. White space filler are quotes or graphics that will be added to the bottom of recipes if there is enough white space. They add a nice touch to any cookbook.

    Step Seven: Write An Introduction – Many people like to include a forward or dedication in their cookbook. This can be used to write about why the editor created the cookbook, memories of people past, or the general importance of food in the family. Dissection can also be used to think people helped make the cookbook happen. If you choose, you can also leave out this section.

    Step Eight: Lock And Edit Your Cookbook – If you have others contributing to your cookbook, you can lock the content so no new recipes are added while you are getting the cookbook ready to be printed. You can download a PDF of your cookbook and see how each page will look. If you see something you want to change, simply go to that recipe in the system, make the change and create a new PDF.

    Step Nine: Place Your Print Order – In the Production Center, you can enter how many cookbooks you want to order and the system will provide you with a quote based on the number of pages in your cookbook and the number of color photos. Once your order is placed and paid for, the cookbooks are moved into production and will be shipped directly to you in as little as 2-3 weeks (although around the holidays it get much busier so plan ahead).

     

  • Follow Family Cookbook Project On Social Media

    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 on Instagram is new to Instagram 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

    YouTube

    Our newest entrance into social media is on YouTube where we post interesting videos on how to use Family Cookbook Project’s various online tools to create the perfect family recipe book that you can be proud of.

     

    Bill Rice is Co-Publisher of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories by creating their own printed personal cookbooks. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest!

  • Meet the Guys Behind Family Cookbook Project

    Meet the Guys Behind Family Cookbook Project

    Family Cookbook Project launched 17 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 three 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 VP of Business Development and Client Care at ACUMEN Corporation, based in Richmond, Virginia.  ACUMEN provides expertise in implementing the SAP Business One ERP platform for inventory intensive businesses like distributors and manufacturers in the mid-Atlantic area. 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/smoker.

    In 17 years, we have had more than 125,000 cookbook editors use our system to collect and create online cookbooks for their family, friends, church, school, group or as a fundraiser. More than 300,000 contributors have submitted over 2.1 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.

     

     

    Bill Rice and Chip Lowell are Co-Publishers of the Great Family Cookbook Project, a website that helps families and individuals collect and share food memories by creating their own printed personal cookbooks. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest

  • Mother’s Day Gift Ideas – A Family Cookbook

    Mother’s Day Gift Ideas – A Family Cookbook

    Here is a great idea for your Mother’s Day idea – a personal cookbook filled with Mom’s favorite recipes and photos. Imagine having all of her favorite recipes in one beautiful printed cookbook to be passed down for future generations.  That would make a truly unique Mother’s Day gift that would be remembered for a long time.

     

    There are a few ways Family Cookbook Project can be used for a Mother’s Day gift.

    • If Mom is able to use a computer, she can select the recipes she wants to pass along and write her memories of them and why they are important to her.
    • If Mom is computer-challenged, someone can sit with her going over her recipes and entering them for her. This is a great bonding experience and can unlock cherished memories.
    • If Mom has passed, entering her recipes into a family cookbook is a great way to pay tribute to her and become a gift to the next generation of mothers.
    • Sometimes a recipe box can be used to get the ball rolling. It can be fun to see which recipes bring back strong memories of food, family and good times.

    Family Cookbook Project has helped tens of thousands of people create their own printed personal cookbooks. It is the fun, easy way to organize recipes and preserve her favorite family food traditions! Our product offers the ability to create online cookbooks with unlimited recipes and easy-to-use design tools. When you’re done, you can order printed versions for the whole family.

    Our Make-a-cookbook software allows you to do it yourself or have others help! Invite family or friends to add recipes and photos for a finished product that’s truly unique! Fill your cookbook with photos, stories and handwritten recipes for a gift that’s thoughtful and practical and makes a great gift.

    With 100s of layout and cover options and easy to use tools, you don’t have to be an expert to create a cherished heirloom that will keep our favorite recipes and memories alive forever.  Perfect for users of all ages, our software is highly intuitive and user-friendly as we automatically generate indexes, the table of contents and more.

    To start your own family cookbook, go to FamilyCookbookProject.com or you can give a gift certificate to start an account for your mom.

     

    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!

  • Follow Family Cookbook Project on Social Media

    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 on Instagram is new to Instagram 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

    YouTube

    Our newest entrance into social media is on YouTube where we post interesting videos on how to use Family Cookbook Project’s various online tools to create the perfect family recipe book that you can be proud of.

     

    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!

  • Adding New Recipes Once Your Cookbook Is Printed

    Adding New Recipes Once Your Cookbook Is Printed

    FamilyCookbookProject.com Editor Marsha P writes:

    “I published our family cookbook back in November.  We are very happy with the books, but I have a question: If new recipes are added and/or photos, if/when more copies are ordered will they reflect the cookbook with any new saved changes/additions?  It seems, once it was published, so many wished they had added this or that recipe and/or had photos added to recipes that didn’t have them, etc.”

     

    Your story is not uncommon. Often once a family cookbook is printed, some of the contributors (and many of those who did not take the time to contribute) see how cool the project is and want to add additional photos and/or recipes.

    Here you have three options:

    1) Allow the new content to be in the online cookbook only. Even after our cookbook is printed, you can still add new recipes to your account and view them online and using the Family Cookbook Project App on your phone or tablet.

    2) Create a second edition of your printed cookbook. In a second edition expanded you include all of the content from the first edition, rewrite the intro to explain that it is the second edition and add the new recipes and photos. This way all of the recipes are still in a single printed cookbook.

    3) Create a second volume of your cookbook. When you have a lot of new recipes you might consider a second volume of you cookbook. This would have all new recipes and work as a companion to the first volume. It can have a different title than the first but the subtitle should link back to the first title and include the volume number. This way will generally cost less to print than the second edition since you are not reprinting all of the recipes from the first cookbook.

    When you view recipe by category in your editor account, you will see a check box to include/exclude recipes from the next printed version. If you want a second edition, simply leave everything checked. If you want a second volume, click on the uncheck everything button and only the new recipes will be included in the second volume.

    Another fun idea is to just take one category of recipes, like desserts or appetizers, and create a single category cookbook for your family.

     

     

    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!

  • Invite Your Friends To Start Their Own Family Cookbooks

    Invite Your Friends To Start Their Own Family 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 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!

  • Top Family Cookbook Project Blog Posts of 2022

    Top Family Cookbook Project Blog Posts of 2022

    For more helpful editor tips, see our very interesting (at least we think so) Creating A Family Cookbook Project blog that contains articles to help you create a better cookbook and general article of interest. Here are the ten most read articles of 2022:

    1) Common Peppers at your Grocery Store
    2) How to Use Scanned Recipes in Your Family Cookbook
    3) Customizing Your Family Cookbook Recipe Categories
    4) How Many Recipes Should a Cookbook Have?
    5) The Cost of Printing A Family Cookbook
    6) 4 Family Cookbook Mistakes to Avoid
    7) New Update To Family Cookbook Mobile App Available
    8) How To Make A Bridal Shower Cookbook
    9) A New Take On Recipe Categories
    10) Follow Family Cookbook Project On Social Media

    These articles can be found on your Editor’s homepage as well as in the FamilyCookbookProject.com mobile app.

    Do you have an idea for an article, please let us know!

  • Web Marketing Association Names FamilyCookbookProject.com Best Family Website of 2021

    Web Marketing Association Names FamilyCookbookProject.com Best Family Website of 2021

    The Family Cookbook Project (www.familycookbookproject.com) has been named the Best Family Website of 2021 by the Web Marketing Association’s 25th annual WebAward Competition for Web site development.  The Family Cookbook Project creates personalized cookbooks for individuals, families, church groups and schools.

    “The Great Family Cookbook Project is a website dedicated to helping families collect and preserve cherished recipes into a printed cookbook that can passed down from one generation to the next”, says Chip Lowell, Technical Director of the Family Cookbook Project.  “We are proud that our efforts have been recognized by the Web Marketing Association with this WebAward.  We will continue to develop our site to help families, schools and church groups create both online and printed cookbooks that become treasured heirlooms.”

    The Family Cookbook Project Website was started as a project in 2003 to help one family collect and organize a family cookbook. Overwhelming feedback from those who used the website led to its continued development and public launch.  Currently, more than 88,000 families have started family cookbooks using the website and have entered more than 1.56 million individual recipes.

    “Personalized cookbooks have been around since the 1950s, however the process of collecting and organizing recipes has always been a labor intensive project for the cookbook editor”, says Lowell. “The Family Cookbook Project website provides step by step instructions and tools to help cookbook editors invite others to participate and allow them to enter their favorite recipes directly into the online system.  The editor then simply reviews and edits the recipes, selects printing options, and sends the cookbook to be printed.  The finished printed cookbooks are then received by the editor in a few weeks time”.

    Thousands of sites from 52 countries were adjudicated in 96 industry categories during this year’s competition. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology.  The competition was judged by a team of independent Internet professionals representing a variety of relevant disciplines of Web site development. Judges included members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, creative directors, corporate marketing executives, content providers and webmasters.

    One WebAward judge commented “This is an excellent site. It is easy to navigate and lets the user enter recipes easily. Even someone who is not tech-savvy could probably enter their recipes without a hitch.”

     

  • Enjoy Thanksgiving with Recipes from Your Own Family Cookbook

    Enjoy Thanksgiving with Recipes from Your Own Family Cookbook

    We at FamilyCookbookProject.com want to wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving! We are so very thankful for you, our customers, for using our cookbook software system to keep your family food treasures online and in your own printed cookbooks.

    If you haven’t printed yet and want your copies by Christmas, the ordering deadline is November 30th. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, make sure to print a few pages out and show your families to encourage them to enter those last few recipes.

    Enjoy the weekend!

    Chip Lowell and Bill Rice
    FamilyCookbookProject.com Co-publishers